Substrate Transfer Hand Cleaning for Wet-to-Dry Wafer Handling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current substrate treating apparatuses face contamination issues during transportation of dried substrates due to the transport robot's hands getting wet with deionized water, which can contaminate the substrates.
Innovation Solution
A substrate treating apparatus with a cleaning and drying unit that cleans and dries the transport robot's hands before and after transporting substrates, preventing contamination and reducing the frequency of cleaning and drying operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the transport robot transports wet substrates from the posture turning unit, then the substrates can be moved to the single-wafer processing unit, but the hands of the transport robot get wet with deionized water and may contaminate dried substrates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the transport robot's operation into separate zones: a wet zone for transporting substrates from the posture turning unit and a dry zone for transporting dried substrates. The hands are cleaned and dried at the boundary between these zones, effectively segmenting the contamination risk and ensuring that dried substrates are only handled by clean hands.
Solution Approach 2:
The cleaning and drying of the transport robot's hands is performed as a preliminary action before the hands contact dried substrates. The hands are cleaned with cleaning liquid and then dried by a drying mechanism before picking up dried substrates from the single-wafer processing unit, preventing contamination in advance.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the hands of the transport robot are cleaned and dried frequently, then contamination is prevented, but the time required for cleaning and drying increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuous cleaning, the patent implements periodic cleaning actions at specific intervals in the transport cycle. The hands are cleaned and dried periodically when transitioning between wet and dry substrate handling zones, rather than continuously, thereby reducing total cleaning time while maintaining contamination prevention.
Solution Approach 2:
The transport robot performs self-cleaning and self-drying of its own hands using integrated cleaning liquid supply and drying mechanisms. This automated self-service approach eliminates the need for external intervention and minimizes the time loss associated with manual cleaning operations.
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
Prevents substrate contamination by keeping the transport robot's hands clean, reduces resource consumption, and enhances throughput by minimizing the time between wetting and cleaning/drying, thus maintaining apparatus cleanliness and efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
a cleaning and drying unit configured to perform cleaning and drying treatment on the hand of the second transport unit
Data Source
AI summary
A substrate treating apparatus includes a batch-type processing unit configured to perform treatment on a plurality of substrates, a single-wafer-type processing unit configured to perform treatment on one substrate of the substrates at a time, a posture turning unit configured to turn and change the orientation of the substrates to be processed by the batch-type processing unit, while the substrates are wetted with deionized water, a first transport unit that transports the substrates, processed by the batch-type processing unit, to the posture turning unit, a second transport unit that transports the substrates turned horizontally by the posture turning unit to enable them to be subjected to treatment with the hand unit and a cleaning and drying unit configured to perform cleaning and drying treatment at the hand unit.