Wafer flipping device

Abstract

The present invention discloses a wafer flipping device, which includes: a support assembly to support a wafer to be flipped; a clamping assembly, which is arranged above the support assembly to laterally clamp the wafer to be flipped; a flipping drive assembly, which is connected to the clamping assembly to drive the clamping assembly and the wafer thereon to flip; the support assembly includes multiple support members to process multiple wafers to be flipped.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the technical field of wafer post-processing, and in particular relates to a wafer flipping device. Background Art

[0002] The integrated circuit industry is the core of the information technology industry and plays a key role in driving the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry towards digitalization and intelligentization. Chips are the carriers of integrated circuits. Chip manufacturing involves a series of processes, including integrated circuit design, wafer fabrication, wafer processing, electrical measurement, cutting, packaging, and testing. Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP), a wafer manufacturing process, is an ultra-precision surface processing technology that achieves global flatness.

[0003] Wafers that have completed chemical mechanical polishing require post-processing, such as cleaning and drying, to prevent contamination of semiconductor devices by trace ions and metal particles, thereby ensuring their performance and yield. During wafer post-processing, the cleanliness of the wafer's backside significantly impacts the overall contamination status of the wafer, leading to increasing attention to cleaning both the front and back sides of the wafer.

[0004] If both the front and back sides of the wafer need to be cleaned, the wafer must be flipped before each cleaning step. During the wafer flipping process, the placement and positioning accuracy of the wafer must be guaranteed, and the wafer must be properly protected to prevent breakage.

[0005] In the existing technology, wafer flipping devices usually use negative pressure adsorption to achieve flipping of single wafers; due to the complex structure of the negative pressure adsorption device, the negative pressure pipeline is difficult to manage and maintain, and the efficiency of single wafer flipping is low, which affects the production capacity of wafer post-processing. Summary of the Invention

[0006] An embodiment of the present invention provides a wafer flipping device, which aims to solve at least one of the technical problems existing in the prior art.

[0007] An embodiment of the present invention provides a wafer flipping device, comprising:

[0008] A support assembly to support the wafer to be flipped;

[0009] a clamping assembly, disposed above the supporting assembly, for laterally clamping the wafer to be flipped;

[0010] a flip drive assembly connected to the clamping assembly to drive the clamping assembly and the wafer thereon to flip;

[0011] The support assembly includes a plurality of support members to process a plurality of wafers to be flipped.

[0012] In some embodiments, the supporting assembly is a pair, which includes a supporting frame and a connecting plate, and the connecting plate is obliquely arranged below the supporting frame.

[0013] In some embodiments, the support frame is a U-shaped structure, the top surface of which is provided with a vertical frame, the vertical frame is arranged perpendicular to the top surface of the support frame, and the support members are arranged at intervals on the side of the vertical frame.

[0014] In some embodiments, the angle between the connecting plate and the horizontal plane is 30-60°, so that the support assembly can support multiple vertically spaced wafers.

[0015] In some embodiments, the number of the clamping assemblies is a pair, which includes a clamping member, and the end of the clamping member is connected to a moving member to drive the clamping member to move in a horizontal direction; the flipping drive assembly is connected to the outer peripheral side of the moving member to drive the clamping assembly and the wafer thereon to rotate around the axis.

[0016] In some embodiments, the clamping member includes a clamping body, the clamping body is provided with a vertical rod, and the outer peripheral side of the vertical rod is provided with a clamping wheel.

[0017] In some embodiments, the clamping wheels are made of polyetheretherketone material, and the number of the clamping wheels matches the number of the support members.

[0018] In some embodiments, the clamping member further includes a sleeve, the sleeve cover is arranged on the outer peripheral side of the vertical pole, the side of the sleeve is configured with a limiting rod, and the spring abuts against the limiting rod to promote the adaptive movement of the vertical pole.

[0019] In some embodiments, the clamping body is provided with a mounting hole, and the vertical rod is provided through the mounting hole; the mounting hole is a waist-shaped hole, so that the vertical rod can move in the mounting hole.

[0020] In some embodiments, the support assembly is capable of moving in an inclined direction, and the clamping assembly is disposed outside a moving trajectory of the support assembly.

[0021] The beneficial effects of the present invention include:

[0022] a. The support assembly adopts oblique movement to ensure the instantaneous contact between the support and the wafer, realizing the short-term contact and separation of the wafer. The simple structure and independent control of each movement mechanism effectively ensure the stability and safety of the wafer flipping device;

[0023] b. The support assembly adopts a multi-layer setting to meet the requirements of simultaneous clamping and flipping of multiple layers of wafers, thereby improving the efficiency of wafer flipping;

[0024] c. The clamping parts of the clamping assembly are configured with an elastic structure like a spring to reduce or avoid the problem of unreliable clamping caused by wafer size tolerance. At the same time, it avoids problems such as shaking or friction of the wafer during the flipping process to ensure the reliability of the wafer flipping action. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] The advantages of the present invention will become clearer and easier to understand through the detailed description made in conjunction with the following drawings, which are only exemplary and do not limit the scope of protection of the present invention, wherein:

[0026] Figure 1 1 is a schematic diagram of a wafer flipping device provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0027] Figure 2 yes Figure 1 Schematic diagram of AA in the middle;

[0028] Figure 3 is a top view of a wafer flipping device provided by one embodiment of the present invention;

[0029] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a support assembly provided by one embodiment of the present invention;

[0030] Figure 5 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a clamping member provided in one embodiment of the present invention;

[0031] Figure 6 yes Figure 5 A partial enlarged view of point B in the middle;

[0032] Figure 7 It is a transverse cross-sectional view of a clamping member provided in one embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0033] The technical solutions of the present invention are described in detail below in conjunction with specific embodiments and the accompanying drawings. The embodiments described herein are specific embodiments of the present invention and are used to illustrate the concept of the present invention; these descriptions are explanatory and exemplary and should not be understood as limiting the embodiments of the present invention and the scope of protection of the present invention. In addition to the embodiments described herein, those skilled in the art can also adopt other obvious technical solutions based on the contents disclosed in the claims of this application and its specification, including technical solutions that adopt any obvious replacements and modifications to the embodiments described herein.

[0034] The drawings in this specification are schematic diagrams that assist in illustrating the concepts of the present invention and schematically illustrate the shapes of the various components and their interrelationships. It should be understood that in order to clearly illustrate the structures of the various components of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings are not drawn to the same scale, and the same reference numerals are used to represent the same parts in the drawings.

[0035] In the present invention, wafer (Wafer, W) is also called substrate (Substrate), and its meaning and actual function are equivalent.

[0036] Figure 1 1 is a schematic diagram of a wafer flipping device provided by one embodiment of the present invention, wherein the wafer flipping device comprises:

[0037] A support assembly 10 for supporting the wafer W to be flipped;

[0038] A clamping assembly 20 is disposed above the supporting assembly 10 to laterally clamp the wafer W to be flipped;

[0039] The flip driving assembly 30 is connected to the clamping assembly 20 to drive the clamping assembly 20 and the wafer W thereon to flip.

[0040] Furthermore, the support assembly 10 includes a plurality of support members 13 to simultaneously process a plurality of wafers W to be flipped, thereby improving the efficiency of wafer flipping and ensuring the productivity of wafer post-processing.

[0041] Figure 2 yes Figure 1 The cross-sectional view of AA in the figure, Figure 3 yes Figure 1 A top view of the wafer flipping device is shown. It should be noted that the wafer flipping device further includes a housing (not shown), into which the wafer to be flipped is placed by a robot arm, the support assembly 10 and the clamping assembly 20 are disposed within the housing and on both sides thereof, and the flipping drive assembly 30 is connected to the inner or outer sidewall of the housing.

[0042] Figure 1 In the illustrated embodiment, there is a pair of support assemblies 10 , which move from bottom to top to hold up the wafer to be flipped.

[0043] Furthermore, the support assembly 10 includes a support frame 11 and a connecting plate 12. Figure 4 As shown, the connecting plate 12 is tilted and arranged below the support frame 11. In some embodiments, the connecting plate 12 is fixed to a driving member such as a cylinder to drive the support frame 11 to move tilted along the plane where the connecting plate 12 is located, thereby lifting the wafer to be flipped.

[0044] During the wafer lifting process, the support assembly 10 can meet the requirement of instant contact, avoiding friction between the wafer and the front end of the support member 13, so as to avoid scratches and contamination on the wafer surface as much as possible.

[0045] Figure 4 In the illustrated embodiment, the support frame 11 is a U-shaped structure, and a vertical frame 14 is disposed on the top surface thereof. The vertical frame 14 is disposed perpendicular to the top surface of the support frame 11 .

[0046] Furthermore, the side of the vertical frame 14 is provided with a support member 13, and the number of the support members 13 is multiple and spaced apart. Specifically, the support member 13 is arranged toward the wafer W to be flipped so as to lift the wafer from the bottom up. In some embodiments, the top surface of the support member 13 is provided with a limiting groove, which extends downward from the top surface of the support member 13. Specifically, the area of the limiting groove is a portion of the top area of the support member 13, so as to control the contact area between the support member 13 and the wafer, thereby reducing the probability of the wafer being contaminated during the flipping process.

[0047] In some embodiments, the angle between the connecting plate 12 and the horizontal plane is 30-60 degrees, allowing the support assembly 10 to support multiple vertically spaced wafers. The wafer to be flipped is separated from the gripper of the robot, and the robot is removed from the housing described above. The clamping assembly 20 then laterally grips the wafer in preparation for further flipping. In some embodiments, the angle between the connecting plate 12 and the horizontal plane is 40-50 degrees to prevent interference between the diagonally moving support assembly 10 and the gripper of the robot and the wafers it holds.

[0048] In addition, in order to realize the action of supporting the wafer by the support component 10, the present invention abandons the combination of horizontal and vertical actions and adopts an oblique movement scheme. The support component 10 can move along the inclined direction, effectively simplifying the structure and improving the stability of the wafer flipping device.

[0049] Figure 3 In the embodiment, the clamping assembly 20 includes a clamping member 21, the end of which is connected to a moving member 22 to drive the clamping member 21 to move horizontally. The flip drive assembly 30 is connected to the outer periphery of the moving member 22 to drive the clamping assembly 20 and the wafer mounted thereon to rotate about the axis, achieving the overall flipping of the clamped wafer.

[0050] In some embodiments, the flip drive assembly 30 includes a belt, pulleys, and a drive motor to drive the clamping assembly 20 and the wafer held thereon to flip as a whole. It is understood that the flip drive assembly 30 may also utilize other drive methods, such as chain drive, direct motor drive, etc. It is understood that if a chain drive is employed, the chain drive structure must be located outside the housing and properly sealed to prevent contamination of the wafer being flipped by the drive structure.

[0051] In the present invention, the number of the clamping assembly 20 is a pair, and the clamping members 21 thereon can clamp the wafer from the side of the wafer.

[0052] Furthermore, the clamping member 21 includes a clamping body 21a, such as Figure 5As shown, a vertical rod 21b is arranged on the clamping body 21a, and a clamping wheel 21c is sleeved on the outer peripheral side of the vertical rod 21b.

[0053] Figure 5 In the embodiment, there are four clamping wheels 21c, which are spaced apart. Specifically, the vertical spacing between adjacent clamping wheels 21c matches the spacing between adjacent wafers clamped by the robot, so that the clamping wheels 21c abut against the edge of the wafer to achieve clamping of the wafer to be flipped.

[0054] Furthermore, the clamping wheels 21c are made of polyetheretherketone (PEEK). The number of clamping wheels 21c matches the number of supports 13, which in turn matches the number of wafers that the robot can simultaneously handle. PEEK has excellent wear resistance and processability, and the clamping wheels 21c made of PEEK can effectively reduce wafer wear and ensure stability during wafer processing.

[0055] Figure 6 yes Figure 5 In the partial enlarged view at point B, the clamping member 21 also includes a sleeve 21d, which is covered on the outer peripheral side of the vertical rod 21b. The side of the sleeve 21d is provided with a limiting rod, and the spring 21e abuts against the limiting rod to push the vertical rod 21b to move adaptively, so as to clamp wafers of different tolerance sizes and improve the adaptability of the wafer flipping device.

[0056] Furthermore, the clamping body 21a is provided with a mounting hole 21a-1, such as Figure 7 As shown, the vertical rod 21b is provided through the mounting hole 21a-1; further, the mounting hole 21a-1 is a waist-shaped hole, so that the vertical rod 21b can move in the mounting hole 21a-1.

[0057] Specifically, the clamping body 21a is equipped with a fixing hole for a spring 21e, which is positioned perpendicular to the mounting hole 21a-1. A sleeve 21d is positioned over the vertical rod 21b and along the fixing hole, with the spring 21e positioned within the fixing hole. The spring 21e is compressed, allowing the sleeve 21d, which has a limiting rod, to adjust the position of the vertical rod 21b, thereby adjusting the position of the clamping wheel 21c and achieving reliable wafer clamping.

[0058] In some embodiments, the distance between the inner wall of the mounting hole 21a-1 and the outer wall of the vertical rod 21b is 0.5-2 mm to meet the clamping requirements of wafers with different tolerance sizes.

[0059] In the present invention, the clamping assembly 20 is disposed outside the moving trajectory of the supporting assembly 10 to avoid interference between the supporting assembly 10 and the clamping assembly 20 , thereby preventing the normal execution of the wafer flipping action from being affected.

[0060] Figure 1 In the illustrated embodiment, the wafer flipping device further includes a fixed rod 40 disposed between the clamping assemblies 20. The flip drive assemblies 30 on either side are connected to the ends of the fixed rod 40 to ensure synchronization of the flipping motions on both sides and to prevent twisting and stress concentration or even damage to the wafer. It should be noted that the clamping member 21 of the clamping assembly 20 is slidably connected to the fixed rod 40 to prevent interference between the clamping member 21 of the clamping assembly 20 and the fixed rod 40.

[0061] Figure 4 In the support assembly 10 shown, no other components are configured between adjacent vertical frames 14 to avoid interference between the support assembly 10 and the fixing rod 40, ensuring the independence of the support assembly 10 in carrying out the wafer lifting action, so as to reasonably arrange the wafer flipping action and improve the efficiency of the wafer flipping operation.

[0062] The following combination Figure 1 Briefly describe the specific actions of wafer flipping:

[0063] First, a robot places multiple vertically spaced wafers into a housing (not shown) of a wafer flipping device.

[0064] Next, the support assembly 10 is tilted and moved upward, so that the support member 13 abuts against the bottom surface of the wafer, thereby simultaneously supporting the wafer to be flipped.

[0065] Next, the robot moves to the outside of the housing, and the clamping assembly 20 moves toward the wafer to clamp the edge of the wafer;

[0066] Next, the support assembly 10 is tilted and moved downward, so that the support member 13 is separated from the bottom surface of the wafer;

[0067] Next, the flip drive assembly 30 drives the clamping assembly 20 and the wafers clamped therein to rotate around the axis to achieve flipping of the multiple wafers.

[0068] Next, the support assembly 10 tilts upward and contacts the bottom surface of the wafer. The moving member 22 of the clamping assembly 20 drives the clamping member 21 away from the wafer, so that the wafer is placed on the support member 13 of the support assembly 10.

[0069] Finally, the robot grabs the flipped wafer from the supporting assembly 10 and transfers it to the next process.

[0070] Throughout this specification, reference to terms such as "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "illustrative embodiments," "examples," "specific examples," or "some examples" means that a specific feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in conjunction with that embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the present invention. In this specification, illustrative uses of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the specific features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples.

[0071] While embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes, modifications, substitutions, and variations may be made to the embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, and that the scope of the invention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A wafer flipping device, characterized in that: include: A support assembly to support the wafer to be flipped; a clamping assembly, disposed above the supporting assembly, for laterally clamping the wafer to be flipped; a flip drive assembly connected to the clamping assembly to drive the clamping assembly and the wafer thereon to flip; The support assembly includes a plurality of support members to handle a plurality of wafers to be flipped; The top surface of the support member is provided with a limiting groove, which extends downward from the top surface; The supporting assembly is a pair, which includes a supporting frame and a connecting plate, and the connecting plate is obliquely arranged below the supporting frame.

2. The wafer flipping device according to claim 1, wherein: The support frame is a U-shaped structure, and a vertical frame is arranged on the top surface of the support frame. The vertical frame is arranged perpendicular to the top surface of the support frame, and the support members are arranged at intervals on the side of the vertical frame.

3. The wafer flipping device according to claim 1, wherein: The angle between the connecting plate and the horizontal plane is 30-60 degrees, so that the support assembly can support multiple vertically spaced wafers.

4. The wafer flipping device according to claim 1, wherein: The number of the clamping assemblies is a pair, which includes a clamping member, and the end of the clamping member is connected to a moving member to drive the clamping member to move in a horizontal direction; the flipping drive assembly is connected to the outer peripheral side of the moving member to drive the clamping assembly and the wafer thereon to rotate around the axis.

5. The wafer flipping device according to claim 4, wherein: The clamping piece comprises a clamping body, a vertical rod is arranged on the clamping body, and a clamping wheel is sleeved on the outer peripheral side of the vertical rod.

6. The wafer flipping device according to claim 5, wherein: The clamping wheels are made of polyetheretherketone material, and the number of the clamping wheels matches the number of the supporting members.

7. The wafer flipping device according to claim 5, wherein: The clamping member further comprises a sleeve, the sleeve cover is arranged on the outer peripheral side of the vertical pole, a limiting rod is arranged on the side of the sleeve, and a spring abuts against the limiting rod to push the vertical pole to move adaptively.

8. The wafer flipping device according to claim 7, wherein: The clamping body is provided with a mounting hole, and the vertical rod is arranged to penetrate the mounting hole; the mounting hole is a waist-shaped hole, so that the vertical rod can move in the mounting hole.

9. The wafer flipping device according to claim 1, wherein: The support assembly is capable of moving in an inclined direction, and the clamping assembly is arranged outside the moving track range of the support assembly.

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