JPS6245125A - Drier - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the electrostatic breakdown of a material to be dried by charging by mounting an ultraviolet irradiation source irradiating the material to be dried by ultraviolet rays and removing charges charged to the material to be dried by ultraviolet exposure. CONSTITUTION:A wafer 2 on which chemicals adhere through photo-resist treatment is dipped ito a water washing tank 4 under the state in which it is housed in a cassette 3, and chemicals are removed. The cassette 3 housing the wafer 2 is transferred into a vessel 8 for a rinser drier section 6. When the vessel 8 is turned in the horizontal direction by a motor 7, moisture adhering on the wafer 2 is removed by centrifugal force. When a mercury lamp 11 is lit, the wafer 2 is irradiated by ultraviolet rays through a transparent central cylinder 10. Accordingly, charges charged on the wafer 2 can be removed from the wafer 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to drying technology, particularly drying technology using N2 after cleaning semiconductor wafers.
The present invention relates to techniques that can be used effectively to dry the wafer with gas or the like.

[Background technology]

The equipment used for this type of wafer drying is a so-called rinser dryer, which applies nitrogen to the wafer after cleaning it with a cleaning solution during the manufacturing process of semiconductor devices.
Drying is performed by supplying two gases and rotating the wafer.

By the way, in such a drying device, N is not used during drying.
When the N2 gas and the wafer surface come into contact, an extremely high voltage charging phenomenon occurs on the wafer surface due to the friction between the N2 gas and the wafer surface, and this charging causes static electricity in the integrated circuit elements fabricated on the wafer. The inventor has discovered that destruction and foreign matter adhesion occur.

It is believed that such problems of electrostatic damage and foreign matter adhesion due to charging of the wafer will become even more serious as integrated circuits become more highly integrated.

Regarding problems caused by electrification of wafers in rinser dryers, please refer to Kogyo Kenkyukai Co., Ltd., 1982.
Published on November 10, 1981, R'I Child Materials J, 1981 separate volume, Plol.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide a technique that can prevent electrostatic damage and foreign matter adhesion caused by charging of objects to be dried.

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

[Summary of the invention]

A brief summary of typical inventions disclosed in this application is as follows.

In other words, by installing an ultraviolet irradiation source that irradiates ultraviolet rays onto the object to be dried, the electric charge on the object to be dried can be removed by ultraviolet irradiation, thereby preventing electrostatic damage and foreign matter adhesion caused by charging. It is something that can be done.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a drying device that is an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view thereof.

The drying apparatus of this embodiment is applied to a so-called rinser dryer that dries semiconductor wafers that have been cleaned by photoresist processing or the like in the process of manufacturing semiconductor devices by supplying N2 gas or the like.

This rinser 1 includes a rinser part 5 having a cleaning tank 4 for washing a cassette 3 containing a large number of semiconductor wafers 2 with cleaning water, and a rinser dryer part 6 provided on the side of the cleaning tank 4. have.

The rinser dryer part 6 has a container 8 which is rotated in the horizontal direction by a motor 7, and in this container 8, a large number of wafers 2 cleaned in the cleaning tank 4 are stored in a cassette 3. They are housed in a total of four locations in a cross shape. This container 8
Inside, a structure is constructed such that N2 gas 9 for drying is supplied from an N2 gas supply source (not shown) as shown by an arrow.

Further, in the center of the container 8, a central cylinder 10 made of a transparent material such as glass for supplying nitrogen and gas is erected. Mercury lamp 11 for ultraviolet irradiation (UV irradiation FA)
) is provided. Furthermore, a lid 12 that can be opened and closed for loading and unloading the cassette 3 is provided at the top of the container "a8".

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

First, a large number of wafers 2 to which a chemical solution has been attached due to, for example, photoresist processing are stored in a cassette 3 and immersed in the washing tank 4 of the rinser part 5 to remove the chemical solution.

Thereafter, the cassette 3 containing the wafers 2 is transferred into the container 8 of the rinser dryer part 6.

When a predetermined number of cassettes 3 are housed in the container 8, the lid 12 is closed, and the container 8 is rotated horizontally by the motor 7 for drying, and the moisture attached to the wafers 2 is removed by centrifugal force. , N2 gas 9 is sent into the container 8, and the BM
By bringing the N 2 gas 9 into contact with the surface of the wafer 2, the wafer 2 is dried more quickly and efficiently.

By the way, when the N2 gas 9 and the surface of the wafer 2 come into contact, static electricity is generated due to the friction, and as the drying progresses, the wafer 2 is charged with an extremely strong charge. Therefore, in this embodiment, by lighting the mercury lamp 11 provided in the central tube 10 of the container 8, the wafers 2 in the cassette 3 are irradiated with ultraviolet light through the wall surface of the transparent central tube 10. Thereby, the electric charges charged on the wafer 2 can be removed from the wafer 2 by irradiation with ultraviolet rays.

Therefore, in this embodiment, a large electric charge is not accumulated on the wafer 2, so that gate destruction of the high-density integrated circuits fabricated on the wafer 2 due to static electricity charged on the wafer 2 is prevented. In addition, it is possible to prevent dust from easily adhering to the wafer 2 due to charging.

〔effect〕

(1) By installing an ultraviolet irradiation source that irradiates ultraviolet rays onto the object to be dried, the electric charge on the object to be dried can be removed by irradiation with ultraviolet rays, thereby preventing electrostatic damage to the object to be dried due to charging. can.

(2) According to (1) above, it is possible to prevent foreign matter from adhering to the object to be dried due to charged static electricity.

(3) Applying ultraviolet irradiation to a rinser dryer for semiconductor wafers is extremely useful because it can prevent electrostatic damage and foreign matter adhesion to integrated circuits that have been subjected to high-density microfabrication.

Although the invention made by the present inventor has been specifically explained above based on Examples, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the Examples and can be modified in various ways without departing from the gist thereof. Nor.

For example, the structure of the drying device may be other structures.

Moreover, sources other than mercury lamps can also be used as the ultraviolet irradiation source.

[Application field]

In the above explanation, the invention made by the present inventor was mainly applied to a wafer rinser dryer, which is the background field of application, but the invention is not limited to this. It can be widely applied to objects that are susceptible to foreign matter adhesion due to

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a drying device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view thereof. l... Rinser, 2... Semiconductor wafer, 3... Cassette, 4... Cleaning tank, 5... Part of rinser, 6...
・Part of rinser dryer, 7...Motor, 8...Container, 9...N2 gas, 10...Central tube, 11...
Mercury lamp, 12...lid. Agent Attorney ± 711, 11. Prisoner Pa), (,7

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An apparatus for drying an object to be dried by supplying a drying fluid to the object, characterized by being provided with an ultraviolet irradiation source that irradiates the object to be dried with ultraviolet rays. drying equipment. 2. The drying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the drying object is rotated. 3. The drying apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the object to be dried is a wafer.