Semiconductor wafer transfer mechanical arm
By equipping the robotic arm with a tray and air blowing and vibration positioning units, the problems of position deviation and scratches in the wafer transfer process of traditional robotic arms are solved, and efficient and accurate wafer transfer is achieved.
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Applications(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2025-12-25
- Publication Date
- 2026-04-07
AI Technical Summary
Traditional robotic arms cause wafer placement deviations and even scratches on wafer surfaces during semiconductor wafer transfer due to inertia, repeatability errors, transmission gaps, thermal deformation, and residual vibrations after stopping, and also result in slow production cycles.
A robotic arm equipped with a tray is used. The tray is equipped with an air blowing unit and a vibration positioning unit. The air blowing unit provides negative pressure adsorption and air blowing action, while the vibration positioning unit performs positioning fine-tuning to ensure the stability and precise placement of the wafer during the transfer process.
It enables precise and smooth wafer transfer, avoids stress and sliding friction, improves production efficiency and placement accuracy, and reduces the swing and error of the robotic arm.
Smart Images
Figure CN121816006A_ABST
Abstract
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The application belongs to the technical field of semiconductor wafers, and particularly relates to a semiconductor wafer transfer mechanical arm. BACKGROUND
[0002] There are at least hundreds of processes for semiconductor wafers in the whole chip manufacturing pipeline, and each process can be completed on several or even dozens of same machines. In traditional equipment, a mechanical arm is used to realize semiconductor wafer transfer storage. However, in the transfer process, in order to improve wafer placement accuracy, the traditional mechanical arm needs to be slowed down for fine adjustment, or repeated "swing-correction" movements are performed near the target point, which seriously slows down the production rhythm, and the large inertia of the mechanical arm also limits its fine movement accuracy. In addition, the repeated positioning error of the mechanical arm, transmission gap, thermal deformation and residual vibration after stopping are also directly transmitted to the end, resulting in deviation of the wafer placement position, and even causing scratches on the wafer surface. SUMMARY
[0003] To achieve the above object, the application provides the following technical scheme: a semiconductor wafer transfer mechanical arm, comprising: a lifting base, which has a lifting cylinder vertically installed inside, and a reference seat installed on the lifting cylinder; a machine, which is bolted on the reference seat; a mechanical arm, one end of which is rotatably connected to the machine, and the other end of which is provided with a turnover seat; a supporting plate, which is horizontally installed on one side of the turnover seat through a connecting shaft frame, and is provided with a blowing unit inside; a vibration positioning unit, a guide hole being provided through the supporting plate, and the vibration positioning unit being slidingly arranged in the guide hole, the vibration positioning unit being symmetrically arranged in four, and the four vibration positioning units being arranged at four corner positions of the supporting plate.
[0004] Further, as a preferred, a rotating shaft is rotatably arranged in the turnover seat, and the connecting shaft frame is fixed to the rotating shaft; two limiting clamping pieces are symmetrically fixed to the upper end face of the supporting plate away from the connecting shaft frame, and a clamping groove is left between each limiting clamping piece and the supporting plate, so that the wafer edge is clamped into the clamping groove.
[0005] Further, as a preferred, the blowing unit comprises: a main cavity, which is symmetrically provided on both sides of the inside of the supporting plate; a secondary cavity, which is symmetrically arranged in four, and each secondary cavity is located on one side of the four vibration positioning units away from the main cavity; a blowing hole, which is distributed on the outer wall of each main cavity and secondary cavity; The air guide cavity is arranged in the supporting plate, and the air guide cavity is connected with two air channels, and the other ends of the air channels are respectively connected with the main cavity.
[0006] Further, as preferred, the air guide cavity is connected with an air guide pipe, and the air guide pipe is externally connected with an air extraction pump.
[0007] Further, as preferred, each of the auxiliary cavities is externally connected with an internal flow channel, the supporting plate is embedded with an air ring sleeve, a plurality of soft air pipes are arranged in the air ring sleeve, and one end of each of the soft air pipes is connected with the internal flow channel; An annular air groove is arranged in the air ring sleeve, the other end of each of the soft air pipes is in sealing communication with the annular air groove, and an air inlet joint is connected to the outside of the air ring sleeve.
[0008] Further, as preferred, a soft shaft is rotationally connected to the center of the air ring sleeve, the outer wall of the soft shaft is in extrusion contact with each of the soft air pipes, so that the soft air pipes are closed in normal state, a notch is arranged on the outer circumferential surface of the soft shaft, and when the notch is rotated to be opposite to any soft air pipe, the soft air pipe is switched to an open state.
[0009] Further, as preferred, a supporting plate is arranged in parallel below the supporting plate, the vibration positioning unit is mounted on the supporting plate, a slide rod is vertically fixed in the connecting shaft frame, one end of the supporting plate is in sliding connection with the slide rod, and a threaded rod is rotationally connected in the connecting shaft frame, and the threaded rod is in threaded sliding connection with the supporting plate.
[0010] Further, as preferred, the vibration positioning unit comprises: A fixed shaft is rotationally connected to the supporting plate in vertical state; A slant shaft is slidingly connected to the upper end of the fixed shaft, and a rubber guide head is coaxially arranged on the upper end of the slant shaft; A first vibrator is arranged between the fixed shaft and the slant shaft; A second vibrator is arranged between the slant shaft and the rubber guide head.
[0011] Further, as preferred, a gear is coaxially arranged on the outside of the fixed shaft, a rack is slidingly connected in the supporting plate, the rack is in engagement with the gear, a telescopic air cylinder is fixed in the supporting plate, and one end of the telescopic air cylinder is connected with the rack.
[0012] Further, as preferred, the upper end of the slant shaft is an inclined end, so that the axis of the rubber guide head deviates from the axis of the fixed shaft.
[0013] Compared with the prior art, the present application has the following advantages: The present application is equipped with a supporting plate on the mechanical arm, which can take out the wafer from the wafer storage system, wherein the supporting plate is provided with a air blowing unit, which can provide negative pressure adsorption to the wafer during the wafer transfer process, thereby ensuring the wafer transfer stability, and can also blow air from below the wafer to realize the rapid separation of the wafer and the tray; and the shift vibration positioning unit can position and fine-tune the wafer according to the relative position of the wafer on the supporting plate, thereby directly compensating for the end error caused by the transmission gap, thermal deformation or load change of the mechanical arm, and the initial position deviation when the wafer is taken out from the carrier, ensuring that the wafer is accurately placed in the center of the target position, and the whole process is accurate and smooth, without stress and sliding friction to the wafer. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0014] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the present application; Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the supporting plate in the present application; Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the air blowing unit in the present application; Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the cross-sectional structure of the air ring sleeve in the present application; Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of the internal structure of the air ring sleeve in the present application; Figure 6 It is a schematic diagram of the connection structure of the supporting plate and the shaft connecting frame in the present application; Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the shift vibration positioning unit in the present application Figure 1 ; Figure 8 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the shift vibration positioning unit in the present application Figure 2 ; In the figure: 1, lifting base; 11, machine table; 12, mechanical arm; 13, turnover seat; 14, shaft connecting frame; 2, supporting plate; 21, limiting clamping piece; 22, clamping groove; 3, air blowing unit; 31, main cavity; 32, auxiliary cavity; 33, air blowing hole; 34, air guide cavity; 35, air duct; 36, inner flow channel; 4, shift vibration positioning unit; 41, fixed shaft; 42, inclined shaft; 43, rubber guide head; 44, first vibrator; 45, second vibrator; 46, gear; 47, rack; 48, telescopic cylinder; 5, air ring sleeve; 51, flexible air pipe; 52, annular air groove; 53, air inlet connector; 54, flexible shaft; 6, supporting plate; 61, sliding rod; 62, threaded rod. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0015] Please refer to Figures 1-8 , in the embodiment of the present application, a semiconductor wafer transfer mechanical arm comprises: Lifting base 1, which is internally provided with a lifting cylinder vertically installed, and a reference seat installed on the lifting cylinder; Machine table 11, which is bolted on the reference seat; Mechanical arm 12, one end of which is rotatably connected to the machine table 11, and the other end of which is provided with a turnover seat 13; Support plate 2, which is horizontally installed on one side of the turnover seat 13 through a connecting shaft support 14, and can hold the wafer from below, the surface of the support plate 2 should be kept clean and flat, and the support plate 2 is provided with a blowing unit 3, which can provide negative pressure adsorption to the wafer on the support plate 2 from below, so as to lock the wafer on the support plate 2 when high-speed motion, emergency stop or turning, prevent wafer drift, and ensure absolute safety in high-speed transfer; at the same time, the blowing unit 3 can also blow air to the wafer from below to form an air cushion, so that the wafer can be in a soft way with the target position (such as chuck, carrier) during placement, realize soft landing of wafer, avoid bounce and position deviation, and improve the placement accuracy.
[0016] Shifting and vibrating positioning unit 4, a guide hole is provided through the support plate 2, and the shifting and vibrating positioning unit 4 is slidingly arranged in the guide hole, the shifting and vibrating positioning unit 4 is symmetrically arranged in four, and the four shifting and vibrating positioning units 4 are respectively arranged at the four corner positions of the support plate 2.
[0017] In this embodiment, a rotating shaft is rotatably arranged in the turnover seat 13, and the connecting shaft support 14 is fixed with the rotating shaft; in this way, the support plate 2 can be turned over by 180° with the turnover seat 13, so as to realize wafer turnover and placement, which saves the independent turnover module, simplifies the material conveying system, reduces the number of wafer queuing and multiple handovers, and improves the compactness and overall efficiency of the production line layout; the upper end surface of the support plate 2 is symmetrically fixed with two limiting clamping pieces 21 away from the side of the connecting shaft support 14, and a clamping groove 22 is left between each limiting clamping piece 21 and the support plate 2, so that the edge of the wafer can be clamped into the clamping groove 22, so that the edge of the wafer can be limited by the two limiting clamping pieces 21 during wafer transfer, and the mechanical arm 12 provides a physical hard stop for the edge of the wafer during high-speed motion, completely eliminating the risk of wafer sliding out of the support plate 2; at the same time, in the subsequent wafer placement, the blowing unit 3 ensures that the wafer is always within the controllable range of the support plate 2; The limiting clamping piece 21 will not be damaged in use and does not need to be maintained, which can provide irreplaceable safety protection at very low cost without interfering with the work of the blowing unit 3 and the shifting and vibrating positioning unit 4.
[0018] As a preferred embodiment, the blowing unit 3 comprises: Main cavity 31, which is symmetrically arranged on both sides of the inside of the support plate 2; The four auxiliary cavities 32 are symmetrically arranged and located on the side of the four displacement positioning units 4 away from the main cavity 31. The air blowing holes 33 are distributed on the outer wall of each main cavity 31 and auxiliary cavity 32. The air guide cavity 34 is arranged in the supporting plate 2 and connected with two air channels 35, and the other end of each air channel 35 is connected with the main cavity 31.
[0019] In this embodiment, the air guide cavity 34 is connected with an air guide pipe, and the air guide pipe is connected with an air pump (not shown in the figure), so that the main cavity 31 can realize negative pressure adsorption of the wafer through the air pump.
[0020] In this embodiment, the outer side of each auxiliary cavity 32 is connected with an inner flow channel 36, the supporting plate 2 is embedded and fixed with an air ring sleeve 5, a plurality of soft air pipes 51 are arranged in the air ring sleeve 5, and one end of each soft air pipe 51 is connected with each inner flow channel 36. The air ring sleeve 5 is provided with an annular air groove 52, the other end of each soft air pipe 51 is in sealing communication with the annular air groove 52, and the air ring sleeve 5 is connected with an air inlet joint 53, which is mainly used for connecting an external air blowing pipe, so that the airflow in the air blowing pipe can enter the annular air groove 52 through the air inlet joint 53, and then enter each soft air pipe 51 from the annular air groove 52, and finally flow into each auxiliary cavity 32 through the inner flow channel 36.
[0021] In this embodiment, the soft shaft 54 is rotationally connected in the air ring sleeve 5, the outer wall of the soft shaft 54 is in extrusion contact with each soft air pipe 51, so that the soft air pipe 51 is closed in normal state, the outer circumferential surface of the soft shaft 54 is provided with a notch, when the soft shaft 54 rotates to be opposite to any soft air pipe 51, the soft air pipe 51 is switched to the open state, that is, when the notch is aligned with one of the soft air pipes 51, the soft air pipe 51 is completely opened, the outer wall of the soft air pipe 51 is partially convex in the notch, and the remaining soft air pipes 51 are extruded by the outer circumferential wall of the soft shaft 54 and are in closed state, that is, when the air inlet joint 53 transports air flow, the air flow enters the annular air groove 52 and only flows through the corresponding soft air pipe 51 at the notch position, so that only one of the four sub-cavities 32 normally performs air blowing work in the same time period, and the remaining three are in closed state, in this way, on the one hand, the soft shaft 54 can be continuously rotated (the soft shaft 54 can be driven to rotate by an external driving mechanism, the external driving mechanism can be a stepping motor, a servo motor or a common DC / AC motor with an angle encoder and a reducer, so that the soft shaft 54 can be rotated step by step under the instruction of a controller such as a PLC or a microcontroller by using a driving mechanism such as a stepping motor, each step is a predetermined angle, for example, an equal angle determined by the number of soft air pipes 51, the notch of the soft shaft 54 can be aligned with the opening of the next soft air pipe 51, and the driving mechanism can also continuously rotate), the four sub-cavities 32 are opened and worked in turn, so that the four sub-cavities 32 can blow air from the four corners of the wafer, so that when the wafer negative pressure adsorption stops, the adhesion between the wafer and the support plate 2 can be effectively overcome, so that the wafer is more easily separated from the support plate 2, thereby avoiding the adhesion between the wafer and the support plate 2 affecting the wafer placement in subsequent wafer placement.
[0022] As a preferred embodiment, a carrier plate 6 is arranged in parallel below the support plate 2, the moving and vibrating positioning unit 4 is installed on the carrier plate 6, a sliding rod 61 is vertically fixed in the connecting shaft support 14, one end of the carrier plate 6 is in sliding connection with the sliding rod 61, and a threaded rod 62 is rotationally connected in the connecting shaft support 14, the threaded rod 62 is in threaded sliding connection with the carrier plate 6, so as to adjust the approach or separation of the carrier plate 6 and the support plate 2, when the carrier plate 6 approaches the support plate 2, the four moving and vibrating positioning units 4 can slightly lift the wafer from the surface of the support plate 2; When the moving and vibrating positioning unit 4 does not work, the carrier plate 6 is separated from the support plate 2, and the moving and vibrating positioning unit 4 is in the guide hole.
[0023] In this embodiment, the moving and vibrating positioning unit 4 comprises: A fixed shaft 41 is rotationally connected vertically on the carrier plate 6; An inclined shaft 42 is in sliding connection with the upper end of the fixed shaft 41, and a rubber guide head 43 is coaxially arranged at the upper end of the inclined shaft 42; A first vibrator 44 is arranged between the fixed shaft 41 and the inclined shaft 42; The second vibrator 45 is arranged between the inclined shaft 42 and the rubber guide head 43, and can realize axial vibration of the inclined shaft 42 when the first vibrator 44 works, and can realize axial vibration of the rubber guide head 43 when the second vibrator 45 works.
[0024] In the embodiment, the fixed shaft 41 is coaxially sleeved with a gear 46, the carrier plate 6 is slidably connected with a rack 47, the rack 47 is engaged with the gear 46, the carrier plate 6 is fixed with a telescopic air cylinder 48, and one end of the telescopic air cylinder 48 is connected with the rack 47.
[0025] In the embodiment, the upper end of the inclined shaft 42 is an inclined end, so that the axis of the rubber guide head 43 deviates from the axis of the fixed shaft 41, and the telescopic air cylinder 48 realizes deflection of the fixed shaft 41 mainly through engagement transmission of the rack 47 and the gear 46 when the telescopic air cylinder 48 works, so that the fixed shaft 41 drives the inclined shaft 42 and the rubber guide head 43 to synchronously rotate (there is no relative rotation among the three), so that the first vibrator 44 can realize slight axial vibration of the inclined shaft 42 when the first vibrator 44 works, and the rubber guide head 43 can realize slight axial vibration along the upper end of the inclined shaft 42 when the second vibrator 45 works. Specifically, the telescopic air cylinder 48 in each vibration shifting positioning unit 4 can realize deflection of the fixed shaft 41 through engagement of the rack 47 and the gear 46 when the telescopic air cylinder 48 is adjusted, the inclined shaft 42 can synchronously move with the fixed shaft 41, so as to control the upper end of the inclined shaft 42 to incline towards the direction away from the center of the wafer, and a visual sensor can be arranged on the carrier plate 2. Thus, when the visual sensor detects that the wafer needs to be positionally corrected due to deviation, the second vibrator 45 in the vibration shifting positioning unit 4 in the correction direction works to make the rubber guide head 43 intermittently contact the wafer in axial vibration, so as to shift the wafer to the correction direction, and the first vibrator 44 in the remaining vibration shifting positioning units 4 works, which mainly provides the wafer with slight axial vibration to avoid scratching the surface of the wafer, and also ensures that the wafer intermittently contacts the rubber guide head 43 in the correction direction. Specifically, when the wafer needs to be taken out from the wafer storage system in wafer production, the lifting air cylinder on the lifting base 1 controls the carrier plate 2 to reach below the specified wafer in lifting adjustment, and the carrier plate 2 is horizontally inserted from below the edge of the wafer, so that the wafer is taken out from the wafer storage system by the carrier plate 2, the edge of the wafer is naturally clamped into the clamping groove 22 between the two limiting clamping pieces 21 at the front end of the carrier plate 2 to realize preliminary horizontal limiting, and the four vibration shifting positioning units 4 are all in the guide hole. The air blowing unit 3 starts the negative pressure adsorption mode, the air suction pump sucks air in the main cavity 31 through the air guide pipe, the air guide cavity 34 and the air duct 35, and the negative pressure acts on the back of the wafer through the air blowing holes 33 on the wall of the main cavity 31 to adsorb the wafer on the surface of the carrier plate 2 which is highly flat; the wafer will not drift or slide under the action of inertia in high-speed transfer process. When reaching the target position, the suction pump in the air blowing unit 3 stops working, at this time the air inlet joint 53 sends in high pressure gas, the flexible shaft 54 realizes the four auxiliary channels 32 opening work in turn under the rotation effect, the four auxiliary channels 32 blow the wafer from the four corners of the wafer, effectively overcome the adhesion between the wafer and the supporting plate 2, so that the wafer is more easy to separate from the supporting plate 2; When the visual sensor detects that the wafer needs to be position corrected due to the existence of offset, the carrier plate 6 is close to the supporting plate 2 under the adjustment of the threaded rod 62, so that the rubber guide head 43 of the four vibration positioning units 4 is slightly lifted from the guide hole of the supporting plate 2, and the wafer is slightly lifted from the supporting plate 2; the second vibrator 45 in the correction direction works to realize that the rubber guide head 43 can be intermittently contacted with the wafer in the axial vibration, so as to use the friction force to move the wafer to the correction direction, and the first vibrator 44 in the remaining vibration positioning units 4 works to provide the wafer with the axial micro-vibration separation, so that the correction accuracy is high, and the wafer is accurately transferred to the position micro-adjustment.
[0026] The above is only the preferred specific embodiment of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited to this, any person skilled in the art can make equivalent replacement or change according to the technical scheme and the inventive concept of the present application within the technical range disclosed by the present application, which should be covered in the protection scope of the present application.
Claims
1. A semiconductor wafer transfer robotic arm, characterized in that, It includes: The lifting base (1) has a vertically installed lifting cylinder inside, and a reference seat is installed on the lifting cylinder; The machine base (11) is bolted to the reference base; A robotic arm (12) is rotatably connected to a machine base (11) at one end, and a flipping seat (13) is installed at the other end of the robotic arm (12). The tray (2) is horizontally mounted on one side of the flipping seat (13) via a coupling frame (14), and an air blowing unit (3) is provided inside the tray (2). The vibration positioning unit (4) has a through hole on the support plate (2). The vibration positioning unit (4) is slidably disposed in the through hole. There are four vibration positioning units (4) symmetrically arranged. The four vibration positioning units (4) are respectively disposed at the four corners of the support plate (2).
2. The semiconductor wafer transfer robotic arm according to claim 1, characterized in that: The flip seat (13) is rotatably provided with a rotating shaft, and the connecting frame (14) is fixed to the rotating shaft; two limiting clips (21) are symmetrically fixed on the side of the upper end face of the tray (2) away from the connecting frame (14), and each limiting clip (21) and the tray (2) have a slot (22) so that the wafer edge can be limited and locked into the slot (22).
3. The semiconductor wafer transfer robotic arm according to claim 1, characterized in that, The air blowing unit (3) includes: The main cavity (31) is symmetrically opened on both sides inside the tray (2); There are four symmetrically arranged secondary cavities (32), each of which is located on the side away from the main cavity (31) of the four vibration positioning units (4); Air inlet (33) is distributed on the outer wall of each main cavity (31) and auxiliary cavity (32); An air guide cavity (34) is set inside the support plate (2). The air guide cavity (34) is connected to two air channels (35), and the other end of each air channel (35) is connected to the main cavity (31).
4. The semiconductor wafer transfer robotic arm according to claim 3, characterized in that: The air guide chamber (34) is connected to an air guide pipe, and an air pump is connected to the outside of the air guide pipe.
5. A semiconductor wafer transfer robotic arm according to claim 3, characterized in that: Each of the sub-cavities (32) is connected to an inner flow channel (36). An air ring sleeve (5) is embedded and fixed inside the support plate (2). Multiple soft air tubes (51) are provided inside the air ring sleeve (5). One end of each soft air tube (51) is connected to each inner flow channel (36). The gas ring sleeve (5) has an annular gas groove (52) inside, and the other end of each of the soft air tubes (51) is sealed and connected to the annular gas groove (52). An air inlet connector (53) is connected to the outside of the gas ring sleeve (5).
6. The semiconductor wafer transfer robotic arm according to claim 5, characterized in that: The inner center of the air ring sleeve (5) is rotatably connected to a flexible shaft (54). The outer wall of the flexible shaft (54) is pressed and contacted with each of the flexible air tubes (51), so that the flexible air tubes (51) are closed under normal conditions. The outer circumferential surface of the flexible shaft (54) has a notch. When the notch rotates with the flexible shaft (54) to be opposite to any flexible air tube (51), the flexible air tube (51) switches to the conducting state.
7. The semiconductor wafer transfer robotic arm according to claim 1, characterized in that: A carrier plate (6) is arranged parallel to the bottom of the support plate (2). The vibration positioning unit (4) is installed on the carrier plate (6). A sliding rod (61) is vertically fixed inside the coupling frame (14). One end of the carrier plate (6) is slidably connected to the sliding rod (61). A threaded rod (62) is rotatably connected inside the coupling frame (14). The threaded rod (62) is threadedly slidably connected to the carrier plate (6).
8. A semiconductor wafer transfer robotic arm according to claim 7, characterized in that, The vibration positioning unit (4) includes: A fixed shaft (41) is vertically rotatably connected to a carrier plate (6); An inclined shaft (42) is slidably connected to the upper end of a fixed shaft (41), and a rubber guide head (43) is coaxially provided at the upper end of the inclined shaft (42). The first vibrator (44) is disposed between the fixed shaft (41) and the inclined shaft (42); The second vibrator (45) is located between the inclined shaft (42) and the rubber guide (43).
9. A semiconductor wafer transfer robotic arm according to claim 8, characterized in that: A gear (46) is coaxially sleeved on the outside of the fixed shaft (41), and a rack (47) is slidably connected inside the carrier plate (6). The rack (47) meshes with the gear (46). A telescopic cylinder (48) is fixed inside the carrier plate (6), and one end of the telescopic cylinder (48) is connected to the rack (47).
10. A semiconductor wafer transfer robotic arm according to claim 8, characterized in that: The upper end of the inclined shaft (42) is inclined, which causes the axis of the rubber guide (43) to deviate from the axis of the fixed shaft (41).