Wafer conveying system in a clean room

• US 5,443,346 A
• Filed: 07/02/1993
• Issued: 08/22/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Muratec Automation Co., Ltd. (Muratec)
• Original Assignee: Shinko Electric Industries Company Limited (Fujitsu Limited)
• Inventors: Shinya, Tutomu, Karita, Mitsuji, Hoshiko, Takahide, Tanaka, Tsuyoshi, Murata, Masanao, Kawano, Hitoshi, Yamashita, Teppei
• Primary Examiner(s): Huppert, Michael S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Keenan, James W.
• Application Number:
  US08/085,109
• Time in Patent Office: 781 Days
• Field of Search: 414/217, 414/222, 414/416, 414/935, 414/937, 414/940, 414/331, 414/417
• US Class Current: 414/222.13
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67727 using a general scheme of a conveying path within a factory
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67736 Loading to or unloading from a conveyor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 414/137 including means for charging or discharging wafer cassette
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 414/14 Wafer cassette transporting

Abstract

Disclosed is a wafer conveying system for a clean room which is high in wafer conveying efficiency, and makes it possible to achieve a variety of processing operations with high efficiency. The wafer conveying system in a clean room comprises: an interface equipment cooperating with a conveying system to transfer wafers therebetween which is adapted to convey articles between manufacturing lines; a conveying path extended from the interface equipment; on intra-bay wafer conveying equipment which is moved along the conveying path; and a single or plural wafer processing equipments arranged along the conveying path, thus forming one processing line, the conveying system operating to convey cassettes containing wafers, the interface equipment operating to take a specified number of wafers out of a single or plural cassettes which are delivered to the interface equipment, and place the wafers in an auxiliary cassette provided for the one processing line only, and the intra-bay wafer conveying equipment operating to receive the auxiliary cassette, and move to a specified one of the wafer processing equipments, and to give the wafers to the specified wafer processing equipment and receive wafers therefrom.

Claims

1. A wafer conveying system in a clean room comprising:

interface equipment for transferring wafers between intra-bay wafer conveying equipment and inter-bay wafer conveying equipment, said inter-bay wafer conveying equipment including a main cassette for transferring said wafers between a plurality of wafer processing bays arranged along a first conveying path, and said intra-bay conveying equipment conveying said wafers from the main cassette to wafer processing equipment arranged along a second conveying path to form a processing line extending from the interface equipment to different processing equipment within a bay,

wherein said interface equipment operates to receive a specified number of wafers from said main cassette conveyed by said inter-bay wafer conveying equipment, and to transfer said specified number of wafers to at least one of a plurality of auxiliary cassettes provided for said processing line, said intra-bay wafer conveying equipment including means for receiving one of said auxiliary cassettes and including a robot which moves with said one of said auxiliary cassettes and said wafers to said wafer processing equipment, and individual removes wafers from said auxiliary cassette, transfers said wafers to said wafer processing equipment, receives said wafers therefrom, and places them back in the auxiliary cassette.

2. A wafer conveying system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said intra-bay wafer conveying equipment includes a conveying carriage, and wherein said robot is an arm handling robot mounted on said conveying carriage, and said wafer processing equipment has a gate for loading and unloading said wafer therefrom.

3. A wafer conveying system as claimed in claim 2 wherein said gate contains a wafer carry-in gate and a wafer carry-out gate.

4. A wafer conveying system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising means for moving said intra-bay wafer conveying equipment, and wherein said means for moving includes a linear motor and a track.

5. A wafer conveying system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said intra-bay wafer conveying equipment includes a conveying carriage provided with drop prevention means for preventing said wafers from dropping from said conveying carriage.

6. A wafer conveying system in a clean room comprising:

interface equipment for transferring wafers between intra-bay wafer conveying equipment and inter-bay wafer conveying equipment, said inter-bay wafer conveying equipment including a main cassette for transferring said wafers between a plurality of wafer processing bays arranged along a first conveying path, and said intra-bay conveying equipment conveying said wafers from the main cassette to wafer processing equipment arranged along a second conveying path to form a processing line extending from the interface equipment;

wherein said interface equipment operates to transfer individual ones of said wafers and an auxiliary cassette containing said wafers between said interface equipment and said intra-bay wafer conveying equipment, said intra-bay wafer conveying equipment including a robot which moves with said auxiliary cassette to said wafer processing equipment, and gives said individual ones of said wafers to said wafer processing equipment and receives said individual ones of said wafers therefrom.

7. A wafer conveying system as claimed in claim 6, wherein said intra-bay wafer conveying equipment includes:

a conveying carriage; and

wherein said robot is an arm handling robot mounted on said conveying carriage, and said wafer processing equipment has a gate for loading and unloading said wafer therefrom.

8. A wafer conveying system as claimed in claim 7, wherein said gate contains a wafer carry-in gate and a wafer carry-out gate.

9. A wafer conveying system as claimed in claim 8, wherein said wafer processing equipment includes:

an arm handling unit for transferring said wafers between said wafer processing equipment and said intra-bay conveying equipment through said gate.

10. A wafer conveying system as claimed in claim 6, further comprising means for moving said intra-bay wafer conveying equipment, said moving means including a track selected from the group consisting of a linear motor track and a roller track.

11. A wafer conveying system as claimed in claim 6, wherein said intra-bay wafer conveying equipment includes a conveying carriage provided with drop prevention means for preventing said wafers from dropping from said conveying carriage.