CN118480851A

CN118480851A - Wafer electroplating equipment

Info

Publication number: CN118480851A
Application number: CN202410699990.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 任意; 谷德君; 陈桐; 谷德鑫
Original assignee: Shenyang Chaoyi Microelectronic Equipment Co ltd
Current assignee: Shenyang Chaoyi Microelectronic Equipment Co ltd
Priority date: 2024-05-31
Filing date: 2024-05-31
Publication date: 2024-08-13

Abstract

The invention discloses wafer electroplating equipment, and relates to the technical field of semiconductor manufacturing. It comprises a first process module and a second process module; the second process module is connected to the rear end of the first process module; the number of the second process modules is at least one; the first process module is provided with a front chamber and a rear chamber; the front end of the outer part of the front cavity is fixedly provided with a wafer box loading unit; the rear end of the front cavity is connected with a wafer box manipulator; the right end of the inner part of the front cavity is connected with a centering unit; the interior of the rear cavity is respectively connected with a transition unit, a pretreatment unit and a cleaning unit; the number of the pretreatment units and the number of the cleaning units are at least one respectively; the wafer box loading unit is used for loading a wafer box; the wafer cassette robot is used to transfer wafers between the wafer cassette loading unit, the centering unit, the transition unit, and the cleaning unit. The beneficial effects of the invention are as follows: the electroplating device can reduce the occupied area of equipment and improve the efficiency of wafer transmission on the premise of ensuring the capability of an electroplating process.

Description

Wafer electroplating equipment

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of semiconductor manufacturing, in particular to wafer electroplating equipment.

Background

The electroplating process of semiconductor wafer is an important ring in the semiconductor manufacturing process, and is mainly used for manufacturing various metal circuits, junction electrodes and interconnection devices, and the main principle is that metal ions in electroplating solution are deposited on the surface of the wafer through the action of an electric field.

In the prior art, electroplating equipment comprises an electroplating cavity, a pretreatment cavity, a cleaning cavity and other process units, and the layout of the process units is mainly placed in a plane array, so that the occupied area is large, the distance between the mechanical arm and the wafer is very long, and the process of transferring the wafer by the mechanical arm can also span over irrelevant units, so that the transmission efficiency is low.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to solve the technical problems, and provides wafer electroplating equipment, which can reduce the occupied area of the equipment and improve the efficiency of wafer transmission on the premise of ensuring the capability of an electroplating process.

The technical scheme adopted by the invention is as follows: providing wafer electroplating equipment, wherein the wafer electroplating equipment comprises a first process module and a second process module; the second process module is connected to the rear end of the first process module; the number of the second process modules is at least one;

The first process module is provided with a front chamber and a rear chamber; the front end of the outer part of the front cavity is fixedly provided with a wafer box loading unit; the rear end of the front cavity is connected with a wafer box manipulator; the right end of the inner part of the front cavity is connected with a centering unit; the interior of the rear cavity is respectively connected with a transition unit, a pretreatment unit and a cleaning unit; the number of the pretreatment units and the number of the cleaning units are at least one respectively; the wafer box loading unit is used for loading a wafer box; the wafer box mechanical arm is used for conveying wafers among the wafer box loading unit, the centering unit, the transition unit and the cleaning unit; the centering unit is used for identifying the notch angle of the wafer; the transition unit is used for carrying the wafer before process transition; the pretreatment unit is used for vacuumizing the wafer and then wetting the wafer; the cleaning unit is used for performing water washing process treatment on the wafer;

The second process module is provided with a transmission chamber at the middle part and process chambers at the left side and the right side; the right side inside the transmission cavity is connected with a process manipulator; a plurality of electroplating units are connected inside the process chamber; the process manipulator is used for conveying the wafer among the transition unit, the pretreatment unit, the electroplating unit and the cleaning unit; the electroplating unit is used for completing the electroplating process of the wafer.

Further optimizing the technical scheme, the wafer electroplating equipment is sequentially connected and arranged from front to back when the number of the second process modules is more than one.

Further optimizing the technical scheme, the wafer box manipulator of the wafer electroplating equipment is connected inside the front cavity; the mechanical arm of the wafer box is provided with a supporting tray; the wafer box manipulator has the freedom degrees of moving along the left-right and up-down directions of the front cavity, moving along the length direction of the support tray and rotating around the axis of the support tray; the pretreatment unit and the cleaning unit are respectively provided with at least one layer in the up-down direction.

Further optimizing the technical scheme, the process manipulator of the wafer electroplating equipment is connected inside the transmission chamber; the process manipulator is provided with a mounting tray; the process manipulator has the freedom degrees of moving along the front-back and up-down directions of the transmission cavity, moving along the length direction of the mounting tray, rotating around the axle center of the mounting tray and rotating around the axle center of the grabbing part of the process manipulator; the plating unit is provided with at least one layer in the up-down direction.

Further optimizing the technical scheme, the cleaning unit, the pretreatment unit and the transition unit of the wafer electroplating equipment are arranged along the arc direction; the process manipulator has a stroke which moves along the front-back direction of the transmission chamber to reach the back side of the interior of the rear chamber; when the process manipulator moves to the rear side in the rear chamber, the circle centers of the circular arcs distributed by the cleaning unit, the pretreatment unit and the transition unit are overlapped with the axle center of the mounting tray.

The invention has the beneficial effects that:

1. The wafer box loading unit can load the wafer box placed by the crown block or manually, and the wafers in the wafer box can be transferred to the centering unit through the transmission of the wafer box manipulator, so that the notch angle of the wafers is identified, and the accuracy of the subsequent electroplating process and the wafer transmission is ensured; the wafer box manipulator can transfer the wafer with the wafer gap angle identified by the centering unit to the transition unit, so that the grabbing and conveying of the subsequent process manipulator are facilitated.

2. The process manipulator can take out the wafer carried on the transition unit and send the wafer to the pretreatment unit, and the pretreatment unit can carry out a pretreatment process of vacuumizing and then wetting the wafer; the process manipulator can transmit the wafer after the pretreatment process is finished to the electroplating unit, and the electroplating process of the wafer is finished through the electroplating unit; after the electroplating process is finished, the process manipulator can take out the wafer and send the wafer to the cleaning unit for water washing treatment; the wafer box manipulator can send the wafer after the water washing cleaning is finished back to the wafer box loading unit.

3. Through the internal layout structure of the first process module and the second process module and relay transmission of the wafer box manipulator and the process manipulator, the problems that the distance is too far and the space above a plurality of irrelevant process processing units is needed to be spanned due to the whole linear transmission of the wafer box manipulator can be avoided during the electroplating processing of the wafer, the occupied area of equipment is reduced, and the transmission efficiency of the wafer is improved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic top view of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the workflow steps of the present invention.

In the figure, 1, a first process module; 2. a second process module; 3. a front chamber; 4. a rear chamber; 5. a cassette loading unit; 6. a cassette manipulator; 7. a centering unit; 8. a transition unit; 9. a preprocessing unit; 10. a cleaning unit; 11. a transfer chamber; 12. a process chamber; 13. a process manipulator; 14. an electroplating unit; 15. a support tray; 16. and (5) installing a tray.

Detailed Description

The invention will be described in further detail with reference to the drawings and the detailed description.

As shown in fig. 1, the wafer plating apparatus includes a first process module 1 and a second process module 2; the second process module 2 is connected to the rear end of the first process module 1; the number of second process modules 2 is at least one;

As shown in fig. 1-2, the first process module 1 is provided with a front chamber 3 and a rear chamber 4; the front end of the front chamber 3 is fixed with a wafer box loading unit 5; the rear end of the interior of the front cavity 3 is connected with a wafer box manipulator 6; the right end inside the front cavity 3 is connected with a centering unit 7; the interior of the rear chamber 4 is respectively connected with a transition unit 8, a pretreatment unit 9 and a cleaning unit 10; the number of the pretreatment units 9 and the number of the cleaning units 10 are at least one respectively; the wafer box loading unit 5 is used for loading wafer boxes; the wafer cassette manipulator 6 is used for conveying wafers among the wafer cassette loading unit 5, the centering unit 7, the transition unit 8 and the cleaning unit 10; the centering unit 7 is used for identifying the notch angle of the wafer; the transition unit 8 is used for carrying the wafer before the process transition; the pretreatment unit 9 is used for vacuumizing the wafer and then wetting the wafer; the cleaning unit 10 is used for performing a water-washing process on a wafer;

As shown in fig. 1-2, the second process module 2 is provided with a transmission chamber 11 in the middle and process chambers 12 at the left and right sides; the right side inside the transmission chamber 11 is connected with a process manipulator 13; a plurality of electroplating units 14 are connected inside the process chamber 12; the process robot 13 is used for transferring wafers among the transition unit 8, the pretreatment unit 9, the electroplating unit 14 and the cleaning unit 10; the electroplating unit 14 is used to complete the electroplating process of the wafer.

In the technical scheme, as shown in fig. 3, a wafer box manipulator 6 takes out a wafer from a wafer box loading unit 5, and transmits the wafer to a centering unit 7 to determine a wafer gap angle; then the wafer box manipulator 6 transmits the wafer box manipulator to the transition unit 8 for placement; then the wafer is taken out from the transition unit 8 by the process manipulator 13 and sent to the pretreatment unit 9, and the wafer is vacuumized and then wetted; after the pretreatment process is finished, the wafer is taken out by a process manipulator 13 and then is sent to an electroplating unit 14 for electroplating process; after the electroplating process is finished, the wafer is taken out by a process manipulator 13 and then sent to a cleaning unit 10 for cleaning; after the cleaning process is finished, the wafer is taken out by the wafer box mechanical arm 6 and then is sent back to the wafer box loading unit 5, so that the wafer is subjected to the whole set of electroplating processing.

The whole electroplating process of the traditional wafer is directly carried according to a straight line path, the distance of the mechanical arm to the wafer is too far, the occupied area of the whole equipment is large, and when the mechanical arm carries the wafer back and forth on different process processing units, the mechanical arm always spans more spaces above irrelevant process processing units, so that the transmission efficiency is low. In the technical scheme, the arrangement of the process treatment units in the first process module 1 and the second process module 2 can reduce the occupied area on the premise of the same number of the process units and the same process capability, and in addition, the transmission path of the wafer can be greatly shortened and the transmission efficiency is improved through relay transmission of the wafer box manipulator 6 and the process manipulator 13.

As shown in fig. 1, the cassette loading unit 5 in this embodiment may flexibly set a plurality of sets (for example, 1-3 sets are installed) according to actual needs, so as to increase the loading number of wafers; the pretreatment unit 9 and the cleaning unit 10 are arranged in the rear cavity 4 of the first process module 1, so that the space utilization rate can be improved, and the problem of increased occupied area caused by linear arrangement is avoided; similarly, the process chambers 12 in the second process module 2 are arranged at two sides, the transmission chambers 11 are arranged in the middle, a plurality of sets of electroplating units 14 are distributed in the process chambers 12 at two sides, and the process manipulators 13 are arranged in the transmission chambers 11, so that the problem of increased occupied area caused by arrangement along a straight line can be avoided while the number of the electroplating units 14 is ensured, and as shown in fig. 2, the electroplating units 14 can be arranged in 1 set, 2 sets or 3 sets in a group, and are distributed in the second process module 2 in a left-right symmetrical manner by the central axis of the equipment.

In addition, in this solution, after the wafer is processed by the electroplating process, the subsequent cleaning unit 10 is not continuously disposed at the rear side of the electroplating unit 14, but is disposed at the front side of the electroplating unit 14, so that when the wafer cassette manipulator 6 transfers the wafer back to the wafer cassette loading unit 5 after the wafer is cleaned, it is not necessary to span all the electroplating units 14, thereby greatly shortening the transmission path and improving the transmission efficiency.

It is emphasized that the transition unit 8 need not be present, but that the centering unit 7 may be placed at the location of the transition unit 8 instead of the transition unit 8. The use of the transition unit 8 allows to reduce the overall height of the first process module 1 for placing more electrical components and thus the height of the whole plant.

In addition, an auxiliary module can be arranged, the second process module 2 is connected with the auxiliary module through a pipeline, the auxiliary module is used for placing auxiliary equipment which is not placed under a machine body, such as a power cabinet, a vacuum pump, a constant temperature tank and the like, and a host is connected with the auxiliary module through a cable and the pipeline.

When the number of the second process modules 2 is more than one, the second process modules are sequentially connected and arranged from front to back, and when the electroplating unit 14 needs to be expanded, the number of the second process modules 2 is only increased, so that the equipment can have enough expansion capability, and of course, when a plurality of the second process modules 2 are arranged, only one process manipulator 13 can be still installed, so that the travel of the second process modules can pass through all the second process modules 2 during movement, and the cost is reduced.

As shown in fig. 1, the cassette robot 6 is connected inside the front chamber 3; the wafer box manipulator 6 is provided with a supporting tray 15; the cassette robot 6 has a degree of freedom (an arrow in the figure plays an indication role of a movement direction) of moving in the left-right and up-down directions of the front chamber 3, moving in the longitudinal direction of the support tray 15, and rotating around the axis of the support tray 15; the pretreatment unit 9 and the washing unit 10 are provided with at least one layer in the up-down direction, respectively.

Through the multi-degree-of-freedom motion of the wafer box manipulator 6, flexible conveying of the wafers can be guaranteed, and smooth conveying of the wafers can be achieved when the current processing unit 9 and the cleaning unit 10 are arranged in a layered mode in the up-down direction, so that the space of the height can be fully utilized, and the occupied area of the device is further compressed.

As shown in fig. 1, the process robot 13 is connected inside the transfer chamber 11; the process manipulator 13 is provided with a mounting tray 16; the process robot 13 has degrees of freedom (arrows in the figure play an indication role of movement direction) of moving in the front-back and up-down directions of the transfer chamber 11, moving in the length direction of the mounting tray 16, rotating around the axis of the mounting tray 16, and rotating around the axis of the grasping portion of the process robot 13; the plating unit 14 is provided with at least one layer in the up-down direction.

Similarly, the flexible transfer of the wafers can be ensured by the multiple free movements of the process manipulator 13, and the electroplating units 14 are layered in the up-down direction, so that the transfer of the wafers in the electroplating units 14 can be smoothly realized by the process manipulator 13, the space utilization rate of the second process module 2 is also improved, and the occupied area is reduced.

As shown in fig. 1, the cleaning unit 10, the pretreatment unit 9, and the transition unit 8 are arranged in the circular arc direction; the process robot 13 has a stroke to move in the front-rear direction of the transfer chamber 11 to reach the rear side inside the rear chamber 4; when the process manipulator 13 moves to reach the rear side inside the rear chamber 4, the circle centers of the circular arc directions of the cleaning unit 10, the pretreatment unit 9 and the transition unit 8 are coincident with the axle center of the mounting tray 16.

Through the arrangement of the cleaning unit 10, the pretreatment unit 9 and the transition unit 8 along the circular arc direction, the process manipulator 13 can transmit the wafer from the transition unit 8 to the pretreatment unit 9, and transmit the wafer back to the cleaning unit 10 after being treated by the electroplating unit 14 from the pretreatment unit 9, so that the process manipulator is more convenient, the adjustment steps of the process manipulator 13 are reduced, and the transmission efficiency is improved; for example, the layout of the cleaning unit 10 and the pretreatment unit 9 can be symmetrically distributed on the left and right sides according to the central axis of the equipment, and the upper and lower layers, 4 sets of cleaning units 10 and 4 sets of pretreatment units 9 are added, as shown in fig. 2, so that the space is fully utilized, and the occupied area of the equipment is greatly reduced.

It will be understood that the application has been described in terms of several embodiments, and that various changes and equivalents may be made to these features and embodiments by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the application without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the application not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed, but that the application will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A wafer plating apparatus, characterized in that: comprises a first process module (1) and a second process module (2); the second process module (2) is connected to the rear end of the first process module (1); the number of the second process modules (2) is at least one;

The first process module (1) is provided with a front chamber (3) and a rear chamber (4); the front end of the front chamber (3) is fixed with a wafer box loading unit (5); the rear end of the interior of the front cavity (3) is connected with a wafer box manipulator (6); the right end inside the front cavity (3) is connected with a centering unit (7); the interior of the rear cavity (4) is respectively connected with a transition unit (8), a pretreatment unit (9) and a cleaning unit (10); the number of the pretreatment units (9) and the number of the cleaning units (10) are at least one respectively; the wafer box loading unit (5) is used for loading wafer boxes; the wafer box mechanical arm (6) is used for conveying wafers among the wafer box loading unit (5), the centering unit (7), the transition unit (8) and the cleaning unit (10); the centering unit (7) is used for identifying the notch angle of the wafer; the transition unit (8) is used for carrying the wafer before the process transition; the pretreatment unit (9) is used for vacuumizing the wafer and then wetting the wafer; the cleaning unit (10) is used for performing water washing process treatment on the wafer;

The second process module (2) is provided with a transmission chamber (11) at the middle part and process chambers (12) at the left side and the right side of the division; the right side inside the transmission cavity (11) is connected with a process manipulator (13); a plurality of electroplating units (14) are connected inside the process chamber (12); the process manipulator (13) is used for conveying the wafer among the transition unit (8), the pretreatment unit (9), the electroplating unit (14) and the cleaning unit (10); the electroplating unit (14) is used for completing the electroplating process of the wafer.

2. The wafer plating apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein: when the number of the second process modules (2) is more than one, they are arranged in a sequential connection from front to back.

3. The wafer plating apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein: the wafer box manipulator (6) is connected inside the front cavity (3); a supporting tray (15) is arranged on the film box manipulator (6); the cassette manipulator (6) has degrees of freedom of moving in the left-right and up-down directions of the front chamber (3), moving in the length direction of the support tray (15), and rotating around the axis of the support tray (15); the pretreatment unit (9) and the cleaning unit (10) are respectively provided with at least one layer in the up-down direction.

4. The wafer plating apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein: the process manipulator (13) is connected inside the transmission chamber (11); the process manipulator (13) is provided with a mounting tray (16); the process manipulator (13) has degrees of freedom of movement in the front-back and up-down directions of the transmission chamber (11), movement in the length direction of the mounting tray (16), rotation around the axis of the mounting tray (16), and rotation around the axis of the gripping part of the process manipulator (13); the plating unit (14) is provided with at least one layer in the up-down direction.

5. The wafer plating apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein: the cleaning unit (10), the pretreatment unit (9) and the transition unit (8) are arranged along the arc direction; the process manipulator (13) has a stroke that moves in the front-rear direction of the transfer chamber (11) to reach the rear side inside the rear chamber (4); when the process manipulator (13) moves to the rear side in the rear chamber (4), the circle center of the circular arc trend arranged by the cleaning unit (10), the pretreatment unit (9) and the transition unit (8) coincides with the axis of the mounting tray (16).