CN116130393A - Wafer box transfer mechanism, method, system and storage warehouse - Google Patents

Wafer box transfer mechanism, method, system and storage warehouse Download PDF

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Publication number
CN116130393A
CN116130393A CN202211609469.6A CN202211609469A CN116130393A CN 116130393 A CN116130393 A CN 116130393A CN 202211609469 A CN202211609469 A CN 202211609469A CN 116130393 A CN116130393 A CN 116130393A
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Prior art keywords
manipulator
wafer cassette
wafer
transfer mechanism
joint manipulator
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Granted
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CN202211609469.6A
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CN116130393B (en
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谭璜
祝强强
缪峰
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Mifei Technology Shanghai Co ltd
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Mifei Technology Shanghai Co ltd
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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/677—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
    • H01L21/67703—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations between different workstations
    • H01L21/67706—Mechanical details, e.g. roller, belt
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/677—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
    • H01L21/67703—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations between different workstations
    • H01L21/67727—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations between different workstations using a general scheme of a conveying path within a factory
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/677—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
    • H01L21/67703—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations between different workstations
    • H01L21/6773—Conveying cassettes, containers or carriers
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/677—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
    • H01L21/67703—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations between different workstations
    • H01L21/67733—Overhead conveying
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/677—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
    • H01L21/67703—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations between different workstations
    • H01L21/67736—Loading to or unloading from a conveyor
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/677—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
    • H01L21/67763—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations the wafers being stored in a carrier, involving loading and unloading
    • H01L21/67766—Mechanical parts of transfer devices
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/677—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
    • H01L21/67763—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations the wafers being stored in a carrier, involving loading and unloading
    • H01L21/67778—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations the wafers being stored in a carrier, involving loading and unloading involving loading and unloading of wafers
    • H01L21/67781—Batch transfer of wafers

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Condensed Matter Physics & Semiconductors (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
  • Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
  • Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
  • Power Engineering (AREA)
  • Robotics (AREA)
  • Container, Conveyance, Adherence, Positioning, Of Wafer (AREA)
  • Warehouses Or Storage Devices (AREA)

Abstract

The application provides a wafer box transfer mechanism, a method, a system and a storage library, which are applied to the technical field of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, wherein the wafer box transfer mechanism comprises: the ground rail provides driving force for the movement of the stand column and the multi-joint manipulator in the length direction of the roadway, the ground rail provides guidance for the movement of the stand column and the multi-joint manipulator in the length direction of the roadway, the stand column provides power for the movement of the multi-joint manipulator in the height direction of the roadway, and the multi-joint manipulator is arranged to carry out wafer box picking and placing operation on pavilions positioned on two sides of the roadway in a storage warehouse. The guide and the motion power are provided for the motion of the manipulator through the top rail, the ground position and the upright post, the whole structure is simple, the size is small, the transfer mechanism is flexibly deployed in the storage warehouse, in addition, the manipulator can be used for rapidly, stably and reliably fixing the picking and placing operation and the motion, and the whole efficiency is improved.

Description

Wafer box transfer mechanism, method, system and storage warehouse
Technical Field
The application relates to the technical field of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, in particular to a wafer box transfer mechanism, a wafer box transfer method, a wafer box transfer system and a wafer box storage warehouse.
Background
Automated material handling systems (AMHS: automatic Material Handling System) have been used in semiconductor manufacturing facilities, and a Stocker (STK) under the AMHS is typically used to temporarily store and transport wafers (or wafer cassettes Foup loaded with wafers) for various processing steps in conjunction with overhead travelling cranes (Overhead Hoist Transport, OHT), surface robots, and the like.
The storage warehouse usually adopts a three-dimensional warehouse form, for example, the height of the storage warehouse is more than 5 meters, the length of the storage warehouse is more than 10 meters, the wafer box taking and placing operation can not be carried out in the storage warehouse by manpower, an intelligent machine is needed to assist, and a stacker for carrying out the automatic wafer box (Foup) taking and placing operation in the storage warehouse is generated.
However, the stacker in the existing storage warehouse still adopts the traditional movement structure, has a complex overall structure, large volume, low picking and placing speed and the like, and has difficulty in keeping up with the production and manufacturing requirements of semiconductors.
Therefore, a new transfer device that can be applied to the inside of the cassette storage is required.
Disclosure of Invention
In view of the above, the present application provides a wafer cassette transfer mechanism, a method, a system, and a stocker, which can automatically perform a large-stroke, multi-directional, high-speed wafer transfer operation inside the stocker.
The application provides the following technical scheme:
the application provides a wafer box moves and carries mechanism includes:
the overhead rail is arranged at the upper part of a roadway in the storage warehouse;
the ground rail is arranged at the bottom of a tunnel in the storage warehouse;
one end of the upright post is in sliding connection with the top rail, and the other end of the upright post is in sliding connection with the ground rail;
the multi-joint manipulator is connected to one side surface of the upright post in a sliding manner;
the ground rail provides driving force for the motion of the stand column and the multi-joint manipulator in the length direction of the roadway, the ground rail and the overhead rail provide guidance for the motion of the stand column and the multi-joint manipulator in the length direction of the roadway, the stand column provides power for the motion of the multi-joint manipulator in the height direction of the roadway, and the multi-joint manipulator rotates within 360 degrees to be used for carrying out wafer box picking and placing operation on pavilions positioned on two sides of the roadway in a storage warehouse.
The application also provides a wafer box transferring method, which is applied to the wafer box transferring mechanism of any embodiment in the specification, and the wafer box transferring method comprises the following steps:
acquiring a current position and a target position, wherein the current position is the current position of the multi-joint manipulator, and the target position is the position of the multi-joint manipulator when carrying out wafer box picking and placing operation on the pavilion position of the storage library;
Moving the multi-joint manipulator from the current position to the target position;
and controlling the multi-joint manipulator to take and place the wafer box on the pavilion position of the storage warehouse corresponding to the target position.
The application also provides a wafer cassette transfer system, comprising:
the position acquisition unit is used for acquiring a current position and a target position, wherein the current position is the current position of the multi-joint manipulator, and the target position is the position when the multi-joint manipulator performs wafer box picking and placing operation on the pavilion position of the storage library;
a motion control unit that moves the multi-joint manipulator from the current position to the target position;
and the fetching and placing control unit is used for fetching and placing the wafer box by the multi-joint manipulator on the pavilion position of the storage library corresponding to the target position.
The application also provides a wafer box storage library, wherein the wafer box storage library is internally provided with the wafer box transfer mechanism according to any one embodiment of the specification, or the wafer box storage library is internally provided with the wafer box transfer system according to any one embodiment of the specification.
Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects that above-mentioned at least one technical scheme that this application adopted can reach include at least:
The whole layout design is carried out on the transfer mechanism by fully utilizing the space such as a roadway, a ground rail, an upright post and the like in the storage warehouse, the driving force of movement is provided through the ground rail and the upright post respectively, the movement freedom degree of the transfer mechanism is limited by jointly providing guidance through the ground rail and the ground rail, the structure of the transfer mechanism is effectively simplified, the transfer mechanism is very simple, the miniaturized and generalized transfer mechanism is facilitated to be realized, the transfer mechanism can be flexibly deployed in the storage warehouse, in addition, the manipulator can be respectively controlled by the cooperative work of 360-degree rotation of the ground rail, the upright post and the multi-joint per se, the wafer can be transferred in a large stroke, multiple directions and at a high speed, the whole taking and placing speed of the transfer mechanism is faster, the efficiency is higher, and the operation is safer and more reliable. Therefore, after the novel transfer mechanism is applied to the storage warehouse, the novel transfer mechanism can meet the new requirement of new energy of the semiconductor factory on the storage warehouse, is favorable for rapidly deploying the storage warehouse in the semiconductor factory, and improves the production efficiency of the semiconductor.
Drawings
In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings that are needed in the embodiments will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and that other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.
FIG. 1 is a schematic axial side view of a wafer cassette transfer mechanism of the present application;
FIG. 2 is a schematic axial side view of a wafer cassette transfer mechanism of the present application;
FIG. 3 is a schematic top view of a wafer cassette transfer mechanism of the present application;
FIG. 4 is a schematic front view of a column of a wafer cassette transfer mechanism of the present application;
FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a partially enlarged view of the sliding connection between the vertical column and the ceiling rail in a wafer cassette transfer mechanism according to the present application;
FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a robot in a wafer cassette transfer mechanism of the present application;
FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a robot tray in a wafer cassette transfer mechanism of the present application;
FIG. 8 is a schematic view of a robot mounting structure in a wafer cassette transfer mechanism of the present application;
FIG. 9 is a flow chart of a wafer cassette transfer method of the present application;
FIG. 10 is a flow chart of a robot picking up a wafer cassette from a storage library in a wafer cassette transfer method of the present application;
FIG. 11 is a flow chart of a robot storing cassettes into a storage library in a cassette transfer method according to the present application;
fig. 12 is a schematic structural view of a wafer cassette transfer system according to the present application.
Detailed Description
Embodiments of the present application are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Other advantages and effects of the present application will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the present disclosure, when the following description of the embodiments is taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It will be apparent that the described embodiments are only some, but not all, of the embodiments of the present application. The present application may be embodied or carried out in other specific embodiments, and the details of the present application may be modified or changed from various points of view and applications without departing from the spirit of the present application. It should be noted that the following embodiments and features in the embodiments may be combined with each other without conflict. All other embodiments, which can be made by one of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments herein without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the present application.
It is noted that various aspects of the embodiments are described below within the scope of the following claims. It should be apparent that the aspects described herein may be embodied in a wide variety of forms and that any specific structure and/or function described herein is merely illustrative. Based on the present application, one skilled in the art will appreciate that one aspect described herein may be implemented independently of any other aspect, and that two or more of these aspects may be combined in various ways. For example, apparatus may be implemented and/or methods practiced using any number and aspects set forth herein. In addition, such apparatus may be implemented and/or such methods practiced using other structure and/or functionality in addition to one or more of the aspects set forth herein.
It should also be noted that the illustrations provided in the following embodiments merely illustrate the basic concepts of the application by way of illustration, and only the components related to the application are shown in the drawings and are not drawn according to the number, shape and size of the components in actual implementation, and the form, number and proportion of the components in actual implementation may be arbitrarily changed, and the layout of the components may be more complicated.
In addition, in the following description, specific details are provided in order to provide a thorough understanding of the examples. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details.
In a semiconductor factory, in order to satisfy the requirement that wafers are transferred in each processing step, a storage for temporarily storing the wafers (or wafer cassettes filled with the wafers) is generally provided in the factory, and a pick-and-place device such as a stacker is provided inside the storage.
In recent years, semiconductor devices have been widely used in various products, and the overall market demand for semiconductor devices is very high, so when the semiconductor factories are faced with new energy demands, new demands are also made on memory banks, such as the demands of small memory banks, flexible deployment, large memory capacity, high turnover efficiency, high reliable operation, and the like. However, the taking and placing device in the existing storage warehouse still adopts the traditional stacker structural form, so that the structure is complex, the large space is occupied, the movement in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction is inflexible, the taking and placing speed is low, and the like, and these factors become the development bottleneck of the storage warehouse, so that the storage warehouse is difficult to keep up with the new energy demand of the semiconductor factory.
In the deep analysis and investigation of the storage warehouse and the stacker thereof, the following findings are found: in the existing storage warehouse, a motion base is arranged on a ground rail of a traditional stacker, and a horizontal motion mechanism, a vertical motion mechanism and a driving mechanism of the motion mechanism are arranged on the motion base.
Based on this, the embodiments of the present disclosure provide a transfer mechanism applicable to a semiconductor memory library: as shown in fig. 1, the transfer mechanism disposed in the storage warehouse comprises a manipulator 1, an upright post 2, a top rail 3 and a bottom rail 4, wherein the manipulator 1 can be used for temporarily storing wafer cassettes full of wafers, carrying the wafer cassettes full of wafers in the storage warehouse, moving along the upright post 2 along the direction formed by the top rail 3 and the bottom rail 4 in the horizontal direction, and moving up and down along the upright post 2 in the vertical direction; the upright post 2 can slide on the fixed top rail and the fixed ground rail and is connected with the manipulator 1; the overhead rail 3 may be a high-altitude rail, and is typically disposed on a ceiling or other high-altitude location; the ground rail 4 may be a rail provided on the ground or a bottom support surface, limits the freedom of movement of the upright 2 and the robot 1 together with the overhead rail 3, and provides a guide rail to allow the upright 2 and the robot 1 to travel on a predetermined path.
The transfer mechanism is arranged in a storage warehouse, the whole transfer mechanism can be used as a roadway type transfer mechanism, a manipulator 1 can store or take out a wafer box fully loaded with wafers on the storage warehouse, the position in the horizontal direction (such as the horizontal direction is set to be the X direction) is changed by means of the support and horizontal guide provided by a top rail 3 and a bottom rail 4 in the process of transporting the wafer box, the displacement in the vertical direction (such as the vertical direction is set to be the Y direction) is changed by means of the support and vertical guide provided by a stand column 2, and the rotation at a certain angle is carried out along the rotation direction (such as the rotation direction is set to be the R direction) of the vertical axis by means of the rotation mechanism provided by the manipulator 1, so that the whole transfer mechanism can carry out the wafer box access operation on the storage warehouse in the roadway by carrying out coordinate and displacement change in the X/Y/R direction.
The ground rail is combined with the overhead rail to provide guidance and power for the upright post and the manipulator in the sliding motion, so that the upright post and the manipulator are greatly simplified in structural aspect, the miniaturized and generalized transfer mechanism is very beneficial to being realized, the flexible deployment of the transfer mechanism in the storage library is also beneficial to being realized, and the improvement of the new requirements of the storage library on the new energy conditions of the semiconductor factories such as the overall operation speed, the operation reliability and the like is beneficial.
The following describes the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in fig. 1, the wafer cassette transfer mechanism provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure includes a multi-joint manipulator 1, a column 2, a top rail 3, and a bottom rail 4. Wherein, the top rail 3 is disposed in the upper space of the tunnel in the storage warehouse, the ground rail 4 is disposed in the bottom space of the tunnel in the storage warehouse, one end of the upright post 2 is slidably connected with the top rail 3, the other end of the upright post 2 is slidably connected with the ground rail 4, and the multi-joint manipulator 1 is slidably connected with one side surface of the upright post 2 (such as the side surface of the upright post 2 along the horizontal movement direction of the tunnel in fig. 1).
In implementation, the ground rail 4 provides driving force for the motion of the upright post 2 and the multi-joint manipulator 1 along the length direction of the roadway, the top rail 3 and the ground rail 4 provide guidance for the motion of the upright post 2 and the multi-joint manipulator 1 along the length direction of the roadway, the upright post 2 provides power for the motion of the multi-joint manipulator 1 along the height direction of the roadway, and the multi-joint manipulator 1 rotates within 360 degrees to be used for carrying out wafer box picking and placing operations on pavilion positions positioned on two sides of the roadway in a storage warehouse.
In implementation, the multi-joint manipulator 1 is set to rotate within 360 degrees, and can be provided with an angle limiting sensor according to actual demands, and rotate according to the rotation angle set by the angle limiting sensor, so as to be used for carrying out wafer box taking and placing operation on pavilions positioned on two sides of a roadway in a storage warehouse.
In practice, the driving mechanism for generating driving power for the ground rail can be arranged on one side or two sides of the ground rail, and the driving mechanism for providing driving force for the mechanical arm by the upright post can be arranged in the upright post. The number of driving mechanisms, the mounting positions, and the like are not limited.
In practice, the upright posts slide stably and rapidly under the guiding and sliding actions provided by the top rail and the bottom rail through the sliding connection between the upright posts and the top rail and the bottom rail. Correspondingly, the manipulator slides stably and rapidly through sliding connection between the manipulator and the ground rail and between the manipulator and the upright post under the guiding and sliding action provided by the manipulator and the ground rail and the upright post.
Through make full use of abundant space such as tunnel, ground rail, stand to provide the driving force of motion through ground rail, stand respectively, and utilize day rail and ground rail to provide the direction jointly and restrict the degree of freedom of moving mechanism, not only simplified the structure of moving mechanism effectively, make move mechanism very simple, be favorable to realizing miniaturized, generalized move mechanism, make move mechanism can carry out nimble deployment in the storage warehouse inside, and the manipulator can be controlled respectively by ground rail, stand and the rotatory collaborative work within 360 degrees of multiartition self, the manipulator can carry out the wafer box to storage warehouse tunnel both sides pavilion and get and put the operation, move mechanism whole getting and put the speed faster, efficiency is higher, the operation is safer, it is reliable. Therefore, the novel transfer mechanism can meet the new demand of new energy of production to the storage warehouse, is favorable for rapidly deploying the storage warehouse in the semiconductor factory, and improves the production efficiency of semiconductors.
In some embodiments, the driving module capable of performing linear motion can be used as a core component of the motion power of the transfer mechanism, which is beneficial to simplifying the linear motion control, reducing the volume of the transfer mechanism, and flexibly deploying, applying, maintaining and the like.
In one example, as shown in fig. 2 to 3, the ground rail 4 is provided with a first linear module 41, at this time, the other end of the upright post 2 is connected to the slide 10 of the first linear module 41, such as a bottom slide or a bottom plate of the upright post and the manipulator, and is mounted on the slide 10 of the first linear module 41, so that the bottom of the 3 upright posts is slidably connected to the ground rail 4, and the multi-joint manipulator 1 is movably connected to the slide 10 of the first linear module 41, so that the multi-joint manipulator 1 and the upright post 2 are synchronously moved along the roadway length direction under the driving of the first linear module 41.
It should be noted that, the linear module may refer to a unit capable of performing a reciprocating linear motion, so that the linear module is also referred to as a linear module, a rectangular robot, a linear sliding table, and the like, and the load is driven to perform a preset motion by each unit inside the module. Because the module self simple structure can simplify the drive structure of load automation motion, be favorable to the drive to be deployed more nimble, the motion positioning accuracy is higher.
The first linear module 41 is arranged in the horizontal direction on the ground rail and is arranged at the bottom of the manipulator and the bottom of the upright post, and the linear module is used for ensuring that the manipulator and the upright post perform simple and easily controlled high-precision linear sliding along the ground rail.
In one example, as shown in fig. 4, a second linear module 21 is disposed on the upright 2, wherein the second linear module 21 is disposed in the upright 2, and the multi-joint manipulator 1 is connected to the slide of the second linear module 21 so that the multi-joint manipulator 1 is slidingly connected to the upright 2.
In some embodiments, auxiliary sliding rails can be used on the ground rail to provide auxiliary guiding and auxiliary sliding functions for the horizontal movement of the upright post and the manipulator, so that the movement is quicker and smoother.
In one example, when the first linear module 41 is disposed on the ground rail 1, the first sliding rail 42 is further disposed on the ground rail 4, where the first linear module 41 and the first sliding rail 42 are disposed in parallel at the bottom of the tunnel inside the storage repository (such as on the ground rail skeleton).
Specifically, the first linear module 41 is connected with the bottom of the manipulator and one side of the bottom of the upright post in the horizontal direction so as to ensure that the manipulator and the upright post slide along the ground rail; the first sliding rail 42 is parallel to the first linear module 41 and is arranged on the ground rail 4, and is connected with one side of the bottom of the manipulator, such as the articulated manipulator 1 is movably connected to the first sliding rail 42, so that the first sliding rail 42 follows the driving of the first linear module 41, the auxiliary manipulator and the upright post linearly slide on the rail, namely under the driving of the first linear module 41, the first sliding rail 42 assists the articulated manipulator 1 and the upright post 2 to synchronously linearly slide along the roadway length direction, the whole sliding is faster and more stable, and the safety and the reliability are higher.
In some embodiments, the sliding block is adopted to match between the module and the sliding load, so that the whole structure is more flexible, and the sliding structure is more stable, safe and reliable.
In one example, as shown in fig. 2 to 3, when the first linear module 41 is provided, the wafer cassette transfer mechanism further includes: the at least two first sliding blocks 19 are arranged on the sliding seat of the first linear module, and can be respectively connected with one side of the bottom of the manipulator and one side of the bottom of the upright post in a group, and the manipulator and the upright post are driven to horizontally move according to the driving of the module.
Specifically, the at least two first sliders 19 are mounted on the slide seat of the first linear module, wherein the other end of the upright post 2 is connected to at least one first slider among the at least two first sliders, the multi-joint manipulator 1 is connected to at least one other first slider among the at least two first sliders, and the multi-joint manipulator is simple in structure, and after the slider is adapted, the connection between the parts is more reliable, the motion stability is buffered, so that the whole transfer mechanism is more stable, safe and reliable, and the maintenance is also more convenient.
In practice, the first slider 19 may be configured as a profiled slider to better connect the upright, the robot, to the first linear module 41. The shape, size, mounting, and the like of the slider are not limited.
In one example, as shown in fig. 2 to 3, when the first slide rail 42 is provided, the wafer cassette transfer mechanism further includes: the multi-joint manipulator is movably connected to the first sliding rail 42 through the at least two second sliding blocks 110.
Specifically, the second slider 110 may be a group of two sliders, which are respectively connected to one side of the bottom of the manipulator, so as to provide a smoother and safer connection structure when the following module drives the auxiliary manipulator and the upright to slide on the track in a straight line.
The structures of the first slider 19 and the second slider 110 may be the schematic structures shown in fig. 8, but the structures should not be construed as limiting the present application.
In one example, as shown in fig. 4, when the second linear module 21 is provided, the wafer cassette transfer mechanism further includes: and a third sliding block 111, wherein the third sliding block 111 is connected to the sliding seat of the second linear module 21, and the multi-joint manipulator 1 is connected to the third sliding block 111.
In practice, the third slider 111 may be located inside the upright and connected to the upright side of the manipulator, so as to drive the manipulator to move in the vertical direction according to the driving mechanism in the upright. The slider sets up in the stand inside back, moves and carries the mechanism and occupy littleer to the tunnel space.
In some embodiments, an associated guide surface may be provided on the headrail, by means of which guide surface a well-guided sliding movement is provided for the upright.
In one example, as shown in fig. 5, guide rails are disposed on two sides below the top rail 3, and the wafer cassette transfer mechanism further includes: the at least two traveling wheels are matched with the guide rail so that one end of the upright post is in sliding connection with the top rail, the sliding freedom degree of the upright post is limited jointly through the contact of the guide surface and the traveling wheels, the straightness during horizontal operation is guaranteed, and good guide effect and sliding effect are provided for the upright post.
In an example, as shown in fig. 5, the overhead rail erected on the overhead rail may include a guide rail with an L-shaped structure, for example, in a cross-sectional structure thereof, two sides of the overhead rail 3 are symmetrically provided with guide surfaces with an L-shaped structure, and the guide surfaces are used in cooperation with pulleys (i.e., running wheels) to control the manipulator and the upper part of the upright post to run along a preset rail.
Specifically, the section of the guide rail is an L-shaped structure, a first traveling wheel of the at least two traveling wheels is vertically placed along the guide rail so that the first traveling wheel 22 is abutted against one face of the L-shaped structure to slide, and a second traveling wheel 23 of the at least two traveling wheels is horizontally placed along the guide rail so that the second traveling wheel is abutted against the other face of the L-shaped structure to slide.
Preferably, one side of the guide rail is provided with 4 traveling wheels, two of which are horizontally placed as the first traveling wheel 22 and the other two are vertically placed as the second traveling wheels 23. Further, the first traveling wheels 22 and the second traveling wheels 23 can be alternately deployed, so that the stability is better.
In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 1 and 6, in the process of moving along the roadway height direction and/or the horizontal direction, based on the 360-degree internal rotation capability of the multi-joint manipulator 1, each joint can shrink, so that the multi-joint manipulator 1 can realize integral shrinkage, and the occupation of a transfer mechanism to the roadway space can be reduced, thereby reducing the occupation of a storage warehouse to the semiconductor factory space, such as the storage warehouse width of 1400cm based on a traditional stacker, and after adopting a novel transfer mechanism, the storage warehouse width can be reduced to 800cm, even 600cm and the like.
It should be noted that the manipulator may be a manipulator arm for performing an access operation on the wafer cassettes on the storage locations on both sides of the storage library, and may have multiple sections of arms, for example, two sections of arms and one section of manipulator carrier tray, where one section of arm has a swinging function and one section of arm has a function of moving back and forth, and the manipulator carrier tray may store the wafer cassettes, store the wafer cassettes in the storage locations, take the wafer cassettes out of the storage locations, and so on.
In one example, as shown in fig. 6 to 8, the multi-joint manipulator 1 includes a first arm 12, a second arm 13, and a third arm 14 that are sequentially and movably connected, where the first arm 12 is configured to swing rotationally in a first horizontal plane with a roadway height direction as an axis, the second arm 13 is configured to move back and forth in a second horizontal plane with the roadway height direction as an axis, and the third arm 14 is configured to move rotationally in a third horizontal plane with the roadway height direction as an axis so as to enable a manipulator tray to perform a cassette picking and placing operation on a pavilion of a storage, and the manipulator tray is disposed on the third arm 14. It should be noted that, the robot carrier tray disposed on the third arm at the end of the robot arm may rotate along with the third arm, and may be used to temporarily store the wafer cassette, and store the wafer cassette into the storage library or take the wafer cassette out of the storage library, where the third arm 14 and the robot carrier tray are shown as an integrated structural design, but should not be construed as limiting.
In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 6, the multi-joint manipulator further includes a base 11, the first arm 12 is connected to the base 11, and a driving mechanism (not shown in the drawing) is disposed inside the base 11 to drive the first arm, the second arm and the third arm to move respectively.
In some embodiments, the driving mechanism of the first arm 12 may be disposed in the base 11, the driving mechanism of the second arm 13 may be disposed in the first arm 12, and the driving mechanism of the third arm 14 may be disposed in the second arm 13, so that not only miniaturization is achieved, but also the driving mechanisms of the joints may be separately disposed, and driving control and adjustment may be more easily performed.
The driving manner of each arm to rotate may be set according to the application requirement, and is not limited herein.
In some embodiments, a detection unit may be disposed on the manipulator to detect when the wafer cassette is taken and placed, thereby improving overall operation efficiency, stability, safety, reliability, and the like.
In one example, as shown in fig. 6, the multi-joint robot 1 further includes a first wafer cassette detection unit 144, where the first wafer cassette detection unit 144 is disposed at the front end of the robot tray to detect whether a wafer cassette is stored in a bay to be accessed in the storage library.
In one example, as shown in fig. 6, the multi-joint robot further includes a second wafer cassette detection unit 145, where the second wafer cassette detection unit 145 is disposed on a first side of a rear end of the robot tray to detect whether a wafer cassette is present on the robot tray.
In one example, as shown in fig. 6, the multi-joint robot further includes a third wafer cassette detection unit 146, where the third wafer cassette detection unit 146 is disposed on the second side of the rear end of the robot tray, so as to detect the position of the pavilion of the repository when the wafer cassette is stored in the pavilion of the repository, and determine whether the robot tray is already located at the first preset position. In implementation, the first preset position may be a position for determining whether the manipulator tray of the manipulator is located directly above the storage library tray, which is not limited herein.
In one example, as shown in fig. 6, the multi-joint robot further includes a fourth cassette detection unit 147, where the fourth cassette detection unit 147 is disposed on the second side of the rear end of the robot tray, so as to detect the shelf position of the storage library when the cassette is taken from the shelf position of the storage library, and determine whether the robot tray is already located at the second preset position. In practice, the second preset position may be, but is not limited to, a determination of whether the robot tray is located directly under the repository tray.
In one example, the third pod detecting unit 146 and the fourth pod detecting unit 147 are disposed up and down, and are applied to detection of whether the robot loader load/unload position reaches a preset position.
In one example, the third wafer cassette detection unit 146 and the fourth wafer cassette detection unit 147 may form a set of sensors, and the state of the manipulator when entering and exiting the pavilion of the repository may be detected by using the combination value detected by the sensing, and the specific combination value and the detection state may be determined according to actual needs, which is not limited herein.
In one example, as shown in fig. 7, the multi-joint robot further includes a fifth wafer cassette detection unit 142, where the fifth wafer cassette detection unit 142 is disposed on the upper surface of the robot carrier to determine whether the wafer cassette on the robot carrier is stable. In implementation, the fifth wafer cassette detecting unit 142 may be a pressing type sensor, for example, two pressing type sensors separately provided on the robot tray, when the wafer cassette is placed on the robot tray, the bottom of the wafer cassette will press the sensor, so that the detection signals of the two sensors can determine whether the wafer cassette is stably placed on the robot tray, and according to the detection signals, the system determines that the wafer cassette is stably placed on the robot tray, for example, when the bottom of the wafer cassette is simultaneously pressed and sends signals to the system, the system determines that the wafer cassette is stably placed on the robot tray, so as to carry the wafer cassette to perform actions, and, for example, when the wafer cassette is not stably placed, the bottom of the wafer cassette may not be consistent with the detection signals output by the two pressing type sensors, at this time, the system may stop moving steadily, or adjust the position of the robot to make the wafer cassette move continuously after being placed steadily.
In one example, as shown in fig. 7, when the fifth wafer cassette detection unit 142 is disposed on the upper surface of the robot tray, a wire groove 143 is disposed on the robot tray, and the wire groove 143 is used for electrical connection of the fifth wafer cassette detection unit. Through setting up the wire casing to utilize the manipulator to carry a dish space, both realized the signal of telecommunication line, can guarantee again that the signal of telecommunication line is safe and reliable.
In the foregoing embodiments, the sensors used in the wafer cassette detection unit may be the same or different; and the sensing detection mode can be a photoelectric sensor or other modes. Therefore, the detection unit is not limited here.
In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 7, the multi-joint robot further includes a positioning pin 141, where the positioning pin 141 is disposed on the robot platen, and is configured to cooperate with a bottom groove of the wafer cassette to perform positioning when the wafer cassette is placed on the robot platen. In implementation, the locating pins 141 can be set up in the manipulator carrier plate upper surface for 3 a set of, and the positional relationship between the locating pins can correspond with wafer box bottom recess to when the wafer box will be placed on the manipulator carrier plate, rely on the locating pin to conveniently carry out the location to the wafer box and guide, can enough accurately realize that the wafer box is placed on the manipulator carrier plate, also can improve wafer box and place efficiency, stationarity, security and reliability.
In some embodiments, a protection mechanism is arranged around the manipulator carrier disk to limit the freedom of movement of the wafer box in movement and provide stability and safety of the wafer box in movement.
In one example, as shown in fig. 6, the multi-joint robot further includes a back protection plate 15, and the back protection plate 15 is vertically disposed at a rear end of the robot carrier to limit and protect the degree of freedom of the wafer cassette placed on the robot carrier to move backward. The structural form, size, shape, etc. of the back protection plate 15 are not limited.
In one example, as shown in fig. 6, the multi-joint manipulator further includes two side protection boards 16, where the two side protection boards 16 are separately disposed on two sides above the manipulator tray to limit and protect the degree of freedom of the wafer cassette placed on the manipulator tray to move leftwards and rightwards. In practice, the two side protection plates 16 may be configured as protection plates that can be telescopically adjusted so as to be telescopically adjusted according to the wafer cassettes with different volumes, so that the protection plates can be as close to the wafer cassettes as possible after the wafer cassettes are placed on the robot carrier, thereby providing a smoother, safe and reliable limit protection for the wafer cassettes in motion, such as when the wafer cassettes full of wafers are placed on the robot carrier, the two side protection plates are configured to limit the freedom of the left-right motion in order to prevent the wafer cassettes from sliding left and right in the motion process.
In one example, as shown in fig. 8, the multi-joint robot further includes a top protection plate 17, where the top protection plate 17 is disposed in a space above the robot carrier to limit and protect degrees of freedom of up and down movement of the wafer cassette placed on the robot carrier from overturning or falling. In practice, the top protection plate 17 may be set to be a protection plate that can be adjusted in a telescopic manner, so that after the wafer cassette is placed on the robot carrier, the protection plate is as close to the top of the wafer cassette as possible, so as to provide a smoother, safe and reliable limit protection for the wafer cassette during movement, for example, when the wafer cassette fully loaded with wafers is placed on the robot carrier for carrying, the wafer cassette is prone to topple or fall due to vibration or abnormal collision during movement, and huge economic loss is caused after falling, so that the top protection plate is required for preventing.
In one example, as shown in fig. 8, the multi-joint manipulator is integrally fixed to the outer ring of the upright through the manipulator housing 18, so that the multi-joint manipulator moves synchronously along with the upright, where the multi-joint manipulator is still slidingly connected with the upright to move in the vertical direction along with the driving power provided by the upright. The housing may be provided with corresponding reinforcing structures, weight-reducing structures, mounting structures, and the like, which are not limited herein.
In one example, as shown in fig. 8, the bottom of the robot housing 18 is slidably connected to the ground rail through a first slider 19 and a second slider 110.
In some embodiments, a related detection unit can be arranged in the motion direction to limit detection on motion, so that motion stability, safety and reliability are improved.
In one example, as shown in fig. 3, the wafer cassette transfer mechanism further includes: the first limit sensing detection units 43 are disposed on the side surfaces of the ground rail 4 to limit and detect the movement of the upright post 2 and/or the multi-joint manipulator 1 along the roadway length direction.
In implementation, 3 first limit sensing detection units 43 may be set as a group, and are respectively disposed at sides of the first linear module 41, where the 3 first limit sensing detection units 43 may be a positive limit position, an origin position, and a negative limit position.
In practice, the detection signal of the detection unit and the operation position can be combined to perform overall control on operation, for example, when the detection signal is far away from the target position, the detection signal can accelerate movement, for example, when the detection signal is near to the target position, the detection signal can decelerate movement, and the like.
In one example, as shown in fig. 4, the wafer cassette transfer mechanism further includes: and the second limit sensing detection units 24 are arranged on the side surfaces of the upright posts 2, so that the movement of the multi-joint manipulator 1 in the roadway height direction is subjected to limit detection.
In implementation, 3 limit sensors can be arranged on the vertical second linear module 21, namely a positive limit position, an origin limit position and a negative limit position, so that the manipulator is ensured to move within a certain safety range.
Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a wafer cassette transfer method and a system based on the wafer cassette transfer mechanism according to any one of the foregoing embodiments.
When receiving the transfer task command, as shown in fig. 9, a wafer cassette transfer method includes:
step 902, acquiring a current position and a target position, wherein the current position is a current position of the multi-joint manipulator, and the target position is a position when the multi-joint manipulator performs a wafer cassette picking and placing operation on a pavilion position of a storage library;
step 904, moving the multi-joint manipulator from the current position to the target position;
And 906, controlling the multi-joint manipulator to take and place the wafer box on the pavilion of the storage warehouse corresponding to the target position.
By determining the current position and the target position, for example, when the manipulator needs to move from the current position coordinates (30, 90) to the target position coordinates (80, 60), and further determining the motion control process of moving from the current position to the target position, the manipulator is quickly, stably, safely and reliably operated to the target position for carrying out the wafer cassette picking and placing operation, for example, the manipulator moves in the horizontal direction 50 and moves in the vertical direction 30 respectively (the minus sign indicates downward motion). In addition, according to the requirements of the pavilion to be accessed, the manipulator is controlled to rotate by a corresponding angle, so that the picking and placing operation actions are realized.
It should be noted that, the motion process may adopt a corresponding path planning manner, so as to further improve the motion efficiency, and the path planning is not limited. The manipulator may be driven by the column to move in the vertical direction while moving in the horizontal direction according to the column, and is not limited herein.
In some embodiments, the cassette picking and placing operations may be performed in conjunction with corresponding detection units of the cassette transfer mechanism.
The following is a schematic description of a process in which a robot stores a cassette in a bay of a storage library and the robot removes the cassette from the bay of the storage library: the storage device comprises a storage library, a manipulator and a storage library, wherein the storage library is provided with a storage library carrying disc, and the manipulator is provided with a manipulator carrying disc;
when a transfer task command is received, as shown in fig. 10, the workflow of the robot to store the wafer cassette into the repository tray is schematically as follows: the first photoelectric sensor on the manipulator detects whether a wafer box exists on the storage library carrier disc, when the wafer box exists on the storage library carrier disc, the wafer box can be collided and even serious property loss is caused, so that the wafer box storing operation of the storage cabinet is only carried out when the wafer box does not exist on the storage library carrier disc of the wafer box to be stored, and if the wafer box exists, an alarm is given; the second photoelectric sensor monitors the state of the wafer box on the manipulator carrying disc in real time, and ensures that the wafer box can be stored in a storage warehouse, so that the wafer box is continuously stored when the wafer box is arranged on the manipulator carrying disc, and otherwise, the alarm is given; the third photoelectric sensor detects whether the manipulator carrying disc is positioned right above the storage library carrying disc, so that the storage operation is continued only when the manipulator carrying disc is positioned right above the storage library carrying disc, and if not, the position of the manipulator carrying disc needs to be readjusted; in the storing process, when the locating pin on the manipulator carrying disc is completely separated from the groove at the bottom of the wafer box and the pressing type sensor on the manipulator carrying disc is completely released, the wafer box is judged to be stored on the storage library position carrying disc, so that the storing operation is completed;
When a transfer task command is received, as shown in fig. 11, the workflow of taking the wafer cassette from a certain bay of the storage is schematically as follows: the mechanical arm is provided with a plurality of sensors, the first photoelectric sensor can detect whether the wafer box to be taken is arranged on the storage library carrier disc, and if the wafer box to be taken is not arranged on the storage library carrier disc, the wafer box cannot be taken and an alarm is given; the second photoelectric sensor can detect the state of the wafer box on the current manipulator carrying disc in real time, if the wafer box to be stored in the storage warehouse on the manipulator carrying disc is abnormal, the wafer box cannot be taken out of the storage warehouse carrying disc, at the moment, an alarm is output, and if the wafer box to be stored in the storage warehouse is not on the manipulator carrying disc, the wafer box can be taken out of the storage warehouse carrying disc normally; the fourth photoelectric sensor can detect whether the current manipulator carrying disc is positioned right below the storage library carrying disc, when the position is correct, the wafer box can be accurately taken out, and when the position is not detected, the current position of the manipulator carrying disc is not suitable for taking the wafer box and needs to be adjusted; when the wafer box is taken down from the mechanical arm carrying disc, the wafer box needs to be placed at a preset position on the mechanical arm carrying disc, and a group of pressing type sensors are used for detecting whether the current wafer box is stably placed on the mechanical arm carrying disc surface or not; in the taking out process, when the locating pin on the manipulator carrying disc is matched with the groove at the bottom of the wafer box in a locating way, and the pressing type sensor on the manipulator carrying disc is completely pressed, the wafer box is judged to be stably placed on the manipulator carrying disc, so that the taking out operation is completed.
It should be noted that, the first to fourth photoelectric sensors may be sensors used by each detection unit when detecting the wafer cassette in the corresponding example, and are not described herein.
As shown in fig. 12, a wafer cassette transfer system includes:
a position obtaining unit 1001, configured to obtain a current position and a target position, where the current position is a position where the multi-joint manipulator is currently located, and the target position is a position where the multi-joint manipulator performs a wafer cassette picking and placing operation on a pavilion position of a storage library;
a motion control unit 1003 that moves the multi-joint manipulator from the current position to the target position;
and a pick-and-place control unit 1005, where the multi-joint manipulator performs a wafer cassette pick-and-place operation on the pavilion of the storage library corresponding to the target position.
It should be noted that, the wafer cassette transfer system may be provided with corresponding functional units according to the control requirement of the wafer cassette transfer mechanism, so that the corresponding functional units perform related actions, which will not be described here.
Based on the same inventive concept, the present disclosure further provides a storage library, in which the wafer cassette transfer mechanism of any one of the foregoing embodiments is disposed, or in which the wafer cassette transfer system of any one of the foregoing embodiments is disposed.
In this specification, each embodiment is described in a progressive manner, and identical and similar parts of each embodiment are all referred to each other, and each embodiment focuses on differences from other embodiments.
The foregoing is merely specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions easily conceivable by those skilled in the art within the technical scope of the present application should be covered in the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (14)

1. The wafer box transfer mechanism is characterized by comprising:
the overhead rail is arranged at the upper part of a roadway in the storage warehouse;
the ground rail is arranged at the bottom of a tunnel in the storage warehouse;
one end of the upright post is in sliding connection with the top rail, and the other end of the upright post is in sliding connection with the ground rail;
the multi-joint manipulator is connected to one side surface of the upright post in a sliding manner;
the ground rail provides driving force for the motion of the stand column and the multi-joint manipulator in the length direction of the roadway, the ground rail and the overhead rail provide guidance for the motion of the stand column and the multi-joint manipulator in the length direction of the roadway, the stand column provides power for the motion of the multi-joint manipulator in the height direction of the roadway, and the multi-joint manipulator rotates within 360 degrees to be used for carrying out wafer box picking and placing operation on pavilions positioned on two sides of the roadway in a storage warehouse.
2. The wafer cassette transfer mechanism of claim 1, wherein a first linear module is arranged on the ground rail, wherein the other end of the upright post is connected to a sliding seat of the first linear module so as to enable the bottom of the upright post to be in sliding connection with the ground rail, and the multi-joint manipulator is movably connected to the sliding seat of the first linear module so as to enable the multi-joint manipulator and the upright post to synchronously move along the length direction of a roadway under the driving of the first linear module;
and/or the upright post is provided with a second linear module, wherein the second linear module is arranged in the upright post, and one side surface of the multi-joint manipulator is connected to the sliding seat of the second linear module so that the multi-joint manipulator is in sliding connection with the upright post.
3. The wafer cassette transfer mechanism of claim 2, wherein when the first linear module is provided, a first sliding rail is further provided on the ground rail, wherein the first linear module and the first sliding rail are arranged at the bottom of the tunnel in the storage warehouse in parallel, and the multi-joint manipulator is movably connected to the first sliding rail to assist the multi-joint manipulator and the upright post to slide along the straight line in the length direction of the tunnel under the driving of the first linear module;
And/or, when the first linear module is provided, the wafer cassette transfer mechanism further comprises: the at least two first sliding blocks are arranged on the sliding seat of the first linear module, the other end of the upright post is connected to at least one first sliding block of the at least two first sliding blocks, and the multi-joint manipulator is connected to at least one other first sliding block of the at least two first sliding blocks;
and/or, when the first slide rail is provided, the wafer cassette transfer mechanism further comprises: the multi-joint manipulator is movably connected to the first sliding rail through the at least two second sliding blocks;
and/or, when the second linear module is provided, the wafer cassette transfer mechanism further comprises: and the third sliding block is connected to the sliding seat of the second linear module, and one side surface of the multi-joint manipulator is connected to the third sliding block.
4. The wafer cassette transfer mechanism of claim 1, wherein guide rails are provided on both sides below the top rail, the wafer cassette transfer mechanism further comprising: and the at least two travelling wheels are matched with the guide rail so as to enable one end of the upright post to be in sliding connection with the sky rail.
5. The wafer cassette transfer mechanism of claim 4, wherein the cross section of the guide rail is an L-shaped structure, a first one of the at least two travel wheels is disposed vertically along the guide rail such that the first travel wheel slides against one face of the L-shaped structure, and a second one of the at least two travel wheels is disposed horizontally along the guide rail such that the second travel wheel slides against the other face of the L-shaped structure.
6. The wafer cassette transfer mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the multi-joint robot includes a first arm, a second arm, and a third arm that are movably connected in this order, wherein the first arm is configured to perform a rotational swing in a first horizontal plane with a roadway height direction as an axis, the second arm is configured to perform a back-and-forth movement in a second horizontal plane with the roadway height direction as an axis, and the third arm is configured to perform a rotational movement in a third horizontal plane with the roadway height direction as an axis to perform a wafer cassette picking and placing operation on a bay of the storage, the robot tray being disposed on the third arm.
7. The wafer cassette transfer mechanism of claim 6, wherein the multi-joint robot further comprises a first wafer cassette detection unit disposed at a front end of the robot tray to detect whether a wafer cassette is stored in a bay to be accessed in the storage library;
And/or the multi-joint manipulator further comprises a second wafer box detection unit, wherein the second wafer box detection unit is arranged at the first side of the rear end of the manipulator carrying disc so as to detect whether a wafer box exists on the manipulator carrying disc;
and/or the multi-joint manipulator further comprises a third wafer cassette detection unit, wherein the third wafer cassette detection unit is arranged at the second side of the rear end of the manipulator carrying disc, so that when the wafer cassette is stored in the pavilion position of the storage library, the pavilion position of the storage library is detected, and whether the manipulator carrying disc is positioned at the first preset position or not is judged;
and/or the multi-joint manipulator further comprises a fourth wafer cassette detection unit, wherein the fourth wafer cassette detection unit is arranged at the second side of the rear end of the manipulator carrying tray, so that when the wafer cassette is taken from the pavilion position of the storage library, the pavilion position of the storage library is detected, and whether the manipulator carrying tray is positioned at a second preset position or not is judged;
and/or, the multi-joint manipulator further comprises a fifth wafer box detection unit, wherein the fifth wafer box detection unit is arranged on the upper surface of the manipulator carrying disc so as to judge whether the wafer box on the manipulator carrying disc is stable or not.
8. The wafer cassette transfer mechanism of claim 7, wherein when the fifth wafer cassette detection unit is disposed on the upper surface of the robot tray, a wire slot is disposed on the robot tray, and the wire slot is used for electrical connection of the fifth wafer cassette detection unit.
9. The wafer cassette transfer mechanism of claim 6, wherein the multi-joint robot further comprises a back protection plate vertically disposed at a rear end of the robot tray to limit and protect degrees of freedom of backward movement of the wafer cassette placed on the robot tray;
and/or the multi-joint manipulator further comprises two side protection plates which are respectively arranged on two sides above the manipulator carrying disc so as to limit and protect the degree of freedom of the left and right movement of the wafer box arranged on the manipulator carrying disc;
and/or, the multi-joint manipulator further comprises a top protection plate, wherein the top protection plate is arranged in the space above the manipulator carrying disc to limit and protect the degree of freedom of up-and-down movement of the wafer box placed on the manipulator carrying disc so as to prevent overturning or falling.
10. The wafer cassette transfer mechanism of claim 6, wherein the multi-joint robot is integrally secured to an outer ring of the column via a robot housing to allow the multi-joint robot to follow the column in a synchronized motion;
And/or the multi-joint manipulator further comprises a base station, wherein the first arm is connected to the base station, and a driving mechanism is arranged in the base station to drive the first arm, the second arm and the third arm to move respectively;
and/or, the multi-joint manipulator further comprises a locating pin, wherein the locating pin is arranged on the manipulator carrying disc and is used for being matched with a groove at the bottom of the wafer box for locating when the wafer box is placed on the manipulator carrying disc.
11. The wafer cassette transfer mechanism of claim 1, further comprising: the first limit sensing detection units are deployed on the side surfaces of the ground rails to limit and detect the movement of the upright posts and/or the multi-joint manipulator in the length direction of the roadway;
and/or, the wafer cassette transfer mechanism further comprises: the second limit sensing detection units are deployed on the side surfaces of the upright posts to limit and detect the movement of the multi-joint manipulator in the height direction of the roadway.
12. A wafer cassette transfer method, characterized in that it is applied to the wafer cassette transfer mechanism according to any one of claims 1 to 11, comprising:
Acquiring a current position and a target position, wherein the current position is the current position of the multi-joint manipulator, and the target position is the position of the multi-joint manipulator when carrying out wafer box picking and placing operation on the pavilion position of the storage library;
moving the multi-joint manipulator from the current position to the target position;
and controlling the multi-joint manipulator to take and place the wafer box on the pavilion position of the storage warehouse corresponding to the target position.
13. A wafer cassette transfer system, comprising:
the device comprises a position acquisition unit, a storage library and a storage library, wherein the current position is the current position of the multi-joint manipulator, and the target position is the position of the multi-joint manipulator when the multi-joint manipulator performs wafer box picking and placing operation on the pavilion position of the storage library;
a motion control unit that moves the multi-joint manipulator from the current position to the target position;
and the fetching and placing control unit is used for fetching and placing the wafer box by the multi-joint manipulator on the pavilion position of the storage library corresponding to the target position.
14. A wafer cassette storage library, wherein the wafer cassette storage library is internally provided with the wafer cassette transfer mechanism according to any one of claims 1 to 11, or the wafer cassette transfer system according to claim 13.
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