Equipment front end module for transferring wafers and method of transferring wafers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9818633-B2
Application number	US-201414517623-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 17, 2014
Priority date	Oct 17, 2014
Publication date	Nov 14, 2017
Grant date	Nov 14, 2017

Abstract

An EFEM useful for transferring wafers to and from wafer processing modules comprises an enclosure having a controlled environment therein bounded by a front wall, a back wall, first and second side walls, a top wall, and a bottom wall. The first side wall and the second side wall include two or more wafer load ports wherein each wafer load port is adapted to receive a FOUP. The front wall includes wafer ports configured to attach to respective load locks operable to allow a wafer to be transferred to a front wall cluster processing tool. The back wall includes a wafer port adapted to be in operational relationship with a back wall cluster processing tool. A robot in the EFEM enclosure is operable to transfer wafers through the wafer load ports, the first front wall wafer port, the second front wall wafer port, and the back wall wafer port.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. An equipment front end module (EFEM) useful for transferring semiconductor wafers to and from semiconductor wafer processing modules comprising:
an enclosure that is bounded by a front wall, a back wall, first and second side walls between the front wall and the back wall, a top wall, and a bottom wall and that is adapted to provide a single controlled environment throughout the enclosure;
the first side wall or the second side wall including two or more wafer load ports wherein each wafer load port is adapted to receive a front opening unified pod (FOUP) from a wafer transfer system configured to transfer a FOUP to a respective wafer load port;
the front wall including a first front wall wafer port and a second front wall wafer port, the first and second front wall wafer ports configured to attach to respective first and second front wall load locks operable to allow a wafer to be transferred from the controlled environment of the EFEM to a vacuum environment of a front wall cluster processing tool or from the vacuum environment of the front wall cluster processing tool to the controlled environment of the EFEM;
the back wall including a first back wall wafer port, the back wall wafer port adapted to be in operational relationship with a back wall cluster processing tool; and
at least one robot in the enclosure of the EFEM operable to transfer wafers through the wafer load ports, the first front wall wafer port, the second front wall wafer port, and the back wall wafer port.

2. The EFEM of claim 1 , wherein:
(a) the first back wall wafer port is attached to a respective first back wall load lock, the first back wall load lock operable to allow a wafer to be transferred from the controlled environment of the EFEM to a vacuum environment of the back wall cluster processing tool or from the vacuum environment of the back wall cluster processing tool to the controlled environment of the EFEM;
(b) the back wall includes a second back wall wafer port, the first and the second back wall wafer ports configured to attach to respective first and second back wall load locks operable to allow a wafer to be transferred from the controlled environment of the EFEM to a vacuum environment of the back wall cluster processing tool or from the vacuum environment of the back wall cluster processing tool to the controlled environment of the EFEM; or
(c) the back wall includes a second back wall wafer port, the first and the second back wall wafer ports attached to respective first and second back wall load locks operable to allow a wafer to be transferred from the controlled environment of the EFEM to a vacuum environment of the back wall cluster processing tool or from the vacuum environment of the back wall cluster processing tool to the controlled environment of the EFEM.

3. The EFEM of claim 1 , wherein the EFEM includes:
(a) a wafer storage section in the enclosure thereof, the wafer storage section operable to store processed or unprocessed wafers, the at least one robot operable to transfer wafers to or from the wafer storage section;
(b) a wafer aligner in the enclosure thereof, the at least one robot operable to transfer a wafer to and from the wafer aligner wherein the wafer aligner is operable to provide wafer movement in a rotational direction and a linear radial direction such that the wafer may be centered before the wafer is transferred to a processing module of the front wall cluster processing tool or the back wall cluster processing tool;
(c) a fan filter unit operable to provide filtered air to the controlled environment of the EFEM; and/or
(d) an electronics enclosure including electronics to power the EFEM.

4. The EFEM of claim 1 , wherein:
(a) the EFEM is attached to the back wall cluster processing tool and the at least one robot is operable to transfer wafers from the controlled environment of the EFEM through the first back wall wafer port to a controlled environment of back wall cluster processing tool and from the controlled environment of the back wall cluster processing tool through the first back wall wafer port to the controlled environment of the EFEM;
(b) the EFEM is attached to the back wall cluster processing tool and the at least one robot includes a linear robot, the linear robot is operable to move wafers along an extended length path extending through the first back wall wafer port and transfer wafers to and from processing modules of the back wall cluster processing tool;
(c) the at least one robot includes a first robot operable to remove wafers from a first FOUP attached to a wafer load port and a second robot operable to store wafers in a second FOUP attached to a wafer load port;
(d) the at least one robot is movable along a travel path between the first side wall and the second side wall; and/or
(e) the at least one robot is movable along a travel path between the front wall and the back wall.

5. An equipment front end module (EFEM) useful for transferring semiconductor wafers to and from processing modules comprising:
an enclosure that is bounded by a front wall, a back wall, first and second side walls between the front wall and the back wall, a top wall, and a bottom wall and that is adapted to provide a single controlled environment throughout the enclosure;
the first side wall or the second side wall including two or more wafer load ports wherein each wafer load port is adapted to receive a front opening unified pod (FOUP) from a wafer transfer system configured to transfer a FOUP to a respective wafer load port;
the front wall including a first front wall wafer port and a second front wall wafer port, the first and second front wall wafer ports configured to attach to respective first and second front wall load locks operable to allow a wafer to be transferred from the controlled environment of the EFEM to a vacuum environment of a front wall cluster processing tool or from the vacuum environment of the front wall cluster processing tool to the controlled environment of the EFEM;
the first side wall including at least two first side wall wafer ports and the second side wall including at least two second side wall wafer ports, the at least two first side wall wafer ports and the at least two second side wall wafer ports each configured to attach to a respective semiconductor wafer processing module; and
at least one robot in the enclosure of the EFEM operable to transfer wafers through the wafer load ports, the first front wall wafer port, the second front wall wafer port, the at least two first side wall wafer ports, and the at least two second side wall wafer ports.

6. The EFEM of claim 5 , wherein:
(a) the back wall includes a first back wall wafer port adapted to be in operational relationship with a back wall cluster processing tool wherein the at least one robot in the enclosure of the EFEM is operable to transfer wafers through the first back wall wafer port;
(b) the back wall includes a first back wall wafer port adapted to be in operational relationship with a back wall cluster processing tool, the first back wall wafer port attached to a respective first back wall load lock, the first back wall load lock operable to allow a wafer to be transferred from the controlled environment of the EFEM to a vacuum environment of the back wall cluster processing tool or from the vacuum environment of the back wall cluster processing tool to the controlled environment of the EFEM wherein the at least one robot in the enclosure of the EFEM is operable to transfer wafers through the first back wall wafer port;
(c) the back wall includes first and second back wall wafer ports adapted to be in operational relationship with a back wall cluster processing tool, the first and the second back wall wafer ports configured to attach to respectiv

Assignees

• Lam Res Corp

Inventors

• Lill Thorsten
• Vahedi Vahid
• Kristoffersen Candi
• Bailey Iii Andrew D
• Shen Meihua
• Raghavan Rangesh
• Bultman Gary

Classifications

• H10P72/3402

  Mechanical parts of transfer devices · CPC title

• H10P72/3304 Primary

  characterised by movements or sequence of movements of transfer devices · CPC title

• H10P72/1904

  specially adapted for containing chips, dies or ICs · CPC title

• H10P72/33 Primary

  into and out of processing chamber · CPC title

• H01L21/67766

  Electricity · mapped topic