JPS63208223A - Wafer treating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To avoid re-contamination of a wafer by a method wherein pushers which can move vertically while holding the wafers are provided in treatment baths and the transfer of the wafers between the respective treatment baths is performed by a separate handling mechanism. CONSTITUTION:A wafer treating apparatus 1 is used for the surface treatment of a wafer 2 in the manufacturing process of a semiconductor device and has a chemical solution bath 3a in which treatment with chemical such as hydrochloric acid is carried out, a washing bath 3b in which washing with pure water is carried out and a vapor drying treatment bath 3c in which moisture and foreign substances on the wafer surface are decomposed and removed by a vapor atmosphere of isopropylalcohol or the like. A handler 4 is composed of handling arms 4a and 4b which can be opened and closed and can hold a plurality of the wafers 2 between the handling arms 4a and 4b in parallel with a certain interval. The transfer of the wafers 2 between the respective treatment baths 3a, 3b and 3c is performed by the handler 4 and the transfer in the treatment baths is performed by pushers 10 which are independent mechanisms and can move vertically. With this constitution, a containing jig which is transferred with the wafers 2 in one piece is eliminated so that the contamination of the wafer 2 caused by the containing jig in the treatment process can be avoided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a technique that is effective when used for processing semiconductor wafers (hereinafter simply referred to as "wafers"), for example, wafer cleaning processing.

[Conventional technology]

An example of a wafer storage jig used for wafer processing, for example, wafer cleaning with pure water, is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 57-15 filed by the present applicant.
No. 5744, and this application describes the structure of a wafer accommodating jig made of synthetic resin.

The present inventor has studied wafer processing techniques using the above-mentioned storage jig, particularly wafer cleaning techniques.

Although the following is not a publicly known technique, it is a technique studied by the present inventor, and its outline is as follows.

That is, in the wafer cleaning process, a method is adopted in which the wafer is housed in a jig such as the one described above, and the cleanliness of the wafer is increased while the wafer is sequentially immersed in a plurality of cleaning tanks together with the jig. There's a lot going on.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in the above-mentioned wafer cleaning processing technology, during the process in which the wafers are successively transferred together with the holding jig between processing tanks, dust, etc. separated from the wafers may adhere to the surface of the holding jig. . For example, when a wafer is cleaned in a cleaning solution in a cleaning tank, dust attached to the wafer itself is removed from the surface of the wafer, but this dust floats in the cleaning solution and It may adhere to the surface of the storage jig. If the wafer is transferred to the next processing tank together with the storage jig in such a state and subjected to subsequent processing, there is a high possibility that the wafer will be contaminated again. Such a phenomenon may be particularly noticeable in wafer storage jigs made of synthetic resin, which are said to be susceptible to moisture such as chemical solutions.

The present invention has been made by focusing on the above problems,
The purpose of this is to prevent wafers from being re-contaminated during transfer of wafers between processing tanks and to realize highly reliable wafer processing.

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.

[Means for solving problems]

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

That is, a pusher that can move up and down while supporting a wafer is provided inside a processing tank in which a processing area is formed by a processing solution or a processing atmosphere, and a separate handle mechanism is used to transfer the wafer between each processing tank. It is something.

[Effect]

According to the above-mentioned means, the storage jig that is transferred together with the wafer is eliminated, and the wafer is transferred between each processing tank using a handle mechanism, and the wafer supporting means is independent from each other in each processing tank. This prevents re-contamination of wafers caused by contamination of the storage jig, and achieves highly clean wafer processing.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a wafer processing apparatus which is an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the internal mechanism of a processing tank, and FIG.
1! FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of immersing a wafer into a processing area.

The wafer processing apparatus l of this embodiment is for performing surface treatment on a wafer 2 in the manufacture of semiconductor devices.
As shown in Fig. 1, a chemical tank 3a that performs chemical treatment such as hydrochloric acid
s A cleaning tank 3b that performs pure water cleaning.

Steam drying treatment tank 3C that decomposes and removes moisture and foreign matter on the wafer surface using a steam atmosphere such as isopropyl alcohol.
They each have The wafer 2, which is the object to be processed, is
Each of these processing tanks 3a, 3b.

Predetermined processing is performed while being transferred for 30 minutes.

Above each of these processing tanks 3a, 3b, and 3c, a handle 4 is arranged, for example, suspended from a transport rail (not shown).

This handle 4 is connected to each processing tank 3a, 3b, 3c, for example.
The transfer of the wafer 2 may be performed by a single mechanism, or the transfer 1 may be performed only between two processing tanks, for example, between the chemical solution tank 3a and the cleaning tank 3b, and between the cleaning tank 3b and the steam drying processing tank 3C. It is also possible to use a mechanism in which the transportation of the two parts is divided among the two.

The handle 4 includes handle arms 4a, 4 that can be opened and closed.
b, so that a plurality of wafers 2 can be held in parallel at regular intervals between both handle arms.

The internal structure of each processing tank 3a, 3b, 3c is one processing tank,
For example, the chemical solution tank 3a will be explained as follows.

As shown in FIG. 2, the processing tank main body 5 has a housing shape with an open top surface, but this top surface may be closed by a shutter mechanism (not shown) or the like. In FIG. 2, the processing tank main body 5 is filled with a chemical solution 6, the cleaning tank 3b is filled with a cleaning liquid 7, and the steam drying processing tank 3C is filled with a predetermined processing vapor 8 such as isopropyl alcohol. , and a predetermined processing area is formed in each area.

As shown in FIG. 3, a pusher 10 extending in the longitudinal direction of the processing tank main body 5 is provided near the center of the processing tank main body 5 near the bottom.

This pusher 10 has a curved shape with a smooth upper surface, and this curved upper surface has a plurality of support grooves 11 along the width direction.
is formed. The wafer 2 is supported upright on the pusher 10 with its lower end inserted into each of the support grooves 11. The pusher is connected at its end to a pusher arm 12 which extends outward in an L-shape from the inside of the processing tank main body 5 through the upper opening.
This pusher arm 12 is connected to a vertical drive means such as a cylinder device 13 as shown in the drawing or a ball screw mechanism (not shown) on the outside of the processing tank main body 5.

Inside the processing tank body 5, a pair of guide plates 14a and 14b are erected on the opposing inner wall side with the pusher lO in between. Guide grooves 15 are formed in these guide plates 14a and 14b along the direction in which the wafers 2 are placed, and function as guides when the wafers 2 are moved in and out of the tank by the vertical movement of the pusher lO. ing.

In addition, the processing tank main body 15, pusher 10, and guide plate 1
It is desirable that the members constituting 4a, 14b, etc. be constructed by selecting materials corresponding to the processing area formed inside. For example, in the case of the cleaning tank 3b that performs a pure water cleaning process, the cleaning liquid filled inside is pure water, so the material of its components is fluororesin or a resin-based material such as metal-free vinyl chloride. Although it is possible to use
In the case of the chemical liquid tank 3a or the steam drying treatment tank 3C, etc., which perform chemical liquid treatment such as hydrochloric acid or isopropyl alcohol, it is desirable to construct them from a corrosion-resistant material such as quartz. Note that the material is not limited to these illustrated materials.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained based on FIG. 3.

First, a plurality of wafers 2 held between handles 4
is positioned on the processing tank main body 5, the cylinder device 13 of the processing tank main body 5 is activated, and the pusher 10 is moved above the liquid level.

Next, when the handle 4 is lowered and positioned directly above the pusher 10, an opening/closing mechanism (not shown) is activated, and the handle arms 4a and 4b are opened in the direction away from each other to move the supported wafer 2 onto the pusher 10. Place it. At this time, in order to prevent the handle 4 from becoming contaminated, it is desirable to position the handle 4 above the liquid level.

In this way, the pusher 10 moves the wafer 2 from the handle 4.
When received, the cylinder device 13 is activated again, the pusher 10 starts to gradually descend, and the wafer 2 is immersed in the chemical solution 6. When the wafer 2 is lowered into the processing tank main body 5, both sides of the wafer 2 are guided by the guide plates 14a,
It is guided in its traveling direction by a guide groove 15 of 14b. Therefore, damage to the wafer 2 due to collision between wafers or vibration is effectively prevented.

When the pusher 10 is lowered to near the bottom of the tank and the predetermined immersion process is completed, the cylinder device 13 is operated again to move the pusher 10 upwardly into the tank. At this time, above the processing tank main body 5, the handle arm 4
a, 4b remain open and stationary, and as the pusher 10 rises, the wafer 2 on the pusher IO is positioned between the handle arms 4a, 4b.

When the handle arms 4a and 4b are closed in this state, the wafer 2 is supported between the handle arms 4a and 4b.

Next, the handle 4 is raised to a predetermined position and further moved in the horizontal direction to transfer the wafer 2 above the next cleaning tank 3b. In the cleaning tank 3b, the wafer 2 is handled in the same manner as described above, and the cleaning liquid 7 in the cleaning tank 3b is
Inside, the wafer 2 is cleaned.

The wafer 2 that has been cleaned in this way is held by the handle 4 again and transferred to the steam drying tank 3c, where the water on its surface is removed and the series of treatments is completed.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) The wafer 2 is transferred between the processing tanks 3a, 3b, and 3c using the handle 4, and the transfer inside the processing tank is performed using the pusher 10, which can move up and down with an independent mechanism, so that the wafer 2 and the wafer 2 are integrated. It is possible to eliminate the storage jig that is transferred by the storage jig, and the contamination of the wafer 2 during the processing process caused by the storage jig is prevented.

(2) Since the storage jig that is transferred together with the wafer 2 can be eliminated, the wafer 2 can be processed with high efficiency.

(3) According to (1) above, highly reliable wafer processing becomes possible, and the yield of wafers 2 can be improved.

[4) With the above (1) to (3), a highly reliable semiconductor device can be provided.

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 mechanism of the handle 4 is not limited to the structure in which the wafer 2 is held between the handle arms 4a and 4b as in the above embodiment, but may be of a type that scoops up the wafer 2, for example.

The above description mainly describes the field of application of the invention made by the present inventor, which is the so-called wafer chemical solution, cleaning,
Although the case where the present invention is applied to steam drying processing has been described, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to other wafer processing.

〔Effect of the invention〕

A brief explanation of the effects obtained by typical inventions disclosed in this application is as follows.

In other words, it is a processing device that performs processing by immersing a wafer in a processing region formed by a processing solution or a processing cloud, and includes a plurality of processing tanks each having a processing region formed therein, and a processing device that directly holds the wafer. The processing tank has a pusher that can support the lower end of the wafer in an upright state and can move up and down. The wafer processing equipment structure is such that the pusher moves upward and descends into the processing area after receiving the wafer from the hand mechanism that has descended above the processing area. Re-contamination of the wafer during the step is prevented, and highly clean wafer processing can be achieved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a wafer processing apparatus that is an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. It is an explanatory diagram showing a wafer immersion method. 1... Wafer processing apparatus, 2... Wafer, 3a...
Chemical solution tank, 3b...Cleaning tank, 3c...Steam drying treatment tank, 4...Handle, 4a, 4b...Handle arm, 5...Processing tank body, 6...Medical solution, 7. ...Cleaning liquid, 8...Processing steam, 10...Pusher, 11...
Support groove, 12...Pusher arm, 13...Cylinder device, 14a, 14b... Guide plate, 1
5. Guide groove. Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A processing apparatus that performs processing by immersing a wafer in a processing region formed by a processing solution or a processing atmosphere, comprising a plurality of processing tanks each having processing regions formed therein; It consists of a hand mechanism that holds the wafer and transfers it between each processing tank, and inside the processing tank there is a pusher that can support the lower end of the wafer in an upright state and can move up and down. When immersing the wafer in the processing area, the pusher moves upward and descends into the processing area while receiving the wafer from the hand mechanism that has descended above the processing area. 2. The wafer processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a guide wall having a groove for guiding the vertical movement of the wafer is formed on the side of the pusher in the processing tank.