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CN-114864444-B - Wafer cleaning equipment and wafer cleaning method thereof

CN114864444BCN 114864444 BCN114864444 BCN 114864444BCN-114864444-B

Abstract

The invention provides wafer cleaning equipment which comprises a wafer conveying assembly, a process conveying mechanism and a drying conveying mechanism, wherein the wafer conveying assembly is used for taking out wafers to be cleaned in a wafer box or placing the dried wafers back into the wafer box, the process conveying mechanism is used for conveying the wafers to be cleaned obtained by the wafer conveying assembly into a wafer cleaning module for cleaning, conveying the cleaned wafers of the wafer cleaning module into a drying module for drying, and the drying conveying mechanism is used for carrying the cleaned wafers in the drying module and conveying the dried wafers to the wafer conveying assembly. In the invention, the process transmission mechanism is only used for transmitting the wafer into the wafer cleaning module and into the drying module, and the dried wafer is transmitted to the wafer transmission assembly by the drying transmission mechanism, so that the time for transmitting the wafer to be dried and washing hands by the process transmission mechanism is saved, and the cleanliness of the surface of the wafer is ensured. The invention also provides a wafer cleaning method.

Inventors

  • ZHANG PENGFEI

Assignees

  • 北京北方华创微电子装备有限公司

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20220507

Claims (9)

  1. 1. The wafer cleaning equipment comprises a drying module and at least one wafer cleaning module, and is characterized by further comprising a wafer conveying assembly, a process conveying mechanism and a drying conveying mechanism, wherein the wafer conveying assembly is used for taking out wafers to be cleaned in a wafer box or placing the dried wafers back in the wafer box, the process conveying mechanism is used for conveying the wafers to be cleaned acquired by the wafer conveying assembly into the wafer cleaning module for cleaning, and conveying the cleaned wafers of the wafer cleaning module into the drying module for drying, the drying conveying mechanism is used for carrying the cleaned wafers conveyed by the process conveying mechanism in the drying module for drying and conveying the dried wafers to the wafer conveying assembly so that the wafer conveying assembly can place the dried wafers back in the wafer box, The wafer conveying assembly comprises a wafer conveying mechanism, a first conveying module and a second conveying module; the drying and conveying mechanism comprises a horizontal and vertical conveying module and a wafer supporting mechanism, and is used for conveying the dried wafers in the drying module to a wafer discharging station of the second conveying module; The wafer supporting mechanism comprises a fixed plate and a plurality of supporting rods; The second wafer transmission mechanism of the second transmission module comprises a plurality of supporting toothed plates, the supporting toothed plates are vertically arranged and are parallel to the supporting rods, a plurality of clamping grooves are formed in the top edges of the supporting toothed plates, the positions of the clamping grooves on the supporting toothed plates are in one-to-one correspondence, when the wafer supporting mechanism horizontally moves to the wafer discharging station, projection of the supporting rods on the horizontal plane is staggered with projection of the supporting toothed plates on the horizontal plane, and the horizontal vertical transmission module is used for driving the wafer supporting mechanism to descend so that a plurality of dried wafers borne on the wafer supporting mechanism are transferred to the corresponding clamping grooves on the supporting toothed plates.
  2. 2. The wafer cleaning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the wafer transfer mechanism is configured to transfer the wafer to be cleaned in the wafer cassette to the first transfer module, the first transfer module is configured to turn the wafer to be cleaned to a vertical state and transfer the wafer to a wafer feeding station of the first transfer module, and the process transfer mechanism is configured to transfer the wafer to be cleaned on the wafer feeding station into the wafer cleaning module; The second transmission module is used for acquiring the dried wafer of the wafer discharging station and overturning the dried wafer to a horizontal state, and the wafer transmission mechanism is also used for transmitting the dried wafer overturned in the second transmission module into the wafer box.
  3. 3. The wafer cleaning apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the first transfer module includes a first horizontal vertical transmission mechanism for transferring the wafer to be cleaned in the wafer cassette to the first horizontal vertical transmission mechanism for turning over the wafer to be cleaned to a vertical state, and a first wafer transmission mechanism for transferring the wafer turned over to a vertical state to the wafer feed station; The second transmission module comprises a second horizontal vertical transmission mechanism and a second wafer transmission mechanism, wherein the second wafer transmission mechanism is used for transmitting the dried wafer of the wafer discharging station to the second horizontal vertical transmission mechanism, the second horizontal vertical transmission mechanism is used for overturning the dried wafer to a horizontal state, and the wafer transmission mechanism is also used for transmitting the dried wafer overturned by the second horizontal vertical transmission mechanism to the wafer box.
  4. 4. The wafer cleaning apparatus according to claim 3, wherein, The horizontal and vertical transmission module is used for driving the wafer supporting mechanism to rise to a preset height to receive the cleaned wafer and driving the wafer supporting mechanism to descend to a drying position of the cleaned wafer when the process transmission mechanism transmits the cleaned wafer into the drying module; the horizontal vertical transmission module is further used for driving the wafer supporting mechanism to ascend from the drying position so as to take out the dried wafer carried by the wafer supporting mechanism from the drying module, driving the wafer supporting mechanism to horizontally move to the wafer discharging station and driving the wafer supporting mechanism to descend so as to place the dried wafer on the second wafer transmission mechanism of the wafer discharging station.
  5. 5. The wafer cleaning apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the wafer transfer mechanism includes a transfer rail and a third wafer drive mechanism, the third wafer drive mechanism being movable along the transfer rail, the third wafer drive mechanism being positioned to correspond to the first horizontal vertical drive mechanism when transferring the wafer to be cleaned to the first transfer module; And when the third wafer transmission mechanism transmits the dried wafers turned over in the second transmission module into the wafer box, the position of the third wafer transmission mechanism corresponds to the second horizontal and vertical transmission mechanism.
  6. 6. The wafer cleaning apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the support bar has a plurality of wafer slots for carrying a plurality of wafers thereon, and axial positions of the plurality of wafer slots on the support bar are in one-to-one correspondence so that the plurality of support bars support the plurality of wafers.
  7. 7. The wafer cleaning apparatus of claim 1, wherein the wafer support mechanism comprises three support bars, the support bar in the center of the horizontal projection position is lower than two support bars at the edge, the second wafer drive mechanism comprises four support racks, and the top edge of two support racks in the center of the horizontal projection position is lower than the top edge of two support racks at the edge; When the wafer supporting mechanism horizontally moves to the sheet discharging station, the horizontal projection position of the supporting rod positioned in the center is between the horizontal projection positions of the two supporting toothed plates positioned in the center, and the horizontal projection positions of the two supporting toothed plates positioned at the edge are outside the two supporting rods positioned at the edge.
  8. 8. The wafer cleaning apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a hand washing module comprising a wafer lift mechanism for receiving the wafer to be cleaned acquired by the process transport mechanism, the hand washing module being configured to wash the process transport mechanism prior to the process transport mechanism transferring the cleaned wafer to the drying module.
  9. 9. A wafer cleaning method implemented using the wafer cleaning apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, comprising: The wafer conveying assembly takes out the wafer to be cleaned from the wafer box; the process transmission mechanism transmits the wafer to be cleaned acquired by the wafer transmission assembly into the wafer cleaning module; The wafer to be cleaned is cleaned in the wafer cleaning module; The process transmission mechanism transmits the cleaned wafer of the wafer cleaning module to the drying transmission mechanism in the drying module; drying the cleaned wafer in the drying module; the dry transfer mechanism transfers the dried wafer to the wafer transfer assembly; The wafer transfer assembly returns the dried wafers to the wafer cassette.

Description

Wafer cleaning equipment and wafer cleaning method thereof Technical Field The present invention relates to the field of semiconductor processing equipment, and in particular, to a wafer cleaning apparatus and a wafer cleaning method for a wafer cleaning apparatus. Background In the semiconductor manufacturing process, the wet cleaning process is an indispensable step, and the tank cleaning machine occupies a high market share with high productivity and low cost. The drying module is the most complex and key module of the whole cleaning machine, the surface condition of the wafer after the drying process is finished directly reflects the cleaning efficiency of the whole cleaning process, once the drying process is problematic, the next process step is directly affected, the product is scrapped if the product is light, the chain reaction is caused if the product is heavy, and the stability of the whole process production line is affected. Typically, the last process module of the tank cleaning station is a drying module (DRYER TANK) where the wafer is dried and then transferred by a process transfer robot (Process transfer robot, PTR) into a wafer transfer system (WAFER TRANSFER SYSTEM, WTS) and then out of the station to complete the cleaning process. The wafer conveying system takes out the wafer to be cleaned from the wafer box and conveys the wafer to be cleaned to the cache module through the wafer feeding station, the process conveying manipulator is used for placing the wafer to be cleaned of the cache module into the wafer cleaning module, conveying the cleaned wafer to the drying module for drying, and finally conveying the dried wafer to the wafer feeding station of the wafer conveying system, and the wafer conveying system places the cleaned wafer into the wafer box so that the wafer box bears the wafer to enter other machine stations for other semiconductor processes. In order to avoid contamination of the dried wafer with cleaning residues or particulate contaminants that are contaminated on the process transfer robot, a hand washing operation is performed before the process transfer robot removes the wafer from the drying module to maintain sufficient cleanliness of the process transfer robot. However, the process transfer robot frequently grabs the cleaned wafer in the process area, and there is a build-up of cleaning residues or particulate contaminants in the clamping teeth, which must be transferred to the wafer surface when grabbing the dry cell wafer once the process transfer robot is not in place during the hand washing operation, causing defects (defects) problems. If the cleanliness of the process transmission manipulator is improved by prolonging the cleaning time of the hand washing action of the process transmission manipulator, the process transmission manipulator cannot complete the transmission action among the modules in time, and the productivity of the machine is affected. Therefore, how to provide a wafer cleaning apparatus capable of improving the wafer cleaning efficiency of the wafer cleaning apparatus and ensuring the cleanliness of the wafer surface is a technical problem to be solved in the art. Disclosure of Invention The present invention is directed to a wafer cleaning apparatus and a wafer cleaning method for a wafer cleaning apparatus capable of ensuring cleanliness of a wafer surface while improving wafer cleaning efficiency of the wafer cleaning apparatus. In order to achieve the above object, as one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a wafer cleaning apparatus including a drying module and at least one wafer cleaning module, the wafer cleaning apparatus further including a wafer transfer assembly for taking out a wafer to be cleaned in a wafer cassette or putting back a dried wafer in the wafer cassette, a process transfer mechanism for transferring the wafer to be cleaned acquired by the wafer transfer assembly into the wafer cleaning module for cleaning and for transferring the cleaned wafer of the wafer cleaning module into the drying module for drying, and a dry transfer mechanism for carrying the cleaned wafer in the drying module and transferring the dried wafer to the wafer transfer assembly so that the wafer transfer assembly puts back the dried wafer in the wafer cassette. Optionally, the wafer conveying assembly includes a wafer conveying mechanism, a first conveying module and a second conveying module, where the wafer conveying mechanism is used to convey the wafer to be cleaned in the wafer box to the first conveying module, the first conveying module is used to turn the wafer to be cleaned to a vertical state and convey the wafer to a wafer feeding station of the first conveying module, and the process conveying mechanism is used to convey the wafer to be cleaned on the wafer feeding station into the wafer cleaning module; the drying and conveying mechanism is used for conveying the dried wafers in the drying module to a wafer disch