Semiconductor cleaning equipment includes the tools and systems employed in the cleaning stage of semiconductor manufacturing, a critical phase that accounts for a significant portion of the production process.
For more information, please visit our website.
This equipment is designed to remove contaminants before critical processes like high-temperature treatments and thin-film depositions, as well as to clear away residues like resist after etching processes. It is categorized into wet and dry types, based on the cleaning medium used.
Utilized across various manufacturing stages, semiconductor cleaning equipment is especially crucial in the initial stages of device formation on silicon wafers and the final stages involving device separation and packaging. Its role is pivotal in ensuring contaminant-free surfaces, thereby enhancing the quality and yield of semiconductor devices.
These systems are integral to maintaining wafer cleanliness through various manufacturing steps, including before and after oxidation, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and sputtering processes. Adequate cleaning is essential to minimize defects and ensure high-quality production.
Wet cleaning equipment typically engages a sequence of chemical baths followed by rinsing and drying steps, whereas dry cleaning methods might employ gases or plasma to achieve the desired cleanliness without liquid chemicals.
Cleaning equipment varies by operational method and cleaning medium:
Batch Type: Processes multiple wafers simultaneously, with variations such as multi-vessel and single-vessel types depending on the chemical treatment sequence.
Single Wafer Type: Cleans wafers individually, often using nozzles to apply cleaning solutions while rotating the wafer for thorough coverage.
Wet Type: Employs liquid chemicals for cleaning operations.
Dry Type: Uses gases or aerosols, avoiding liquid mediums.
You will get efficient and thoughtful service from Microtreat.
Diverse structures cater to different cleaning methodologies:
This configuration allows for sequential immersion and processing of wafers, suited for high-volume operations but requiring significant space and chemical usage.
A more space-efficient approach using a single tank where chemicals are changed between processes, though it still necessitates considerable chemical consumption.
Targets individual wafers with chemical sprays, minimizing solution use and contamination risk, though chemical recovery can be challenging due to dispersion.
Wafer cleaning is a crucial part of the semiconductor manufacturing process. The wafer cleaning process removes the photoresist, organic substances, metals, particles, and impurities. It then polishes the wafers using chemical solvents and water, which ensures a precise wafer yield rate. Wafers are cleaned before and after each process throughout the entire IC production line and takes up approximately 1/3 of the whole production time. In the highly competitive IC wafer production business, precision, efficiency, and optimization are what manufacturers look for.
Semiconductor manufacturers have strict criteria for material suppliers and equipment vendors, only certified system integrators/vendors are allowed in their supply chain. Advantech has a long-time partnership with a system integrator (SI) who serves a top tier semiconductor manufacturer in Taiwan who were looking for a solution to optimize and shorten wafer cleaning and positioning times. Before the cleaning process there is a step called “wafer centering”, which sits after the wafer is picked up from the cassette. This is performed by a kind of mechanical gripper device used to re-center each wafer using a positioning algorism. Unfortunately this results in a slight decrease in cleaning efficiency as time is lost when wafers are carefully re-centered. In addition, there’s a small but significant risk of wafer cracking caused by the gripper tool contact, which could result in efficiency loss. Advantech proposed using a machine vision solution to replace the mechanical positioning equipment and results show that each wafer can now be accurately re-centered in milliseconds rather than seconds—without wafer damage.
Because every process and mechanical movement causes a slight displacement from a wafer’s original absolute position, the exact center position must be recalculated to allow the precise adjustments needed for the next step. There are two stations between a pick and place machine: the pick station—a location and process whereby the robot takes a wafer from the cassette carrier to the intermediate station for centering; the place station, a location and process whereby the robot measures the wafers position and transfers it to the spindle for cleaning. On the pick station, wafers in the cassette can typically have up to a 4 mm displacement error caused by the cassette carrier action. The grabber tool then picks each wafer up from the cassette and places it on an intermediate station for error correction.
For this project, the system integrator contractor integrated Advantech’s IPC- + AIMB-787+ PCIE- with built-in VisionNavi and one Advantech QCAM mega pixel PoE industrial camera on an intermediate station to help with position correction. The QCAM was installed above the wafer to capture visual data, which is sent back to IPC- + ASMB-787 and VisionNavi for analysis and action.
An AIIS-P compact vision system computer is used on the place station with VisionNavi and three QCAMs to judge the center position and any warpage before a wafer is moved to a wafer spindle for cleaning. Once the center position and warpage are calculated, the robot is notified and told to place the wafer onto a cleaning spindle in a precise position without imbalance or vibration to complete the final cleaning process.
Achieving a yield rate 99.9% across millions of wafers a year is very challenging in IC wafer production that involves complex physical interactions throughout the whole production. Advantech vision positioning solution greatly shortened the time for wafer cleaning from seconds to milliseconds (ms) and allowed precise pick and placement that avoided wafer damage. The solution comprised of a high computing vision analysis platform for 20.0 megapixel PoE industrial cameras that performed high-speed wafer dimension calculations and center position measurements. The intelligent vision analytic solution helped the IC manufacturer transform their wafer cleaning process into a smart optimized process. This helped them continuously manage and improve production yield rates and improve efficiency to maintain their premier position in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.
Want more information on automatic silicon wafer edge cleaning system? Feel free to contact us.