JPH1010017A - Particle sampler - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently collect particles adhered to a body to be measured by collecting the particles adhered to the body to be measured by a rotating stage and a moving means. SOLUTION: A wafer 1 is put on a rotating stage 2, and suction of particles is started by a suction nozzle 5. The wafer 1 is rotated around a rotating shaft in this state, and moved in X-axial direction by a horizontal driving stage 3. When the circumference of the wafer 1 approaches the nozzle 4, the gap with the wafer 1 is controlled. This gap is kept following the movement, and at a point of time when the rotating shaft is situated in the center of a nozzle A or slightly passed through it, the sampling is terminated. Thus, a filter 6 completely scans the whole surface of the wafer 1, and the particles on the wafer 1 are efficiently sucked by the nozzle 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a particle sampler for collecting particles adhering on a semiconductor wafer or a liquid crystal glass substrate by a filter, and more particularly, to a particle sampler.
The present invention relates to a particle sampler that efficiently collects particles adhering to a wafer or a glass substrate into a filter, and supplies the collected fine particle sample to, for example, an element analyzer using microwave induction plasma.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Dust on a wafer forming a semiconductor circuit causes disconnection of a wiring circuit, and dust on a glass substrate constituting a liquid crystal panel causes a dropout of a pixel. Therefore, measures against dust in the manufacturing process have become an important issue in terms of yield and the like. To solve this problem, dust on a wafer or a glass substrate is removed by a laser as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-68527 or washed as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-68527. It is removed by chemical reaction with gas.

[0003]

However, such a conventional apparatus for removing particles cannot measure the component or amount of dust on a wafer or a glass substrate only by removing dust. ) Could not be analyzed essentially.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and efficiently collects particles adhering on a wafer or a glass substrate by a filter, and excites the collected particles with plasma to analyze the particles. An object of the present invention is to provide a particle sampler for supplying dust to a particle analyzer and analyzing dust on a wafer or a glass substrate.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a particle sampler for sucking particles adhering to an object to be measured by a suction nozzle and collecting the sucked particles in a filter. A rotating stage mounted and rotated with the object to be measured,
A gap control mechanism for keeping the distance between the tip of the suction nozzle and the surface of the object to be measured constant; and moving means for relatively linearly moving the tip of the nozzle and the object to be measured, By the stage and the moving means, characterized by collecting particles attached to the measured object,

[0006] It is provided near the suction nozzle,
It is floated by a fluid from a blowing nozzle that blows the fluid toward the measured object, and sucks the floating particles, and is provided in the vicinity of the suction nozzle, and the fluid is directed toward the measured object. And a blowing nozzle for blowing

A driving device for controlling at least one of the blowing nozzle and the suction nozzle to change a relative position with respect to the object to be measured is provided, and a flow rate for controlling a flow rate of a fluid supplied to the blowing nozzle is provided. It is characterized by having control means.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1A is a front view showing an example of a particle sampler according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a plan view of a main part. In the embodiment, a case where particles on a wafer are collected will be described as an example. In the figure, 1 is an object to be measured wafer, 2 is a rotary stage for mounting the wafer 1, the rotation axis O ₁ and equipped with the wafer
Rotate around. Reference numeral 3 denotes a horizontal drive stage that displaces the entire rotary stage linearly in the horizontal direction. This horizontal drive stage is configured such that the lower part of the rotary stage 2 engages with a motor 3a and a screw (not shown), and the rotary stage 2 is rotated by a screw connected to the rotary shaft of the motor 3a. Move in the axial direction.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a suction nozzle for sucking particles adhering to the wafer 1; 5, a suction machine; and 6, a filter for collecting particles sucked by the suction nozzle. The gap (gap) between the suction nozzle 4 and the wafer 1 can be arbitrarily adjusted, and is set by the gap control mechanism 7 at an interval at which particles adhering to the wafer 1 are easily sucked. The center O ₁ is arranged to pass through the center of the nozzle 4 when the rotary stage 2 moves in the X direction. Then, during the sampling, this apparatus
Are arranged in a chamber or a clean room provided to prevent contamination.

Next, the operation of the thus configured particle sampler will be described. First, the wafer 1 is mounted on the rotary stage 2, and the suction nozzle 4 starts suctioning particles. In this case, the wafer is fixed by suctioning a large number of holes provided on the surface of the rotary stage and maintaining the wafer at a negative pressure.

In this state, the wafer is rotated about the rotation axis O ₁ and is moved by the horizontal drive stage 3 in the X-axis direction. When the nozzle 4 approaches the outer periphery of the wafer 1, the gap between the wafer 1 and the nozzle 1 is controlled. This gap sampling ends when the rotary shaft O ₁ is maintained and centered or slightly pass the suction nozzle 4 with movement.

With such an operation, the suction nozzle 6 can scan the entire surface of the wafer 1. For this reason,
Particles on the wafer 1 are efficiently sucked by the suction nozzle 4. In this embodiment, the rotation stage 2
Is moved, but may be moved on the nozzle 4 side. Further, when sampling wafers having different diameters, it is possible to cope with the case by providing a margin for the moving distance of the rotary stage.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the present invention, and is a main part configuration diagram in which a suction nozzle portion is enlarged. In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes a suction nozzle, and a blowing nozzle 11 for blowing a fluid toward the wafer 1 is formed at the center. When a fluid (air in this example) is blown from the blowing nozzle 11, particles attached to the wafer 1 are separated from the wafer 1 and blown up.

The blown up particles are sucked up by the suction nozzle 10 and collected by the filter 6. 12
Is a flow control stage, which controls the flow rate of the fluid blown out from the blowout nozzle 11. A drive unit 13 controls the suction nozzle 10 and the blowing nozzle 11 to change the relative position (XY direction and Z direction) with respect to the wafer 1.

For example, if the blowing nozzle 11 is controlled to vibrate left and right, a turbulent flow is generated on the surface of the wafer 1 and wind pressure is applied to the particles from each direction. With this force, even if the particles have a strong adhesive force of about 1 μm, they can be easily separated from the wafer 1 in the same manner as particles having a diameter of several μm. The suction nozzle 10 and the blowing nozzle 11 described here may have an integral double-tube structure, or may have a separate structure. Further, the ratio between the suction flow rate and the blowout flow rate is arbitrarily determined according to the particle diameter and shape at a ratio such as 1: 2, 1: 3.

FIG. 3 shows a test result obtained by sampling particles with the particle sampler of this embodiment.
The diameter and the number of particles on the wafer 1 are measured in advance by an electron microscope. As can be seen from the test results, particles of 1 μm or more can be completely sampled. In the case where the blowing nozzle 11 was not used, the result was that particles of 1 to 2, 3 μm could not be completely removed.

[0017]

As described above, according to the particle sampler of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. According to the first aspect of the present invention, the rotating stage that mounts and rotates the measured object, the gap control mechanism that keeps the distance between the tip of the suction nozzle and the surface of the measured object constant, and the tip of the nozzle. A moving stage that relatively linearly moves the object to be measured is provided, and the particles attached to the object to be measured are collected by the rotating stage and the moving stage, so that the control is easy and the rotation is uniform. The wafer mounted on the stage can be scanned, and particles can be efficiently collected from the wafer. According to the second aspect of the present invention, the particles attached to the wafer are blown up by the fluid from the blowing nozzle and then sucked by the suction nozzle, so that it is possible to collect even small particles of about 1 μm. . According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the blowing nozzle is controlled to vibrate right and left, a turbulent flow is generated on the wafer surface, and wind pressure is applied to the particles from each direction, so that the particles are more efficiently processed. Can be collected. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the flow rate of the fluid supplied to the blowing nozzle can be controlled by the flow rate control stage.
Particles can be collected efficiently.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIGS. 1A and 1B are a front view and a main part plan view showing an example of an embodiment of a particle sampler according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a main part configuration diagram in which a suction nozzle portion is enlarged in another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a test result sampled by the particle sampler of the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Wafer 2 Rotation stage 3 Horizontal drive stage 3a Motor 4 Nozzle 5 Suction machine 6 Filter 7 Gap control mechanism 11 Blowing nozzle 12 Flow control means 13 Driving device

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A particle sampler for sucking particles adhering on an object to be measured by a suction nozzle and collecting the sucked particles in a filter, a rotating stage mounted and rotated with the object to be measured, and the suction A gap control mechanism that keeps the distance between the tip of the nozzle and the surface of the object to be measured constant; and a moving unit that relatively linearly moves the tip of the nozzle and the object to be measured; A particle sampler, wherein the moving means collects particles attached to the measured object. 2. A blowing nozzle, which is provided near the suction nozzle and blows a fluid toward the object to be measured, wherein particles adhering on the object to be measured are discharged by the fluid from the blowing nozzle. Surfaced,
The particle sampler according to claim 1, wherein the floating particles are sucked. 3. A blow nozzle, which is provided near the suction nozzle and blows a fluid toward the object to be measured, and controls at least one of the blow nozzle and the suction nozzle to connect the object to be measured. The particle sampler according to claim 1, further comprising a driving device that changes a relative position. 4. The particle sampler according to claim 2, further comprising a flow rate control means for controlling a flow rate of a fluid supplied to said blowing nozzle.