Speedfam-Ipec Corporation

Jose R Gonzalez-Martin

Chris E Karlsrud

Arthur Hamer

Robert F Allen

Periya Gopalan

Jon R MacErnie

Jeff Cunnane

Craig M Howard

Toby Jordan

Fernando Calderon

Bill Thornton

Anand Gupta

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.

Robotic method of transferring workpieces to and from workstations

Load and unload station for semiconductor wafers

Cleaning station integral with polishing machine for semiconductor wafers

Mapping system for semiconductor wafer cassettes

Combined CMP and wafer cleaning apparatus and associated methods

Robot assisted method of polishing, cleaning and drying workpieces

Integral machine for polishing, cleaning, rinsing and drying workpieces

A spin dryer assembly for drying workpieces such as semiconductor wafers includes a workpiece platform for receiving a workpiece to be dried. A motor is coupled to and spins the platform to effect removal of water and particulates from the workpiece. Gripping fingers are pivotally mounted around the platform and securely grip the workpiece during drying. Spring loaded plungers maintain the gripping fingers in a secured position during drying. A cam ring is vertically movable into and out of contact with the gripping fingers to bias the gripping portions of the fingers outwardly to a release position after drying.

Methods for spin drying a workpiece

Apparatus for spin drying a workpiece

Growing community of inventors

Phoenix, AZ, United States of America

Jose R Gonzalez-Martin