Abstract:
A spin chuck for wafer processing includes: a rotary unit having a top surface adapted to receive and rotate a wafer; a plurality of wafer gripping units mounted on the rotary unit; a set of first gripping members; and a set of second gripping members. Each of the wafer gripping units has at least one of a first gripping member and a second gripping member that are configured to engage a wafer. The wafer gripping units are movable between first and second gripping positions, wherein in the first gripping position, the first gripping members are positioned to engage a wafer received on the rotary unit and the second gripping members are spaced apart from the wafer, and in the second gripping position, the second gripping members are positioned to engage the wafer, and the first gripping members are spaced apart from the wafer.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATION  
         [0001]    This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2003-0032949 filed on May 23, 2003, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    The present invention relates, in general, to devices for wafer processing and, more particularly, to a rotary device for holding and spinning a wafer, such as a semiconductor wafer or an LCD substrate, during a cleaning process.  
           [0003]    In an effort to reduce the production costs of integrated circuit (semiconductor) devices, various research efforts have been directed to simplifying semiconductor production processes. During a conventional semiconductor production process, an edge cleaning procedure may be performed through a plurality of steps, such as a photolithography step, a wet-etching step, and a dry-etching step, to remove particle impurities from a surface and an edge of a semiconductor wafer. In order to simplify the edge cleaning procedure to reduce the production costs of the semiconductor production process, the edge cleaning procedure may be performed using a spin chuck. In this procedure, a patterned or unpatterned wafer may be seated on the spin chuck, and a wafer cleaning solution may be supplied to the surface of the wafer that faces upwardly (i.e., away from the chuck) to remove particle impurities from the surface and the edge of the wafer while the wafer rotates together with the spin chuck.  
           [0004]    Unfortunately, the conventional edge cleaning procedure using a spin chuck may be problematic in that, because the spin chuck typically has a plurality of wafer-locking pins and holds a wafer thereon by the use of the wafer-locking pins, particle impurities may not be completely removed from pin-contact areas around the edge of the wafer, but may remain in the pin-contact areas where the edge of the wafer comes into contact with and is engaged by the wafer-locking pins of the spin chuck.  
         SUMMARY  
         [0005]    The present invention can provide a spin chuck for wafer processing that may allow the edge of the wafer to be effectively cleaned during an edge cleaning procedure. Some embodiments of the inventions are directed to spin chucks for wafer processing. The spin chuck includes: a rotary unit having a top surface adapted to receive and rotate a wafer; a plurality of wafer gripping units mounted on the rotary unit; a set of first gripping members; and a set of second gripping members. Each of the wafer gripping units has at least one of a first gripping member and a second gripping member that are configured to engage a wafer. The wafer gripping units are movable between first and second gripping positions, wherein in the first gripping position, the first gripping members are positioned to engage a wafer received on the rotary unit and the second gripping members are spaced apart from the wafer, and in the second gripping position, the second gripping members are positioned to engage the wafer, and the first gripping members are spaced apart from the wafer. In this configuration, the entirety of the wafer edge may be cleaned, including those areas engaged by the first gripping members.  
           [0006]    Other embodiments of the invention are directed to spin chucks for wafer processing including: a rotary unit having a top surface adapted to receive and rotate a wafer; a plurality of wafer-gripping units rotatably mounted on the rotary unit; a first set of gripping members; and a second set of gripping members, wherein each of the wafer gripping units has a first gripping member and a second gripping member that are configured to engage a wafer. The wafer gripping units are rotatable between first and second gripping positions, wherein in the first gripping position, the first gripping members are positioned to engage a wafer received on the rotary unit and the second gripping members are spaced apart from the wafer, and in the second gripping position, the second gripping members are positioned to engage the wafer, and the first gripping members are spaced apart from the wafer.  
           [0007]    Further embodiments of the invention are directed to spin chucks for wafer processing that include: a rotary unit having a top surface adapted to receive and rotate a wafer; a plurality of wafer gripping units rotatably mounted on the rotary unit; a set of first gripping members; and a set of second gripping members, wherein each of the wafer gripping units has either a first gripping member or a second gripping member that is configured to engage a wafer. The wafer gripping units are rotatable between first and second gripping positions, wherein in the first gripping position, the first gripping members are positioned to engage a wafer received on the rotary unit and the second gripping members are spaced apart from the wafer, and in the second gripping position, the second gripping members are positioned to engage the wafer, and the first gripping members are spaced apart from the wafer.  
           [0008]    For any of the embodiments discussed above, the rotary unit may have a bore that defines a gas path therein to feed a protective gas from a lower portion thereof to the top surface thereof. Also, any of these embodiments may include a guide ring provided between the top surface of the rotary unit and the lower surface of the wafer to guide a wafer cleaning solution to an edge of the downward facing surface of the wafer. In addition, any of these embodiments may have wafer-gripping units that project through the guide ring, with the gripping members projecting upwardly from an upper surface of the guide ring. Moreover, the wafer-gripping units may be rotated around rotating axes thereof at the same time, thus changing the positions of the locking pins concurrently, or  
           [0009]    may be sequentially rotated around rotating axes thereof, thus changing the positions of the locking pins one by one. Further, the wafer-gripping units may be arranged along the edge of the top surface of the rotary unit at substantially regular angular intervals.  
           [0010]    Still other embodiments of the invention are directed to methods of cleaning a wafer. The method includes: providing a rotary unit with a plurality of wafer gripping units, each of the gripping units having at least one of a first gripping member and a second gripping member; engaging the wafer with a first set of gripping members at a first set of edge locations on the wafer; applying cleaning solution to the wafer; releasing the wafer with the first set of gripping members; engaging the wafer with a second set of gripping members at a second set of edge locations on the wafer that differ from the first set of edge locations; and applying cleaning solution to the wafer to clean the first set of edge locations. In some embodiments, the wafer may be rotating during the cleaning steps. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]    The structure, features and function of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 1 a  is a sectional view of a spin chuck for wafer processing, according to embodiments of the present invention;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 1 b  is a section view of portion “A” of FIG. 1 a;    
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 2 a  is a plan view of the spin chuck for wafer processing of FIGS. 1 a  and  1   b  with the wafer gripping units in the first gripping position;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 2 b  is a plan view of the spin chuck for wafer processing of FIGS. 1 a  and  1   b  with the wafer gripping units in the second gripping position;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 3 is a partial perspective view of a portion of the spin chuck for wafer processing of FIGS. 1 a  and  1   b  that shows a typical wafer-gripping unit of the spin chuck;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 4 a  is a sectional view of a spin chuck for wafer processing, according to other embodiments of the present invention;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 4 b  is a section view of portion “B” of FIG. 4 a;    
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 5 a  is a plan view of the spin chuck for wafer processing of FIGS. 4 a  and  4   b  with the wafer gripping units in the first gripping position;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 5 b  is a plan view of the spin chuck for wafer processing of FIGS. 4 a  and  4   b  with the wafer gripping units in the second gripping position;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 6 is a partial perspective view of a portion of the spin chuck for wafer processing of FIGS. 4 a  and  4   b  that shows a wafer-gripping unit of the spin chuck; and  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating operations of embodiments of the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0023]    The present invention will be described more particularly hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. The invention is not intended to be limited to the illustrated embodiments; rather, these embodiments are intended to fully and completely disclose the invention to those skilled in this art. Like numbers refer to like components throughout, and certain dimensions and thicknesses may be exaggerated for clarity. It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “attached”, “connected” or “coupled” to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly attached,” “directly connected” or “directly coupled” to another element, there are no intervening elements present. Further, relative terms, such as “lower” or “bottom” and “upper” or “top,” may be used herein to describe one element&#39;s relationship to other elements as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is inverted, elements described as being on the “lower” side of other elements would then be oriented on “upper” sides of the other elements. The exemplary term “lower” can, therefore, encompass orientations of both “lower” and “upper” depending of the particular orientation of the figure.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 1 a  is a section view of a spin chuck  8  for wafer processing according to certain embodiments of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1 a , the spin chuck  8  has a rotary unit  10 , which holds and spins a patterned or unpatterned wafer  100  in a generally horizontal state while an edge cleaning process is performed to clean a surface and an edge of the wafer  100 .  
         [0025]    If the wafer  100  is a patterned wafer, the wafer  100  may be seated on the rotary unit  10  such that the patterned top surface of the wafer  100  faces downwardly (i.e., toward the spin chuck  8 ). While the wafer  100  rotates along with the rotary unit  10 , a wafer cleaning solution is supplied to the back surface of the wafer  100  as it faces upwardly. Particle impurities may be removed thusly from the back surface and the edge of the patterned wafer  100 . When cleaning a patterned wafer  100  with the spin chuck  8 , it is typically desirable to prevent the wafer cleaning solution from reaching the patterned surface of the wafer  100  as it faces downwardly. When an unpatterned wafer, which typically must be cleaned on both surfaces thereof, is cleaned by the use of the spin chuck  8 , typically the wafer  100  is turned upside down on the spin chuck  8  after one surface of the wafer  100  is completely cleaned. In such a case, it may be necessary to prevent the wafer cleaning solution from undesirably affecting the just-cleaned surface of the unpatterned wafer as it faces downwardly. A protective gas, such as nitrogen gas, is thus supplied to the downwardly-facing surface of a patterned or unpatterned wafer  100  so as to prevent the wafer cleaning solution from flowing to and negatively affecting the downwardly-facing surface of the wafer  100 .  
         [0026]    Referring still to FIG. 1 a , to supply such protective gas, the rotary unit  10  is configured to include a hollow bore  15  (typically cylindrical in shape) at a lower portion thereof. The bore  15  defines a gas path in the lower portion to receive the protective gas, such as nitrogen gas, from an external gas source. A gas-discharging path  20  is formed in an upper portion of the rotary unit  10  so as to communicate with the bore  15  and with the lower surface of the wafer  100 . As a result, the protective gas may be discharged upwardly to the downwardly-facing surface of the wafer  100 .  
         [0027]    Referring again to FIG. 1 a  and also to FIG. 1 b , a guide ring  30  is securely installed along an edge of a top surface of the rotary unit  10  so as to be positioned between the edge of the top surface of the rotary unit  10  and the edge of the lower surface of the wafer  100 . In this position, the guide ring  30  can guide the wafer cleaning solution from the edge of the downward facing surface of the wafer  100  during the edge cleaning process. The guide ring  30  may be slightly spaced upwardly apart from the edge of the top surface of the rotary unit  10  to form a first gap  20   a , as best seen in FIG. 1 b . In addition, due to the pressure of the protective gas that is discharged upward from the gas-discharging path  20  of the rotary unit  10  during the edge cleaning process, the wafer  100  may be slightly spaced upward apart from an upper surface of the guide ring  30  to form a second gap  20   b.    
         [0028]    The protective gas which is discharged upwardly from the gas-discharging path  20  of the rotary unit  10  during the edge cleaning process flows radially outward through the first gap  20   a  to be discharged to the external environment of the rotary unit  10  as shown in FIGS. 1 a  and  1   b . When such flow is occurring, the pressure in the second gap  20   b  may be reduced (due to the principles defined in Bernoulli&#39;s theorem), which can cause the wafer cleaning solution to flow from the upper surface of the wafer  100  into the second gap  20   b  between the wafer  100  and the guide ring  30 . The wafer cleaning solution that is guided into the second gap  20   b  may be discharged to the external environment of the rotary unit  10  through the first gap  20   a  together with the protective gas. During the edge cleaning procedure, the area around the edge of the downwardly-facing surface of the wafer  100 , which is to be in contact with and cleaned by the wafer cleaning solution, may be controlled, as desired, by adjusting the position of the guide ring  30  relative to the wafer  100 .  
         [0029]    Referring yet again to FIGS. 1 a  and  1   b  and also to FIG. 2 a , in order to prevent the wafer  100  from being undesirably removed from the spin chuck  8  during the edge cleaning procedure, a plurality of wafer-gripping units  50  are arranged along the edge of the top surface of the rotary unit  10 . In the illustrated embodiments, each of the wafer-gripping units  50  comprises a rotary body  50   c , with a plurality of locking pins  50   a ,  50   b  projecting upwardly from an upper surface of the rotary body  50   c  of each wafer-locking unit  50  to hold the edge of the wafer  100 . In these embodiments, first and second locking pins  50   a ,  50   b  are provided at the upper surface of the rotary body  50   c  of each wafer-locking unit  50 .  
         [0030]    As shown in FIG. 3, the rotary body  50   c  of each wafer-locking unit  50  may extend upwardly through the guide ring  30 , with the two locking pins  50   a ,  50   b  projecting upwardly from the upper surface of the rotary body  50   c . The lower portion of the rotary body  50   c  of the wafer-locking unit  50  is rotatably mounted onto the top surface of the rotary unit  10  for rotation about an axis of rotation A.  
         [0031]    In order to hold the edge of the wafer  100  on the rotary unit  10 , prior to starting the edge cleaning process, the rotary body  50   c  of each wafer-locking unit  50  rotates about its axis of rotation A to a first gripping position in which one of the two locking pins  50   a ,  50   b , for example, the first locking pin  50   a , comes into contact with and engages the edge of the wafer  100  (see FIG. 2 a ). After the edge of the wafer  100  is engaged by the first locking pins  50   a  of the wafer-locking units  50 , the edge cleaning procedure is started to clean the wafer  100  as described above. As shown in the illustrated embodiments, the locking pins  50   a ,  50   b  may be arranged along an edge of the upper surface of the rotary body  50   c  of each wafer-gripping unit  50  at regular angular intervals (.e., in this instance, diametrically opposed from one another across the rotary body  50   c ).  
         [0032]    In an effort to reduce the risk of the first locking pins  50   a  from damaging the edge of the wafer  100  when engaging the wafer  100 , the locking pins  50   a  may be formed of a material with chemical inertness, a high heat resistance, and/or a low friction coefficient. An example of such a material is TEFLON® PTFE resin.  
         [0033]    When it is desired to clean the pin-contact areas (.i.e., those areas of the wafer  100  covered when the first locking pin  50   a  has come into contact with the edge of the wafer  100  to engage the wafer  100  during the edge cleaning procedure), the rotary body  50   c  of each wafer-gripping unit  50  rotates about its axis of rotation A to a second gripping position in which the second locking pin  50   b  comes into contact with and engages the edge of the wafer  100 , in place of the first locking pin  50   a , as shown in FIG. 2 b . Therefore, it may be possible to clean the pin-contact areas of the wafer  100 , where the edge of the wafer  100  has been held and covered by the first locking pins  50   a.    
         [0034]    In order to change the positions of the locking pins  50   a ,  50   b  so as to allow the second locking pins  50   b  to replace the first locking pins  50   a  to engage the edge of the wafer  100 , the wafer-gripping units  50  may rotate at the same time to concurrently change the positions of the locking pins  50   a ,  50   b  or may sequentially rotate to change the positions of the locking pins  50   a ,  50   b  one by one. In order to reduce the risk of the wafer  100  from being undesirably removed from the rotary unit  10  when the positions of the locking pins  50   a ,  50   b  are changed concurrently, the process of changing the pin positions may be performed after the rotation of the wafer  100  is stopped.  
         [0035]    In some embodiments, three or more wafer-gripping units  50  may be employed on the rotary unit  10  in order to stably hold the wafer  100 . In addition, the wafer-gripping units  50  may be arranged along the periphery of the rotary unit  10  at substantially regular angular intervals, thus which may engage the wafer  100  with generally equal pressure.  
         [0036]    Those skilled in this art will recognize that other configurations of the spin chuck  8  may also be suitable for use with the present invention. For example, the locking pins  50   a ,  50   b  need not be pins; any type of gripping member, such as a post, column, clip, finger, hook, or the like, of virtually any shape that can engage a wafer, may be employed. Also, the wafer gripping units are shown as rotating between the first and second gripping positions, but other techniques and configurations for engaging and releasing the wafer with gripping members may be employed. For example, a wafer gripping unit may include two gripping members that “toggle” back and forth, or that rise from the guide ring, to engage and disengage the wafer). The ordinarily skilled artisan will recognize other suitable configurations.  
         [0037]    [0037]FIG. 4 a  is a section view of a spin chuck  120  for wafer processing according to other embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 4 b  is a section view of inset “B” of FIG. 4 a . Many of the components of embodiments of FIGS. 4 a - 6  are common with those of embodiments of FIGS. 1 a - 3 . Those components common to all of these embodiments will thus carry the same reference numerals, and a further explanation of these components need not be included herein.  
         [0038]    As shown in FIGS. 4 a  and  4   b , the spin chuck  120  comprises a plurality of first and second wafer-gripping units  152  and  154  which are arranged along the edge of a top surface of a rotary unit  10 . The first and second wafer-gripping units  152  and  154  thus engage the edge of a wafer  100  while reducing the risk of the wafer  100  from being undesirably removed from the spin chuck  120  during an edge cleaning process.  
         [0039]    The first wafer-gripping units  152  each comprise a rotary body  152   c , with a locking pin  152   a  projecting upwardly from an upper surface of the rotary body  152   c , as shown in FIGS. 5 a ,  5   b  and  6 . The second wafer-gripping units  154  each comprise a rotary body  154   c , with a locking pin  154   a  projecting upwardly from an upper surface of the rotary body  154   c.    
         [0040]    As shown in FIGS. 5 a  and  5   b , the first and second wafer-locking units  152  and  154  alternately hold the edge of the wafer  100  during the edge cleaning process. That is, the edge cleaning process may be started, with the pins  152   a  of the first wafer-locking units  152  holding the edge of the wafer  100  on the rotary unit  10  in the first gripping position (FIG. 5 a ). When it is desired to clean the pin-contact areas at which the pins  152   a  of the first wafer-locking units  152  have come into contact with the edge of the wafer  100  to engage the wafer  100 , the rotary bodies  154   c  of the second wafer-locking units  154  rotate simultaneously or sequentially so as to hold the edge of the wafer  100  by the pins  154   a  thereof in the second gripping position (FIG. 5 b ). After the locking pins  154   a  of the second wafer-gripping units  154  engage the edge of the wafer  100 , the rotary bodies  152   c  of the first wafer-gripping units  152  rotate concurrently or sequentially so as to space the pins  152   a  thereof apart from the edge of the wafer  100 . Therefore, it is possible to clean the pin-contact areas of the wafer  100 , where the edge of the wafer  100  has been held and covered by the pins  152   a  of the first wafer-locking units  152 .  
         [0041]    In these embodiments of the present invention, there may be three or more of each of the first and second wafer-locking units  152  and  154 . The first wafer-locking units  152  and the second wafer-locking units  154  may be alternately arranged on the rotary unit  10  in order to stably hold the wafer  100 . In addition, the first and second wafer-locking units  152  and  154  may be arranged along the edge of the wafer  100  at substantially regular angular intervals in order to hold the wafer  100  with generally equal amounts of pressure.  
         [0042]    Referring now to FIG. 7, methods of cleaning a wafer according to certain embodiments of the present invention are illustrated. A spin chuck such any of those described herein is provided (Block  210 ). A wafer is engaged with a first set of gripping members (Block  220 ), and cleaning solution is applied to the gripped wafer (Block  230 ). The wafer is released from the first set of gripping members (Block  240 ) and engaged with the second set of gripping members (Block  250 ). Cleaning solution is then applied to the wafer, which can enable the cleaning of edge locations that were covered by the first set of gripping members (Block  260 ). In some embodiments, the wafer is rotated during the application of cleaning solution.  
         [0043]    As described above, the present invention provides a spin chuck for wafer processing, which has a plurality of wafer-locking units capable of holding a wafer by locking pins thereof during an edge cleaning process, while allowing the pin-contact areas of the edge of the wafer to be effectively cleaned during the edge cleaning process. Therefore, the spin chuck may effectively remove contaminants from wafers that may otherwise reduce work efficiency in post-processes of the semiconductor producing process.  
         [0044]    Although certain embodiments of the present invention have been described for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.