Patent Application
20220314399
This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202010099687.4, titled “POLISHING LIQUID SUPPLY SYSTEM” and filed on Feb. 18, 2020, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Embodiments of the present application relate to the field of semiconductor processing technologies, and more particularly, to a polishing liquid supply system.
Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is also referred to as chemical mechanical planarization, which is one of the methods of wafer surface planarization. Surface roughness of a wafer can be greatly reduced by CMP, so as to achieve an effect of high-precision planarization. During CMP, a polishing liquid supply system may output a polishing liquid to a polishing pad in a CMP machine, and then, a polishing head sucks the wafer and presses the wafer onto the polishing pad to drive the wafer to rotate. The polishing pad may rotate in a direction opposite to a rotation direction of the polishing head, and a wafer surface may be planarized by friction between the wafer and the polishing pad. In general, the polishing liquid is mainly aqueous-solution-based complex suspensions, including abrasives of silica, alumina and ceria, and chemical additives. The polishing liquid supply system requires multiple processing steps for a raw polishing liquid to produce a polishing liquid that can be outputted to the CMP machine. A filtering step for the polishing liquid is extremely important.
Some implementations of the present application are intended to provide a polishing liquid supply system, which can not only improve cleaning efficiency of a filtering device, but also ensure that the residual polishing liquid in the filtering device does not drip down, thereby improving reliability of the polishing liquid supply system.
In order to solve the above technical problems, some embodiments of the present application provide a polishing liquid supply system, including: a polishing liquid preparation device, a cleaning liquid supply device and a filtering device, and further including a supply pipeline connected with the polishing liquid preparation device and the filtering device and a cleaning pipeline connected with the cleaning liquid supply device and the filtering device; the polishing liquid preparation device being configured to prepare a polishing liquid and convey the prepared polishing liquid to the filtering device through the supply pipeline; the filtering device being configured to filter the polishing liquid and convey the filtered polishing liquid to a polishing device connected with the filtering device; and the cleaning liquid supply device being configured to convey a cleaning liquid to the filtering device through the cleaning pipeline.
In addition, the polishing liquid supply system further includes a combination valve including a first control valve and a second control valve, the first control valve being arranged on the supply pipeline, and the second control valve being arranged on the cleaning pipeline.
In addition, the polishing liquid supply system further includes a control system in communication connections with the first control valve, the second control valve and the polishing device; and the polishing device is further configured to send a first instruction to the control system when the polishing liquid is needed, and the control system is configured to control the first control valve to switch-on and the second control valve to switch-off after receiving the first instruction. In this way, the polishing liquid supply system can be more intelligent and automatic without manual operation when the polishing liquid is needed in the polishing device.
In addition, the polishing liquid supply system further includes an impurity detection device, the impurity detection device being arranged in the filtering device, in a communication connection with the control system, and configured to send a second instruction to the control system when impurities in the filtering device exceed a preset threshold, and the control system being further configured to control the first control valve to switch-off and the second control valve to switch-on after receiving the second instruction. The impurity detection device is provided, so that when the impurities in the filtering device exceed the preset threshold, the control system can automatically clean the filtering device without manual operation of the control valve, thereby further reducing the labor cost.
In addition, the polishing liquid supply system further includes an impurity detection device, the impurity detection device being arranged in the filtering device, in a communication connection with the control system, and configured to send a second instruction to the control system when impurities in the filtering device exceed a preset threshold, and the control system being further configured to control the first control valve to close and the second control valve to open after receiving the second instruction. The impurity detection device is provided, so that when the impurities in the filtering device exceed the preset threshold, the control system can automatically clean the filtering device without manual operation of the control valve, thereby further reducing the labor cost.
In addition, the supply pipeline and the cleaning pipeline are arranged at the bottom of the filtering device, the top of the filtering device is further provided with a drain pipeline, and the drain pipeline is configured to convey the filtered polishing liquid outputted from the filtering device to the polishing device.
In addition, the polishing liquid supply system further includes a mounting box including a fixing bracket, the fixing bracket being configured to fix the combination valve and the filtering device into the mounting box.
In addition, the fixing bracket includes a first bracket and a second bracket, the first bracket is fixedly connected to the combination valve, the combination valve is fixedly connected to the filtering device, and the filtering device is fixedly connected to the second bracket.
In addition, the mounting box is movably connected to a fixed slot.
In addition, the polishing liquid supply system further includes a centrifugal pump arranged between the filtering device and the polishing liquid preparation device and configured to pump the polishing liquid in the polishing liquid preparation device into the filtering device.
In addition, the filtering device includes at least a first filtering device and a second filtering device, and the supply pipeline includes a first pipeline connected with the polishing liquid preparation device and the first filtering device and a second pipeline connected with the polishing liquid preparation device and the second filtering device; and the cleaning pipeline includes a third pipeline connected with the cleaning liquid supply device and the first filtering device and a fourth pipeline connected with the cleaning liquid supply device and the second filtering device. With such structural settings, when the polishing liquid is supplied to the polishing device by either one of the first filtering device and the second filtering device, the other one can be cleaned, so that the conveyance of the polishing liquid is not affected by the cleaning of the filtering device, thereby improving the working efficiency of the polishing liquid supply system.
In addition, the polishing liquid supply system further includes a first valve box and a polishing liquid circulation pipeline, the polishing liquid circulation pipeline being connected with the polishing liquid configuration device and the filtering device through the first valve box, and the first valve box being configured to control the polishing liquid to be transferred from the filtering device through the polishing liquid circulation pipeline to the polishing liquid preparation device or control the polishing liquid to be transferred from the polishing liquid preparation device through the supply pipeline to the filtering device. The polishing liquid circulation pipeline is provided, so that the residual polishing liquid in the filtering device can be re-conveyed to the polishing liquid preparation device for next use, thereby recycling the polishing liquid and reducing the polishing cost.
In addition, a primary filtering device is further arranged between the first valve box and the polishing liquid preparation device, the primary filtering device is configured to filter particles with particle sizes greater than a first particle size, the filtering device is configured to filter particles with particle sizes greater than a second particle size, and the first particle size is greater than the second particle size.
In addition, the polishing liquid preparation device includes a raw polishing liquid supply unit, a polishing liquid mixing tank unit connected with the raw polishing liquid supply unit and a polishing liquid supply tank unit connected with the polishing liquid mixing tank unit, and the polishing liquid supply tank unit is connected with the filtering device through the supply pipeline.
In addition, the polishing liquid mixing tank unit is connected to the polishing liquid supply tank unit through a second valve box, and the second valve box is configured to control the polishing liquid to be transferred from the polishing liquid mixing tank unit to the polishing liquid supply tank unit or control the polishing liquid to be transferred from the polishing liquid supply tank unit to the polishing liquid mixing tank unit.
In addition, each of the polishing liquid mixing tank unit and the polishing liquid supply tank unit is provided therein with a polishing liquid measuring instrument, and the polishing liquid measuring instrument includes at least one of a specific gravity measuring instrument, a pH measuring instrument and a conductivity measuring instrument.
According to some embodiments of the present application, the supply pipeline connected with the polishing liquid preparation device and the filtering device and the cleaning pipeline connected with the cleaning liquid supply device and the filtering device are provided, so that when the polishing liquid is required to be supplied to the polishing device, the supply pipeline can be controlled to open and the cleaning pipeline can be controlled to close, enabling the polishing liquid to be conveyed to the filtering device through the supply pipeline, and then, the filtering device conveys the filtered polishing liquid to the polishing device. When the filtering device is required to be cleaned, the supply pipeline can be controlled to close and the cleaning pipeline can be controlled to open, so that the cleaning liquid can be conveyed to the filtering device through the cleaning pipeline to clear residues in the filtering device. That is, the supply process of the polishing liquid and the cleaning process of the filtering device may both be completed by the polishing liquid supply system. The two processes may be switched without disassembly of any equipment, which avoids the case where “it takes a long time to disassemble the filtering device, and the filtering device is required to be re-mounted after disassembly, which leads to a low cleaning efficiency of the filtering device; and during the disassembly of the filtering device, the residual polishing liquid in the filtering device may drip down, which causes the pollution of an internal circuit in the CMP machine and makes the reliability of the polishing liquid supply system not high”, and can ensure that the residual polishing liquid in the filtering device may not drip down while the cleaning efficiency of the filtering device is improved, thereby improving the reliability of the polishing liquid supply system.
One or more embodiments are exemplarily described by using figures that are corresponding thereto in the accompanying drawings; the exemplary descriptions do not constitute limitations on the embodiments. Elements with same reference numerals in the accompanying drawings are similar elements. Unless otherwise particularly stated, the figures in the accompanying drawings do not constitute a scale limitation.
In order to make the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of the present application clearer, the embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, those skilled in the art should understand that many technical details have been presented in the embodiments of the present application in order to make the present application better understood by readers. However, even without these technical details and various changes and modifications based on the following embodiments, the technical solution claimed in the present application can also be achieved.
One embodiment of the present application relates to a polishing liquid supply system 100, with a specific structure as shown in
a polishing liquid preparation device 1, a cleaning liquid supply device 2 and a filtering device 3, and further including a supply pipeline 10 connected with the polishing liquid preparation device 1 and the filtering device 3 and a cleaning pipeline 20 connected with the cleaning liquid supply device 2 and the filtering device 3. The polishing liquid preparation device 1 is configured to prepare a polishing liquid and convey the prepared polishing liquid to the filtering device 3 through the supply pipeline 10. The filtering device 3 is configured to filter the polishing liquid and convey the filtered polishing liquid to a polishing device 4 connected with the filtering device 3. The cleaning liquid supply device 2 is configured to convey a cleaning liquid to the filtering device 3 through the cleaning pipeline 20.
Specifically, the polishing device 4 in the present embodiment may be a CMP machine. In the CMP machine, a polishing head sucks a wafer and presses the wafer onto a polishing pad to drive the wafer to rotate, and the polishing pad rotates in a direction opposite to a rotation direction of the polishing head. During polishing, the polishing liquid supply system injects the polishing liquid into the CMP machine. The polishing liquid may effectively reduce the wear of the polishing head and may not cause damages to the CMP machine.
It may be understood that the polishing liquid prepared by the polishing liquid preparation device 1 contains large particulate matter (the large particulate matter has a diameter generally between 1 micron and 5 microns). The filtering device 3 is provided, so that the large particulate matter in the polishing liquid can be filtered out to ensure that the diameter of the particulate matter in the polishing liquid is less than a second particle size. The second particle size may be between 0.2 micron and 0.3 micron, so as to ensure the polishing effect of the polishing device 4. In addition, the cleaning liquid in the present embodiment may be cleaning water or other liquids capable of cleaning the large particulate matter in the filtering device 3. The type of the cleaning liquid is not specifically limited in the present embodiment.
Referring to
Referring to
According to the embodiment of the present application, the supply pipeline 10 connected with the polishing liquid preparation device 1 and the filtering device 3 and the cleaning pipeline 20 connected with the cleaning liquid supply device 2 and the filtering device 3 are provided, so that when the polishing liquid is required to be supplied to the polishing device 4, the supply pipeline 10 can be controlled to open and the cleaning pipeline 20 can be controlled to close, enabling the polishing liquid to be conveyed to the filtering device 3 through the supply pipeline 10, and then, the filtering device 3 conveys the filtered polishing liquid to the polishing device 4. When the filtering device 3 is required to be cleaned, the supply pipeline 10 can be controlled to close and the cleaning pipeline 20 can be controlled to open, so that the cleaning liquid can be conveyed to the filtering device 3 through the cleaning pipeline 20 to clear residues in the filtering device 3. That is, the supply process of the polishing liquid and the cleaning process of the filtering device 3 may both be completed by the polishing liquid supply system 100. The two processes may be switched without disassembly of any equipment, which avoids the case where “it takes a long time to disassemble the filtering device, and the filtering device is required to be re-mounted after disassembly, which leads to low cleaning efficiency of the filtering device; and during the disassembly of the filtering device, the residual polishing liquid in the filtering device may drip down, which causes the pollution of an internal circuit in the CMP machine and makes the reliability of the polishing liquid supply system not high”, and can ensure that the residual polishing liquid in the filtering device 3 may not drip down while the cleaning efficiency of the filtering device 3 is improved, thereby improving the reliability of the polishing liquid supply system 100.
The following is a specific description of the implementation details of the polishing liquid supply system 100 according to the present embodiment. The following contents are only provided to easily understand the implementation details, and are not necessary for the implementation of the solution.
In the present embodiment, as shown in
Preferably, a control system (not shown in the figure) is further included. The control system is in communication connections with the first control valve 61, the second control valve 62 and the polishing device 4. The polishing device 4 is further configured to send a first instruction to the control system when the polishing liquid is needed, and the control system is configured to control the first control valve 61 to switch-on and the second control valve 62 to switch-off after receiving the first instruction. In this way, the polishing liquid supply system 100 can be more intelligent and automatic without manual operation when the polishing liquid is needed in the polishing device 4.
More preferably, an impurity detection device 7 is further included. The impurity detection device 7 is arranged in the filtering device 3, in a communication connection with the control system, and configured to send a second instruction to the control system when impurities in the filtering device 3 exceed a preset threshold, and the control system is further configured to control the first control valve 61 to switch-off and the second control valve 62 to switch-on after receiving the second instruction. The impurity detection device 7 is provided, so that when the impurities in the filtering device 3 exceed the preset threshold, the control system can automatically clean the filtering device 3 without manual operation of the control valve, thereby further reducing the labor cost.
It should be noted that the supply pipeline 10 and the cleaning pipeline 20 are arranged at the bottom of the filtering device 3, the top of the filtering device 3 is further provided with a drain pipeline 30, and the drain pipeline 30 is configured to convey the filtered polishing liquid outputted from the filtering device 3 to the polishing device 4. That is, the filtering device 3 is vertically mounted in the polishing liquid supply system 100. This is because the polishing device 4 is arranged above the polishing liquid preparation device 1 during practical applications, so the polishing liquid flows vertically upward to the polishing device 4. The filtering device 3 is arranged in a direction the same as the flow direction of the polishing liquid, which can facilitate the operation of the combination valve 6, facilitate bubble discharge of a polishing liquid filter, and reduce a risk of bending the pipeline.
It should be noted that as shown in
In addition, the mounting box 70 is movably connected to a fixed slot 90 and may be connected to the fixed slot 90 through a fixing bolt 91. After moving to a target position along an extension direction of the fixed slot 90, the mounting box 70 may be fixedly connected to the fixed slot 90 through the fixing bolt 91 to prevent position offset of the mounting box 70. It may be understood that the fixed slot 90 may be arranged on the polishing device 4 or fixedly arranged on the ground. With such structural settings, the mounting box 70 can be independent of the polishing device 4 and can move relative to the polishing device 4, so as to easily clean the mounting box 70 and replace various devices in the mounting box 70.
It may be understood that, since the filtering device 3 is arranged vertically, the polishing liquid supply system 100 according to the present embodiment further includes a centrifugal pump (not shown in the drawing). The centrifugal pump is arranged between the filtering device 3 and the polishing liquid preparation device 1 and configured to pump the polishing liquid in the polishing liquid preparation device 1 into the filtering device 3. The centrifugal pump may also be arranged between the filtering device 3 and the polishing device 4 and configured to pump the filtered polishing liquid in the filtering device 3 into the polishing device 4. Preferably, the centrifugal pump in the present embodiment may be a magnetic levitation water pump. The magnetic levitation water pump has the advantages of high conversion efficiency, low power consumption, unrestricted head, bearings not susceptible to damage, or the like, and the polishing liquid may be prevented from being polluted by granular objects produced by the centrifugal pump, thereby further improving the stability of the polishing liquid supply system 100.
Specifically, a first valve box 9 and a polishing liquid circulation pipeline 50 are further included. The polishing liquid circulation pipeline 50 is connected with the polishing liquid preparation device 1 and the filtering device 3 through the first valve box 9, and the first valve box 9 is configured to control the polishing liquid to be transferred from the filtering device 3 through the polishing liquid circulation pipeline 50 to the polishing liquid preparation device 1 or control the polishing liquid to be transferred from the polishing liquid preparation device 1 through the supply pipeline 10 to the filtering device 3. During conveyance from the filtering device 3 to the polishing device 4, some residual polishing liquid may not be conveyed to the polishing device 4. The residual polishing liquid may deposit at the bottom of the filtering device 3. The polishing liquid circulation pipeline 50 is provided, so that the residual polishing liquid in the filtering device 3 can be re-conveyed to the first valve box 9 for next use, thereby recycling the polishing liquid and reducing the polishing cost. It may be understood that a control valve may be arranged on the polishing liquid circulation pipeline 50. When the polishing liquid is supplied to the polishing device 4, the control valve for controlling opening and closing of the polishing liquid circulation pipeline 50 closes to prevent the polishing liquid from flowing back to the first valve box 9 at this point. Upon completion of the supply, the control valve opens to allow the residual polishing liquid to flow back to the first valve box 9.
Preferably, a primary filtering device 33 is further arranged between the first valve box 9 and the polishing liquid preparation device 1 and configured to filter particles with particle sizes greater than a first particle size, the filtering device 3 is configured to filter particles with particle sizes greater than a second particle size, and the first particle size is greater than the second particle size. The primary filtering device 33 is provided, so that large particulate matter in the polishing liquid can be preliminarily filtered out to ensure that a diameter of the particulate matter in the polishing liquid is less than the first particle size. The first particle size may be 1 micron, 3 microns or 5 microns. The polishing liquid after preliminary filtration undergoes secondary filtration through the filtering device 3. With such structural settings, the filtering effect of the polishing liquid can be improved, so as to provide a polishing liquid with fewer impurities for the polishing device 4, thereby improving the polishing performance of the polishing device 4.
It should be noted that the polishing liquid preparation device 1 includes a plurality of polishing liquid supply modules 11. At least one of the plurality of polishing liquid supply modules 11 is connected with the filtering device 3 through the supply pipeline 10. That is, the polishing liquid supply system 100 adopts multi-barrel supply. When the polishing liquid is required to be supplied to the polishing device 4, one of the plurality of polishing liquid supply modules 11 conveys the polishing liquid to the filtering device 3, and another of the plurality of polishing liquid supply modules 11 may prepare or maintain the polishing liquid, which can increase the buffer time of replacement of the polishing liquid. The dilution, supply and maintenance of the polishing liquid are not affected by one another, thereby increasing the production capacity. It may be understood that the number of the polishing liquid supply modules 11 is not specifically limited in the present embodiment, and different numbers of polishing liquid supply modules 11 may be provided as needed.
It should be noted that, as shown in
Preferably, the polishing liquid mixing tank unit 13 is connected to the polishing liquid supply tank unit 14 through a second valve box 15, and the second valve box 15 is configured to control the polishing liquid to be transferred from the polishing liquid mixing tank unit 13 to the polishing liquid supply tank unit 14 or control the polishing liquid to be transferred from the polishing liquid supply tank unit 14 to the polishing liquid mixing tank unit 13.
More preferably, each of the polishing liquid mixing tank unit 13 and the polishing liquid supply tank unit 14 is provided therein with a polishing liquid measuring instrument (not shown in the drawing). The polishing liquid measuring instrument includes at least one of a specific gravity measuring instrument, a pH measuring instrument and a conductivity measuring instrument. With such structural settings, a variety of chemical parameters (such as pH and conductivity) of the polishing liquid can be known through the polishing liquid measuring instrument, so that the polishing liquid prepared can meet an actual requirement.
Another embodiment of the present application further provides a polishing liquid supply system 200. The present embodiment makes further improvements on the basis of the previous embodiment. A main improvement lies in that, in the present embodiment, as shown in
Specifically, the supply pipeline 10 shown in
More specifically, the combination valve 6 in the present embodiment includes a first control valve 61 that controls switch-on and switch-off of the first pipeline 101, a second control valve 62 that controls switch-on and switch-off of the second pipeline 102, a third control valve 63 that controls switch-on and switch-off of the third pipeline 201 and a fourth control valve 64 that controls switch-on and switch-off of the fourth pipeline 202. For ease of understanding, the following is a specific example of an operation mode of the polishing liquid supply system 200 according to the present embodiment.
When the polishing liquid is required to be supplied to the polishing device 4, if the polishing liquid is to be filtered through the filtering device 31, the first control valve 61 to switch-on, the second control valve 62 to switch-off, the polishing liquid in the polishing liquid preparation device 1 is pumped from the first pipeline 101 into the filtering device 3 through the centrifugal pump, the filtering device 3 filters the polishing liquid, and the filtered polishing liquid is pumped from the drain pipeline 30 into the polishing device 4 through the centrifugal pump. At this point, the second filtering device 32 can be cleaned synchronously, the third control valve 63 to switch-off, the fourth control valve 64 to switch-on, the cleaning liquid in the cleaning liquid supply device 2 flows into the filtering device 3 through the fourth pipeline 202, and the cleaning liquid after use may flow through the drain pipeline 30 to the machine of the polishing device 4 and then be discharged.
In one possible embodiment, an exhaust passage is designed for both internal circulation and external circulation of each filtering device 3, which can be used for damage reduction cleaning before the replacement of the filtering device 3 and for holding pressure after the replacement of the filtering device 3.
In another possible embodiment, pressure sensors are configured ahead of and behind the filtering device 3. After a period of use of the filtering device 3, the amount of sediment (impurities) in a chamber of the filtering device 3 may increase, which may lead to blockage or scaling of elements in the filtering device 3, so that pressure reduction can be detected through the upstream pressure sensor and the downstream pressure sensor of the filtering device 3. Therefore, the pressure sensors configured ahead and behind can reflect the filtration performance of the filtering device 3 in real time. When the filtration performance of the filtering device 3 is poor, the pressure sensor may give an alarm, so that the filtering device 3 can be replaced in time.
In another possible embodiment, when the polishing liquid is supplied to different polishing devices 4, polishing liquid filters of different specifications may be used (that is, filtering devices with different particle sizes may be mounted), and the same mounting bracket can be used to achieve unified and convenient disassembly and assembly. The supply pipeline 10 and the cleaning pipeline 20 adopt different valve set supply systems for switching, so as to flexibly meet different system supply process requirements.
In another possible embodiment, the mounting box includes a detachable cover plate. The periphery of the cover plate is connected to a box body of the mounting box by a movable buckle, so that the cover plate fits more closely to a sealing ring of the box body to achieve a leakage-proof effect. The cover plate may be a transparent PVC cover plate, such that the technical personnel may conveniently look directly at the interior. The technical personnel can remove or open the cover plate to replace and adjust the devices inside the mounting box.
Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that the above embodiments are specific embodiments for implementing the present application; however, in practical applications, various variations may be made thereto in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. Any person skilled in the art may make respective changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application should be subject to the scope defined by the claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202010099687.4 | Feb 2020 | CN | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CN2021/076408 | 2/9/2021 | WO |
