JPH06208982A - Cleaning and drying apparatus for semiconductor wafer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently clean.dry a semiconductor wafer in a short time immediately after it is cut by a slicing machine. CONSTITUTION:A wafer 64 is conveyed to a cleaning.drying apparatus 72, the wafer 64 is fed toward a cleaning brush roller 114 by a conveying roller 112, cutting chips adhered to the wafer 64 are peeled and removed during passage of the roller 114. The wafer 64 and the chips adhered to the brush are cleaned by cleaning water to be injected from nozzles 128, 128 of a cleaning water injection unit 118. The cleaned wafer 64 is fed toward a scraper 120 by a conveying roller 116, and water droplets adhered to the surface of the wafer 64 are removed by the scraper 120. The wafer 64 in which the droplets are removed is dried with the air supplied from a dryer 122.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to cleaning semiconductor wafers.
The present invention relates to a drying device, and particularly to a cleaning / drying device for cleaning / drying a semiconductor wafer immediately after being cut by a slicing machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Semiconductor wafers cut into thin flakes with a slicing machine are transferred to an ultrasonic cleaning unit and ultrasonically cleaned one by one or in batches, and the cutting chips attached to the surface thereof. Etc. are removed and then transferred to a drying section for spin drying.

[0003]

However, in the conventional method for cleaning and drying semiconductor wafers, since the cleaning has to be carried out in the ultrasonic cleaning section and then transferred to the drying section for drying, the apparatus becomes bulky and the semiconductor becomes large. There is a drawback that it takes time to clean and dry the wafer. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and is capable of efficiently cleaning and drying a semiconductor wafer immediately after being cut by a slicing machine in a short time.
An object is to provide a drying device.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a cleaning unit for cleaning a semiconductor wafer with a pair of rotating brushes while spraying water on the semiconductor wafer, and a semiconductor passing through the cleaning unit. A wiper unit that removes water droplets attached to the wafer, a drying unit that blows air to the semiconductor wafer that has passed through the wiper unit to dry the semiconductor wafer, the cleaning unit, the wiper unit, and the semiconductor wafer to the drying unit. It is characterized in that it comprises a carrying section for carrying it continuously.

[0005]

According to the present invention, the semiconductor wafer cut by the slicing machine is transported by the transport unit and supplied to the cleaning unit. First, the cleaning unit cleans the surface of the semiconductor wafer with a brush while spraying water. Remove adhering cuttings, etc., then
Water droplets adhering to the semiconductor wafer passing through the cleaning unit are removed by the wiper unit, and then air is blown onto the semiconductor wafer passing through the wiper unit to dry the semiconductor wafer in the drying unit.

As a result, the semiconductor wafer immediately after being cut by the slicing machine can be efficiently cleaned and dried in a short time.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of a semiconductor wafer cleaning / drying apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a semiconductor wafer manufacturing system 10 to which a semiconductor wafer cleaning / drying apparatus according to the present invention is applied. This semiconductor wafer manufacturing system 10
Is an ingot loader 12 and a slicing machine 1
4, peeling / cleaning / drying device 16, chamfering device 18, chamfering device 20, cleaning / drying device 22, and wafer storage unit 2
It is composed of 4.

The ingot loader 12 is shown in FIGS.
As shown in, the pair of posts 26, 26 are installed so as to sandwich the front part of the slicing machine 14. A support beam 28 is bridged and fixed on the upper portion of the pair of posts 26, 26, and a guide rail 30 is attached to the support beam 28.
Are fixed in a direction orthogonal to the support beam 28. The support beam 28 and the guide rail 30 are covered with covers 32 and 34, respectively.

The guide rail 30 has a loader section 36.
Is along the guide rail 30 in the direction of the arrow in the figure (X-axis direction)
It is reciprocally movable. This loader unit 36 is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, a loader main body 38 movably provided on the guide rail 30 and a hydraulic cylinder 42 fixed to the loader main body 38 with a cylinder rod 40 facing downward.
It consists of and. An ingot support member 44 is fixed to the lower end of the cylinder rod 40, and an engagement groove 48 of the ingot support member 44 is engaged with an engagement portion 48 fixed to the upper end of the work block 46. The ingot 50 is held.

The ingot 50 is transported from the ingot storage location to the vicinity of the post 26 of the ingot loader 12 by the ingot transport vehicle 52 shown in FIG. An elevating rod 54 is vertically fixed to the carrier carriage 52, and a substantially S-shaped hook portion 56 is fixed to the upper end of the elevating rod 54. The ingot 50 is held by the carrier truck 52 by fitting the work block 46 into the pair of hooking grooves 58, 58 formed in the hook portion 56, and by raising the elevating rod 54, the loader portion. It is raised to the position of 36 and held by the loader unit 36.

The slicing machine 14 is a known slicing machine. This slicing machine 14
As shown in FIG. 1, a work indexing mechanism 62 is mounted on a work feeding mechanism 60 that is moved in the X direction. Ingot 5 transferred by the ingot loader 12
0 is fixed to the work indexing mechanism 62 and indexed in the cutting direction (Z-axis direction). An inner peripheral blade (not shown) is provided below the work feeding mechanism 60,
The inner peripheral blade cuts the ingot 50 fixed to the work indexing mechanism 62 into wafers. The inner peripheral blade is formed by electrodepositing diamond abrasive grains on the inner peripheral edge of a doughnut-shaped blade. Further, the inner peripheral blade is rotated at a high speed by a rotating mechanism (not shown) while the outer peripheral edge of the blade is pulled up by a chuck body provided inside the slicing machine 14.

The wafer 64 cut by the slicing machine 14 is adsorbed by a known wafer adsorbing / moving device 66, and is constituted by a pair of endless belts as a transfer device 6.
Transferred to 8. The wafer 66 transferred to the transfer device 68 is transferred to the peeling / cleaning / drying device 16 by the transfer device 68. The peeling / cleaning / drying device 1
As shown in FIG. 4, 6 is the peeling portion 7 of the slice base 51.
0, and a semiconductor wafer cleaning / drying apparatus 7 according to the present invention
2 and.

The peeling section 70 has a moving mechanism 74 for the wafer 64, a hot water tank 76, and a hammer section 78.
The moving mechanism 74 includes a pair of holding plates 80, 8 for holding the wafer 64 transferred from the transfer device 68.
Has 0. At the left end of the holding plates 80, 80 in the figure,
The tip of the arm 82 bent in a concave shape is fixed. As shown in FIG. 5, this arm 82 is attached to a hydraulic cylinder 84 so that it can extend and contract. When the hydraulic cylinder 84 is operated to contract the arm, the warm water tank 76 is
Hot water stored in (slice base 51 to wafer 64
The temperature at which the heat-softening adhesive that is adhered to is heat-softened,
For example, in the present embodiment, the wafer 64 is immersed in the hot water of 90 ° C.) 86 together with the sandwiching plates 80, 80. (See FIG. 6) The lower portion of the hydraulic cylinder 84 is fixed to a pedestal 88, and the pedestal 88 is movably mounted on a moving rail 90. The moving rail 90 is provided in parallel with the hot water tank 76. The pedestal 8 is attached to the moving rail 90.
8 is slid to the position shown in FIG. 7, and when the arm 82 is extended, the wafer 64 is moved to the hammer portion 7
Transferred to 8.

On the other hand, a tip end portion of an arm 92 bent in a stepwise manner is fixed to the right end portion of the holding plates 80, 80 in FIG. 4, and the base end portion of this arm is arranged in the axial direction of the bar 94. It is slidably attached. The bar 94 is installed in parallel with the hydraulic cylinder 84 shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, and is linked to the slide movement of the mount 88 to mount the mount 88.
It is designed to move in the same direction as.

The hammer section 78 has a pressing cylinder 96 for the wafer 64 and a peeling cylinder 98 for the slice base 51. The pressing cylinder 96 can hold the wafer 64 by sandwiching the wafer 64 between the pressing rod 102 and the pressing base 104 as shown in FIG. 8 by extending the cylinder rod 100. In addition, the peeling cylinder 98 extends the cylinder rod 106 so as to extend the slice base 51 of the wafer 64.
The wafer 64 is hammered with the hammer rod 108.
Can be peeled off. The peeled slice base 51 is collected in the bucket 110 installed below the hammer portion 78.

As shown in FIG. 4, the cleaning / drying device 72 includes a conveying roller 112, a cleaning brush roller 114, a conveying roller 116, a cleaning water spraying unit 118, and a scraper 12.
0 and a drying unit 122. The transport roller 112 is composed of a pair of rollers 124, 124,
By rotating in the direction of the arrow in the drawing by the driving force from a driving unit (not shown), the slice base 5 is moved by the peeling unit 70.
The wafer 64 from which the wafer 1 is peeled off is transferred to the rollers 124, 124.
The cleaning brush roller 114 can be sandwiched between them and delivered to the cleaning brush roller 114.

The cleaning brush roller 114 is composed of a pair of brush rollers 126, 126. The cleaning brush roller 114 is rotated by a driving force from a driving unit (not shown), so that the transferred wafer 64 can be sandwiched between the brush rollers 126 and 126 and can be sent toward the carrying roller 116. ing. Cutting wastes and the like adhering to the surface of the wafer 64 are separated and removed by the rotation of the cleaning roller 114, and the nozzles 128, 1 of the cleaning water jetting unit 118 are removed.
It is cleaned with cleaning water sprayed from 28.

The carrying roller 116 is a pair of rollers 13.
0, 130, and is rotated in the direction of the arrow in the drawing by a driving force from a driving unit (not shown), so that the cleaned wafer 64 is sandwiched between the rollers 130, 130 and sent out to the scraper 120. Is able to. The scraper 120 is composed of a pair of wiper members 132 and 132. When the wafer 64 passes between the wiper members 132 and 132, water droplets attached to the surface of the wafer 64 are removed.

The drying unit 122 is a pair of air blowing units 1
The air blower 13 is composed of 34 and 134.
When the wafer 64 passes between the air blowing holes 134 and 134, the air blowing holes 136 and 13 of the air blowing portions 134 and 134 are formed.
6 is dried by the air blown from. The dried wafer 64 is transferred by the transfer device 138 to the surface inspection device 18 shown in FIG.

The surface inspection device 18 is a known device, and the thickness, flatness, etc. of the wafer 64 are measured on the inspection table 140 of the surface inspection device 18 shown in FIG. Pass / fail is determined. The wafer 64 that is determined to be acceptable is transferred to the known direction changing device 144 by the transfer device 142, adsorbed by the direction changing device 144, and transferred to the transfer device 146 shown in FIGS. 1 and 10. The wafer 64 that fails the standard is stored in the cassette 148 shown in FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 10, the conveying device 146 has a tray 152 which can reciprocate along a pair of endless belts 150, 150, and the tray 152 is at the starting end (the left end in the drawing). The wafers 64 transferred by the redirecting device 144 when the wafers 64 are positioned are transferred to the tray 152.
Placed on top. Wafer 6 placed on tray 152
When the tray 152 is moved to the end portions (right end portion in the drawing) of the rails 150, 150, the tray 4 is sucked by the suction arm 156 of the transfer device 154 and transferred in the arrow direction in the drawing,
It is conveyed to the chamfering device 20 shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 11, the chamfering device 20 has an upper vertical shaft 158 for clamping the wafer 64 and a lower vertical shaft 160. The upper vertical axis 158
Is rotatably supported by the bearing box 162,
The bearing box 162 is slidably provided along a guide rail 164 that is vertically provided upright. A master 166 for positioning the clamp position of the wafer 64 is fixed to the lower end of the upper vertical shaft 158, and a motor 168 is connected to the upper end thereof.

The lower vertical shaft 160 is the bearing box 17
The wafer suction unit 172 is rotatably supported at 0, and the wafer suction unit 172 is fixed to the upper end portion thereof. This bearing box 17
The cylinder rod 17 of the hydraulic cylinder 174 is at the bottom of 0.
6 is fixed. Accordingly, when the cylinder rod 176 is expanded and contracted, the bearing box 162 moves up and down along the guide rail 164, so that the wafer 64 can be positioned in the vertical direction.

In the vicinity of the attracted wafer 64, a grindstone 178 for chamfering the upper and lower edges of the wafer 64 is provided. The grindstone 178 is fixed to a grindstone shaft 184 attached to the moving table 180 via a bearing 182, and the rotational force of a motor 188 is transmitted to the grindstone shaft 184 via a belt 186. This motor 188
Is also fixed on the moving table 180. on the other hand,
The moving table 180 is placed on a guide rail 190, and is provided so as to be horizontally movable along the guide rail 190. That is, the moving table 180 is mounted on the edge of the wafer 64 when the wafer 64 is chamfered.
It is controlled so that 78 is moved to the left in the drawing so as to be pressed, and is moved to the right in the drawing so as to be retracted from the wafer 64 at the end of chamfering. The chamfered wafer 64 is transferred to the transfer devices 192, 19 shown in FIG.
It is conveyed to the above-mentioned cleaning / drying device 22 via 4.

The cleaning / drying device 22 includes a transport roller 196,
The cleaning brush roller 198, the scraper 200, the conveying roller 202, the cleaning water spraying unit 204, and the drying unit 206 are included. The transport roller 196 is a pair of rollers 20.
8 and 208, the wafer 64 can be sandwiched between the rollers 208 and 208 and can be delivered toward the cleaning brush roller 198 by being rotated in the direction of the arrow in the drawing by a driving force from a driving unit (not shown). It is like this.

The cleaning brush roller 198 is composed of a pair of brush rollers 210, 210. The cleaning brush roller 198 is rotated by a driving force from a driving unit (not shown), so that the wafer 64 can be sandwiched between the brush rollers 210 and 210, and the chips and the like adhering to the wafer 64 can be removed by the brush. It is like this. The cutting dust and the like adhering to the brush is peeled off and removed by the cleaning water sprayed from the nozzles 212 of the cleaning water sprayer 204.

The scraper 200 comprises a pair of wiper members 214, 214, and the wiper member 21.
The water droplets adhering to the surface of the wafer 64 are removed by the passage of the wafer 64 between 4 and 214. The transfer roller 202 is composed of a pair of rollers 216 and 216, and is rotated in the direction of the arrow in the drawing by a driving force from a driving unit (not shown) to clean the cleaned wafer 6.
4 can be sandwiched between rollers 216, 216 and sent out toward the drying section 206.

The drying unit 206 is a pair of air blowing units 2
18 and 218, and the air outlet 21
When the wafer 64 passes between the air blowing portions 218 and 218, the air blowing holes 220 and 22 of the air blowing portions 218 and 218 are passed.
It is dried by the air blown from 0 ... The dried wafer 64 is transferred by the transfer device 222 to FIG.
The wafer is transferred to the wafer storage unit 24 shown in FIG.

A cassette 224 is attached to the wafer storage section 24 so that the wafers 64 transferred by the transfer device 222 are sequentially stored. Next, the operation of the semiconductor wafer manufacturing system 10 configured as described above will be described. First, the ingot 50 is held on the hook portion 56 of the transport carriage 52 shown in FIG. 2 and the ingot 50 is transported to the vicinity of the post of the ingot loader 12. Then, the elevating rod of the carrier truck 52 raises the ingot 50, the cylinder rod 40 of the ingot loader 12 side is extended, and the engaging portion 48 of the work block 46 is engaged with the engaging groove 45 of the ingot supporting member 44. The ingot 50 is held by the ingot loader 12.

Next, the ingot loader 12 is driven to move the loader main body 38 toward the slicing machine 14, and the work indexing mechanism 6 of the slicing machine 14 is moved.
When it is positioned below 2, the loader body 38 is stopped.
Then, the ingot 50 is fixed to the work indexing mechanism 62 as shown in FIG. Next, the slicing machine 14 is driven so that the ingot 50 is indexed by the work indexing mechanism 62 and is pressed against the inner peripheral edge by the work feeding mechanism 60 to cut into the wafer 64. The wafer 64 cut by the slicing machine 14 is adsorbed by the wafer adsorbing / moving device 66 and transferred to the transfer device 68, and then transferred to the peeling / cleaning / drying device 16 by the transfer device 68.

Next, the wafer 64 conveyed to the peeling / cleaning / drying device 16 is held between the holding plates 80 of the peeling section 70 shown in FIG. After holding the wafer 64, the arm 82 is contracted as shown in FIG. 6 to immerse the wafer 64 in the warm water 86 of the warm water tank 76 for a predetermined time (30 seconds). As a result, the heat-softening adhesive of the slice base 51 is heat-softened.

After a lapse of a predetermined time, the pedestal 88 is moved to FIG.
The arm 82 is extended while slidingly moving to the position shown in FIG.
When the wafer 64 is transferred to the hammer section 78, the wafer 64 is sandwiched between the pressing rod 102 and the pressing base 104 as shown in FIG. 8, and the cylinder rod 106 of the peeling cylinder 98 is extended. As a result, the slice base 51 of the wafer 64 is hammered by the hammer rod 108 and separated from the wafer 64. That is, since the adhesive of the slice base 51 is softened by the hot water 86, the slice base 51 is easily peeled from the wafer 64 only by hammering. The peeled slice base 51 is collected in the bucket 110.

Next, the pedestal 88 is slid further rightward from the position shown in FIG.
The wafer 64 from which 1 has been peeled off is cleaned / cleaned as shown in FIG.
It is conveyed to the drying device 72. When the wafer 64 is transferred to the cleaning / drying device 72, the wafer 64 is transferred by the transfer roller 112.
Is sent toward the cleaning brush roller 114, and the cutting scraps and the like adhering to the wafer 64 while passing through the cleaning brush roller 114 are peeled and removed. In addition, the cutting dust and the like adhering to the wafer 64 and the brush are cleaned by the cleaning water sprayed from the nozzles 128 of the cleaning water sprayer 118.

Then, the cleaned wafer 64 is sent out to the scraper 120 by the carrying roller 116, and the water drops adhering to the surface of the wafer 64 are removed by the scraper 120. Then, the wafer 64 from which the water droplets have been removed is
After drying with the air supplied from the drying unit 122, the surface inspection apparatus 18 shown in FIG.
Transport to.

As a result, the cleaning / drying apparatus 7 of this embodiment is
According to 2, the cleaning and drying of the wafer 64 from which the slice base 51 has been peeled off are continuously performed one by one. Therefore, as compared with the conventional cleaning and drying method, immediately after being cut by the slicing machine 14. The wafer 64 can be efficiently cleaned and dried in a short time. Next, the inspection device 18
When the wafer 64 is transferred to the wafer 64, the inspection device 18 determines whether or not the standard has been passed, and the wafer 64 that is determined to be passed.
The chamfering device 20 by the carrying device 142, the direction changing device 144, and the carrying devices 146, 154 (see FIG. 10).
Transport to.

Next, the wafer 64 transferred to the chamfering device 20 is extended by the cylinder rod 176 of the hydraulic cylinder 174 shown in FIG.
6 and the suction portion 172 of the lower vertical shaft 160. Then, the wafer 64 is rotated by the motor 168 and the grindstone 178 is rotated by the motor 188, and the moving table 180 is moved leftward in the drawing so that the grindstone 178 presses the edge of the wafer 64. For example, when the upper edge of the wafer 64 is chamfered first, the cylinder rod 176 is contracted by a predetermined amount to chamfer the lower edge of the wafer 64.

When chamfering is completed, the moving table 18
0 in the direction of retracting from the wafer 64, and
The chamfered wafer 64 is transferred to the cleaning / drying device 22 by the transfer devices 192 and 194 shown in FIG.
Then, the wafer 64 transferred to the cleaning / drying device 22 is transferred to the cleaning brush roller 1 by the transfer roller 196.
Then, the cleaning brush roller 198 removes the cutting dust and the like adhering to the wafer 64. Further, the cutting dust and the like adhering to the brush are separated and removed by the cleaning water sprayed from the nozzles 212 of the cleaning water sprayer 204.

Next, the wafer 64 from which the cutting debris and the like have been blown off is removed by a scraper 200 from water droplets adhering to the surface thereof, and then it is sent out by a conveying roller 202 toward a drying section 206 to blow air from the drying section 206. Holes 220, 220
It is dried by the air supplied from. As a result, according to the cleaning / drying apparatus 72 of the present embodiment, the chamfered wafers 64 are continuously cleaned and dried one by one, so that the wafers 64 are efficiently cleaned and dried in a short time. I can do it.

Then, the dried wafer 64 is transferred to the cassette 22 of the wafer storage unit 24 by the transfer device 222.
Store in 4 in sequence. The wafer 64 stored in the cassette 224 is transferred to the lapping process which is the next process.

[0040]

As described above, according to the semiconductor wafer cleaning / drying apparatus of the present invention, the semiconductor wafer is transferred by the transfer section and supplied to the cleaning section. First, the cleaning section supplies water to the semiconductor wafer. Brushing the semiconductor wafer while spraying to remove the cutting debris etc. adhering to the surface,
Next, water droplets attached to the semiconductor wafer that has passed through the cleaning unit are removed by the wiper unit, and then air is blown to the semiconductor wafer that has passed through the wiper unit in the drying unit to dry the semiconductor wafer. Therefore, the semiconductor wafer immediately after being cut by the slicing machine can be efficiently cleaned and dried in a short time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an overall configuration of a semiconductor wafer manufacturing system to which a semiconductor wafer cleaning / drying apparatus according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an ingot loader.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing a state where the ingot is fixed to the ingot loader.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a slice-based peeling device and a semiconductor wafer cleaning / drying device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation explanatory view of a slice-based peeling device.

FIG. 6 is an operation explanatory view of a slice-based peeling device.

FIG. 7 is an operation explanatory view of a slice-based peeling device.

FIG. 8 is an operation explanatory view of a slice-based peeling device.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a surface inspection apparatus.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a wafer transfer device.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory view of essential parts showing an embodiment of a wafer chamfering device.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a semiconductor wafer cleaning / drying apparatus according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 ... Semiconductor Wafer Manufacturing System 12 ... Ingot Loader 14 ... Slicing Machine 16 ... Peeling / Cleaning / Drying Device 18 ... Chamfering Device 20 ... Chamfering Device 22 ... Cleaning / Drying Device 24 ... Wafer Storage 50 ... Ingot 51 ... Slice Base 64 ... Wafer 114, 198 ... Cleaning brush roller 118, 204 ... Cleaning water spraying unit 120, 200 ... Scraper 122, 206 ... Drying unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning unit for cleaning a semiconductor wafer with a pair of rotating brushes while spraying water onto the semiconductor wafer, a wiper unit for removing water droplets adhering to the semiconductor wafer that has passed through the cleaning unit, and the wiper. A semiconductor wafer comprising: a drying unit that blows air onto the semiconductor wafer that has passed through the drying unit to dry the semiconductor wafer; and a cleaning unit, a wiper unit, and a transfer unit that continuously transfers the semiconductor wafer to the drying unit. Cleaning and drying equipment.