JPH0582497A - Wafer drying machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the induction of a break in other wafer due to a break in one wafer and to prevent the wafers from being contaminated with dust, which is generated by the breaks. CONSTITUTION:A slant face is given to the inner wall of a housing chamber 1a encircling a turntable 3, which has a carrier 4 for wafer housing use mounted thereto and is rotated, an exhaust vent 7a, which is an opening, is provided at the extension part of this slant face, the flow of the air, which is generated by a centrifugal force, is corrected so as to flow from a suction port 8 to the vent 7a along the inner wall and a fragment of a wafer or dust is made to eliminate smoothly through the exhaust vent 7a.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wafer drier for rotating a wafer, which is a semiconductor substrate after processing or cleaning, and scattering and drying the liquid on the wafer surface by its centrifugal force.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIGS. 2A and 2B are a cross-sectional view and a top view of a conventional wafer dryer. Conventionally, this type of wafer dryer is, for example, as shown in FIG.
A turntable 3 having a carrier 4 for accommodating a plurality of wafers 5 mounted on the outer periphery and rotating, and a storage chamber 1 surrounding the turntable 3 and having an exhaust port 7 on the bottom surface.
It was configured with a lid 2 having an intake port 8 in its ceiling portion while closing the storage chamber.

Although not shown in the drawing, a rotation motor is attached to the other end of the rotary shaft 6 attached to the turntable 3. The wafer dryer dries the wafer 5 by rotating the turntable 3 at a high speed to scatter water attached to the surface of the wafer 5 by centrifugal force. Further, air is introduced from the intake port of the lid 2 with the rotation of the turntable 3 to promote the drying.

Since such a wafer dryer can be dried in an extremely short time, it has been widely used in the manufacturing process of semiconductor devices.

[0005]

In the conventional wafer dryer described above, while the turntable is rotating, the wafer stored in the carrier is broken, and a fragment thereof collides with the side wall inside the storage chamber, causing another wafer to bounce off. There is a problem that the wafer is contaminated by dust generated by cracking or cracking.

In order to solve such a problem, an object of the present invention is to provide a wafer dryer capable of drying a wafer without inducing another wafer crack or contaminating even if a wafer crack occurs. That is.

[0007]

A wafer dryer according to the present invention comprises a turntable equipped with a carrier for storing wafers and rotating, and a storage chamber enclosed by the turntable. It is characterized in that an inner wall of the storage chamber corresponding to the surroundings has an inclined surface, and an opening is formed in an extension portion of the inclined surface.

[0008]

The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

1A and 1B are a sectional view and a top view showing an embodiment of a wafer dryer of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, this wafer dryer has an exhaust gas having a wide opening around the outer periphery of the storage chamber 1a, in which the inner wall of the storage chamber 1a facing the turntable on which the carrier 4 storing the wafer 5 is mounted is inclined. The mouth 7a is provided.

In this way, if the inner wall of the side surface of the storage chamber 1a is inclined and an opening is provided in the extended portion of the inclined inner wall, air is drawn from the intake port 8 toward the exhaust port 7a along the inner wall by centrifugal force. Flow without causing swirl or turbulence.
Fragments of the cracked wafer and the accompanying dust are smoothly discharged from the exhaust port 7a.

By the way, when an experiment was conducted, cracking and contamination of other wafers due to wafer cracking were significantly reduced,
I tried it on hundreds of wafers, but it was almost empty.

[0012]

As described above, according to the present invention, the inner wall of the storage chamber surrounding the turntable for mounting the carrier for storing the wafer is provided with the inclined surface, and the extension portion of the inclined surface is provided with the horizontal opening to turn the turntable. By correcting the air flow direction from the center to the outside by the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the table, broken fragments or dust of the wafer can be smoothly discharged. There is an effect that it is possible to obtain a wafer dryer that can dry a wafer without inducing cracking of other wafers or causing contamination by dust.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view and a top view of a wafer dryer showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view and a top view of a conventional wafer dryer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,1a Storage chamber 2 Lid 3 Turntable 4 Carrier 5 Wafer 6 Rotating shaft 7,7a Exhaust port 8 Intake port

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A wafer dryer including a turntable for mounting and rotating a carrier for storing wafers and a storage chamber wrapped by the turntable, wherein an inclined surface is formed on an inner wall of the storage chamber corresponding to an outer periphery of the turntable. And an opening is formed in the extension of this inclined surface.