Brush roller structure

Abstract

To provide a brush roller structure.SOLUTION: A brush roller structure includes a foam having a flow path in which a plurality of holes having an average pore size of 300 μm to 500 μm are alternately formed, a central channel disposed within the foam and communicating with the flow paths, a micropore region located on the surface layer of the foam and having a plurality of micropores having a pore size smaller than the average pore size of the foam holes, and a plurality of through holes disposed on the outer surface of the foam, the depth of the through holes is 50 μm to 300 μm, and the total area of the through holes occupies 10% to 90% of the total area of the outer surface of the foam.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1a

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a brush roller structure, and more particularly to a brush roller structure that has high fluid flux and uniformity and can adjust the flow rate of fluid passing radially through the brush roller. [Background technology]

[0002] In today's society where information is rapidly developing, the related electronics industry is also developing rapidly, and the semiconductor process has become even more indispensable to the electronics industry.

[0003] In semiconductor processing, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) can be used to globally planarize the surface of precision devices such as wafers. However, during the CMP process, defects such as organic residues, particles, and corrosion phenomena are likely to occur on the wafer surface. Therefore, in order to improve the progress of subsequent processes and the quality of the wafer, the wafer must be cleaned after CMP is completed.

[0004] The process of cleaning the wafer is carried out by combining the cleaning roller with water, cleaning liquid, etc., so as to remove foreign matter on the wafer surface by the movement of the water, cleaning liquid, and cleaning roller. The part of the cleaning roller that contacts the wafer surface must adopt a brush roller made of soft foam material in order to avoid damaging the wafer surface. In addition, in order to achieve a sufficient cleaning effect, the cleaning roller must also have a hard shaft structure so that it can withstand a certain strength of pressure, water pressure, and rotation speed applied to the cleaning roller and prevent the cleaning roller from being deformed. The cleaning roller is often located at the water outlet, and the flow path in the hard shaft of the cleaning roller is generally used to adjust the amount of water required to reach each contact point between the cleaning roller and the wafer. However, when the water passes through the foam brush roller of the cleaning roller, the pore size and distribution pattern of the pores inside the foam brush roller all affect the flux and flow direction of the water, and the foam brush roller cannot flow out smoothly from the surface of the foam brush roller, but overflows and is wasted, and the effective water outflow rate is too low or the amount of water outflow at each contact point with the wafer is not consistent, so the requirements of the cleaning process cannot be met. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] Therefore, how to provide a brush roller structure that can adjust the radial outflow amount and uniformity and reduce the consumption of cleaning liquid such as water in order to improve the efficiency of wafer cleaning is a development goal that those skilled in the art are addressing. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] One embodiment of the present invention provides a brush roller structure including a foam including a plurality of flow paths in which a plurality of holes having an average pore size of 300 μm to 500 μm are alternately formed, a central channel disposed within the foam and communicating with the plurality of flow paths, a micropore region located on the surface layer of the foam and having a plurality of micropores having a pore size smaller than the average pore size of the foam holes, and a plurality of through holes disposed on the outer surface of the foam, the depth of the through holes being 50 μm to 300 μm, and the total area of ​​the through holes occupying 10% to 90% of the total area of ​​the outer surface of the foam.

[0007] According to one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the pore diameter of the plurality of micropores in the micropore region is 1 μm to 100 μm.

[0008] According to one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the micro-pore area has a thickness of 30 μm to 200 μm.

[0009] According to one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the depth of the plurality of through holes is greater than the thickness of the micro-pore area.

[0010] According to one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the plurality of through holes located on the outer surface of the foam are in the shape of a continuous or discontinuous circular, elliptical, elongated or combination thereof, or an area formed by a combination thereof, and the plurality of through holes are uniformly distributed on the outer surface of the foam or collected as an area and distributed on the outer surface of the foam.

[0011] According to one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the total area of ​​the plurality of through holes occupies 20% to 70% of the total area of ​​the outer surface of the foam body.

[0012] According to one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the porosity of the foam is 70% to 95%.

[0013] According to one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the width of the central channel is 9mm-30mm.

[0014] In another embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the outer surface of said foam further comprises at least one bump.

[0015] According to one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the height of the bumps is 4 mm to 6 mm.

[0016] According to one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the bottom width of the bumps is 7mm to 13mm, and the top width of the bumps is 6mm to 11mm.

[0017] According to an embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the foam material includes a crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0018] In order to make the above and other objects, features, advantages and embodiments of the present invention more clearly comprehensible, reference is made to the accompanying drawings as follows: [Figure 1a] 1 is a schematic diagram showing a brush roller structure in one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 1b] FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the thickness direction of a surface layer of the brush roller structure according to the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a brush roller structure in another embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 3] 1 is an electron microscope image of the foam surface and surface layer of the brush roller structure of the present invention at 60x magnification. [Figure 4a] 1 is a 60x electron microscope image of the surface perforation morphology in one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention. [Figure 4b] 4 is an electron microscope image at 60x magnification of a surface perforation morphology in another embodiment of a brush roller structure of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0019] Each embodiment of the present invention will be discussed in more detail below. However, the embodiments may be applications of various inventive concepts and may be specifically implemented within various different specific scopes. The specific embodiments are for illustrative purposes only and are not limited to the scope disclosed. Furthermore, in order to simplify the drawings, some of the conventional structures and components are simply illustrated in the drawings, and repeated or identical components may be represented by the same numbers.

[0020] The term "average pore size" in this specification refers to the range of median pore sizes that accounts for 50% of the number in the pore size-number distribution, and this pore size-number distribution is obtained after cutting the foam into 1-inch samples, measuring the size and number of each pore using an electron microscope according to the ASTM-D3576 method, and collecting statistics.

[0021] 1a and 1b are a schematic diagram and a cross-sectional view along the thickness direction of a surface layer of a brush roller structure 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention, respectively. The brush roller structure 100 includes a foam 110 including a plurality of flow paths 121 in which a plurality of holes 120 having an average pore diameter of 300 μm to 500 μm are alternately formed, a central channel 130 disposed within the foam 110 and communicating with the flow paths 121, a micropore region 140 located on the surface layer of the foam 110 and having a plurality of micropores 141, the pore diameter of which is smaller than the average pore diameter of the holes 120 in the foam 110, and a plurality of through holes 150 disposed on the outer surface of the foam 110, the depth T2 of which is 50 μm to 300 μm, and the total area of ​​the through holes 150 occupies 10% to 90% of the total area of ​​the outer surface of the foam 110, and the through holes 150 communicate with the flow paths 121.

[0022] When the brush roller structure 100 of the present invention is used to clean wafers or other objects to be cleaned, the brush roller structure 100 has a central channel 130 formed in the brush roller shaft (not shown) so that cleaning liquid is dispersed from the brush roller shaft to enter the brush roller structure 100. The flow path 121 is formed by a plurality of holes 120 having an average pore diameter of 300 μm to 500 μm. The flow path 121 formed by holes within this average pore diameter range can maintain a constant liquid flux, so that the amount of liquid input is much higher than the amount of liquid that can be output by the brush roller structure 100, and so there is no overflow and loss. Furthermore, since the surface layer of the foam 110 has a microporous region 140, the liquid does not directly pass through the radial direction D2 of the brush roller structure 100 and flow out in large quantities onto the outer surface of the foam 110, but is transported uniformly and quickly with low resistance to each point of the brush roller structure 100 along the axial direction D1 and radial direction D2 by the central channel 130, and the water flow can be guided through the plurality of through holes 150 to clean the surface of a wafer, etc.

[0023] Moreover, the total area of ​​these through holes 150 occupies 10% to 90%, preferably 20% to 70%, of the total area of ​​the outer surface of this foam 110. By selecting a brush roller structure 100 with an appropriate ratio of the total area of ​​the through holes 150 for cleaning equipment with different water output and / or objects to be cleaned with different requirements for cleaning water pressure strength, optimal cleaning efficiency and cleanliness can be achieved.

[0024] According to one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the pore size of the micropores 141 in the micropore region 140 is 1 μm to 100 μm. Since the pore size of the micropores 141 is smaller than the average pore size of the holes 120 in the foam 110, the flow rate and flow speed of the cleaning liquid passing through the micropore region 140 are both lower than those of the flow paths 121 in the foam 110, and the foam 110 is likely to be saturated with the cleaning liquid. The micropore region 140 is located on the surface layer of the foam 110 and has a thickness T1 of 30 μm to 200 μm. Since the depth T2 of the through holes 150 located on the outer surface layer of the foam 110 is larger than the thickness T1 of the micropore region 140, the cleaning liquid can be smoothly led out of the foam 110.

[0025] According to an embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the shape, number and position of the through holes 150 on the outer surface of the foam 110 are not particularly limited, and may be uniformly distributed or unevenly distributed according to the strength of the water pressure, as long as the cleaning liquid entering the brush roller structure 100 can be smoothly discharged and each part of the surface of the cleaning object, such as a wafer, can be uniformly cleaned. The through holes 150 on the outer surface of the foam 110 can form a region having a circular, elliptical, elongated or combination of these shapes. According to an embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, these through holes can be continuous or discontinuous circular, elliptical, elongated or combination of these, or a region formed by a combination of these, and are uniformly distributed on the outer surface of the foam, or are collected as a region and distributed on the outer surface of the foam.

[0026] According to one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the porosity of the foam 110 is 70% to 95%, and the appropriate porosity helps to increase the amount of cleaning liquid that can saturate the brush roller structure 100 so as to efficiently clean wafers or other precision components while less likely to damage their surfaces, and at the same time provides appropriate flexibility and sufficient resilience, etc.

[0027] According to one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the width P of this central channel 130 is between 9 mm and 30 mm.

[0028] According to another embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the outer surface of the foam of the brush roller structure may further include at least one bump, and these bumps may be flat cones or cylinders protruding from the outer surface of the foam, and the top shapes of these bumps include but are not limited to circular or rectangular, and the side shapes of these bumps include but are not limited to rectangular or trapezoidal. Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of one preferred embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, in which the outer surface of the foam 210 of the brush roller structure 200 further includes a plurality of columnar bumps 260. In one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the height H of the bump 260 is 4mm to 6mm, and the bottom width W1 of the bump 260 is 7mm to 13mm, and the top width W2 of the bump 260 is 6mm to 11mm, so that the bump 260 provides sufficient lateral support and better cleaning force when it contacts the object to be cleaned.

[0029] The foam of the brush roller structure of the present invention may be a foam of a crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol. The material of the brush roller structure may be obtained by foaming a reaction solution made of PVA or other foaming material. In one specific embodiment, the foaming material, the crosslinking agent, the catalyst and the solvent are uniformly mixed to form a reaction solution, and the reaction solution is filled with a gas having a volume of 21% to 50%. Then, the reaction solution containing the mixed dispersed gas is poured into a mold, and the pore formation speed and distribution are controlled by adjusting the appropriate maturation temperature, so that a foam having a porosity of 70% to 95% suitable for the present invention can be formed.

[0030] According to an embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the crosslinking agent used in the foam may be selected from the group consisting of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, glyoxal, propionaldehyde, butyraldehyde, succinic dialdehyde and glutaraldehyde. The solvent may be selected from those that easily dissolve PVA, such as water. The filled gas may be air, or a gas with low activity such as nitrogen gas or helium gas, so as to form bubbles when mixed with the foam material to form a reaction solution without chemically reacting with other components. This can achieve the effect of making it difficult to adjust the size and distribution position of the pore size compared to known solid pore-forming agents, and further avoid the problem that the incompletely dissolved and removed solid pore-forming agent affects the cleaning liquid flux in the brush roller structure and remains on the surface of the object to be cleaned.

[0031] According to one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the catalyst may be selected from the group consisting of hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, and nitric acid.

[0032] According to one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, the foam-forming reaction solution may further contain a surfactant in order to maintain the bubble content in the reaction solution and prevent the bubbles from collapsing during the manufacturing process. Suitable surfactants may be diglycerol polypropylene glycol ether, polyoxyl stearyl ester, polyethylene glycol octylphenyl ether or sodium alkylbenzene sulfonate.

[0033] The methods for forming these through holes on the outer surface of the foam of the brush roller structure of the present invention include laser ablation, knife cutting, chemical etching, grinding, etc. In a preferred embodiment, laser ablation is used to form through holes of a certain depth in the surface micropore region, and damage and residues to the internal holes and flow path structure can be reduced. In one embodiment of the brush roller structure of the present invention, in order to improve the flow guiding effect, the minimum width of each through hole is greater than 50 μm and preferably less than 450 μm, and the depth is greater than the structure of the thickness of the micropore region. In addition, the laser ablation method can form through holes of various different shapes and / or areas where through holes of various shapes are gathered on the outer surface of the brush roller structure, for example, a dot-shaped through hole is generated by a single-point laser method, or a continuous or discontinuous circular, elliptical, elongated, or combination thereof, or a combination thereof, consisting of through holes is formed by a combination of a single-point laser method and a laser ablation direction and frequency, and the through holes are distributed uniformly on the outer surface of the foam or gathered as an area and distributed on the outer surface of the foam.

[0034] In an embodiment in which the brush roller structure of the present invention includes a bump structure, a laser removal method is used to form through-holes that are not affected by the unevenness of the outer surface of the foam, and all of the micro-pore areas on the outer surface of the foam around the top, side, or bottom of the bump structure can be removed, facilitating the distribution of the through-holes on the outer surface of the foam and enhancing the flow guide effect. The power of the laser removal method suitable for the brush roller structure of the present invention may be less than 80W, and the laser light wavelength of the laser removal method may be 8000nm to 12000nm, or 800nm ​​to 1200nm.

[0035] The brush roller structure of the present invention has good fluid permeability, which is conducive to the passage of cleaning liquid, and can effectively clean wafers or other precision components, and avoids overflow and consumption due to excessive flow resistance in the process of cleaning with a large amount of water. Figure 3 is an electron microscope image of a part of the cross section of the foam surface and surface layer of the brush roller structure of the present invention at 60 times magnification. The foam surface layer of the brush roller structure has a micro-pore area 340 with a certain thickness, and the pore diameters of the micro-pores 341 in the micro-pore area 340 are all much smaller than the average pore diameter of the foam holes 320 or the flow paths 321 formed therefrom, so that the input cleaning liquid is unlikely to directly pass through the radial direction of the brush roller structure and flow out to the outer surface in large quantities, and can be transported uniformly and quickly with low resistance to each part of the brush roller structure along the axial and radial directions.

[0036] In addition, in order to be suitable for cleaning wafers or other precision elements, the porosity of the foam of the brush roller structure of the present invention is 70% to 95%, the average pore size is 300 μm to 500 μm, and the density is 60 g / cm 2 More than 100g / cm 2 The following compressive stress can be provided: When the compressive stress of the brush roller structure is higher than the lower limit, the brush cleaning efficiency can be as expected due to the provided resilience; when the compressive stress of the brush roller structure under the condition of a certain compression ratio is lower than the upper limit, the stress is too large during brush cleaning to avoid damaging the object to be cleaned.

[0037] 4a and 4b are 60x electron microscope images of the surfaces of two different embodiments of the brush roller structure of the present invention. FIG. 4a shows through holes 450a arranged in an elongated region on the surface of the brush roller structure, and FIG. 4b shows through holes 450b distributed in a dotted pattern on the surface of the brush roller structure, but the form of the through holes of the brush roller structure of the present invention is not limited to these two examples. In other embodiments of the brush roller structure, the through holes may be a region formed by a combination of a circular shape, an elliptical shape, and an elongated shape. The brush roller structure of the present invention can provide local water flow direction, pressure fine adjustment, etc. of the brush roller by arranging and distributing the different shaped regions of the surface through holes, and can be applied to various precision elements to achieve a better cleaning state.

[0038] As described above, the brush roller structure of the present invention is useful for increasing the permeability of the fluid passing through the foam, and for adjusting the flow rate and flow speed of the fluid through the brush roller structure, so that different types of objects can be cleaned, thus not only improving the efficiency of the cleaning process, but also reducing the amount of cleaning chemicals used and the waste of water resources. Therefore, the brush roller structure of the present invention is applicable to the cleaning process of the electronics industry, and has application potential in the relevant market.

[0039] The present invention has been disclosed in the above-mentioned embodiments, but the above-mentioned embodiments are not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, so the scope of protection of the present invention should be based on what is defined in the claims attached below. [Explanation of symbols]

[0040] 100, 200: Brush roller structure 110, 210: Foam 120: Hole 320: Hole 121: Flow path 321: Flow path 130: Center channel 140: Micropore area 141: Micropore 340: Micropore area 341: Micropore 150:Through hole 450a: Through hole 450b: Through hole 260: Bump P:Width T1: Thickness T2:Depth D1: Axial direction D2: Radial direction W1: Bottom width W2:Top width H: Height

Claims

1. A foam including a plurality of flow paths each having a plurality of alternating pores with an average pore size of 300 μm to 500 μm; a central channel disposed within the foam and communicating with the plurality of flow paths; a micropore region located on a surface layer of the foam and having a plurality of micropores having a pore size smaller than an average pore size of the plurality of pores in the foam; A plurality of through holes disposed on an outer surface of the foam; Including, A brush roller structure, wherein the depth of the plurality of through holes is 50 μm to 300 μm, and the total area of ​​the plurality of through holes occupies 10% to 90% of the total area of ​​the outer surface of the foam.

2. 2. The brush roller structure according to claim 1, wherein the pore size of the plurality of micropores in the micropore region is 1 μm to 100 μm.

3. 2. The brush roller structure of claim 1, wherein the microporous region has a thickness of 30 μm to 200 μm.

4. The brush roller structure of claim 1 , wherein a depth of the plurality of through holes is greater than a thickness of the microporous region.

5. 2. The brush roller structure of claim 1, wherein the plurality of through holes are in the shape of a continuous or discontinuous circle, ellipse, elongate or a combination thereof, or a region formed by a combination thereof, and the plurality of through holes are uniformly distributed on the outer surface of the foam or are collected as a region and distributed on the outer surface of the foam.

6. 2. The brush roller structure of claim 1, wherein a total area of ​​the plurality of through holes occupies 20% to 70% of a total area of ​​the outer surface of the foam.

7. The brush roller structure according to claim 1 , wherein the porosity of the foam is 70% to 95%.

8. 2. The brush roller structure of claim 1, wherein the width of the central channel is between 9 mm and 30 mm.

9. The brush roller structure of claim 1 , wherein the outer surface of the foam further comprises at least one bump.

10. 10. The brush roller structure of claim 9, wherein the bottom width of the bump is between 7mm and 13mm, and the top width of the bump is between 6mm and 11mm.

11. 10. The brush roller structure of claim 9, wherein the height of the bumps is between 4 mm and 6 mm.

12. The brush roller structure according to claim 1 , wherein the foam material comprises a cross-linked polyvinyl alcohol.

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