Tip for a Vacuum Pipette With Improved Electrostatic Discharge Properties

This invention is in the field of integrated circuit manufacture. More particularly, it is in the field of vacuum tools used to manipulate individual semiconductor wafers during manufacture.

During the manufacture of integrated circuits, it is often necessary to pick up and manipulate the individual semiconductor wafers upon which the circuits are fabricated. Various vacuum tools and wands are used for this purpose. The tip of one such vacuum tool is described in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,315, entitled "TIP FOR A VACUUM PIPETTE", the specification of which is incorporated herein for all purposes.

Although the tips described in the referenced patent perform well, there is at least one problem which is encountered during the fabrication of integrated circuits which these tips do not solve. Often during the manufacturing process the wafers become charged with static electricity. Charged wafers attract particles in the workplace having the opposite charge. These particles, if they actually contact the wafer, can damage the circuits being formed on the wafer, causing various malfunctions. Although grounding the vacuum tools is a known technique to avoid this problem, the abrupt static discharge that can occur when a normally grounded vacuum tool comes in contact with a charged wafer can be large enough to cause damage to the circuits. Thus, a need exists for a tip for vacuum tools that permits the discharge of static electricity without damaging the circuits being formed on the wafer.

The present invention comprises a tip for a vacuum tool made of a conductive or dissipative material, the form of the tip being known and disclosed in the commonly-owned patent, the tip being coupled to a very large resistance. When the resistance is coupled to the tip, the single large electrostatic discharge which occurs when the known tips are used with charged wafers is reduced to a series of small discharges, each being too small to damage the wafer.

In a further addition to the known art, the tips are coated with a very pure ceramic coating, reducing particle contamination from the tool itself. The same ceramic coating, made with a controlled conductivity, can help adjust the impedance of the tip to permit safe electrostatic discharge of the charged wafers.

The invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings noted below.

FIG. 1 is a top perspective view of the present invention;

FIG. 2a is an enlarged side view of FIG. 1 cut away to reveal the impedance section of the present invention;

FIG. 2b is a sectional view of FIG. 1 taken along a line 2b--2b and showing the two passages A and B in the PEEK cylinder 3 prior to insertion of any components.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing the typical discharge of a statically charged semiconductor wafer with respect to time when a tip embodying the present invention is used to handle the wafer.

FIG. 1 shows a vacuum tool tip of the type described in co-owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,315 and incorporating the improvement of the present invention. As the specification of commonly owned patent is incorporated herein for all purposes, no discussion of that tip's construction and operation, except as relevant to the improvements described herein, will be necessary.

As shown in FIG. 1, the tip can comprise poly-ether-ether-ketone ("PEEK"), poly-ether-ketone ("PEK"), or another thermoplastic material having similar properties into which conductive fibers comprised of carbon or silicon carbide have been blended. In a preferred embodiment, the tip comprises PEK blended with carbon fibers. Although the proportion of fibers to PEK can range from 5% to 12%, a preferred embodiment is comprised of 8% fibers. The entire tip area 1 is coated with a ceramic coating to prevent particle and ionic contamination from the PEK and carbon fibers. As PEK and the fibers contain such elements as Na, K, Mg and Pb, contamination from the tip can be a large source of chemical contamination for the wafers being manipulated. The coating comprises SiC, SiO.sub.2 and Si and is deposited using either cold temperature plasma chemical vapor deposition or reactive sputtering. In a preferred embodiment, a reactive sputtering technique is used to coat the tip. A layer of several microns is grown on the tip. In a preferred embodiment, the layer is approximately 10 microns thick. In other embodiments, the coating may have a controlled conductivity which might replace the discrete impedance coupled to the tip and described below. Also, the coating could be made less conductive than the basic material used to fabricate the tip. When this type of coating is used, static electrical discharges would flow through the coating into the basic material of the tip. Additionally, the coating has a very low coefficient of friction which reduces the possibility of abrading the wafer. The tip further comprises a resistive section enclosed by a large PEEK cylinder 3 and connecting section 2.

FIGS. 2a and 2b shows how a large resistor is incorporated into the known tip. In a preferred embodiment the resistor has a value in the range of 10 to 50 M.OMEGA.. First, a large PEEK cylinder 3 is formed with two axial passages A and B. Resistor 4 is placed into passage B and sealed in place at both ends, using small cylinders 6 comprised of PEEK with carbon fibers embedded therein. In this manner, an electrical pathway is formed from cylinders 6 through resistor 4. Also, as the metal wire of the resistor is effectively sealed, it cannot contaminate wafers and it will not be affected by cleaning chemicals, solvents, etc. Passage A permits vacuum flow through cylinder 3. Tip section 1 and tube section 2 are then inserted into the large holes at either end of cylinder 3 and make electrical contact with small cylinders 6 at points 5. Large PEEK cylinder 3 is an insulator. This ensures that all current flow from the tip will flow through resistor 4 before passing to the tube. When the tip is inserted into a vacuum tool, a coiled wire running through the vacuum tool's vacuum source connects the tip to a ground potential.

During the manufacturing process, a semiconductor wafer can become statically charged to a high voltage V, as shown in FIG. 3. It is undesirable to discharge the wafer too rapidly by directly grounding it because the current flow resulting from a rapid discharge can damage the circuits on the wafer. However, when an operator manipulates a tip incorporating the special material and resistance of the present invention to pick up a charged wafer, the static charge is discharged in a series of small discrete shocks, each too small to damage the wafer. This is shown graphically in FIG. 3 by the series of small individual scallop-shaped reductions in voltage V with respect to time t.

Although the present invention has been described in relation to a preferred embodiment, many variations, such as different resistor values, different coatings and materials can also be used. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined not with reference to the above description, but instead should be determined with reference to the appended claims along with their full scope of equivalents.