JPS633455B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer processing apparatus used in a step of washing and drying a semiconductor wafer treated with a processing liquid.

[Prior art]

In the manufacturing process of semiconductor devices, there are chemical processing steps for semiconductor wafers (hereinafter referred to as "wafers"), such as wet etching and pre-diffusion treatment to clean the wafer before the diffusion step. In these steps, washing with pure water and drying after washing are usually performed after chemical treatment.

Generally, in these processes, a large number of wafers are stored in dedicated cassettes for each processing step, and after being immersed in a processing solution, the wafers are often washed and dried while remaining in the cassette.

However, with this method, if the series of processes is automated, the transfer of wafers to each dedicated cassette,
This requires the supply and collection of each dedicated cassette, a storage space for the necessary cassettes, and regular cleaning of the cassettes, which increases the size of the processing equipment and creates wasted space. Further, there is a drawback in that dirt and the like attached to the cassettes brought into the cassettes enters the processing solution, and therefore each dedicated cassette must be periodically cleaned.

As a prior art to deal with this, there is a processing apparatus that does not bring in a dedicated cassette, in other words, the wafers in the cassette transported from another process are placed in a receiving part using a dedicated receiving jig (based on Teflon or quartz, etc.) for that processing process. (formed from the material used as material),
There is a device that uses a treatment tank for treatment.

According to this prior art device, wafers only need to be transferred to and from the cassettes at the receiving section and the outlet section, and there is no need to introduce dirt into the processing solution or wash each dedicated cassette.
Improvements have been made in quality and work.

[Summary of the invention]

This invention is an embodiment of the method according to the above-mentioned prior art, in which washed wafers on a receiving jig in a washing tank are transferred one by one by a first clamping transfer device to a centrifugal dewatering device. Transfer the wafer to the frame on a receiving member, place it horizontally, dry it by rotational dehydration, and place the dehydrated wafer on the upper side of the rotating frame on the guiding tool that has passed through the bottom opening of the cassette placed on the pedestal. The wafers are transferred and placed by the second clamping and transferring device, and placed in the storage groove of the cassette by lowering the guide tool, and this is repeated one by one until the wafers are dehydrated and dried one by one and placed in the cassette one by one. We have developed a semiconductor wafer processing equipment that improves the cleaning effect by cleaning only the wafers without bringing in the cassettes from the process, and eliminates the need to bring in dust using a dedicated cassette or to periodically clean the dedicated cassettes. is intended to provide.

[Embodiments of the invention]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a wafer processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a large number of wafers, 2 is a washing tank, and has multiple injection ports 3 on the top.
is provided and sprays pure water to clean the wafer 1. 2a is a drain port provided at the bottom of the washing tank 1;
2b is a shelf provided below the washing tank 1, and 4 is a receiving jig for receiving a large number of wafers 1 upright in parallel from below, and is made of a material based on Teflon or quartz. , a large number of retaining grooves 5a, 6a are formed in the longitudinal direction on the upper surface of each receiving part 5, 6.
is provided to hold one wafer 1 at a time. FIG. 2 shows four parts of this receiving jig.

Returning to FIG. 1, 7 is a support member for the receiving jig 4;
The feed drive device 8 moves the receiving jig 4 into the holding groove 5.
It is designed to feed intermittently to one groove pitch of a and 6a.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a first clamping transfer device, which is attached to the underframe 9 and is constructed as follows. 11
is a vertical drive device that supports the movable rod 12 and moves it up and down. Reference numeral 13 denotes a rotary drive device attached to the upper end of the movable rod 12, which supports the support arm 14 and rotates it by 90 degrees in the direction of arrow C and back in the direction of D, and rotates it in the direction of arrow E from a horizontal position. Rotate it 180 degrees to the position shown by the chain line, then rotate it back in the F direction. Reference numeral 15 designates a pair of corresponding clamping pieces, each of which is fixed to the support arm 14 and rotatably supported at its upper end by each support rod 16 extended from the support arm 14. It is rotatably supported in the middle by 17. Reference numeral 18 denotes a pair of vertical moving devices attached to the support arms 14, which move each movable support rod 17 upward in the direction of arrow G, open the pair of clamping pieces 15 as shown by solid lines, and descend in the direction H. The pair of clamping pieces 15 are narrowed as shown by the chain lines. 19 is the pinch piece 1 of both sides
A pair of upper and lower claw pieces are attached to the inside of the wafer 5, both of which face each other, and are used to clamp and hold the wafer 1 from both sides of the outer circumference. A state in which the wafer 1 is held between these claws 19 is shown in a plan sectional view in FIG. V-shaped grooves 1 are provided on the opposing surfaces of each claw piece 19.
9a is provided to sandwich the outer periphery of the wafer 1 so as not to damage both sides.

Returning to FIG. 1, 20 is a centrifugal dewatering device, which is constructed as follows. 21 is an enclosing frame attached to the underframe 9, 22 is a rotating frame, and a plurality of receiving members 23 are fixed to the outer peripheral side of the upper surface. 24 is the enclosure frame 21
The rotating shaft penetrates through the bottom of the rotating shaft and is rotatably supported via a bearing, and the rotating frame 22 is fixed to the upper end.
It is rotated at high speed by a lower drive motor (not shown). One wafer 1 is transferred from the receiving jig 4 by the clamping transfer device 10 and placed on the receiving member 23. A cover (not shown) is attached to the enclosure 21, and then the wafer 1 is moved at high speed by the rotating frame 22. It is rotated, centrifuged, dehydrated, and dried. In addition, the enclosure 21
A drain port and an exhaust port (both not shown) are attached to the bottom of the underframe 9. The rotating frame 22 and the receiving member 23 are shown in a plan view in FIG. The receiving member 23 is made of Teflon or the like, and as shown in FIG. 5, the receiving surface 23a is formed as a small-area protruding surface to minimize contact with the wafer 1, eliminate the influence of contamination, and improve the drainage effect. We are trying to improve this.

Returning to FIG. 1 again, reference numeral 25 denotes a second clamping transfer device disposed on the underframe 9 beside the centrifugal dewatering device 20, and is configured the same as the first clamping transfer device 10. The wafer 1 that has been dehydrated and dried on the receiving member 23 is held by each claw piece 19 of both the sandwiching pieces 15.
The wafer 1 is held in the horizontal position by 180 degrees in the E direction and rotated in the C direction to bring the wafer 1 into a vertical position.

Next, 26 is a cassette holder, on which a clean cassette 27 for transportation is placed. Cassette 27
There are storage grooves 2 on the inner surfaces of both sides in the opposing vertical direction.
A large number of wafers 7a are provided in the longitudinal direction so that a large number of wafers 1 can be stored vertically and in parallel. The pedestal 26 is configured to intermittently feed the cassette 27 in the longitudinal direction to the groove pitch of the housing groove 27a1 by a feeding device (not shown). Reference numeral 28 denotes a guide tool supported by the underframe 9 so as to be movable up and down, and has a single support groove 28a on its upper surface for receiving and supporting the lower portions of the 11 wafers, and is raised by a vertical drive device (not shown). It passes through the opening at the bottom of the cassette 27 and reaches the position indicated by the chain line, receives the wafer 1 from the clamping transfer device 25 in an upright position, and is lowered to place the wafer 1 into the storage groove 27a of the cassette 27.
I try to fit it from the edge.

In the centrifugal dewatering device 20, when the rotating frame 22 is stopped, each claw piece 19 of the clamping piece 15 descending from the second clamping transfer device 25 is attached to each receiving member 23.
A stop positioning device (not shown) is provided to stop the vehicle at a position to avoid hitting the vehicle.

In addition, each receiving member 2 is
In a normal state, the center position of the wafer 1 transferred onto the rotating frame 22 is at the axial center P of the rotating frame 22, as shown in FIG.
It will be posted accordingly. However, due to variations in the diameter of the wafer 1, when the orientation flat cut out on the outer periphery of the wafer 1 is located at the position of the receiving member 23, or after dehydration, eccentricity may occur as shown in Figure 7. . In such a situation,
The wafer 1 may be hit by the descending claws 19 of the clamping and transferring device 25, causing cracks.
To deal with this, as shown in FIG.
A centering device 29 is provided. In this centering device 29, as shown in Fig. a, four pressing members 30 are arranged in the middle of each receiving member 23 at equal intervals in the circumferential direction. The tip end surface of each of these pressing members 30 is aligned with the axial center P of the rotating frame 22.
It is equidistant from As shown in FIG. 8b, the moving means (not shown) of the centering device 29 advances each pressing member 30 in the direction M at the same speed toward the axial center P, so that the center position of the wafer 1 is adjusted to the axial center P. Stop when it meets. Continuing, c
As shown in the figure, each pressing member 30 is moved back in the N direction. The tip end surface of the pressing member 30 is provided with a V-shaped groove (not shown) in the same way as the claw piece 19 shown in FIG. It's like this. As described above, both clamping pieces 15 of the clamping and transferring device 25 reach the center of the rotating frame 22, and then lower and align the wafer 1 with the center of the rotating frame 22. By pushing out the movable support rod 17, both clamping pieces 15 become narrower, and the wafer 1 can be clamped by each claw piece 19 without any trouble.

The operation of the apparatus of the above embodiment is as follows.
First, a large number of wafers 1 that have been processed with a processing liquid in a processing tank (not shown) in the previous process are transferred in one batch from a receiving jig in the processing tank to a transfer device (all not shown). The holding grooves 5 are lowered onto the receiving jig 4 in the washing tank 2.
Accepted by a, 6a. In this way, each injection port 3
Each wafer 1 is cleaned by spraying pure water from the wafer. When cleaning is completed, the support arm 14 of the clamping and moving device 10 is brought to the solid line position in FIG. 1, and is lowered a predetermined distance in the direction B. Here, each movable support rod 17 is lowered in the H direction, the pair of clamping pieces 15 are narrowed, and each claw piece 19 clamps one wafer 1 at the end. Next, the support arm 14 is raised and rotated by 90 degrees in the D direction, and
Rotate 180° horizontally in the E direction, as shown by the chain line.
The wafer 1 is placed in a horizontal position above the rotating frame 22,
Reach a position where the centers are almost aligned. Therefore, support arm 1
4 is lowered, and the wafer 1 is placed on each receiving member 23. Both clamping pieces 15 are spread, and the support arm 14 is raised and rotated by 90 degrees in the C direction, and horizontally rotated by 180 degrees in the F direction to return to the position indicated by the solid line.

To transfer the next wafer 1 on the receiving jig 4, the receiving jig 4 is fed one groove pitch by the feeding drive device 8, and the same operation as described above is repeated by the clamping and transferring device 10.

On the other hand, the wafer 1 that has been dehydrated and dried by the centrifugal dewatering device 20 is corrected in position to the axial center P of the rotating frame 22 by the centering device 29. Continuing,
The support arm 14 of the second clamping transfer device 25 is rotated so that the pair of clamping pieces 15 reach above the wafer 1, the support arm 14 is lowered to a predetermined position, and the pair of clamping pieces 1
5 and the wafer 1 is held between each claw piece 19. The support arm 14 is raised and rotated by 90 degrees, and horizontally rotated by 180 degrees, so that the wafer 1 reaches above the guide tool 28, which is in an upright position and is waiting to be raised.
At this point, the support arm 14 is lowered to receive the wafer 1 in the support groove 28a. Spread out the pair of scissors 15,
Raise the support arm 14. The guide tool 28 is lowered and the wafer 1 is placed in the receiving groove 27a at the end of the cassette 27.

By repeating the above series of operations, the dehydrated and dried wafers 1 reach above the guide tool 28 by the single-wafer transfer device 25, but the cassette 27 is fed one groove pitch each time by the feed device of the pedestal 26, and the wafer 1 is guided By lowering the tool 28, the wafer 1 is placed in the accommodation groove 27a at the end.
They will be accommodated in order.

FIG. 9 is a schematic plan view of a wafer centering device section of a centrifugal dewatering apparatus showing another embodiment of the present invention. Three pressing members 32 of the centering device 31 are disposed between each receiving member 23, and are normally lowered. When the dehydration and drying of the wafer 1 is completed, each pressing member 32 is lifted up, moved forward toward the axial center P of the rotating frame 22 by a moving means (not shown), and is clamped, thereby moving the center of the wafer 1 to the axial center P. It will be stopped when it matches. Subsequently, each pressing member 32
is retracted and lowered to return to its return position.

FIGS. 10 and 11 are perspective views of receiving members on the rotating frame showing other different embodiments of the present invention. In FIG. 10, the upper surface of the receiving member 33 is formed in a V shape with narrow receiving surfaces 33a on both sides, and the inner surface of the upright side is also formed in a V shape.
Further, to improve drainage, the V-shaped grooves on the horizontal sides are sloped deeply inward, and the V-shaped grooves on the vertical sides are sloped deeply upward. Further, in FIG. 11, the receiving surface 34a of the receiving member 34 is formed as a single protrusion in the circumferential direction.

Note that the shape of the receiving surface of the receiving member is based on wafer 1.
In addition to the above-mentioned embodiments, various shapes may be used as long as the water is received in a small area and drainage is improved.

Further, in the above embodiment, the wafer 1 of the claw piece 19
Although the grooves sandwiching the wafer 1 are formed as V-shaped grooves, other shapes may be used as long as the grooves can sandwich the wafer 1 without damaging both sides of the wafer 1.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the clamping transfer device 1
0 and 25 are each provided with a pair of claw pieces 19 on a pair of opposing clamping arms 15, and each clamping arm 15 is supported by a support rod 16.
The wafer 1 is supported by a movable rod 17, and the outer circumference of the wafer 1 is clamped and held from both sides by each claw piece 19.
In addition to the above-mentioned embodiments, other mechanisms may be used as long as they hold the .

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, a large number of washed wafers on a receiving jig in a washing tank are held one by one by the first holding and transferring device, and the rotating frame of the centrifugal dewatering apparatus is The wafers are transferred onto each of the upper receiving members, placed horizontally, rotated and dried, and the second clamping transfer device clamps one wafer on the receiving member, and the bottom opening of the cassette on the cassette pedestal is opened. The wafers are transferred to the cassette and placed upright on the raised guide, and the guide is lowered to accommodate the wafers in the storage groove of the cassette.The above series of operations is repeated to dehydrate and dry the washed wafers one by one. The items are stored in cassettes one after another. As a result, only the wafers need to be cleaned without bringing in the cassette from the previous process for washing with water, improving the cleaning effect, preventing dirt from being brought in by the dedicated cassette, and allowing centrifugal dewatering to be performed on a single wafer. The centrifugal dewatering device is very small and simple, instead of cleaning each cassette as in the case of cassettes, and there are other effects such as eliminating the need for periodic cleaning of each dedicated cassette as in the past.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a semiconductor wafer processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a receiving jig holding a wafer shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a pair of wafers shown in FIG. 1. 4 is a plan view of the rotating frame portion of FIG. 1, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the receiving member portion of FIG. 4, and FIG. The figure is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the state in which the center positions of the wafers on the rotating frame are aligned, FIG. 7 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the state in which the center positions of the wafers on the rotating frame are shifted, and FIG. A plan view showing a state in which a wafer on a rotating frame is centered by a centering device. FIG. 9 is a plan view showing a state in which a wafer on a rotating frame is centered by a centering device, showing another embodiment of the present invention. 10 and 11 are perspective views of a receiving member portion showing different embodiments of the present invention. 1... Semiconductor wafer, 2... Washing tank, 4...
Receiving jig, 5, 6... Receiving portion, 5a, 6a... Holding groove, 8... Feeding drive device, 10... First clamping transfer device, 12... Movable support shaft, 14... Support arm , 15... Clasp piece, 19... Claw piece, 20...
Centrifugal dewatering device, 22...Rotating frame, 23...Receiving member, 23a...Receiving surface, 24...Rotating shaft, 25...
...Second clamping transfer device, 26...Cassette holder, 27...Cassette, 27a...Accommodating groove, 28
... Guide tool, 29, 31 ... Centering device, 3
0, 32...pressing portion, 33, 34...receiving member, 33a, 34a...receiving surface, and the same reference numerals in the drawings indicate the same or equivalent parts.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Arranged in a water washing tank, a large number of semiconductor wafers are held vertically in parallel in a plurality of holding grooves from below, and are intermittently fed to each holding groove pitch by a feed drive device. A receiving jig, with a pair of opposing claws fixed to a pair of clamping pieces, lifts the semiconductor wafer on the receiving jig by pinching it from the end and from both sides of the outer circumference, and lifting the semiconductor wafer. A first clamping and transferring device that turns the wafer into a horizontal position and rotates it to the opposite horizontal position and lowers the semiconductor wafer, and one semiconductor wafer transferred by this clamping and transferring device is placed horizontally on the plurality of receiving members of the rotating frame. A centrifugal dehydrator that is placed in an upright position and performs centrifugal dewatering by rotation, uses a pair of opposing claws fixed to a pair of clamps to remove the semiconductor wafers on the rotating frame from both sides of the outer circumference after dehydration. A second clamping and transferring device that clamps and ascends the semiconductor wafer, places it in an upright position, and rotates it to the opposite vertical position and lowers it; a cassette having multiple vertical storage grooves on both inner surfaces; is placed on the upper surface, and a cassette cradle for intermittently feeding the cassettes to one groove pitch by a feeding device; A semiconductor wafer processing apparatus comprising a guide tool for receiving the lowered semiconductor wafer from below into a receiving groove on the upper surface and lowering the lowered semiconductor wafer and storing the lowered semiconductor wafer in the receiving groove of the cassette from the end. 2. With respect to the semiconductor wafer placed on the receiving member of the rotating frame, three pieces are arranged outwardly of the outer circumference at equal intervals in the circumferential direction and at equal distances from the axial center of the rotating frame. Processing of a semiconductor wafer according to claim 1, further comprising a centering device for uniformly advancing the pressing member in the axial center direction and pushing the semiconductor wafer from the outer circumference to center the semiconductor wafer. Device. 3. The semiconductor wafer processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the semiconductor wafer receiving surface of the receiving member on the rotating frame is formed as a small-area protruding surface.