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US 7,000,621 B1Granted
Methods and apparatuses for drying wafer
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorSteven Verhaverbeke
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Apparatuses and methods of processing a substrate. The apparatus includes a wet-cleaning chamber, a drying chamber, and a substrate transferring chamber which transfers a substrate to and from the wet-cleaning chamber and the drying chamber. The drying chamber is one of a supercritical drying chamber or a low pressure drying chamber. The wet-cleaning chamber is one of a single-wafer cleaning chamber, a horizontal spinning chamber, a megasonic wet-cleaning chamber, or a horizontal spinning chamber having acoustic waves transmitted to the substrate.
Claims30
An apparatus comprising:
- a wet-cleaning chamber;
- a supercritical drying chamber;
- and
- a substrate transferring chamber transferring a substrate to and from the wet-cleaning chamber and the supercritical drying chamber;
- wherein the wet-cleaning chamber and the supercritical drying chamber are coupled to the substrate transferring chamber;
- wherein the supercritical drying chamber includes a slit of a height to allow for the substrate to be transferred in and out from the transferring chamber, and a slit valve to seal the supercritical drying chamber.
3 more elements
An apparatus comprising;
- a wet-cleaning chamber;
- a single-wafer drying chamber for microscopically drying a porous film having residual liquids left in said porous film after said porous film is macroscopically dried in said wet-cleaning chamber;
- and
- a substrate transferring chamber transferring a substrate having the porous film deposited thereon to and from the wet-cleaning chamber and the single wafer drying chamber;
- wherein the wet-cleaning chamber and the single-wafer drying chamber are coupled to the substrate transferring chamber;
- wherein the single-wafer drying chamber includes a slit of a height to allow for the substrate to be transferred in and out from the transferring chamber, and a slit valve to seal the single-wafer drying chamber.
3 more elements
A apparatus comprising:
- a wet-cleaning chamber;
- a low-pressure chamber;
- and
- a substrate transferring chamber transferring a substrate to and from the wet-cleaning chamber and the low-pressure chamber:
- wherein the wet-cleaning chamber and the low-pressures chamber are coupled to the substrate transferring chamber;
- wherein the low-pressure chamber includes a sealable slit of a height sufficient for the substrate to be transferred in and out therefrom;
- wherein the low-pressure chamber includes a substrate supporter coupled to a hydraulic mechanism to raise and lower the substrate supporter, and wherein lowering the substrate supporter opens the slit and raising the substrate supporter seals the slit.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.