End-effector with integrated cooling mechanism

• US 6,499,777 B1
• Filed: 05/05/2000
• Issued: 12/31/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Albert R. Wang, Lam Research Corporation
• Original Assignee: Matrix Integrated Systems, Inc. (Axcelis Technologies Incorporated)
• Inventors: Wang, Albert
• Primary Examiner(s): Novosad, Christopher J.
• Application Number:
  US09/565,833
• Time in Patent Office: 970 Days
• Field of Search: 294/1.1, 294/27.1, 294/32, 294/902, 294/64-- 6, 414/935-941, 414/222.1, 414/222.01, 414/222.12, 414/222.13, 414/225.01, 414/744.1, 118/724, 118/725, 118/728, 118/729, 34/62, 34/66, 344/28, 344/43, 34/68, 34/72, 34/75, 344/29, 344/30, 344/33, 62/32, 62/62, 901/30, 901/31, 901/27, 901/50, 165/80-- 8, 156/345
• US Class Current: 294/213
• CPC Class Codes: C30B 35/005 Transport systems
• CPC Class Codes: F27D 9/00 Cooling of furnaces or of charges therein F27D1/00, F27D3/00 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70741 Handling masks outside exposure position, e.g. reticle libraries
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67109 mainly by convection
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67742 Mechanical parts of transfer devices robots in general in B25J
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/6838 with gripping and holding devices using a vacuum; Bernoulli devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 414/135 Associated with semiconductor wafer handling
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 414/136 including wafer orienting means
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 414/137 including means for charging or discharging wafer cassette
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 414/14 Wafer cassette transporting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 414/141 includes means for gripping wafer

Abstract

An end-effector with integrated cooling features comprises heat transferring mechanisms that transfer heat energy away from the end-effector. The end-effector advantageously minimizes the cooling overhead of a processed substrate as it is transported from a process module to a low-cost storage cassette. The reduced cooling overhead of the processed substrate, as a consequence, improves substrate throughput. In the preferred embodiments, the heat transferring mechanisms include a high surface area heat sink connecting the substrate-supporting paddle with a robot arm. Cooling fins can enhance surface area and thus enhance heat dissipation from the heat sink. Cooling channels can extend through paddle and heat sink, either containing circulating fluid for carrying heat beyond the end-effector or a phase changing material in an enclosed heat pipe.

Claims

1. An end-effector for transporting substrates within a semiconductor fabrication environment:

the end-effector comprising a paddle portion configured to underlie at least 60% of a substrate and thereby support and conductively exchange heat with the substrate;

a handle portion in conductive thermal contact with the paddle portion, the handle portion configured to connect the paddle portion to a robot arm; and

an integrated cooling mechanism configured to dissipate heat from the end-effector by convection, wherein the integrated cooling mechanism comprises a plurality of surface area enhancing fins projecting from the handle portion.

2. The end-effector of claim 1, wherein an upper surface area of the handle portion, including the fins, is at least twice an area of an upper surface of the paddle portion.

3. The end-effector of claim 2, wherein the upper surface area of the handle portion, including the fins, is between about two times and three times the area of the upper surface of the paddle portion.

4. The end-effector of claim 1, connected to a substantially identical second end-effector on a single substrate handling robot.

5. The end-effector of claim 4, wherein the robot is configured to alternately handle processed substrates with the end-effector alternatingly with the second end-effector.

6. The end-effector of claim 5, wherein the thickness of the handle portion is between about 3 and 4 times the thickness of the paddle portion.

7. The end-effector of claim 1, wherein the handle portion has a thickness in a vertical dimension at least about 2 times a corresponding thickness of the paddle portion.

8. The end-effector of claim 1, wherein the paddle portion has an upper surface of at least 80% of a substrate surface.

9. The end-effector of claim 1, wherein the handle portion has a width at least about one-quarter a corresponding width of the paddle portion.

10. A method for cooling processed substrates with a dual arm robot, the method comprising:

removing a first hot substrate from a first process chamber with a first end-effector;

transferring heat from the first hot substrate to the first end-effector;

moving the first hot substrate to a first storage cassette with the first end-effector;

removing a second hot substrate from a second, different process chamber with a second end-effector, wherein the first and second process chambers comprise photoresist ashing reactors;

transferring heat from the second hot substrate to the second end-effector;

cooling the first end-effector while transferring heat from the second hot substrate to the second end-effector; and

moving the second hot substrate to a second storage cassette with the second end-effector.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein moving the first hot substrate comprises carrying the first hot substrate directly from a process chamber to the first storage cassette while transferring heat from the first hot substrate.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein transferring heat from the first hot substrate comprises conductively transferring heat from the first hot wafer to a paddle of the first end-effector underlying more that about 60% of the first hot substrate.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising picking up a first cold substrate with the first end-effector after moving the first hot substrate to the first storage cassette.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein cooling the first end-effector comprises transferring heat from the first end-effector to the first cold substrate.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein picking up the first hot substrate comprises removing the first hot substrate from a first process chamber and picking up the second hot substrate comprises removing the second hot substrate from second, different process chamber.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising repeatedly picking up hot substrates with the first end-effector alternatingly with picking up hot substrates with the second end-effector.

18. The end-effector of claim 12, wherein the projections comprise a plurality of fins.

19. The end-effector of claim 12, further comprising at least one vacuum port in the support surface of the paddle portion.

17. An end-effector for transporting substrates, comprising:

a paddle portion configured to support a substrate, the paddle portion having a support surface having a surface area greater than about 60% of the substrate surface; and

a handle portion integrally extending from the paddle portion, the handle portion having a plurality of projections on a surface thereof, wherein the surface area of the projections is greater than about three times the surface area of the support surface.

20. A method of handling substrates between a storage area and a high temperature processing chamber, comprising:

removing a first substrate from a high temperature processing chamber with a substrate handler having a paddle portion in thermal contact with a handle portion, the handle portion connecting the paddle portion to a robot arm;

conductively transferring heat from the substrate to the paddle portion;

transferring heat from the paddle portion to the handle portion; and

actively dissipating heat from the handle portion by forced convection, wherein actively dissipating heat comprises providing a plurality of projections upon the handle portion, the projections having a surface area more than twice an upper surface of the paddle portion, and moving the substrate handler.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising carrying the processed substrate directly from the processing chamber to the storage area and dropping the processed substrate at the storage area, wherein conductively transferring, transferring and actively dissipating are conducted while moving the substrate handler.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising removing an unprocessed wafer from the storage area after dropping the processed substrate and transferring heat from the paddle portion to the unprocessed substrate.