US 2017/0365496 A1 · WAFER CONTAINER WIHT SHOCK CONDITION PROTECTION

Abstract

A front opening wafer container has a container portion and a door sized to close an open front of the container portion. The container portion has shelves for holding wafers defining a seating position and has forward and rearward wafer supports to suspend wafers therebetween in a transport position above the seating position. Shock condition cushion portions are arranged adjacent the transport position for protecting the wafers during a shock condition. The wafers may be bonded wafers having a thinned wafer side and a carrier substrate side. Wafer engagement pads and finger members extend in opposing directions from a central strip on the door providing a balance wafer engagement. When closing the door, a primary wafer support portion engages the wafers first and a secondary elastomeric wafer support engages the wafer secondly. A V-groove for receiving the wafers in the wafer supports has a greater angle defined between the V-groove and the thinned wafer side than the angle defined between the V-groove and carrier substrate side providing enhanced protection for the bonded wafers.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A wafer container for receiving and transporting wafers, the wafer container comprising a container portion with an open front and a door that closes the open front defining an open interior, the door having an inside surface and the container surface having a back wall with an inside surface, the wafer container further comprising a wafer support for securing a plurality of wafers axially aligned in the wafer container in an orientation with the wafers horizontal in a normal orientation and rotatable rearwardly to an orientation with the wafers vertical in a transport orientation;

each of the plurality of wafers to be received and transported having an upper side and a lower side and comprising a carrier substrate at the lower side and a thinned wafer adhered to the carrier substrate at the upper side, the carrier substrate having an edge and the thinned wafer having an edge displaced radially inward from the edge of the carrier substrate,
the wafer support formed of polymer and being attached to one of the inside surface of the front door and the container portion at the back wall, the wafer support having a plurality of pairs of wafer edge engagement portions, each wafer edge engagement portion having a normal wafer seating region providing a normal wafer seating position and a shock condition contact region, the shock condition contact region not in contact with a wafer when the wafer is in the normal wafer seating position;
wherein the normal wafer seating region is formed of a polymer more rigid than the material of the shock condition contact region.

A wafer container for receiving and transporting bonded wafers, the wafer container comprising a container portion with an open front for receiving wafers horizontally and a door that closes the open front defining an open interior, the door having an inside surface and the container surface having a back wall with an inside surface, the wafer container further comprising a wafer support for securing a plurality of bonded wafers axially aligned in the wafer container in an orientation with the bonded wafers horizontal in a normal orientation and the wafer container rotatable rearwardly to an orientation with the bonded wafers vertical in a transport orientation;

each of the plurality of bonded wafers comprising a carrier substrate at one side and a thinned wafer at the other side, the thinned wafer adhered to the carrier substrate;
the carrier substrate having an edge extending around the substrate, the thinned wafer having an outwardly exposed edge corner displaced radially inward from the edge of the carrier substrate;
the wafer support formed of polymer and being attached to one of the inside surface of the front door and the container portion at the back wall, the wafer support having a plurality of pairs of wafer edge engagement portions, each wafer edge engagement portion having a normal seating region, the wafer support having a shock deflection region corresponding to each normal seating region, wherein the edge is contacting the normal seating region when not in a shock condition;
the wafer container further comprising a shock deflection contact portion corresponding to each shock deflection region, the shock deflection contact portion comprised of a material softer than the material comprising the normal seating region, the shock deflection contact portion positioned to contact the thinned wafer side of the wafer when the wafer is deflected in a shock condition.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Wafer container wiht shock condition protection

Life of this patent

Wafer container wiht shock condition protection

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims23