JPH083000Y2 - Wafer processing tank - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial field of application) The present invention relates to a processing tank used in a process of processing a wafer in a liquid in a semiconductor manufacturing process.

(Prior Art) A wafer processing tank is used when a wafer is processed with a liquid in a semiconductor manufacturing process, and a case of a rinsing process in pure water having the greatest effect will be described.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, processing with many chemicals is performed in a semiconductor manufacturing process. After the chemical treatment, the wafer is washed with water in order to wash away the unnecessary chemical from the wafer surface. Water washing of wafers is generally performed in batches of a plurality of wafers, for example, in units of 25 wafers. The wafers are vertically arranged in a cassette, placed in a washing tank and washed with water.

However, when the wafers are put into the cassette as described above and washed with water, the washing water is not washed on the front and back surfaces of all the wafers because the distance between the wafers is short and the water flow is not uniform. There was a drawback that it was not evenly hit and the washing with water was insufficient. FIG. 4 shows a cross section of a conventional wafer processing bath. In FIG. 4, 1 is a washing container, 2 and 3 are pure water supply ports and drain ports, 10 is a wafer, 14 is a flow of washing water, and 15 is a stand for supporting a cassette. The cleaning water that has entered from the bottom of the cleaning container 1 does not flow on the surface of the wafer having high resistance, but flows around the cassette having low resistance.
Flow as shown in 14. Therefore, the surface of the wafer is not sufficiently washed with water. As a countermeasure against this, a rapid washing method in which rapid drainage is repeated at the time of washing or a plurality of washing tanks are provided and wafers are exchanged within a short time is also adopted.
However, such a method has a drawback that the amount of water required for washing is large. Further, in order to avoid an increase in the amount of water required for the water solution, a method has been proposed in which the wafer is taken out from the carrier and only the wafer is washed with water. However, such a method has a drawback that a step of taking out a wafer from a carrier, which causes contamination, is required.

As described above, in the conventional technique, since all the wafers are not uniformly exposed to the washing water, the washing process becomes insufficient, a large amount of water is required, or a complicated process that causes contamination. There was a drawback that was needed.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) The present invention is to provide a wafer processing tank in which a plurality of wafers placed in a cassette are uniformly hit with a processing liquid.

(Means for Solving the Problem) The present invention provides a partition plate for partitioning the wafer processing tank in a wafer processing tank, and the partition plate has a plurality of parallel grooves, and the grooves have mutually parallel grooves. Set up multiple parallel hangers.

Since the present invention has a dedicated water channel arranged so that the washing water hits each of the plurality of wafers placed in the cassette, pure water for washing is uniformly applied to each of the wafers. The flowing point is different from the conventional technology.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are sectional views thereof. FIGS. 2 and 3 show a state in which the cassette and the wafer are placed for easy understanding. Further, FIG. 3 schematically shows the flow 16 of the washing water.
The washing container 1 is the same as that used conventionally. The pure water supply port 2 and the drain port 3 for washing water are also the same as the conventional ones, and are respectively installed in the lower portion of the washing container 1. The vicinity of the bottom of the water washing container 1 is partitioned by a partition plate 4.
A parallel groove 9 is formed in a region near the center of the partition plate 4 which is slightly wider than the wafer cassette. The groove spacing must be the same as the wafer spacing for purposes of the present invention, and is therefore the same as the cassette groove spacing. In this embodiment, it is set to 5 mm, which is the same as the groove spacing of the 6-inch cassette.
The groove spacing need not be 5 mm as long as it fits the cassette used. Tents 6, 7, and 8 are installed on both sides of the groove. The protrusions protruding from the surface of the partition plates 4 of the heights 6, 7, and 8 are made as high as possible within a range in which they do not come into contact with the wafer 10 placed in the cassette 11. Freshly made
Some of the areas 6, 7 and 8 (areas into which the feet of the cassette are inserted) 12 have no projections so that the feet 13 of the cassette can be inserted. If the positioning of the cassette may be somewhat difficult, the attachments 6, 7, 8 may be continuous.

With such a structure, when water for washing is supplied from the supply port 2, the water uniformly flows upward from each groove 9 as shown by a flow 16 of washing water, Moreover, it flows intensively in the area where the cassette is placed. As is clear from this result, the fact that pure water for washing flows evenly over the surface of the wafer and the surface of the cassette is improved as compared with the conventional technique as compared with the conventional technique.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, in the wafer processing tank of the present invention, the water flow direction becomes parallel to the wafer due to the pendant provided corresponding to each wafer, and pure water for rinsing the wafer and the cassette does not flow. Since the hits are evenly distributed, there is an advantage that the washing effect is not uneven and the washing can be performed with a smaller amount of pure water than before. In addition to the above effect of controlling the water flow, it also serves to fix the position of the wafer carrier inside the water washing tank. This prevents the wafer from being displaced when a water stream is made to flow at high speed, and therefore the following two effects are expected. The first is that washing water can be flowed at a higher speed than when there is no touch, so that the washing effect is enhanced and washing can be performed in a short time. The second is that it is suitable for a washing tank for an automatic washing machine, in which position control is essential, because no positional deviation occurs. In addition, since it is possible to clean the wafer while it is still in the carrier without the need to remove the wafer from the carrier, there is no possibility of chipping that the edge of the wafer is chipped. There is also an advantage that a complicated process that causes the contamination of is unnecessary.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are sectional views of the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a conventional wafer processing bath. . 1 ... Washing container, 2 ... Pure water supply port 3 ... Drain port, 4 ... Partition plate 5 ... Partition plate support, 6, 7, 8 ... Tate 9 ... Groove, 10 ... Wafer 11 …… Cassette 12 …… Area where the feet of the cassette can enter 13 …… Cassette feet, 14 …… Flow of the washing water 15 …… A support for the cassette 16 …… Flow of the washing water

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A wafer processing tank having a partition plate for partitioning the wafer processing tank, wherein the partition plate is provided with a plurality of grooves parallel to each other and a plurality of rails parallel to the grooves. Characteristic wafer processing tank.