Non-contact cool-down station for wafers
AssigneeASM America, Inc.
InventorsRavinder Aggarwal, Bob Haro
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A stationary cooling station for cooling wafers after the wafers have been subjected to semiconductor processing supports the wafer by flowing gas in accordance with the Bernoulli principle. An upper wall of the cooling station contains a plurality of gas outlets that direct gas to flow over the top surface of the wafer. In this way, a low-pressure region is created over the wafer and the wafer is suspended within the cooling station, without directly contacting any surface for support. In addition to providing lift for the wafer, the gas is a thermally conductive gas that can cool the wafer by conducting heat away from it.
Claims17
A semiconductor wafer cooling station, comprising:
- an upper horizontal surface;
- a lower horizontal surface, wherein the lower horizontal surface and the upper horizontal surface define a wafer space configured to accommodate the semiconductor wafer;
- and
- an immobile cooling assembly, the cooling assembly having a plurality of gas outlets configured to exhaust a gas onto a face of the wafer;
- wherein the cooling assembly is configured to suspend the wafer by the Bernoulli principle utilizing the plurality of gas outlets, with both faces of the wafer vertically separated from the upper and the lower horizontal surfaces.
A method of cooling a hot substrate that has been subjected to high temperatures in a chamber, comprising:
- removing the hot substrate from the chamber with a substrate handler;
- transferring the hot substrate into a stationary cooling station using the substrate handler;
- vertically suspending the substrate inside the cooling station in accordance with the Bernoulli principle by flowing a gas to create a low pressure zone across a horizontal surface of the substrate;
- and
- withdrawing the handler from the cooling station;
- and
- convectively cooling the substrate by flowing the gas.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.