JP4506760B2 - Plating equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a plating apparatus including a storage unit that stores a supplied substrate, a plating processing unit that performs a plating process on the substrate, and a transport mechanism that transports the substrate.

As this type of plating apparatus, an electroplating apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2005-314762 is known. The electroplating apparatus includes a loader unit, a pre-processing unit, a plating processing unit, a post-processing unit, and an unloader unit. The electroplating apparatus includes a transfer robot that transfers a substrate to be plated to each processing unit. In this electroplating apparatus, the substrate set in the loader unit is sequentially transported by the transport robot in the order of the pre-processing unit, the plating processing unit, and the post-processing unit. Each processing unit performs pre-processing, plating processing, and post-processing on the transferred substrate, and the substrate for which all processing has been completed is accommodated in the unloader unit by the transfer robot.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-314762 (page 5, FIG. 1)

  However, the above electroplating apparatus has the following problems to be solved. That is, in this electroplating apparatus, each processing unit performs a predetermined process on the substrate transferred by the transfer robot. In this case, in order to avoid displacement of the substrate due to impact, etc., it is necessary to reduce the operation speed when the transfer robot holds (grabs) the substrate and the movement speed when moving the held substrate to a low speed. For this reason, this electroplating apparatus requires a relatively long time for conveyance. Further, since this electroplating apparatus performs many processes, it takes a lot of time to complete all the processes. Therefore, in this electroplating apparatus, it is difficult to improve the processing efficiency of the electroplating apparatus as a whole due to the long conveyance time and processing time, and improvement of this point is desired. In addition, this electroplating apparatus requires a large number of processing units for performing a large number of processes. As a result, the configuration of the electroplating apparatus as a whole is complicated and difficult to downsize, and improvement of this point is also desired. .

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and a main object of the present invention is to provide a plating apparatus capable of improving the processing efficiency and reducing the size of the entire apparatus.

In order to achieve the above object, a plating apparatus according to the present invention includes an accommodating part that accommodates a supplied substrate, a plating part that performs a plating process on the substrate, a conveyance mechanism that conveys the substrate , A liquid discharge section having a nozzle that is attached to the transport mechanism and capable of discharging liquid in a shower-like manner, and is forwardly directed toward the surface of the substrate being transported from the storage section to the plating section by the transport mechanism. A plating apparatus that performs pre-processing on the substrate prior to the plating process by discharging the processing liquid from the nozzle , wherein the liquid discharge unit supplies a plurality of types of the pre-processing liquids. A plurality of pipes respectively supplied to the nozzles are provided, and the pretreatment liquids can be switched and discharged from the nozzles.

  In this case, the transport mechanism is configured to include a substrate holding unit that holds the substrate with the surface facing upward, and covers the entire area of the surface of the largest substrate that can be held by the substrate holding unit. In addition, the nozzle can be formed.

According to the plating apparatus of the present invention, the pretreatment liquid is discharged in a shower shape from the nozzle attached to the transport mechanism toward the surface of the substrate transported from the storage unit to the plating process unit by the transport mechanism. Unlike the conventional electroplating apparatus equipped with a pretreatment unit dedicated to pretreatment, by carrying out the pretreatment on the substrate prior to the plating treatment, transporting the substrate to the pretreatment unit, pretreatment by the pretreatment unit, In addition, it is possible to eliminate a process such as taking out the substrate after the pretreatment from the pretreatment portion. Therefore, according to the plating apparatus 1, the processing time of the entire plating process can be shortened as compared with the conventional electroplating apparatus, as a result of eliminating these steps, and the processing efficiency is sufficiently improved. Can be made. Further, according to this plating apparatus, the plating apparatus can be made compact as a whole because the pretreatment unit is unnecessary. In addition, by providing a plurality of pipes for supplying a plurality of types of pretreatment liquids to the nozzles, and by configuring the liquid discharge unit so that the plurality of types of pretreatment liquids can be switched and discharged, the types of substrates and substrates Depending on the state of the surface, the kind of liquid for pretreatment can be arbitrarily switched and discharged onto the surface. In addition, according to the plating apparatus of the present invention, for example, by switching the type of pretreatment liquid while the substrate is being transported, pretreatment using a plurality of types of pretreatment liquids can be performed. Can be carried out continuously.

  Further, according to the plating apparatus of the present invention, the nozzle is formed in a size that covers the entire surface of the substrate, so that the pretreatment liquid water droplets discharged from the nozzle are spread over the entire surface of the substrate. Can be applied evenly. For this reason, according to this plating processing apparatus, pre-processing can be reliably performed over the whole surface.

  Hereinafter, the best mode of a plating apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  A plating apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 is an example of a plating apparatus according to the present invention. By plating a wafer 100 (see FIG. 3) corresponding to a substrate in the present invention, a surface 100a of the wafer 100 is obtained. The plating layer can be formed. Specifically, the plating apparatus 1 includes a loader unit 2, a plurality (for example, five) of transfer robots 3 a to 3 e (hereinafter, also referred to as “transfer robot 3” when not distinguished), a liquid discharge unit 4, a plurality ( As an example, three plating processing units 5 a to 5 c (hereinafter also referred to as “plating processing unit 5” when not distinguished), a post-processing unit 6, an unloader unit 7, and a control unit 8 are provided.

  The loader unit 2 corresponds to a storage unit in the present invention, and a loader carrier 2a that stores a plurality of wafers 100 to be plated supplied from the outside of the plating apparatus 1 and an orientation flat aligner 2b that performs orientation flat alignment of the wafers 100. And a mounting mechanism 2c for taking out the wafer 100 from the loader carrier 2a and mounting it on the orientation flat aligner 2b.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the transfer robot 3 includes a main body 11 and a wafer holder 12. As shown in the figure, the main body 11 includes an arm 11a and moves the arm 11a horizontally and vertically. A driving mechanism 11b for driving the wafer holding unit 12 is disposed at the tip of the arm 11a. The wafer holding unit 12 corresponds to a substrate holding unit in the present invention, and as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a pair of arms 21 and two holding bars 22 attached to each of the arms 21 (a total of four). And is configured. Further, the wafer holding unit 12 is attached to the arm 11 a of the transfer robot 3 by fixing the arm 21 to the drive mechanism 11 b of the main body unit 11. Further, the arm 21 of the wafer holding unit 12 is driven by the drive mechanism 11b of the main body unit 11 and is moved along a direction in which the arm 21 is in contact with or separated from each other. In this case, as shown in FIG. 8, when the both arms 21 are moved in a direction close to each other, the wafer holding unit 12 causes the surface 100 a to be formed on the surface 100 a by the formation portion of the notch 22 a at the tip of each holding bar 22. The wafer 100 is held in a state of facing upward. The transfer robot 3a corresponds to the transfer mechanism in the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the liquid discharge unit 4 includes a nozzle unit 31, a pump 32, and a pipe 33. As shown in FIG. 5, the nozzle portion 31 includes a nozzle body 41, a connecting portion 42, a mounting plate 43, and a scattering prevention plate 44 (see FIGS. 2 to 4). In FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 described later, the scattering prevention plate 44 is not shown. As shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, the nozzle body 41 is formed in a plate shape having a space inside. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, a connecting hole 41a is formed on one surface (the upper surface in the figure) of the nozzle body 41, and the connecting pipe 42a of the connecting portion 42 is connected to the connecting hole 41a. Thereby, the nozzle main body 41 and the connection part 42 are connected. In this case, the liquid pumped by the pump 32 is supplied to the internal space of the nozzle body 41 through the connecting pipe 42a and the connecting hole 41a. Further, as shown in FIG. 7 and FIG. 7, a plurality of discharge holes 41b are formed on the other surface (the lower surface in the figure) of the nozzle body 41, and the liquid supplied to the nozzle body 41 is discharged. It is discharged in a shower form from the hole 41b (see FIG. 8). In this case, the nozzle body 41 has a surface area that is larger than the maximum surface area of the wafer 100 that can be held by the wafer holding unit 12 of the transfer robot 3, that is, has a size that can cover the entire surface 100 a of the wafer 100. It is formed to have.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the connecting portion 42 is fixed to the mounting plate 43 so as to protrude from the mounting plate 43. In addition, a connecting pipe 42 a is disposed inside the connecting portion 42. In this case, as shown in FIG. 6, the connecting pipe 42a has a base end portion (right end portion in the figure) branched into a plurality (for example, three), and a pipe 33 is provided at each branched base end portion. Each is connected. The attachment plate 43 is configured to be attachable to the distal end portion of the arm 11 a in the transport robot 3. In this case, the mounting position of the mounting plate 43 is located above the wafer 100 in a state in which the nozzle body 41 is held by the wafer holder 12, and the formation surface of the discharge hole 41 b in the nozzle body 41 and the surface 100 a of the wafer 100. Are defined to face each other. The anti-scattering plate 44 is attached to the upper part of the connecting portion 42 and prevents the liquid discharged from the nozzle body 41 from scattering.

  The pump 32 supplies liquid (pretreatment liquid) stored in a tank (not shown) and used for pretreatment of the plating process to the nozzle portion 31 (nozzle body 41) through the pipe 33. Here, the pretreatment includes cleaning and surface treatment of the surface 100a of the wafer 100. In the plating apparatus 1, the pure water 200a, the surfactant (aqueous solution) 200b, and the acid (aqueous solution) 200c (hereinafter, referred to as the following) When not distinguished, it is also referred to as “pretreatment liquid 200”) as a liquid for pretreatment. In this case, the pump 32 is configured to be able to switch and supply each pretreatment liquid 200 through the three pipes 33.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the plating processing unit 5 includes a plating tank 51, an anode (not shown), and a cleaning machine 53. A holder 52 (see also FIG. 3) is disposed in the plating tank 51. In this case, a plating layer is formed on the surface 100 a of the wafer 100 placed on the upper surface of the holder 52 by the transfer robot 3.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the post-processing unit 6 includes a cleaning machine 61 that discharges pure water onto the surface 100 a of the wafer 100 after the plating process and cleans it, and a dryer 62 that dries the cleaned wafer 100. Configured. The unloader unit 7 includes an unloader carrier 7 a that accommodates the post-processed wafer 100 transferred from the post-processing unit 6.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the control unit 8 includes an operation unit 81, a storage unit 82, and a CPU 83. The operation unit 81 includes a switch, a keyboard, and the like for instructing the start of processing, and outputs an operation signal when these are operated. The storage unit 82 stores a processing program for plating. The CPU 83 controls each part of the plating apparatus 1 according to the operation signal output from the operation unit 81.

  Here, in the plating apparatus 1, as described later, the pretreatment liquid 200 is discharged from the nozzle part 31 of the liquid discharge part 4 while the wafer 100 is conveyed from the loader part 2 to the plating part 5 a. Pre-processing is performed. For this reason, unlike a conventional electroplating apparatus, a pretreatment unit dedicated to pretreatment is not required, and accordingly, the plating apparatus 1 is made small as a whole.

  Next, the process of performing the plating process on the wafer 100 using the plating apparatus 1 will be described with reference to the drawings.

  First, the operation unit 81 of the control unit 8 is operated to instruct execution of the plating process. In response to this, the operation unit 81 outputs an operation signal, and the CPU 83 reads the processing program stored in the storage unit 82. Next, the CPU 83 starts control of each part of the plating apparatus 1 according to the processing program. Specifically, the CPU 83 controls the placement mechanism 2c of the loader unit 2 to take out one of the plurality of wafers 100 accommodated in the loader carrier 2a and align the wafer 100 with the orientation flat. Place on the machine 2b. Subsequently, the CPU 83 controls the orientation flat matching machine 2b to perform orientation flat matching.

  Next, the CPU 83 controls the transfer robot 3a to transfer the wafer 100 after orientation flat alignment from the orientation flat aligner 2b of the loader unit 2 to the plating processing unit 5a. In this case, the main body portion 11 of the transfer robot 3a moves the arm 11a to the orientation flat aligner 2b, and then the drive mechanism 11b moves the arms 21 of the wafer holding portion 12 along the direction approaching each other. At this time, the wafer 100 is held by the formation part of the notch 22 a in each holding bar 22 attached to each arm 21. Next, the main body 11 moves the arm 11a above the holder 52 disposed in the plating tank 51 of the plating processing unit 5a.

  On the other hand, the CPU 83 controls the pump 32 of the liquid discharge unit 4 to start supplying pure water 200 a to the nozzle unit 31 when the wafer 100 held by the wafer holding unit 12 is separated from the loader unit 2. . At this time, for example, the pump 32 supplies 6 to 7 liters of pure water 200a per minute to the nozzle unit 31 at a pressure of about 200 kPa. Subsequently, the pure water 200a supplied by the pump 32 is supplied to the inside of the nozzle body 41 through the pipe 33 and the connecting pipe 42a of the connecting part 42 in the nozzle part 31, and as shown in FIG. It is discharged from the discharge hole 41b of the main body 41.

  Here, since a pressure of about 200 kPa is applied to the supplied pure water 200a, water droplets of the pure water 200a discharged from the discharge holes 41b are struck onto the surface 100a of the wafer 100 at a sufficiently high speed. In addition, since the nozzle body 41 is formed in a size that covers the entire surface 100a, water droplets of the pure water 200a are uniformly hit over the entire surface 100a. As a result, the impurities are removed by the water droplets of the pure water 200a, and the surface 100a of the wafer 100 is processed (that is, pre-processed) so as to be plated.

  In this case, in this plating apparatus 1, according to the type of the wafer 100 and the state of the surface 100a of the wafer 100, the pretreatment with the surfactant 200b or the acid 200c is performed instead of the pretreatment with the pure water 200a. Is possible. At this time, by operating the operation unit 81 of the control unit 8 and designating (changing) the type of the pretreatment liquid 200, the CPU 83 controls the pump 32 to replace the pure water 200a with the surfactant 200b. Alternatively, the acid 200 c is supplied to the nozzle portion 31. Further, by switching the type of the pretreatment liquid 200 while the wafer 100 is transferred from the loader unit 2 to the plating processing unit 5a, the pretreatment unit using a plurality of types of pretreatment liquids 200 may be continuously performed. it can.

  Next, the CPU 83 controls the pump 32 to stop the supply of the pure water 200a to the nozzle unit 31 when the arm 11a of the transport robot 3a approaches the plating tank 51 of the plating processing unit 5a. Thereby, the pre-processing for the wafer 100 is completed. In this case, in the plating apparatus 1, the pretreatment is completed while the wafer 100 is transferred from the loader unit 2 to the plating unit 5 a as described above. For this reason, in the plating apparatus 1, unlike the conventional electroplating apparatus provided with the pretreatment unit, the wafer 100 is transferred to the pretreatment unit, pretreated by the pretreatment unit, and the wafer 100 which has undergone the pretreatment. The process of taking out from the pre-processing part is unnecessary. Therefore, the processing time as a whole can be shortened because these steps are unnecessary.

  Subsequently, the main body 11 of the transfer robot 3 a moves the arm 11 a to a position where the wafer 100 held by the holding bar 22 of the wafer holding unit 12 is close to the holder 52 in the plating tank 51. Next, the drive mechanism 11b of the transfer robot 3a moves the arms 21 of the wafer holding unit 12 along the directions away from each other. At this time, the holding by the holding bar 22 is released, and the wafer 100 is placed on the upper surface of the holder 52 as shown in FIG. Subsequently, the CPU 83 controls the plating processing unit 5a to execute the plating process. In this case, the plating processing unit 5a performs a series of processes such as supply of the plating processing liquid to the plating tank 51, power supply to the anode electrode, discharge of the plating processing liquid from the plating tank 51, and cleaning of the wafer 100 by the cleaning machine 53. Execute the process. As a result, a first plating layer is formed on the surface 100 a of the wafer 100.

  Next, when the plating process by the plating unit 5a is completed, the CPU 83 controls the transfer robot 3b to transfer the wafer 100 from the plating unit 5a to the plating unit 5b. In this case, the transfer robot 3b moves the arm 11a and drives the wafer holding unit 12 in the same manner as the operation of the transfer robot 3a described above, thereby holding the wafer 100 and carrying it out of the plating processing unit 5a. Then, it is placed on the upper surface of the holder 52 of the plating processing unit 5b. Subsequently, the CPU 83 controls the plating processing unit 5 b to execute the plating process on the wafer 100. In this case, the second plating layer is formed on the surface 100a of the wafer 100 by the plating processing unit 5b performing the same steps as the series of steps described above in the plating processing unit 5a. Next, when the plating process by the plating unit 5b is completed, the CPU 83 controls the transfer robot 3c to transfer the wafer 100 from the plating unit 5b to the plating unit 5c. The plating process for the wafer 100 is executed under control. As a result, a third plating layer is formed on the surface 100 a of the wafer 100.

  Next, the CPU 83 controls the transfer robot 3d to transfer the wafer 100 from the plating processing unit 5c to the post-processing unit 6. Subsequently, the CPU 83 controls the post-processing unit 6 to execute post-processing. In this case, in the post-processing unit 6, the cleaning machine 61 discharges pure water onto the surface 100 a of the wafer 100 after the plating process and cleans it, and the dryer 62 dries the cleaned wafer 100. Thereby, the post-processing ends. Next, when the post-processing by the post-processing unit 6 is completed, the CPU 83 controls the transfer robot 3 e to transfer the wafer 100 from the post-processing unit 6 to the unloader unit 7. In this case, the transfer robot 3e unloads the post-processed wafer 100 from the post-processing unit 6 and stores it in the unloader carrier 7a. Thereby, each process of the plating process with respect to the wafer 100 is complete | finished. Thereafter, the wafer 100 accommodated in the unloader carrier 7a is carried out to the next step by a carry-out device (not shown).

  Thereafter, in the plating apparatus 1, the CPU 83 repeatedly executes the above-described controls until an operation signal instructing the end of the process is output from the operation unit 81, whereby the plating process for the plurality of wafers 100 is continuously performed. Execute.

  Thus, according to this plating apparatus 1, the pretreatment liquid 200 is discharged in the form of a shower toward the surface of the wafer 100 being transferred from the loader unit 2 to the plating unit 5a by the transfer robot 3a. Unlike the conventional electroplating apparatus provided with a preprocessing unit dedicated to preprocessing, the wafer 100 is transferred to the preprocessing unit, preprocessed by the preprocessing unit, and preprocessing. Steps such as removal of the finished wafer 100 from the pretreatment unit can be eliminated. Therefore, according to this plating apparatus 1, the processing time of the entire plating process can be shortened as compared with the conventional electroplating apparatus, as a result of these steps being unnecessary, and the processing efficiency is sufficiently improved. Can be made. Moreover, according to this plating apparatus 1, the plating apparatus 1 can be comprised small as a whole by the part which does not require a pre-processing part.

  Further, according to the plating apparatus 1, since the nozzle body 41 is formed to have a size that covers the entire surface 100 a of the wafer 100, water droplets of the pretreatment liquid 200 discharged from the discharge holes 41 b can be removed from the surface of the wafer 100. It can be made to strike evenly over the entire area of 100a. For this reason, according to this plating processing apparatus 1, pre-processing can be reliably performed over the whole surface 100a.

  Further, according to the plating apparatus 1, the liquid discharge unit 4 is provided with a plurality of pipes 33 for supplying a plurality of types of pretreatment liquids 200 to the nozzle body 41 so that the plurality of types of pretreatment liquids 200 can be switched and discharged. By configuring, the type of the pretreatment liquid 200 can be arbitrarily switched according to the type of the wafer 100 and the state of the surface 100a of the wafer 100 to be released to the surface 100a. Further, for example, by switching the type of the pretreatment liquid 200 while the wafer 100 is being transported, pretreatment using a plurality of types of pretreatment liquids 200 can be continuously performed while the wafer 100 is being transported.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to said structure. For example, the plating processing apparatus 1 that performs plating processing on the wafer 100 as a substrate has been described as an example, but the present invention can be applied to plating processing apparatuses that perform plating processing on various substrates. Further, the configuration example including the plurality of transfer robots 3a to 3e has been described above. However, the number of transfer robots 3 can be defined as 1 or more and 4 or any number of 6 or more. For example, the transfer robot 3a described above. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which conveyance is performed only by the above.

  In addition, the example in which the liquid discharge unit 4 is configured so as to be able to discharge three types of pretreatment liquids 200a, surfactant 200b, and acid 200c has been described above. It is not limited, It can prescribe | regulate in arbitrary numbers of 1 or more and 2 or 4 or more. In addition, for example, a configuration in which a heating device or a cooling device is provided and the temperature of the pure water 200a discharged from the nozzle portion 31 can be arbitrarily set can be adopted. Furthermore, although the configuration example in which the nozzle body 41 is formed so that the area of the discharge hole 41b forming portion is equal to or larger than the area of the surface 100a of the wafer 100 has been described above, the pretreatment liquid 200 is radiated (expands downward). (Ii) By forming the nozzle body 41 so as to be capable of being discharged, the nozzle body 41 can also be configured in a small size.

  In addition, a liquid supply pipe that is formed with a plurality of discharge holes and functions as a nozzle in the present invention is disposed along the arm 21 and the holding bar 22 of the wafer holding unit 12 in the transfer robot 3, and the surface of the wafer 100 in the holding state. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the pretreatment liquid 200 is discharged in a shower shape from the discharge hole of the liquid supply pipe at 100a. Further, a liquid supply pipe for supplying the pretreatment liquid 200 is disposed inside the arm 21 of the wafer holding unit 12 and the holding bar 22 in the transfer robot 3, and a discharge hole communicating with the liquid supply pipe is provided in the arm 21. For example, the arm is formed on the inner surface (on the wafer 100 side in the holding state) of the holding bar 22 to discharge the pretreatment liquid 200 from the discharge hole to the surface 100a of the wafer 100 in the holding state in a shower shape, that is, an arm It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the 21 and the holding bar 22 function as nozzles in the present invention. In this case, as a configuration for supplying the pretreatment liquid 200 to the liquid supply pipe of the arm 21 or the holding bar 22, a structure in which the pipe 33 of the liquid discharge unit 4 is directly connected to the liquid supply pipe, or a connection of the nozzle section 31. A configuration in which a pipe branched from the pipe 42a is connected to the liquid supply pipe can be employed.

1 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of a plating apparatus 1. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram illustrating configurations of a transfer robot 3 and a liquid discharge unit 4. It is the front view of the holder 52 where the wafer holding part 12, the nozzle part 31, and the wafer 100 which were seen from the front-end | tip part side of the arm 11a were mounted. It is the side view of the wafer holding | maintenance part 12 and the nozzle part 31 seen from the side surface side of the arm 11a. FIG. 4 is a side view of a nozzle unit 31. It is the top view which looked at the nozzle part 31 from upper direction. It is the bottom view which looked at the nozzle main body 41 from the formation surface side of the discharge hole 41b. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the state which has discharged | emitted the pure water 200a toward the surface 100a of the wafer 100. FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Plating processing apparatus 2 Loader part 3,3a-3e Transfer robot 4 Liquid discharge | release part 5a-5c Plating process part 31 Nozzle part 41 Nozzle main body 41b Ejection hole 100 Wafer 100a Surface 200 Pretreatment liquid 200a Pure water 200b Surfactant 200c Acid

Claims (2)

A storage portion for storing the supplied substrate, and a plating section for performing a plating process on the substrate, a transport mechanism for transporting the substrate, the nozzle capable of releasing liquid with attached to the transport mechanism like a shower and a liquid discharge portion having the said substrate by releasing the liquid for pretreatment toward the surface of the substrate being conveyed to the plating section from the receiving portion by the conveying mechanism from the nozzle A plating apparatus that performs pre-processing for the prior to the plating process ,
The liquid discharge section includes a plurality of pipes for supplying a plurality of types of pretreatment liquids to the nozzles, and is configured to switch the pretreatment liquids to be discharged from the nozzles. Processing equipment. The transport mechanism includes a substrate holding unit that holds the substrate with the surface facing upward,
The plating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the nozzle is formed to have a size covering the entire surface of the surface of the largest substrate that can be held by the substrate holding unit.

Images