KR200150516Y1 - Dry apparatus of semiconductor wafer - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a drying apparatus used for manufacturing equipment of a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a wafer drying apparatus used to rotate and dry a wafer after a wet etching process. The wafer drying apparatus according to the features of the present invention is characterized in that A cradle, a rotor on which the plurality of cradles are mounted, and a pusher having a roller at one end for separating and operating the cradle from the rotor, and a roller guide parallel to the lower portion of the cradle for inducing the operation of the pusher. Three rollers are formed so that the center roller guide passes through the center of the cradle and the gap therebetween is relatively narrower than the roller width of the pusher. To prevent material loss and increase the operating efficiency of the equipment It was made to hurt.

Description

A drying apparatus for semiconductor wafers

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a conventional wafer drying apparatus.

2A and 2B are detailed configurations of the rotor and the cradle shown in FIG. 1, respectively.

3A and 3B are operation state diagrams of the pushers, respectively.

4 is an explanatory view showing a contact relationship between the cradle and the pusher roller in FIG.

5 is a structural diagram of a cradle according to the present invention.

6 is an explanatory view showing a contact relationship between a cradle and a pusher roller according to the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

20: cradle 21: roller guide

30: rotor 40: spin motor

50: pusher 50a: roller

51: air cylinder 61: index sensor

62: index motor

[Detailed Description of Design]

[Industrial use]

The present invention relates to a drying apparatus used for manufacturing equipment of a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a wafer drying apparatus used to rotate and dry a wafer after a wet etching process.

[Prior Art and Problems]

In the semiconductor wafer manufacturing process, the wafer wet cleaning process or the wet etching process includes a rinsing process with rinsing with DI water and a drying process for drying the moisture adsorbed on the wafer during the rinsing process. .

The wafer drying apparatus used in the drying process is divided into spin drying method and drying method using isopropyl alcohol (IPA) vapor according to the drying method. The former drying method fixes the wafer at a certain position and rotates at a high speed around the rotating shaft to dry by dropping moisture or chemical components adsorbed onto the wafer by centrifugal force. The latter drying method uses hot IPA steam on the wafer surface. Dry the adsorbed moisture or chemical liquid.

FIG. 1 shows the overall structure of a spin dryer wafer dryer that has been used after a wet etching process. The wafer dryer 100 has a cradle 20 in which a wafer is loaded, a rotor 30 into which the cradle is inserted, a spin motor 40 connected to rotate the rotor, and the rotor. In order to unload the cradle 20 inserted into it, the pusher 50 is pushed out from the lower portion of the rotor 30 so as to be pulled out.

2a and 2b show the detailed structure of the rotor 30 and the cradle 20, respectively. The cradle 20 is a container having a structure in which the carrier 10 on which the wafer is loaded can be safely mounted on the rotor 30.

The rotor 30 has a cylindrical structure as a whole, and a fixing member for fixing one each in both directions so as not to be separated from the cradle 20 based on the center during rotation. In addition, a roller guide 21 is formed at the center of the lower surface of the cradle 20 to protrude to a predetermined width so that the pusher 50 can push.

Then, the pusher 50 is operated to be separated by pushing the cradle 20 from the rotor 30 during the opening operation of the door 110 operated by the opening and closing device of the dryer on the top of the rotor.

3A and 3B show an operation process of the pusher. The pusher 50 has a structure in which one end is connected to the air cylinder 51. And the other end of the pusher 50 is connected to the roller 50a is guided along the roller guide 21 of the cradle 20 to push up the cradle to the top. It is the rotor aligning means that controls the pusher 50 having such an operation relationship to unload the cradle 20 at the correct position.

The alignment means consists of an index sensor 61 for detecting the position of the rotor and an index motor 62 connected to the rotation axis of the rotor. The index motor rotates the rotor that is not exactly positioned to realign the rotor to the correct position. .

However, even when the rotor 30 is located outside the correct alignment position due to the occurrence of an error in the alignment means in the above-described operation, the pusher 50 proceeds with the operation of the door 110. 4 shows a case of misalignment of the rotor. The roller 50a of the pusher is moved up even if it is not in contact with the roller guide 21 of the cradle 20 so as to pass through the space deviating from the roller guide 21 to the carrier. 10 and the wafer are forcibly pushed up. In this process, the carrier 10 and the wafer accommodated therein are pressurized by the pusher 50 to cause breakage.

This breakage of the wafer causes a huge loss in yield due to the direct loss of the wafer as well as downtime due to contamination of the equipment due to the particles generated by the breakage of the wafer.

[Purpose of designation]

The present invention has been proposed to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a wafer drying apparatus that can prevent wafer breakage due to misalignment of a rotor and thus increase operating efficiency of equipment.

[Composition of design]

According to a feature of the present invention for achieving the above object, a wafer drying apparatus includes a cradle in which a carrier is accommodated, a rotor on which a plurality of cradles are mounted, and a roller at one end for separating and operating the cradle from the rotor. A plurality of roller guides including a pusher, and inducing the operation of the pusher in the lower portion of the cradle are formed in parallel.

In this apparatus, three roller guides are formed at predetermined intervals, and the roller guides are formed to pass through the center of the cradle.

In this apparatus, the distance between the roller guides is formed to be relatively narrower than the roller width of the pusher.

[Action]

The wafer drying apparatus according to the present invention having the above-described configuration allows the cradle to be unloaded safely by the cradle pusher regardless of the slight misalignment of the rotor.

EXAMPLE

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 5 shows the structure of the cradle according to the present invention, Figure 6 shows the operation relationship accordingly, the same reference numerals for parts having the same function as the components shown in Figures 3 and 4 Will be explained.

Referring to FIG. 5 again, the cradle 20 according to the present invention has a roller guide 21 pushed by the roller 50a of the pusher at the center of the bottom of the cradle and a predetermined distance on both sides of the center of the cradle. It has a structure further configured in parallel one by one. At this time, the distance between the roller guide 21 and the roller guide 21 is formed to be relatively narrower than the width of the roller (50a) of the pusher.

The operation relationship of the cradle-mounted wafer drying apparatus having the above-described structure will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 3A, and 3B.

First, the rotor 30 is rotated at a high speed for a predetermined time by driving the spin motor 40 to finish drying the wafer. Then, in operation of the index sensor 61 and the index motor 62, the cradle 20 is rotated and aligned to a position where the cradle 20 can be separated from the rotor 30 by the pusher 50.

In addition, the pusher 50 is operated along with the opening operation of the door 110 to unload the wafer from the dryer 100 so that the cradle 20 is separated from the rotor 30 from the lower side to the upper side. Push it up.

At this time, the pusher 50 moves the cradle 20 while the roller 50a fixed to one end by the operation of the air cylinder 51 moves along the roller guide 21 formed at the bottom center of the cradle 20. Separate operation from the rotor (30).

6 illustrates a case where the roller 50a of the pusher is out of the center of the cradle 20. The cradle 20 according to the present invention is in contact with the roller guides formed on both sides even if the roller 50a of the pusher 50 is not exactly aligned with the position of the roller guide 21 formed at the center of the bottom of the cradle. Alternatively, the roller contacts the space between the roller guide and the roller guide to push the cradle 20 upward.

Therefore, the present invention prevents the loss of a plurality of wafers broken at the same time by the pusher is forcibly operated in the position off the roller guide during the unloading of the wafer during misalignment of the rotor.

[Effect of design]

The present invention having the above-described configuration and operation relationship has the advantage of preventing the loss of the wafer and the carrier due to misalignment of the rotor during unloading of the wafer, thereby preventing material loss and increasing the operating efficiency of the equipment, thereby improving yield. have.

Claims (2)

A cradle 20 in which the carrier 10 is accommodated, a rotor 30 in which two cradles are mounted, and a roller 50a at one end separating the cradle 20 from the rotor 30. In the wafer drying apparatus including a pusher (50) to rotate the rotor to dry the wafer, the roller guide 21 for inducing the operation of the pusher (50) in the lower portion of the cradle 20 in parallel a predetermined interval The semiconductor wafer drying apparatus of claim 3, wherein three of the three roller guides are formed so as to pass through the center of the cradle. The semiconductor wafer drying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an interval between the roller guides (21) is formed to be relatively narrower than a width of the roller (50a) of the pusher (50).