JPH01245537A - Wafer carrier - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To restrain the dust from being raised while enabling wafers and carriers to be cleaned up efficiently as well as the wafers in every process to be shifted, etc., without fail by a method wherein leaf type carriers are made of the same material as that of wafers while jetting ports of fluid are provided near the wafer edge. CONSTITUTION:A carrier main body 1 is a one body element drawn out of a silicon ingot while a wafer 2 is held between two each of the main bodies. Besides, the main body 1 is provided with a fluid running-in port 3 to make gas such as air, N2 or liquid such as pure water etc., run therein. Any running-in fluid circulates through a circular ring 4 to be exhausted from pores (jetting ports) 5. The pores 5 are provided on the surface and rear side of a wafer extending over the whole periphery near the wafer edge. Besides, two each of main bodies are coupled with each other by connecting pins 6. Such carriers become a sealed vessel excluding the running-in ports by bonding a wafer type cover onto both ends of the carriers, at this time, the wafers comes into contact with the carriers but there is no possibility of the wafers and the carriers to be polluted since they are made of the same high quality material. Furthermore, every nook and corner of the wafer can be cleaned up and dried up by some cleaning solution and drying gas led in from the running-in ports.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a wafer carrier that can hold semiconductor wafers in an extremely clean manner.

[Description of Prior Art] Conventionally, wafer carriers used in semiconductor wafer manufacturing processes, IC manufacturing processes, or IC inspection processes have been of the batch type that can hold about 25 wafers. Various materials have been used depending on the purpose, such as chemical treatment, high temperature treatment, and static electricity countermeasures, and quartz, polysilicon, Teflon (trade name), polypropylene, Al1, etc. have been mainly used. Some conventional carriers are also airtight containers in order to prevent dust from adhering during transportation. Since conventional carriers always come into contact with stored wafers, there is a possibility that the wafers are constantly contaminated by the carrier.

Transparent quartz, which has few impurities, is a typical material with a low possibility of contamination, but it has the major drawback of being easily broken. The next problem is that the wafer and carrier collide due to vibration during transportation. Therefore, the material should be softer, and quartz, A1, etc. have many problems. The next problem is dust generated from the carrier. Organic materials such as Teflon (trade name), polypropylene, and polysilicon tend to generate particles. In particular, Teflon (trade name), which contains carbon or the like as a countermeasure against static electricity, generates a lot of dust.

Furthermore, during cleaning and drying, there were problems such as the wafer being in the shadow of the carrier, poor water drainage, and difficulty in drying the liquid. Teflon (trade name) carriers are mainly used for cleaning, but they are not completely satisfactory in terms of water removal. Furthermore, since carriers are used in senders and receivers of automatic machines, pitches and the like are determined by each standard, but carriers often damage wafers during indexing and the like. Furthermore, in a gas phase such as a diffusion furnace, the pitch interval has a great effect on wafer quality, so it is necessary to transfer carriers between different types. This transfer causes damage to the wafer.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to eliminate such drawbacks and to provide a wafer carrier that can be used in all processes without the risk of deteriorating the quality of wafers.

[Example] FIG. 1 shows an example of the present invention. (a) is a front view, and (b) is a sectional view taken along line AA'. 1 is the main body of this embodiment, which is made of silicon (St
) It is a one-piece object drawn from an ingot. 2 is diameter 1
It is an inch Si wafer and is held between two main bodies 1. Reference numeral 3 denotes a fluid inlet port into which gas, such as air or N2, or liquid, such as pure water, can flow. The inflowing fluid travels through the ring 4 and passes through the pores (
It is discharged from the jet nozzle) 5. The pores 5 are provided on the upper and lower surfaces of the wafer all around the wafer edge. Further, the two main bodies 1 are connected to each other by a connecting pin 6.

According to this embodiment, any number of wafers can be stacked in the thickness direction. Therefore, the number of wafers in a wafer lot is not limited by the carrier. Furthermore, if wafer-shaped lids are attached to both ends, the container becomes an airtight container except for the inlet 3. Inlet 3
However, if the carrier is closed with a support that supports the entire carrier, it becomes a completely sealed container. Although the wafer comes into contact with the carrier, there is no risk of contamination since the wafer is made of the same high-quality material, and it can be manufactured at low cost by being pulled out (cut out) from the rest of the Si ingot. Although the single-crystal silicon of this embodiment has the disadvantage of being easily broken down, it is thicker than the wafer, so it is strong and can withstand long-term use. Also,
Even when vibrating, the wafer is less likely to be damaged because it is made of the same material.

Also, because of its high hardness, there is little dust generation due to chipping, etc. Furthermore, since the resistivity of the original Si ingot is relatively low, it exhibits good electrostatic properties.

Even when cleaning and drying, the wafer 2 has wide openings on both the front and back sides, and cleaning liquid or drying gas can be introduced from the inlet, allowing cleaning and drying to every corner of the wafer. Can be done.

Furthermore, by controlling the pressure of the fluid flowing in, the pressure of the fluid ejected from the pores can be controlled, and the wafer and carrier can be maintained in a non-contact state.

Further, by alternately and periodically changing the pressure of the fluid ejected both above and below the wafer, it is possible to vibrate the wafer in the vertical direction. These can be expected to further improve the cleaning and drying efficiency. Wafer indexing is
This can be easily prevented by separating the carriers sufficiently in the vertical direction. Furthermore, in the case of diffusion in the gas phase, the pitch can be easily adjusted by inserting a dummy carrier between the sea urchins. In this way, the carrier of this embodiment can be used in almost all processes.

The carrier shape of the present invention does not necessarily have to be square, but may be circular or the like. If the shape is circular, a certain S
Wafer carriers for larger diameters can be obtained from i-ingots. Alternatively, instead of the one-body object, it may be a two-body object that is easy to form, such as the ring described above. In this case, it is appropriate to fit them mechanically instead of using adhesives or the like.

In addition, since it is a single-wafer type in which the carrier and wafer correspond one-to-one, wafer information can be written on the carrier without being written on the wafer, making it easier to read the information.
Furthermore, the quality of the wafer is not degraded.

The carrier of the present invention is also easy to maintain. Since it is made of the same material as the wafer, it can be cleaned in the same manner as the wafer, making it possible to clean it at the same time as the wafer. Therefore, no special cleaning is required. Further, new cleaning is required when a new carrier is used or when a new wafer is held.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the present invention is a single-wafer type carrier using the same material as the wafer, and by providing a fluid jet port near the wafer edge, dust generation is suppressed and the wafer and It is possible to realize a multi-purpose, high-performance carrier that can be easily handled and can be used in any process, allowing the carrier to be efficiently cleaned and allowing wafers to be moved between processes without any problems.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which (a) is a front view and (a) is a front view;
b) is a sectional view. 1: Main body, 2: Wafer, 3: Inlet, 4: Annular ring, 5: Spout, 6: Connection bin. Patent Applicant Canon Co., Ltd. Agent Patent Attorney Tetsuya Ito Agent Patent Attorney Tatsuo Ito

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) A wafer carrier for storing a semiconductor wafer, characterized in that the carrier is made of the same material as the wafer and has a fluid jet port near the edge of the stored wafer. (2) The wafer carrier according to claim 1, wherein the carrier is cut from an ingot of the same type of wafer. (3) The carrier is a single-wafer type carrier that holds a wafer between a pair of bodies, and the carrier can hold the wafer in a non-contact manner by the fluid jetted from the spout from above and below along the periphery of the wafer. 2. The wafer carrier according to claim 1, wherein the wafer is open on both upper and lower surfaces. (4) The wafer carrier according to claim 3, wherein the single wafer type carrier can be stacked in multiple stages. (5) The wafer carrier according to claim 4, wherein a lid is attached to the upper and lower surfaces of the carrier so that the wafer can be stored in a hermetically sealed manner.