Method for treating substrate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9831081-B2
Application number	US-201615176972-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 8, 2016
Priority date	Sep 4, 2015
Publication date	Nov 28, 2017
Grant date	Nov 28, 2017

Abstract

In embodiment, the method includes cleaning a preceding substrate, and drying the preceding substrate and cleaning a next substrate. Drying the preceding substrate and cleaning the next substrate include determining a cleaning start time of the next substrate, and the cleaning start time corresponds to a desired time point after starting drying the preceding substrate.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for treating a substrate, the method comprising:
cleaning a preceding substrate via a supercritical fluid; and
drying the preceding substrate and cleaning a next substrate, such that a time for drying the preceding substrate is longer than a time for cleaning the preceding substrate, and the drying the preceding substrate and the cleaning the next substrate including,
starting drying the preceding substrate; and
determining a cleaning start time of the next substrate, the cleaning start time corresponding to a desired time point after the starting drying the preceding substrate, the desired time point being a point at which the supercritical fluid is saturated.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drying the preceding substrate and the cleaning the next substrate further comprises:
cleaning the next substrate after determining the cleaning start time of the next substrate;
determining whether the drying the preceding substrate and the cleaning the next substrate are completed; and
determining whether another substrate to be cleaned exists when the drying the preceding substrate and the cleaning the next substrate are completed.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the drying the preceding substrate and the cleaning the next substrate further comprises:
recognizing the next substrate and the another substrate as a preceding substrate and a next substrate, respectively, when the another substrate exists.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the drying the preceding substrate and the cleaning the next substrate further comprises:
recognizing the next substrate as a last substrate when the another substrate does not exist.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
drying the last substrate.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the cleaning the next substrate comprises:
etching the next substrate; and
rinsing the next substrate.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the drying the preceding substrate comprises:
increasing pressure of the supercritical fluid provided to the preceding substrate;
maintaining a saturated supercritical fluid on the preceding substrate; and
reducing pressure of the saturated supercritical fluid on the preceding substrate before cleaning the next substrate is completed.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the reducing the pressure of the saturated supercritical fluid comprises:
reducing the pressure of the supercritical fluid at a first rate; and
reducing the pressure of the supercritical fluid at a second rate,
wherein the rinsing the next substrate and the reducing the pressure of the supercritical fluid at the second rate are started at a same time.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the etching the next substrate is started during the maintaining of the saturated supercritical fluid.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cleaning start time of the next substrate is calculated based on a time for the cleaning the preceding substrate.

11. A method for treating a substrate, the method comprising:
cleaning a preceding substrate via a supercritical fluid;
drying the preceding substrate and cleaning a next substrate, such that a time for the drying the preceding substrate is longer than a time for cleaning the preceding substrate, and the drying the preceding substrate and cleaning the next substrate comprises,
starting drying the preceding substrate;
determining a cleaning start time of the next substrate, the cleaning start time corresponding to a desired time point after the starting drying the preceding substrate, the desired time point being a point at which the supercritical fluid is saturated;
cleaning the next substrate from the cleaning start time of the next substrate; and
determining whether the drying the preceding substrate and the cleaning the next substrate are completed,

drying a last substrate when the next substrate is the last substrate.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the cleaning the next substrate comprises:
etching the next substrate; and
rinsing the next substrate.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the drying the preceding substrate comprises:
increasing pressure of the supercritical fluid provided to the preceding substrate after starting drying the preceding substrate;
maintaining a saturated supercritical fluid on the preceding substrate; and
reducing pressure of the saturated supercritical fluid on the preceding substrate before cleaning the next substrate is completed.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the reducing the pressure of the saturated supercritical fluid comprises:
reducing the pressure of the supercritical fluid at a first rate; and
reducing the pressure of the supercritical fluid at a second rate,
wherein the rinsing the next substrate and reducing the pressure of the supercritical fluid at the second rate are started at a same time.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the drying the preceding substrate and the cleaning the next substrate further comprises:
determining whether another substrate to be cleaned exists when the drying the preceding substrate and the cleaning the next substrate are completed; and
recognizing the next substrate and the another substrate as a preceding substrate and a next substrate, respectively, when the another substrate exists.

16. A method for treating a substrate, the method comprising:
drying a preceding substrate in a drying chamber;
cleaning a next substrate in a cleaning chamber; and
controlling the drying of the preceding substrate and the cleaning the next substrate such that the cleaning the next substrate starts after a pressure of a supercritical fluid reaches a saturated point in the drying chamber and stops when the pressure of the supercritical fluid decreases to zero from the saturated point in the drying chamber.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the drying the preceding substrate and the cleaning the next substrate further comprises:
determining whether another substrate to be cleaned exists when the drying the preceding substrate and the cleaning the next substrate are completed.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the drying the preceding substrate and the cleaning the next substrate further comprises:
recognizing the next substrate and the another substrate as a preceding substrate and a next substrate, respectively, when the another substrate exists; and
repeating the cleaning the another substrate and the drying the next substrate.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the drying the preceding substrate and the cleaning the next substrate further comprises:
recognizing the next substrate as a last substrate when the another substrate does not exist, and
drying the last substrate.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Jeong Jihoon
• Oh Jung-Min
• Lee Kuntack
• Lee Hyosan

Classifications

• H10P70/00

  Cleaning of wafers, substrates or parts of devices · CPC title

• H10P72/0612

  Production flow monitoring, e.g. for increasing throughput · CPC title

• H10P72/0604

  Process monitoring, e.g. flow or thickness monitoring · CPC title

• H10P72/0406 Primary

  for cleaning followed by drying, rinsing, stripping, blasting or the like · CPC title

• H10P70/80

  Cleaning only by supercritical fluids · CPC title