CN117415724A - Polishing module, polishing unit, polishing system and polishing method - Google Patents
Polishing module, polishing unit, polishing system and polishing method Download PDFInfo
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- CN117415724A CN117415724A CN202311635590.0A CN202311635590A CN117415724A CN 117415724 A CN117415724 A CN 117415724A CN 202311635590 A CN202311635590 A CN 202311635590A CN 117415724 A CN117415724 A CN 117415724A
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- 238000005498 polishing Methods 0.000 title claims abstract description 330
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 title claims abstract description 33
- 230000007246 mechanism Effects 0.000 claims abstract description 143
- 239000007788 liquid Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 70
- 235000012431 wafers Nutrition 0.000 claims description 132
- 230000005540 biological transmission Effects 0.000 claims description 31
- 239000000126 substance Substances 0.000 claims description 30
- 238000012546 transfer Methods 0.000 claims description 22
- 238000004140 cleaning Methods 0.000 claims description 15
- 230000008569 process Effects 0.000 claims description 13
- 230000003993 interaction Effects 0.000 claims description 8
- 239000012530 fluid Substances 0.000 claims description 5
- 239000002245 particle Substances 0.000 claims description 5
- 230000000712 assembly Effects 0.000 claims description 3
- 238000000429 assembly Methods 0.000 claims description 3
- 230000003750 conditioning effect Effects 0.000 claims description 3
- 238000010408 sweeping Methods 0.000 claims description 3
- 230000008878 coupling Effects 0.000 claims 1
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- 238000005859 coupling reaction Methods 0.000 claims 1
- 239000000463 material Substances 0.000 description 13
- 239000004065 semiconductor Substances 0.000 description 10
- 238000004519 manufacturing process Methods 0.000 description 5
- 230000009471 action Effects 0.000 description 4
- HBMJWWWQQXIZIP-UHFFFAOYSA-N silicon carbide Chemical compound [Si+]#[C-] HBMJWWWQQXIZIP-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 4
- 238000005516 engineering process Methods 0.000 description 3
- 229910010271 silicon carbide Inorganic materials 0.000 description 3
- JMASRVWKEDWRBT-UHFFFAOYSA-N Gallium nitride Chemical compound [Ga]#N JMASRVWKEDWRBT-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 2
- 238000013461 design Methods 0.000 description 2
- 238000010586 diagram Methods 0.000 description 2
- 229910003460 diamond Inorganic materials 0.000 description 2
- 239000010432 diamond Substances 0.000 description 2
- 230000000694 effects Effects 0.000 description 2
- 238000012986 modification Methods 0.000 description 2
- 230000004048 modification Effects 0.000 description 2
- 238000007517 polishing process Methods 0.000 description 2
- 238000012545 processing Methods 0.000 description 2
- 238000006467 substitution reaction Methods 0.000 description 2
- 239000000758 substrate Substances 0.000 description 2
- 238000009966 trimming Methods 0.000 description 2
- 229910002601 GaN Inorganic materials 0.000 description 1
- XUIMIQQOPSSXEZ-UHFFFAOYSA-N Silicon Chemical compound [Si] XUIMIQQOPSSXEZ-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 1
- XLOMVQKBTHCTTD-UHFFFAOYSA-N Zinc monoxide Chemical compound [Zn]=O XLOMVQKBTHCTTD-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 1
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Classifications
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- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B24—GRINDING; POLISHING
- B24B—MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
- B24B37/00—Lapping machines or devices; Accessories
- B24B37/34—Accessories
- B24B37/345—Feeding, loading or unloading work specially adapted to lapping
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B24—GRINDING; POLISHING
- B24B—MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
- B24B37/00—Lapping machines or devices; Accessories
- B24B37/11—Lapping tools
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B24—GRINDING; POLISHING
- B24B—MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
- B24B41/00—Component parts such as frames, beds, carriages, headstocks
- B24B41/005—Feeding or manipulating devices specially adapted to grinding machines
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B24—GRINDING; POLISHING
- B24B—MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
- B24B47/00—Drives or gearings; Equipment therefor
- B24B47/10—Drives or gearings; Equipment therefor for rotating or reciprocating working-spindles carrying grinding wheels or workpieces
- B24B47/16—Drives or gearings; Equipment therefor for rotating or reciprocating working-spindles carrying grinding wheels or workpieces performing a reciprocating movement, e.g. during which the sense of rotation of the working-spindle is reversed
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B24—GRINDING; POLISHING
- B24B—MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
- B24B57/00—Devices for feeding, applying, grading or recovering grinding, polishing or lapping agents
- B24B57/02—Devices for feeding, applying, grading or recovering grinding, polishing or lapping agents for feeding of fluid, sprayed, pulverised, or liquefied grinding, polishing or lapping agents
Landscapes
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
- Finish Polishing, Edge Sharpening, And Grinding By Specific Grinding Devices (AREA)
- Mechanical Treatment Of Semiconductor (AREA)
Abstract
The invention discloses a polishing module, a polishing unit, a polishing system and a polishing method, wherein the polishing module comprises a polishing disk, at least two loading and unloading mechanisms are arranged on the side of the polishing disk, and a polishing mechanism is arranged above the polishing disk; the polishing mechanism is provided with at least two bearing heads which can move between the polishing disk and the loading and unloading mechanism so as to transport the wafer; the device also comprises liquid supply arms, the number of which is matched with the number of the bearing heads; during polishing, the liquid supply arm swings reciprocally around the fixed point to supply the polishing liquid toward the polishing area.
Description
Technical Field
The invention belongs to the technical field of chemical mechanical polishing, and particularly relates to a polishing module, a polishing unit, a polishing system and a polishing method.
Background
The integrated circuit industry is the core of the information technology industry and plays a key role in the process of converting and upgrading the boosting manufacturing industry into digital and intelligent conversion. The chip is a carrier of an integrated circuit, and the chip manufacturing involves the process flows of integrated circuit design, wafer manufacturing, wafer processing, electrical measurement, dicing packaging, testing, and the like. Among them, chemical mechanical polishing (Chemical Mechanical Polishing, CMP) is one of five main core processes in the wafer manufacturing process.
CMP is a globally planarized ultra-precise surface processing technique. Chemical mechanical polishing typically pulls a wafer against the bottom surface of a carrier head, the surface of the wafer having a deposited layer abutting against the upper surface of a polishing pad, the carrier head rotating in the same direction as the polishing pad under actuation of a drive assembly and imparting a downward load to the wafer; the polishing liquid is supplied to the upper surface of the polishing pad and distributed between the wafer and the polishing pad, so that the wafer is subjected to chemical mechanical polishing under the combined action of chemistry and machinery.
The third-generation semiconductor material can meet the new requirements of the modern electronic technology on severe conditions such as high temperature, high power, high voltage, high frequency, radiation resistance and the like due to the advantages of wider forbidden band width, high thermal conductivity, high breakdown field strength, high saturated electron drift rate, gao Jian energy combination and the like, so that the third-generation semiconductor material has wide application in the industries such as radio frequency communication, radars, satellites, power management, automobile electronics, industrial power electronics and the like.
However, third generation semiconductor materials such as gallium nitride (GaN), silicon carbide (SiC), zinc oxide (ZnO), diamond, etc., have extremely high hardness, and are difficult to polish, resulting in low polishing efficiency of the CMP process.
Taking silicon carbide as an example, the mohs hardness is of the order of 9.5, which is next to the hardest diamond in the world. This results in a low removal rate for CMP polishing, and a single silicon carbide wafer polishing consumes 5-30 times more time than conventional silicon wafer polishing.
Therefore, there is a need to design a polishing system that balances overall machine efficiency and operation reliability, and that satisfies the chemical mechanical polishing of third generation semiconductors.
Disclosure of Invention
The embodiment of the invention provides a polishing module, a polishing unit, a polishing system and a polishing method, which aim to at least solve one of the technical problems in the prior art.
The first aspect of the embodiment of the invention provides a polishing module, which comprises a polishing disc, wherein at least two loading and unloading mechanisms are arranged on the side of the polishing disc, and a polishing mechanism is arranged above the polishing disc; the polishing mechanism is provided with at least two bearing heads which can move between the polishing disk and the loading and unloading mechanism so as to transport the wafer; the device also comprises liquid supply arms, the number of which is matched with the number of the bearing heads; during polishing, the liquid supply arm swings reciprocally around the fixed point to supply the polishing liquid toward the polishing area.
In some embodiments, the polishing mechanism comprises a moving member and a connecting assembly, wherein the connecting assembly is arranged below the moving member, and the lower end of the connecting assembly is provided with a bearing head; the moving part is connected with the fixed frame in a sliding way so as to drive the bearing head to move along a straight line.
In some embodiments, the connection assembly includes a stationary shaft and a drive shaft; the bottom end of the fixed shaft is provided with a bearing head, and the upper part of the bearing head is provided with a first gear; the lower part of the driving shaft is provided with a second gear, and the top end of the second gear is connected with a rotary driving motor; the middle gear is arranged between the first gear and the second gear; the rotary driving motor drives the bearing head below to rotate through gear transmission.
In some embodiments, the fixed shafts are at least two in number and are arranged on the supporting frame; and the fixed shafts are uniformly distributed with the drive shaft as a reference.
In some embodiments, the polishing mechanism further includes a swing motor connected to the support frame through a sleeve, so as to drive the support frame and the carrier head to rotate based on the driving shaft, so as to adjust the phase of the carrier head.
In some embodiments, the liquid supply arm is configured with a plurality of liquid supply pipes, and the liquid supply pipes are arranged at intervals along the length direction of the liquid supply arm.
In some embodiments, the polishing module further comprises at least one conditioner disposed laterally of the polishing platen for conditioning the polishing pad above the polishing platen off-line.
A second aspect of an embodiment of the present invention provides a polishing unit, comprising:
at least one of the polishing modules described above;
the wafer transmission mechanism is arranged at the side of the polishing module and is used for realizing wafer interaction;
the wafer transmission mechanism comprises a transmission manipulator and a rotary manipulator, wherein the transmission manipulator can horizontally transmit wafers of the buffer assembly, and the rotary manipulator can transmit the wafers between the loading and unloading mechanism and the buffer assembly.
In some embodiments, the number of transfer robots is equal to the number of polishing modules, each polishing module is configured with a number of transfer robots of N 1 ，N 1 ≥1。
In some embodiments, the number of buffer modules matches the number of handling mechanisms, and each polishing module is configured with a number of handling mechanisms of N 2 The number of the cache components is N 3 Then N 3 -N 2 ≥1。
In some embodiments, the rotating manipulator is disposed adjacent to the handling mechanism and the buffer assembly and is capable of swinging about a fixed point and sweeping the position of the handling mechanism and the buffer assembly.
In some embodiments, at least one buffer assembly is configured between adjacent polishing modules, and the buffer assemblies are horizontally arranged on the traveling path of the transmission manipulator.
A third aspect of an embodiment of the present invention provides a polishing unit, comprising:
at least one polishing module;
the wafer transmission mechanism is arranged at the side of the polishing module and is used for realizing wafer interaction;
the wafer transmission mechanism comprises a transmission manipulator and a rotary manipulator, wherein the transmission manipulator can horizontally transmit the wafer of the buffer assembly, and the rotary manipulator can transmit the wafer between the loading and unloading mechanism and the buffer assembly;
the polishing module comprises a polishing disc, at least two loading and unloading mechanisms are arranged on the side of the polishing disc, and a polishing mechanism is arranged above the polishing disc; the polishing mechanism is provided with at least two bearing heads which can move between the polishing disk and the loading and unloading mechanism so as to transport the wafer; the device also comprises liquid supply arms, the number of which is matched with the number of the bearing heads; the carrier head moves toward the polishing disk while the connection assembly of the polishing mechanism rotates with the center thereof as a reference, and the liquid supply arm swings toward the polishing disk.
A fourth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides a polishing method using the polishing unit described above, comprising:
s1, a transmission manipulator transmits a wafer to a buffer assembly adjacent to a loading and unloading mechanism, and a rotation manipulator transmits the wafer to the loading and unloading mechanism;
s2, loading a wafer from a loading and unloading mechanism by a bearing head of the polishing mechanism;
s3, the carrying head loaded with the wafer moves towards the polishing disk and is pressed against the polishing pad above, and meanwhile, the liquid supply arm swings towards the inside of the polishing disk so as to execute chemical mechanical polishing;
and S4, the polished wafer is moved to a loading and unloading mechanism and unloaded, and then is transmitted to the buffer assembly by the rotary manipulator, and the wafer of the buffer assembly is transmitted to the next process by the transmission manipulator.
In step S2, if the number of the carrying heads is greater than the number of the loading and unloading mechanisms, the method further includes:
s21, in the process that the carrying head loads the wafer from the loading and unloading mechanism, the transmission manipulator transmits the wafer to a buffer assembly adjacent to the loading and unloading mechanism;
s22, the rotary manipulator transmits the wafer to the loading and unloading mechanism, and the supporting frame of the polishing mechanism rotates, so that the unloaded carrier head rotates to the loading and unloading mechanism where the wafer is placed, and loading of the wafer is completed.
In some embodiments, the rotating robot is capable of transferring wafers between the handling mechanism and the buffer assembly as the polishing mechanism moves over the handling mechanism.
In some embodiments, during chemical mechanical polishing, the moving member of the polishing mechanism can drive the carrier head and the loaded wafer to move horizontally, and simultaneously, the carrier head rotates around the central axis in the same direction as the polishing disk.
In some embodiments, the liquid supply arm swings with reference to a fixed point disposed outside the polishing platen during chemical mechanical polishing.
In step S4, when the polishing mechanism unloads the wafer, the dresser is biased toward the polishing pad to dress the polishing pad thereon.
In some embodiments, at least one liquid supply arm is disposed above the polishing pad and supplies a cleaning liquid toward the polishing pad to rinse the removed particles during operation of the conditioner.
A fifth aspect of an embodiment of the present invention provides a polishing system comprising:
a front unit;
the polishing unit described above;
and the cleaning unit is arranged close to the polishing unit and is used for cleaning the polished wafer.
The beneficial effects of the invention include:
a. the polishing mechanism is provided with at least two bearing heads so as to polish a plurality of wafers at the same time of the polishing module, thereby improving the utilization efficiency of the polishing module;
b. at least two loading and unloading mechanisms are arranged on the side of the polishing disk, and the number of the loading and unloading mechanisms and the number of the carrying heads are matched with each other, so that the polishing mechanisms can load or unload a plurality of wafers at the same time, and the wafer interaction efficiency is improved;
c. the special liquid supply arm is configured on the bearing head of the polishing module, and a plurality of liquid supply pipes are arranged in the length direction of the liquid supply arm, so that polishing liquid can be uniformly distributed in a polishing area, and the removal rate of materials is ensured.
Drawings
The advantages of the present invention will become more apparent and more readily appreciated from the detailed description given in conjunction with the following drawings, which are meant to be illustrative only and not limiting of the scope of the invention, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a polishing module according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a movable member and a connecting assembly of a polishing mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a fixed frame and a movable member of a polishing mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the carrier head rotational drive of the embodiment of FIG. 2;
figure 5 is a schematic view of a fluid supply arm according to an embodiment of the present invention swinging toward a polishing platen;
FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a polishing method according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of the swing of the liquid supply arm during polishing;
fig. 8 is a schematic view of a polishing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Detailed Description
The following describes the technical scheme of the present invention in detail with reference to specific embodiments and drawings thereof. The examples described herein are specific embodiments of the present invention for illustrating the concept of the present invention; the description is intended to be illustrative and exemplary in nature and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in its aspects. In addition to the embodiments described herein, those skilled in the art can adopt other obvious solutions based on the disclosure of the claims of the present application and the specification thereof, including those adopting any obvious substitutions and modifications to the embodiments described herein.
The drawings in the present specification are schematic views, which assist in explaining the concept of the present invention, and schematically show the shapes of the respective parts and their interrelationships. It should be understood that for the purpose of clearly showing the structure of various parts of embodiments of the present invention, the drawings are not drawn to the same scale and like reference numerals are used to designate like parts in the drawings.
In the present invention, "chemical mechanical polishing (Chemical Mechanical Polishing, CMP)" is also referred to as "chemical mechanical planarization (Chemical Mechanical Planarization, CMP)", and Wafer (W) is also referred to as Substrate (Substrate), the meaning and actual function are equivalent. The term "comprising" and its like are to be construed as open-ended, i.e., including, but not limited to. The term "based on" should be understood as "based at least in part on". The term "one embodiment" or "the embodiment" should be understood as "at least one embodiment". The terms "first," "second," and the like, may refer to different or the same object and are used solely to distinguish one from another without implying a particular spatial order, temporal order, order of importance, etc. of the referenced objects. In some embodiments, the values, processes, selected items, determined items, devices, means, parts, components, etc. are referred to as "best," "lowest," "highest," "smallest," "largest," etc. It should be understood that such description is intended to indicate that a selection may be made among many available options of functionality, and that such selection need not be better, lower, higher, smaller, larger, or otherwise preferred in further or all respects than other selections.
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) modules, polishing units, and polishing systems used in the semiconductor device manufacturing industry. When in chemical mechanical polishing, polishing solution composed of submicron or nanometer abrasive particles and chemical solution flows between a wafer and a polishing pad, the polishing solution is uniformly distributed under the action of transmission and rotation centrifugal force of the polishing pad to form a layer of liquid film between the wafer and the polishing pad, chemical components in the liquid react with the wafer to convert insoluble substances into soluble substances, then the chemical reactants are removed from the surface of the wafer through micro-mechanical friction of the abrasive particles and dissolved in the flowing liquid to be taken away, namely surface materials are removed in the alternating process of chemical film forming and mechanical film removing to realize surface planarization treatment, so that the aim of global planarization is achieved.
Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a polishing module 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the polishing module 10 includes a polishing disk 11, a polishing mechanism 30, and a loading and unloading mechanism 14, the loading and unloading mechanism 14 is disposed at a side of the polishing disk 11, the polishing mechanism 30 is movably disposed above the polishing disk 11, and a carrier head 60 is disposed at a lower portion of the polishing mechanism 30. The carrier head 60 loaded with wafers can be moved between the polishing platen 11 and the loading and unloading mechanism 14 to achieve wafer interaction.
Further, the polishing mechanism 30 is provided with three carrier heads 60, and the polishing module 10 is provided with two loading and unloading mechanisms 14, as shown in fig. 1. Wherein, the loading and unloading mechanism 14 is horizontally arranged, and the arrangement interval of the loading and unloading mechanism 14 is matched with the interval of the bearing heads 60 of the polishing mechanism 30, so that the polishing mechanism 30 can load or unload two wafers at the same time, thereby improving the loading and unloading efficiency of the wafers.
The number of carrier heads 60 disposed below the polishing mechanism 30 is at least two. The number of the carrying heads 60 can be four, five, etc. so as to polish a plurality of wafers at the same time, so as to adapt to the working condition that the polishing time of a single wafer is longer, and improve the utilization efficiency of the polishing module 10.
In the present invention, the polishing module 10 is provided with at least two loading/unloading mechanisms 14, and the number of the loading/unloading mechanisms 14 may be other number, so as to load a plurality of wafers at the same time. In the embodiment shown in fig. 1, the loading and unloading mechanism 14 is arranged horizontally; if the operation space allows, the loading and unloading mechanism 14 can also refer to the polishing mechanism 30 to configure the carrier head 60 for arrangement, so that the carrier head 60 and the loading and unloading mechanism 14 are accurately aligned, and the convenience of wafer interaction is improved.
In the embodiment shown in fig. 1, the polishing module 10 further includes a liquid supply arm 12, and the number of liquid supply arms 12 is matched to the number of carrier heads 60 configured with the polishing mechanism 30 to provide an appropriate polishing liquid for wafer polishing. Specifically, the number of the liquid supply arms 12 is equal to the number of the carrier heads 60, that is, one carrier head 60 is correspondingly provided with one liquid supply arm 12, so as to supply the polishing liquid to the single carrier head 60, thereby preventing the uneven distribution of the polishing liquid from affecting the removal efficiency of the wafer surface material.
Further, one end of the liquid supply arm 12 is fixed to the outside of the polishing platen 11, and the liquid supply arm 12 can swing around the fixed point to above the polishing platen 11 to supply the polishing liquid to the polishing pad above the polishing platen 11; the polishing liquid is dispersed in the active area of the wafer loaded by the carrier head 60 under the action of centrifugal force, so that the removal of the material on the surface of the wafer is realized under the action of chemistry and machinery.
Fig. 2 is a schematic view of a polishing assembly 30 according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the polishing mechanism 30 includes a moving member 31 and a connecting assembly 32, the connecting assembly 32 is disposed below the moving member 31, and a carrier head 60 is disposed at a lower end of the connecting assembly 32.
In fig. 3, the moving member 31 is slidably connected to the fixing frame 33 to drive the carrier head 60 to move along a straight line. Specifically, the fixing frame 33 has a U-shaped structure, and is covered above the polishing disk 11; a slide rail is disposed above the fixed frame 33, and the moving member 31 is connected to the slide rail disposed along the y-direction by a slider. The moving member 31 is configured with a linear module to drive the moving member 31 to slide along the length direction (y direction) of the sliding rail, so that the carrier head 60 can move between the loading and unloading mechanism 14 and the polishing disk 11 by means of the fixing frame 33.
In the present invention, since the fixing frame 33 is provided on the base of the polishing apparatus, the fixing frame 33 has good rigidity. The linear module at the upper part of the fixing frame 33 can reliably drive the moving member 31 to move along the sliding rail, so that the bearing head 60 in the polishing process cannot deviate greatly in the vertical height, and the running stability of the polishing module 10 is ensured.
Further, the connection assembly 32 includes a fixed shaft 32a and a driving shaft 32b, as shown in fig. 4; the bottom end of the fixed shaft 32a is provided with a bearing head 60, and the upper part of the fixed shaft 32a is provided with a first gear 34a; a second gear 34b is arranged at the lower part of the driving shaft 32b, a rotary driving motor 35 (shown in fig. 3) is connected to the top end of the driving shaft 32b, and an output shaft of the rotary driving motor 35 is connected with the driving shaft 32b through a belt pulley transmission, so that the driving shaft 32b is driven to rotate; the connection assembly 32 further includes an intermediate gear 34c, the intermediate gear 34c being disposed between the first gear 34a and the second gear 34 b; the rotary driving motor 35 drives the bearing head 60 below to rotate through gear transmission, and then drives the wafer loaded by the bearing head 60 to rotate so as to finish polishing of the wafer in a matching way.
In fig. 4, the number of the fixed shafts 32a is three, which are disposed on the support 36; the fixed shafts 32a are uniformly distributed with respect to the drive shaft 32 b.
In the present invention, the polishing mechanism 30 further includes a swing motor 37 (shown in fig. 2 and 3), the swing motor 37 is connected to the support frame 36 through a sleeve 38, so as to drive the support frame 36 and the carrier head 60 to rotate based on the driving shaft 32b, thereby adjusting the phase of the carrier head 60. I.e., the swing motor 37 is capable of changing the position of the carrier head 60 on the polishing mechanism 30 such that the carrier head 60 is aligned with the position of the loading and unloading mechanism 14, thereby effecting loading and unloading of wafers.
In the embodiment shown in fig. 1, the liquid supply arm 12 is provided with a plurality of liquid supply pipes 12a (shown in fig. 7), wherein the liquid supply pipes 12a are arranged at intervals along the length direction of the liquid supply arm 12 so as to regulate the supply position of the polishing liquid. In some embodiments, the tube diameters of the plurality of liquid supply tubes 12a provided on the liquid supply arm 12 are different.
As one aspect of the present embodiment, the liquid supply pipe 12a having a large pipe diameter is located at the following position: the center of the polishing disk 11 is used as the center of the circle and passes through the intersection point of the center of the polished wafer and the position of the liquid supply arm 12 closest to the carrier head 60, so that the supply of the polishing liquid to the wafer loaded towards the carrier head 60 is ensured, and the polishing removal rate is ensured.
Further, the polishing module 10 further includes at least one conditioner 13 disposed at a side of the polishing platen 11 for conditioning the polishing pad above the polishing platen 11 offline. Specifically, the dresser 13 is fixed to the outer side of the polishing disk 11 by a swing arm, and the dresser 13 is provided at an end of the swing arm. The swing arm swinging around the fixed point can drive the trimmer 13 to sweep above the polishing pad, and the trimming disc below the trimmer 13 is pressed against the surface of the polishing pad so as to trim the surface of the polishing pad to maintain the characteristics of the polishing pad.
Meanwhile, the present invention also provides a polishing unit 100, a schematic view of which is shown in fig. 1; the polishing unit 100 includes:
at least one of the polishing modules 10 described above;
the wafer transmission mechanism is arranged at the side of the polishing module 10 and is used for realizing wafer interaction;
the wafer transfer mechanism includes a transfer robot 50 and a rotating robot 40, where the transfer robot 50 can transfer the wafer of the buffer assembly 20 horizontally, and the rotating robot 40 can transfer the wafer between the loading and unloading mechanism 14 and the buffer assembly 20.
The transfer robot 50 is provided with a linear guide, not shown, disposed along the length direction (x direction) of the polishing unit 100, along which the transfer robot 50 can move to achieve horizontal transfer of the wafer.
The rotary robot 40 is disposed adjacent to the handling mechanism 14 and the buffer assembly 20 and is capable of swinging about a fixed point and sweeping the positions of the handling mechanism 14 and the buffer assembly 20 to effect transfer of the wafer.
Further, the number of the transfer robots 50 is matched with the number of the polishing modules 10, and each polishing module 10 is provided with N transfer robots 50 1 ，N 1 ≥1。
In the embodiment shown in fig. 1, the polishing unit 100 includes two polishing modules 10, and each polishing module 10 is correspondingly configured with one transfer robot 50.
Further, the number of buffer modules 20 matches the number of handling mechanisms 14, and the number of handling mechanisms 14 provided for each polishing module 10 is N 2 The number of cache elements 20 is N 3 Then N 3 -N 2 ≥1。
Specifically, each handling mechanism 14 needs to be configured with a buffer assembly 20 to facilitate swinging of the rotary robot 40 about a fixed point to transfer wafers between the handling mechanism 14 and the buffer assembly 20. In order to ensure the flexibility of the wafer transport mechanism, at least one additional buffer assembly 20 is required to buffer the wafer that is not processed in time.
In fig. 1, at least one buffer assembly 20 is disposed between adjacent polishing modules 10, and the buffer assemblies 20 are horizontally arranged on a traveling path of a transfer robot 50 to transfer wafers.
After the wafer is loaded by the polishing mechanism 30 in the polishing unit 100 shown in fig. 1, the movable member 31 shown in fig. 2 is moved in the y-direction while the liquid supply arm 12 is swung toward the polishing platen 11, and during the wafer polishing, the liquid supply arm 12 is swung reciprocally about the fixed point to perform the chemical mechanical polishing.
The present invention also provides a polishing unit 100 that is identical in composition and structure to the polishing unit 100 described above, but differs in the control of the swinging of the liquid supply arm 12 into the polishing area, and the differences between them are described in detail below.
When the polishing mechanism 30 starts the polishing work, the carrier head 60 moves toward the polishing platen 11 while the connection member 32 of the polishing mechanism 30 rotates with reference to the center thereof, and the liquid supply arm 12 swings toward the polishing platen 11 as shown in fig. 5, so as to avoid interference of the liquid supply arm 12 with the carrier head 60 provided at the lower portion of the polishing mechanism 30.
After the liquid supply arm 12 swings between the adjacent carrier heads 60, the liquid supply arm 12 swings reciprocally centering around the positioning to supply the polishing liquid toward the polishing area; meanwhile, the moving member 31 of the polishing mechanism 30 drives the connecting assembly 32 and the carrier head 60 at the lower part thereof to horizontally move along the y direction, so that the wafer can be relatively uniformly contacted with the polishing pad to balance the removal rate of the material.
In addition, the present invention also provides a polishing method using the polishing unit 100 described above, the polishing method comprising, as shown in fig. 6:
s1, a transmission manipulator 50 transmits a wafer to a buffer assembly 20 adjacent to a loading and unloading mechanism 14, and a rotary manipulator 40 transmits the wafer to the loading and unloading mechanism 14;
s2, loading the wafer from the loading and unloading mechanism 14 by the bearing head 60 of the polishing mechanism 30;
s3, the carrying head 60 loaded with the wafer moves towards the polishing disk 11 and is pressed against the upper polishing pad, and meanwhile, the liquid supply arm 12 swings towards the inside of the polishing disk 11 to execute chemical mechanical polishing;
s4, the polished wafer is moved to the upper part of the loading and unloading mechanism 14 and unloaded, then the polished wafer is transferred to the buffer assembly 20 by the rotary manipulator 40, and the wafer of the buffer assembly 20 is transferred to the next process by the transfer manipulator 50.
In step S2, if the number of the carrying heads 60 is greater than the number of the loading/unloading mechanisms 14, the method further includes the following steps:
s21, in the process that the carrying head 60 loads the wafer from the loading and unloading mechanism 14, the transmission manipulator 50 transmits the wafer to the buffer assembly 20 adjacent to the loading and unloading mechanism 14;
s22, the rotating robot 40 transfers the wafer to the loading and unloading mechanism 14, and the supporting frame 36 of the polishing mechanism 30 rotates, so that the unloaded carrier head 60 rotates to the loading and unloading mechanism 14 where the wafer is placed, to complete the loading of the wafer.
Further, the rotary robot 40 is capable of transferring wafers between the handling mechanism 14 and the buffer assembly 20 as the polishing mechanism 30 moves over the handling mechanism 14.
During chemical mechanical polishing, the moving member 31 of the polishing mechanism 30 can drive the carrier head 60 and the loaded wafer to move horizontally, and simultaneously, the carrier head 60 rotates in the same direction with the polishing disk 11 around the central axis thereof, so as to realize chemical mechanical polishing of the wafer. It can be understood that, in the polishing process, the moving member 31 of the polishing mechanism 30 may be fixed differently, and the connecting assembly 32 below the moving member 31 swings reciprocally based on the driving shaft 32b, so as to change the contact between the polished wafer and different areas of the polishing pad, and improve the polishing uniformity of the wafer.
In the chemical mechanical polishing, the liquid supply arm 12 swings with reference to a fixed point provided on the outside of the polishing platen 11, as shown in fig. 7, to expand the dispersion range of the supplied polishing liquid so that the polishing pad surface has sufficient polishing liquid.
In step S4, when the polishing mechanism 30 unloads the wafer, the dresser 13 is biased toward the polishing pad 11 to dress the polishing pad thereon. Namely, the polishing unit 100 provided by the present invention requires dressing of the polishing pad above the polishing platen 11 to avoid interference of components when the polishing mechanism 30 does not perform chemical mechanical polishing. Meanwhile, the trimming operation is carried out while the wafer is assembled and disassembled, so that the waiting time is reduced, and the operation efficiency is improved.
Further, during operation of the conditioner 13, at least one liquid supply arm 12 is disposed above the polishing pad 11; the liquid supply arm 12 supplies a cleaning liquid toward the polishing pad to rinse the removed particulate matter, ensuring a dressing effect of the polishing pad, maintaining polishing characteristics of the polishing pad.
In addition, the present invention also provides a polishing system 1000, as shown in fig. 8, the polishing system 1000 comprising:
a front unit 200;
the polishing unit 100 described above;
and a cleaning unit 300 disposed adjacent to the polishing unit 100 for cleaning the polished wafer.
In the embodiment shown in fig. 8, the cleaning unit 300 is configured with a plurality of cleaning chambers to remove residual particles on the wafer surface according to the cleaning process. The wafer cleaning mode can be vertical cleaning or horizontal cleaning.
Since the polishing unit 100 provided by the invention comprises at least two polishing modules 10, and the polishing mechanism 30 of the polishing module 10 is provided with at least two carrier heads 60, the polishing mechanism 30 can simultaneously polish a plurality of wafers, so as to provide the operation efficiency of the polishing system 1000.
It should be noted that the solution/apparatus provided in the present application is mainly applied to chemical mechanical polishing of wafers of third generation semiconductor materials, and may be specifically applied to 4 inch, 6 inch or 8 inch wafers processed by the third generation semiconductor materials, such as 4, 6, 8 inch GaN wafers, or 8 inch SiC wafers.
In addition, because the growth difficulty of the third-generation semiconductor material is higher, the problems of difficult control of a temperature field, slow growth speed, high requirements on good product parameters, large crystal diameter expansion difficulty and the like exist, the wafer size of the third-generation semiconductor material is mainly 6-8 inches, along with the development of technology and the overcoming of the growth problem, the wafer size of the third-generation semiconductor material can be expanded to 12 inches or even more than 12 inches, and the method and the device are also applicable to the scheme/equipment provided by the application and are all within the protection scope of the application.
While embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: many changes, modifications, substitutions and variations may be made to the embodiments without departing from the spirit and principles of the invention, the scope of which is defined by the claims and their equivalents.
Claims (21)
1. The polishing module is characterized by comprising a polishing disc, wherein at least two loading and unloading mechanisms are arranged on the side of the polishing disc, and a polishing mechanism is arranged above the polishing disc; the polishing mechanism is provided with at least two bearing heads which can move between the polishing disk and the loading and unloading mechanism so as to transport the wafer; the device also comprises liquid supply arms, the number of which is matched with the number of the bearing heads; during polishing, the liquid supply arm swings reciprocally around the fixed point to supply the polishing liquid toward the polishing area.
2. The polishing module of claim 1, wherein the polishing mechanism comprises a moving member and a connecting assembly, the connecting assembly is arranged below the moving member, and a bearing head is arranged at the lower end of the connecting assembly; the moving part is connected with the fixed frame in a sliding way so as to drive the bearing head to move along a straight line.
3. The polishing module of claim 2, wherein the coupling assembly comprises a stationary shaft and a drive shaft; the bottom end of the fixed shaft is provided with a bearing head, and the upper part of the bearing head is provided with a first gear; the lower part of the driving shaft is provided with a second gear, and the top end of the second gear is connected with a rotary driving motor; the middle gear is arranged between the first gear and the second gear; the rotary driving motor drives the bearing head below to rotate through gear transmission.
4. The polishing module of claim 3, wherein at least two of the fixed shafts are disposed on the support frame; and the fixed shafts are uniformly distributed with the drive shaft as a reference.
5. The polishing module of claim 4, wherein the polishing mechanism further comprises a swing motor coupled to the support frame via a sleeve to drive the support frame and the carrier head to rotate about the drive shaft to adjust the phase of the carrier head.
6. The polishing module of claim 1, wherein the fluid supply arm is configured with a plurality of fluid supply tubes, the fluid supply tubes being spaced apart along a length of the fluid supply arm.
7. The polishing module of claim 1, further comprising at least one conditioner disposed laterally of the polishing platen for conditioning the polishing pad above the polishing platen off-line.
8. A polishing unit, comprising:
the polishing module of any one of claims 1 to 7, at least one of the number thereof;
the wafer transmission mechanism is arranged at the side of the polishing module and is used for realizing wafer interaction;
the wafer transmission mechanism comprises a transmission manipulator and a rotary manipulator, wherein the transmission manipulator can horizontally transmit wafers of the buffer assembly, and the rotary manipulator can transmit the wafers between the loading and unloading mechanism and the buffer assembly.
9. The polishing unit of claim 8, wherein the number of transfer robots is equal to the number of polishing modules, each polishing module being configured with a number of transfer robots of N 1 ，N 1 ≥1。
10. The polishing unit of claim 8, wherein the number of buffer elements matches the number of handling mechanisms, the number of handling mechanisms for each polishing module configuration being N 2 The number of the cache components is N 3 Then N 3 -N 2 ≥1。
11. The polishing unit of claim 8, wherein the rotating robot is disposed adjacent to the handling mechanism and the buffer assembly and is capable of swinging about a fixed point and sweeping the position of the handling mechanism and the buffer assembly.
12. The polishing unit of claim 8, wherein at least one buffer assembly is disposed between adjacent polishing modules, the buffer assemblies being horizontally arranged on a travel path of the transfer robot.
13. A polishing unit, comprising:
at least one polishing module;
the wafer transmission mechanism is arranged at the side of the polishing module and is used for realizing wafer interaction;
the wafer transmission mechanism comprises a transmission manipulator and a rotary manipulator, wherein the transmission manipulator can horizontally transmit the wafer of the buffer assembly, and the rotary manipulator can transmit the wafer between the loading and unloading mechanism and the buffer assembly;
the polishing module comprises a polishing disc, at least two loading and unloading mechanisms are arranged on the side of the polishing disc, and a polishing mechanism is arranged above the polishing disc; the polishing mechanism is provided with at least two bearing heads which can move between the polishing disk and the loading and unloading mechanism so as to transport the wafer; the device also comprises liquid supply arms, the number of which is matched with the number of the bearing heads; the carrier head moves toward the polishing disk while the connection assembly of the polishing mechanism rotates with the center thereof as a reference, and the liquid supply arm swings toward the polishing disk.
14. A polishing method, characterized by using the polishing unit according to any one of claims 8 to 13, comprising:
s1, a transmission manipulator transmits a wafer to a buffer assembly adjacent to a loading and unloading mechanism, and a rotation manipulator transmits the wafer to the loading and unloading mechanism;
s2, loading a wafer from a loading and unloading mechanism by a bearing head of the polishing mechanism;
s3, the carrying head loaded with the wafer moves towards the polishing disk and is pressed against the polishing pad above, and meanwhile, the liquid supply arm swings towards the inside of the polishing disk so as to execute chemical mechanical polishing;
and S4, the polished wafer is moved to a loading and unloading mechanism and unloaded, and then is transmitted to the buffer assembly by the rotary manipulator, and the wafer of the buffer assembly is transmitted to the next process by the transmission manipulator.
15. The polishing method according to claim 14, wherein in step S2, if the number of carrier heads is greater than the number of loading/unloading mechanisms, further comprising:
s21, in the process that the carrying head loads the wafer from the loading and unloading mechanism, the transmission manipulator transmits the wafer to a buffer assembly adjacent to the loading and unloading mechanism;
s22, the rotary manipulator transmits the wafer to the loading and unloading mechanism, and the supporting frame of the polishing mechanism rotates, so that the unloaded carrier head rotates to the loading and unloading mechanism where the wafer is placed, and loading of the wafer is completed.
16. The polishing method of claim 14, wherein the rotating robot is capable of transferring wafers between the handling mechanism and the buffer assembly when the polishing mechanism is moved over the handling mechanism.
17. The polishing method of claim 14, wherein the moving member of the polishing mechanism is capable of driving the carrier head and the loaded wafer to move horizontally while the carrier head rotates about its center axis in the same direction as the polishing platen.
18. The polishing method as recited in claim 17, wherein the liquid supply arm swings with reference to a fixed point provided outside the polishing platen during chemical mechanical polishing.
19. The polishing method according to claim 14, wherein in step S4, when the polishing mechanism unloads the wafer, the dresser is biased toward the polishing pad to dress the polishing pad thereon.
20. The polishing method of claim 19, wherein at least one liquid supply arm is disposed above the polishing platen and supplies a cleaning liquid toward the polishing pad to rinse the removed particles during operation of the conditioner.
21. A polishing system, comprising:
a front unit;
the polishing unit of any one of claims 8 to 13;
and the cleaning unit is arranged close to the polishing unit and is used for cleaning the polished wafer.
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| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CN202311635590.0A CN117415724A (en) | 2023-12-01 | 2023-12-01 | Polishing module, polishing unit, polishing system and polishing method |
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| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
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| CN202311635590.0A CN117415724A (en) | 2023-12-01 | 2023-12-01 | Polishing module, polishing unit, polishing system and polishing method |
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