Wafer centering method and wafer thinning device

Abstract

The invention relates to a wafer centering method and a wafer thinning device. The wafer centering method comprises the following steps: a, establishing a plane-coordinate system by a visual inspection part, and moving a manipulator suction cup and a centering suction cup to initial positions, so that the coordinates of the circle center of the manipulator suction cup and the circle center of the centering suction cup are (x1, 0); b, a wafer is fed to a centering suction cup; c, controlling the centering suction cup to rotate around the circle center of the centering suction cup until the circle center of the wafer is driven to reach the X axis of the plane-coordinate system; at the moment, the circle center coordinate of the wafer is (x2, 0); and d, the manipulator suction cup is controlled to move along the X axis of the plane-coordinate system from the initial position until the circle center coordinate of the manipulator suction cup is (x2, 0).

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of semiconductor equipment technology, and specifically to a wafer centering method and a wafer thinning device. Background Art

[0002] Before the integrated circuit is packaged, it is usually necessary to thin the back of the wafer to remove excess material, which is conducive to the miniaturization of the integrated circuit. In the process of thinning the wafer, it is necessary to first take the wafer out of the material box and place it in the centering mechanism for centering, then transfer the centered wafer to the stage for thinning, then move the thinned wafer to the cleaning mechanism for cleaning, and finally move the cleaned wafer into the wafer box for storage.

[0003] The thinning process requires high positional accuracy of the wafer, so the wafer needs to be centered at the centering mechanism before being transferred to the stage. The traditional centering mechanism uses a mechanical centering method, that is, a chuck is used to clamp the wafer and force the wafer to move to a specific position to achieve centering. However, the use of mechanical centering will generate stress on the edge of the wafer (especially ultra-thin wafers), causing damage to the wafer or even breakage. Summary of the invention

[0004] Based on this, it is necessary to provide a wafer centering method and a wafer thinning device to address the above problems and avoid stress on the edge of the wafer during centering.

[0005] A wafer centering method comprises the following steps:

[0006] a. The visual inspection part establishes a plane coordinate system, and the manipulator suction cup and the centering suction cup are moved to the initial position so that the coordinates of the center of the manipulator suction cup and the center of the centering suction cup are both;

[0007] b. Loading the wafer onto the centering chuck;

[0008] c. Control the centering chuck to rotate around its own center until the center of the wafer reaches the X-axis of the plane coordinate system; at this time, the center coordinate of the wafer is (x2, 0);

[0009] d. Control the robot suction cup to move from the initial position along the X-axis of the plane coordinate system until the center coordinate of the robot suction cup is (x2, 0).

[0010] In some embodiments, step a specifically includes:

[0011] The robot suction cup moves to above the centering suction cup, and the visual detection component establishes the plane coordinate system with the center of the robot suction cup as the origin;

[0012] The centering suction cup is controlled to move until the centering suction cup overlaps with the robot suction cup in the vertical direction, so that the center coordinate of the centering suction cup is (0, 0); wherein the radius of the robot suction cup is equal to that of the centering suction cup.

[0013] In some embodiments, step a specifically includes:

[0014] The robot suction cup moves to the top of the centering suction cup so that the robot suction cup and the centering suction cup overlap in the vertical direction; wherein the radius of the robot suction cup and the centering suction cup are equal;

[0015] The visual inspection component establishes the plane coordinate system with the center of the robot suction cup as the origin.

[0016] In some embodiments, between step b and step c, there is further included the step of: using the visual inspection component to detect the center coordinates of the wafer on the centering chuck;

[0017] Step c specifically includes:

[0018] An angle θ between a line connecting the center of the wafer and the center of the centering chuck and an X-axis of the plane coordinate system is calculated according to the center coordinates of the wafer and the center coordinates of the centering chuck;

[0019] According to the calculated included angle θ, the centering suction cup is controlled to rotate until a line between the center of the wafer and the center of the centering suction cup coincides with the X-axis of the plane coordinate system;

[0020] The coordinates of the center of the wafer detected by the visual inspection component are (x2, 0).

[0021] A wafer thinning device comprises a first transport mechanism, a centering mechanism, a cleaning mechanism, a second transport mechanism, a visual inspection component, a bearing mechanism and a grinding mechanism; the centering mechanism, the second transport mechanism and the visual inspection component use the wafer centering method described in any of the above embodiments to center and position the wafer, the centering mechanism has the centering suction cup for carrying the wafer, and the second transport mechanism has the robot suction cup for sucking the wafer;

[0022] The first transporting mechanism can transport the wafer located at the upper material position to the centering suction cup of the centering mechanism; the robot suction cup of the second transporting mechanism can transport the wafer located on the centering suction cup of the centering mechanism to the carrying mechanism, and can transport the wafer located on the carrying mechanism to the cleaning mechanism; the grinding mechanism is used to thin the wafer on the carrying mechanism; the first transporting mechanism can also transport the wafer located at the cleaning mechanism to the lower material position.

[0023] In some embodiments, the visual inspection component is arranged above the centering suction cup, and the robot suction cup can move between the visual inspection component and the centering suction cup and suck the wafer on the centering suction cup;

[0024] The visual inspection component can perform position detection on the centering suction cup, wafer and robot suction cup below.

[0025] In some embodiments, the first conveying mechanism and the supporting mechanism are spaced apart along the first direction, the centering mechanism and the cleaning mechanism are disposed between the first conveying mechanism and the supporting mechanism and spaced apart along the second direction, and the centering mechanism and the cleaning mechanism are respectively located on both sides of the line connecting the first conveying mechanism and the supporting mechanism, and the second conveying mechanism is disposed between the centering mechanism and the cleaning mechanism.

[0026] In some embodiments, the second transport mechanism includes a slide, a rotating arm and the robot suction cup, one end of the rotating arm is installed on the slide and can slide along the first direction driven by the slide, the robot suction cup is installed on the other end of the rotating arm, and the rotating arm is installed on one end of the slide and can rotate around an axis parallel to a third direction, and the third direction is perpendicular to the first direction and the second direction.

[0027] In some embodiments, an X-axis of the plane coordinate system is parallel to the first direction.

[0028] In some embodiments, the visual detection element is a CCD.

[0029] The above-mentioned wafer centering method and wafer thinning device fix the centering suction cup at the initial position so that the center of the centering suction cup is located on the X-axis of the plane coordinate system, that is, the center coordinates of the center of the centering suction cup are (x1,0), so that the centering suction cup can more easily drive the wafer thereon to rotate until the center of the wafer is located on the X-axis of the plane coordinate system. Since the center of the wafer and the center of the robot suction cup at the initial position are both on the X-axis of the plane coordinate system, and the distance between the two is x2-x1, the center of the robot suction cup can be controlled to move a distance of x2-x1 along the X-axis of the plane coordinate system so that the center of the robot suction cup coincides with the center of the wafer (that is, the center coordinates of the two are the same).

[0030] In this way, compared with the method of using a chuck to clamp the wafer for centering in the prior art, the centering of the wafer is achieved by rotating the centering suction cup and moving the robot suction cup in the present application. There is no need to clamp the wafer, thereby avoiding stress on the edge of the wafer during centering, and further avoiding damage to the wafer, which is beneficial to improving the quality of the wafer. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0031] Figure 1 This is a flowchart of the steps of a wafer centering method in one embodiment of the present application;

[0032] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the centering suction cup and the manipulator suction cup in one embodiment of the present application;

[0033] Figure 3 This is a specific step flow chart of step S10 in an embodiment of the present application;

[0034] Figure 4 This is a specific step flow chart of step S10 in another embodiment of the present application;

[0035] Figure 5 This is a flowchart of step S21 in an embodiment of the present application;

[0036] Figure 6 This is a specific step flow chart of step S30 in an embodiment of the present application;

[0037] Figure 7 This is a demonstration diagram of step S30 in an embodiment of the present application;

[0038] Figure 8 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a wafer thinning device in one embodiment of the present application;

[0039] Fig. 9 for Figure 8 The schematic diagram of the structure of the second transport mechanism of the wafer thinning device is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0040] In order to make the above-mentioned purposes, features and advantages of the present application more obvious and easy to understand, the specific implementation methods of the present application are described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the following description, many specific details are set forth to facilitate a full understanding of the present application. However, the present application can be implemented in many other ways different from those described herein, and those skilled in the art can make similar improvements without violating the connotation of the present application, so the present application is not limited by the specific embodiments disclosed below.

[0041] In the description of the present application, it should be understood that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "length", "width", "thickness", "up", "down", "front", "back", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inside", "outside", "clockwise", "counterclockwise", "axial", "radial", "circumferential" and the like indicate orientations or positional relationships based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the present application and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the referred device or element 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 application.

[0042] In addition, the terms "first" and "second" are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features. Therefore, the features defined as "first" and "second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one of the features. In the description of this application, the meaning of "plurality" is at least two, such as two, three, etc., unless otherwise clearly and specifically defined.

[0043] In this application, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, the terms "installed", "connected", "connected", "fixed" and the like should be understood in a broad sense, for example, it can be a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integral connection; it can be a mechanical connection or an electrical connection; it can be a direct connection or an indirect connection through an intermediate medium, it can be the internal connection of two elements or the interaction relationship between two elements, unless otherwise clearly defined. For ordinary technicians in this field, the specific meanings of the above terms in this application can be understood according to specific circumstances.

[0044] In the present application, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, a first feature being “above” or “below” a second feature may mean that the first and second features are in direct contact, or the first and second features are in indirect contact through an intermediate medium. Moreover, a first feature being “above”, “above”, and “above” a second feature may mean that the first feature is directly above or obliquely above the second feature, or simply means that the first feature is higher in level than the second feature. A first feature being “below”, “below”, and “below” a second feature may mean that the first feature is directly below or obliquely below the second feature, or simply means that the first feature is lower in level than the second feature.

[0045] It should be noted that when an element is referred to as being "fixed to" or "disposed on" another element, it may be directly on the other element or there may be a central element. When an element is considered to be "connected to" another element, it may be directly connected to the other element or there may be a central element at the same time. The terms "vertical", "horizontal", "upper", "lower", "left", "right" and similar expressions used herein are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to be the only implementation method.

[0046] See also Figure 1 and Figure 2 The present application provides a wafer centering method for centering and positioning wafer A using a visual inspection component (not shown), a centering suction cup 11, and a robot suction cup 21. The centering suction cup 11 is used to adsorb wafer A, and the robot suction cup 21 is used to suck wafer A on the centering suction cup 11. The visual inspection component is arranged above the centering suction cup 11, and is used to detect the positions of the centering suction cup 11, wafer A, and the robot suction cup 21 below it. The centering suction cup 11 drives the wafer A thereon to adjust its position according to the detection result of the visual inspection component, and the robot suction cup 21 is used to move to a specified position according to the detection result of the visual inspection component, and suck wafer A on the centering suction cup 11 at the specified position to ensure that the center of wafer A coincides with the center of the robot suction cup 21. Optionally, the visual inspection component can be a CCD (charge coupled device).

[0047] In an embodiment of the present application, the wafer centering method comprises the following steps:

[0048] S10, the visual inspection part establishes a plane coordinate system, and the manipulator suction cup 21 and the centering suction cup 11 are both moved to an initial position. At this time, the coordinates of the center of the manipulator suction cup 21 and the center of the centering suction cup 11 are both (x1, 0), that is, the center of the manipulator suction cup 21 and the center of the centering suction cup 11 are both located on the X-axis of the plane coordinate system. It should be noted that x1 can be a positive number, a negative number, or 0, and is not specifically limited here.

[0049] S20 , the centering suction cup 11 remains at the initial position unchanged, and the wafer A is loaded onto the centering suction cup 11 at the initial position.

[0050] S30, control the centering suction cup 11 to rotate around its own center, thereby driving the wafer A on the centering suction cup 11 to rotate until the center of the wafer A reaches the X-axis of the plane coordinate system. At this time, the center coordinates of wafer A can be detected by a visual detection component. For example, the center coordinates of the wafer detected by the visual detection component are (x2,0). Moreover, at this time, the center of wafer A and the center of the robot suction cup 21 at the initial position are both on the X-axis of the plane coordinate system, and the distance between the two is x2-x1. It should be noted that x2 can be a positive number, a negative number, or 0, and is not specifically limited here.

[0051] S40, the distance between the center of the wafer A and the center of the robot chuck 21 at the initial position is x2-x1, and the robot chuck 21 is controlled to move x2-x1 from the initial position along the X-axis of the plane coordinate system, so that the center of the robot chuck 21 coincides with the center of the wafer A. It should be noted that x2-x1 can be a positive number, a negative number, or 0. When x2-x1 is a positive number, the robot suction cup 21 located at the initial position is controlled to move a distance |x2-x1| in the positive direction of the X-axis, so that the center of the robot suction cup 21 coincides with the center of the wafer A; when x2-x1 is a negative number, the robot suction cup 21 located at the initial position is controlled to move a distance |x2-x1| in the negative direction of the X-axis, so that the center of the robot suction cup 21 coincides with the center of the wafer A; when x2-x1 is 0, the center of the robot suction cup 21 located at the initial position has already coincided with the center of the wafer A.

[0052] The above-mentioned wafer centering method fixes the centering suction cup 11 at the initial position so that the center of the centering suction cup 11 is located on the X-axis of the plane coordinate system, that is, the center coordinates of the center of the centering suction cup 11 are (x1, 0), so that the centering suction cup 11 can more easily drive the wafer A thereon to rotate until the center of the wafer A is located on the X-axis of the plane coordinate system. Since the center of the wafer A and the center of the robot suction cup 21 at the initial position are both on the X-axis of the plane coordinate system, and the distance between the two is x2-x1, the center of the robot suction cup 21 can be controlled to move a distance of x2-x1 along the X-axis of the plane coordinate system so that the center of the robot suction cup 21 coincides with the center of the wafer A (that is, the center coordinates of the two are the same).

[0053] In this way, compared with the method of using a chuck to clamp wafer A for centering in the prior art, in the present application, wafer A is centered by rotating the centering suction cup 11 and moving the robot suction cup 21, and there is no need to clamp wafer A, thereby avoiding stress on the edge of wafer A during centering, and further avoiding damage to wafer A, which is beneficial to improving the quality of wafer A.

[0054] See also Figure 3 In some embodiments, step S10 specifically includes:

[0055] S101, the manipulator suction cup 21 moves to the top of the centering suction cup 11, and the visual inspection component establishes a plane coordinate system with the center of the manipulator suction cup 21 as the origin, that is, the above x1 is equal to 0, that is, the center coordinates of the manipulator suction cup 21 at the initial position are (0,0);

[0056] S102, control the centering suction cup 11 to move until the centering suction cup 11 overlaps with the robot suction cup 21 in the vertical direction, so that the center coordinates of the centering suction cup 11 are (0, 0). In this way, the origin of the plane coordinate system is the center of the robot suction cup 21 at the initial position and the center of the centering suction cup 11 at the initial position, which is conducive to further simplifying the calculation process in the subsequent steps S30 and S40, and is conducive to improving the centering accuracy of the wafer A.

[0057] It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the radius of the manipulator suction cup 21 is equal to that of the centering suction cup 11, so that when the centering suction cup 11 overlaps with the manipulator suction cup 21, it is completely blocked by the manipulator suction cup 21, resulting in the visual detection component being unable to detect the centering suction cup 11. In this way, in the process of controlling the movement of the centering suction cup 11 in step S102, if the visual detection component cannot detect the centering suction cup 11, it means that the centering suction cup 11 is completely blocked by the manipulator suction cup 21, that is, the centering suction cup 11 overlaps with the manipulator suction cup 21, and the centering suction cup 11 has reached the initial position, and at this time, the centering suction cup 11 is controlled to stop moving.

[0058] See also Figure 4 In some other embodiments, step S10 specifically includes:

[0059] S101', the robot suction cup 21 moves to above the centering suction cup 11, so that the robot suction cup 21 overlaps with the centering suction cup 11 in the vertical direction;

[0060] S102', the visual inspection part establishes a plane coordinate system with the center of the robot chuck 21 as the origin. In this way, the origin of the plane coordinate system is the center of the robot chuck 21 at the initial position and the center of the centering chuck 11 at the initial position, which is conducive to further simplifying the calculation process in the subsequent steps S30 and S40, and is conducive to improving the centering accuracy of the wafer A.

[0061] It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the radius of the manipulator suction cup 21 is equal to that of the centering suction cup 11, so that when the centering suction cup 11 overlaps with the manipulator suction cup 21, it is completely blocked by the manipulator suction cup 21, resulting in the visual detection component being unable to detect the centering suction cup 11. In this way, in the process of controlling the movement of the manipulator suction cup 21 in step S101', if the visual detection component cannot detect the centering suction cup 11, it means that the centering suction cup 11 is completely blocked by the manipulator suction cup 21, that is, the centering suction cup 11 overlaps with the manipulator suction cup 21, and the manipulator suction cup 21 has reached the initial position, and the manipulator suction cup 21 is controlled to stop moving at this time.

[0062] See also Figures 5 to 7 Specifically in the embodiment, between the above steps S20 and S30, there is also a step S21: using a visual inspection component to detect the center coordinates of the wafer A on the centering suction cup 11, for example, the center coordinates of the wafer A detected by the visual inspection component are (a, b).

[0063] Step S30 specifically includes the following steps:

[0064] S301. Calculate the angle θ between the line L between the center of wafer A and the center of the center suction cup 11 and the X-axis of the plane coordinate system based on the center coordinates of wafer A and the center of the center suction cup 11 detected by the visual inspection component; specifically, the center coordinates of wafer A detected by the visual inspection component are (a, b), then the angle θ between the line L between the center of wafer A and the center of the center suction cup 11 and the X-axis of the plane coordinate system satisfies: tanθ=b÷(a-x1), so the angle θ=arctan[b÷(a-x1)].

[0065] S302, controlling the rotation angle θ of the centering chuck 11 so that the line L between the center of the wafer A and the center of the centering chuck 11 coincides with the X-axis of the plane coordinate system, and at this time, the center of the wafer A and the center of the robot chuck 21 at the initial position are both located on the X-axis of the plane coordinate system;

[0066] S303, using the visual inspection component to detect the center coordinates of wafer A. For example, if the center coordinates of wafer A detected by the visual inspection component are (x2, 0), then the distance between the center of wafer A and the center of the robot suction cup 21 at the initial position is x2-x1.

[0067] See also Figure 8Based on the above wafer centering method, the present application also provides a wafer thinning device, including a first transport mechanism 60, a centering mechanism 10, a cleaning mechanism 50, a second transport mechanism 20, a visual inspection component (not shown), a carrying mechanism 30 and a grinding mechanism 40. Among them, the centering mechanism 10, the second transport mechanism 20 and the visual inspection component use the wafer centering method described in any of the above embodiments to center and position the wafer A. The centering mechanism 10 has a centering suction cup 11 for carrying the wafer A, and the second transport mechanism 20 has a robot suction cup 21 for sucking the wafer A.

[0068] The first transport mechanism 60 can transport the wafer A located at the loading position to the centering suction cup 11 of the centering mechanism 10. The robot suction cup 21 of the second transport mechanism 20 can transport the wafer A located on the centering suction cup 11 of the centering mechanism 10 to the carrying mechanism 30, and can transport the wafer A located at the carrying mechanism 30 to the cleaning mechanism 50. The first transport mechanism 60 can also transport the wafer A located at the cleaning mechanism 50 to the unloading position. The grinding mechanism 40 is used to thin the wafer A on the carrying mechanism 30.

[0069] The process of the wafer thinning device thinning wafer A is roughly as follows:

[0070] The first transport mechanism 60 first transports the wafer A to be thinned located at the loading position to the centering suction cup 11 of the centering mechanism 10, and uses the above-mentioned wafer centering method to center and position the wafer A on the centering suction cup 11 to adjust the position of wafer A; after the centering and positioning is completed, the robot suction cup 21 of the second transport mechanism 20 transports the wafer A located on the centering suction cup 11 to the carrying mechanism 30, and the grinding mechanism 40 thins the wafer A; after the thickness of wafer A meets the requirements, the robot suction cup 21 of the second transport mechanism 20 transports the wafer A located at the carrying mechanism 30 to the cleaning mechanism 50 for cleaning; after cleaning and drying, the first transport mechanism 60 transports the wafer A located at the cleaning mechanism 50 to the unloading position for storage, thereby completing the thinning of wafer A.

[0071] Since the wafer A on the centering suction cup 11 is centered and positioned by the above-mentioned wafer centering method, there is no need to clamp the wafer A using a chuck, thereby avoiding stress on the edge of the wafer A during centering, thereby avoiding damage to the wafer A, and helping to improve the quality of the wafer A.

[0072] Specifically in the embodiment, the first conveying mechanism 60 and the carrying mechanism 30 are arranged at intervals along the first direction, and the centering mechanism 10 and the cleaning mechanism 50 are arranged between the first conveying mechanism 60 and the carrying mechanism 30. Moreover, the centering mechanism 10 and the cleaning mechanism 50 are arranged at intervals along the second direction, and the centering mechanism 10 and the cleaning mechanism 50 are respectively located on both sides of the line connecting the first conveying mechanism 60 and the carrying mechanism 30, and the second conveying mechanism 20 is arranged between the centering mechanism 10 and the cleaning mechanism 50.

[0073] The second direction intersects with the first direction. Preferably, the second direction is perpendicular to the first direction. Of course, the second direction may also be slightly inclined relative to the first direction. At this time, the centering mechanism 10 and the cleaning mechanism 50 are slightly staggered on both sides of the line connecting the first transport mechanism 60 and the supporting mechanism 30. Moreover, in other embodiments, the positions of the centering mechanism 10 and the cleaning mechanism 50 may also be swapped.

[0074] In this embodiment, the wafer thinning device further includes a base 70, and the first transport mechanism 60, the centering mechanism 10, the cleaning mechanism 50, the second transport mechanism 20, the bearing mechanism 30 and the grinding mechanism 40 are all arranged on the base 70. The base 70 can be a rectangular plate structure, or a frame structure formed by splicing a plate and a rod.

[0075] It should be noted that the first direction in this embodiment refers to Figure 8 The left-right direction shown is the length direction of the base 70; and the second direction is perpendicular to the first direction, which refers to Figure 8 The vertical direction shown is the width direction of the base 70; the third direction is perpendicular to the first direction and the second direction, which refers to Figure 8 Direction shown normal to the drawing plane.

[0076] The wafer A to be thinned is placed at the loading position, and the wafer A after thinning is placed at the unloading position. Specifically in this embodiment, the base 70 is provided with a first receiving platform 71 and a second receiving platform 72 at one end away from the supporting mechanism 30 along the first direction, and the loading position and the unloading position are respectively provided on the first receiving platform 71 and the second receiving platform 72.

[0077] The first receiving platform 71 and the second receiving platform 72 can be equipped with material boxes (not shown) to respectively receive the wafers A to be thinned and the thinned wafers A. Since the loading and unloading of the wafers A are performed at different positions, the loading and unloading processes can be effectively prevented from interfering with each other.

[0078] In addition, in another embodiment, both the first receiving platform 71 and the second receiving platform 72 are provided with a loading position and a unloading position. That is, the loading position and the unloading position are actually located at the same position. In this way, the first receiving platform 71 and the second receiving platform 72 can be used to place the wafer A to be thinned or the wafer A that has been thinned.

[0079] The first transport mechanism 60 may adopt a multi-axis robot, and the structures and functions of the centering mechanism 10 and the cleaning mechanism 50 may adopt structures similar to those in the prior art, so they will not be described in detail here.

[0080] Since the second transport mechanism 20 is located between the centering mechanism 10 and the cleaning mechanism 50, the wafer A can be loaded onto the carrier mechanism 30 and the wafer A on the carrier mechanism 30 can be unloaded onto the cleaning mechanism 50. Moreover, the wafer A to be thinned is loaded onto the carrier mechanism 30 from one side, and the wafer A after thinning is unloaded from the carrier mechanism 30 to the cleaning mechanism 50 from the other side. Therefore, the loading and unloading processes of the wafer A do not interfere with each other, and the number of transport mechanisms can be reduced, thereby simplifying the structure of the above-mentioned wafer thinning device.

[0081] Please also read Fig. 9 In this embodiment, the second transport mechanism 20 includes a slide 22, a rotating arm 23 and the above-mentioned robot suction cup 21. Among them, one end of the rotating arm 23 is installed on the slide 22 and can slide along the first direction driven by the slide 22, and the robot suction cup 21 is installed on the other end of the rotating arm 23. The end of the rotating arm 23 installed on the slide 22 can rotate around an axis parallel to the third direction. Furthermore, the X-axis of the above-mentioned plane coordinate system is parallel to the first direction, that is, the slide 22 can drive the robot suction cup 21 to move along the X-axis of the plane coordinate system through the rotating arm 23.

[0082] The robot suction cup 21 can suck the wafer A. When the rotating arm 23 moves, the robot suction cup 21 can move accordingly, thereby driving the sucked wafer A to be transferred. Moreover, the rotating arm 23 can both slide and rotate, thereby increasing the moving range of the robot suction cup 21, so that the robot suction cup 21 can smoothly drive the sucked wafer A to be transferred between the centering suction cup 11 of the centering mechanism 10, the cleaning mechanism 50 and the carrying mechanism 30.

[0083] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the robot suction cup 21 is configured as a vacuum suction cup, which absorbs the wafer A by negative pressure adsorption, and is not likely to cause damage to the wafer A.

[0084] In this embodiment, the supporting mechanism 30 includes a turret 31 and at least two carriers 32 installed on the turret 31. Each carrier 32 can absorb the wafer A. The turret 31 can drive at least two carriers 32 to rotate so that each carrier 32 passes through the thinning position and the material loading and unloading position in turn.

[0085] The turret 31 may be disc-shaped and may be rotatably mounted on the base 70 via a rotating shaft and driven to rotate by a motor. The carrier 32 is generally also disc-shaped, matching the shape of the wafer A. The wafer A loaded onto the carrier mechanism 30 is carried and adsorbed on the carrier 32, and thinning is completed on the carrier 32. The carrying surface of each carrier 32 may form a negative pressure, thereby adsorbing the wafer A.

[0086] Furthermore, the grinding mechanism 40 can thin the wafer A on the carrier 32 at the thinning position, and the manipulator suction cup 21 of the second transport mechanism 20 can transport the wafer A on the carrier 32 at the pick-up and discharge position to the cleaning mechanism 50, and transport the wafer A on the centering suction cup 11 to the carrier 32 at the pick-up and discharge position. After the wafer A is loaded onto the carrying mechanism 30 at the pick-up and discharge position, the turret 31 drives the carrier 32 carrying the wafer A to move to the thinning position; after the thinning is completed, the turret 31 drives the carrier 32 carrying the wafer to move to the pick-up and discharge position to facilitate unloading. It can be seen that the loading and unloading operations and the thinning operations for wafer A are performed at different positions, so interference between the various steps of the wafer thinning device can be further avoided.

[0087] The technical features of the above-described embodiments may be arbitrarily combined. To make the description concise, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above-described embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0088] The above-described embodiments only express several implementation methods of the present application, and the descriptions thereof are relatively specific and detailed, but they cannot be construed as limiting the scope of the patent application. It should be pointed out that, for a person of ordinary skill in the art, several variations and improvements can be made without departing from the concept of the present application, and these all belong to the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the patent application shall be subject to the attached claims.

Claims

1. A wafer centering method, characterized in that: The following steps are involved: a. The visual inspection component establishes a plane coordinate system, and the manipulator suction cup (21) and the centering suction cup (11) are both moved to their initial positions, so that the coordinates of the center of the manipulator suction cup (21) and the center of the centering suction cup (11) are both (x1, 0); b. loading the wafer onto the centering chuck (11); c. Control the centering suction cup (11) to rotate around its own center until the center of the wafer reaches the X-axis of the plane coordinate system; at this time, the coordinates of the center of the wafer are (x2, 0); d. Control the robot suction cup (21) to move from the initial position along the X-axis of the plane coordinate system until the center coordinate of the robot suction cup (21) is (x2, 0).

2. The wafer centering method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Step a specifically includes: The robot suction cup (21) moves to the top of the centering suction cup (11), and the visual detection component establishes the plane coordinate system with the center of the robot suction cup (21) as the origin; The centering suction cup (11) is controlled to move until the centering suction cup (11) overlaps with the robot suction cup (21) in the vertical direction, so that the center coordinate of the centering suction cup (11) is (0, 0); wherein the radius of the robot suction cup (21) is equal to that of the centering suction cup (11).

3. The wafer centering method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Step a specifically includes: The robot suction cup (21) moves to the top of the centering suction cup (11) so that the robot suction cup (21) and the centering suction cup (11) overlap in the vertical direction; wherein the radius of the robot suction cup (21) and the radius of the centering suction cup (11) are equal; The visual detection component establishes the plane coordinate system with the center of the robot suction cup (21) as the origin.

4. The wafer centering method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The method further includes the following steps between step b and step c: using the visual inspection component to inspect the center coordinates of the wafer on the centering suction cup (11); Step c specifically includes: Calculating the angle θ between the line (L) between the center of the wafer and the center of the center of the centering suction cup (11) and the X-axis of the plane coordinate system according to the center coordinates of the wafer and the center coordinates of the centering suction cup (11); According to the calculated included angle θ, the centering suction cup (11) is controlled to rotate until a line (L) between the center of the wafer and the center of the centering suction cup (11) coincides with the X-axis of the plane coordinate system; The coordinates of the center of the wafer detected by the visual inspection component are (x2, 0).

5. A wafer thinning device, characterized in that: The invention comprises a first transport mechanism (60), a centering mechanism (10), a cleaning mechanism (50), a second transport mechanism (20), a visual inspection component, a carrying mechanism (30) and a grinding mechanism (40); the centering mechanism (10), the second transport mechanism (20) and the visual inspection component use the wafer centering method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 to center and position the wafer; the centering mechanism (10) has the centering suction cup (11) for carrying the wafer, and the second transport mechanism (20) has the robot suction cup (21) for sucking the wafer; The first transport mechanism (60) is capable of transporting the wafer located at the upper material position to the centering suction cup (11) of the centering mechanism (10); the robot suction cup (21) of the second transport mechanism (20) is capable of transporting the wafer located on the centering suction cup (11) of the centering mechanism (10) to the supporting mechanism (30), and is capable of transporting the wafer located on the supporting mechanism (30) to the cleaning mechanism (50); the grinding mechanism (40) is used to thin the wafer on the supporting mechanism (30); and the first transport mechanism (60) is also capable of transporting the wafer located on the cleaning mechanism (50) to the lower material position.

6. The wafer thinning device according to claim 5, characterized in that: The visual inspection component is arranged above the centering suction cup (11), and the robot suction cup (21) can move between the visual inspection component and the centering suction cup (11) and suck the wafer on the centering suction cup (11); The visual detection component can detect the positions of the centering suction cup (11), the wafer and the robot suction cup (21) below.

7. The wafer thinning device according to claim 5, characterized in that: The first conveying mechanism (60) and the supporting mechanism (30) are arranged at intervals along a first direction, the centering mechanism (10) and the cleaning mechanism (50) are arranged between the first conveying mechanism (60) and the supporting mechanism (30) and are arranged at intervals along a second direction, and the centering mechanism (10) and the cleaning mechanism (50) are respectively located on both sides of a line connecting the first conveying mechanism (60) and the supporting mechanism (30), and the second conveying mechanism (20) is arranged between the centering mechanism (10) and the cleaning mechanism (50).

8. The wafer thinning device according to claim 7, characterized in that: The second transport mechanism (20) comprises a slide (22), a rotating arm (23) and the robot suction cup (21), one end of the rotating arm (23) is mounted on the slide (22) and can slide along the first direction driven by the slide (22), the robot suction cup (21) is mounted on the other end of the rotating arm (23), and one end of the rotating arm (23) is mounted on the slide (22) and can rotate around an axis parallel to a third direction, and the third direction is perpendicular to the first direction and the second direction.

9. The wafer thinning device according to claim 8, characterized in that: An X-axis of the plane coordinate system is parallel to the first direction.

10. The wafer thinning device according to claim 5, characterized in that: The visual detection component is a CCD.

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