Apparatus, system, and method for providing a fiber coupler

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method for providing an optical coupler. The optical coupler can be a micro fiber optic coupler that can include: a housing having a size less than 4 mm x 4 mm; an input end into the housing, the input end capable of receiving a fiber optic transmission line; a transmission line prism within the housing having a size less than 2 mm x 2 mm, the transmission line prism in optical communication with the transmission line; a receiving line prism having a size less than 2 mm x 2 mm, in optical communication with the transmission line prism at a corresponding angle in a range of 30 to 60 degrees, and capable of receiving a signal entering on the transmission line and redirecting the received signal; and a receiving line in optical communication with the receiving line prism and capable of receiving and outputting the redirected received signal.

Description

background Technical Field

[0002] The present invention relates to optical fibers, and more specifically, to an optical fiber coupler, for example, which can be embedded in a base to be mechanically associated with an end effector for holding a semiconductor wafer.

[0003] Background Information

[0004] Robotic wafer processors are used in semiconductor technology to process semiconductor wafers during various semiconductor processing steps. These processing steps can include, for example, chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), etching, deposition, passivation, and various other processes, in which a sealed and / or “clean” environment must be maintained to limit the possibility of contamination and ensure that various specific processing conditions are met.

[0005] In the semiconductor technology field, current practices for robotically handling these wafers typically involve using end effectors operatively attached to a robot, for example, to load semiconductor wafers from a loading stack into various processing ports corresponding to the aforementioned exemplary processing steps. That is, a motorized robot is used to deploy end effectors to retrieve wafers from a specific port or stack, for example, before and / or after processing in the associated processing chamber. Thus, wafers can be shuttled by the end effectors to subsequent ports for further processing. When a wafer processing stage is complete, the robot can return the processed semiconductor wafer to the loading port, and the end effector can be reused to retrieve the next wafer for system processing. Typically, stacks of multiple semiconductor wafers are processed in this manner using end effectors during each processing run.

[0006] In the prior art, wafer handling for semiconductor processing, particularly end effectors, typically includes different types of servo-driven, movable wafer handling end effector arms for various environments. As a non-limiting example, such a movable end effector arm can be straight, curved, or various other shapes to best move wafers of different sizes and shapes between and within semiconductor processing, as described above. Furthermore, these servo-driven arms typically also provide a built-in "tip mapping" that senses the presence of a wafer or aspect thereof at the distal end of the end effector arm, which is remote from the drive servo motor in the base actuated by the drive arm.

[0007] As mentioned throughout, it is common practice for these variously shaped servo drive arms to need to be swapped out for different semiconductor applications. This necessarily means that the fiber optic interconnects, such as those used in the aforementioned tip mapping, extending from the end effector servo base to the distal end of the end effector arm, must also be swapped out along with the servo drive arm. However, in known technologies, swapping these movable arms is typically expensive and time-consuming, at least because the very small (approximately 1 mm) fiber optic cable (embedded in the arm and extending along its length to the amplifier in the end effector base) hinders rapid disconnection and realignment of the fiber optic cable in a manner suitable for providing continuous operability of tip mapping during arm swapping.

[0008] More specifically, there are currently no small optical couplers available in semiconductor wafer processing or related technologies. In fact, the aforementioned difficulties not only occur in wafer processing environments, but also in all environments requiring automated high-capacity interconnects with accelerated switching or all-fiber lines. Summary of the Invention

[0009] Some embodiments are and include apparatuses, systems, and methods for providing optical couplers. The optical coupler may be a miniature fiber optic coupler, which may include: a housing having dimensions less than 4 mm × 4 mm; an input end entering the housing, the input end being capable of receiving a fiber optic transmission line; a transmission line prism with dimensions less than 2 mm × 2 mm within the housing, the transmission line prism being in optical communication with the transmission line; a receive line prism with dimensions less than 2 mm × 2 mm, which is in optical communication with the transmission line prism at a corresponding angle in the range of 30 to 60 degrees, and is capable of receiving signals entering on the transmission line and redirecting the received signals; and a receive line in optical communication with the receive line prism and capable of receiving and outputting the redirected received signals.

[0010] The transmission line can communicate optically with the sensor. The sensor can be an optical sensor. Optical sensors can include presence sensors, such as tip mapping sensors. Presence sensors can sense the presence of a semiconductor wafer.

[0011] The transmitting line can pass longitudinally through the end effector used for semiconductor processing. The redirected received signal can be provided to the processing system. The housing can be substantially rectangular. Each of the transmitting and receiving prisms can have a relative orientation of 45 degrees with respect to the vertical axis passing through the housing.

[0012] The embodiments may further include a wafer processing system. The wafer processing system may have at least one end effector arm capable of receiving a portion of a semiconductor wafer at one end and having an optical presence sensor at one end near that portion of the semiconductor wafer, and may include: a mechanical attachment plane along the end effector arm and perpendicular to its longitudinal axis, the mechanical attachment plane being adapted to receive a connection plane from a robot base thereon; an optical fiber transmission line connecting the optical presence sensor and the mechanical attachment plane; and an optical fiber coupler.

[0013] The fiber optic coupler may include: a housing; an input end within the housing capable of receiving the fiber optic transmission line proximate to the mechanical attachment plane; a transmission line prism within the housing in optical communication with the transmission line; a receiving line prism in optical communication with the transmission line prism, capable of receiving a signal from the optical presence sensor and redirecting the received signal; and a receiving line in optical communication with the receiving line prism and capable of receiving and outputting the redirected received signal. The redirected received signal can be provided to a processing system associated with a robot base.

[0014] The height and width of both the transmitting line prism and the receiving line prism can be less than 2 mm. The housing can be substantially rectangular and can have a width, length, and depth of less than 4 mm. The mechanical attachment plane can have a height of less than 4 mm.

[0015] The chip processing may include at least two motion-synchronized end effectors. Receiver wiring may be routed around the actuators of the end effectors within the robot base. The receive wiring may pass through the robot base and be directed to at least one computer processing system.

[0016] Therefore, this disclosure provides at least an apparatus, system, and method for providing a small optical coupler. Attached Figure Description

[0017] Exemplary combinations, systems, and methods will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are given by way of non-limiting example only, wherein:

[0018] Figure 1 An end effector with tip mapping is shown;

[0019] Figure 2 An end effector with a distal arm is shown, which extends outward synchronously from a central axis to accommodate a semiconductor wafer thereon;

[0020] Figure 3 It is a cross-sectional view of an end effector base with movable arms assembled synchronously;

[0021] Figure 4 It is a contour diagram of the fiber optic coupler; and

[0022] Figure 5 This is a top outline diagram of an optical fiber coupler. Detailed Implementation

[0023] The accompanying drawings and descriptions provided herein may have been simplified to illustrate aspects relevant to a clear understanding of the apparatuses, systems, and methods described herein, while other aspects that may be found in typical similar apparatuses, systems, and methods have been omitted for clarity. Therefore, those skilled in the art will recognize that other elements and / or operations may be desired and / or necessary for implementing the apparatuses, systems, and methods described herein. However, because such elements and operations are known in the art and do not contribute to a better understanding of this disclosure, a discussion of such elements and operations may not be provided herein for the sake of brevity. Nevertheless, this disclosure is still considered to include all such elements, variations, and modifications to the described aspects that are known to those skilled in the art.

[0024] Examples are provided throughout this disclosure to make it thorough and fully convey the scope of the disclosed embodiments to those skilled in the art. Numerous specific details, such as examples of specific components, devices, and methods, are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of this disclosure. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that certain specific details disclosed are not required and that embodiments may be implemented in different forms. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should not be construed as limiting the scope of this disclosure. As noted above, in some embodiments, well-known processes, well-known device structures, and well-known technologies may not be described in detail.

[0025] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. For example, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” as used herein may also be intended to include the plural forms unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The terms “comprising,” “including,” “containing,” and “having” are inclusive and thus specify the presence of the stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and / or components, but do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and / or groups thereof. Unless specifically determined as a preferred or desired order of execution, the steps, processes, and operations described herein should not be construed as requiring them to be performed in the particular order discussed or shown. It should also be understood that additional or alternative steps may be employed in place of or in combination with the disclosed aspects.

[0026] When an element or layer is referred to as being “on,” “above,” “connected to,” or “coupled to” another element or layer, unless otherwise explicitly stated, it may be directly on, above, connected to, or coupled to the other element or layer, or there may be intermediate elements or layers present. Conversely, when an element or layer is referred to as being “directly on,” “directly connected to,” or “directly coupled to” another element or layer, there may be no intermediate elements or layers present. Other terms used to describe relationships between elements should be interpreted in a similar manner (e.g., “between” versus “directly between,” “adjacent” versus “directly adjacent,” etc.). Furthermore, as used herein, the term “and / or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

[0027] Furthermore, although the terms first, second, third, etc., may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers, and / or portions, these elements, components, regions, layers, and / or portions should not be limited by these terms. These terms are used only to distinguish one element, component, region, layer, or portion from another. Therefore, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, terms such as “first,” “second,” and other numerical terms, when used herein, do not imply order or sequence. Thus, the first element, component, region, layer, or portion discussed below may be referred to as the second element, component, region, layer, or portion without departing from the teachings of the embodiments.

[0028] The embodiments enable faster connection and disconnection of fiber optic lines, for example, at intersections of those lines along aspects of a mechanical attachment plane. As a non-limiting example, this mechanical attachment plane could include the connection and disconnection plane between a servo-driven end effector arm and an end effector base connector in a wafer processing environment. However, those skilled in the art will understand from the discussion herein that various other environments can utilize the miniature fiber optic coupling discussed throughout this document.

[0029] In summary, embodiments may include wiring that transmits optical fiber to a miniature terminal consisting of small corner prisms, wherein identical or substantially identical receiving prisms optically communicate directly or substantially directly with the transmitting fiber prisms, wherein the receiving prisms are routed into the receiving fiber. As discussed herein, the transmitting and receiving prisms may be at a matched 45° angle; however, it should be understood that other angles and / or corresponding prism arrangements may be used without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0030] Throughout the exemplary embodiments discussed, the aforementioned connection terminals may be embedded or otherwise include mechanical features, including insertion “plugs” for transmitting and receiving optical fibers, which may reside in the end-effector arm at the mechanical engagement plane where they are attached to the end-effector base arm. Due to the relatively small width of the prisms, such as approximately 1-5 mm, or more particularly 2 mm, a terminal thickness of approximately 2 to 7 mm can be provided. The prisms within the prism holder can be easily embedded into the end-effector arm, for example, at the attachment plane as described above, without increasing the size or thickness of the end-effector arm.

[0031] More specifically, for those aspects of the arms used in beam mapping, the embedded substrate thickness within the end effector arm can be as thin as 1.5 mm. Therefore, in embodiments, including the prism terminals discussed herein does not require modification to typical beam mapping aspects. This is especially true where the end effector arm provides a flush, substantially flat surface at its associated mounting block, i.e., at the end effector base, for mounting removable mechanical tools. That is, the detachable arm can be mounted to a base containing a servo driver to allow the wafer handling discussed throughout this document, as the disclosed thin prism terminals can provide a substantially flush connection along the flat connection surface. The area of ​​the plane of this connection is much smaller than the total surface area of ​​the connection plane of the arm itself. Therefore, while single-channel, i.e., single-fiber applications may be typical, the widened interconnect plane area provided by the flush mechanical connection surface offers the opportunity to provide multiple interconnects for multiple fiber channels, such as close proximity, because the plane area of ​​each interconnect is much smaller than the total connection plane area, which allows for more complex fiber applications.

[0032] Therefore, the embodiments provide the ability to couple and decouple optical fibers as easily as coupling or decoupling mechanical, pneumatic, or standard circuits. Thus, the embodiments enable advanced solutions in manufacturing assembly, disassembly, product modification, and testing environments. Furthermore, the small scale of the disclosed fiber coupling allows for embedding the coupling in a variety of environments without physically modifying the mechanical aspects in which such fiber coupling is embedded. That is, among other sensing and fiber aspects, the embodiments make it practical to accelerate the switching out of through-beam and reflection sensing elements in various settings.

[0033] Figure 1 An end effector 100 with a tip mapping 102 is shown. More specifically, the end effector 100 includes thin distal arms 104a, b, which are capable of moving synchronously or asynchronously to be closer together or further apart, and in some embodiments, closer together or further apart. Figure 1 The end effector base 106 shown is shown.

[0034] Figure 2 It shows something similar to Figure 1The end effector 200 is shown, but it has distal arms 204a, b that extend outward synchronously from the central axis (axis "A") to accommodate a semiconductor wafer. The tip mapping 102 is again shown. Figure 2 In the embodiments described above.

[0035] Figure 3 yes Figure 1 and 2 The image shows a cross-sectional view of the end effector base 106. Figure 3 In the diagram, with Figure 1 and 2 The arms shown, similar to arms 304a and b, have converged synchronously toward their closest point toward the central axis "A".

[0036] Within the base 106, each of the right and left arms 304, a, b is shown as having a miniature fiber optic coupler 320 according to an embodiment near the interconnection point of each arm extension 305 with its corresponding mechanical drive portion 306, the mechanical drive portion being mechanically associated with a mechanical actuator 310 within the base 106. As shown, each fiber optic coupler 320 is integrated with fiber optic lines 322a, b, which extend from the coupling point / plane at the intersection of the arm extension 305 and the mechanical drive portion 306 along each corresponding end effector arm 104, 204, 304. Figure 1 and 2 The tip mapping 102 is shown.

[0037] Furthermore, each fiber coupler 320 is coupled to an interconnect 323 associated with a mechanical actuator 310 for the arms 104, 204, 304, which is located within the base 106. This interconnect 323 within the base 106 allows signals to travel from the tip map 102 down along fiber lines 322a, b and along the arms through and out of the fiber couplers 320, and along the mechanical actuators 310, such as to other locations within or outside the base, such as ultimately being provided to a processing system.

[0038] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the disclosed fiber optic coupler 320. As shown, the fiber optic coupler 320 may include interconnections to transmit and receive lines 410, 412, which can feed or receive fiber optic data signals 416 from corresponding transmit and receive reflector prisms 420, 422, respectively.

[0039] It should be understood that the fiber optic data signal 416 has some "spread" on the prism mirror surface as it leaves the transmit line 410, but the alignment between the disclosed transmit and receive prisms 420, 422 may not be critical, and / or may only require simple and common alignment techniques. As an example, a 0.4-core transmit fiber with a 2 mm wide reflector allows for a 1.25° offset on the X or Y axis, or a combined 0.75° offset on multiple axes, with zero signal loss. Therefore, in the disclosed embodiments, coupling alignment is not a critical factor.

[0040] As described above, mirrored or similar prisms of sub-1 mm, 2 mm, or larger can be used in embodiments, although those skilled in the art will understand that the size of the disclosed fiber coupler 320 depends in part on the size of the prisms 420, 422 employed therein. Furthermore, although Figure 4 The embodiments shown depict prisms 420, 422 at approximately 45° to each other, but it should be understood that, as those skilled in the art will appreciate, other angle pairings may be used.

[0041] Figure 5 This is a top outline view of the fiber optic coupler 320 according to an embodiment. Although... Figure 4 The implementation examples are similar, Figure 5 The diagram illustrates that transmit and receive lines 510, 512 and corresponding transmit and receive prisms 520, 522 can be rotated out of alignment to varying degrees relative to the central axis of the disclosed fiber optic coupler 320 without adversely affecting the performance of the fiber optic coupler 320. In other words, as long as the basic alignment between the center points of the respective prisms 520, 522 remains within the limits of the aforementioned optical signal propagation range, rotation of the center points of the disclosed prisms 520, 522, more specifically, relative to each other, does not itself cause signal loss.

[0042] Furthermore, as mentioned above, and as... Figure 4 and 5 The changing angular relationship between the transmitting and receiving prisms is shown in the diagram; the angular relationship between the transmitting and receiving prisms can vary. Furthermore, it is understood that the transmitting and receiving lines can be received into ports associated with the coupling housing, for example, by push-lock or twist-lock the ports. That is, as a non-limiting example, the lines can be simply inserted into the ports of the coupling housing, or additional physical manipulation beyond insertion, such as twisting, can be required.

[0043] The foregoing apparatus, systems, and methods may also include control over the various robotic functions and optical sensing mentioned herein. As a non-limiting example, such control may include manual control using one or more user interfaces, such as controllers, keyboards, mice, touchscreens, etc., to allow the user to input instructions for execution by software code associated with the robot and the systems discussed herein. Additionally, as is well known to those skilled in the art, system control may also be fully automated, for example, where manual user interaction occurs only for functions referred to in “setting up” and programming; that is, the user may initially program or upload computational code to perform a predetermined sequence of movements and operations based on the sensing discussed throughout this document. In manual or automatic embodiments, or any combination thereof, the controller may be programmed, for example, to associate with the known presence or location of wafers, support arms, fork-shaped portions, etc.

[0044] It should be understood that the exemplary embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the environments in which the systems and methods described herein may operate, and therefore do not limit the implementation of the systems and methods described herein in environments and applications with different components and configurations. In other words, the concepts described herein can be implemented in a variety of environments and applications using various components and configurations.

[0045] Furthermore, the description provided in this disclosure is intended to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosed embodiments. Various modifications to the invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Therefore, this disclosure is not intended to limit itself to the examples and designs described herein, but should be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A wafer processing system having at least one end effector arm capable of receiving a portion of a semiconductor wafer at one end and having an optical presence sensor at one end near said portion of the semiconductor wafer, the wafer processing system comprising: A mechanical attachment plane, which is along the end effector arm and perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the end effector arm, is adapted to receive a connection plane from the robot base thereon. An optical fiber transmission line is connected between the optical presence sensor and the mechanical attachment plane; as well as Fiber optic couplers, including: case; The input terminal in the housing is capable of receiving the optical fiber transmission line near the mechanical attachment plane; A transmitting line prism within the housing that optically communicates with the transmitting line; A receiving line prism that is in optical communication with the transmitting line prism, the receiving line prism being able to receive signals from the optical presence sensor and redirect the received signals. A receiving line that is in optical communication with the receiving line prism and is capable of receiving and outputting redirected received signals; The redirected received signal is provided to a processing system associated with the robot base.

2. The wafer processing system according to claim 1, wherein both the transmitting line prism and the receiving line prism have a height and width of less than 2 mm.

3. The wafer processing system according to claim 1, wherein the housing is substantially rectangular and has a width, length and depth of less than 4 mm.

4. The wafer processing system according to claim 1, wherein the mechanical attachment plane has a height of less than 4 mm.

5. The wafer processing system of claim 1, wherein each of the transmit line prism and the receive line prism has a relative orientation of 45 degrees with respect to a vertical axis passing through the housing.

6. The wafer processing system of claim 1, wherein the optical presence sensor includes a tip map.

7. The wafer processing system according to claim 1, comprising at least two synchronously moving end effector arms.

8. The wafer processing system of claim 1, wherein the receiving line is wired around the driver of the end effector arm in the robot base.

9. The wafer processing system of claim 1, wherein the receiving line is wired through the robot base to at least one computer processing system.

10. The wafer processing system of claim 1, wherein the relative alignment of the transmit line prism and the receive line prism allows for a single prism spread of at least 1.25 and a combined prism spread of at least 0.75 without signal loss.

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