JPH07161679A - Drying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable semiconductor wafers to be dried up high in cleanness in a semiconductor wafer vapor drying process by a method wherein an organic solvent vapor control means is provided in a conventional drying device. CONSTITUTION:A drying device is composed of a processing tank 1, IPA liquid 2, heaters 3a to 3c, IPA liquid 4, cooling pipes 5a to 5c, a cassette 6, a handle 7, and a semiconductor wafer 8, wherein the heaters 3a to 3c are changed in heating capacity, and coolant which flows through the cooling pipes 5a to 5c is controlled in flow rate and temperature respectively, whereby IPA vapor 4 is controlled in cleanness, density, and distribution, and semiconductor wafers 8 are dried up high in cleanness by the controlled IPA vapor 4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drying device, and particularly to a technique for controlling the density and distribution of vapor of an organic solvent highly purified in vapor drying of a semiconductor wafer, and applying it to a technique of drying a semiconductor wafer to a high degree of cleanliness. And effective technology.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, a conventional drying apparatus using a vapor of an organic solvent is provided with a cooling pipe and a heater around a processing tank. The structure and purpose of the cooling pipe and the heater are as follows. And is considered to be used for the purpose.

That is, the structure of the cooling pipe is a single structure, and only one kind of coolant can be used.
In addition, as a purpose of use, it is used as a safety measure to prevent the vapor of the organic solvent generated in the processing tank from flowing out of the processing tank.

Further, the structure of the heater is a single structure like the cooling pipe, and is only for uniformly generating the vapor of the organic solvent in the processing tank.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, the structure of the cooling pipe is a single structure, and in this structure, the temperature and flow rate of the coolant cannot be controlled. There is.

Further, the heater has a single structure,
This structure has a drawback that the density and distribution of the vapor of the organic solvent in the processing tank cannot be controlled.

Further, as a principle of vapor drying of the organic solvent, the organic solvent heated by the heater becomes vapor near the boiling point and fills the processing tank.

Further, in this state, when the water-immersed semiconductor wafer is inserted into the processing tank, the vapor of the organic solvent adheres to the surface of the semiconductor wafer due to the temperature difference. At this time, the vapor of the organic solvent changes from a gas to a liquid, mixes with water on the surface of the semiconductor wafer and drops, and the principle is to dry the semiconductor wafer.

Therefore, the cleanliness, density and distribution of the vapor of the organic solvent are strongly related to the cleanliness of the semiconductor wafer, and it is essential to control the vapor of the organic solvent in order to make the semiconductor wafer highly clean. Is.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a plurality of cooling pipes and a plurality of heaters having different heater capacities as a vapor control means for controlling the vapor of an organic solvent, which is not provided in a conventional drying apparatus. It is an object of the present invention to provide a drying device capable of drying a semiconductor wafer with high cleanliness.

The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will be apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

[0012]

Of the inventions disclosed in the present application, a representative one will be briefly described below.
It is as follows.

That is, the drying apparatus according to claim 1 is a drying apparatus for performing vapor drying of a highly brittle material which is a material to be dried by vapor of an organic solvent, and vapor of the organic solvent for drying the material to be dried. Is provided with a steam control means.

Further, the drying apparatus according to the second aspect is provided with a plurality of cooling pipes as steam control means, and controls the temperature and flow rate of the coolant flowing through the plurality of cooling pipes, respectively, to remove the material to be dried. The density and distribution of the vapor of the organic solvent are controlled in the area inside the treatment tank to be dried and its periphery, and the vapor of the organic solvent is supplied to the material to be dried for drying.

Further, in the drying apparatus according to the third aspect of the present invention, a plurality of heaters controlled independently of each other are provided as vapor control means, and the heater capacities of the plurality of heaters are changed to perform heating, whereby the inside of the processing tank is heated. The density and distribution of the vapor of the organic solvent are controlled and the vapor of the organic solvent is supplied to the material to be dried for drying.

Further, in the drying apparatus according to the fourth aspect, isopropyl alcohol is used as the organic solvent, and the semiconductor wafer, glass or compound semiconductor is dried as the material to be dried.

[0017]

According to the above-mentioned drying device, in order to perform the vapor drying of the material to be dried such as the semiconductor wafer, the glass and the compound semiconductor, which are highly brittle materials, by the vapor of the organic solvent, a plurality of cooling units which are vapor control means are used. The cooling pipe is provided with a pipe and a plurality of heaters, respectively, and the cooling pipe can control the flow rate and temperature of the coolant, and the heater can control the heater capacity optimally to control the density and distribution of the vapor of the organic solvent. It is possible to dry glass, compound semiconductors and the like with high cleanliness.

Thus, the cleanliness of the vapor of the organic solvent in the processing tank can be improved by using a plurality of cooling pipes and a plurality of heaters.
The density and distribution can be controlled, and optimal drying conditions can be set for semiconductor wafers, glass, compound semiconductors, etc., and also optimal for drying today's large diameter semiconductor wafers, etc.

[0019]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described in detail below.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a semiconductor wafer drying apparatus which is Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

First, the structure of the semiconductor wafer drying apparatus of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

The semiconductor wafer drying apparatus of the present embodiment is a semiconductor wafer drying apparatus for performing vapor drying of a semiconductor wafer with vapor of isopropyl alcohol (hereinafter referred to as IPA) which is an organic solvent. IPA
Liquid 2, heaters (steam control means) 3a to 3c, IPA
Steam 4, cooling pipes (steam control means) 5a to 5c, cassette 6, handle 7, semiconductor wafer (material to be dried) 8
It is composed of and.

The heaters 3a to 3c are a plurality of heaters having different heater capacities and are divided so that heating control can be performed independently of each other, and the density and distribution of the IPA vapor 4 are controlled by changing the heater capacities. The cooling pipes 5a to 5c are provided with a plurality of cooling pipes to control the temperature and flow rate of the coolant flowing in the cooling pipes 5a to 5c, and further control the temperature and flow rate of the coolant to dry the semiconductor wafer 8. IP in and around the area in the processing tank 1 for
Control the density and distribution of the A vapor 4.

The cassette 6 is gripped by the handle 7,
This is a jig for holding the semiconductor wafer 8 vertically in the vicinity of the cooling pipes 5a to 5c filled with the IPA vapor 4 in the processing tank 1.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

First, the operator puts an optimum amount of the IPA liquid 2 on the bottom surface of the processing tank 1 and heats the IPA liquid 2 by the plurality of heaters 3a to 3c having different heater capacities to generate the IPA vapor 4.

Next, the operator, in this state,
The heater capacities of the plurality of heaters 3a to 3c and the plurality of cooling pipes 5a to 5c are used to control the flow rates of the coolants flowing through the cooling pipes 5a to 5c, respectively, so that the cleanliness, density and distribution of the IPA vapor 4 can be controlled by the material to be dried. The optimum conditions of a certain semiconductor wafer 8 are set.

Then, the operator is allowed to control this controlled I
A plurality of semiconductor wafers 8 held vertically in the cassette 6 are inserted into the PA vapor 4 by the handle 7 and dried to a high degree of cleanliness under the set optimum drying conditions.

In this case, as an expected result of the cleanliness of the semiconductor wafer 8 after being dried by this semiconductor wafer drying device, for example, the adhered foreign matters of 0.3 μm or more are averaged from 1.0 to 0.
It is expected that the number can be reduced to three.

Therefore, according to the semiconductor wafer drying apparatus of the present embodiment, the plurality of heaters 3a to 3 which are vapor control means.
c and a plurality of cooling pipes 5a to 5c, and heaters 3a to
By changing the capacity of 3c, cooling pipes 5a-5c
The cleanliness, density and distribution of the IPA vapor 4 can be controlled by controlling the temperature and flow rate of the coolant flowing through the semiconductor wafer 8. By exposing the semiconductor wafer 8 to the IPA vapor 4 having high cleanliness, the semiconductor wafer 8 can be highly cleaned. Can be dried.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a semiconductor wafer drying apparatus which is Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

The semiconductor wafer drying apparatus according to the second embodiment is provided with a single heater 3 as shown in FIG. 2 instead of having the plurality of heaters 3a to 3c in the first embodiment. It is the one.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

By controlling the temperature and flow rate of the coolant flowing through the plurality of cooling pipes 5a to 5c, the cleanliness, density and distribution of the IPA vapor 4 can be controlled, and the IPA of high cleanliness can be controlled.
By exposing the semiconductor wafer 8 to the vapor 4, the semiconductor wafer 8 can be dried with high cleanliness.

Although the invention made by the present inventor has been concretely described based on the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Needless to say.

For example, as for the vapor of the organic solvent in the above-mentioned embodiment, the case of using IPA has been described, but the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and another organic solvent used for vapor drying is used. It is also widely applicable in cases.

As the material to be dried, the case where a semiconductor wafer is used has been described, but the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and is widely applicable to highly brittle materials such as glass and compound semiconductors. Is.

[0038]

The effects obtained by the typical ones of the inventions disclosed in the present application will be briefly described as follows.
It is as follows.

(1). By providing a plurality of heaters and a plurality of cooling pipes having different heater capacities as steam control means,
Cleanliness of vapor of organic solvent in the treatment tank of the dryer,
The density and distribution can be controlled.

(2). By controlling the cleanliness, density and distribution of the vapor of the organic solvent, it becomes possible to dry highly clean semiconductor wafers, glass and compound semiconductors, etc., and greatly reduce the adhered foreign substances. be able to.

(3) The improved cleanliness and dryness make it ideal for drying recent semiconductor wafers having a large diameter and improving the yield of such semiconductor wafers.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a semiconductor wafer drying apparatus that is Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a semiconductor wafer drying apparatus that is Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Processing Tank 2 IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol: Organic Solvent) Liquid 3, 3a to 3c Heater (Vapor Control Means) 4 IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol: Organic Solvent) Vapor 5a to 5c Cooling Pipe (Vapor Control Means) 6 Cassette 7 Handle 8 Semiconductor Wafer (material to be dried)

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A drying device for vapor-drying a highly brittle material, which is a material to be dried, by vapor of an organic solvent, comprising vapor control means for controlling the vapor of the organic solvent in order to dry the material to be dried. A drying device comprising: 2. A region in a processing tank for drying the material to be dried, comprising a plurality of cooling pipes as the steam control means, and controlling the temperature and flow rate of a coolant flowing through the plurality of cooling pipes, respectively. The drying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the density and distribution of the vapor of the organic solvent in the periphery thereof are controlled, and the vapor of the organic solvent is supplied to the material to be dried to perform drying. 3. As the vapor control means, a plurality of heaters that are controlled to be heated independently of each other are provided, and the heater capacity of each of the plurality of heaters is changed to perform heating.
The drying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the density and distribution of the vapor of the organic solvent in the treatment tank is controlled, and the vapor of the organic solvent is supplied to the material to be dried to perform drying. 4. The drying apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein isopropyl alcohol is used as the organic solvent and a semiconductor wafer, glass or compound semiconductor is dried as the material to be dried.