CN112845305A

CN112845305A - Wafer cleaning device

Info

Publication number: CN112845305A
Application number: CN202110001414.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 周小云; 黄振伟; 王昭钦; 张大伟
Original assignee: Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-01-04
Filing date: 2021-01-04
Publication date: 2021-05-28
Anticipated expiration: 2041-01-04
Also published as: CN112845305B

Abstract

The application discloses a wafer cleaning device, which comprises a base; the nozzles comprise liquid inlet holes and liquid outlet holes which are oppositely arranged; wherein, each nozzle is provided with an extension part communicated with the liquid outlet hole at the position of the liquid outlet hole; the deformation structure is arranged around the extension part and used for supporting the extension part and adjusting the angle of the extension part through self deformation. Through setting up the nozzle with adjustable play liquid angle on the base for the washing angle and the orientation of washing liquid do not rely on the angle change of base completely, the play liquid angle of each nozzle can be adjusted independently of the base on the base, when base horizontal migration, the washing liquid not only can wash in vertical direction, still can have washing of certain angle with vertical direction, realization that can be more effective more thorough is to the washing of wafer and wafer carrier, reduce the pollution of pollutants such as piece that wafer planarization in-process produced to the wafer, thereby improve wafer quality.

Description

Wafer cleaning device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to cleaning after polishing a wafer, and more particularly, to a cleaning apparatus after polishing a wafer to better clean a gap between the wafer and a carrier.

Background

In the process of manufacturing semiconductor components from wafers, a plurality of semiconductor processing apparatuses and tools are available, in which there is usually an apparatus for Polishing the wafers to obtain a flat surface, which is important for the preparation of semiconductor devices, and a global planarization process can be realized by Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP), which is widely used in modern semiconductor devices, and the wafers are usually carried by a wafer carrier during planarization and loading/unloading, and for protecting the surface of the wafers, the wafer carrier commonly used at present stage is usually a ring-shaped edge contact type carrier which holds the wafers during loading and unloading of the wafers in/from the machine, specifically, the machine can be a CMP device, and the edge contact type wafer carrier is in contact with the edge area around the wafer pattern area, and does not contact the pattern area of the wafer, so as to prevent the pattern area of the wafer from being touched in the whole loading and unloading process and prevent the pattern area from being polluted or scratched.

Edge-contact wafer carriers usually have not only a bottom annular support surface, but also vertical guiding side walls on the outer edges of the annular support surface. When a wafer is placed on the wafer carrier, a gap is formed between the edge of the wafer and the side wall, and the gap is easy to accumulate ground residue and debris to influence the wafer, so that the existing cleaning device cannot effectively clean the gap.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a wafer cleaning device which can better clean a wafer and a gap between the wafer and a carrier, and comprises a nozzle with a variable liquid outlet angle.

The invention provides a wafer cleaning device, which is characterized by comprising:

a base;

the nozzles are positioned on the base and comprise liquid inlet holes and liquid outlet holes which are oppositely arranged;

wherein each nozzle is provided with an extension part communicated with the liquid outlet hole at the position of the liquid outlet hole,

the deformation structure is arranged around the extension part and used for supporting the extension part and adjusting the angle of the extension part through self deformation.

Preferably, the plurality of nozzles are arranged on the base in a honeycomb shape.

Preferably, the bottom surface of the nozzle is a regular hexagon.

Preferably, the deformation structure is an air bag, the air bag is arranged around the extension part, and the air bag comprises at least two cavities which are not communicated with each other.

Preferably, when a cavity of the airbag is filled with gas, the volume of the cavity is increased, so that the water outlet end of the extension part is inclined towards the opposite side of the cavity.

Preferably, the air bags on the same side of at least part of the nozzles in the plurality of nozzles are communicated, so that the liquid outlet angles of at least part of the nozzle extension parts can be synchronously adjusted.

Preferably, the air bags on different sides of at least part of the nozzles in the plurality of nozzles are communicated, so that the liquid outlet angles of the nozzles have different combinations.

Preferably, the deformation structure is made of a memory alloy, and the memory alloy deforms according to different temperatures so as to adjust the deformation structure.

Preferably, the wafer cleaning apparatus further comprises: and the plurality of water inlet pipelines are connected with the liquid inlet hole so as to respectively provide different cleaning liquids for each nozzle.

Preferably, the cleaning solution includes at least one of deionized water, hydrogen peroxide, and hydrofluoric acid.

According to the wafer cleaning device provided by the embodiment of the invention, the nozzles with adjustable liquid outlet angles are arranged on the base, so that the washing angle and direction of the cleaning liquid are not completely dependent on the angle change of the base, the liquid outlet angle of each nozzle on the base can be adjusted independently of the base, when the base moves horizontally, the cleaning liquid can be used for washing in the vertical direction and can also be used for washing at a certain angle with the vertical direction, the wafer and a wafer carrier can be cleaned more effectively and thoroughly, the pollution of pollutants such as debris and the like generated in the wafer planarization process to the wafer is reduced, and the wafer quality is improved.

Furthermore, for the edge contact type wafer carrier, because a gap is formed between the wafer and the side wall of the wafer carrier, the cleaning device in the prior art cannot effectively clean the gap, so that pollutants are accumulated at the gap, the current wafer borne by the wafer carrier is influenced, and the subsequent wafer borne by the wafer carrier can be influenced.

Drawings

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of an edge contact wafer carrier.

Figure 2 shows a top view of an edge contact wafer carrier carrying wafers.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a wafer cleaning apparatus in the prior art.

Fig. 4a and 4b show a top view and a cross-sectional view of a wafer cleaning apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic view of a nozzle of a wafer cleaning apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic view of a nozzle in a wafer cleaning apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Like elements in the various figures are denoted by like reference numerals. For purposes of clarity, the various features in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. In addition, certain well known components may not be shown. For simplicity, the structure after morphological transformation can be depicted in one figure.

It will be understood that when a structure or region is referred to as being "on" or "over" another structure or region, it can be directly on the other structure or region or intervening structures or regions may also be present. And, if the product is turned over, that structure, region will be "under" or "beneath" another structure, region, or region.

If it is intended to describe the situation directly above another structure, another region, the expression "directly above … …" or "above and adjacent to … …" will be used herein.

In the present application, the term "semiconductor structure" refers to the general term for the entire semiconductor structure formed in the various steps of manufacturing a memory device, including all layers or regions that have been formed. In the following description, numerous specific details of the invention, such as structure, materials, dimensions, processing techniques and techniques of the devices are described in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the invention. However, as will be understood by those skilled in the art, the present invention may be practiced without these specific details.

The present invention may be embodied in various forms, some examples of which are described below.

In the conventional CMP apparatus, wafers are usually carried by a carrier for movement, and in order to protect the pattern area in the middle of the wafer, an edge contact type wafer carrier is usually used as shown in fig. 1, the wafer carrier 100 includes an annular supporting surface 110 and a sidewall 120 vertically disposed around the supporting surface 110, the supporting surface 110 is used for contacting with the edge of the wafer to provide support for the wafer while protecting the pattern area in the middle of the wafer, the sidewall 120 can prevent the wafer from sliding out of the supporting surface 110, and further, the sidewall 120 can play a guiding role when the wafer is moved into the carrier.

Fig. 2 is a top view of an edge contact wafer carrier carrying a wafer, and it can be seen that a wafer 200 is placed in the wafer carrier 100, wherein the wafer 200 has a dimension larger than the circular inner diameter of the support surface 110, such that the edge of the non-patterned area of the wafer 200 contacts the support surface 110 to provide support for the wafer 200, and a gap 130 is provided between the wafer 200 and the sidewall 120, wherein the gap 130 is highly susceptible to accumulation of contaminants such as debris from polishing during wafer planarization, which may affect the wafer quality.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a wafer cleaning apparatus in the prior art, where the wafer cleaning apparatus 300 includes a base 310 and 5 nozzles 320 arranged in a straight line on the base 310, and a conventional cleaning operation in the prior art is to horizontally move the cleaning apparatus 300 and spray a cleaning solution through the nozzles 320 to clean the wafer 200 and the wafer carrier 100, and since the cleaning apparatus 300 moves horizontally, the cleaning solution sprayed by the nozzles 320 is perpendicular to the base 310 and vertical to the wafer 200 and the wafer carrier 100, and since the wafer 200 has a certain thickness, contaminants in a gap 130 between the wafer 200 and the wafer carrier 100 are difficult to be removed by the cleaning operation of the cleaning apparatus 300, and there are some contaminants accumulated in the gap 130, which further affects the quality of the wafer 200.

Fig. 4a and 4b respectively show a top view and a cross-sectional view of a wafer cleaning apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention, wherein fig. 4b is a cross-sectional view taken along section line a-a in fig. 4a, for example, the wafer cleaning apparatus 400 according to the first embodiment of the present invention comprises a nozzle 410 and a base 420, wherein the bottom surface of the nozzle 410 is, for example, a regular hexagon, the surface of the base 420 is provided with a plurality of nozzles 410, the plurality of nozzles 410 are arranged in an array, the nozzle 410 comprises a liquid inlet 411 and a liquid outlet 412, the liquid inlet 411 is connected to a liquid inlet pipe (not shown) for supplying a cleaning liquid, the liquid outlet 412 is further provided with an extension 413, the extension 413 is supported by a deformation structure 414, the deformation structure 414 comprises a deformable material, the support of the extension 413 by the deformation structure 414 is changed by controlling the deformation of the deformable material, and the liquid outlet angle, so that the angle of the cleaning liquid sprayed from the nozzle 410 can be adjusted.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic view of a nozzle in a wafer cleaning apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention, the nozzle 410 includes a liquid inlet 411 and a liquid outlet 412, wherein the liquid inlet 411 is connected to a water inlet 415, the water inlet 415 provides cleaning liquid for the nozzle 410, the liquid outlet 412 is provided with an extension 413, the extension 413 is, for example, a circular tubular structure, in this embodiment, the extension 413 is supported by an air bag 4141, and of course, a side wall of the extension 413 may also be a part of the air bag 4141. Specifically, the air bag 4141 includes, for example, two cavities that are independent from each other and are disposed opposite to each other in the left-right direction, and if it is desired that the angle of the cleaning liquid ejected from the nozzle 410 is inclined toward the right side, the cavity on the left side of the air bag 4141 is inflated to expand and press the water outlet end of the extension 413 to incline toward the right side, and naturally, the gas in the cavity on the right side can be reduced accordingly; if the extension part 413 is expected to be reset, the air in the left and right cavities can be balanced, so that the left and right sides of the extension part 413 are ensured to have the same support, and the extension part 413 is enabled to be restored to the vertical state.

Further, since fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view, only the case that the airbag 4141 includes the left and right cavities is described above, and of course, the airbag 4141 may be divided into a plurality of oppositely disposed cavities according to the requirement of adjusting the angle, so as to obtain a more various inclination angles, and the specific degree of the inclination angle may also be adjusted by adjusting the airbag and the cavities according to the requirement. Certainly, since the base 420 of the cleaning apparatus of the present invention has the plurality of nozzles 410, the air bag cavities on the same side of the plurality of nozzles 410 may be communicated with each other to achieve the synchronous adjustment of the liquid outlet angle, and similarly, the air bag cavities on different sides may also be communicated with each other, and it should be noted that after the air bag cavities on different sides are communicated with each other to adjust the liquid outlet angle, the water flows of two different nozzles 410 collide before contacting the wafer or the wafer carrier, which results in the reduction of the rinsing flow rate of the cleaning liquid.

Fig. 6 is a schematic view showing a nozzle of a wafer cleaning apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention, which is similar to the first embodiment in most of its structure and will not be described herein again, and the difference between the second embodiment and the first embodiment is that the deformation structure in this embodiment is changed from an air bag 4141 to a memory metal 4142, specifically, a connection ring 416 is disposed at the water outlet end of the extension 413, the connection ring 416 is connected to the memory metal 4142, the connection ring 416 is supported by the memory metal 4142, so as to provide support for the extension 413, the shape of the memory metal 4142 is different at different temperatures, two memory metals 4142 are disposed at the left and right sides of the connection ring 416, respectively, for example, at 20 degrees celsius, the left and right memory metals 4142 are slightly arched and symmetrical to each other, the extension 413 is in a vertical state, at 40 degrees celsius, the left memory metal 4142 is straightened, and the right memory metal 4142 is arched to protrude more to the, so that the connection ring 416 is moved to the right side and thus the outlet angle of the extension 413 is inclined to the right side. Of course, in the above-described case where only two memory metals provide support, a plurality of memory metals arranged oppositely may be adopted according to the requirement, and the temperature adjustment may depend on the temperature change of the base 420 where the nozzle is located, or may be performed by adjusting the temperature of the cleaning solution.

Further, only one water inlet pipe 415 is shown in the nozzles in fig. 5 and fig. 6, the water inlet pipe 415 provides a cleaning solution for the nozzles, the cleaning solution is, for example, a liquid or a solution such as deionized water, hydrogen peroxide, hydrofluoric acid, etc., and different cleaning solutions can be selected according to requirements, or of course, a plurality of water inlet pipes 415 can be provided for a single nozzle, and are respectively connected to the liquid inlet holes 411 to provide different types of cleaning solutions for the nozzles 410.

In the above description, technical details of specific patterning, manufacturing, and the like of each structure are not described in detail. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that structures, regions, etc. of the desired shape may be formed by various technical means. In addition, in order to form the same structure, those skilled in the art can also design a method which is not exactly the same as the method described above. In addition, although the embodiments are described separately above, this does not mean that the measures in the embodiments cannot be used in advantageous combination.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. However, these examples are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. The scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof. Various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention, and these alternatives and modifications are intended to fall within the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A wafer cleaning apparatus, comprising:

a base;

2. The wafer cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of nozzles are arranged on the base in a honeycomb shape.

3. The wafer cleaning device according to claim 2, wherein the bottom surface of the nozzle is a regular hexagon.

4. The wafer cleaning device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the deformation structure is a bladder, the bladder is disposed around the extension, and the bladder comprises at least two cavities that are not communicated with each other.

5. The wafer cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein when a chamber of the air bag is filled with air, the volume of the chamber increases such that the water outlet end of the extension portion is inclined toward the side opposite to the side where the chamber is located.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the air bags of at least some of the nozzles are connected to each other at the same side of the nozzle extension, so that the liquid outlet angles of at least some of the nozzle extensions can be adjusted simultaneously.

7. The wafer cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein at least some of the nozzles are connected to the air bags on different sides of the nozzles, so that the nozzles have different combinations of exit angles.

8. The wafer cleaning device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the material of the deformation structure is a memory alloy, and the memory alloy deforms according to different temperatures and adjusts the angle of the extension portion by deforming itself.

9. The wafer cleaning apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: and the plurality of water inlet pipelines are connected with the liquid inlet hole so as to respectively provide different cleaning liquids for each nozzle.

10. The wafer cleaning apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cleaning solution comprises at least one of deionized water, hydrogen peroxide, hydrofluoric acid.