Wafer lifting equipment

Abstract

The utility model relates to the technical field of semiconductor equipment, in particular to wafer lifting equipment, which comprises a thin cylinder, a floating connecting piece, a corrugated pipe assembly, a vacuum cavity and a wafer bearing mechanism, and is characterized in that the corrugated pipe assembly comprises a corrugated pipe and a guide piece arranged in the corrugated pipe; the corrugated pipe and the wafer bearing mechanism are located in the vacuum cavity; the thin air cylinder, the floating connecting piece and the guide piece are sequentially connected, one end, close to the floating connecting piece, of the corrugated pipe is connected with the inner wall of the vacuum cavity, and one end, far away from the floating connecting piece, of the corrugated pipe is connected with the wafer bearing mechanism. The floating connecting piece is connected with the thin air cylinder and used for buffering and counteracting lateral stress generated by the thin air cylinder, only vertical thrust is reserved, and therefore the corrugated pipe assembly is driven to ascend and descend stably.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This utility model relates to the field of semiconductor equipment technology, and in particular to a wafer lifting device. Background Technology

[0002] In fields such as semiconductor manufacturing, wafer processing and inspection operations are usually carried out in a vacuum chamber environment, and the wafer lifting mechanism is a key component for achieving precise lifting and positioning of the wafer within the vacuum chamber.

[0003] Currently, existing wafer lifting mechanisms used in vacuum chamber environments mostly employ cylinder structures such as slide cylinders, two-axis cylinders, and three-axis cylinders for lifting drive. These traditional cylinder drive methods have limitations in practical applications. From a space applicability perspective, slide cylinders, two-axis cylinders, and three-axis cylinders are relatively large. However, with the continuous development of semiconductor manufacturing technology, the integration level of equipment is increasing, and the size of equipment is trending towards miniaturization. These large cylinders are difficult to arrange and install rationally in limited spaces, restricting further miniaturization and integration of equipment, and failing to meet the compact design requirements of modern semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

[0004] To address the issue of excessively large conventional cylinders, the industry has begun experimenting with using thin-type cylinders to replace slide cylinders, two-axis cylinders, and three-axis cylinders. Because thin-type cylinders are narrow, have short strokes, and generate significant thrust, they are well-suited for this application, reducing the overall size of the equipment to some extent and fulfilling some of the requirements for equipment miniaturization.

[0005] However, when thin-type cylinders are actually used to drive wafer lifting and lowering, new problems have emerged. Compared with commonly used types such as slide cylinders, two-axis cylinders, and three-axis cylinders, thin-type cylinders lack a guide shaft, resulting in unstable vertical driving force and the potential for lateral stress. During the wafer lifting and lowering process, this lateral stress may cause unnecessary wafer offset or wobbling, affecting the wafer's positioning accuracy. In semiconductor manufacturing, high-precision wafer positioning is a key factor in ensuring chip manufacturing quality and yield. Wafer positioning deviations caused by lateral stress may lead to errors in the circuit patterns on the wafer surface, thereby affecting chip performance and reliability, increasing the defect rate and production costs. Furthermore, the presence of lateral stress causes frequent friction between the thin-type cylinder's extension shaft and the cylinder sidewall, resulting in a shortened cylinder lifespan.

[0006] In summary, existing wafer lifting mechanisms driven by thin cylinders still have shortcomings and cannot fully meet the high precision and high stability requirements of industries such as semiconductor manufacturing for wafer lifting. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a new wafer lifting device or mechanism to overcome the aforementioned deficiencies in the existing technology. Utility Model Content

[0007] In order to solve the above-mentioned technical problems in the prior art, the present invention provides a wafer lifting device.

[0008] The technical solution of this utility model to solve the above-mentioned technical problems is as follows:

[0009] This utility model provides a wafer lifting device, including a thin cylinder, a floating connector, a bellows assembly, a vacuum chamber, and a wafer carrying mechanism. The bellows assembly includes a bellows and a guide member disposed within the bellows. The bellows and the wafer carrying mechanism are located inside the vacuum chamber. The thin cylinder, the floating connector, and the guide member are connected in sequence. The end of the bellows near the floating connector is connected to the inner wall of the vacuum chamber, and the end of the bellows away from the floating connector is connected to the wafer carrying mechanism.

[0010] The wafer lifting device provided by this utility model uses a floating connector to connect with a thin cylinder, which buffers and offsets the lateral stress generated by the thin cylinder, retaining only the vertical thrust, thereby driving the bellows assembly to move up and down smoothly. At the same time, it can effectively avoid the bellows assembly amplifying these lateral stresses several times. In addition, the floating connector can buffer and offset the lateral stress generated by the thin cylinder, thereby reducing the friction between the thin cylinder extension shaft and the cylinder sidewall, and thus increasing the service life of the cylinder.

[0011] Based on the above technical solution, the present invention can also be improved in the following ways:

[0012] Furthermore, the bellows assembly also includes a first flange and a second flange. The end of the bellows near the floating connector is connected to the inner wall of the vacuum chamber through the first flange, and the end of the bellows away from the floating connector is connected to the wafer carrier mechanism through the second flange.

[0013] Furthermore, the first flange is connected to the inner wall of the vacuum chamber by a first bolt, and the second flange is connected to the wafer carrier mechanism by a second bolt.

[0014] The beneficial effects of adopting the above-mentioned further technical solution are as follows: the bellows and the bottom inner wall of the vacuum chamber are connected by the first flange to form a sealed space. The extensibility of the bellows allows it to maintain its overall position during the lifting process (that is, the bellows and the wafer carrier mechanism can maintain up and down movement inside the vacuum chamber), thereby ensuring the airtightness of the vacuum chamber during the lifting process, so as to maintain the sealing of the wafer process environment and avoid affecting the wafer processing.

[0015] Furthermore, the wafer carrier mechanism includes a connecting platform and at least one wafer fixing component. The connecting platform is provided with a groove, and the wafer fixing component is disposed at a location on the connecting platform where no groove is provided.

[0016] The beneficial effect of adopting the above-mentioned further technical solution is that: when placing and picking up wafers, a wafer handling robot needs to take the wafers from the wafer fixture. During this process, the wafer handling robot enters from the gap between the wafer fixture and the connecting platform. By setting a groove, the space of this gap can be increased, thereby avoiding the wafer from being displaced due to interference when the wafer handling robot extends in.

[0017] Furthermore, when the number of wafer fixtures is greater than one, each wafer fixture is uniformly and / or spaced apart on the connection platform.

[0018] Furthermore, the wafer fixing component includes a fixed post and a clamping part connected together. The end of the fixed post away from the clamping part is connected to the connecting platform, and the clamping part is disposed towards the groove.

[0019] The beneficial effects of adopting the above-mentioned further technical solution are: to achieve effective fixing of the wafer, and at the same time, by setting the fixing post, to increase the distance between the wafer and the connecting platform, that is, to increase the working space of the wafer handling robot, thereby avoiding the wafer from being displaced due to interference when the wafer handling robot extends in.

[0020] Furthermore, the floating connector is a floating joint, and the guide is a guide post.

[0021] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following technical effects:

[0022] The wafer lifting device provided by this utility model uses a floating connector to connect with a thin cylinder, which buffers and offsets the lateral stress generated by the thin cylinder, retaining only the vertical thrust, thereby driving the bellows assembly to lift smoothly. In addition, it can also increase the service life of the thin cylinder.

[0023] Using a bellows assembly to drive the wafer carrier mechanism to lift and lower can ensure the airtightness of the vacuum chamber during the lifting process, thereby maintaining the sealing of the wafer process environment and avoiding any impact on the wafer processing.

[0024] The bellows itself has the characteristic of bending in any direction. If the driving force it is subjected to has lateral stress, it will amplify these lateral stresses several times. Using floating connectors to connect the thin cylinder and the bellows assembly can effectively prevent the bellows assembly from amplifying these lateral stresses several times.

[0025] The wafer carrier mechanism is used to lift and fix the wafer effectively, while also avoiding interference with other transmission mechanisms. Attached Figure Description

[0026] Figure 1 This is a front view of the wafer lifting device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0027] Figure 2 The diagram shows the structure of the thin cylinder, floating connector, bellows assembly, and wafer carrier mechanism.

[0028] Figure 3 This diagram shows a structural schematic of the thin cylinder, floating connector, bellows assembly, and wafer carrier mechanism from another angle.

[0029] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of the bellows assembly is shown.

[0030] Figure 5 Show Figure 4 Cross-sectional view along the BB direction.

[0031] Figure label:

[0032] 1. Thin-walled cylinder; 2. Floating connector; 3. Bellows assembly; 31. Bellows; 32. First flange; 33. Second flange; 34. Guide; 4. Connecting platform; 5. Wafer holder; 6. Wafer; 7. Vacuum chamber. Detailed Implementation

[0033] The following specific embodiments illustrate the implementation of this utility model. Those skilled in the art can easily understand other advantages and effects of this utility model from the content disclosed in this specification. Although the description of this utility model will be presented in conjunction with preferred embodiments, this does not mean that the features of this utility model are limited to this embodiment. On the contrary, the purpose of describing the utility model in conjunction with the embodiments is to cover other options or modifications that may be derived based on the claims of this utility model. To provide a deep understanding of this utility model, many specific details will be included in the following description. This utility model may also be implemented without using these details. Furthermore, to avoid confusion or obscuring the focus of this utility model, some specific details will be omitted in the description. It should be noted that, without conflict, the embodiments and features in the embodiments of this utility model can be combined with each other.

[0034] See Figures 1-5A wafer lifting device includes a thin cylinder 1, a floating connector 2, a bellows assembly 3, a vacuum chamber 7, and a wafer carrying mechanism. The bellows assembly 3 includes a bellows 31 and a guide 34 disposed within the bellows 31. The bellows 31 and the wafer carrying mechanism are located inside the vacuum chamber 7. The thin cylinder 1, the floating connector 2, and the guide 34 are connected sequentially. The end of the bellows 31 near the floating connector 2 is connected to the inner wall of the vacuum chamber 7, and the end of the bellows 31 away from the floating connector 2 is connected to the wafer carrying mechanism. The bellows assembly 3 also includes a first flange 32 and a second flange 33. The end of the bellows 31 near the floating connector 2 is connected to the inner wall of the vacuum chamber 7 through the first flange 32, and the end of the bellows 31 away from the floating connector 2 is connected to the wafer carrying mechanism through the second flange 33. 2. The first bolt connects to the inner wall of the vacuum chamber 7, and the second flange 33 connects to the wafer carrier mechanism via the second bolt. The wafer carrier mechanism includes a connecting platform 4 and three wafer fixing components 5. The connecting platform 4 has a groove for placing the wafer 6, and the wafer fixing components 5 are located at the location where the groove is not formed on the connecting platform 4. The three wafer fixing components 5 are evenly and spaced apart on the connecting platform 4. Specifically, the groove is circular, and its inner diameter is adapted to the outer diameter of the wafer 6 to facilitate better placement of the wafer 6. The three wafer fixing components 5 are located on the outer circumference of the groove and are evenly spaced on the outer circumference. The wafer fixing component 5 includes a connected fixing post and a clamping part. The end of the fixing post away from the clamping part is connected to the connecting platform 4, and the clamping part is oriented towards the groove. The floating connector is a floating joint, and the guide is a guide post.

[0035] The specific process of using this wafer lifting device to drive the wafer to lift and lower is as follows: the thin cylinder 1 generates the driving force for lifting and lowering. The thin cylinder 1 is connected to the bellows assembly 3 via the floating connector 2. The floating connector 2 can effectively buffer the non-vertical force generated on the bellows assembly 3 when the thin cylinder 1 is driven. The lower end of the guide 34 of the bellows assembly 3 is fixed on the vacuum chamber 7. During movement, the expansion and contraction of the bellows 31 drives the upper part of the bellows 31 and the connected platform 4 and the wafer 6 to move up and down. Since the part below the bellows 31 of the bellows assembly 3 can be kept fixed, the vacuum chamber 7 can always maintain a vacuum working environment.

[0036] The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present utility model and is not intended to limit the present utility model. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc., made within the spirit and principles of the present utility model should be included within the protection scope of the present utility model.

Claims

1. A wafer lifting device, characterized in that, The device includes a thin cylinder, a floating connector, a bellows assembly, a vacuum chamber, and a wafer carrier mechanism. The bellows assembly includes a bellows and a guide member disposed within the bellows. The bellows and the wafer carrier mechanism are located inside the vacuum chamber. The thin cylinder, the floating connector, and the guide member are connected in sequence. The end of the bellows near the floating connector is connected to the inner wall of the vacuum chamber, and the end of the bellows away from the floating connector is connected to the wafer carrier mechanism.

2. The wafer lifting device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The bellows assembly further includes a first flange and a second flange. The end of the bellows near the floating connector is connected to the inner wall of the vacuum chamber through the first flange, and the end of the bellows away from the floating connector is connected to the wafer carrier mechanism through the second flange.

3. The wafer lifting device according to claim 2, characterized in that, The first flange is connected to the inner wall of the vacuum chamber by a first bolt, and the second flange is connected to the wafer carrier mechanism by a second bolt.

4. The wafer lifting device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The wafer carrier mechanism includes a connecting platform and at least one wafer fixing component. The connecting platform has a groove, and the wafer fixing component is located at a location on the connecting platform where no groove is provided.

5. The wafer lifting device according to claim 4, characterized in that, When the number of wafer fixtures is greater than one, each wafer fixture is evenly and / or spaced apart on the connection platform.

6. The wafer lifting device according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that, The wafer fixing component includes a fixed post and a clamping part connected together. The end of the fixed post away from the clamping part is connected to the connecting platform, and the clamping part is disposed towards the groove.

7. The wafer lifting device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The floating connector is a floating joint, and the guide is a guide post.

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