IC晶圆高效稳定传输原理与实现

Principle and Realization of IC Wafer Transfer with High Efficient and Stabilization

在超大规模集成电路(IC)制造过程中,晶圆需要在数百道工艺之间频繁传输,晶圆传输能力对整个IC产业的发展至关重要。晶圆传输机器人是IC制造领域的关键设备之一,承担着晶圆定位与快速、平稳搬运任务。随着IC制造向着大尺寸(直径≥300mm)晶圆与小线宽(≤32nm)方向发展,晶圆生产线工序更集中,加工速度更快,工作环境更洁净,这对晶圆传输机器人性能提出了更高要求。为了实现大尺寸超薄晶圆的高效稳定传输,我们从晶圆传输机器人精确平稳轨迹跟踪控制、面向晶圆传输的微阵列传输面设计以及接触面微力与粘滑检测触觉传感器设计等3个方面开展了研究。针对现有晶圆传输机器人样机中各个运动关节不同步和末端手的振动问题,我们提出把交叉耦合控制技术和输入整形控制同时应用到平面关节型晶圆传输机器人中,达到减小轨迹跟踪时的轮廓误差和消除柔性传动环节引起的末端执行器振动的目的,实现了机器人精确平稳轨迹跟踪控制。针对目前凸点支承式末端执行器传输晶圆时摩擦系数较小、传输效率低下的不足,我们提出了一种基于微米级垂直微阵列结构的新型晶圆传输面设计方法,实验表明该方法有效提高了晶圆传输加速度,可显著提高晶圆传输效率。针对大尺寸晶圆高效可靠传输过程中接触信息检测需求,我们提出了一种新型的晶圆传输接触面微力与粘滑传感器系统方案,即利用压敏导电墨(PSCI)的压阻效应实现三维力测量以及利用电磁感应原理实现粘滑检测,并通过实验验证了该方法的可行性。本文依次从问题提出、国内外研究现状分析、研究特色与实验验证等方面分别对上述3个部分的研究内容进行了分析与阐述。最后,结合上述分析,本文对现阶段的研究成果进行了总结,并提出了下一步的研究设想。

In the manufacturing process of very-large-scale in-tegrated circuit （ VLSI ） , wafers are required to be transferred among hundreds of technological processes , therefore, the performance of wafer transfer is crucial to the development of the entire IC industry .As one of the essential equipment for IC manufacturing , the wafer transfer robot undertakes the important task of wafer po-sitioning and fast and steadily transferring . With IC＆amp;nbsp;manufacturing developing toward the large-size （ diame-ter ≥300mm） wafer and small feature size （line-width≤32nm） direction, the wafer production line becomes more compact, with higher processing speed in more cleaner environment , which requires the higher per-formance of wafer transfer robot .In order to realize effi-ciently and steadily wafer transfer with high-efficiency and stabilization , we have conducted three aspects of research, that is, the accurate and stable trajectory tracking control of wafer transfer robot , the development of micro-fiber array for wafer transfer and the develop-ment of tactile sensor for force measurement and stick-slip detection .According to the problem with movable joints of the wafer transfer robot prototype being out of sync and its end effecter existing vibration , the combi-nation of cross-coupled synchronized control framework and open-loop input shape regulation technology has been successfully adopted to reduce the contour of the robot system and suppress the vibration of the end-effec-tor .Considering the shortage of low frictional coefficient between current convex point supporting materials and the wafer , a novel wafer transfer surface with micro-fi-ber array has been developed to apparently improve the acceleration of wafer transfer and transferring efficiency . To meet the requirement of detecting the contact proper-ties during wafer transfer , a new tactile sensor , based on the piezo-resisitive effect of piezo-sensitive conduc-tive ink （ PSCI ） for measuring 3-D micro-force and the electromagnetic induction of the opposite motion be-tween an permanent magnet and chip inductors for de-tecting stick-slip, has been proposed and its feasibility has been verified by experiments .In this paper , we de-scribed above three parts in details one by one , from the raise of problem, the state-of-art, to our distinct solu-tion and validation .Finally, our research results are summarized based on above analysis and the further re-search is also presented .