Substrate surface foreign matter detection method, intelligent cleaning system and conveying equipment

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of conveying equipment, and discloses a substrate surface foreign matter detection method, an intelligent cleaning system, conveying equipment, an image acquisition unit, a processor, a cleaning mechanism, a display module and the like. Wherein the image acquisition unit can acquire image data of a substrate on a conveying line in real time, the analysis module can automatically recognize whether foreign matters exist on the surface of the substrate or not through an image recognition technology, and then the control module sends a cleaning instruction to control the cleaning mechanism to remove the foreign matters on the target substrate. And a series of subsequent negative effects caused by foreign matters entering the clean workshop area are effectively avoided. Normal operation of equipment in a clean room area is guaranteed, and the productivity of a production line is improved. Labor can be saved, the substrate surface cleaning efficiency is improved, and meanwhile the reliability of substrate surface foreign matter recognition and cleaning is guaranteed.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of conveying equipment, and in particular to a method for detecting foreign matter on a substrate surface, an intelligent cleaning system and conveying equipment. Background Art

[0002] Substrates are widely used in many fields such as the electronics manufacturing industry, semiconductor industry, solar energy industry, printed circuit boards (PCBs), and display technology. In the electronics manufacturing industry, substrates usually refer to integrated circuit packaging substrates, also known as IC packaging substrates. It is located between the chip and the printed circuit board (PCB), and interconnects the chip pads with the inner pins of the packaging substrate or lead frame through fine wiring, thereby further connecting with the outer pins, and protectively encapsulating the chip and the interconnection. The substrate is the carrier of the semiconductor chip package, carrying the support of electronic components and forming the base of the electronic circuit. In the semiconductor industry, the substrate is an emerging carrier for IC chip packaging. Traditional semiconductor packaging uses lead frames as IC conduction lines and carriers to support ICs, but with the increase in the number of pins, traditional packaging forms have restricted its development. Therefore, new semiconductor packaging forms represented by BGA and CSP have come into being, and semiconductor packaging substrates (IC Package Substrate) have also been produced. This substrate not only provides electrical connection (transition), but also provides protection, support, and heat dissipation channels for the chip, as well as the effect of meeting standard installation dimensions. In the solar industry, substrate usually refers to the bottom plate or support plate of solar panels, which provides physical support and electrical insulation for solar cells. The substrate of solar panels needs to have properties such as high temperature resistance, moisture resistance, and UV resistance to ensure the stability and durability of solar cells under various environmental conditions.

[0003] In summary, whether in the electronics manufacturing industry, the semiconductor industry or the solar energy industry, the substrate is a key component that supports and protects electronic components and realizes electrical connections. Its performance and quality directly affect the performance and reliability of the final product. During the production and transportation process of the substrate, due to various reasons, such as uneven temperature in the processing chamber, there may be foreign matter on the substrate. The presence of foreign matter will affect the quality of the entire product in the subsequent process. In addition, when the substrate is transported through the production line into the subsequent dust-free production environment, if there is foreign matter on the substrate, the foreign matter may be scattered, which may eventually have a negative impact on the equipment and products in the entire environment. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid the presence of foreign matter on the substrate during the production process, and it is necessary to avoid foreign matter from entering the dust-free workshop with the substrate. The existing common treatment method is to clean the surface of the substrate, but the cleaning process may have a negative impact on the surface quality of the substrate, resulting in degradation of the surface quality of the substrate. Therefore, an artificial judgment position will be added to the existing conveying production line to monitor whether there are foreign matter on the surface of the substrate during the transportation process, and the substrate with foreign matter will be processed. However, the manual monitoring method consumes manpower, has high labor requirements, and has low monitoring reliability.

[0004] SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] The technical problem solved by the present invention is to provide a processing system that can automatically detect whether there are foreign objects on the substrate on the production line and clean it.

[0006] The purpose of the present invention can be achieved through the following technical solutions:

[0007] A method for detecting foreign matter on a substrate surface comprises the following steps:

[0008] Acquire image data of a substrate with a clean surface and no foreign matter as reference image data, and digitally process the reference image data and store it in a database as a standard value;

[0009] Acquire real-time image data of the surface of the substrate being transported, mark the corresponding substrate, and establish a mapping relationship between the substrate and the real-time image data;

[0010] Digitally process the real-time image data, extract pixel points and RGB values ​​to obtain measured values;

[0011] The measured value corresponding to the real-time image data is compared with the standard value corresponding to the reference image data. When the similarity between the two is lower than a preset value, it is determined that foreign matter exists on the substrate surface corresponding to the real-time image data.

[0012] In one embodiment of the present invention, in the process of processing the image data, the obtained substrate image is divided into a plurality of regions, and when comparing the measured value with the standard value, the comparison is performed separately according to the regions.

[0013] In one scheme of the present invention: when the measured value of a certain area of ​​the real-time image data is compared with the standard value of the reference image data and the similarity is lower than the preset value, the area is determined to be a suspicious area and marked, and then the image of the suspicious area is acquired a second time and compared with the standard value after processing. When the similarity is lower than the preset value, it is determined that there is foreign matter on the substrate surface corresponding to the suspicious area, and it is marked as the target area.

[0014] An intelligent cleaning system based on the above substrate surface foreign body detection method comprises:

[0015] An image acquisition unit, wherein the image acquisition unit is used to acquire real-time image data of a target substrate;

[0016] A processor, the processor comprising a database, an analysis module and a control module, the analysis module is used to receive real-time image data collected by the image acquisition unit, and digitally process the real-time image data to obtain a measured value, and then compare the measured value with a standard value in the database to determine whether there is a foreign object on the substrate surface, and if so, mark the target substrate and issue a cleaning instruction through the control module;

[0017] The cleaning mechanism comprises a driving unit and a cleaning unit. When the cleaning mechanism receives a cleaning instruction, the driving unit drives the cleaning unit to move to the target substrate position, and the cleaning unit cleans the surface of the target substrate.

[0018] In one embodiment of the present invention, after the cleaning mechanism completes the cleaning operation, the image data of the target substrate and the cleaning time data are stored in a database.

[0019] In one embodiment of the present invention, the cleaning system further comprises a display module, which is connected to the processor and is used to display the foreign matter determination process of the processor and the cleaning process of the cleaning mechanism.

[0020] In one embodiment of the present invention, the cleaning mechanism further comprises a purge unit, which is disposed at the rear side of the cleaning unit and blows airflow toward the surface of the target substrate when the purge unit receives a cleaning instruction.

[0021] In one embodiment of the present invention, the purge unit includes a blow head and an air source, the blow head and the air source are connected via a pipeline, and the blow head is directed toward a conveying path of the substrate.

[0022] In one embodiment of the present invention, the cleaning system includes a collecting tank, and the collecting box is located below the cleaning mechanism.

[0023] A conveying device comprising the intelligent cleaning system as described above.

[0024] Beneficial effects of the present invention:

[0025] The present application is provided with an image acquisition unit analysis module, a control module and a cleaning mechanism, wherein the image acquisition unit can collect image data of substrates on the conveyor line in real time, and the analysis module can automatically identify whether there are foreign objects on the surface of the substrate through image recognition technology, and then issue a cleaning instruction through the control module to control the cleaning mechanism to remove foreign objects on the target substrate, effectively avoiding a series of subsequent negative effects caused by foreign objects entering the clean workshop area. Ensure the normal operation of equipment in the clean room area and improve the production capacity of the production line. It can save manpower, improve the efficiency of substrate surface cleaning and processing, and ensure the reliability of foreign object identification and cleaning on the substrate surface.

[0026] Additional aspects and advantages of the present invention will be given in part in the following description and in part will be obvious from the following description, or will be learned through practice of the present invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0027] The above and / or additional aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent and easy to understand from the description of the embodiments in conjunction with the following drawings. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative work. Among them:

[0028] Figure 1 It is a structural schematic diagram of the conveying equipment of the present invention.

[0029] The reference numerals in the figure are: 1. cleaning component; 2. bracket; 3. linear guide rail; 4. collecting tank. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0031] In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that descriptions involving orientations, such as up, down, front, back, left, right, etc., and orientations or positional relationships indicated are based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be understood as a limitation on the present invention.

[0032] In the description of the present invention, "several" means one or more, "more" means more than two, "greater than", "less than", "exceed" etc. are understood as not including the number itself, and "above", "below", "within" etc. are understood as including the number itself. If there is a description of "first" or "second", it is only used for the purpose of distinguishing the technical features, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying the relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features or implicitly indicating the order of the indicated technical features.

[0033] See also Figure 1 The present invention is a substrate conveying device, which can be a belt, wheel or chain conveying device, used to complete the substrate transfer action in the production line. The substrate conveying device may include a conveying part for carrying a substrate workpiece, a power source for driving the conveying part to rotate, and a support frame for supporting the entire conveying device. Among them, the power source can be a motor or other corresponding driving parts. The conveying equipment can be arranged between the previous and next processes, can be arranged before a certain processing for conveying and loading, or can be arranged inside (outside) a dust-free workshop for substrate conveying. During the conveying process, in order to prevent foreign matter that may exist on the substrate from entering the subsequent process or the dust-free environment. The conveying equipment is also provided with an intelligent cleaning system.

[0034] See also Figure 1 In one embodiment of the present invention, the intelligent cleaning system includes an image acquisition unit, a processor, a cleaning mechanism, and a display module. The image acquisition unit is used to acquire real-time image data of the target substrate; the image acquisition unit can be fixedly connected to the support structure of the conveying equipment and be located above the substrate conveying path. The image acquisition unit can use a high-resolution camera to monitor the surface of the incoming substrate in real time. The display module can be a display screen structure connected to the processor, which is used to display the foreign matter judgment process of the processor and the cleaning process of the cleaning mechanism, so that the operator can intuitively and quickly obtain relevant information or use it to control and adjust the entire system.

[0035] See also Figure 1 In one embodiment of the present invention, the processor may include a database, an analysis module and a control module, and the processor may be implemented by using an existing chip with a corresponding structure. The database is used to store relevant data. The analysis module is used to receive real-time image data collected by the image acquisition unit, and digitize the real-time image data to obtain a measured value, and then compare the measured value with the standard value in the database to determine whether there is foreign matter on the surface of the substrate. If so, mark the target substrate and issue a cleaning instruction through the control module; the control module may use a programmable logic controller (PLC) to control the operation of the cleaning mechanism.

[0036] See also Figure 1 In one embodiment of the present invention, the cleaning unit includes a driving unit and a cleaning unit, and the cleaning mechanism can be arranged on the support frame of the conveying device and is communicatively connected with the processor. When the cleaning mechanism receives a cleaning instruction, the driving unit drives the cleaning unit to move to the target substrate position, and the cleaning unit performs a cleaning action on the surface of the target substrate. Specifically, the driving unit is a linear driving structure, which is used to drive the cleaning unit to approach or move away from the conveying device, so as to realize the cleaning action on the target substrate. The driving unit can be a cylinder structure, a hydraulic cylinder structure, a linear motor, a screw drive structure or other mechanism capable of realizing linear drive. As an example, the driving unit includes a cylinder fixedly arranged on the support frame, a linear guide rail 3 fixedly arranged on the support frame, a slider is slidably arranged on the guide rail, and the cleaning unit is fixedly connected to the slider, a power source is provided by the cylinder, and a guiding and stabilizing effect is played by the guide rail.

[0037] See also Figure 1 In one embodiment of the present invention, the cleaning unit may include a cleaning component 1 and a driving component. The cleaning component 1 may be a strip-shaped brush structure, a drum-type brush structure or other structures capable of achieving a cleaning function. As an example, the cleaning mechanism includes a drum rollingly arranged on a bracket 2, a plurality of bristles being arranged on the outer circumferential surface of the drum, and the bracket 2 being connected to a driving unit (slider) and capable of moving up and down with the driving unit. At the same time, a motor for driving the drum to rotate is arranged on the bracket 2. When a cleaning instruction is received, the driving unit drives the cleaning unit to descend so that the bristles on the drum can contact the substrate, and the motor drives the drum to rotate to clean the target substrate to remove foreign matter on its surface. After cleaning, the cleaning unit rises away from the substrate conveyor line and returns to its original position.

[0038] See also Figure 1In one embodiment of the present invention, the cleaning mechanism may further include a purge unit, which is arranged at the rear side of the cleaning unit (i.e., the substrate first passes through the area where the cleaning unit is located during the conveying process, and then passes through the area where the purge unit is located), and when the purge unit receives the cleaning instruction, it blows out airflow to the surface of the target substrate. The cleaning unit is used to clean larger particles that may exist on the substrate, and the purge unit is used to blow away smaller particles that may exist on the substrate. Therefore, during the cleaning process, the bristle structure of the cleaning unit in the cleaning position after descending may not contact the surface of the substrate, but can be close to the surface of the substrate to take away larger foreign matter, so as to reduce the impact on the surface quality of the substrate. Specifically, the purge unit may include a plurality of air blowing heads and an air source distributed in an array, the air blowing head and the air source are connected through a pipeline, and the air blowing head faces the conveying path of the substrate. When it is detected that there are foreign matter on a substrate, it is first cleaned by the cleaning unit, and then the smaller particles that may exist are blown away by the purge unit. The blowing direction of the purge unit is opposite to the substrate conveying direction, or is perpendicular to the substrate conveying direction, so as to prevent the blown foreign particles from affecting other substrate structures. A transition space can be formed outside the purge unit to prevent foreign matter from flying. A pressure regulating valve, a flow regulating valve and a direction control valve can be provided on the pipeline between the blowing head and the gas source to accurately control the pressure, flow and direction of the purge gas. An adjustment structure, such as a ball head and a ball groove connection structure, can be provided between the blowing head and the pipeline or at the installation position of the blowing head. The blowing direction of the blowing head can be adjusted according to the shape and size distance of the substrate to ensure the uniformity and accuracy of the purge.

[0039] See also Figure 1 In one embodiment of the present invention, the cleaning system may include a collecting tank 4, which is located below the cleaning mechanism to collect foreign matter swept or blown down. Preferably, the collecting tank 4 may be arranged at the bottom of the conveying device, and the area covered is larger than the area where the cleaning mechanism is located, so as to fully achieve the collection effect.

[0040] Working principle of the present invention:

[0041] The working process of the above intelligent cleaning system is as follows:

[0042] The image acquisition unit is used to obtain real-time image data of the surface of the substrate being transported, and the corresponding substrate is marked to establish a mapping relationship between the substrate and the real-time image data; then the real-time image data is processed to determine whether there is foreign matter on the corresponding substrate. The processing can be digital processing, and the image can be processed to extract pixel points or obtain RGB values.

[0043] The determination process may be as follows: acquiring image data of a substrate with a clean surface and no foreign matter as reference image data, digitizing the reference image data and storing it in a database as a standard value; acquiring real-time image data and performing the same processing on the real-time image data to obtain an actual value; comparing the actual value corresponding to the real-time image data with the standard value corresponding to the reference image data, and when the similarity between the two is lower than a preset value, determining that foreign matter exists on the substrate surface corresponding to the real-time image data.

[0044] The determination process may also be: presetting an alarm threshold (such as including but not limited to pixel value, RGB value), digitizing the real-time image data, and then comparing the corresponding value with the alarm threshold to see whether the corresponding value obviously exceeds the normal value, and then analyzing whether there is foreign matter on the corresponding substrate.

[0045] The determination process may also be: pre-collecting data image information of different foreign objects and storing them in a database, and then processing the acquired real-time image data and comparing them with the pre-collected foreign object image information to determine whether there are foreign objects on the corresponding substrate.

[0046] To determine whether there is a foreign object on the substrate corresponding to the real-time image data, one or more of the above methods can be used in combination, or other image processing methods can be used. In this embodiment, the first method is used to determine whether there is a foreign object on the surface of the substrate. Furthermore, in the process of processing the image data, the obtained substrate image can be divided into several areas, and the measured value can be compared with the standard value according to the area. Thereby improving the comparison accuracy, in the process of dividing the area, a coordinate system can be established with the edge of one side of the substrate (a coordinate system can also be established based on the conveying equipment), so that different areas on the substrate can be accurately located, thereby achieving accurate positioning of the location of the foreign object.

[0047] When the measured value of a certain area of ​​the real-time image data is compared with the standard value of the reference image data and the similarity is lower than the preset value, the area is determined to be a suspicious area and marked, and then the image of the suspicious area is acquired a second time and compared with the standard value after processing. When the similarity is lower than the preset value, it is determined that there is a foreign matter on the substrate surface corresponding to the suspicious area, and it is marked as the target area. In this way, multiple groups of image acquisition units need to be set up, and the accuracy of subsequent image acquisition units can be higher than the acquisition accuracy of the previous group. In this way, the possible area can be screened first, and then a second accurate judgment can be made, effectively improving the accuracy of foreign matter detection.

[0048] However, when foreign matter is detected on the substrate corresponding to the real-time image data, the substrate is calibrated as the target substrate, and a cleaning instruction is issued. The driving unit of the cleaning mechanism drives the cleaning unit to approach the conveying line position of the conveying equipment, and cleans the target substrate when the target substrate is conveyed through. After the cleaning is completed, the cleaning mechanism is reset away from the conveying line to avoid affecting other substrates. After the cleaning is completed, the purge unit can be used for secondary cleaning by blowing air to ensure the cleaning effect of the substrate surface. After the cleaning is completed, an image acquisition unit can be set to acquire images again and determine whether there are foreign matter in order to confirm the cleaning effect. If it is still determined that there is a foreign matter, an alarm is issued to check whether there is a fault in the system, or whether there is adhesion on the surface of the substrate that causes the substrate to be unqualified.

[0049] After the cleaning mechanism completes the cleaning action, the image data of the target substrate and the cleaning time data are stored in the database. The image data of the target substrate may include information such as the type and location of the foreign matter, so that subsequent data analysis can be performed to find out the cause of the foreign matter, so as to provide a basis for optimizing the process flow.

[0050] The above is a detailed description of an embodiment of the present invention, but the content is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and cannot be considered to limit the scope of implementation of the present invention. All equivalent changes and improvements made according to the scope of application of the present invention should still fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for detecting foreign matter on a substrate surface, characterized in that: The steps include: Acquire image data of a substrate with a clean surface and no foreign matter as reference image data, and digitally process the reference image data and store it in a database as a standard value; Acquire real-time image data of the surface of the substrate being transported, mark the corresponding substrate, and establish a mapping relationship between the substrate and the real-time image data; Digitally process the real-time image data, extract pixel points and RGB values ​​to obtain measured values; The measured value corresponding to the real-time image data is compared with the standard value corresponding to the reference image data. When the similarity between the two is lower than a preset value, it is determined that foreign matter exists on the substrate surface corresponding to the real-time image data.

2. A method for detecting foreign matter on a substrate surface according to claim 1, characterized in that: In the process of processing the image data, the obtained substrate image is divided into several regions, and when comparing the measured value with the standard value, the comparison is performed separately according to the regions.

3. A method for detecting foreign matter on a substrate surface according to claim 2, characterized in that: When the similarity between the measured value of a certain area of ​​the real-time image data and the standard value of the reference image data is lower than the preset value, the area is determined to be a suspicious area and marked, and then a second image is acquired for the suspicious area and compared with the standard value after processing. When the similarity is lower than the preset value, it is determined that there is foreign matter on the substrate surface corresponding to the suspicious area, and it is marked as the target area.

4. An intelligent cleaning system based on the substrate surface foreign matter detection method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: include: An image acquisition unit, wherein the image acquisition unit is used to acquire real-time image data of a target substrate; A processor, the processor comprising a database, an analysis module and a control module, the analysis module is used to receive real-time image data collected by the image acquisition unit, and digitally process the real-time image data to obtain a measured value, and then compare the measured value with a standard value in the database to determine whether there is a foreign object on the substrate surface, and if so, mark the target substrate and issue a cleaning instruction through the control module; The cleaning mechanism comprises a driving unit and a cleaning unit. When the cleaning mechanism receives a cleaning instruction, the driving unit drives the cleaning unit to move to the target substrate position, and the cleaning unit cleans the surface of the target substrate.

5. An intelligent cleaning system according to claim 4, characterized in that: After the cleaning mechanism completes the cleaning action, the image data of the target substrate and the cleaning time data are stored in the database.

6. The intelligent cleaning system according to claim 4, characterized in that: The cleaning system also includes a display module, which is connected to the processor and is used to display the foreign matter judgment process of the processor and the cleaning process of the cleaning mechanism.

7. The intelligent cleaning system according to claim 4, characterized in that: The cleaning mechanism further comprises a blowing unit, which is arranged at the rear side of the cleaning unit and blows airflow to the surface of the target substrate when the blowing unit receives a cleaning instruction.

8. An intelligent cleaning system according to claim 7, characterized in that: The purge unit comprises an air blowing head and an air source, the air blowing head and the air source are connected through a pipeline, and the air blowing head faces a conveying path of the substrate.

9. The intelligent cleaning system according to claim 4, characterized in that: The cleaning system comprises a collecting tank, and the collecting box is located below the cleaning mechanism.

10. A conveying device, characterized in that: Comprising an intelligent cleaning system according to any one of claims 4 to 9.

Images