Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide a grinding fluid switching and supplying system, a switching and supplying method and a chemical mechanical polishing system, so that the mixing of grinding fluids with various oxidant concentrations is realized on a single supply unit, and the switching and cleaning time of the supply unit is minimized.
In order to solve the problems, according to a first aspect, there is provided a polishing liquid switching supply system comprising a raw material storage unit, a mixing unit, a supply unit, a transport pipe, and a formulation control unit, wherein the raw material storage unit, the mixing unit, and the supply unit are sequentially connected through the transport pipe, the raw material storage unit comprises a polishing stock liquid storage tank and an oxidizing agent storage tank, the polishing stock liquid storage tank is respectively connected to the mixing unit through a first transport pipe and the oxidizing agent storage tank through a second transport pipe, and the formulation control unit comprises a flow rate controller provided on the first transport pipe and the second transport pipe for controlling the ratio of polishing stock liquid and oxidizing agent input into the mixing unit to formulate a target polishing liquid having a desired oxidizing agent concentration.
The application adopts a set of grinding fluid switching and supplying system, automatically realizes the allocation and supply of grinding fluid with different oxidant concentrations by controlling the input flow rates of the grinding stock solution and the oxidant, does not need to additionally arrange a plurality of sets of supplying systems and does not need to stop for equipment replacement, and the grinding fluid switching and supplying system can be combined with a production system and can be automatically carried out in a streamline manner.
The mixing unit comprises a mixing tank, the supply unit comprises a supply tank, the mixing tank is communicated with the supply tank through a third conveying pipeline, and the supply tank is connected with a fourth conveying pipeline and is used for supplying the target grinding liquid.
The capacity of the mixing tank is not more than 2 liters and the capacity of the supply tank is not more than 2 liters. By adopting the small-capacity storage equipment, the quick switching can be realized without influencing the on-line production.
The allocation control unit comprises a flow rate controller and a control system, wherein the flow rate controller is arranged at each conveying pipeline and used for controlling the flow rate of liquid in the conveying pipeline, and the control system is used for controlling the flow rate controller. Through setting up velocity of flow controller and control system, can remote control the velocity of flow everywhere, both can realize the grinding fluid of the different oxidant concentration of allotment, can guarantee this continuous supply of grinding fluid again.
The flow rate controllers are control valves, the control system comprises a controller and signal terminals, the four control valves are respectively arranged at liquid outlets of the first conveying pipeline, the second conveying pipeline, the third conveying pipeline and the fourth conveying pipeline, each control valve is provided with one controller, and the opening of the corresponding control valve can be changed by the controller according to the control of the signal terminals, so that the flow rate of liquid in the conveying pipeline is controlled. The valve is a convenient means for realizing flow rate control, and the flow rate of each part can be remotely controlled through the valve, so that not only can the grinding liquid with different oxidant concentrations be prepared, but also the continuous supply of the grinding liquid can be ensured.
The flow rates of the liquid in the first conveying pipeline, the third conveying pipeline and the fourth conveying pipeline are sequentially reduced, and the flow rate of the liquid in the first conveying pipeline is 2-5 times that of the liquid in the fourth conveying pipeline. The matching of the flow rates of different conveying pipelines can ensure the blending accuracy of the grinding fluid and the supply stability of the grinding fluid.
In a second aspect, the present application also provides a chemical mechanical polishing system, including a chemical mechanical polishing apparatus and an abrasive liquid switching supply system according to the first aspect, where the abrasive liquid switching supply system is configured to supply the target abrasive liquid to the chemical mechanical polishing apparatus.
The signal terminal is integrated in the chemical mechanical polishing equipment, and the automatic emptying of the target grinding fluid and the automatic allocation and supply of new target grinding fluid are controlled by the chemical mechanical polishing equipment.
In a third aspect, the present application also provides a method for switching and supplying grinding fluid, which is used for the grinding fluid switching and supplying system according to the first aspect, and comprises the steps of evacuating the mixing unit and the grinding fluid remained in the supplying unit, controlling the flow rates of the liquid in the first conveying pipeline and the second conveying pipeline based on the concentration of the oxidizing agent required by the product to be processed, preparing the required new target grinding fluid in the mixing unit, and supplying the new target grinding fluid through the grinding fluid switching and supplying system.
In a fourth aspect, the application also provides a switching supply method of grinding fluid, which is used for the chemical mechanical polishing system of the second aspect, and comprises the steps of creating a process formula of a product to be processed in the chemical mechanical polishing equipment, wherein the process formula comprises flow rates of fluid in a first conveying pipeline and a second conveying pipeline when a required new target grinding fluid is prepared, executing a warming procedure in the chemical mechanical polishing equipment through a baffle plate by adopting the process formula so as to empty residual grinding fluid and complete automatic preparation of the new target grinding fluid, and supplying the new target grinding fluid to the chemical mechanical polishing equipment through the grinding fluid switching supply system to process the product to be processed.
Compared with the prior art, the application has the beneficial effects that 1) only one set of grinding fluid supply system is adopted, no new set of grinding fluid supply system is needed, the occupied area and the cost are reduced, 2) the grinding fluid with different oxidant concentrations can be rapidly switched, the equipment is not needed to be stopped and replaced, the influence on-line production is small, 3) the system can be combined with a production system, and the switching of the grinding fluid can be automatically realized when the processed product is replaced.
Detailed Description
The foregoing and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings. The directional terms mentioned in the following embodiments, such as up, down, left, right, front or rear, etc., are only referring to the directions of the attached drawings. Thus, the directional terminology is used for purposes of illustration and is not intended to be limiting of the invention.
Embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the attached drawings. However, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that in various embodiments of the present application, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present application. The claimed application may be practiced without these specific details and with various changes and modifications based on the following embodiments.
CMP is a process technology for smoothing the surface of a product and making the product highly flat by organically combining the physical grinding action of nano-scale particles and the chemical corrosion action of grinding fluid. In Fab (Fab), a slurry supply system is responsible for providing a stable slurry to the CMP tool that meets the process manufacturing requirements.
In the present application, the polishing liquid is a mixed solution, which includes various components with different functions, such as abrasive particles, buffering agent, surfactant, oxidizing agent, etc. Of course, the polishing liquid of the present application is not limited to the above-described components, and may include components such as a scale inhibitor and an antifoaming agent.
Wherein the physical grinding action is mainly provided by abrasive particles, which are usually of a nanometer size, and can effectively remove defects on the surface of a product. In the present application, the specific components of the abrasive grains are not limited, and in addition, the oxidizing agent is an important component which mainly plays a role in improving the polishing rate. Hydrogen peroxide (H 2O2) is a common oxidant component, and has the advantages of strong oxidizing capability, environmental protection, controllable reaction, wide application range, no corrosiveness and the like, and is widely applied. Also, the application is not limited to specific components of the oxidizing agent, and for example, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, etc. may be used as the oxidizing agent, and may be determined according to specific process and production requirements.
In general, the composition ratio of the polishing liquid (usually, the concentration of the oxidizing agent in the polishing liquid) may have different requirements in the processing of different products. When the polishing slurry is required to have different concentrations of the oxidizing agent, one of the existing methods is to build independent supply units to meet the requirements of different concentrations of the oxidizing agent, but each supply unit will cause a significant increase in Fab land use. For this reason, it is desirable to achieve slurry formulations of different oxidizer concentrations on a single supply unit and minimize the time for switching between supply units. Based on the above, the invention provides a system which satisfies a single supply unit and can switch and supply grinding fluid in combination with the operation of a production system so as to realize the calling of grinding fluid with different oxidant concentrations.
Embodiment one:
Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a polishing liquid switching and supplying system according to the present invention.
Referring to fig. 1, the embodiment provides a polishing liquid switching and supplying system, which comprises a raw material storage unit, a mixing unit, a supplying unit, a conveying pipeline and a blending control unit. The raw material storage unit, the mixing unit, and the supply unit are sequentially connected through a conveying pipe and finally convey the polishing slurry to the chemical mechanical polishing apparatus 5.
The raw material storage unit is used for storing the required raw materials for preparing the grinding fluid, and generally comprises at least grinding stock solution and an oxidant. In this embodiment, the raw material storage unit includes a grinding stock solution storage tank 1 for storing a grinding stock solution and an oxidizing agent storage tank 2 for storing an oxidizing agent, and the grinding stock solution storage tank 1 and the oxidizing agent storage tank 2 are generally disposed in a factory, and have a large accommodation space for storing a large amount of raw materials.
In this embodiment, the mixing unit includes a mixing tank 3, the grinding stock solution storage tank 1 and the oxidizing agent storage tank 2 are respectively connected to the mixing tank 3 through respective corresponding conveying pipelines, that is, the grinding stock solution storage tank 1 is connected to the mixing tank 3 through a first conveying pipeline 10, so that conveying of the grinding stock solution from the grinding stock solution storage tank 1 to the mixing tank 3 can be achieved, and the oxidizing agent storage tank 2 is connected to the mixing tank 3 through a second conveying pipeline 20, so that conveying of the oxidizing agent from the oxidizing agent storage tank 2 to the mixing tank 3 can be achieved. It will be appreciated that the polishing stock solution and the oxidizing agent fed into the mixing tank 3 are mixed to form a polishing solution having a certain oxidizing agent concentration, and polishing solutions having different oxidizing agent concentrations can be obtained by controlling the ratio of the polishing stock solution and the oxidizing agent fed into the mixing tank 3. In this embodiment, only the grinding stock solution storage tank 1 and the oxidizing agent storage tank 2 are connected to the mixing tank 3, and in other embodiments, other devices in the raw material storage unit may be connected to achieve dilution of the grinding stock solution or addition of other ingredients.
In the present embodiment, the supply unit includes a supply tank 4, the mixing tank 3 is communicated to the supply tank 4 through a third transfer pipe 30, and the supply tank 4 is communicated to the chemical mechanical polishing apparatus 5 through a fourth transfer pipe 40. Here, by realizing the mixing of the polishing liquid with different oxidizer concentrations in the mixing tank 3 and then conveying the formed polishing liquid to the supply tank 4 to supply the chemical mechanical polishing apparatus 5 with the liquid, this arrangement can obtain higher mixing accuracy and more stable polishing liquid supply. It will be appreciated that the fourth delivery conduit 40 will be connected to the slurry inlet of the cmp apparatus 5 and will be discharged from its slurry outlet through a delivery conduit within the cmp apparatus 5, ultimately effecting delivery of slurry to the polishing interface.
The mixing tank 3 and the supply tank 4 used here are small-capacity storage devices, and the design capacity thereof can be controlled to be 2 liters or less, for example. In this example, the capacities of the mixing tank 3 and the supply tank 4 were 2 liters. Compared with the existing grinding fluid supply system, the mixing tank and the supply tank adopted in the configuration of the grinding fluid supply system have the capacity of more than 200 liters, when the grinding fluid is to be replaced, a great amount of time and grinding fluid are wasted only by emptying the residual grinding fluid, and grinding fluids with different oxidant concentrations can be reconfigured only by replacing a fixed container, so that the production on a line is greatly influenced, and the production is very inconvenient.
In the present embodiment, the polishing liquid switching supply system is further provided with a deployment control unit (not shown in the figure) for controlling the flow rate of the liquid in each of the delivery pipes. Specifically, the deployment control unit includes flow rate controllers disposed at the respective delivery pipes, and a control system that can control each of the flow rate controllers.
In this embodiment, an example of setting a blending control unit is provided, where the flow rate controller is a control valve, and the control valve can achieve the purpose of changing the flow rate of the passing liquid by adjusting the opening, where the control valve is at least provided with 2 control valves, which are respectively disposed at the connection position of the first conveying pipeline 10 and the mixing tank 3, and at the connection position of the second supply pipe 20 and the mixing tank 3, that is, one end of the first control valve is communicated with the liquid outlet of the first conveying pipeline 10, the other end is communicated with the liquid inlet of the mixing tank 3, and one end of the second control valve is communicated with the liquid outlet of the second conveying pipeline 20, and the other end is communicated with the liquid inlet of the mixing tank 3. Thus, the ratio of the polishing stock solution and the oxidizing agent fed into the mixing tank 3 can be freely controlled by the first control valve and the second control valve, and the target polishing solution having the desired oxidizing agent concentration can be obtained. Similarly, the flow rate can be controlled by providing corresponding control valves at the liquid outlets of the rest of the delivery pipes, for example, a third control valve is provided at the connection between the third delivery pipe 30 and the supply tank 4, and a fourth control valve is provided at the connection between the fourth delivery pipe 40 and the chemical mechanical polishing apparatus 5.
The system is also provided with a control system, and the control system comprises a plurality of controllers and signal terminals. I.e. a controller is provided for each control valve, which can receive the signals from the signal terminals and change the opening of the corresponding control valve according to the control of the signals, so as to control the liquid flow rate of different pipelines, the signal terminals are connected with and control each controller (the connection can be through a physical connection or a signal connection), and the control of all the controllers are combined together, i.e. the liquid flow rate of each pipeline can be adjusted through one signal terminal. The signal terminal can be arranged independently or integrated with other devices. For example, in the present embodiment, the signal terminal is integrated in the chemical mechanical polishing apparatus 5. In this way, the liquid flow rate of the pipeline can be directly controlled by the chemical mechanical polishing device 5 and can be started according to the process recipe (recipe) of the product. For example, by changing the setting parameters of the recipe in the chemical mechanical polishing apparatus 5, such as the flow rates of the first delivery pipe 10 and the second delivery pipe 20, the flow rates of the liquids fed into the mixing tank 3 by the first delivery pipe 10 and the second delivery pipe 20 are automatically changed correspondingly to obtain the target polishing liquid (i.e., the polishing liquid having the desired oxidizer concentration). Of course, some remaining flow control of the transfer lines may also be performed, for example, by controlling the flow rate of the first transfer line 10 to be greater than that of the third transfer line 30 and greater than that of the fourth transfer line 40, thereby ensuring a continuous supply of slurry. Of course, other control strategies may be used, for example, corresponding level detectors may be provided for each storage device, replenishing may be performed when the internal level is below a limit until a certain level is reached, so that a continuous slurry supply may be ensured.
In the embodiment, only one set of supply unit is adopted corresponding to each chemical mechanical polishing device 5, so that the grinding fluid with different oxidant concentrations can be quickly replaced, the occupied area is reduced, in the embodiment, the mixing tank 3 and the supply tank 4 are both small-capacity storage devices, the time consumption for exhausting the fluid is short, the waste is small, in the embodiment, the effect of changing the oxidant concentration in the supplied grinding fluid can be achieved by remotely controlling the flow rate, and the constant volume device for storing the oxidant does not need to be stopped for replacement to adjust the oxidant concentration.
Embodiment two:
the present embodiment provides a chemical mechanical polishing system including a chemical mechanical polishing apparatus 5 and an abrasive liquid switching supply system according to the first embodiment;
The slurry switching supply system is configured to supply the target slurry to the chemical mechanical polishing apparatus 5. The signal terminal is integrated in the chemical mechanical polishing equipment, and the automatic emptying of the target grinding fluid and the automatic allocation and supply of new target grinding fluid are controlled by the chemical mechanical polishing equipment.
Embodiment III:
The present embodiment provides a method for switching and supplying a polishing liquid, which is performed by using a polishing liquid switching and supplying system provided in the first embodiment, and which can realize rapid switching of polishing liquids having different oxidizer concentrations.
A method for switching and supplying grinding fluid, for a grinding fluid switching and supplying system, comprises the following steps:
Firstly, evacuating the grinding fluid remained in the mixing tank 3 and the supply tank 4, then controlling the flow rates of the liquid in the first conveying pipeline and the second conveying pipeline based on the required concentration of the oxidant of the product to be processed, preparing the required new target grinding fluid in the mixing tank 3, and finally, supplying the new target grinding fluid through a grinding fluid switching supply system.
Embodiment four:
the present embodiment provides a method for switching and supplying polishing liquid, which is performed by using a chemical mechanical polishing system provided in the second embodiment, and can realize rapid switching of polishing liquid with different oxidizer concentrations in a non-stop state, so as to adapt to processing requirements of different products. The flow of which can be understood with reference to fig. 2.
A switching supply method of grinding liquid is used for a chemical mechanical polishing system and comprises the following steps of creating a process formula of a product to be processed in the chemical mechanical polishing equipment, wherein the process formula comprises flow rates of liquid in a first conveying pipeline and a second conveying pipeline when a required new target grinding liquid is prepared, executing a warming program in the chemical mechanical polishing equipment through a baffle plate by adopting the process formula so as to empty residual grinding liquid and complete automatic preparation of the new target grinding liquid, and supplying the new target grinding liquid to the chemical mechanical polishing equipment through the grinding liquid switching supply system to process the product to be processed.
Specifically, as shown in fig. 2, the product a is currently being processed on the chemical mechanical polishing apparatus 5, and the polishing solution required to be used may be referred to as a first target polishing solution, and the product to be processed is to be changed into a product B, and since the product a and the product B are different, the polishing solution suitable for the product B may be different from the first target polishing solution used for the product a, specifically, the concentration of the oxidizing agent in the polishing solution is different, and the polishing solution suitable for the product B is referred to as a second target polishing solution. Therefore, when performing different product switching, we need to change the first target polishing liquid supplied to the chemical mechanical polishing apparatus 5 to the second target polishing liquid.
As described in the first embodiment, the capacities of the mixing tank 3 and the supply tank 4 are 2 liters, that is, after the processing of the product a is finished, the amount of the first target polishing liquid remained in the mixing tank 3 and the supply tank 4 is at most not more than 4 liters, when the processing of the product a is finished, the baffle of the product B is sent to the chemical mechanical polishing apparatus 5 and the processing recipe of the product is changed to the corresponding processing recipe of the product B to execute the warming-up procedure, in the current warming-up procedure of the chemical mechanical polishing apparatus 5, the flow rate of the polishing liquid is 0.5 liters/minute, that is, the residual first target polishing liquid can be emptied in at most 8 minutes through the self-contained warming-up procedure, and it is required to be noted that the relevant information for preparing the second target polishing liquid is recorded in the corresponding processing recipe of the product B, and the preparing control unit can automatically change the flow rates of the first conveying pipeline 10 and the second conveying pipeline 20 according to the information, so that the second target polishing liquid required for processing the product B is re-prepared in the mixing tank 3 and supplied to the supply tank 4, and then the processing of the second target polishing liquid can be performed. Therefore, the production line can be realized, the grinding fluid with different oxidant concentrations is not required to be stopped and allocated when the products are required, the mixing tank 3 and the supply tank 4 can be automatically emptied through a warming-up procedure, and the allocation and the supply of the grinding fluid with the required oxidant concentration can be automatically realized according to the recycle of the subsequent products.
Meanwhile, in consideration of the blending accuracy of the polishing liquid and the continuous and stable replenishment, the flow rate of the first conveying pipe 10 may be controlled to be larger than that of the third conveying pipe 30 and larger than that of the fourth conveying pipe 40. Wherein the flow rate of the first transfer duct 10 is 2-5 times the flow rate of the fourth transfer duct 40.
The use of certain conventional english terms or letters for the sake of clarity of description of the invention is intended to be exemplary only and not limiting of the interpretation or particular use, and should not be taken to limit the scope of the invention in terms of its possible chinese translations or specific letters.
It should also be noted that in this document, relational terms such as "first" and "second" and the like are used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions.