Design and application of an efficient scheme for wafer transfer procedure during ion implantation process

Abstract

Ion implantation is widely used in semiconductor manufacturing to modify electrical properties of the near-surface region of silicon wafers. The efficiency of ion implantation process deeply relies on wafer transfer procedure. Increasing wafer transfer speed is one of the most efficient ways to accelerate the ion implantation process for higher productivity of silicon chips. This study focuses on developing an efficient scheme for wafer transfer procedure to acquire higher transfer speed and reduce cycle time during ion implantation process. The scheme we proposed improves the layout of the vacuum chamber in currently used ion implanter by introducing an additional wafer transfer robot inside while placing the alignment station outside, planning optimal motion sequence of three wafer transfer robots in order to make all of them keep working without spending a long time waiting for other robots. Experimental platform has been established and the results show that wafer transfer speed based on the proposed scheme is over three times faster than the commonly used apparatus.