CN117116807A - Wet processing equipment and method - Google Patents

Abstract

The application relates to a wet processing device and a method, wherein the wet processing device comprises: the loading table is used for receiving a carrier for accommodating wafers; the groove body is used for containing liquid capable of wetting the wafer; a driving mechanism; the driving mechanism is connected with the feeding table, and the feeding table is driven by the driving mechanism to bear the carrier and at least comprises: in the first state, the carrier carried by the feeding table is positioned above the liquid level in the tank body; in the second state, the carrier supported by the loading table is positioned below the liquid level in the tank body, and the wafer in the carrier is obliquely placed relative to the vertical direction. According to the application, the loading table and the driving mechanism which can unify the inclination direction of the wafer are adopted, so that the loaded wafer cannot change in direction in the liquid due to the influence of buoyancy, the identification or the grabbing of the loaded wafer by subsequent machinery is not influenced, the wafer is conveniently and accurately grabbed by a manipulator, the time required by the manipulator for transferring the wafer is reduced, and the loading of wet processing equipment and the capacity of cleaning equipment are facilitated.

Description

Wet processing equipment and method

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of semiconductors, in particular to wet processing equipment and a cleaning method.

Background

In the field of semiconductor integrated circuit fabrication, different processes require different equipment for processing wafers, for example, in a CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) process, it is necessary to planarize the surfaces of the wafers with CMP equipment, and after the CMP process, it is necessary to clean residual polishing liquid and surface defects and contaminants in the CMP process with a cleaning equipment. The existing technology and equipment is an on-line type, the wafer is transmitted from the CMP equipment, and is directly transmitted to the cleaning equipment on line for cleaning technology treatment after being subjected to CMP treatment. I.e. each CMP apparatus is provided with a cleaning apparatus. Because the CMP process consumes longer time and the productivity is smaller than that of the cleaning equipment, namely the time for carrying out the CMP process on one wafer is longer than the working time of the wafer in the cleaning equipment, the cleaning equipment can carry out the cleaning work after the CMP process is ended, and the cleaning equipment is stopped for a long time and waits for the productivity to be wasted.

Furthermore, each CMP apparatus may not be equipped with an in-line cleaning apparatus due to factory space planning constraints. If the wafers processed by the conventional CMP equipment are uniformly fed into a cleaning equipment, the wafers in the carrier are required to be vertically placed in the carrier, and then the wafers in the carrier are taken and placed in a process tank of the cleaning equipment by a mechanical arm or a manual mode to complete different process steps. However, other problems are also present, as is well known to those skilled in the art, in that the wafer needs to be wetted before being processed in the cleaning apparatus. In order to facilitate the taking or storing of the wafer from the carrier, or to place the wafer in hard contact with the carrier to cause fragments, some gaps are usually left between the wafer and the slots of the carrier, i.e. the wafer may slightly move relative to the slots of the carrier under the action of external force. Therefore, when the carrier with the wafer is placed in the tank with the solution, the wafer in the carrier can be subjected to liquid turbulence to move, so that the orientation direction of the wafer in the soaked carrier is different, the subsequent recognition and grabbing of the manipulator are inconvenient, the difficulty of accurately grabbing the wafer by the manipulator is increased, the time required by the manipulator to transport the wafer is increased, and the productivity of the cleaning equipment is also affected.

Disclosure of Invention

Accordingly, embodiments of the present application provide a wet processing apparatus and a cleaning method for solving at least one of the problems in the prior art.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a wet processing apparatus comprising:

the loading table is used for receiving a carrier for accommodating wafers;

a tank for Cheng Fangneng liquid capable of wetting the wafer;

a driving mechanism;

the driving mechanism is connected with the feeding table, and the feeding table is driven by the driving mechanism to bear the carrier and at least comprises:

in a first state, the carrier carried by the feeding table is positioned above the liquid level in the tank body;

in the second state, the carrier supported by the loading platform is positioned below the liquid level in the tank body, and the wafer in the carrier is obliquely placed relative to the vertical direction.

Optionally, in the wet processing apparatus of the present application, the carrier has a plurality of slots capable of accommodating the wafers, and when the loading table is in the second state, the slots are inclined with respect to the vertical direction.

Optionally, in the wet processing apparatus of the present application, the wafer is inclined at an angle of 1 ° to 10 ° with respect to the vertical direction when the loading table is in the second state.

Optionally, in the wet processing apparatus of the present application, a carrier detection sensor is installed on the loading table, and the driving mechanism drives the loading table to change from the first state to the second state when the carrier detection sensor does not detect the carrier to detect the carrier.

Optionally, the wet processing apparatus of the present application further comprises:

a transfer station for accommodating the infiltrated wafer;

the transfer manipulator is used for taking out the wafer in the groove body and throwing the wafer into the transfer station;

the process groove bodies are used for accommodating the wafers to be processed;

the process wafer transfer manipulator is used for grabbing the wafer from the transfer station or the process tank body and transferring the wafer;

the blanking table is used for placing the processed wafer;

and the blanking manipulator is used for taking the wafer out of the process groove body and transferring the wafer to the blanking table.

Optionally, the wet processing equipment of the present application, wherein the plurality of process tanks are divided into at least two rows of processing lines, including a first row of processing lines and a second row of processing lines; the feeding ends of the first row of processing lines and the second row of processing lines are respectively provided with the transfer manipulator, the transfer station and the feeding table, the discharging ends of the first row of processing lines and the second row of processing lines are respectively provided with the discharging table, and the discharging ends of the first row of processing lines and the second row of processing lines are respectively provided with the discharging manipulator or share the discharging manipulator; and one side of the first row of processing lines and one side of the second row of processing lines are respectively provided with the process sheet conveying mechanical arm.

Optionally, in the wet processing apparatus of the present application, a plurality of the process tanks are arranged in a row along a first direction, and the process transfer robot includes:

a first moving rail disposed along the first direction;

a longitudinal moving rail mounted on the first moving rail and disposed along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction;

the process gripper is arranged on the longitudinal moving track, and the grabbing part of the process gripper is matched with the wafer so as to be capable of grabbing the wafer;

a first driving member for driving the process gripper to move along the longitudinal movement track;

and the second driving piece is used for driving the longitudinal moving rail to move along the first moving rail.

Optionally, in the wet processing apparatus of the present application, at least one overturning process tank is included in the plurality of process tanks, and the overturning process tank is used for overturning the vertically placed wafer into a horizontal placement.

Optionally, the wet processing apparatus of the present application, the flipping process tank comprises:

the supporting seat is used for bearing the vertically placed wafer;

the lifting mechanism is used for driving the wafer to move to a lifting position or a lowering position;

the clamping mechanism is arranged at one side of the lifting position and used for clamping the wafer;

and the turnover mechanism is connected with the clamping mechanism and is used for driving the clamping mechanism to turn over so that the wafer on the clamping mechanism turns over to be in a horizontal orientation.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a wet processing method using the wet processing apparatus described above, the wet processing method comprising:

s1, taking a plurality of wafers which are processed by CMP from a plurality of CMP devices, and loading the wafers into the carrier in a centralized manner in a vertical direction;

s2, placing a carrier on a loading table, detecting the carrier by installing a carrier detection sensor on the loading table, wherein after the carrier detection sensor does not detect the carrier and is changed into the carrier, the driving mechanism drives the loading table to be changed into the second state from the first state, so that a wafer in the carrier is inclined by a certain angle relative to the vertical direction;

s3, after the wafers are soaked on the feeding table, controlling the transfer manipulator to take out the wafers in the carrier on the feeding table and transfer the wafers to the transfer station;

s4, controlling a process wafer conveying manipulator to transfer the wafer at the transfer station to each process tank body;

s5, controlling a blanking manipulator to take out the wafer from the process tank body and transfer the wafer to a blanking table.

According to the wet processing equipment and the wet processing method provided by the embodiment of the application, the loading table and the driving mechanism which can unify the inclination direction of the wafer are adopted, so that the loaded wafer cannot change in the liquid due to the influence of buoyancy, the subsequent machine is not influenced to identify or grasp the wafer, the manipulator is convenient to grasp the wafer accurately, the time required by the manipulator to transfer the wafer is reduced, and the loading and the capacity improvement of the cleaning equipment are also facilitated.

Additional aspects and advantages of the application will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the application.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the application and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the application and together with the description serve to explain the application and do not constitute a limitation on the application. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic top view of a cleaning apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of a cleaning apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a carrier structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a state change process of a feeding table according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a process wafer transfer manipulator according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a side structure of a turnover process tank according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a connection structure between a discharging manipulator and a discharging table according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic flow chart of a cleaning method according to an embodiment of the present application.

5. Discharging manipulator

11. First feeding table

12. Second feeding table

13. Third feeding table

14. Fourth feeding table

21. First transfer manipulator

22. Second transfer manipulator

41. First technology sheet conveying manipulator

42. Second technology conveying manipulator

61. First blanking table

62. Second blanking table

63. Third blanking table

64. Fourth blanking table

101. Carrier tool

102. Handle grip

111. Wafer with a plurality of wafers

122. Groove body

311. First transfer station

312. Second transfer station

321. First process tank

322. Ninth process tank

331. Second process tank

332. Tenth process tank

341. Third process tank

342. Eleventh process groove body

351. Fourth process tank

352. Twelfth process tank

361. Fifth process tank

362. Thirteenth process tank

371. Sixth process tank

372. Fourteenth process tank

381. Seventh process tank

382. Fifteenth process tank

391. Eighth process tank

392. Sixteenth technology groove body

401. First driving member

404. Second driving member

411. First craft paw

412. Second craft paw

413. Third process paw

421. Longitudinally moving rail

431. First moving track

901. Supporting seat

904. Lifting column

905. Lifting driving piece

906. Clamping cylinder

907. And (5) turning over the motor.

Detailed Description

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While exemplary embodiments of the application are shown in the drawings, it should be understood that the application may be embodied in various forms and should not be limited to the specific embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present application. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the application may be practiced without one or more of these details. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the application; that is, not all features of an actual implementation are described in detail herein, and well-known functions and constructions are not described in detail.

Spatially relative terms, such as "under … …," "under … …," "below," "under … …," "above … …," "above," and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element or feature as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use and operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements or features described as "under" or "beneath" other elements would then be oriented "on" the other elements or features. Thus, the exemplary terms "under … …" and "under … …" may include both an upper and a lower orientation. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of the associated listed items.

In order to provide a thorough understanding of the present application, detailed steps and detailed structures will be presented in the following description in order to explain the technical solution of the present application. Preferred embodiments of the present application are described in detail below, however, the present application may have other embodiments in addition to these detailed descriptions.

This embodiment provides a wet processing apparatus, as shown in fig. 1, including:

a loading table (a first loading table 11, a second loading table 12, a third loading table 13, a fourth loading table 14) for receiving a carrier for accommodating a wafer;

the tank 122 is shown in fig. 4, and is configured to hold a liquid capable of wetting the wafer, where the tank 122 may be disposed below the loading table, or may be disposed at a position where other loading tables are convenient to approach; specifically, the depth of the tank 122 is deep enough to fully submerge the wafer after filling with liquid;

a driving mechanism; the driving mechanism is connected with the feeding table, and the feeding table is driven by the driving mechanism to bear the carrier and at least comprises:

in the first state, the carrier received by the loading platform is located above the liquid level in the tank 122;

in the second state, the carrier received by the loading table is located below the liquid level in the tank 122, and the wafer in the carrier is placed obliquely relative to the vertical direction.

In this embodiment, as shown in fig. 3, a carrier 101 is used for loading the wafers 111, and the carrier 101 has a plurality of slots capable of accommodating the wafers, so that a plurality of the wafers 111 in the carrier 101 have a basic limit; specifically, the basic limitation refers to the fact that the size and shape of the wafer are matched with the length and width of the inner wall and the bottom of the carrier 101, for example, the wafer is circular, the carrier 101 should be circular-arc-shaped bottom and the arc is consistent with the wafer, and then the width of the carrier 101 should be equal to the diameter of the wafer. To facilitate manual or mechanical picking and placing of the carrier 101, a handle 102 may be provided on one side of the carrier 101. The depth of the groove 122 is designed to be slightly larger than the height of the carrier 101, so that the feeding table can be conveniently switched between the first state and the second state; as shown in fig. 4, the process of changing the first loading table 11 from the first state to the second state is illustrated from left to right, and specifically includes no-load in the first state, loading the carrier 101 in the first state, and driving the carrier 101 to be immersed in the tank 122 in the second state;

in order to enable the feeding table to be changed from the first state to the second state, the wafer in the carrier is inclined relative to the vertical direction, and the following scheme can be adopted:

1. the table top of the loading table forms an angle with the horizontal plane so that a plurality of wafers in the carrier 101 placed on the table top can tilt towards a uniform direction, as shown in fig. 4, the table top of the embodiment forms an angle alpha with the horizontal plane, and the angle alpha is 1-10 degrees.

2. The loading platform is provided with a hanging part of the carrier, when the carrier is hung at the hanging part, the internal slot is inclined to a certain extent with the vertical direction, and when the loading platform is in a second state, the angle between the slot and the wafer is 1-10 degrees relative to the vertical direction.

3. The loading platform is provided with an inclined driving piece of the carrier, and the inclined driving piece is used for driving the carrier to rotate so as to achieve an inclined position compared with the original position. The tilting driving part can be a motor or a power source such as an air cylinder, an oil cylinder and the like.

The wet processing apparatus of this embodiment adopts a working principle that the carrier 101 is matched with the inclined structure of the loading table, and after the wafer is loaded into the carrier 101 and then placed on the loading table to complete the placement of the carrier, the driving mechanism operates, and the loading table descends into the wet processing apparatusThe tank 122 is configured such that the inclined wafer in the carrier 101 is uniformly oriented and the gravity of the inclined wafer itself can be decomposed into a direction along the inclined direction and a direction perpendicular to the inclined direction, and the external force perpendicular to the inclined direction must be applied to the wafer to change the inclined direction so as to be greater than the component of the gravity of the wafer itself perpendicular to the inclined direction (hereinafter referred to as the first component), and the buoyancy of the wafer is smaller than the gravity of the wafer so that the component of the buoyancy perpendicular to the inclined direction (hereinafter referred to as the second component) is smaller than the first component, and the component of the liquid turbulence applied to the wafer perpendicular to the inclined direction plus the second component hardly exceeds the first component (because the difference between the gravity and the buoyancy is sufficiently large, and the water density is 1 g/cm) ³ The material density of the wafer is mostly 2g/cm ³ Above), if the wafer rotates, the component force perpendicular to the inclined direction provided by the turbulence also overcomes the liquid resistance applied when the wafer rotates, so that the inclined wafer does not change the inclined direction in the liquid, thereby facilitating the subsequent actions of the mechanical arm for identifying or grabbing the wafer. When the vertical wafer enters the tank body, the direction of gravity of the vertical wafer and the supporting force provided by the carrier are along the vertical direction, and no component force exists in the transverse direction, so that the vertical wafer can fall down leftwards or rightwards randomly once being subjected to uncertain turbulence in the liquid. In addition, it should be noted that the wet processing apparatus of the present embodiment is an off-line apparatus, and the conventional on-line apparatus is not limited by the productivity limitation of the previous process apparatus.

Optionally, in the wet processing apparatus of this embodiment, a carrier detection sensor is installed on the loading table, and when the carrier detection sensor does not detect that the carrier 101 is changed to detect the carrier, the driving mechanism 123 drives the loading table to change from the first state to the second state. By setting the carrier detection sensor, once the carrier 101 is placed on the loading platform, the driving mechanism 123 drives the loading platform to enter the groove 122, so that the working efficiency is higher, and particularly in the case of manually placing the carrier, the loading time is uncertain, and if the carrier detection sensor is set, the action of the driving mechanism 123 can be guaranteed to be quickly executed at any time. The specific carrier detection sensor can be an induction grating, a pressure-sensitive sensor and the like. The driving mechanism 123 may respond to the signal of the carrier detection sensor, or may respond to the signal of the control module, and the signal of the carrier detection sensor is sent to the control module first.

Optionally, the wet processing apparatus of the present embodiment further includes:

transfer stations (first transfer station 311, second transfer station 312 shown in fig. 1) for accommodating the wafers after infiltration;

transfer robots (a first transfer robot 21 and a second transfer robot 22 shown in fig. 1) for taking out and delivering the wafers in the tank 122 to the transfer station;

a plurality of process tanks (such as a first process tank 321, a second process tank 331, a third process tank 341, a fourth process tank 351, a fifth process tank 361, a sixth process tank 371, a seventh process tank 381, an eighth process tank 391, a ninth process tank 322, a tenth process tank 332, an eleventh process tank 342, a twelfth process tank 352, a thirteenth process tank 362, a fourteenth process tank 372, a fifteenth process tank 382, a sixteenth process tank 392) for accommodating the wafer to be processed;

a process transfer robot (a first process transfer robot 41 and a second process transfer robot 42 shown in fig. 1 and 2) for grabbing and transferring the wafer from the transfer station or the process tank;

a blanking table (a first blanking table 61, a second blanking table 62, a third blanking table 63, a fourth blanking table 64 shown in fig. 1) for placing the processed wafer;

and the blanking manipulator 5 is used for taking out the wafer from the process tank body and transferring the wafer to the blanking table as shown in fig. 1.

In the alternative scheme, a complete wafer cleaning assembly line is arranged, the whole process from wafer loading to wafer unloading after cleaning can be realized, and the whole process is automatically operated by a manipulator. The transfer station is arranged to facilitate the process sheet conveying manipulator to take sheets, and the transfer manipulator can select a multi-axis manipulator such as a 3-6-axis manipulator to lift the grabbing angle and range. The vertical feeding is optimized, the vertical process tank body is configured, the vertical process tank body has the advantage of small volume, and more process tank bodies can be configured in the same space for selection.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 1-2, the wet processing apparatus of this embodiment is divided into at least two rows of processing lines, including a first row of processing lines (a first processing line 321, a second processing line 331, a third processing line 341, a fourth processing line 351, a fifth processing line 361, a sixth processing line 371, a seventh processing line 381, an eighth processing line 391 are sequentially arranged), and a second row of processing lines (a ninth processing line 322, a tenth processing line 332, an eleventh processing line 342, a twelfth processing line 352, a thirteenth processing line 362, a fourteenth processing line 372, a fifteenth processing line 382, and a sixteenth processing line 392 are sequentially arranged); the feeding end of the first row of processing lines is provided with a first transfer manipulator 21, a first transfer station 311, a first feeding table 11 and a second feeding table 12, and the discharging end is provided with a first discharging table 61 and a second discharging table 62; the feeding end of the second row of processing lines is provided with a second transfer manipulator 22, a second transfer station 312, a third feeding table 13 and a fourth feeding table 14, and the discharging end is provided with a third discharging table 63 and a fourth discharging table 64. Under this scheme, no matter be first row machining line or second row machining line all can independently operate, and unloading manipulator 5 can select to share one or set up two, and technology biography piece manipulator also can select to share one or set up two. With the above arrangement, the first and second rows of processing lines can also be operated simultaneously or in standby. In the simultaneous operation, the action time of the adjacent stations can be staggered to avoid collision, for example, the second transfer manipulator 22 is not moved when the first transfer manipulator 21 acts.

Optionally, in the wet processing apparatus of this embodiment, as shown in fig. 1, a plurality of process tanks are arranged in a row along a first direction, as shown in fig. 5, and the process slice transfer robot includes:

a first moving rail 431 disposed along the first direction;

a longitudinal moving rail 421 mounted on the first moving rail 431 and disposed in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction;

a process gripper mounted on the longitudinal moving rail 421, a gripping portion of the process gripper being adapted to the wafer so as to be able to grip the wafer;

a first driving member 401 for driving the process gripper to move along the longitudinal moving rail 421;

the second driving member 404 is configured to drive the longitudinal moving rail 421 to move along the first moving rail 431.

In this alternative, the principle of the process gripper grabbing the wafer 111 is to use the lower end of the gripper shape, as shown in fig. 5, to clamp the wafer 111, pick up or put down the wafer 111 by the longitudinal moving rail 421, and take out or put in the wafer from each process tank, and move the wafer along the first direction to any process tank by moving along the first moving rail 431, so as to perform each process. For the movement on the first moving rail 431, the second driving member 404 may adopt a screw driving scheme or a linear module, so as to meet the requirement of long-distance movement, and for the movement on the longitudinal moving rail 421, the first driving member 401 may adopt an air cylinder or a screw driving scheme, so as to meet the requirement of short-distance movement.

The following is an example of a process wafer transfer robot transferring a wafer: the first driving piece 401 drives the coupler to drive the screw rod to move, so that the process paw vertically moves and descends to a certain position of the transfer station. The second driving member 404 drives the process gripper to move a small distance along the first moving rail 431, adjusts a position between the process gripper and the wafer 111, and clamps the wafer 111; the first driving piece 401 drives the process paw to drive the wafer 111 to rise to a certain distance; the second driving member 404 drives the process gripper to move to the upper portion of the next process tank along the first moving rail 431, then the first driving member 401 descends the process gripper to place the wafer 111 in the process tank, the second driving member 404 drives the process gripper to move a small distance along the first moving rail 431 to separate the wafer 111, and then the first driving member 401 drives the process gripper to ascend to a certain position. At this time, the wafer taking and placing process from the transfer station to the process tank is completed, and the wafer 111 is in a vertical state in the whole process. Similarly, the process sheet conveying mechanical arm can sequentially complete the sheet conveying process between the process tank bodies.

Optionally, in the wet processing apparatus of this embodiment, only one process gripper is disposed on the longitudinal moving track, where one process gripper needs to clean every time a wafer is transferred, that is, every time a process tank passes, or if there is one type of process tank, it is possible to clean every time a process tank passes, if liquids between the process tanks do not collide with each other. According to the scheme, the wafer can be transferred between different process tanks only by one process claw, and the requirement on equipment is lower.

Optionally, in the wet processing apparatus of this embodiment, the longitudinal moving track is provided with more than two process claws (including a first process claw 411, a second process claw 412 and a third process claw 413 as shown in fig. 5), and each process claw is provided with a corresponding first driving member. Because the liquids in each process tank body may react with each other, in order to avoid cross contamination of the liquid medicine in each process tank body, the process transfer manipulator is provided with a plurality of process claws, in this embodiment, three claws are provided, the number of the process claws corresponds to the number of the process tank bodies one by one, and when the process tank bodies which may generate cross contamination are encountered in the transfer process, another process claw is switched to enter the process tank body. Or if one type of process groove body exists, the liquid between the process groove bodies can be switched once after passing through the one type of process groove body, so that the liquid between the process groove bodies is not mutually conflicted. The number of the process claws can be flexibly set according to specific needs.

Optionally, in the wet processing apparatus of this embodiment, at least one overturning process tank body is included in the plurality of process tank bodies, and the overturning process tank body is used for overturning the vertically placed wafer into a horizontal placement. In order to facilitate the operation of the subsequent process, the last process tank is usually set as a turnover process tank. In this embodiment, the eighth process tank 391 and the sixteenth process tank 392 shown in fig. 1 are turnover process tanks, which are used to turn the wafer after receiving the vertical wafer in the front process tank before sending it to the rear station, so that the wafer is sent out in a horizontal state.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 6, the wet processing apparatus of this embodiment, the flipping process tank includes:

a support 901 for carrying the vertically placed wafer;

the lifting mechanism is used for driving the wafer to move to a lifting position or a lowering position; as shown in fig. 6, a plurality of positions of the wafer 111 are shown in the figure, and it should be noted that, in order to illustrate the positions of the wafers at a plurality of time points, the plurality of wafers are drawn in the figure, which does not represent that there are a plurality of positions of the wafers in the figure during actual operation; the lifting mechanism comprises a lifting driving piece 905 and a lifting column 904, wherein the lifting driving piece 905 can be a cylinder, a motor, a linear module and other devices, and the lifting column 904 is connected with the driving end of the lifting driving piece 905 so as to be driven by the lifting driving piece 905 to move up and down to push the wafer to move to a lifting position or a lowering position;

the clamping mechanism is arranged at one side of the lifting position and used for clamping the wafer; the clamping mechanism comprises a wafer grabbing part, the wafer grabbing part is connected with a clamping cylinder 906, and the wafer grabbing part can clamp the wafer from one side of the lifting position under the driving of the clamping cylinder 906;

the turnover mechanism is connected with the clamping mechanism and is used for driving the clamping mechanism to turn over so that the wafer on the clamping mechanism turns over to be in a horizontal orientation; the turnover mechanism comprises a turnover motor 907, wherein the driving end of the turnover motor 907 is connected with the clamping mechanism, the control precision of the turnover motor 907 can be rotated by a fixed angle, so that the wafer on the turned wafer grabbing part can be ensured to be horizontal finally, and the blanking is convenient.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 7, the wet processing apparatus of this embodiment, the blanking manipulator 5 includes:

the horizontal gripper is used for gripping the horizontally oriented wafer;

and the translation driving piece is connected with the horizontal gripper and is used for driving the horizontal gripper to lift and translate.

As shown in fig. 7, when the wafer 111 is in a horizontal state, the horizontal gripper of the discharging manipulator 5 moves to a corresponding position to take a piece, the wafer is gripped by lifting the translation driving member, and then the wafer is transferred to any one of the discharging tables (the first discharging table 61, the second discharging table 62, the third discharging table 63 and the fourth discharging table 64) in a translation manner, and then the wafer is placed into the wafer box by lifting, and the horizontal gripper is released to complete one-time discharging.

The present embodiment provides a wet processing method, taking a cleaning method as an example, using the wet processing apparatus described above, as shown in fig. 8, the cleaning method including:

s1, taking a plurality of wafers which are processed by CMP from a plurality of CMP devices, and loading the wafers into the carrier in a centralized manner in a vertical direction (the wafers can be manually carried or mechanically carried);

s2, placing the carrier on the loading table (the carrier can be manually carried or mechanically carried); then the carrier is inclined, wherein the step can be manually controlled, or the scheme of automatic control of the carrier detection sensor can be adopted; the carrier detection sensor is arranged on the feeding table to detect the carrier, and after the carrier detection sensor does not detect the carrier and changes the carrier into the carrier, the driving mechanism drives the feeding table to change from the first state to the second state, so that the wafer in the carrier is inclined for a certain angle relative to the vertical direction;

s3, after the wafers are soaked on the feeding table, controlling the transfer manipulator to take out the wafers in the carrier on the feeding table and transfer the wafers to the transfer station;

s4, controlling the process wafer transfer manipulator to transfer the wafer at the transfer station to each process tank body;

s5, controlling the blanking manipulator to take out and transfer the wafer from the process groove body to the blanking table, wherein before the step, the last process groove body can be set as a turnover process groove body, and the wafer is turned over before blanking after being received in the vertical direction in the front process groove body, so that the wafer is sent out in a horizontal state.

For the above cleaning method, the above scheme that the process tanks are arranged in two rows may be adopted, where the first row of processing lines and the second row of processing lines operate simultaneously or are used in one piece. And when the device is operated at the same time, the action time of the adjacent stations can be staggered, so that the conflict is avoided.

It should be understood that the above examples are illustrative and are not intended to encompass all possible implementations encompassed by the claims. Various modifications and changes may be made in the above embodiments without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Likewise, the individual features of the above embodiments can also be combined arbitrarily to form further embodiments of the application which may not be explicitly described. Therefore, the above examples merely represent several embodiments of the present application and do not limit the scope of protection of the patent of the present application.

Claims (10)

1. A wet processing apparatus, comprising:

the loading table is used for receiving a carrier for accommodating wafers;

a tank for Cheng Fangneng liquid capable of wetting the wafer;

a driving mechanism;

the driving mechanism is connected with the feeding table, and the feeding table is driven by the driving mechanism to bear the carrier and at least comprises:

in a first state, the carrier carried by the feeding table is positioned above the liquid level in the tank body;

in the second state, the carrier supported by the loading platform is positioned below the liquid level in the tank body, and the wafer in the carrier is obliquely placed relative to the vertical direction.

2. The wet processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the carrier has a plurality of slots therein capable of receiving the wafers, the slots being inclined relative to vertical when the loading station is in the second state.

3. A wet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the loading table is inclined at an angle of 1 to 10 ° relative to the vertical in the second state.

4. The wet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a carrier detecting sensor is mounted on the loading table, and the driving mechanism drives the loading table to change from the first state to the second state when the carrier detecting sensor does not detect the carrier to detect the carrier.

5. A wet processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising:

a transfer station for accommodating the infiltrated wafer;

the transfer manipulator is used for taking out the wafer in the groove body and throwing the wafer into the transfer station;

the process groove bodies are used for accommodating the wafers to be processed;

the process wafer transfer manipulator is used for grabbing the wafer from the transfer station or the process tank body and transferring the wafer;

the blanking table is used for placing the processed wafer;

and the blanking manipulator is used for taking the wafer out of the process groove body and transferring the wafer to the blanking table.

6. The wet processing apparatus of claim 5, wherein a plurality of said process tanks are divided into at least two rows of process lines, including a first row of process lines and a second row of process lines; the feeding ends of the first row of processing lines and the second row of processing lines are respectively provided with the transfer manipulator, the transfer station and the feeding table, the discharging ends of the first row of processing lines and the second row of processing lines are respectively provided with the discharging table, and the discharging ends of the first row of processing lines and the second row of processing lines are respectively provided with the discharging manipulator or share the discharging manipulator; and one side of the first row of processing lines and one side of the second row of processing lines are respectively provided with the process sheet conveying mechanical arm.

7. The wet processing apparatus of claim 5, wherein a plurality of said process tanks are arranged in a row along a first direction, said process blade transfer robot comprising:

a first moving rail disposed along the first direction;

a longitudinal moving rail mounted on the first moving rail and disposed along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction;

the process gripper is arranged on the longitudinal moving track, and the grabbing part of the process gripper is matched with the wafer so as to be capable of grabbing the wafer;

a first driving member for driving the process gripper to move along the longitudinal movement track;

and the second driving piece is used for driving the longitudinal moving rail to move along the first moving rail.

8. The wet processing apparatus of claim 4, wherein at least one of said plurality of process tanks comprises a flipping process tank for flipping said vertically disposed wafers into a horizontal disposition.

9. The wet processing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the tumbling process tank comprises:

the supporting seat is used for bearing the vertically placed wafer;

the lifting mechanism is used for driving the wafer to move to a lifting position or a lowering position;

the clamping mechanism is arranged at one side of the lifting position and used for clamping the wafer;

and the turnover mechanism is connected with the clamping mechanism and is used for driving the clamping mechanism to turn over so that the wafer on the clamping mechanism turns over to be in a horizontal orientation.

10. A wet treatment method, characterized in that the wet treatment apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9 is used, the wet treatment method comprising:

s1, taking a plurality of wafers which are processed by CMP from a plurality of CMP devices, and loading the wafers into the carrier in a centralized manner in a vertical direction;

s2, placing a carrier on a loading table, detecting the carrier by installing a carrier detection sensor on the loading table, and sending an instruction after the carrier detection sensor does not detect the carrier is converted into the carrier, so that the driving mechanism drives the loading table to be converted into the second state from the first state, and a wafer in the carrier is inclined for a certain angle relative to the vertical direction;

s3, after the wafers are soaked on the feeding table, controlling the transfer manipulator to take out the wafers in the carrier on the feeding table and transfer the wafers to the transfer station;

s4, controlling a process wafer conveying manipulator to transfer the wafer at the transfer station to each process tank body;

s5, controlling a blanking manipulator to take out the wafer from the process tank body and transfer the wafer to a blanking table.