# US 12,772,776 B2 · Drying system with integrated substrate alignment stage

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- Number: US 12,772,776 B2
- Document ID: US12772776B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 17/681,671
- Filed: 2022-02-25
- Published: 2022-09-08
- Granted: 2026-10-20
- Earliest claimed: 2021-03-03
- Assignees: Applied Materials, Inc.
- Applicants: Applied Materials, Inc.
- Inventors: Justin Ho Kuen Wong
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12772776B2

## CPC

- H10P 72/0416: {with the semiconductor substrates being dipped in baths or vessels}
- B08B 3/10: with additional treatment of the liquid or of the object being cleaned, e.g. by heat, by electricity or by vibration
- F26B 3/04: the gas or vapour circulating over or surrounding the materials or objects to be dried (F26B3/14 takes precedence)
- F26B 11/18: on or in moving dishes, trays, pans, or other mainly-open receptacles
- F26B 25/003: {for articles}
- H10P 72/0606: {Position monitoring, e.g. misposition detection or presence detection}
- H10P 72/50: for positioning, orientation or alignment
- H10P 72/7602: {the wafers being placed on a robot blade or gripped by a gripper for conveyance}
- H10P: GENERIC PROCESSES OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OR TREATMENT OF DEVICES COVERED BY CLASS H10
- B08B: CLEANING IN GENERAL; PREVENTION OF FOULING IN GENERAL
- F26B: DRYING SOLID MATERIALS OR OBJECTS BY REMOVING LIQUID THEREFROM (drying devices for combines A01D41/133; racks for drying fruit or vegetables A01F25/12; drying foodstuffs A23; drying hair A45D20/00; body-drying implements A47K10/00; drying household articles A47L; drying gases or vapours B01D; chemical or physical processes for dewatering or like separating liquids from solids B01D43/00; centrifugal apparatus B04; drying ceramics C04B33/30; drying yarns or fabrics in association with some other form of treatment D06C; drying frames for laundry without heating or positive air circulation, domestic laundry-or spin-driers, wringing or hot pressing laundry D06F; furnaces, kilns, ovens F27)

## Abstract

A substrate cleaning and drying system includes a cleaning station, a drying station positioned adjacent the cleaning station, a cleaner robot to transfer a substrate from the cleaning station to the drying station, an aligner stage adjacent to the drying station, a robot arm rotatable between a substantially vertical first position for receiving the substrate from the drying station and a substantially horizontal second position for releasing the substrate onto the aligner stage, and a factory interface robot to transfer a substrate from the aligner stage into a factory interface module while in a horizontal orientation. The aligner stage includes a rotatable support to hold the substrate in a substantially horizontal orientation and to rotate the substrate to a desired orientation.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A substrate drying system for use in a CMP cleaner, the drying system comprising:
a drying station having a drier to dry a wet substrate;
an aligner stage adjacent to the drying station, the aligner stage including a rotatable support to hold a dry substrate dried by the drier in a substantially horizontal position and to rotate the dry substrate about a vertical axis to a desired orientation;
a robot arm including a gripper for holding a single substrate, the arm movable such that the gripper is movable between a first position with a first orientation to hold the substrate in a substantially vertical orientation and a second position with a second orientation to hold the substrate in a substantially horizontal, the first position located above and vertically aligned with the drier to hold the substrate dried by the drier above the drier in a substantially vertical orientation, the second position located above and vertically aligned with the aligner stage to release the dried substrate onto the rotatable support of the aligner stage with the dried substrate in a generally horizontal orientation;
a factory interface robot configured to pick up the dried substrate from the aligner stage in a substantially horizontal orientation and transport the substrate out of the drying station to a cassette; and
a controller configured to cause the drier to dry the wet substrate, cause the gripper of the robot arm to grip the dried substrate in the substantially vertical orientation at the first position, cause the robot arm to move the gripper holding the dried substrate from the first position with the first orientation to the second position with the second orientation, cause the gripper to release the dried substrate in the substantially horizontal orientation at the second position onto the rotatable support of the aligner stage, cause the rotatable support of the aligner stage to rotate the dried substrate about the vertical axis to the desired orientation, and cause the factory interface robot to pick up the dried substrate from the aligner stage and transport the substrate out of the drying station to the cassette.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the drying station is a Marangoni vapor drying stage.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the gripper includes fingers adjustable to grip edges of the substrate during rotation between the first position and the second position.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the aligner stage includes a pedestal rotatable about a vertical axis and coupleable to lower surfaces of substrates on the aligner stage, and an alignment sensor for detecting rotational fiducial marks on the substrates.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the robot arm is movable such that the gripper is movable between a third position inside the drier and the first position above the drier.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The system of claim 5, comprising a cleaner robot configured to deliver the substrate into the drier.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The system of claim 6, wherein the drying station includes a support and the cleaner robot is configured to place the substrate on the support in the drying station.

### Claim 8 (depends on 6)

The system of claim 6, wherein the cleaner robot is configured to hand off the substrate to the gripper of the robot arm in the drier.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, comprising a drying robot to raise the substrate from a third position inside the drier to the first position and to hand-off the substrate to the gripper of the robot arm at the first position.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The system of claim 9, wherein the drying robot is configured to raise a first substrate from the third position simultaneously with the aligner stage aligning a second substrate.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the aligner stage is configured to align a first substrate simultaneously with the drying station drying a second substrate.

### Claim 12

A method, comprising:
drying a first substrate with a vertical drying process at a drier;
lifting the first substrate substantially vertically out of the drier;
from a position above the drier, tilting the dried first substrate to a horizontal orientation;
before receiving the first substrate with a factory interface robot and after tilting the dried first substrate to the horizontal orientation, aligning the dried first substrate about a vertical axis at an aligner stage while simultaneously drying a second substrate with the vertical drying process, the position vertically aligned with the drier; and
after aligning the dried first substrate, transporting the first substrate from the aligner stage to a cassette with the factory interface robot.

### Claim 13 (depends on 12)

The method of claim 12, wherein the vertical drying process is a Marangoni drying process.

### Claim 14 (depends on 12)

The method of claim 12, wherein the tilting of the dried first substrate includes
gripping the dried first substrate in a vertical orientation,
rotating the gripped first substrate to the horizontal orientation, and
releasing the first substrate onto a stage for the aligning.

### Claim 15 (depends on 12)

The method of claim 12, wherein the aligning of the first substrate includes detecting a fiducial mark on the substrate.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, wherein aligning of the first substrate includes stopping the aligning upon the detecting of the fiducial mark.

### Claim 17 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, wherein aligning of the first substrate comprises further rotating the first substrate by a selected angle upon detecting the fiducial mark and then stopping the rotating at a desired orientation of the first substrate.