The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 03, 1996
Filed:
Feb. 15, 1995
Manoj K Jain, Plano, TX (US);
Taxas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for removing particulate contaminants from a semiconductor wafer are disclosed. A wafer 10 is held in a wafer holder 12 at cleaning station 14. Cleaning station 14 has a rinse fluid supply system 18 which supplies, e.g. deionized water, to the wafer surface during particle removal. A cleaning pad 20 is mounted on a platen 22, substantially in the plane of wafer 10. Platen 22 is coupled to a drive mechanism 24, which may for example be an electric motor, and drive mechanism 24 is coupled to station 14 by an engagement mechanism 26 which provides vertical displacement to engage pad 20 and wafer 10 for particle removal, and also provides a controlled pad contact pressure during particle removal. In operation, rinse fluid from 18 is supplied to slowly rotating wafer 10, while pad 20 is rotated, preferably at 200 to 600 rpm, and contacted with wafer 10. High pad speed appears to be particularly beneficial to cleaning, with pad contact pressure and contact time apparently being secondary effects which at least decrease wafer-to-wafer variances in the cleaning process.