Systems and methods for shuttered wafer cleaning
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsTsui-Wei Wang, Yung-Li Tsai, Chui-Ya Peng
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In an embodiment, a system includes: a wafer support configured to secure a wafer; a nozzle configured to dispense a liquid or a gas on the wafer when the nozzle is in an active state of dispensing; a shutter configured to catch the liquid from the nozzle when the shutter is in a first position below the nozzle; and a shutter actuator configured to: move the shutter to the first position in response to the nozzle not being in an inactive state; move the shutter to a second position away from the first position in response to the nozzle being in the active state.
Claims20
A system, comprising:
- a nozzle configured to dispense a liquid or a gas onto a wafer;
- a shutter configured to catch the liquid from the nozzle when the shutter is in a first position below the nozzle;
- and
- a shutter actuator configured to:
- move the shutter to the first position when the nozzle is not dispensing the liquid or the gas on the wafer;
- and
- move the shutter to a second position away from the first position when the nozzle is dispensing the liquid or the gas on the wafer.
A system, comprising:
- a nozzle comprising a first portal to dispense a liquid onto a wafer and a second portal to dispense a first gas onto the wafer;
- a shutter configured to be in a first position away from the nozzle during a liquid cleaning process, and in a second position below the nozzle when the first portal is closed so as to collect residual liquid dripping from the first portal and prevent the residual liquid from dripping onto the wafer;
- and
- a controller configured to move the shutter between the first position and the second position, and control dispensing the liquid from the first portal and dispensing the first gas from the second portal.
A system, comprising:
- a nozzle comprising a first portal to dispense a first gas onto a wafer, a second portal to dispense a second gas onto the wafer and a third portal to dispense a liquid onto the wafer;
- a shutter configured to be in a first position away from the nozzle during a liquid cleaning process, and in a second position below the nozzle when the first portal is closed so as to collect residual liquid dripping from the third portal and prevent the residual liquid from dripping onto the wafer;
- and
- a controller configured to move the shutter between the first position and the second position, and control dispensing the first gas from the first portal, the second gas from the second portal, and the liquid from the third portal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.