US 6,308,369 B1 · Wafer cleaning system

Abstract

A wafer cleaning apparatus provides two opposed brushes for brushing a vertically disposed wafer in a tank which can contain a process liquid. A pressure controller adaptively controls the pressure exerted by the brushes on the wafer to compensate for brush wear. Rim driving wheels engage the wafer periphery with a porous jacket coupled to a fluid delivery system, thereby simultaneously rotating and cleaning the periphery of the wafer. The apparatus includes a fluid delivery system for separately and independently delivering a plurality of constituents of a cleaning solution to the brushes, thereby ensuring that a freshly mixed cleaning solution reaches the wafer. The tank can be filled with a process liquid through which megasonic waves provided by a transducer can propagate and impinge upon the wafer thereby enhancing the cleaning of the wafer or the brushes.

Claims12

Dependent claims

In a wafer cleaning apparatus, a brush assembly comprising:

a brush core having an outer surface and a channel axially extending along the outer surface thereof and distal from a center axis thereof, said channel having a bottom surface inset from said outer surface;
a first cylindrical sleeve coaxial with said brush core, said sleeve being removably engaged with said core;
and
a second cylindrical sleeve having a brush surface coaxial with said first cylindrical sleeve, said cylindrical sleeve being engaged with said first cylindrical sleeve;
wherein the brush core and the first and second cylindrical sleeves are sized and dimensioned for mounting in the wafer cleaning apparatus and wherein the channel is configured for allowing passage of a fluid along a length of said brush core and to the first and second cylindrical sleeves.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Wafer cleaning system

Life of this patent

Wafer cleaning system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims12