Scrubber with integrated vertical marangoni drying

Abstract

An apparatus is provided for scrubbing and drying a wafer. The apparatus comprises a chamber, a plurality of rollers adapted to support a wafer in a vertical orientation within the chamber, a pair of brushes adapted to respectively scrub a first and a second side of the wafer, a first spray bar adapted to spray a liquid on the wafer to thereby form a meniscus on the wafer as the wafer is lifted out of the chamber, and a second spray bar adapted to direct a vapor to the meniscus, the vapor being adapted to lower a surface tension of the liquid at the meniscus to thereby perform Marangoni drying of the wafer as the wafer is lifted out of the chamber. Also provided is a method of cleaning and drying a wafer. The method comprises scrubbing a wafer in a vertical orientation, lifting the wafer, spraying a fluid on the wafer as the wafer is lifted, thereby forming a meniscus on the surface of the wafer, and directing a drying vapor to the meniscus as the wafer is lifted, thereby Marangoni drying the wafer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.