JPH07176512A - Spin-dryer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To miniaturize a spin-dryer device and a washing vessel used in preprocessing, to improve washing and drying efficiency of wafers, and to prevent static electricity which impairs the efficiency of the device. CONSTITUTION:A receptacle stand 7, on which wafers are arranged and placed in grooves, is formed by removing the circumferential wall where guide grooves are provided on the conventional wafer having cassette, a retaining frame 8, having V-shaped grooves 8a on both walls of a cradle 3a, is provided. The cassette is made small by the amount of the thickness of the cassette wall, a washing vessel is made small by the thickness of the wall, and a cradle 3a is also made small. Also, the wall, which becomes the obstacle of the spreading of a washing solution to the receptacle stand 7, is eliminated and at the same time, there is no obstacle for scattering the washing solution. Moreover, the area, which directly comes in contact with the wafer 5, can be made small.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a spin dryer apparatus for rotating a wafer, which is a semiconductor substrate after wet processing, at high speed and scattering and drying the processing liquid adhering to the surface by centrifugal force.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIGS. 3A to 3C are schematic sectional views showing a structure of an example of a conventional spin dryer device.
FIG. 3B is a side view (b) and a front view (c) of the cradle and the cassette. For example, as shown in FIG. 3A, this type of spin dryer device includes a cassette 4 in which a plurality of disk-shaped wafers 5 are fitted in grooves and the semiconductor substrates are arranged side by side, and a cradle in which the cassette 4 is stored. 3, a rotary drum 2a on which a plurality of the cradle 3 are rotatably attached to the inner edge, a turntable 2 for rotating the rotary drum 2a, and a container 1 for accommodating the turntable 2 and the rotary drum 2a. There is.

In the procedure for drying a wafer that has been processed by this spin dryer, first, the cradle 3 is made horizontal, and the cassette 4 containing a plurality of wafers 5 is placed in the cradle 3. Next, the cradle 3 is rotated 90 degrees until it hits the stopper 2, and is stored in the rotary drum 2a. Next, the turntable 2 is rotated at a high speed, and the processing liquid adhering to the wafer 5 is scattered by the centrifugal force and dried.

Since the cassette 4 used in this spin dryer device is shared with the wet processing device which is the previous process, it is a box body made of Teflon material which is resistant to chemicals, and the wall surrounding the wafer 5 is not deformed. It was a solid one with a thick wall.

[0005]

However, in the cassette used in the above-mentioned spin dryer, a groove for inserting a wafer is formed in the peripheral wall, and the wall has a certain thickness to prevent the wall from being deformed. There is. Therefore, the height of the cradle for accommodating the cassette is increased, and accordingly, the rotating drum itself is enlarged, the apparatus is enlarged, the equipment cost is increased, and the installation area is widened. On the other hand, the cleaning tank of the previous process which shares this cassette also has a drawback that not only the size of the cleaning tank itself becomes large and a large floor area is required, but also the amount of chemical solution consumed increases and the operating cost increases. Further, during cleaning, since there is a wall around the wafer, the cleaning liquid does not sufficiently flow around and is often dried with contaminants attached. Further, the contact area between the peripheral wall and the wafer surface is wide, and there is a problem in that static electricity is charged to that extent and the integrated circuit formed on the wafer is damaged.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is not only to downsize the apparatus itself, but also to downsize the cleaning tank in the previous step, to improve the cleaning and drying efficiency of wafers and to impart static electricity which hinders the performance. It is an object of the present invention to provide a spin dryer device that can be applied to a cassette that does not exist.

[0007]

A feature of the present invention is that a plurality of disc-shaped semiconductor substrates are mounted in a groove by fitting one circular arc portion of the semiconductor substrates and the semiconductor substrates are mounted side by side, and a box-like shape in which the mounting tables are inserted. A cradle that is a member and has a holding frame in which a V-shaped groove that holds the other circular arc portion of the semiconductor substrate that is perpendicular to the one circular arc portion is formed, and a plurality of the cradle rotatably around the inner edge. This is a spin dryer device including a rotary drum to be attached, a turntable for rotating the rotary drum, and a container for accommodating the turntable and the rotary drum.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 (a) to 1 (d) are schematic sectional views (a) showing the structure of an embodiment of the spin dryer of the present invention, and a top view (b) and a sectional view (c) of a cradle.
It is also a diagram (d) showing the relationship between the cassette base and the cradle. As shown in FIG. 1, in this spin dryer device, conventionally, a box-shaped cassette used to store wafers is fitted into one groove of one circular arc portion of a plurality of disk-shaped wafers 5 and the wafers 5 are placed side by side. The mounting table 7 is a box-shaped cradle 3a in which the mounting table 7 is mounted. A holding frame 8 is formed in which a V-shaped groove 8a for holding another arc portion of the wafer 5 perpendicular to the one arc portion is formed. It is provided on both side walls of the box. Otherwise, it is the same as the conventional example.

In this spin dryer device, the mounting table 7 on which the wafer 5 is mounted is placed in the cradle 3a.
At this time, the circular arc portion of the wafer 5 is guided by the V-shaped groove 8a of the cradle 3a, and the mounting table 7 is completely accommodated by the bottom surface of the cradle 3a and the projection 11 of the mounting table 7 contacting each other.
Further, it is not necessary to process the V-shaped groove 8a and the groove of the mounting table 7 so as to be accurately aligned with each other. Is enough. Rather, if there is a slight deviation, the V-shaped groove 8a and the groove of the mounting table 7 give a restricting force to the wafer 5,
This restricting force prevents the wafer from jumping out when the grade 3a is rotated.

Although the grader 3a has a wall so as to surround the wafer 5 in the drawing, it is preferable to make a cut hole or the like to reduce the weight. This is necessary also in the sense of avoiding the re-adhesion of the scattered chemical liquid to the wafer 5. Further, since there is no wall surrounding the wafer 5 on the mounting table 7, improvement in cleaning and drying efficiency by this device can be expected.

FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b) are views showing the positional relationship between the mounting table and the cradle for explaining an application example of the automatic transfer apparatus to the spin dryer apparatus of FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the mounting table in this embodiment has protrusions 11 hooked by hooks 10 suspended from an arm 9a extending from a transfer section 9 on a side surface perpendicular to a direction in which wafers 5 are arranged.
The notch 12 is formed in the wall of the cradle 3a so that the hook 10 does not interfere with the hook 10 and the cradle 3a when the hook 10 moves up and down and the arm 10 rotates.

This transfer section extends to the cleaning tank of the previous step, and the wafer 5 and the mounting table 7 after the cleaning are transferred onto the spin dryer device, and are shown in FIGS. 2 (a) to 2 (b). As described above, the transport unit 9 descends, the hooks 10 that suspend the mounting table 7 by the protrusions 11 pass between the notches 12, and store the mounting table 7 in the cradle 3a. Then, by the rotation of the arm 9a, the hook 10 is disengaged from the protrusion 11, and the arm 9a is lifted to complete the transfer of the mounting table 7 to the cradle 3a.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, the peripheral wall provided with the guide groove of the conventional cassette for storing the wafers side by side is removed to form a mounting table on which the wafers are simply placed, and both walls of the cradle are mounted. By forming a guide groove in the cassette, the size of the cassette is reduced by the thickness of the wall of the cassette, so that the cleaning tank in the previous process can be reduced by the thickness of the wall, and the cradle can be made smaller, and the cleaning device and drying device can be made smaller. There is an effect that it can be realized.

Further, since there is no wall on the mounting table which obstructs the permeation of the cleaning liquid, the cleaning liquid is not obstructed at the same time, so that the cleaning and drying efficiency can be improved.

Further, as another effect, the area of direct contact with the wafer is reduced, and damage to the integrated circuit due to static electricity can be significantly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view (a) showing a configuration of an embodiment of a spin dryer according to the present invention, a top view (b) and a cross-sectional view (c) of a cradle, and a view showing a relationship between a cassette table and a cradle ( d).

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a positional relationship between a mounting table and a cradle for explaining an application example of an automatic transfer device to the spin dryer device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view (a) showing a structure of an example of a conventional spin dryer device, a side view (b) and a front view (c) of a cradle and a cassette.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Container 2 Turntable 2a Rotating Drum 2b Stopper 3,3a Cradle 4 Cassette 5 Wafer 7 Loading Table 8 Holding Frame 8a V-Shaped Groove 9 Transfer Part 9a Arm 10 Hook 11 Projection 12 Notch

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A mounting table for fitting one circular arc portion of a plurality of disc-shaped semiconductor substrates into a groove and mounting the semiconductor substrates side by side.
A cradle having a box-shaped member for accommodating the mounting table and having a holding frame in which a V-shaped groove for holding and holding another circular arc portion of the semiconductor substrate perpendicular to the one circular arc portion is formed, and a cradle of this cradle. A spin dryer device comprising: a rotary drum having a plurality of rotatably attached to an inner edge thereof; a turntable for rotating the rotary drum; and a container for accommodating the turntable and the rotary drum. 2. The spin dryer device according to claim 1, wherein a protrusion on which a hook of the transfer unit is hooked is formed on a side surface parallel to a direction in which the groove of the mounting table extends.