Cluster Tool Enclosure for UV Curing and Spin Coating
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current processing apparatuses for electronic devices face challenges in minimizing contamination and reducing transportation duration while efficiently performing spin coating and ultraviolet curing processes, particularly due to the lack of effective isolation and control of ultraviolet radiation and fluid transfer between chambers.
Innovation Solution
A processing apparatus with a cluster tool configuration, including a spin coating chamber, an ultraviolet curing chamber, and a transfer module enclosed within an enclosure, utilizes ultraviolet blocking and fluid isolating structures to prevent contamination and radiation influence, and a controlled environment to ensure efficient and uniform processing, with a transfer module capable of moving substrates between chambers while maintaining a sealed interior space.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If substrates are transported between chambers in a conventional processing apparatus, then the processing can be performed, but contamination increases and transportation duration is extended
Solution Approach 1:
The processing apparatus is divided into multiple sealed chambers (spin coating chamber, UV curing chamber, etc.), each performing a specific function. Substrates are transported between these segmented chambers through a transfer module that maintains sealing, thus preventing contamination while enabling sequential processing operations.
Solution Approach 2:
A transfer module acts as an intermediary component between chambers, enabling substrate transport while maintaining the sealed environment. This intermediary mechanism allows substrates to move between processing zones without exposing them to external contamination, resolving the contradiction between transportation necessity and contamination prevention.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If UV radiation is not blocked between chambers, then the processing is simpler, but substrates are exposed to harmful UV radiation outside the curing chamber
Solution Approach 1:
UV blocking functionality is extracted as a separate feature of the chamber walls and transfer module. The chambers are designed with UV-blocking materials and structures that specifically address UV radiation protection, while other chamber functions remain independent. This extraction allows UV protection to be implemented without complicating the overall chamber design.
Solution Approach 2:
The chamber walls and transfer module are designed to block UV radiation, converting the potentially harmful UV exposure into a controlled benefit where UV is only present where needed (in the curing chamber) and blocked where harmful (in other chambers and during transfer). This transforms the UV radiation from a harmful factor to a controlled processing parameter.
3Manufacturing precision
If chambers are not isolated from each other, then the apparatus structure is simpler, but fluid transfer causes contamination and processing precision decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The processing apparatus is segmented into isolated chambers that prevent fluid transfer and contamination between processing zones. Each chamber maintains its own controlled environment, ensuring processing precision while the overall system remains integrated through the transfer module that moves substrates between sealed chambers.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration reduces contamination and transportation time, enabling precise and uniform processing of substrates through effective isolation and control of ultraviolet radiation and fluid transfer, enhancing the manufacturing processes for electronic devices like low-k dielectric and pore seal layer formation.
Implementation Method 1
an ultraviolet blocking structure present between the ultraviolet curing chamber and the spin coating chamber, so that an influence on the substrates retained in the spin coating chamber caused by ultraviolet radiation generated in the ultraviolet curing chamber is reduced
Implementation Method 2
a spin coating chamber (150) and an ultraviolet curing chamber (160). The transfer module (120) may include a front end robot (122) that is adapted to access the spin coating chamber (150), the ultraviolet curing chamber (160) and the load ports (110)
Data Source
AI summary
A processing apparatus includes a spin coating chamber, an ultraviolet curing chamber, a transfer module and an enclosure. The transfer module is assigned with a plurality transfer destinations, in which two of the transfer destinations are respectively located within the spin coating chamber and the ultraviolet curing chamber. The transfer module, the spin coating chamber and the ultraviolet curing chamber are enclosed by the enclosure.