Nitto-denko Corporation

Nitto Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Minoru Ametani

Keigo Funakoshi

Takao Matsushita

Akihiko Kira

Masayuki Yamamoto

Saburo Miyamoto

Kenji Ohnishi

Kozo Nomura

Keizo Shirakura

An apparatus for removing an unwanted substance from a semiconductor wafer, according to this invention, applies a peeling tape T to a protective tape P on the surface of the semiconductor wafer W. An edge memberis placed in contact with the surface of the peeling tape T and run along the protective tape P. The peeling tape T is peeled as being folded back by a large angle of 90 degrees or more at the tip of edge member. The protective tape P is peeled and removed along with the peeling tape T from the surface of the wafer. As a result, the unwanted substance is removed with high precision without breaking the wafer W.

Method and apparatus for removing unwanted substance from semiconductor wafer

A transport container for transporting a plurality of semiconductor wafers as stacked therein. The container includes a box-shaped container body having four peripheral walls, and an upper lid for closing and opening an upper opening of the container body. The front wall of the container body is pivotable between an open position and a closed position. The upper lid and front wall are opened when the semiconductor wafers are loaded into or unloaded from the transport container. An apparatus is provided for loading and unloading the semiconductor wafers into/from the transport container. The apparatus includes a cassette table for supporting a cassette for storing the semiconductor wafers in multiple stages at predetermined intervals, a container table for supporting the transport container openable and closable for storing the semiconductor wafers stacked alternately with protective sheets of guard paper, and a robot arm substantially opposed to each of the cassette table and the container table for transporting the semiconductor wafers between the cassette and the transport container.

Semiconductor wafer loading and unloading apparatus, and semiconductor

A single wafer transport mechanism takes a semiconductor wafer out of a cassette loader, and transports the wafer to a single wafer positioning mechanism for placing the wafer in position. When applying a protective adhesive tape to a surface of the wafer, the transport mechanism transports the wafer placed in position to a tape applying mechanism. When removing the protective tape from the wafer surface, the transport mechanism transports the wafer to a tape removing mechanism which removes the protective tape from the wafer surface by using a remover adhesive tape having a strong adhesion. The wafer having the protective tape applied thereto or stripped of the protective tape is transported back to a cassette by the wafer transport mechanism.

Apparatus for applying and removing protective adhesive tape to/from

An apparatus and method for detecting the shape of a circular, disk-like silicon wafer is disclosed in which both ends of a major orientation flat are detected by rotating the wafer at least one turn relative to the position of an optical sensor positioned slightly inside the wafer's outer circumference. The shape data thus obtained may be used to guide a cutting device to remove excess adhesive tape around the outer circumference of the wafer.

Wafer shape detecting method

A process for peeling a protective film stuck to an upper-side of a wafer is disclosed. The protective film is peeled by adhering an adhesive tape to the upper side of the rear end of said protective film stuck on the wafer by means of a press roller, lifting the press roller and sliding said press roller forward, sliding a peeling unit forward to peel the adhesive tape together with the protective film by utilizing the adhesive force of the adhesive tape. The wafer is prevented from being damaged.

Process for peeling protective film off a wafer

A device for sticking adhesive tape to thin articles, such as semiconductor wafers, and trimming excess portions of said tape from the thin articles. A plurality of sticking rollers apply adhesive tape from a roll to each thin article, the tape having an adhesive side oriented towards an upper surface of the article and a width greater than a width of the article. A suction stage receives and holds each of the thin articles with the adhesive tape stuck thereto by said sticking rollers while a tape cutter trims the excess portion of the tape from along peripheral edge portions of the article. A tape peeling device then peels off the trimmed excess portions of the tape from the thin article, whereupon the thin article is conveyed back to a cassette.

Sticking and cutoff device for adhering adhesive tape on thin articles

A process for peeling a protective film off a thin article such as a silicon wafer is proposed. The film is peeled by sticking an adhesive tape to the protective film on the article and pulling it away from the article. The protective film is peeled only by the adhesive force of the adhesive tape.

Process for peeling protective film off a thin article

Apparatus for peeling a protective film off a thin article such as a silicon wafer is disclosed. The film is peeled by sticking an adhesive tape to the protective film on the article and pulling it away from the article. The protective film is peeled by the apparatus only by the adhesive force of the adhesive tape.

Apparatus for peeling protective film off a thin article

An apparatus for semiautomatically sticking an adhesive film on a silicon wafer and on a ring used as a carrier. After the ring and the silicon wafer have been manually positioned on tables, an adhesive film is automatically stuck on the ring and the silicon wafer. The excess portion of the film is then cut by hand along the ring and transversely. The apparatus greatly facilitates these works.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Minoru Ametani