Purge bars for CMP cleaner
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsYi-Chang Liu, Chia-Chen Chang, Yuan-Mou Dai
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Purge bars for blowing excess residual cleaning fluid from an object, particularly a semiconductor wafer, before or as the wafer is removed from a cleaning chamber of a CMP cleaner, for example. Typically, a purge bar is mounted on each side of the cleaning chamber for blowing nitrogen or clean, dry air (CDA) against a corresponding surface of the wafer to remove the excess cleaning fluid from the wafer. The purge bars may be connected to a controller for a wafer transfer device which removes the wafer from the cleaning chamber, such that the purge bars are actuated as the wafer transfer device begins to remove the wafer from the chamber.
Claims20
A cleaner for removing excess wet cleaning fluid from an object, comprising:
- at least one cleaning chamber for receiving the object and exposing the object to the wet cleaning fluid;
- a transfer mechanism for removing the object from said at least one cleaning chamber;
- and
- a gas delivery mechanism provided in said at least one cleaning chamber for blowing a purge gas against the object.
A cleaner for removing excess wet cleaning fluid from a semiconductor wafer, comprising:
- at least two cleaning chambers for receiving the object and exposing the object to the wet cleaning fluid;
- gas delivery means provided in each of said at least two cleaning chambers for blowing a purge gas against respective surfaces of the wafer;
- wafer transfer means for transferring said wafer between said at least two cleaning chambers;
- and
- a controller operably connected to said wafer transfer means and said gas delivery means for actuating said gas delivery means as said wafer transfer means removes the wafer from each of said at least two cleaning chambers.
A method of removing excess wet cleaning fluid from a semiconductor wafer, comprising the steps of:
- providing at least one cleaning chamber;
- providing a pair of purge bars in said at least one cleaning chamber;
- providing a wafer transfer mechanism in proximity to said at least one cleaning chamber;
- exposing the wafer to the wet cleaning fluid in said at least one cleaning chamber;
- removing the wafer from said at least one cleaning chamber by operation of said wafer transfer mechanism;
- and
- blowing a purge gas from said pair of purge bars against respective surfaces of the wafer as said wafer transfer mechanism removes the wafer from said at least one cleaning chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.