Speedfam-ipec Corporation

Sony Corporation

Tokyo Electron Limited

Materials Research Corporation

Jon R MacErnie

Periya Gopalan

Chris E Karlsrud

Robert F Allen

Jose R Gonzalez-Martin

Arthur Hamer

Jeff Cunnane

Toby Jordan

Craig M Howard

Bill Thornton

Fernando Calderon

Carl Louis White

Joseph T Hillman

Daniel R Trojan

Anand Gupta

Jeffrey B Cunnane

Apparatus and method for cleaning, rinsing and drying work pieces such as semiconductor wafers. The apparatus can be combined, in an integrated apparatus, with a CMP machine. The apparatus includes one or more brush boxes with water tracks to convey work pieces to and from the brush boxes. Each brush box and its associated water track provide for the containment of cleaning agents such as HF used in the cleaning process so that different cleaning agents used in different brush boxes are kept segregated. The efficiency of the brush box is enhanced by providing for movement of work pieces back and forth through the brush box. Thus work pieces can make more than one pass through a brush box.

Wafer cleaning apparatus and associated wafer processing methods

An integral machine for polishing, cleaning, rinsing and drying workpieces such as semiconductor wafers. A load/unload station has a plurality of platforms for receiving cassettes of wafers to be processed. A dry end-effector of a robot retrieves wafers from the cassettes and transfers them to an index table. A transfer apparatus having wafer carrier elements picks up wafers from the index table, moves the wafers to a polishing table for polishing, and returns the wafers to the index table for further processing. A flipper moves the polished wafers to a cleaning station. The cleaning station includes scrub stations, a rinsing station and a spin dryer station, and a connective system of water tracks. A wet end-effector of the robot transfers rinsed wafers to the spin dryer station. The dry end-effector of the robot moves dried wafers from the spin dryer station back to the cassette of origination.

Mapping system for semiconductor wafer cassettes

Combined CMP and wafer cleaning apparatus and associated methods

Integral machine for polishing, cleaning, rinsing and drying workpieces

The present invention provides an apparatus for cleaning semiconductor workpieces following a Chemical Mechanical Planarization ('CMP') procedure. Initially, a workpiece is scrubbed to remove some of the slurry material and other contaminants on the surfaces of the workpiece. Next, the workpiece is transported into a chemical-etch cleaning station wherein the workpiece is positioned horizontally such that both the upper and lower surfaces are substantially exposed. The workpiece then is immersed in a cleaning solution which is moved around the various surfaces of the workpiece. The workpiece is immersed in the cleaning solution for a sufficient length of time to remove an appropriate layer of oxide, thereby removing contaminants and smoothing micro scratches from the surfaces of the workpiece.

Post-CMP wet-HF cleaning station

An apparatus for efficiently heating a wafer within a CVD environment isolates the heating element of the apparatus from the CVD environment and includes a susceptor body defining a sealed space therein for containing the heating element and a surface coupled to the heating element for supporting and heating the wafer. The susceptor space is sealed from the CVD environment and is vacuumed to a first pressure. Heating gas is delivered through a space extending through the susceptor body which is sealed from the susceptor space containing the heating element and is vacuumed to a second pressure which is preferably less than the CVD reaction pressure to vacuum clamp a wafer to the susceptor. The heating gas delivery space is formed by an elongated sheath surrounding a hollow wafer lift tube and the sheath is sealed at one end to the backplane of the susceptor and at the other end to the tube. The wafer lift tube moves up and down within the sheath to lift a wafer. Various unique seals provide isolation of the heating element space and gas delivery space from each other and from the CVD reaction environment to protect the heating element from the corrosive effects of CVD vapors.

Method for isolating a susceptor heating element from a chemical vapor

An apparatus for efficiently heating a wafer within a CVD environment isolates the heating element of the apparatus from the CVD environment and includes a susceptor body defining a sealed space therein for containing the heating element and a surface coupled to the heating element for supporting and heating the wafer. The susceptor space is sealed from the CVD environment and is vacuumed to a first pressure. Heating gas is delivered through a space extending through the susceptor body which is sealed from the susceptor space containing the heating element and is vacuumed to a second pressure which is preferably less than the CVD reaction pressure to vacuum clamp a wafer to the susceptor. The heating gas delivery space is formed by an elongated sheath surrounding a hollow wafer lift tube and the sheath is sealed at one end to the backplane of the susceptor and at the other end to the tube. The wafer lift tube moves up and down within the sheath to lift a wafer. Various unique seals provide isolation of the heating element space and gas delivery space from each other and from the CVD reaction environment to protect the heating elements from the corrosive effects of CVD vapors.

Method and apparatus for isolating a susceptor heating element from a

Growing community of inventors

Chandler, AZ, United States of America

Jon R MacErnie