Wafer Holder Serration Layout for Uniform Cleaning Spacing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wafer cleaning technologies risk damaging highly scaled and integrated semiconductor chips during the cleaning process due to the narrow widths and fine pitches, necessitating a design that prevents such damage while effectively removing foreign substances.
Innovation Solution
A wafer cleaning apparatus with a specific structure featuring serrated parts and accommodation spaces that accommodate wafers uniformly, ensuring consistent spacing and contact points to prevent damage during cleaning operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional wafer cleaning apparatus is used, then cleaning operation can be performed, but wafer damage may occur due to non-uniform spacing and contact points
Solution Approach 1:
The connecting part features serrated parts with locally differentiated structures: a boundary connecting serrated part at the edge and multiple connecting serrated parts in the interior. Each serrated part has an upper surface with specific length in the second direction, creating localized contact points that ensure uniform spacing. This local quality differentiation resolves the contradiction by providing targeted structural features exactly where needed to prevent wafer damage without requiring complete redesign of the entire apparatus.
Solution Approach 2:
The connecting part is segmented into multiple distinct serrated parts rather than a continuous structure. The boundary connecting serrated part and multiple connecting serrated parts are spaced apart in the second direction, creating discrete accommodation spaces. This segmentation allows each serrated part to independently define contact points for wafers, ensuring uniform spacing while maintaining manufacturing feasibility through modular structural elements.
2Reliability
If uniform spacing is maintained among wafers, then wafer damage is prevented, but accommodation space utilization may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The design optimizes the spacing parameter between serrated parts to achieve uniform wafer spacing while maximizing accommodation capacity. The distance between the boundary connecting serrated part and multiple connecting serrated parts is carefully controlled, and the upper surface length of each serrated part in the second direction is standardized. These parameter adjustments ensure that wafers are spaced uniformly to prevent damage while the overall layout of serrated parts maximizes the number of wafers that can be accommodated in the cleaning apparatus.
Data Source
AI summary
A wafer cleaning apparatus and a semiconductor manufacturing process are provided. The wafer cleaning apparatus comprising a plate extending in a first direction, a connecting part which is directly connected to the plate, and extends in a second direction intersecting the first direction, a connecting serrated part which protrudes from the connecting part in the first direction, and is spaced apart from the plate in the second direction and a boundary connecting serrated part which protrudes from the connecting part in the first direction, and is directly connected to the plate, wherein the plate includes a guide part having a shape of a circle that is cut along an upper chord and a lower chord spaced apart in the first direction among chords of a circle, a holder connecting part extending from the upper chord in the first direction, and a support part extending from the lower chord in the first direction, the connecting serrated part includes a first connecting serrated part adjacent to the boundary connecting serrated part, and a second connecting serrated part adjacent to the first connecting serrated part, the first connecting serrated part is disposed between the boundary connecting serrated part and the second connecting serrated part, the connecting serrated part and the connecting part are directly connected to each other with the lower surface of the connecting serrated part as a boundary, and a distance of the lower surface of the connecting serrated part in the second direction is constant, a spaced distance in the second direction between a first point at which the boundary connecting serrated part and the first connecting serrated part are directly connected and a second point at which the first connecting serrated part and the second connecting serrated part are directly connected is defined as a distance of the lower surface of the first connecting serrated part in the second direction, and a distance of the lower surface of the first connecting serrated part in the second direction is equal to a spaced distance between the first point and the plate in the second direction.