Scrubber with integrated vertical marangoni drying

• US 20040200409A1
• Filed: 12/16/2003
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Applied Materials Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Applied Materials Incorporated
• Inventors: Svirchevski, Julia
• Application Number:
  US10/737,732
• Publication Number:
  US 20040200409A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 118/70
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67028 for cleaning followed by drying, rinsing, stripping, blasting or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67034 for drying
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67046 using mainly scrubbing means, e.g. brushes

Abstract

An apparatus is provided for scrubbing and drying a wafer. The apparatus comprises a chamber, a plurality of rollers adapted to support a wafer in a vertical orientation within the chamber, a pair of brushes adapted to respectively scrub a first and a second side of the wafer, a first spray bar adapted to spray a liquid on the wafer to thereby form a meniscus on the wafer as the wafer is lifted out of the chamber, and a second spray bar adapted to direct a vapor to the meniscus, the vapor being adapted to lower a surface tension of the liquid at the meniscus to thereby perform Marangoni drying of the wafer as the wafer is lifted out of the chamber. Also provided is a method of cleaning and drying a wafer. The method comprises scrubbing a wafer in a vertical orientation, lifting the wafer, spraying a fluid on the wafer as the wafer is lifted, thereby forming a meniscus on the surface of the wafer, and directing a drying vapor to the meniscus as the wafer is lifted, thereby Marangoni drying the wafer.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising;

a chamber;

a plurality of rollers adapted to support a wafer in a vertical orientation within a chamber;

a pair of brushes adapted to scrub a first and a second side of the wafer respectively;

a first spray bar adapted to spray a liquid on the wafer to form a meniscus on the wafer as the wafer is lifted out of the chamber; and

a second spray bar adapted to direct a vapor to the meniscus, the vapor being adapted to lower a surface tension of the liquid at the meniscus to perform Marangoni drying of the wafer as the wafer is lifted out of the chamber.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a wafer lift mechanism mounted in the chamber and adapted to lift the wafer at least partially out of the chamber.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the wafer lift mechanism pushes the wafer upward through a spray output by the first spray bar.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a pair of wafer guides for guiding the wafer as the wafer is lifted by the wafer lift mechanism.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a cradle for moving the wafer from the vertical orientation to an inclined orientation.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 further comprising a pusher for pushing the wafer upward along an inclined path, wherein the first and second spray bar are positioned to output a spray onto the wafer as the wafer is lifted along the inclined path.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising a pair of wafer guides for guiding the wafer as the wafer is lifted upward along the inclined path.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a mechanism for moving the wafer from a first position where the wafer is scrubbed by the pair of brushes, to a second position where the wafer will be impacted by spray from the first and second spray bars as the wafer is lifted from the chamber.

9. A method of cleaning and drying a wafer comprising:

scrubbing a wafer in a vertical orientation;

lifting the wafer;

spraying a fluid on the wafer as the wafer is lifted, thereby forming a meniscus on the surface of the wafer; and

directing a drying vapor to the meniscus as the wafer is lifted, thereby Marangoni drying the wafer.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving the wafer in a first location for scrubbing; and

moving the wafer to a second location,

wherein lifting the wafer comprises lifting the wafer from the second location.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving a second wafer in the first location for scrubbing in a vertical orientation, while lifting the first wafer from the second location.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein moving the wafer to the second location comprises rotating the wafer from a vertical orientation to an inclined orientation.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein moving the wafer to the second location comprises linearly translating the wafer to the second location.