U.S. patent number 3,834,083 [Application Number 05/210,569] was granted by the patent office on 1974-09-10 for machine for grinding an edge contour on a semiconductor wafer.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Sony Corporation. Invention is credited to Kinji Hoshi, Kazuhiro Sugita.
United States Patent |
3,834,083 |
Hoshi , et al. |
September 10, 1974 |
MACHINE FOR GRINDING AN EDGE CONTOUR ON A SEMICONDUCTOR WAFER
Abstract
A grinding machine for producing a rounded chamfer on the edge
of a workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer. The workpiece is
attached to a revolving chuck and a grinding head having oblique
resilient grinding members is located opposite the chuck. The
grinding members lie along generators of a cone and extend beyond
the edges of the workpiece and press against the edge.
Semiconductor wafers are ground in this machine by pressing their
edges against the resilient grinding devices while rotating the
wafer and moving the grinding devices in a lateral circular path
concentric with the axis of rotation of the wafer.
Inventors: |
Hoshi; Kinji (Kanagawa,
JA), Sugita; Kazuhiro (Kanagawa, JA) |
Assignee: |
Sony Corporation (Tokyo,
JA)
|
Family
ID: |
14663247 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/210,569 |
Filed: |
December 21, 1971 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 21, 1970 [JA] |
|
|
45-115467 |
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
451/168 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B24B
9/065 (20130101); B24D 13/00 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
B24B
9/06 (20060101); B24D 13/00 (20060101); B24b
009/06 () |
Field of
Search: |
;51/43,50,58,62,119,120,71,73,133,13WH,235,284,241G,325,328,331,352,358,394 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Smith; Al Lawrence
Assistant Examiner: Godici; Nicholas P.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Eslinger, Esq.; Lewis H.
Sinderbrand, Esq.; Alvin
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A grinding machine for grinding a predetermined edge contour on
a semiconductor wafer, said machine comprising: a chuck for holding
the wafer; means for rotating said chuck; a grinding head having a
plurality of resilient grinding elements extending therefrom, each
of said resilient grinding elements having a grinding surface
facing the wafer held by said chuck, means for moving said grinding
head laterally in a circular path that is substantially coaxial
with the axis of rotation of said chuck, said chuck and said head
being longitudinally spaced to cause the grinding surfaces of said
grinding elements to be pressed resiliently against the edge of
said wafer at all relative positions of said head and said chuck,
and the angle between said grinding surface of each of said
grinding elements and the axis of said chuck being less than
90.degree. at each point of contact between said grinding surface
and the edge of said wafer so as to form a rounded contour on said
edge.
2. The grinding machine of claim 1 comprising, in addition, means
to adjust the position of said grinding head laterally with respect
to said wafer.
3. The grinding machine of claim 1 in which said edge of said
semiconductor wafer comprises a circular portion and a straight
portion, and said chuck is a vacuum chuck to hold one of said
wafers at a time.
4. The grinding machine of claim 1 comprising, in addition, means
to move said grinding head toward and away from said chuck to
control the pressure of said grinding surface against said
wafer.
5. A grinding machine for grinding a predetermined edge contour on
a semiconductor wafer, said machine comprising: a chuck for holding
the wafer; means for rotating the chuck; and a grinding device
including a head spaced axially from said chuck, and a plurality of
grinding elements spaced apart about said head, each of said
grinding elements being constituted by a flexibly resilient rod
having a shank portion extending from said head toward said chuck
generally parallel to the axis of rotation of the chuck and an end
portion extending from said shank portion generally laterally
outward with respect to said axis of rotation of the chuck to
provide a grinding surface facing toward the wafer held by said
chuck, the angle included between said shank portion and end
portion of said flexibly resilient rod being greater than
90.degree., and the axial spacing of said head and said chuck being
selected to cause said grinding surface of each of said grinding
elements to be pressed resiliently against the edge of said wafer
held by the chuck in all rotary positions of the chuck.
6. A grinding machine for grinding a predetermined edge contour on
a semiconductor wafer, said machine comprising: a chuck for holding
the wafer; means for rotating the chuck; and a grinding device
including a head spaced axially from said chuck and a plurality of
grinding elements spaced apart about said head, each of said
grinding elements being constituted by a flexibly resilient rod
having a shank portion extending from said head toward said chuck
generally parallel to the axis of rotation of said chuck and an end
portion extending from said shank portion generally laterally
outward with respect to said axis of rotation of the chuck, each of
said rods being in the form of strip of resilient material having a
width greater than its thickness and being bent so that the
directions in which the thicknesses of said shank and end portions
are measured lie in a common plane, said end portion having a
curved cross-section comprising a segment of a circular cylinder
with the convex side thereof facing said chuck to define a grinding
surface, the angle included between said shank portion and end
portion of each resilient rod being greater than 90.degree., and
the axial spacing of said head and said chuck being selected to
cause said grinding surface of each of the grinding elements to be
pressed resiliently against the edge of the wafer held by said
chuck in all rotary positions of the chuck.
7. The grinding machine of claim 6 in which the outer portion of
said convex surface of each of said strips has grinding material
electrodeposited thereon.
8. A grinding machine for grinding a predetermined edge contour on
a semiconductor wafer, said machine cmprising: a chuck for holding
the wafer; means for rotating said chuck; and a grinding device
including a head spaced axially from said chuck a plurality of
grinding elements spaced apart about said head, each of said
grinding elements being a constituted by a flexibly resilient rod
having a shank portion extending from said head toward said chuck
generally parallel to the axis of rotation of said chuck and an end
portion extending from said shank portion generally laterally
outward with respect to said axis of rotation of the chuck to
provide a grinding surface facing toward the wafer held by said
chuck, the angle included between said shank portion and end
portion of said flexibly resilient rod being greater than
90.degree., the axial spacing of said head and chuck being selected
to cause said grinding surface of each of said grinding elements to
be pressed resiliently against the edge of said wafer held by the
chuck in all rotary positions of said chuck, and a resilience
adjustment ring encirling and attached to said shank portion of
each of said resilient rods and spaced from said head to control
the flexing of said rods when said grinding surfaces of the rods
are pressed against said wafer.
9. A grinding machine for grinding a predetermined edge contour
simultaneously on a plurality of semiconductor wafers, said machine
comprising:
A. a plurality of chucks to hold a plurality of said wafers in a
substantially common plane;
B. means to rotate all of said chucks simultaneously, each on its
own axis;
C. a plurality of grinding heads corresponding in number to the
number of said chucks, each of said grinding heads comprising a
plurality of resilient grinding devices attached thereto, each of
said devices comprising an oblique grinding surface facing the
respective wafer and extending beyond the edge thereof at an angle
of less than 90.degree. with respect to the axis of the respective
chuck;
D. common means to adjust the position of each of said grinding
heads laterally with respect to the respective wafer; and
E. common means to swing all of said grinding heads simultaneously
along a lateral circular path wherein each of said heads moves in a
circle substantially coaxial with the axis of its respective chuck
all of said chucks being longitudinally spaced from said heads to
cause said grinding surfaces to be pressed against the edge of the
respective one of said wafer at all rotary positions of the
respective chuck.
10. The grinding machine of claim 9 in which said means to swing
said grinding head comprises a plate having means therein for
holding said grinding heads in position.
11. The grinding machine of claim 10 in which said means to adjust
the position of said grinding heads comprises:
A. a pair of main shafts, each comprising a first extension at one
end laterally offset with respect to the axis of said main shaft
and a second extension at the other end;
B. means attaching said plate to each of said second extensions to
allow rotation rotation of said second extension with respect to
said plate;
C. a pair of driving gear means, each of said first extensions
being attached to one of said driving gear means to be rotated
thereby, each of said driving gear means comprising an
eccentrically bored shaft to received a respective one of said
first extensions; and
d. Means to adjust the angular orientation of each of said main
shafts to adjust the diameter of the circle of motion of said
plate.
12. The grinding machine of claim 11 comprising, in addition,
detent adjustment means between each of said gear means and the
respective one of said main shafts to set the diameter of the
circle of motion of said plate to specific values.
13. The grinding machine of claim 9 comprising, in addition:
A. a plate having a plurality of apertures corresponding in number
to the number of said chucks;
B. means to support said last-named plate to place each of said
apertures in coaxial alignment with a respective one of said
chucks;
C. guide means concentric with each of said apertures on said plate
to locate one of said semiconductor wafers with respect to that
aperture; and
D. means to lower said plate relative to said chucks to allow said
chucks to lift said semiconductor wafers therefrom.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a machine for grinding semiconductor
wafers, and more specifically it relates to machine adapted to
chamfer the edge of such wafers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the production of semiconductor devices, such as transistors,
integrated circuits, and solid-state targets for image pick-up
devices, one of the important processes is vapor-deposition or
epitaxial-growth on the semiconductor wafer substrate. The wafers
are usually sliced from an ingot of single crystal semiconductor
material. If the edges of the wafers are not chamfered, the
epitaxial material tends to build up a ridge at the perimeter of
the wafers and this ridge interferes with proper usage of the
coated wafers. For one thing, it makes unusable the area that is
excessively heavily coated and for another thing it prevents the
usual optical mask from being placed directly in conact with the
major part of the surface of the coated wafer, thereby interfering
with the precise optical focusing considered necessary for
production of semiconductor devices. Hence, an attempt has
previously been made to chamfer the edge of such wafers, but the
machines used to carry out the chamfering have created addiional
problems. For one thing, semiconductor wafers are usually round
with a straight edge portion along one side related to the
crystallographical structure of the semiconductor material. The
chamfering devices used heretofore have not been able to achieve
equal chamfering of both the round and straight portions of the
total perimeter of such wafers, and this has lead to unequal growth
of the epitaxial material.
Accordingly, it is one of the objects of the present invention to
provide an improved machine for grinding the edge portion of
semiconductor wafers.
A further object is to provide an improved machine capable of
grinding specific contours on the edge portions of semiconductor
wafers having perimeters which are primarily round but have
straight portions at one specific location.
Still further objects will be apparent from the following
specification together with the drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, semiconductor wafers
which are to be ground, or chamfered, along the edge are mounted on
rotatable chucks beneath grinding heads which comprise separately
rotatable devices so arranged they they follow eccentric curves
with respect to the axis of the heads on which the wafers
themselves are mounted. The grinding devices, which extend
downwardly from the heads, are short rods or strips bent or formed
at appropriate angles to achieve the desired ground contour of the
edge of the wafers. Using these grinding strips in a machine with
the combined relative eccentric and rotary motions of the grinding
heads and the chucks produces uniformly contoured and lapped edges
of semiconductor wafers of different sizes without having to change
to grinding strips of different configuration. The contour of the
edges of the semiconductors can further be controlled by raising or
lowering the grinding heads.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIGS. 1 and 2 are enlarged cross-sectional views illustrating
epitaxial-grown layers on semiconductor wafers.
FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view illustrating the shape of
semiconductor wafers.
FIG. 4 is a drawing illustrating one example of a conventional
grinding machine.
FIG. 5 is an enlarged partial view of a wafer illustrating the
specific profile ground according to the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a schematic front view of the grinding machine of the
present invention.
FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the grinding machine along the
line A--A in FIG. 6.
FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the machine along the line B--B
in FIG. 6.
FIGS. 9 and 10 illustrate the grinding of wafers by resilient
grinding tools.
FIG. 11 illustrates one example of the eccentric movement mechanism
used in the machine shown in FIG. 6.
FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view, partially broken away,
illustrating one example of a vacuum chuck of the type shown in
FIG. 6.
FIGS. 13 and 14 are enlarged side-elevational views illustrating
one example of a holder of the resilient grinding devices used in
the machine in FIG. 6.
FIG. 15 is an enlarged view illustrating the resilient grinding
tool in FIG. 14.
FIG. 16 is a cross-sectional view of a grinding device along the
line C--C in FIG. 15.
FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a resilience
adjusting ring along the line D--D in FIG. 13.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
If flat wafers 1 of the type shown in FIG. 1 are subjected to
vapor-depositing to produce an epitaxial layer 2, a ridge 3 is
built up at the edge 1a of the wafer because growth of the
vapor-deposited material is not uniform over the entire surface of
the wafer. Such wafers have the disadvantage that the ridge portion
3 is not suitable for further manufacturing processes and the
further important disadvantage that a photo-mask cannot be applied
in contact with the surface of the wafer in photographically
processing the semiconductor devices. As a result of the latter
disadvantage, resolution will be reduced or the photo-mask or the
wafer itself or a photoresist layer on the wafer will be damaged.
Thus, the quality of the complete devices is deteriorated and
productivity is also reduced.
To avoid such disadvantages, it has been proposed to make wafers
having a profile of the type illustrated in FIG. 2. A beveled
portion 1b is produced on the edge of the wafer 1. However, it is
difficult to bevel the wafers uniformly. This is due to the fact
that semiconductor wafers usually have a flat portion 1c, as shown
in FIG. 3, which is used to align the wafers according to their
cyrstallographical orientations.
FIG. 4 shows one example of a conventional technique for beveling
the wafer 1. The wafer is fixed on a support 4 and is ground, or
lapped, by a cylindrical grindstone 5 rotating on its own axis.
Simultaneously, either the grindstone 5 is rotated around the
periphery of the wafer 1 so that the axis of the grindstone
generates a generally conical surface of revolution, or the wafer 1
is rotated about a vertical axis while the grindstone is rotated in
a single location. The flat edge 1a' and the round edge 1a cannot
be lapped to have the same profile because the axis of the
grindstond tilts more nearly perpendicular when it reaches the flat
portion 1a'. The grindstone causes rather deep mechanical
distortion in the wafer, and as a result crystal defects occur in
the epitaxial-grown layer 2 due to such distortion.
Both the round edge portion 1a and the flat edge 1a' should have
the same specific cross-sectional profile. A particular form of
this profile is illustrated in FIG. 5 in greater detail. The angle
.theta. and the width w of the beveled portion 1b have specific
values with respect to the thickness t of the wafer 1. The surface
of the beveled portion 1b is rounded with a curvature R. For
example, if t = 250.mu..about.300.mu., it is preferable that w
.div. 0.5mm. and .theta. = 10.degree..about.15.degree.. These data
have been selected on the basis of extensive experiments by the
present inventors.
FIGS. 6, 7, and 8 show one embodiment of a grinding machine
incorporating the present invention. A frame 6 forms the body of
the grinding machine and has a rectangular oil pan 7 with an outlet
7' at one side of it. The oil pan is set into the top of the frame.
A panel 8 is located above the oil pan 7 and columns 9 extend up
from the oil pan to support the panel. The columns 9 are joined to
the panel 8 and to the oil pan 7 by individual connectors 9'. A
swinging plate 10 between the oil pan 7 and the panel 8 makes an
eccentric rotational movement. The mechanism of the eccentric
rotation will be described hereinafter in connection with FIG.
11.
The swinging plate 10 is provided with two rows of holding means
11. Each of these holding means comprises a cylinder 12 operated by
air or hydraulic fluid through suitable air or hydraulic lines 12a
and 12b. In addition, there is a holder 13 located below the
swinging plate 10 and a sliding rod 14 mounted in the holder 13.
Each rod 14 is prevented from rotating around its own axis but can
be moved up and down by a piston in the cylinder 12. Attached to
the lower end of each sliding rod 14 is a grinding device 15 that
comprises a plurality of tools in the form of resilient strips.
Vacuum chucks 16, each having a head 17, are provided on the oil
pan 7 at locations corresponding to each of the grinding devices
15. One of the wafers 1 is held and rotated by each of the heads 17
and is contacted by the lower surfaces of the strips attached to
the grinding device 15. Each grinding device 15 rotates
eccentrically with respect to the wafer below it, and each wafer is
rotated by the respective head 17. Thus, the edge of each of the
wafers 1 is ground to have a specific cross-section. During the
grinding process, suitable amounts of grinding liquid, such as
water, light oil, etc., are supplied to the wafers 1.
The grinding machine also includes a common seat plate 18 and an
elevator 19 for a wafer magazine. These items will be described in
greater detail hereinafter.
FIG. 11 shows an eccentric rotation mechanism 20. A holder 21 is
bolted to the upper panel 8 and a gear 22 is rotatably supported
below the panel 8 by means of a short hollow shaft 23 held in two
bearings 24. The upper end of the shaft 23 is threaded and a nut 25
is fitted thereon to hold the shaft 23 in place. While the shaft 23
is hollow, its inner bore 23' is not concentric with the outer
surface of the shaft but is offset with respect thereto by a
distance a. Below the gear 22 is a support structure 26 which
comprises a main shaft 27 having an upper flange 28a and a lower
flange 28b. An integral extension 29 of the main shaft 27 extends
into the bore 23'. The axis of the main shaft 27 is offset with
respect to the axis of the integral extension 29 by a distance b.
Below the lower flange 28b, at the lower end of the main shaft 27,
is another integral extension 30 which is also an integral
extension of the main shaft 27, and both the integral extensions 29
and 30 are threaded at their outermost ends.
The extension 29 is held by means of a nut 31 and is provided with
an adjusting knob 32. This extension is capable of rotating within
the bore 23' but has a number of preferred stopping points
determined by a detent arrangement comprising a spring-biased ball
33 and a number of recesses 34. By selecting the appropriate one of
these recesses, the eccentricity of the main shaft 27 with respect
to the axis of the gear 22 and its shaft 23 may be adjusted to a
number of values between a - b and a + b. If b=a, a - b = 0, which
means that the axis of the main shaft 27 may be brought into
alignment with the axis of the shaft 23. In the position indicated
in FIG. 11, the main shaft 27 is offset to the maximum
eccentricity, which is a + b. The integral shaft must be rotated
180.degree. within the bore 23' to bring the axis of the main shaft
27 into alignment with the axis of the shaft 23. The recesses 34 in
the upper flange 28a may be equally spaced around the flange 28a
and identification of the eccentricity can be determined by noting
the angular alignment of the knob 32 and by listening to the clicks
as the ball 33 moves from one recess 34 to the next. The ball can
retract into a hole 73 in the gear 22 to move from one recess 34 to
the next but is pressed against the flange 28a by a spring 74. When
the knob 32 has been set to the position that causes the axis of
the shaft 27 to have the correct eccentricity, the nut 31 must be
tightened to secure the shaft 27 in place.
The other integral extension 30 of the main shaft 27 is supported
in a hanger 35 by a pair of bearings 36 separated by a spacer 40.
The hanger 35 is bolted directly to the swinging plate 10. A nut 37
is threaded on the end of the extension 30 to hold it in place, and
a ring 41 is threaded into the end of the hanger 35 to hold the
bearings 35.
Referring back to FIG. 6, it will be seen that there are two of the
swinging mechanisms 20 in the grinding machine. Each of the
mechanisms 20 acts like an eccentric having a small throw, which is
determined by the eccentricity setting of the knob 32. Both of the
mechanisms 20 must have the same eccentricity. The gears 22 of both
of these mechanisms are coupled to a common pinion 42, which is
connected to the low-speed shaft of a gear motor 43. By this
mechanism, the swinging plate 10 can be moved laterally around a
circular path; but since there are two mechanisms 20, the plate 10
is constrained to move with a translatory motion and cannot rotate
about the axis of either of the mechanisms 20.
FIG. 12 shows the in greater detail the vacuum chuck mechanism 16
and its rotatable head 17. As stated, the vacuum chuck 16 extends
through the oil pan 7 and through the common seat plate 18, which
is bolted to the oil pan 7. A bearing holder 44 is bolted to the
common seat plate 18 and extends through the oil pan 7. This
bearing holder plate has two bearings 45 in it and separated by a
spacer 46. A rotatable hollow shaft 47 is located in the bearings
45 and extends both below and above the bearing holder 44. The
upper end of the hollow shaft 47 is an enlarged head 48 that has a
re-entrant lower grooved surface that fits over a raised nipple on
the common seat plate 18. A gear 49 is rigidly attached to the
shaft 47 to rotate the shaft, and a nut 50 is threaded onto the
lowermost end of the shaft to hold the entire shaft assembly
together. The gear 49 extends through an open section of the cover
51 and meshes with a main gear 53 that rotates the gear 49 and the
shaft 47.
The vacuum system for the chuck 16 includes a pipe fitting 52 that
has a pipe column 52' which extends up into the shaft 47. A vacuum
line 54 indicated as a single dotted line is connected by an elbow
55 to the pipe fitting 52. Both the head 17, which extends down
into the enlarged head 48, and the pipe column 52' have packing
material 56 to achieve the necessary hermetic seal to prevent
leakage of air in the vacuum system.
Several concentric circular grooves 17a and radial grooves are
formed on the upper surface of the head 17 as shown in both FIG. 8
and FIG. 12. A small hole 17c connects these grooves and an air
chamber 17b. The pressure within this chamber can be reduced by
means of the exhaust system 54 so as to hold a wafer 1 tightly in
place on the upper surface of the head 17.
The actual grinding mechanism will be described with reference to
FIGS. 13-17. FIG. 13 shows an enlarged view of the holder 13 with
the sliding rod 14 extending below it. A head 57 is screwed into
the lower end of the rod 14 and a hollow central tube 58 is
inserted into a hole at the center of the head 56. This tube is
held in place by frictional engagement with the head and is joined
by means of a connector 71 to a line 72 through which grinding
fluid is supplied to the workpiece during the grinding
operation.
The grinding elements themselves are bent strips 60 of a suitable
material, such as stainless steel. Eight of these strips are
attached to the lower side of the head 57 and are equally spaced
around the head. Each of the strips comprises an upper or shank
portion 61 that extends generally parallel to the axis of the
holder 13 and a lower end portion 62 bent with respect to the upper
end so that the included angle between the upper and lower ends is
greater than 90.degree.. The strips 60, which are wider than they
are thick, are bent so that the direction in which the thickness of
the upper or shank portion and lower end portion is measured is in
a common plane. The lower surface of the lower end portion 62 of
each of the strips 60 is coated with a layer 62' of abrasive
material, such as powdered diamonds, carborundum (silicon carbide)
or the like to form a grinding surface. The abrasive material may
be applied to the end 62 by electro-deposition, and the lower ends
are curved in cross-section, as shown in FIG. 16, in the shape of
sections of circular cylinders with the abrasive material 62 on the
convex side. The cylindrical curvature makes the lower end more
rigid, although the strip can still be considered resilient.
In a grinding device shown in FIG. 13 there are eight of the strips
60 equally spaced around the head 57 and attached to a ring 63 by a
plurality of set screws 64 corresponding in number to the number of
strips 60. As a further means of controlling the resilience of the
strips 60 a resilience control device 65 may be used. This
comprises a ring 66 having a set screw in it at the proper location
to engage each of the upper or shank portions 61 of the strips 60
and an annular inner portion 68 that surrounds the central tube 58.
The resilience control device can be moved up or down on the upper
or shank portions 61 to any desired extent to control the bending
freedom of the strips 60. Each of the lower end portions 62 lies
along a direction that would constitute a generator of a cone. As
shown particularly in FIG. 14 the included angle .theta. is only a
little less than 180.degree. but is enough to allow the grinding
material 62' to be brought down into contact with the outer edge of
the semi-conductor wafer to be ground on this machine. The included
angle .theta. is chosen to make the ground semiconductor wafer
achieve the rounded profile shown in FIG. 5. This angle is also
dependent on the material of which the strips 60 are made and is
experimentally determined. Even if the angle .theta. is selected to
have the most ideal value, there is inevitably some amount of
variation in the ground profiles. In order to reduce such variation
the resilience adjusting device 65 is provided.
FIGS. 6 and 8 show the grinding machine in operation with one of
the wafers 1 on each of the heads 17 of the vacuum chucks 16. The
rods 14 have been lowered by the cylinders 12 so that the grinding
strips below each of the grinding devices 15 are in contact with
the perimeters of the respective wafers. As may be noted, the axis
of each of the rods 14 is offset with respect to the axis of the
respective vacuum chuck 16.
The wafers 1 are loaded onto the heads 17 from a wafer magazine 73.
As is shown particularly in FIG. 8, the wafer magazine is
rectangular and has a plurality of holes through it corresponding
in number and in location to the heads 17 of the vacuum chucks. The
perimeter of each of the holes in the magazine 73 has a shelf that
supports the edge of one of the wafers. This shelf allows each of
the wafers to drop down below the top of the magazine 73, but more
importantly, it permits the larger part of the perimeter of the
hole above the shelf to serve as guide means to locate the wafer
precisely so that when it is placed on the head 17 it will be in
exactly the correct coaxial position with respect to the head.
The magazine 73 is raised and lowered by the elevators 19, each of
which has an L-shaped support 19a to lift the magazine loaded with
its wafers. In raising and lowering the elevators 19, hydraulic
pressure is applied to a pair of support rods 19b. The magazine 73
with the proper number of wafers loaded on it, in this case eight
wafers, is placed on the support 19a at the location shown by the
broken line in FIG. 6. In order to place the magazine at that
location, each of the rods 14 must be raised by its respective
cylinder 12 and the elevators 19 must be in their upper position.
After the magazine has been loaded on the elevators, the latter are
lowered enough to bring the magazine below the heads 17 of the
vacuum chucks 16. This causes the heads 17 to lift the wafers 1
clear of the magazine and these heads can then be evacuated to hold
the wafers firmly in place. The vacuum is maintained as long as
grinding continues but when the grinding is finished, the vacuum is
released and the elevators 19 once again raise the magazine 73 and
lift the wafers 1 away from the heads 17. It is preferable to
prepare a number of such magazines to facilitate inserting new sets
of unground wafers into the machine as soon as a previous set has
been ground to the proper contour.
The grinding machine described hereinabove can be automatically
operated. When the predetermined grinding period is over the
elevators 19 are not only lifted to support the wafers 1 again but
the grinding devices 15 are also lifted automatically and the
swinging plate 10 is brought to a stop. Successive operations of
the machine may be automatically controlled according to a
programmed cycle which takes approximately 30 seconds to
complete.
The actual grinding of the edge of the wafer 1 is shown in somewhat
greater detail in FIGS. 9a and 9b and FIG. 10. During the grinding
operation the head 17 of the vacuum chuck rotates in the direction
indicated by the arrow in FIG. 9a and carries the wafer 1 with it.
The axis of the grinding device 15 is simultaneously moving
continuously or orbiting in a circle having a center that coincides
with the axis of the head 17. As a result, the grinding material
62' on the lower ends of the strips 60 moves in the direction of
the arrows e. The grinding surfaces thus touch the edge of each of
the wafers 1 while changing the angle of contact as shown in FIG.
9b. Over a cycle of operation this causes the edge of the
semiconductor wafer 1 to be ground to the desired round
contour.
* * * * *