JPH05129267A - Cleaning equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce a running cost for a cleaning equipment by downsizing it to reduce the are for the installation thereof and a consumption of cleaning chemical. CONSTITUTION:A semiconductor wafer in a wafer carrier 40 is aligned to orient by an alignment mechanism 41, and a pitch is shifted to, for example, 1/2 by a pitch shift mechanism 42. After its pitch has been shifted, the semiconductor wafer is transported to cleaning baths 10 and 11 and an underwater loader 7 in this order by a rotary transport arm 9, and cleaned in each of these places. Then the wafer is transferred to a cleaning unit 3 by the underwater loader 7. The wafer is there transported to other cleaning baths 13 and 14 and another underwater loader 8 in this order by another rotary transport arm 12, and cleaned in each of these places. Subsequently, the wafer is transferred to another cleaning unit 4 by the underwater loader 8, and transported to a drying bath 17 by another rotary arm 15. The wafer fork of the rotary transport arm 15 is inserted into a cleaning/drying mechanism 16 and cleaned and dried there.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a cleaning apparatus for automatically cleaning a substrate to be cleaned, for example, a semiconductor wafer, a plurality of pieces (for example, 25 pieces) are provided in a so-called wafer carrier, which is a transfer jig made of a material such as Teflon. 2. Description of the Related Art There is known a cleaning device configured to convey a semiconductor wafer that has been housed together with a wafer carrier and sequentially immerse the semiconductor wafer in a cleaning tank or the like for cleaning. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-219937 discloses a device for performing pitch conversion using a roller provided with a plurality of grooves.

[0003]

However, in recent years, semiconductor devices have tended to be highly integrated, and their circuit patterns are becoming finer and finer. However, in the conventional cleaning apparatus described above, since the wafer carrier is immersed in the cleaning processing tank or the like together with the semiconductor wafer, contamination of the cleaning liquid or the like by the wafer carrier, for example, elution of contamination from Teflon constituting the wafer carrier becomes a problem, It has been desired to develop a cleaning apparatus that can more completely clean semiconductor wafers and the like.

In order to improve productivity, semiconductor wafers have recently been increasing in diameter from 6 inches to 8 inches, for example. A wafer carrier for accommodating a semiconductor wafer having such a large diameter, for example, 8 inches, is generally configured to hold 25 semiconductor wafers at a uniform pitch of 6.35 mm in order to enhance versatility. For this reason, in the above-described conventional cleaning apparatus in which the semiconductor wafer is transferred together with the wafer carrier and sequentially immersed in the cleaning processing tank, the rinse liquid tank, etc., the cleaning processing tank, etc. becomes large and the entire apparatus becomes large. was there. Since such a cleaning device is usually installed in a clean room where construction cost is high, such a problem leads to an increase in equipment cost and is becoming a big problem.

Further, since the size of the cleaning treatment tank and the like becomes large, there is a problem that the consumption of cleaning liquid and the like increases and the running cost increases.

The present invention has been made in response to such a conventional situation. It is possible to carry out a better cleaning process than the conventional one, and at the same time, the installation area is reduced and the cleaning liquid is consumed by downsizing the apparatus. An object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device capable of reducing the running cost by reducing the amount.

[0007]

That is, a cleaning apparatus of the present invention is provided with a plurality of cleaning processing tanks for cleaning a substrate to be cleaned and a plurality of cleaning processing tanks provided for each cleaning processing tank so as to be parallel to each other at a predetermined pitch. And a supporting means for cleaning that supports and cleans the substrate to be cleaned, and a plurality of the substrates to be cleaned that are parallel to each other at a predetermined pitch, are transported, and are loaded / unloaded on the supporting means for cleaning. And a pitch converting means for picking up the substrates to be cleaned from a supporting means for carrying and a jig for carrying which accommodates a plurality of the substrates to be cleaned, and converting a pitch of the substrates to be cleaned into a pitch of the supporting means for carrying. Is provided.

[0008]

In the cleaning apparatus of the present invention having the above structure, the cleaning support means for supporting and cleaning the object to be cleaned is provided for each cleaning treatment tank, and the transport support means supports these cleaning support means. Since the object to be cleaned is loaded and unloaded to perform the cleaning process on the object to be cleaned, it is possible to clean the object to be cleaned such as a semiconductor wafer without using a wafer carrier or the like. A cleaning process can be performed.

Further, there is provided a pitch converting means for taking out the semiconductor wafer from a carrying jig for accommodating a plurality of substrates to be cleaned, for example, a wafer carrier accommodating 25 semiconductor wafers, and converting the pitch of these semiconductor wafers. So
The pitch of the cleaning support means and the transfer support means can be set to a narrow pitch such as 3/4 to 1/2 of the pitch of the wafer carrier. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the size of the cleaning treatment tank and the like, and it is possible to reduce the installation area by downsizing the apparatus and reduce the running cost by reducing the consumption of the cleaning liquid and the like.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a cleaning apparatus for cleaning a semiconductor wafer will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, a cleaning device 1 of this embodiment.
Is three cleaning treatment units 2 arranged in a straight line,
The cleaning processing unit 2 on the loading side is provided with a loader 5, and the cleaning processing unit 4 on the unloading side is provided with an unloader 6, respectively. In addition, between the cleaning processing unit 2 and the cleaning processing unit 3,
Further, between the cleaning processing unit 3 and the cleaning processing unit 4, submersible loaders 7 and 8 included in any of these units are provided.

The cleaning processing unit 2 on the loading side is provided with a rotary transfer arm 9 for transferring an object to be cleaned (semiconductor wafer) at a central position, and around the rotary transfer arm 9 (upper side and right side in the figure). ) Are provided with cleaning processing tanks 10 and 11. In this embodiment, the cleaning treatment tank 11 is used as a chemical treatment tank for performing ammonia treatment.
0 is a quick dump rinse (QD)
R) Used as a processing tank.

The central cleaning processing unit 3 is provided with a rotary transfer arm 12 at a central position, and the cleaning processing tank 1 is provided around the rotary transfer arm 12 (on the right and left sides in the drawing).
3, 14 are provided. In this embodiment, the cleaning treatment tank 13 is used as a chemical treatment tank for performing hydrofluoric acid treatment, and the cleaning treatment tank 14 is used as a water washing overflow treatment tank.

The cleaning processing unit 4 on the unloading side is provided with a rotary transfer arm 15 at the center position, and around the rotary transfer arm 15, the rotary transfer arm 15 is cleaned and dried on the right side in the drawing. A drying mechanism 16 and a drying treatment tank 17 for performing a drying treatment (IPA drying) with isopropyl alcohol are provided on the lower side in the figure.

The submersible loaders 7 and 8, the cleaning treatment tank 10,
As shown in FIG. 2, 11, 13, 14 and the drying treatment tank 17 are housed in a case 20, respectively. An opening 21 for loading / unloading is provided in the case 20, and a shutter mechanism (not shown) is provided in the opening 21. Further, the submersible loaders 7 and 8, the cleaning treatment tanks 10, 11, 13, 14 and the drying treatment tank 17,
A wafer boat 22 made of, for example, quartz is provided as a wafer supporting means dedicated to each tank.
The wafer boat 22 is connected to a drive mechanism (not shown) and is vertically movable.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, the wafer boat 22 has three parallel wafer supporting rods 26 having a wafer mounting groove 25 for supporting the semiconductor wafer 24 at a predetermined position. A plurality of, for example, 50 semiconductor wafers 24 are supported on the wafer support rod 26 so as to be substantially parallel to each other. In this embodiment, the wafer boat 22 is configured to support semiconductor wafers 24 having a diameter of 8 inches, and the pitch P of the semiconductor wafers 24 shown in FIG. 5 is set to be 3.175 mm. This is a pitch corresponding to half of the pitch (6.35 mm) of a wafer carrier that accommodates a semiconductor wafer 24 having a diameter of 8 inches. Therefore, for example, the length of the wafer boat 22 in the wafer row direction is about half that in the case where the semiconductor wafers 24 are supported at the same pitch as the wafer carrier. FIG. 3A shows a conventional pitch, and FIG.
Shows the case where the pitch is halved.

Further, according to the size of the wafer boat 22 as described above, the underwater loaders 7 and 8 and the cleaning treatment tanks 10 and 1 are provided.
The sizes of 1, 13, 14 and the drying treatment tank 17 are also set so that the length thereof is about half as compared with the case of using a wafer boat that supports the semiconductor wafers 24 at the same pitch as the wafer carrier. Is set to.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 6, the rotary transfer arm 9 has a wafer fork 31 as a transfer wafer supporting means at the end of a multi-joint arm 30 which can be horizontally rotated and extended.
A plurality of, for example, 50 semiconductor wafers 24 can be placed on the wafer fork 31 without a wafer carrier. That is, this wafer fork 31
As shown in FIGS. 7 to 9, has two parallel wafer support rods 33 each having a wafer mounting groove 32 for supporting the semiconductor wafer 24 at a predetermined position.
It is configured to support 50 semiconductor wafers 24 so as to be substantially parallel to each other. Then, as shown in FIG. 9, the pitch P of the semiconductor wafers 24 of the wafer fork 31 is also 3.175 mm as in the wafer boat 22 described above.
Is set to. The rotary transfer arms 12 and 15 have the same structure as the rotary transfer arm 9.

The rotary transfer arm 9 configured as described above supports and transfers 50 semiconductor wafers 24 and positions them on the wafer boat 22 in the case 20 through the loading / unloading opening 21. The wafer boat 22 is raised and the semiconductor wafer 24 is transferred from the rotary transfer arm 9 (wafer fork 31) to the wafer boat 22. Then, the rotary transfer arm 9 is retracted, the wafer boat 22 is lowered, and the semiconductor wafer 24 is immersed in each tank. The semiconductor wafer 24
When the wafer is transferred from the wafer boat 22 to the rotary transfer arm 9 (wafer fork 31), the procedure is the reverse of the above procedure.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the loader 5 and the unloader 6 are provided with 25 semiconductor wafers 2 having a diameter of 8 inches.
Wafer carrier 4 for accommodating 4 at regular pitch (6.35 mm)
There is provided a wafer mounting part configured to mount two 0s, and the wafer mounting part of the loader 5 uses the orientation flat to orient the semiconductor wafer 24 in the wafer carrier 40 in a predetermined direction. A wafer alignment mechanism 41 for aligning is provided. Further, the loader 5 and the unloader 6 are provided with a pitch converting mechanism 42. After the wafer aligning mechanism 41 aligns the semiconductor wafers 24 in the wafer carrier 40 in a predetermined direction, the pitch converting mechanism 42 causes the semiconductors to move. It is configured to receive the wafer 24 and convert the pitch of the semiconductor wafer 24 to 3.175 mm.

In the present embodiment, the pitch converting mechanism 42 has the same structure as the wafer transfer mechanism 43 as shown in FIG.
It is composed of a two-pitch wafer guide 44. The wafer transfer mechanism 43 is configured to hold the peripheral edge portion of each semiconductor wafer 24 from both sides by a thin comb-shaped support portion 45, and these support portions 45 normally have a pitch of 6.
It is formed with 35 mm. On the other hand, the 1/2 pitch wafer guide 44 has a wafer supporting groove 46 formed so as to support the semiconductor wafer 24 at 1/2 the normal pitch, that is, at a 3.175 mm pitch.

First, the wafer transfer mechanism 43 holds and conveys the semiconductor wafers 24 accommodated in one wafer carrier 40, and the 1/2 pitch wafer guide 44 is carried.
Place on. In this state, 1/2 pitch wafer guide 4
The semiconductor wafers 24 are arranged every other one in the four wafer supporting grooves 46.

Next, as shown by the arrow in the figure, the 1/2 pitch wafer guide 44 is horizontally moved by 1/2 pitch, that is, 3.175 mm, and thereafter, by the wafer transfer mechanism 43.
The semiconductor wafer 24 accommodated in the other wafer carrier 40 is gripped and conveyed to the 1/2 pitch wafer guide 4
4 semiconductor wafers 24 are inserted and placed. As a result, 50 semiconductor wafers 24 are arranged on the 1/2 pitch wafer guide 44 at a 3.175 mm pitch.

Then, by a push-up mechanism or the like (not shown), the semiconductor wafer 2 of the 1/2 pitch wafer guide 44 is
4 is pushed up, and in this state by the rotary transfer arm 9,
It is configured to receive these 50 semiconductor wafers 24.

In this way, the pitch converting mechanism 42 converts the pitch of the semiconductor wafers 24, and after the semiconductor wafers 24 are received by the rotary transfer arm 9, the cleaning process is performed as follows.

That is, first, the rotary transfer arm 9 sequentially transfers the semiconductor wafer 24 to the cleaning processing tank 11, the cleaning processing tank 10, and the underwater loader 7, and the cleaning processing unit 2
The cleaning process is performed by. Note that after the first semiconductor wafer 24 is transferred from the cleaning processing tank 11 to the cleaning processing tank 10, the next semiconductor wafer 24 is transferred to the cleaning processing tank 11 to continuously perform the cleaning processing.

Next, the underwater loader 7 transfers the semiconductor wafers 24 to the cleaning processing unit 3, and the rotary transfer arm 12 transfers these semiconductor wafers 24 to the cleaning processing tank 13, the cleaning processing tank 14, and the underwater loader 8. Sequentially transported,
The cleaning process is performed by the cleaning unit 3.

Thereafter, the underwater loader 8 transfers the semiconductor wafers 24 to the cleaning processing unit 4, and the rotary transfer arm 15 transfers these semiconductor wafers 24 to the drying processing tank 17. Then, in the drying processing tank 17, the semiconductor wafer 24 is dried (IPA drying) with isopropyl alcohol as described above. At this time, at the same time, the wafer fork 31 of the rotary transfer arm 15 is inserted into the cleaning / drying mechanism 16, and the cleaning / drying of the wafer fork 31 is carried out by the cleaning / drying nozzle and the IR heater.

When the drying processing of the semiconductor wafer 24 in the drying processing tank 17 is completed, the semiconductor wafer 24 that has been dried is received by the wafer fork 31 that has been cleaned and dried, and is unloaded into the unloader 6.

The semiconductor wafer 24 unloaded to the unloader 6 is pitch-converted by the operation of the pitch conversion mechanism 42 which is the reverse of the operation described above, and the two wafer carriers 4 are transferred.
25 sheets are housed in 0 at regular 6.35 mm pitch.

Thus, in the cleaning device 1 of this embodiment,
Without using the wafer carrier 40, the semiconductor wafer 2
Since the cleaning and drying of No. 4 can be performed, the cleaning liquid and the like can be prevented from being contaminated by the wafer carrier 40. Therefore, as compared with the conventional cleaning device, a good cleaning process can be performed.

Further, the loader 5 and the unloader 6 include
Since the pitch conversion mechanism 42 is provided and the pitch of the semiconductor wafers 24 in the wafer carrier 40 is converted to 3.175 mm to perform the cleaning process, the wafer boat 22, the underwater loaders 7 and 8, the cleaning process tanks 10 and 11 are performed. , 13, 14, the drying treatment tank 17, the wafer fork 31 and the like can be downsized, and the entire apparatus can be downsized to reduce the occupied area in the clean room where the construction cost is high. Also,
The cleaning tank need not be arranged as in this embodiment,
A plurality of cleaning treatment tanks may be arranged in a horizontal row.

Further, the cleaning treatment tanks 10, 11, 13, 1
By reducing the size of 4 and the like, the amount of the cleaning liquid or the like required is reduced, and the running cost can be reduced by reducing the consumption of the cleaning liquid or the like.

In the above embodiment, the case where the semiconductor wafer 24 having a diameter of 8 inches has a half pitch of the normal pitch has been described, but the same applies to a semiconductor wafer having a diameter of 6 inches. Can be applied by
The pitch is not limited to 1/2 of the normal pitch, and can be appropriately selected from the range of pitches smaller than the normal pitch.
However, if the pitch of the semiconductor wafer is made too small,
Since the transfer becomes difficult and the distance between the adjacent semiconductor wafers becomes narrow, the chemical solution may accumulate between the semiconductor wafers due to the surface tension. 3/4 to 1/2 of pitch
It is preferable to set it to a degree.

When the pitch of the semiconductor wafer is set to a pitch other than 1/2, a pitch conversion mechanism 50 as shown in FIG. 11 can be used. That is, in the pitch conversion mechanism 50, as shown in FIG. 12, the upper part has a normal pitch (for example, 6.35 mm) and the lower part has a desired pitch (for example,
4.7625 mm) and has a wafer support groove 51 formed so that the pitch is gradually narrowed from the upper part to the lower part, and a wafer support mechanism 52 for gripping the peripheral edge of the semiconductor wafer 24 from both sides, and a desired pitch ( The wafer guide 53 supports the semiconductor wafer 24 (for example, 4.7625 mm).

The pitch conversion mechanism 50 configured as described above
First, the semiconductor wafers 24 arranged at a regular pitch
Are supported on the upper part of the wafer support mechanism 52, and these semiconductor wafers 24 are transferred to the upper part of the wafer guide 53. Then, by gradually widening the interval of the wafer support mechanism 52, the semiconductor wafer 24 is slidably dropped in the wafer support groove 51 and converted into a desired pitch.
Then, in this state, it is placed on the wafer guide 53. If such a pitch conversion mechanism 50 is used,
Not limited to 1/2 pitch, it can be converted to a desired pitch. Further, although the semiconductor wafer is described in this embodiment, it may be an LCD substrate or the like.

[0037]

As described above, according to the cleaning apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to perform better cleaning processing than the conventional one, and the installation area is reduced and the cleaning solution is consumed due to the downsizing of the apparatus. The running cost can be reduced by reducing the amount.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a cleaning apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a cleaning treatment tank of the cleaning apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of the wafer boat of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of the wafer boat of FIG.

5 is a diagram showing a configuration of the wafer boat of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of a cleaning processing unit.

7 is a diagram showing a configuration of the wafer fork of FIG.

8 is a diagram showing a configuration of the wafer fork of FIG.

9 is a diagram showing the configuration of the wafer fork of FIG.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a configuration of a pitch conversion mechanism.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a configuration of a pitch conversion mechanism of another embodiment.

12 is a diagram showing a configuration of a main part of the pitch conversion mechanism of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Cleaning Device 2, 3, 4 Cleaning Processing Unit 5 Loader 6 Unloader 7, 8 Underwater Loader 9, 12, 15 Rotating Transfer Arm 10, 11, 13, 14 Cleaning Processing Tank 16 Cleaning / Drying Mechanism 17 Drying Processing Tank 40 Wafer Carrier 41 Wafer Alignment Mechanism 42 Pitch Conversion Mechanism

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of cleaning processing tanks for cleaning a substrate to be cleaned, and a plurality of the cleaning processing tanks provided for each cleaning processing tank and supported in parallel with each other at a predetermined pitch to carry out cleaning. A cleaning support means, a transfer support means for supporting and transporting a plurality of the substrates to be cleaned so as to be parallel to each other at a predetermined pitch, and a plurality of the substrates to be cleaned are accommodated in the cleaning support means. And a pitch conversion unit for converting the pitches of the substrates to be cleaned into the pitches of the supporting unit for transportation. 2. The substrate to be cleaned is a semiconductor wafer, and a pitch for supporting the semiconductor wafer of the cleaning support means and the transfer support means is 3/4 to 1/1 / the pitch of the transfer jig. 2. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning device is 2.