US 6,202,658 B1Granted

Method and apparatus for cleaning the edge of a thin disc

AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.

InventorsBoris Fishkin, Jianshe Tang, Brian J. Brown

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Abstract

An inventive edge cleaning device is provided for cleaning the edge a thin disc such as a semiconductor wafer. The inventive edge cleaning device has a sonic nozzle positioned so as to direct a liquid jet at the edge surface of the thin disc. Preferably the sonic nozzle is radially spaced from the thin disc's edge so that scrubbing, spin rinsing or spin cleaning may be simultaneously performed on the major surfaces of the thin disc as the thin disc edge is cleaned by the sonic nozzle. The liquid jet may include de-ionized water, NH4OH, KOH, TMAH, HF, citric acid, a surfactant, or other similar cleaning solutions, and the nozzle may remain stationary as the thin disc rotates or the nozzle may scan the circumference of the thin disc to clean the entire edge of the thin disc.

Claims16

Dependent claims

An apparatus adapted to clean a thin disc comprising:

a thin disc supporting location;
a first sonic nozzle operatively coupled to the thin disc supporting location, so as to direct a jet of sonicated liquid at an edge of a thin disc positioned on the thin disc supporting location and so that the nozzle is radially spaced from the edge of the thin disk, and so that the liquid jet from the nozzle is approximately 30° to 150° from a tangent to the edge of the thin disk, and is approximately 135° to 225° from a major surface of the thin disk;
a mechanism operatively coupled to the thin disc supporting location adapted to scan a thin disc edge relative to the sonic nozzle;
and
a cleaning mechanism operatively coupled to the thin disc supporting location adapted to clean a first major surface of the thin disc positioned on the thin disc supporting location.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.