Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
  • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
  • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
  • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
  • H01L21/683—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for supporting or gripping
  • H01L21/687—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for supporting or gripping using mechanical means, e.g. chucks, clamps or pinches
  • H01L21/68714—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for supporting or gripping using mechanical means, e.g. chucks, clamps or pinches the wafers being placed on a susceptor, stage or support
  • H01L21/68735—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for supporting or gripping using mechanical means, e.g. chucks, clamps or pinches the wafers being placed on a susceptor, stage or support characterised by edge profile or support profile
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B24—GRINDING; POLISHING
  • B24B—MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
  • B24B37/00—Lapping machines or devices; Accessories
  • B24B37/11—Lapping tools
  • B24B37/12—Lapping plates for working plane surfaces
  • B24B37/14—Lapping plates for working plane surfaces characterised by the composition or properties of the plate materials
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B24—GRINDING; POLISHING
  • B24B—MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
  • B24B37/00—Lapping machines or devices; Accessories
  • B24B37/11—Lapping tools
  • B24B37/12—Lapping plates for working plane surfaces
  • B24B37/16—Lapping plates for working plane surfaces characterised by the shape of the lapping plate surface, e.g. grooved
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B24—GRINDING; POLISHING
  • B24B—MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
  • B24B37/00—Lapping machines or devices; Accessories
  • B24B37/27—Work carriers
  • B24B37/30—Work carriers for single side lapping of plane surfaces
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
  • G03F—PHOTOMECHANICAL PRODUCTION OF TEXTURED OR PATTERNED SURFACES, e.g. FOR PRINTING, FOR PROCESSING OF SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; MATERIALS THEREFOR; ORIGINALS THEREFOR; APPARATUS SPECIALLY ADAPTED THEREFOR
  • G03F7/00—Photomechanical, e.g. photolithographic, production of textured or patterned surfaces, e.g. printing surfaces; Materials therefor, e.g. comprising photoresists; Apparatus specially adapted therefor
  • G03F7/70—Microphotolithographic exposure; Apparatus therefor
  • G03F7/70691—Handling of masks or workpieces
  • G03F7/707—Chucks, e.g. chucking or un-chucking operations or structural details
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
  • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
  • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
  • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
  • H01L21/683—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for supporting or gripping
  • H01L21/687—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for supporting or gripping using mechanical means, e.g. chucks, clamps or pinches
  • H01L21/68714—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for supporting or gripping using mechanical means, e.g. chucks, clamps or pinches the wafers being placed on a susceptor, stage or support
  • H01L21/6875—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for supporting or gripping using mechanical means, e.g. chucks, clamps or pinches the wafers being placed on a susceptor, stage or support characterised by a plurality of individual support members, e.g. support posts or protrusions
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
  • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
  • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
  • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
  • H01L21/683—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for supporting or gripping
  • H01L21/687—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for supporting or gripping using mechanical means, e.g. chucks, clamps or pinches
  • H01L21/68714—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for supporting or gripping using mechanical means, e.g. chucks, clamps or pinches the wafers being placed on a susceptor, stage or support
  • H01L21/68757—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for supporting or gripping using mechanical means, e.g. chucks, clamps or pinches the wafers being placed on a susceptor, stage or support characterised by a coating or a hardness or a material
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B23—MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B23B—TURNING; BORING
  • B23B31/00—Chucks; Expansion mandrels; Adaptations thereof for remote control
  • B23B31/02—Chucks
  • B23B31/24—Chucks characterised by features relating primarily to remote control of the gripping means
  • B23B31/28—Chucks characterised by features relating primarily to remote control of the gripping means using electric or magnetic means in the chuck
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B23—MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B23B—TURNING; BORING
  • B23B31/00—Chucks; Expansion mandrels; Adaptations thereof for remote control
  • B23B31/02—Chucks
  • B23B31/24—Chucks characterised by features relating primarily to remote control of the gripping means
  • B23B31/30—Chucks characterised by features relating primarily to remote control of the gripping means using fluid-pressure means in the chuck
  • B23B31/307—Vacuum chucks

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a method for processing a chuck that handles semiconductor wafers, and a chuck prepared or resulting from such a method.
• the processed chuck features reduced friction between itself and the wafer, permitting the wafer to settle to a "flat" condition.
• This particular engineering solution may take the form of designing a plurality of "plateaus" of uniform height, typically regularly spaced, into the wafer. These plateaus exist in many geometries, and go by many names including pins, burls, mesas, bumps, proud lands, proud rings, etc.
• the pins help in reducing the friction so that the wafer can move laterally across the pins as it flattens out upon settling on the pins.
• the pins help to reduce wafer sticking, but further improvements in this regard are needed.
• wafers lie flat against the support surface(s) of the chuck. Otherwise, the circuit pattern images that are projected onto the wafer may be out-of-focus. Furthermore, wafer lithography may involve multiple exposures, with re-location of the wafer between exposures. Thus, it is critical that there be a way to precisely re-align the wafer on the chuck relative to its first positioning so that the subsequent exposures will take place in the correct position on the wafer.
• wafer chucks are never perfectly flat and often have a slight curvature in a random manner, such as orientations that are upwards (bowl) or downwards (dome) in shape.
• Figure 1 shows the various possibilities between the wafer and chuck for orientations that are flat, curved up, or curved down.
• wafers When wafers are located on the wafer chuck that have picked up a curvature due to normal process, they are required to return to the original clamping location by settling to flat. As discussed earlier, the wafer is required to relax in a manner that is predominately radial.
• the second (b) plot shows the slope of the surface roughness of the first plot.
• the third (c) plot is a map of friction force.
• the second and third plots show that friction force is proportional to the slope of the roughness.
• the top graph shows that friction will be least where a contacting surface is moving front-to-back (along axis 21 ), will be greater, when the contacting surface is moving right-to- left (along axis 23), and will be greatest when the contacting surface is moving left-to-right (along axis 25), due to the directionality and asymmetry of the roughness in the bottom surface.
• Grinding, lapping and polishing basically work by making scratches in the body being ground, lapped or polished.
• the scratches typically are linear.
• the scratches gives rise to a directionality component of friction: the friction coefficient is less in the direction along the scratch than in a direction
• Figures 1 A-1 H shows various possibilities between the wafer and chuck for orientations that are flat, curved up, or curved down.
• Figure 2 (a) surface roughness map, (b) slope of the roughness profile taken in the sample sliding direction (the horizontal axis), and (c ) friction force map for a gold-coated ruling at a normal load of 155nN.
• Figure 3 Typical pin surface showing residual scratches from the manufacturing process.
• Figure 4 This shows the surface that is to be in contact with the wafer.
• Figure 5 showing slope plots indicating that the surface was more or less randomly scratched in the region where contact is made with the wafer.
• Figures 5A and 5B are image and histogram corresponding to slope in the X direction
• Figures 5C and 5D are image and histogram corresponding to slope in the Y direction.
• Figure 6 shows a pin surface that has been final lapped along the Y-axis.
• Figure 7 shows the slope plot corresponding to the pin of Figure 6.
• Figures 7A and 7B are image and histogram corresponding to slope in the X direction
• Fi gures 7C and 7D are image and histogram corresponding to slope in the Y direction.
• Figure 8 shows the generation of radial scratches to minimize the roughness along the settling direction of the wafer.
• Figure 8A is a perspective view
• Figure 8B is a top or plan view of the radial scratches in a wafer chuck.
• Grinding, lapping and polishing basically work by making scratches in the body being ground, lapped or polished.
• the scratches typically are linear.
• the scratches gives rise to a directionality component of friction: the friction coefficient is less in the direction along the scratch than in a direction
• the tool here used to accomplish lapping is termed a "treatment tool".
• the treatment tool may have about the same hardness as the chuck, or at least the chuck surface that supports a wafer.
• SiC silicon carbide
• RB-SiC reaction bonded SiC
• the treatment tool typically features a flat surface (or one that appears flat visually) that is intended to mechanically or physically contact the surface of the work piece, for example, a wafer chuck.
• the treatment tool may be shaped as a ring or annulus. The tool is moved over the chuck surface while in physical contact with it, thus removing material by abrasion.
• the treatment tool is 27 mm in diameter.
• the contact surface appears to be a flat disc, but in reality it has a slight toroidal shape so that when it is brought into contact with the flat surface, the area of contact is not that of a disc but instead is a circle or annulus. If the contacting surface of the treatment tool is shaped as an annulus or ring, it, too, may feature a slightly toroidal shape.
• a wafer surface is populated with dies, or regions where a
• microprocessor will be formed by lithography.
• the size of a die may range from about 3 millimeters to about 28 millimeters.
• the size, diameter, or "effective diameter" of the treatment tool may be scaled to correspond to the die size on the wafer that is to undergo lithography. Thus, where the die size is 28 mm long, a 28 mm diameter lapping tool would be appropriate.
• the lapping that was carried out according to the instant invention made use of a 28 millimeter toroidal-shaped SiC-containing treatment tool under a dead weight load of about 180 grams, and operated at an average velocity of about 3 meters per minute. Visually, the treatment tool appeared disc-shaped; however, the edge and center regions of the disc were elevated away from flat to give the treatment tool a slightly toroidal shape.
• Figure 5 features histograms showing the slope of the surface roughness in X ( Figures 5B) and Y ( Figures 5D) directions.
• the images ( Figures 5A and 5C) above each histogram ( Figures 5B and 5D) are photomicrographs of the surfaces where the surface roughness was measured.
• the RMS slope of surface roughness in the X-direction was 7.22 microns per millimeter.
• the RMS slope of surface roughness in the Y-direction, orthogonal to the X-direction was 7.24 microns per millimeter. Thus, the slopes are about the same, indicating a lack of directionality to the surface roughness.
• Figures 7A-7D further document and quantify this directionality. Again, Figures 7A and 7C are optical photomicrographs corresponding to the
• the friction in the X-direction is expected to be greater than the friction in the Y-direction.
• a method to generate the features is by traveling across the wafer chuck through the center, as shown in Figure 8. This may take compensation by changing the velocity and or the pressure to minimize the variation in the radial direction of the material that is removed.
• the treatment tool in its final passes takes a zig-zag path along the circumference of the wafer chuck, with the zigs and zags being toward and away from the center. In this way, the scratches formed by the treatment tool in its final passes will be close to radial directions.
• This design solves the stickiness problem by making small marks (e.g., scratches) on the bearing surface in a direction such that the surface is less restrictive and allows the wafer to relax.
• the preferred method to generate these scratches is a with a small tool lap, this lap can be more or less annular in shape to conformally "float" over the surface, thus minimally impacting gross curvature.
• One technique for accomplishing this behavior is to arrange that the treatment tool be minimally constrained in its attachment to its holder in the lapping machine, for example, by means of a ball-and-socket joint.
• the roughness becomes larger in the slope of the opposing axis.
• the instant invention can be used in new wafer chucks that have not yet been placed in service. It can be used to repair wafer chucks that have already seen service. Furthermore, the repair of wafer chucks can take place in-situ; that is, without having to remove the wafer chuck from the lithography machine.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
• Condensed Matter Physics & Semiconductors (AREA)
• Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
• Power Engineering (AREA)
• Mechanical Treatment Of Semiconductor (AREA)
• Container, Conveyance, Adherence, Positioning, Of Wafer (AREA)
• Jigs For Machine Tools (AREA)
• Constituent Portions Of Griding Lathes, Driving, Sensing And Control (AREA)

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• 2016
  • 2016-08-10 EP EP16837531.9A patent/EP3334566B1/en active Active
  • 2016-08-10 WO PCT/US2016/046436 patent/WO2017030873A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2016-08-10 US US15/567,935 patent/US10790181B2/en active Active
  • 2016-08-10 JP JP2018507638A patent/JP7041051B2/ja active Active

Patent Citations (5)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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