Reticle Pod Spoiler Structure for Particle Containment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional reticle pods lack sufficient airtightness, allowing external particles to contaminate the reticle due to poor sealing, which is critical in advanced lithography processes like EUV lithography where cleanliness is paramount.
Innovation Solution
A reticle pod with a spoiler structure featuring a protruding and dented portion forming a spoiler passage around the reticle allocation area, which lengthens the gas flow path and includes a particle-collecting sidewall to prevent particles from entering the reticle area, ensuring enhanced micro-contamination control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a conventional reticle pod uses simple peripheral fitting between cover and body, then the device complexity is low, but the airtightness is poor allowing particles to enter
Solution Approach 1:
The peripheral fitting structure is segmented into multiple functional elements: a protruding portion extending from the body, a dented portion receiving the protruding portion, and a spoiler structure with passage formed between them. This segmentation transforms a simple sealing interface into a multi-functional assembly that provides both sealing and particle deflection functions, resolving the contradiction between airtightness and structural complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The spoiler structure acts as an intermediary element between the protruding portion and dented portion. It creates a spoiler passage that mediates gas flow, forcing particles to traverse a longer, more complex path before reaching the reticle allocation area, thereby enhancing particle protection while maintaining the fitting structure.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If gas flow path is shortened for easy manufacturing, then the manufacturing precision is easier to achieve, but particles can readily reach the reticle
Solution Approach 1:
The spoiler structure introduces curved and non-linear flow paths through its three-dimensional configuration. The passage winds between the protruding and dented portions, creating a serpentine route that particles must follow. This curvature increases the effective path length and complexity without requiring proportionally more manufacturing steps, as the complexity is achieved through spatial arrangement rather than additional components.
Solution Approach 2:
The spoiler passage extends the flow path into the third dimension by utilizing the vertical space between the protruding and dented portions. Rather than simply lengthening the horizontal path, the design creates a multi-level flow route that descends and ascends through the spoiler structure, effectively increasing path length and particle exposure time without proportionally increasing the footprint or manufacturing difficulty.
3Ease of manufacture
If the reticle pod uses a simple cover and body fitting, then the ease of manufacture is high, but particles carried by air current can enter the reticle allocation area
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges multiple functions into the cover-body fitting structure: sealing (protruding portion fitting into dented portion), particle deflection (spoiler structure), and flow path lengthening (spoiler passage). By combining these functions into a single integrated assembly rather than separate components, the design maintains relative manufacturing simplicity while achieving enhanced particle protection. The spoiler structure is formed as part of the fitting mechanism itself, not as an additional separate component.
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
The spoiler structure effectively reduces the likelihood of particles reaching the reticle by lengthening the gas flow path and confining particles to a particle-collecting space, thereby maintaining reticle cleanliness and protection.
Implementation Method 1
the spoiler structure comprises a spoiler passage disposed between the dented portion and the protruding portion... effective in lengthening a gas flow path to thereby reduce the likelihood that particles carried by a gas will reach a reticle allocation area
Implementation Method 2
the body has at least one sidewall corresponding in position to the spoiler passage to form a particle-collecting space... particles carried by an air current which enters the sidewall is unlikely to climb across the sidewall, thereby confining the particles to the spoiler passage
Data Source
AI summary
A reticle pod with a spoiler structure includes a body and a cover. A reticle allocation area is centrally disposed at the body. The cover covers the body. A peripheral area of the cover and a peripheral area of the body are fitted together by a protruding portion and a dented portion. The dented portion and the protruding portion jointly form a spoiler structure surrounding the reticle allocation area. The spoiler structure includes a spoiler passage between the dented portion and the protruding portion. The body has at least one sidewall corresponding in position to the spoiler passage to form a particle-collecting space. Particles carried by external air current which enters the spoiler passage end up in the particle-collecting space and thus are denied entry into the reticle allocation area.