KR101551545B1 - Apparatus of cleaning carrier and method of cleaning the carrier - Google Patents

Abstract

A carrier cleaning apparatus and a cleaning method therefor which are efficient in cleaning by reducing the time required for cleaning the carrier and having a high throughput per unit time are provided. The apparatus and method are characterized in that in a cleaning chamber for cleaning a carrier, the cleaning chamber comprises a cover cell in which a cover for cleaning is loaded, which accommodates a cover of the carrier and is cleaned at a high speed by a high- And a circular box for cleaning a main body for loading and unloading a main body cleaning container, wherein the circular box for cleaning the cover and the circular box for cleaning the main body are respectively provided with a cover up-down unit and a main body And is independently driven by a body up / down unit installed in the cell for use.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a carrier cleaning apparatus,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a carrier cleaning apparatus and a carrier cleaning method, and more particularly to a carrier cleaning apparatus and a carrier cleaning method for cleaning wafers and microelectronic elements such as semiconductor elements, flat panel displays, .

The carrier is a front opening shipping box (FOSB), which is used for transportation and storage of substrates and microelectronic devices, as well as transportation and storage, as well as a fully open integral pod (Front Open Unified Pod: hereinafter referred to as 'FOUP') is used. For example, in an apparatus for processing a substrate having a diameter of 300 mm, the substrate transfer employs a FOUP for accommodating the substrate. The carrier generally comprises a carrier body and a cover that provides an internal environment to the body for sealing and sealing the body to allow the body to be stored and transported. The substrate is supported by a cassette that can be inserted into the body or a shelf installed inside the carrier.

 The carrier is exposed to a number of contaminants such as impurities, particulate matter and molecular contaminants in the air. When the substrate is placed in the carrier or if it is stored for a long period of time, these sources can penetrate into the carrier and must be periodically cleaned. The conventional cleaning apparatus loads each of the body and the cover separated by an opener for separating the carrier body and the cover from each other at the upper and lower portions of one chamber to remove unloading unloading).

However, in the carrier cleaning, the method of cleaning the carrier body, the condition and the time are different from the method, the condition and the time for cleaning the cover, it is unreasonable to clean in one chamber, but the cover and the body must be cleaned together . If multiple carriers are to be cleaned, the method and conditions are different, which affects the cleaning and drying time, and eventually leads to a lower cleaning throughput. That is, the conventional cleaning apparatus has a problem in that although the cleaning and drying time of the conventional cleaning apparatus is short, since the cleaning and drying time of the main body are progressed simultaneously, the cleaning time is delayed and the cleaning is inefficient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to a carrier cleaning apparatus and a cleaning method therefor which are efficient in cleaning by reducing a method and condition for cleaning a carrier and a time required for cleaning the carrier and having a high throughput per unit time in cleaning a plurality of carriers have.

A carrier cleaning apparatus for cleansing a carrier of the present invention is a cleaning chamber for cleaning a carrier, the cleaning chamber containing a cover for the carrier and cleaning the carrier with a high-speed rotation unit at a high speed And a main body cell for loading the main body of the carrier and for cleaning the main body cleaning circular box to be cleaned at a low speed by the low speed rotation unit. At this time, the cover-cleaning circular box and the main body cleaning circular box are independently driven by a cover up-down unit provided in the cover cell and a body up-down unit provided in the main body cell, respectively.

In the apparatus of the present invention, the number of revolutions of the high-speed rotation unit may be 200 to 300 rpm, and the number of revolutions of the low-speed rotation unit may be 5 to 10 rpm. The carrier is preferably FOUP or FOSB. The cover up / down unit houses and separates the cover, and the body up / down unit can receive and separate the body. In the cover cleaning circular box, the cover is adsorbed by a vacuum adsorption part, and in the circular box for cleaning the body, the cover can be placed on the stage.

In the preferred apparatus of the present invention, the cleaning chamber may include a plurality of sets each including the cover cell and the circular box for cleaning the cover loaded in the cell for the main body, and the circular box for cleaning the body . Each of the sets may independently perform a cleaning process or may perform a cleaning process of the cover and the main body independently for each of the sets.

A carrier cleaning method for solving the problems of the present invention is a carrier cleaning method for accommodating a cover cell in which a cover for carrier cleaning is housed and a main body of the carrier in which a cover for cleaning is housed, A circular box for cleaning the cover, which is loaded into the cover cell, and a carrier body, which is housed in the carrier cover, is housed using a cleaning chamber including a main body cell loaded with a main body cleaning cleaning box The carrier cover and the carrier body are independently cleaned by the circular box for cleaning the main body loaded in the main body cell.

In the method of the present invention, after the main body is housed in the circular box for cleaning the main body and washed, the cover is housed in the circular box for cleaning the cover to be cleaned. The main body is housed in the circular box for cleaning the main body and is cleaned, and the cover is housed in the circular box for cleaning the cover.

According to the carrier cleaning apparatus and its cleaning method of the present invention, the carrier main body and the carrier cover are separately separated and cleaned separately, thereby reducing the time for cleaning the carrier, thereby achieving efficient cleaning and having a high throughput per unit time . That is, it is possible to efficiently adjust the difference in time required for cleaning the carrier body and the cover, thereby increasing the throughput at which the carrier is cleaned per unit time.

1 is a perspective view showing a FOUP, which is an example applied to the present invention.
2 is a block diagram illustrating a process of cleaning a carrier according to the present invention.
3 is a perspective view showing an apparatus for cleaning a carrier according to the present invention.
Fig. 4 is a view showing the front direction of Fig. 3. Fig.
5 is a view for explaining a process of cleaning a carrier by the carrier cleaning apparatus according to the present invention.
6 is a view for explaining a process of separating a cleaned carrier by the carrier cleaning apparatus according to the present invention.
7 is a flow chart illustrating one example of cleaning the carrier according to the present invention.
8 is a flowchart showing another example of cleaning the carrier according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The embodiments described below can be modified into various other forms, and the scope of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below. The embodiments of the present invention are provided to enable those skilled in the art to more fully understand the present invention.

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a carrier cleaning apparatus and a cleaning method therefor, wherein cleaning time is shortened by separately cleaning the carrier body and the carrier cover to separately clean the carrier, thereby achieving efficient cleaning and high throughput per unit time. Here, the cleaning includes washing and drying. To this end, an apparatus for separating the carrier body from the carrier cover and cleaning the carrier body separately will be described, and a method for cleaning the carrier through the apparatus will be described in detail. Meanwhile, the carrier will be exemplified as a front open unified pod (FOUP), which is used not only for transporting and storing substrates and microelectronic devices but also for carrying out a process. However, in the scope of the present invention, Of carriers are also possible.

1 is a perspective view showing a FOUP, which is an example applied to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the FOUP is a carrier that holds a substrate on a unit of about 25 sheets, and is mounted on a load port at the time of processing the substrate to be used to take out or store the substrate. A plurality of slots are formed in the FOUP main body to accommodate the substrates. For processing, remove the substrate by opening the FOUP cover. When the process is completed, store the wafer in the slot and close the cover.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a process of cleaning a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention. The structure of the FOUP, which is an example of a carrier, will be described with reference to FIG.

2, in order to clean the carrier of the present invention, a separating portion 50 for separating the main body of the FOUP from the cover, and an unloading / And a cleaning section 70 for cleaning the loaded body and the cover. Since the cleaning process is merely a conceptual description, various structures can be added in order to optimize the operation of each component in actual use. Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with respect to the main body 70 and the cover 70 with respect to the main body and the cover.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an apparatus for cleaning a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a front view of FIG. At this time, the cleaning apparatus corresponds to the cleaning unit 70 in Fig. 2, and the carrier will be described by taking the FOUP as an example.

3, the cleaning section 70 includes a covering cell 10a for providing a space for cleaning the FOUP cover which is a carrier cover, and a body cell 10b for providing a space for cleaning the FOUP main body which is the carrier main body. And a cleaning chamber 10 made of a metal. Although the cover cell 10a is positioned above the main body cell 10b with respect to the drawing in the drawing, the main body cell 10b may be positioned on the upper side, And the main body cell 10b may be arranged laterally. Further, the size of the space occupied by the cover cell 10a is preferably smaller than that of the main cell 10b.

The cover cell 10a may be loaded / unloaded with a circular box 24 for cleaning the cover for cleaning the carrier cover. A carrier cover is accommodated in a circular box 24 for cleaning the cover, and the carrier cover is cleaned by a cover cleaning nozzle provided in the circular box 24. The main body cell 10b may be loaded / unloaded with a circular box 30 for cleaning the main body of the main body. The carrier body is housed in the circular box 30 for cleaning the main body, and the carrier main body is cleaned by the main body cleaning nozzle provided in the circular box 30. As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the carrier cover and the carrier body are separately cleaned in separate cells and circular boxes, respectively.

The cover cell 10a of the present invention can be loaded with at least one circular box 24 for cleaning the cover and the same number of circular protuberances The box 30 can be loaded. In the figure, two cover cleaning circular boxes 24 and two main body cleaning circular boxes 30 are arranged. In addition, a set of circular boxes 24 and 30 are denoted by column A and column B, respectively. However, a larger number of circular boxes 24, 30 can be loaded into the chamber 10 within the scope of the present invention. Here, the reason why the circular boxes 24 and 30 are circular is that the cleaning liquid supplied to the carrier when the carrier is cleaned is directed to the outside of the inside of the box by centrifugal force. However, in the case of a circular box, a swirling phenomenon occurs smoothly, thereby suppressing the phenomenon that the cleaning liquid comes back on the carrier. In addition, there is an effect that the cleaning liquid can smoothly escape to the lower drainage passage. That is, the effect of the swirling phenomenon can be maximized.

The cover box 24 for cover cleaning is loaded / unloaded into the cover cell 10a by the loading / unloading section 60. [ For cleaning, the circular box 24 for cover cleaning, in which the carrier cover is housed, is loaded into the cover cell 10a by the loading / unloading portion 60. [ The carrier cover is housed in the cover box 24 for cleaning the cover using the cover up / down unit 20. Specifically, the cover 25 is lifted to open the cover 25 with the cover up / down unit 20, and the carrier cover for cleaning is housed in the cover box 24 for cleaning, and then the cover 25 is closed. The cleaned cover lifts the cover for cover 25 with the cover up / down unit 20 to separate the carrier cover from the cover box for cleaning the cover 24. Similarly, the main body of the main body cleaning circular box 30 can be mounted and separated by the main body up / down unit 26. The loading and unloading of the carrier utilizes the cover and body up / down units 20, 26 and the loading / unloading section 60.

A high-speed rotation unit 22 is attached to an upper portion of the outer side of the circular box 24 for cleaning the cover according to the present invention, and a low-speed rotation unit 28 is attached to an outer upper portion of the circular box 30 for cleaning the body. At this time, the high-speed rotation unit 22 is for cleaning the carrier cover, and the low-speed rotation unit 28 is for cleaning the carrier main body. The rotation speed of the high-speed rotation unit 22 is preferably 200 to 300 rpm, and the rotation speed of the low-speed rotation unit 28 is preferably 5 to 10 rpm. Here, the high-speed rotation and the low-speed rotation are intended to distinguish each other at a relative speed optimized for each cleaning. As will be described later, the high-speed rotation unit 22 is for cleaning the vacuum-adsorbed carrier cover, and the low-speed rotation unit 28 is for cleaning the carrier body placed on the stage.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the reason why the carrier cover is cleaned at a high speed and the carrier body is cleaned at a low speed is because the carrier cover has a simple structure in which both surfaces are flat and has a small cleaning time at a high rotation speed of 200 to 300 rpm However, since the carrier body is complicated in structure, a large amount of cleaning liquid sprayed from the nozzles should be sufficiently sprayed for every element element of the carrier body at a rotation speed of about 5 to 10 rpm at a low speed rotation, so that foreign matter is dropped in a short time.

In particular, the carrier body is provided with a slot configured to store and carry a plurality of substrates. Since the substrate is repeatedly stored and unloaded in the slot portion, a large amount of impurities are generated, so that the cleaning effect is deteriorated unless a sufficient amount of the cleaning liquid is sprayed. That is, in order to maximize the effect of cleaning, a sufficient amount of cleaning liquid is sprayed and a slight centrifugal force is applied to the carrier main body so that the sprinkled cleaning liquid can be discharged quickly. Further, as shown in Fig. 5, when the carrier body is laid down and stored, the cleaning liquid is allowed to flow down in a short period of time.

FIG. 5 is a view for explaining a process of cleaning a carrier by a carrier cleaning apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a view for explaining a process in which a cleaned carrier is separated. 5, a portion of the chamber 10 is omitted. In order to observe the cleaning process, the circular cover 24 for cleaning the cover A and the circular box 30 for cleaning the body are cut so that the inside can be seen.

5 and 6, a row A is a state in which the cover and the body are housed in the circular box 24 for cleaning the cover and the circular box 30 for cleaning the body, respectively, and the row B is a state in which the cover and the body are housed in the cover- And is separated from the circular box 24 and the circular box 30 for cleaning the main body. The cover and main body contain and separate the cover up / down unit 20 and the main body up / down unit 26, respectively. In the stored column A, the cover adsorbed by the vacuum adsorption portion 32 provided on a support such as a rotary table is charged into the circular cover 24 for cover cleaning sealed by the cover cover 25 have. The main body placed on the stage 36 placed on the rotary table 34 is loaded in the circular box 30 for cleaning the main body sealed by the cover 31 for the main body. In other words, the cover is adsorbed by the vacuum adsorbing portion 32, and the body is placed on the stage 36.

The cover housed in the circular box 24 for cleaning the cover is rotated at a high speed by the high-speed rotation unit 22, and is cleaned by the cover cleaning nozzle 40. Further, the main body housed in the circular box 30 for cleaning the main body is cleaned by the main body cleaning nozzle 42 while being rotated at a relatively low speed by the low-speed rotation unit 28. The cover cleaning nozzle 40 may be provided on the bottom surface of the circular cover for cleaning cover 24 and the nozzle 42 for cleaning the main body may be installed on the side surface of the circular box 30 for cleaning the main body .

The cover lid 25 of the circular box 24 for cover cleaning is lifted by the cover up-down unit 20 so that the cover adsorbed by the vacuum adsorption unit 32 is exposed do. The exposed cover is unloaded by the loading / unloading section (60). The main body lid 31 of the main body cleaning circular box 24 is lifted by the main body up-down unit 26 to expose the main body placed with the stage 36. The exposed main body is unloaded by the loading / unloading section (60). In the cover cleaning circular box 24, the cover moves together with the vacuum adsorption part 32 when housed or separated, and the body moves in the same manner as the stage 36 in the circular box 30 for cleaning the body.

The cleaning section 70 according to the embodiment of the present invention is provided with the cover cell 10a and the circular box 24 for cleaning the cover and the circular box 30 for cleaning the body loaded in the body cell 10b, As shown in FIG. At this time, each set may have different cleaning processes. Further, the cleaning process of the cover and the main body can be performed independently for each set. By controlling such a process, the cleaning method, condition and time can be appropriately adjusted.

7 is a flowchart illustrating one example of cleaning a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, the cleaning apparatus will be described with reference to Figs. 1 to 6, and the carrier will be described by taking the FOUP as an example.

According to Fig. 7, first, the carrier body and the cover are separated by a separating part 50 in a usual manner (S10). Thereafter, the main body cleaning cell box 24 containing the carrier main body is loaded into the main body cell 10b by the loading / unloading unit 60 (S12). The carrier main body is cleaned at a low speed by the main body cleaning nozzle 42 provided inside the main body cleaning circular box 30 (S14). On the other hand, after the carrier main body is housed or cleaned, the cover box 10 for cleaning the cover, in which the carrier cover is housed by the loading / unloading portion 60, is loaded into the cover cell 10a (S16). The carrier cover is cleaned with the cover cleaning nozzle 40 provided in the circular box 24 for cleaning the cover (S18). Subsequently, the carrier body and the carrier cover cleaned by the loading / unloading section 60 are simultaneously or sequentially unloaded (S20). The carrier main body and the carrier cover are combined or separated or stored or transported in a separate place (S22).

Since the carrier cover has a simple structure and normally has the same shape as a flat plate, the time required for cleaning is shorter than that of the carrier main body. However, if the main body and the cover are loaded and cleaned in the upper and lower portions of one chamber as in the conventional art, the time required for cleaning is relatively long because the cover is cleaned after cleaning the main body . For example, in the case of cleaning a current 300 mm wafer, it takes about 40 seconds to clean one main body in comparison with one cover.

However, if the main body and the cover are independently cleaned and the main body is first cleaned as in the present invention, the time required for cleaning the entire carrier can be reduced. In other words, it is possible to increase the throughput of cleaning the carrier per unit time by adjusting the order of cleaning the temporal discrepancy between the main body and the cover. Further, since the cleaning is completed by carrying out the steps necessary for cleaning each of the main body and the cover, there is an effect of reducing the cost as compared with cleaning the entire carrier.

8 is a flowchart illustrating another example of cleaning a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, the cleaning apparatus will be described with reference to Figs. 1 to 6, and the carrier will be described by taking the FOUP as an example.

Referring to FIG. 8, first, the carrier main body and the cover are separated by a separating portion 50 in a usual manner (S30). Thereafter, the carrier body and the carrier cover are cleaned through independent paths. That is, the first path is to clean the carrier cover. First, the cover box 10 for cleaning the cover, in which the carrier cover is accommodated by the loading / unloading section 60, is loaded on the cover cell 10a (S40) . Thereafter, the carrier cover is cleaned by the cover cleaning nozzle 40 of the circular box 22 for cleaning the cover (S42). The carrier cover is unloaded by the loading / unloading unit 60 (S44). Finally, the carrier cover is separately stored or transferred (S46).

The second path is to clean the carrier main body. First, the main body cleaning cell 10b in which the carrier main body is housed by the loading / unloading unit 60 is loaded into the main body cell 10b (S50). Thereafter, the carrier main body is cleaned by the main body cleaning nozzle 42 of the main body cleaning circular box 30 (S52). The carrier body is unloaded by the loading / unloading unit 60 (S54). Finally, the carrier main body is separately stored or transferred (S56).

As described above, since the carrier cover has a simple structure and normally has the same shape as a flat plate, the time required for cleaning is shorter than that of the carrier body. However, when the main body and the cover are separately cleaned and separately stored or transported as in the present invention, the time required for cleaning the entire carrier can be reduced. In other words, the cleaned cover is immediately unloaded, and the cover of the next cleaning sequence is immediately loaded and cleaned without waiting time, thereby improving the throughput of cleaning the carrier per unit time. Further, since the cleaning is completed by carrying out the steps necessary for cleaning each of the main body and the cover, there is an effect of reducing the cost as compared with cleaning the entire carrier.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, but many variations and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is possible.

10; Chamber 10a; Cover Cell
10b; Body cell 20; Cover Up / Down Unit
22; A high-speed rotation unit 24; Circular box for cleaning the cover
25; Cover cover 26; Body up-down unit
28; A low-speed rotation unit 30; Circular box for cleaning the body
31; A body cover 32; The vacuum adsorption part
34; A rotary table 36; stage
40; A cover cleaning nozzle 42; Main body cleaning nozzle
50; Separator 60; Loading / unloading section
70; Three governments

Claims (10)

In a cleaning chamber for cleaning a carrier,
The cleaning chamber includes:
A cover cell for loading a cover for cleaning the cover, which is housed in a cover of the carrier and is washed at a high speed by a high-speed rotation unit rotating at a rotation speed of 200 to 300 rpm; And
And a main body cell for washing the main body of the carrier with a low-speed rotation unit rotating at a rotation speed of 5 to 10 rpm at a low speed to load a main body cleaning circular box having a larger space occupying the space for the cover cell ,
Wherein the cover-cleaning circular box and the main body cleaning circular box are independently driven by a cover up-down unit provided in the cover cell and a body up-down unit provided in the main body cell,
The circular box for cleaning the main body and the cover is formed in a cylindrical shape so that the swirling phenomenon is smoothly generated so that the cleaning liquid used for the cleaning does not come in contact with the carrier again,
Wherein the cover cleaning circular box is attached to the high-speed rotation unit located on the outer upper side of the cover cleaning circular box, and the circular cleaning box for cleaning the main body is attached to the upper- Lt; / RTI >
Wherein one of said circular covers for cleaning the covers and one of said circular boxes for cleaning said body are one set and said sets are arranged perpendicular to the ground. delete The carrier cleaning apparatus of claim 1, wherein the carrier is a FOUP or FOSB. The carrier cleaning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cover up-down unit houses and separates the cover, and the main body up-down unit accommodates and separates the main body. 2. The carrier cleaning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cover is adsorbed by the vacuum adsorption portion in the circular box for cleaning the cover, and the body is placed on the stage in the circular box for cleaning the main body. 2. The washing machine according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning chamber comprises a plurality of sets each comprising the cover cell and the circular box for cleaning the cover loaded in the body cell and the circular box for cleaning the body, . 7. The carrier cleaning apparatus according to claim 6, wherein each of the sets is different from the cleaning process, or the cleaning process of the cover and the main body is performed independently for each of the sets. A cover cell in which a cover for carrier cleaning is loaded at a high speed by a high-speed rotation unit that houses a cover of a carrier and rotates at a rotation speed of 200 to 300 rpm and a low-speed rotator which rotates at a rotation speed of 5 to 10 rpm A cleaning chamber containing a main body cell loaded with a main body cleaning circular box to be cleaned at a low speed by a rotation unit and having a larger space occupying than the cover cell,
Wherein the carrier cover and the carrier main body are separated from each other by a circular box for cleaning the cover that houses the carrier cover and is loaded in the cover cell, and a circular box for cleaning the main body, which is loaded in the main body cell, After washing,
The circular box for cleaning the main body and the cover is formed in a cylindrical shape so that the swirling phenomenon is smoothly generated so that the cleaning liquid used for the cleaning does not come in contact with the carrier again,
Wherein the cover cleaning circular box is attached to the high-speed rotation unit located on the outer upper side of the cover cleaning circular box, and the circular cleaning box for cleaning the main body is attached to the upper- Lt; / RTI >
Wherein said one circular cover for cover cleaning and one circular box for cleaning said body are one set and said set is arranged perpendicular to the ground. The carrier cleaning method according to claim 8, wherein the main body is housed in the circular box for cleaning the main body and is cleaned, and then the cover is housed in the circular box for cleaning the cover. 9. The carrier cleaning method according to claim 8, wherein the main body is housed in the circular box for cleaning the main body and is cleaned, and the cover is housed in the cover box for cleaning.

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