Robot assisted method of polishing, cleaning and drying workpieces

• US 6,227,946 B1
• Filed: 03/02/2000
• Issued: 05/08/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Novellus Systems Incorporated (Lam Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: SpeedFam-Ipec Corporation
• Inventors: Karlsrud, Chris, Gonzalez-Martin, Jose R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Eley, Timothy V.
• Application Number:
  US09/518,157
• Time in Patent Office: 432 Days
• Field of Search: 451/41, 451/53, 451/54, 451/63, 451/331, 451/332, 451/333, 451/334, 451/335, 451/339
• US Class Current: 451/54
• CPC Class Codes: B24B 37/04 designed for working plane surfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B24B 41/005 Feeding or manipulating devices specially adapted to grinding machines feeding, loading or unloading work specially adapted to lapping machines B24B37/345
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02052 Wet cleaning only H01L21/02085 takes precedence

Abstract

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.

Claims

1. A method for processing workpieces comprising the following steps:

providing a workpiece to be polished, cleaned, rinsed and dried;

transferring said workpiece with a robot from a slot in a cassette to a polishing station;

polishing said workpiece;

transferring said workpiece from said polishing station to a cleaning, rinsing and drying station;

cleaning, rinsing and drying said workpiece; and

transferring said workpiece with said robot from said cleaning, rinsing and drying station back to said slot in said cassette.

2. A method for processing workpieces comprising the following steps:

providing a workpiece holder having a plurality of receptacles for holding said workpieces;

retrieving a first workpiece from a first receptacle with a workpiece transfer means;

polishing, cleaning, rinsing and drying said first workpiece; and

returning said workpiece to said first receptacle with said workpiece transfer means.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said workpiece holder is a tilted cassette and said receptacles are slots formed in said cassette.

4. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said workpiece transfer means comprises a dry end-effector of a six-axis robot.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4, comprising the additional step of transferring said workpiece between said rinsing and drying steps with a wet end-effector of said six-axis robot.

6. A robot-assisted method for polishing and cleaning semiconductor wafers on a single machine performing multiple wafer processes on separate stations of the machine, the method comprising:

providing a wafer holder having a plurality of receptacles containing wafers;

selecting a first wafer from a first receptacle using an end-effector of a robot;

polishing the first wafer on a polishing station;

cleaning, rinsing and driving the first wafer in a cleaning, rinsing and drying station; and

returning the wafer to the first receptacle of the wafer holder using the end-effector of the robot.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising transporting the first wafer from one station of the machine to another with the robot.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the transporting comprises transporting with a second end-effector of the robot.

9. A robot-assisted method for polishing and cleaning semiconductor wafers on a single machine performing multiple wafer processes on separate stations of the machine, the method comprising:

providing a wafer cassette having a plurality of locations containing wafers;

selecting a first wafer from a first location of the cassette using an end-effector of a six-axis robot;

polishing the first wafer on a station adapted for polishing wafers;

cleaning, rinsing and drying the first wafer on a station adapted for cleaning, rinsing and drying wafers; and

returning the polished, scrubbed, rinsed, dried first wafer to the first location of the cassette using the end-effector of the robot.

10. A method of polishing, cleaning, rinsing and drying a wafer comprising the steps of:

selecting a wafer from a slot in a cassette with a dry end-effector of a robot;

transporting the wafer to a polishing station;

polishing the wafer;

transporting the wafer to a cleaning, rinsing and drying station;

cleaning, rinsing and drying the wafer in the cleaning, rinsing and drying station; and

transporting the wafer from the cleaning, rinsing and drying station to the slot in the cassette with the dry end-effector of the robot.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the robot is a six-axis robot.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein a wet end-effector of the robot is used to transport the wafer within the cleaning, rinsing and drying station.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the dry end-effector or wet end-effector has sensors for detecting the presence or absence of the wafer on the end-effector.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the dry end-effector or wet end-effector is comprised of or coated with a static dissipative material.