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US 7,254,900 B2Granted
Wafer edge wheel with drying function
AssigneeLam Research Corporation
InventorJohn Parks
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An edge wheel for supporting and rotating a disk-shaped substrate includes a wheel body having a peripheral groove configured to support an edge of a substrate and at least one radial channel extending into said wheel body from said peripheral groove. An edge wheel dryer and a method for processing a disk-shaped substrate are also described.
Claims12
A wafer handling apparatus for handling a semiconductor wafer, said wafer handling apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of edge wheels arranged for rotatably supporting the wafer, each of the edge wheels comprising a wheel body having a groove formed in an outer periphery of said wheel body, said groove being configured to engage an edge of said wafer such that the wafer may be inserted into the groove and supported by the groove, each of the edge wheels having an axis upon which the edge wheel is configured to rotate, wherein at least one of the edge wheels has a radial channel extending into the wheel body from said groove and a through-hole formed along the axis of the at least one edge wheel;
- a shaft extending through said through-hole, the shaft supporting the wheel body for rotation about the shaft, said radial channel being in at least periodic fluid communication with a stationary port on one of said edge wheel and said shaft as said edge wheel rotates on said shaft.
An edge wheel dryer comprising:
- a plurality of edge wheels, wherein each of the edge wheels has an axis upon which the edge wheel is configured to rotate, and each of the edge wheels has a groove configured to engage an edge of the wafer such that the edge of the wafer is inserted into each groove thereby supporting the wafer by the plurality of edge wheels, the edge wheels being arranged to receive and support the wafer, at least one of said edge wheels having a radial channel extending inward from said groove;
- and
- a vacuum source, said radial channel being in fluid communication with said vacuum source whereby the vacuum source causes suction of fluids from the groove.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.