JPH07297162A - Semiconductor substrate cleaning equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] To provide a semiconductor substrate cleaning apparatus capable of further improving cleaning efficiency in response to higher integration of semiconductor chips. [Structure] A semiconductor substrate cleaning apparatus for cleaning the surface of a semiconductor substrate that has been subjected to a chemical treatment is provided with a water film nozzle 5 that forms a water film 8 in a direction orthogonal to the surface of a semiconductor substrate 2 held vertically. It is provided above the substrate, and the water film nozzle and the substrate are moved relative to each other in the radial direction of the substrate.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a semiconductor substrate cleaning apparatus for cleaning the surface of a wafer which is a substrate such as a semiconductor chip.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Cleaning of the wafer surface with a chemical solution or pure water is particularly important in the process of manufacturing a wafer used as a substrate for semiconductor chips. Generally, after removing the oxide film and removing metal contamination with a cleaning solution containing hydrofluoric acid,
After cleaning with pure water to remove adhered particles, when the wafer is lifted from the cleaning liquid after cleaning with pure water, fine particles floating on the liquid surface may redeposit on fine irregularities on the wafer surface. Therefore, conventionally, such adhering particles are washed away with a spray type shower (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-47936).

[0003]

By the way, in recent years, the degree of integration and the density of semiconductor devices have been remarkably increased, and accordingly, further reduction of the adhered particles remaining is desired. In order to satisfy such a demand, the cleaning time and the consumption amount of the cleaning liquid are inevitably increased, so that it is difficult to reduce the manufacturing cost of the highly integrated semiconductor chip.

The present invention has been devised in order to eliminate such disadvantages of the prior art, and its main purpose is to:
It is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor substrate cleaning apparatus capable of further improving cleaning efficiency in response to higher integration of semiconductor chips.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor substrate cleaning apparatus for cleaning the surface of a semiconductor substrate which has been subjected to a chemical treatment. This is achieved by providing a water film nozzle that forms a water film in a direction orthogonal to the above above the substrate, and moving the water film nozzle and the substrate relative to each other in the radial direction of the substrate.

[0006]

According to such a structure, since the surface of the substrate is made to flow on the surface of the substrate by a continuous water film instead of water droplets as in a shower, the efficiency of trapping fine particles is increased.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The structure of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to specific embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a wafer cleaning apparatus constructed according to the present invention. The cleaning apparatus 1 includes a liquid tank 4 having an open upper portion for receiving a carrier 3 that holds a plurality of wafers 2 in parallel in a substantially vertical state at appropriate fixed intervals, and a wafer 2 above the liquid tank 4. And a water film nozzle 5 extending in a direction orthogonal to the surface of the. The water film nozzle 5 is connected to a driving device (not shown) so as to reciprocate in the radial direction of the wafer 2 on a horizontal plane.

The water film nozzle 5 is composed of two pipes 6a and 6b having different diameters which are combined in an inner and outer double manner with an appropriate gap G between the outer peripheral surface and the inner peripheral surface. These two pipes 6a, 6b are provided with a single slit 7a, 7b along the axis as shown in FIG.
They are opened at the positions opposite to each other by 80 degrees. The inner pipe 6b is connected to a supply source of the cleaning liquid (pure water), and when the cleaning liquid is supplied to the inner pipe 6b, the inner pipe 6b is inserted into a gap G between the outer peripheral surface of the inner pipe 6b and the inner peripheral surface of the outer pipe 6a. The cleaning liquid flows in from the slit 7b of the pipe 6b. Then, when the cleaning liquid flows out from the slit 7a of the outer pipe 6a through the gap G, a curtain-shaped water film 8 is formed.

In order to clean the wafer 2 with this apparatus, the water film nozzle 5 in a state where the cleaning liquid is discharged to form the water film 8 is reciprocally moved on the carrier 3 in which the wafer 2 is housed. The inside of the liquid tank 4 is filled with the cleaning liquid. In this process, the surface of the wafer 2 is sequentially cleaned by being scanned in the radial direction by the linear flow of the water film 8. Here, since the water film 8 has a falling speed, the fine particles touching the water film 8 are stripped from the surface of the wafer 2.
Further, since the water film 8 forms a linear flow on the surface of the wafer 2 from top to bottom in the radial direction without interruption, the adhered particles on the line of this flow are almost completely converted into the cleaning liquid. It is captured and removed from the surface of the wafer 2.

A drain valve 9 is used for cleaning liquid that has been scanned several times.
After opening and discharging, the drain valve 9 is closed and the cleaning liquid is injected into the liquid tank 4, and after the wafer 2 is completely immersed in the cleaning liquid, the drain valve 9 is opened and the cleaning liquid is gently extracted from the liquid tank 4. . By repeating this process 2 to 3 times, as shown in Table 1, it is found that a much higher removal rate of adhered particles can be obtained as compared with the conventional method.

[0012]

[Table 1]

In the above embodiment, the water film nozzle 5
Was moved, but this may be moved on the wafer 2 side.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the flow of the cleaning liquid becomes a continuous flow along the wafer surface, the trapping efficiency of fine particles becomes high and the redeposition becomes difficult. A great effect is brought about in improving the removal efficiency of the adhered particles.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of a water film nozzle.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Cleaning Device 2 Wafer 3 Carrier 4 Liquid Tank 5 Water Film Nozzle 6a ・ 6b Pipe 7a ・ 7b Slit 8 Water Film 9 Drain Valve

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Jun Atsumi 5-10-1 Fuchinobe, Sagamihara City Inside the Electronics Research Laboratory, Nippon Steel Corporation (72) Inventor Tadashi Saki 1618 Ida, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Inside the Iron Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A semiconductor substrate cleaning apparatus for cleaning a surface of a semiconductor substrate treated with a chemical solution, comprising a water film nozzle for forming a water film in a direction orthogonal to a surface of a semiconductor substrate held vertically. A semiconductor substrate cleaning apparatus, wherein the water film nozzle and the substrate are provided relative to each other in a radial direction of the substrate while being provided above the substrate.