JP3083835B2 - Wafer peeling and storage equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a wafer peeling and containing apparatus,
The mirror-polished semiconductor wafer is suitable for being separated from the wafer suction plate and stored in a wafer storage case.

[Prior Art] FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a state where a semiconductor wafer W such as silicon is attracted to a wafer attracting plate 20 of a polishing apparatus.

The wafer suction plate 20 is formed by mounting a template 22 having a plurality of holes 23 on a substrate 21. Inside the hole 23,
The protective cloth 24 is adsorbed on the upper surface of the substrate 21.

When sucking the wafer W, the wafer W is brought into close contact with the protective cloth 24 in the hole 23 with water interposed therebetween. Then, the wafer W is attracted to the wafer attracting plate 20 by the surface tension of water.

The protective cloth 24 prevents the attracted wafer W from being damaged, and further prevents the wafer W from dropping due to loss of water.

The surface of the sucked wafer W slightly protrudes from the surface of the wafer suction plate 20, and the wafer W and the template 22
There is a gap between them.

The attracted wafer W is separated from the wafer attracting plate 20 after the mirror polishing is completed.

In the conventional method of peeling the wafer W, an operator grasps the wafer W using an instrument such as tweezers and separates the wafer W from the wafer suction plate 20.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the above-mentioned conventional method, since instruments such as tweezers come into contact with the wafer W, the surface of the wafer W after mirror polishing may be damaged. In addition, skill is required to peel off the wafer W without damaging it.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to remove a wafer from a wafer adsorbent without accommodating an instrument such as tweezers with the wafer and to accommodate the wafer in a wafer accommodating case. An object of the present invention is to provide a peeling and containing device.

[Means for Solving the Problems] A wafer peeling / holding apparatus according to the present invention includes a liquid tank for holding a liquid, and a wafer adsorber provided inside the liquid tank inclined with respect to a horizontal plane. A mounting plate, a jet generating means for generating a jet toward the wafer adsorber mounted on the mounting plate, and a wafer accommodating case provided inside the liquid tank. The wafer adsorbent having adsorbed thereon is placed on the mounting plate in the liquid accommodated in the liquid tank, and thereafter, a jet is generated in the liquid toward the wafer adsorber by the jet generating means. By acting, the wafer is peeled from the adsorbent, and further, the peeled wafer is moved in the liquid and housed in the wafer housing case. And wherein the door.

[Operation] In the wafer peeling and storing apparatus of the present invention, a jet is made to act on the wafer adsorbed by the wafer adsorbent in a liquid,
The wafer is separated from the wafer adsorbent by the force of the jet, and the separated wafer moves in the liquid and is stored in the wafer storage case. Therefore, when the wafer is peeled off and accommodated, there is no possibility that an instrument such as tweezers comes into contact with the wafer, and the operation does not require skill.

The wafer separated by the jet from the wafer adsorber moves in the liquid and is stored in the wafer storage case, but due to the resistance of the liquid, the wafer is damaged during separation and storage. There is no fear.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited by this.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing one embodiment in which a wafer peeling and containing apparatus of the present invention is configured for a semiconductor wafer,
FIG. 2 is an explanatory plan view of the same.

The wafer peeling / storing device 1 has a mounting plate 4 in a water tank 2 supported by a support column 3 at an angle to a horizontal plane. Two substantially cylindrical locking members 5 are rotatably mounted on the upper surface of the mounting plate 4 near the lower end.

The wafer suction plate 20 on which the semiconductor wafer W has been sucked is placed on the upper surface of the mounting plate 4 and locked by the two locking members 5. When the wafer suction plate 20 is manually rotated in the direction of the arrow A (see FIG. 2) on the upper surface of the mounting plate 4, the locking member 5 is rotated accordingly. Therefore, the wafer suction plate 20 can be smoothly rotated.

The rotation of the wafer suction plate 20 mounted on the mounting plate 4 can be performed by a motor.

The support column 3 has a wafer guide 6 adjacent to the mounting plate 4.
Is attached. The wafer guide 6 is attached to the support column 3 by a bottom plate 6a so as to be located slightly lower than the mounting plate 4. The wafer guide 6 is also inclined in the same direction as the mounting plate 4.

Two side plates 6b attached to both end edges of the bottom plate 6a are formed in an inverted L-shaped cross section, and a path between the bottom plate 6a and both side plates 6b is used as a passage for the wafer W.

On the exit side of the wafer guide 6, that is, on the opposite side of the mounting plate 4, a wafer accommodating case 11 is disposed obliquely downward. The upper surface and the front surface (the surface on the side of the wafer guide 6) of the wafer accommodating case 11 are open.
The wafer W sent through the wafer W is introduced through the front opening. The front surface of the wafer housing case 11 is inclined obliquely upward so that the wafer W can be easily housed.

The wafer storage case 11 is placed on a storage case mounting table 7 attached to the lower end of the transfer belt 8, and moves up and down along the inclined wall of the water tank 2 as the transfer belt 8 moves.

The direction of the conveyor belt 8 is changed by rollers 9 and driven by a driving device 10 attached to the outer surface of the inclined wall of the water tank 2.

Above the mounting plate 4, a jet nozzle 12 for blowing water is provided. The jet nozzle 12 is installed in the same direction at an angle larger than the inclination angle of the mounting table 4 with respect to the horizontal plane, and its tip is close to the wafer suction plate 20 mounted on the mounting plate 4. It is set as follows. The ejection nozzle
12 may be installed perpendicular to the horizontal plane.

The ejection nozzle 12 is also directed in the same direction as the passage of the wafer guide 6 so that the ejected water flow
It is set so that it hits diagonally. The water flow hits the wafer suction plate 20 at a location indicated by a circle P in FIG.

Water is supplied to the ejection nozzle 12 via a water supply pipe 13 by a water supply device (not shown).

The jet nozzle 12, the water supply pipe 13, and a water supply device (not shown) constitute a jet generating means.

At the upper end of the water tank 2, a gutter portion 2a is provided over the entire periphery thereof. The gutter 2a functions to prevent the overflowed water from flowing to other places when the water contained in the water tank 2 overflows. The water that has flowed into the gutter 2a is discharged to a predetermined place through a drain hole 2b formed in the gutter 2a.

Next, a description will be given of a method of using the wafer peeling / housing apparatus 1 as the above configuration.

Prior to use, the water tank 2 of the wafer peeling and containing device 1
The inside is almost completely filled with water, and the tip portion of the ejection nozzle 12 and the entire wafer suction plate 20 mounted on the mounting plate 4 are buried in the water L. Then, the mounting plate 4 and the wafer guide 6 are also buried in the water L. Further, the wafer accommodating case 11 is set in the position shown in FIG.

Therefore, first, the wafer suction plate 20 on which the wafer W is sucked with water interposed is placed in the water tank 2 and mounted on the mounting plate 4 with the wafer W side facing upward. At this time, as shown in FIG.
In the middle of the hallway.

Next, water is ejected from the ejection nozzle 12 via the water supply pipe 13. The jetted water becomes a water stream having a certain angle with respect to the wafer W and hits the vicinity of the periphery of the wafer W as clearly shown in FIG. Since the upper end of the suctioned wafer W slightly projects from the upper surface of the wafer suction plate 20, the water flow exerts a force F on the wafer W in a direction away from the wafer suction plate 20.

Therefore, if the force F due to the water flow is made larger than the suction force (surface tension) of the wafer W, the wafer W can be moved to the wafer suction plate.
It can be peeled off from 20.

The peeled wafer W is moved by an arrow B in FIG.
And falls on the wafer guide 6 by its own weight. Wafer W dropped on wafer guide 6
Descends while being guided through the passage, and falls into the wafer storage case 11 from the outlet.

When the wafer W is accommodated in the wafer accommodating case 11, the ejection of the water from the ejection nozzle 12 is stopped.

Since the resistance of the water L acts on the wafer W from the separation to the accommodation, and the wafer W is lightweight, there is no possibility that the wafer W is damaged during this time.

Thus, the separation and accommodation of the first wafer W are completed.

Therefore, the second wafer W is similarly peeled off.

That is, the wafer suction plate 20 is rotated, and the wafer W adjacent to the first wafer W is placed at a position facing the center of the passage of the wafer guide 6. Then, a water stream is applied to the wafer W, and the wafer suction plate 20
From the wafer and housed in the wafer housing case 11. The second wafer W is accommodated on the first wafer W in an overlapping manner.

Thereafter, the same operation is performed for all the wafers W sucked by the wafer suction plate 20 in the same manner, and all the wafers are housed in the wafer housing case 11.

When the operation is completed for all the wafers W, the transport belt 8 is moved upward to move the wafer accommodating case 11 into the water L.
Remove from In the wafer storage case 11, all the wafers W are stored in an overlapping manner.

An experiment was conducted by fabricating the wafer peeling and containing device 1 described above.

The mounting plate 4 is inclined at an angle of 20 ° with respect to the horizontal plane,
The jet nozzle 12 was installed at an angle of 90 ° with respect to the horizontal plane. Therefore, the ejection nozzle 12 makes an angle of 70 ° with respect to the mounting plate 4 and thus the wafer W.

The diameter of the ejection port of the ejection nozzle 12 was set to 5 mm, and the distance from the tip of the ejection nozzle 12 to the wafer W was set to 15 mm.

The used wafer W is a silicon wafer having a diameter of about 125 mm.

When water was ejected from the ejection nozzle 12, the wafer W was separated from the wafer suction plate 20 in about 3 seconds, and was accommodated in the wafer accommodation case 11 through the wafer guide 6. No damage was found on the accommodated wafer W.

In the above description, a semiconductor wafer has been described, but the present invention can be applied to wafers other than the semiconductor wafer. Further, as the liquid to be used, liquids other than water can be used.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the wafer peeling apparatus of the present invention, the wafer can be peeled from the wafer adsorbent and housed in the wafer housing case without bringing an instrument such as tweezers into contact with the wafer. Does not require skill.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing one embodiment of a wafer peeling and containing apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan explanatory view of the apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a flow of water jetted from a jet nozzle hitting a wafer. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of the wafer suction plate placed on the mounting table, showing a situation, and FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of the wafer suction plate picking up a wafer. (Explanation of reference numerals) 1... Wafer peeling and storing device 2... Water tank 4... Mounting plate 5... Locking member 6... Wafer guide 7... Housing case mounting table 8. …… Wafer storage case 12 …… Squirting nozzle, 13 …… Water supply pipe 20 …… Wafer suction plate, 21 …… Substrate 22 …… Type plate, 23 …… Hole 24 …… Protective cloth W …… Semiconductor wafer, L… …water

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-1-93126 (JP, A) JP-A-60-16361 (JP, A) JP-A-3-203233 (JP, A) 95862 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Showa 58-40338 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01L 21/304, 21/68

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A liquid tank for storing a liquid, a mounting plate for mounting a wafer adsorber, which is provided inside the liquid tank at an angle to a horizontal plane, and mounted on the mounting plate. And a wafer accommodating case provided inside the liquid tank, wherein the wafer adsorber that has adsorbed a wafer is provided in the liquid tank. The wafer is separated from the wafer adsorbent by being placed on the mounting plate in the contained liquid, and thereafter, the jet generating means applies a jet in the liquid toward the wafer adsorbent in the liquid. The wafer peeling / accommodating apparatus, wherein the wafer which has been urged and further peeled is moved in the liquid and accommodated in the wafer accommodating case.