JPH10107000A - Substrate processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent automatically a processing liquid from crystallizing near the opening of a processing chamber. SOLUTION: In association with an opening 8 formed in a sidewall 3 of a processing chamber C1 through which a wafer is carried into the processing chamber C1 a shutter 22 for closing the opening 8 is provided. A washing manifold 70 is provided in the place of the processing chamber C1 which is present more inside than the shutter 22. This washing manifold 70 is provided on the more under side than a bus line P for passing the wafer along it, and discharges a washing pure water, toward the vicinity of a top side 8U of the opening 8. Thereby, a processing liquid is prevented from crystallizing near the top side 8U.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus for processing various substrates to be processed such as a semiconductor wafer and a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a process of manufacturing a semiconductor device, a process of performing a process using a chemical such as an etchant on a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, simply referred to as "wafer") is indispensable. However, in the case where a plurality of processing units are provided in one processing apparatus, when a chemical solution atmosphere flows out of a chemical solution processing unit for performing a process using a chemical solution, a metal part of the device is corroded, or the wafer is moved to a wafer standby position. The accumulated wafers before or after processing may be adversely affected.

Therefore, in a processing unit that performs processing using a chemical solution, a shutter is provided at the entrance of the processing chamber. The shutter is opened only when an unprocessed wafer is carried in and when a processed wafer is carried out, and the shutter is closed during the remaining period, so that the outflow of the chemical solution atmosphere is prevented as much as possible. I have.

[0004]

When the processing apparatus is continuously operated for a long time, the chemical liquid attached to the inner wall surface of the processing chamber drips. After the operation of the processing apparatus is stopped, the chemical liquid dries and crystallizes at the entrance and exit of the processing chamber. In particular, the chemical liquid crystal grows downward at the upper side of the entrance. These crystals come into contact with the surface of the wafer or fall when the wafer is loaded or unloaded through the entrance, causing an increase in particles. Further, if the operation of the processing apparatus is stopped for a long time, the chemical liquid crystal may adhere to the shutter and the shutter may not move.

Therefore, conventionally, a hand shower is provided so that the inside of the apparatus can be manually cleaned, and the user can clean the periphery of the shutter with the hand shower at an appropriate time. I was However, manual cleaning is troublesome, and if this cleaning operation is neglected, the above-described problem will occur.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned technical problems and to provide a substrate processing apparatus capable of automatically preventing crystallization of a processing liquid near an opening of a processing chamber.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a processing chamber surrounded by a side wall and configured to process a substrate with a processing liquid, and the side wall. And an opening through which the substrate passes when loading or unloading the substrate into or from the processing chamber, and at least when the substrate passes through the opening, is located at a position lower than the height at which the substrate passes. And a cleaning nozzle capable of discharging a cleaning liquid toward the vicinity of the upper side of the opening.

According to this configuration, since the cleaning nozzle for discharging the cleaning liquid toward the vicinity of the upper side of the opening is provided, the vicinity of the upper side of the opening can be automatically cleaned. Thereby, crystallization of the processing liquid near the opening can be prevented without manual operation. Thereby, contamination of the substrate can be prevented. In addition, since the cleaning nozzle is located below the substrate passing through the opening, there is no possibility that the cleaning liquid falling from the cleaning nozzle will fall on the substrate and adhere to it.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the opening, an upper side facing the upper surface of the substrate passing through the opening is formed to be inclined with respect to a horizontal plane. It is a substrate processing apparatus of a statement. According to this configuration, since the upper side of the opening is inclined, the chemical liquid attached to the upper side flows down. Therefore, contamination of the upper side of the opening can be reduced. Further, when the vicinity of the upper side of the opening is cleaned by the cleaning nozzle, the cleaning liquid quickly flows down, so that the residual liquid after cleaning is preferably cut off.
In this way, it is possible to more effectively prevent particles from adhering to the substrate passing through the opening.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a part of an internal configuration of a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This substrate processing apparatus is a single wafer processing type cleaning processing apparatus for cleaning a semiconductor wafer, and uses various chemicals and pure water (hereinafter, collectively referred to as “processing liquid”) on a wafer. Chemical treatment unit MTC that performs processes such as contamination removal, dust removal, and corrosion treatment, and running water cleaning and ultrasonic cleaning using pure water on the wafers that have been processed by the chemical treatment unit MTC. A washing unit DTC for rotating and draining and drying is provided.

The chemical processing unit MTC and the cleaning unit DTC have processing chambers C1 and C2 which are surrounded on four sides by side walls 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The unprocessed wafer is transferred from the main transfer robot (not shown) to the sub transfer robot STR1 through the entrance 5. The sub-transfer robot STR1 includes a lower arm 11 and the lower arm 11
Is a scalar robot having an upper arm 12 that rotates about one end of the robot. That is, when the lower arm 11 is rotated around a rotation axis positioned near the tip of the upper arm 12, the lower arm 11 and the upper arm 12 are rotated.
Are expanded (shown by a virtual line) or folded (shown by a solid line) to expand and contract. At the tip of the upper arm 12, a wafer holding unit 13 for sucking and holding the back surface of the wafer is provided. The above-described main transfer robot transfers the wafer to the contracted sub-transfer robot STR1. And the sub-transfer robot STR1
Carries the wafer into the chemical processing unit MTC.

The wafer processed by the chemical processing unit MTR1 is taken out by the sub-transfer robot STR2 and carried into the cleaning unit DTC. The configuration of the sub-transfer robot STR2 is the same as that of the sub-transfer robot STR1. The sub-transfer robot STR1 extends toward the chemical processing unit MTC to receive the wafer, then contracts, and further expands toward the cleaning unit DTC to extend the cleaning unit DTC. The wafer is loaded into the wafer. The wafer subjected to the cleaning process by the cleaning unit DTC is taken out by the sub-transfer robot STR3. The configuration of the sub-transport robot STR3 is the same as that of the sub-transport robot STR1.

The wafer taken out by the sub transfer robot STR3 is carried out by the above-mentioned main transfer robot through the outlet 6. Each of the side walls 1 of the processing chambers C1 and C2 has an opening 7 through which a wafer to be carried in passes, and each side wall 3 has an opening 8 through which a wafer to be carried out passes. A shutter 21 is provided in connection with the opening 7, and a shutter 22 is provided in connection with the opening 8. These shutters 21 and 22
Are opened only when the wafer passes through the openings 7 and 8, respectively, and are closed during the remaining period. This allows
In particular, the leakage of the chemical solution atmosphere generated in the chemical solution processing unit MTC is prevented.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view showing the configuration near the chemical processing unit MTC, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the configuration near the chemical processing unit MTC. The chemical processing unit MTC includes a cylindrical processing cup 31 having an open upper surface and a processing cup 31 inside the processing chamber C1.
And a spin chuck 32 disposed therein. The spin chuck 32 is for rotating the wafer W at high speed around its central axis while holding the wafer W. A splash guard 33 for preventing the processing liquid from scattering is provided above the processing cup 31 so as to be movable up and down.

A plurality of nozzles 34 for supplying a chemical solution or pure water to the surface of the wafer W held by the spin chuck 32 are provided on the side of the processing cup 31. These nozzles 34 are provided so as to be able to advance and retreat in an oblique vertical direction, and when supplying the processing liquid to the wafer W, the nozzles 34 advance forward obliquely upward through a notch 35 formed in the splash guard 33 and The processing liquid is supplied to almost the central position of the processing liquid.

Inside the processing cup 31, there is provided a central shaft nozzle 36 passing through the rotation axis of the spin chuck 32. The central axis nozzle 36 supplies a chemical solution or pure water from below toward the center of the back surface of the wafer W. Processing chamber C
Sub-transport robot STR out of the four side walls forming 1
As described above, the shutters 21 and 22 are provided in relation to the pair of side walls 1 and 3 adjacent to the STR 1 and the STR 2, respectively.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV of FIG. The configuration near the shutter 22 will be described with reference to FIG. 4 and FIGS. 2 and 3 described above. The configuration near the shutter 21 is almost the same,
The portions corresponding to the respective portions related to the shutter 22 are indicated by adding the suffix A to the reference numerals assigned to the corresponding portions of the shutter 22. An opening 8 is formed in the side wall 3 as a passage for the wafer. A shutter 22 is slidably provided in the vertical direction on the inner space side of the processing chamber C1 in relation to the opening 8. More specifically, the processing chamber C1 of the side wall 3
On the surface on the side, a rectangular guide recess 40 for guiding the sliding movement of the shutter 22 along the opening 8 in the vertical direction is formed. Shutter 2 fitted in this guide recess 40
Reference numeral 2 denotes a rectangular plate-like body, which is a sub-transport robot STR2.
A pair of rack gear portions 41, 42 are formed along the left and right sides on the surface on the side opposite to. The rack gear portions 41 and 42 have through holes 43 and 4 formed in the side wall 3.
The pinion gears 51 and 52 are in mesh with each other via the pin 4. These pinion gears 51 and 52 are fixed to a common rotation shaft 50. The rotating shaft 50 is supported by bearings 54 and 53 attached to the side walls 2 and 4 on the side of the sub-transfer robot STR2 with respect to the side wall 3. An end of the rotating shaft 50 on the side wall 2 side further penetrates a bearing 54.
1 is fixed. A rack gear 62 meshes with the pinion gear 61 from above. This rack gear 6
2 has a T-shaped cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal direction,
The upper part is held by a guide rail 63 so as to be capable of horizontal sliding movement along the side wall 2.

FIG. 5 showing the configuration viewed from the direction of arrow V in FIG.
The rod 65 of the air cylinder 60 is connected to one end of the rack gear 62 as shown in FIG. Therefore, when the rod 65 of the air cylinder 60 is moved forward and backward,
The rack gear 62 slides, whereby the rotation shaft 50 is rotated via the pinion gear 61. As a result, the pair of pinion gears 51, 5 fixed to the rotation shaft 50
2 rotates, and the shutter 22 having the pair of rack gear portions 41 and 42 meshing with the shutter 2 slides up and down.

The shutter 4 has a recess 4 formed in the side wall 3.
Shutter holding members 45 and 46 are attached to the side wall 3 along the left and right sides of the recess 40 in order to prevent dropping from zero. Processing chamber C more than shutter 22
A cleaning manifold 70 extending horizontally along the shutter 22 is disposed at a position slightly below the lower side 8 </ b> L of the opening 8 inside the unit 1. The cleaning manifold 70 is a straight tubular one, and its tip is supported by a support member 71 fixed to the shutter holding member 46 with bolts 74, and its base end is formed by the side wall 4
Are connected to and supported by a through connector 72 that is held through the connector. A pipe 73 for supplying pure water is connected to the through connector 72.

In the cleaning manifold 70, a plurality of discharge ports 75 are arranged in a straight line at equal intervals. The cleaning manifold 70 is attached so that the cleaning water 76 discharged from the discharge port 75 is supplied near the upper side 8U of the opening 8. In the pipe 73, for example,
Every time processing of a predetermined number of wafers is completed, a predetermined flow of pure water is supplied. Thus, the cleaning water 76 is spouted from the discharge port 75 of the cleaning manifold 70 and supplied to the vicinity of the upper side 8U of the opening 8. Thus, the chemical solution near the upper side 8U of the opening 8 and the chemical solution on the surface of the shutter 22 are washed away. When the cleaning water 76 is jetted, the shutter 22 is in the closed position (the position shown in FIG. 3). At this time,
Although the cleaning water from the cleaning manifold 70 does not directly fall on the upper side 8U of the opening 8, the shutter 22 and the side wall 3
If a small amount of water is supplied to the upper side 8U from the gap between
The purpose of preventing crystallization of the chemical solution at the upper side 8U is sufficiently achieved.

In addition to the time of cleaning, pure water is supplied to the pipe 73 at a small flow rate in order to prevent generation of dead water. Therefore, the discharge port 7 of the cleaning manifold 70
From 5, pure water flows out little by little, so-called slow leak is performed. However, the cleaning manifold 70
Is located below the pass line P (see FIG. 3), which is the transfer path of the wafer W, there is no possibility that the water leaked slowly adheres to the wafer W being transferred.

As described above, according to this embodiment, cleaning water can be sprayed from the cleaning manifold provided in connection with the shutter toward the vicinity of the upper side of the opening. Therefore, cleaning around the shutter and the opening can be automatically performed. Therefore, there is no need for the user to open the substrate processing apparatus for cleaning, and of course, there is no fear of touching the chemical. Also,
For example, if cleaning water is automatically spouted from the cleaning manifold for each predetermined number of lots, crystallization at the side wall openings can be reliably prevented, so that wafer contamination can be reliably prevented, and particle Can be reduced. Furthermore, since the cleaning can be performed automatically, the cleaning cycle can be shortened, and from this point, crystallization can be effectively prevented. In this manner, contamination of the wafer can be prevented, so that the yield of semiconductor devices obtained by processing the wafer can be improved.

Further, even during the operation of the apparatus, the cleaning water can be sprayed from the cleaning manifold during a period in which the shutter is closed, whereby the operation of the substrate processing apparatus can be stopped. The cleaning process can be performed in parallel. Thereby, the productivity of the semiconductor device can be improved. Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described, it goes without saying that the present invention can take other embodiments. For example, in the above embodiment, the openings 7, 8 formed in the side walls 1, 3 of the processing chamber.
Is horizontal, but the upper sides of the openings 7, 8 formed in the side walls 1, 2 are preferably inclined with respect to the horizontal plane. That is, for example, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the upper side 8U of the opening 8 may be formed into a mountain shape or a hypotenuse in a front view. In each case, the upper side 8U
The chemical solution attached to the opening 8 is guided to both or one of the left and right sides of the opening 8, so that it is possible to reduce accumulation of the chemical solution on the upper side 8U and crystallization of the accumulated chemical solution. Also,
When cleaning is performed using the cleaning water discharged from the cleaning manifold 70, the cleaning water quickly flows and falls, and thus it is preferable that the residual water is stopped after the discharge of the cleaning water is stopped.
Therefore, there is also an advantage that the time required for cleaning can be reduced.

When the upper sides of the openings 7 and 8 are inclined surfaces,
Instead of inclining the upper side in the front view, it is also possible to incline in the cross section. That is, FIG.
As shown in FIGS. 8B and 8C, the cross section of the upper side 8U of the opening 8 may be a hypotenuse (FIG. 8A), a mountain shape (FIG. 8B), or a V-shape (FIG. c)) may be used. Also in this case, since the chemical solution and the washing water quickly flow down, the stagnation or crystallization of the chemical solution can be prevented, and the discharge of the residual water after stopping the discharge of the washing water can be improved.

The upper sides of the openings 7 and 8 have a shape as shown in FIG. 6 or 7 in a front view, and a cross section as shown in FIG. 8 (a), (b) or (c). Then, the above-described effect can be further enhanced. In the above-described embodiment, the cleaning water is discharged only from one side of the side wall toward the vicinity of the upper side of the opening. However, the cleaning water is discharged to both sides of the side wall toward the vicinity of the upper side of the opening. A cleaning manifold may be provided.

Instead of the cleaning manifold, a cleaning nozzle having another structure such as a plurality of nozzles or a slit nozzle can be used. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the cleaning manifold is disposed at a position lower than the lower side of the opening for loading / unloading the wafer, but the cleaning manifold is located below the pass line P through which the wafer passes. It does not have to be located below the lower side of the opening. More specifically, the nozzle for discharging the cleaning water only needs to be at a position lower than the height at which the wafer passes when the wafer passes through the opening, and at a position above the pass line P when the wafer does not pass. You may. That is, for example, a cleaning manifold may be horizontally mounted near the upper sides of the shutters 21 and 22 so that the cleaning manifold moves up and down as the shutters 21 and 22 move up and down. Also, shutters 21 and 22
The washing nozzle is formed by forming a washing water flow path in the inside of the nozzle and forming a well on the upper side of the shutters 21 and 22 so that the washing water supplied to the washing water flowing path flows from the well. You may comprise.

In the above embodiment, a substrate processing apparatus for processing a wafer is taken as an example. However, the present invention is applicable to processing another substrate such as a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display device. It is also applicable to the device of the above. In addition, it is possible to make various design changes within the technical scope described in the claims.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a partial configuration of a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a configuration near a chemical processing unit.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a configuration near a chemical solution processing unit.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line IV-IV of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a front view as seen from the direction of arrow V in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a front view showing an example in which the upper side of the opening is formed in a mountain shape.

FIG. 7 is a front view showing an example in which an upper side of an opening is formed as an oblique side.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing an example in which the cross section of the upper side of the opening is an oblique side (a), a V-shape (b), and a chevron (c).

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,2,3,4 Side wall C1, C2 Processing chamber MTC Chemical treatment unit DTC Cleaning unit 7,8 Opening 21,22 Shutter 70 Cleaning manifold (cleaning nozzle)

Claims (2)

[Claims] A processing chamber for processing a substrate with a processing liquid, the processing chamber being surrounded by a side wall, and an opening formed in the side wall and through which the substrate passes when loading or unloading the substrate into or from the processing chamber. And, at least when the substrate passes through the opening, is located at a position lower than the height at which the substrate passes,
A substrate processing apparatus comprising: a cleaning nozzle capable of discharging a cleaning liquid toward a vicinity of an upper side of the opening. 2. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an upper side of the opening facing the upper surface of the substrate passing through the opening is formed inclined with respect to a horizontal plane.