Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Yi-Lang Wang

Yu-Ku Lin

Chun-Chang Chen

Huai-Tei Yang

Ting-Chun Wang

Hsi-Kuei Cheng

Chin-Te Huang

Aaron Cheng

Ting-Chu Wang

An improved hoop support for semiconductor wafers reduces contamination of the wafer during edge beveling operations through the use of support pins that make only line contact with the wafer. The support pins are spaced around the periphery of the hoop and possess a triangular cross section. Two intersecting sides of the pins form an edge that defines the line contact with the wafer. These intersecting sides are preferably inclined relative to the wafer at an angle of between 60 and 80 degrees.

Hoop support for semiconductor wafer

An apparatus and a method for removing coating layers from the top of alignment marks on a wafer are described. The apparatus includes a cleaning chamber that is a cavity and a lid member suspended in the cavity, a wafer chuck that is rotatably mounted in the lid member for holding a wafer in an upside down position such that the alignment marks are facing downwardly, and at least two solvent dispensing arms mounted in an outer peripheral area of the lid member that are immediately adjacent to the chuck for dispensing a flow of solvent upwardly toward the active surface of the wafer when the wafer is held in a stationary position, each of the at least two solvent dispensing arms are positioned corresponding to a position of one of the alignment marks.

Apparatus and method for removing coating layers from alignment marks

Growing community of inventors

Tai-Chung, Taiwan

Yi-Lang Wang