Patent Grant
8112177
This application is a continuation-in-part of an International Patent Application No. PCT/JP2006/313027, filed on Jun. 29, 2006. This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-206304 filed on Jul. 15, 2005. Each of the entire disclosures of these applications is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for teaching a position of a semiconductor wafer to a semiconductor wafer carrying robot, and more specifically to an external teaching tool for use in the method.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, in the same manner as in a general industrial robot, a teaching operation of a semiconductor carrying robot has been performed by an operator by guiding the robot to a wafer to be carried while visually recognizing the wafer position. In some cases, however, it is difficult, or even impossible, to visually recognize the wafer disposed in a processing equipment or the like from the outside thereof. Under the circumstances, a so-called automatic teaching method/apparatus for teaching a wafer position to a robot has been proposed. In such a method/apparatus, a teaching tool having the same size as that of an actual wafer is disposed in a processing equipment, etc., in place of a wafer and the position of the teaching tool is taught to the robot by detecting the teaching tool with a sensor mounted on the end effector of the robot.
The present inventors previously proposed a method for sensing a teaching tool using a hand having two transmission-type sensors (see, e.g., International Publication WO 03/22534). In a conventional wafer position teaching method, the operation for automatically moving a wafer gripping portion of the robot to the vicinity of the teaching tool to sense the teaching tool with the sensor mounted on the wafer gripping portion is performed based on the taught position (hereinafter referred to as “pre-taught position”) calculated from the device design drawing in advance. Also proposed by the present inventors was a method in which the operation for moving the wafer gripping portion to the vicinity of the teaching tool is performed manually (see, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-123261). In order to enhance the rate of automation to shorten the teaching operation time, it is preferable to move the wafer gripping portion automatically.
In a conventional method, however, if the installation accuracy of a processing equipment with respect to a robot is poor, in the case of equipment having a small inlet opening (hereinafter referred to as “frontage”), there is a problem that a wafer gripping portion may hit against the processing equipment when the wafer gripping portion approaches the teaching tool.
The present invention was made in view of the aforementioned problems and aims to provide a method for precisely and automatically teaching a semiconductor wafer position, even in processing equipment with a narrow frontage, without causing interference between a wafer gripping portion and the equipment, by sensing a teaching position of external teaching tools mounted on a front external wall of the equipment in advance to correct the pre-taught position. Furthermore, the present invention also aims to provide an external teaching tool which does not narrow a robot operation range for a normal wafer carrying operation despite mounting of the external teaching tools and the mounting method thereof.
In order to solve the aforementioned problems, the present invention is configured as follows.
According to a first aspect of the invention, a method for teaching a position of a semiconductor wafer to a robot for carrying the semiconductor wafer between a container and processing equipment or among processing equipments, comprises the steps of:
mounting an internal teaching tool at an internal position of the container or the processing equipment where the semiconductor wafer is to be set;
sensing an external teaching tool mounted on a front external wall of the processing equipment with a sensor provided at a wafer gripping portion of the robot to roughly estimate the position of the internal teaching tool; and
approaching the internal teaching tool with the sensor based on the estimated position of the internal teaching tool and sensing the internal teaching tool to determine the position of the internal teaching tool,
wherein at least two external teaching tools are mounted on the front external wall of the processing equipment in a horizontally offset manner.
According to a second aspect of the invention, a teaching tool system comprises
an external teaching tool for preliminary performing a sensing operation to teach a position of a semiconductor wafer to a robot for carrying the semiconductor wafer between a container and a processing equipment or among processing equipments; and
an internal teaching tool mounted in the processing equipment,
wherein at least two external teaching tools are mounted on a front external wall of the processing equipment in a horizontally offset manner.
According to the invention, sensing two or more external teaching tools arranged in a horizontally offset manner enables detection of the inclination of the processing equipment with respect to the robot, which in turn makes it possible to estimate the position of the semiconductor wafer with a high degree of accuracy.
Furthermore, by sensing the external teaching tools mounted on the front external wall of the equipment to estimate the position of the teaching tool, replacing the pre-taught position calculated from the equipment design drawing stored in a controller with the estimated position, and making the robot approach the teaching tool based on the corrected pre-taught position, the robot can be guided to the teaching tool without causing interference of the wafer gripping portion with the equipment. When the wafer gripping portion approaches the teaching tool, the semiconductor wafer position can be automatically taught, even in an equipment having a narrow frontage.
Hereinafter, a concrete embodiment of a method according to the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.
In
The robot 1 has the following four degrees of freedom: a θ-axis operation (turning operation) as shown in the plan view of
In the θ-axis, the counterclockwise rotational direction is defined as a plus direction (see
In
Two external teaching tools 17 are mounted on the front wall 19 of the processing equipment so that each external teaching tool is located at a position where the center of each external teaching tool 17 is horizontally separated from the front of the center of the teaching tool 16 located in the processing equipment 14 by a distance of Lpin/2. That is, the distance between two external teaching tools 17 is “Lpin.” Like “Zoft” and “Rofst,” since “Lpin” is a known value at the time of designing the mounting location of the external teaching tools 17, it is a value to be previously set to the controller. Since the relative position of the two external teaching tools 17 with respect to the teaching tool 16 can be decided, it becomes possible to estimate the position of the teaching tool 16 when the positions of two external teaching tools 17 are known.
(Step 1)
Two external teaching tools 17 are mounted on the front wall 19 of the processing equipment.
(Step 2)
Since the mounting locations of the external teaching tools 17 are already known from the information such as the equipment design drawing, the wafer gripping portion 5 can be moved to the sensing initiation location of the 1st external teaching tools 17. By skipping Step 3, the routine proceeds to Step 4. The variable number “i” is set to 1.
(Step 3)
The R-axis of the robot is retreated to the position where the transmission-type sensors 6 do not detect the ith external teaching tool 17.
(Step 4)
The direction of the wafer gripping portion 5 is changed by operating the O-axis, and then the wafer gripping portion 5 is advanced by operating the R-axis to slowly approach the wafer gripping portion 5 toward the ith external teaching tool 17. Then, the coordinates of the O-axis and the R-axis where the transmission-type sensor 6 initially detects the external teaching tool 17 (i.e., when the optical axis 10 comes into contact with the circumference of the external teaching tool 17) are recorded.
(Step 5)
After repeating Step 3 and Step 4 by N times, the routine proceeds to Step 6. Otherwise, the routine returns to Step 3. The “N” is any value of 3 or more.
(Step 6)
After repeating Step 3 and Step 4 by N times, the wafer gripping portion 5 approaches the ith external teaching tool 17 from different directions to thereby obtain a plurality of coordinates of the θ-axis and the R-axis where the optical axis 10 comes into contact with the circumference of the ith external teaching tool 17. The least-square method is solved from these values to obtain and record the central position (θsi, Rsi) of the ith external teaching tool 17. The calculation method is detailed in International Publication WO 03/22534.
(Step 7)
The wafer gripping portion 5 is moved so as to be placed perpendicular to the processing equipment 14 by operating the θ-axis. Further, the R-axis is advanced by about 10 mm and the Z-axis is operated so that the transmission-type sensor 6 takes a position where it can assuredly detect the ith external teaching tool 17.
(Step 8)
While slowly moving the wafer gripping portion 5 upward by operating the Z-axis, the value of the Z-axis is recorded as Zsi when the transmission-type sensor 6 becomes undetectable of the upper surface of the ith external teaching tool 17 (i.e., when the optical axis 10 is moved beyond the upper surface of the external teaching tool 17).
(Step 8-1)
If i=1, the routine proceeds to Step 8-2. Otherwise, the routine proceeds to Step 9.
(Step 8-2)
The routine proceeds to Step 3 after setting i=2.
(Step 9)
Using the values recorded at Step 6 and Step 8, “Rofst,” “Zofst, and “Lpin” previously set in the controller, the wafer teaching position in the processing equipment 14 is obtained. The calculation method will be detailed in the next section. The estimated wafer teaching position is recorded separately from the pre-taught position previously held by the controller. The pre-taught position previously set in the controller is defined as “Pos1” (θ1, R1, Z1, T1), and the estimated teaching position 24 obtained by this sensing is defined as “Pos2” (θ2, R2, Z2, T2).
(Step 10)
“Pos1” and “Pos2” are compared on each axis. If one or more axes exceed a threshold value “Thold” (θt, Rt, Zt, Tt) set for each axis, the automatic teaching is stopped and the routine proceeds to Step 12. This is because it indicates that the set position of the processing equipment 14 on the drawing and the actually set position are shifted substantially and therefore it is necessary to confirm the installation state before performing the automatic teaching.
(Step 11)
“Pos1” obtained at Step 9 is overwritten as a pre-taught position in the controller and then a conventional automatic teaching operation is performed. When a conventional automatic teaching is completed normally, the correct teaching position of the processing equipment 14 can be obtained.
(Step 12)
The arm of the robot 1 is folded into the minimal turning posture and the automatic teaching is terminated.
Ravg=(Rx1+Rx2)/2 (1)
Zavg=(Z1+Z2)/2 (2)
Tavg=(Tx1+Tx2)/2 (3)
Δθ=sin−1((Rx1−Rx2)/Lpin) (4)
θ2=90°−Δθ (5)
R2=Rofst+Ravg/cos Δθ (6)
Z2=Zavg+Zofst (7)
T2=Tavg−Ravg*tan Δθ (8)
As discussed above, since the pre-taught position can be corrected by Pos2, the passage of the wafer gripping portion 5 for approaching the teaching tool 16 mounted in the processing equipment 14 can be corrected. Thus, the wafer gripping portion 5 can be prevented from interfering with the equipment when the wafer gripping portion 5 passes through the frontage 20 of the processing equipment.
The present invention can be useful as a method for teaching a position of a semiconductor wafer to a semiconductor wafer carrying robot.
While the present invention may be embodied in many different forms, a number of illustrative embodiments are described herein with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as providing examples of the principles of the invention and such examples are not intended to limit the invention to preferred embodiments described herein and/or illustrated herein.
While illustrative embodiments of the invention have been described herein, the present invention is not limited to the various preferred embodiments described herein, but includes any and all embodiments having equivalent elements, modifications, omissions, combinations (e.g., of aspects across various embodiments), adaptations and/or alterations as would be appreciated by those in the art based on the present disclosure. The limitations in the claims are to be interpreted broadly based on the language employed in the claims and not limited to examples described in the present specification or during the prosecution of the application, which examples are to be construed as non-exclusive. For example, in the present disclosure, the term “preferably” is non-exclusive and means “preferably, but not limited to.” In this disclosure and during the prosecution of this application, means-plus-function or step-plus-function limitations will only be employed where for a specific claim limitation all of the following conditions are present in that limitation: a) “means for” or “step for” is expressly recited; b) a corresponding function is expressly recited; and c) structure, material or acts that support that structure are not recited. In this disclosure and during the prosecution of this application, the terminology “present invention” or “invention” may be used as a reference to one or more aspect within the present disclosure. The language present invention or invention should not be improperly interpreted as an identification of criticality, should not be improperly interpreted as applying across all aspects or embodiments (i.e., it should be understood that the present invention has a number of aspects and embodiments), and should not be improperly interpreted as limiting the scope of the application or claims. In this disclosure and during the prosecution of this application, the terminology “embodiment” can be used to describe any aspect, feature, process or step, any combination thereof, and/or any portion thereof, etc. In some examples, various embodiments may include overlapping features. In this disclosure and during the prosecution of this case, the following abbreviated terminology may be employed: “e.g.” which means “for example;” and “NB” which means “note well.”
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-206304 | Jul 2005 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2006/313027 | 6/29/2006 | WO | 00 | 2/13/2009 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2007/010725 | 1/25/2007 | WO | A |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5243266 | Kasagami et al. | Sep 1993 | A |
| 6019606 | Yamamoto et al. | Feb 2000 | A |
| 6032083 | Oosawa | Feb 2000 | A |
| 6124693 | Okanda et al. | Sep 2000 | A |
| 6256555 | Bacchi et al. | Jul 2001 | B1 |
| 6275748 | Bacchi et al. | Aug 2001 | B1 |
| 6360144 | Bacchi et al. | Mar 2002 | B1 |
| 6366830 | Bacchi et al. | Apr 2002 | B2 |
| 6438460 | Bacchi et al. | Aug 2002 | B1 |
| 6453214 | Bacchi et al. | Sep 2002 | B1 |
| 6618645 | Bacchi et al. | Sep 2003 | B2 |
| 6898487 | Bacchi et al. | May 2005 | B2 |
| 7039498 | Bacchi et al. | May 2006 | B2 |
| 7233842 | Bacchi et al. | Jun 2007 | B2 |
| 7353082 | Pretlove et al. | Apr 2008 | B2 |
| 7391178 | Tanaka et al. | Jun 2008 | B2 |
| 7424341 | Watanabe et al. | Sep 2008 | B2 |
| 20040172164 | Habibi et al. | Sep 2004 | A1 |
| 20040199288 | Watanabe et al. | Oct 2004 | A1 |
| 20040243282 | Watanabe et al. | Dec 2004 | A1 |
| 20040253091 | Iida et al. | Dec 2004 | A1 |
| 20050034288 | Adachi et al. | Feb 2005 | A1 |
| 20050049749 | Watanabe et al. | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| 20050143861 | Watanabe et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20080004750 | Ban et al. | Jan 2008 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 8335622 | Dec 1996 | JP |
| 2001-158507 | Jun 2001 | JP |
| 2005-011853 | Jan 2005 | JP |
| 2005310858 | Nov 2005 | JP |
| 2003022534 | Mar 2003 | WO |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20090198377 A1 | Aug 2009 | US |
