subject: Ipa Dryer And Its Benefits For The Wafer Industry [print this page] There are a number of technological advancements that help hasten many processes in the industry today. In this writing, I am specifically about those advanced equipment used in wafer industry, which help provide less complex and more convenient system - IPA dryer is one of them.
"The IPA dryer"
It is a popular industry equipment utilized for wafer drying using isopropyl alcohol (IPA). Using this tool, a wafer drying process is done by exposing the wet wafer to the hot vapor of IPA, which makes the water displaced from the surface of the wafer. In other words, isopropyl alcohol evaporates during the wafer cooling, leaving a moisture-free surface.
"Surface Tension Gradient Dryer"
Surface Tension Gradient Dryer is an example industry equipment that utilizes IPA for drying - it uses the difference between the surface tension of water (H20) AND isopropyl alcohol (IPA) to produce a gradient that makes fast and effective substrate drying.
'Some advantages of IPA drying equipment'
Numerous companies in the industry are using IPA dryer in their processes as it provides the following advantages.
It yields substrates that are watermark-free, with low particle counts and no feature damage.
Charge damage is virtually eliminated since there are no metallic components inside the dryer chamber.
When integrated with cleaning and rinsing, this equipment can give a one-step process for such applications as the fabrication and cleaning of integrated circuits, solar cells, fuel cells, MEMS and disk drives.
No moving parts inside the IPA dryer (such as gradient dryer) and this helps the elimination of spin drying that reduces breakage dramatically, which is very critical in today's processes where thinner substrates are commonly used.
IPA equipment also consumes less processing time (for instance, Gradient dryer processes a batch of 25 or 50 wafers in10-15 minutes - approximately- depending on configuration)
The system is uniquely engineered so that the process chamber avoids whirlpool.
The system is proven to give a high aspect ratio structures
IPA dryer can also significantly reduce chemical consumption (it consume very little IPA).
It provides an improved cycle times and reduced maintenance, which allows you to save from operational costs.
It is considered an excellent alternative to spin rinser dryer.
Some features that a quality IPA dryer:
Automatic, high-volume single or dual cassette configuration (from 150mm to 300mm)
Adaptable for silicon, solar & other applications
User-friendly interface with touch-screen control panel
Should also have unexposed metal components
Should not have moving parts
Can be used as a stand-alone unit or integrated into wet benches
Engineered to have programmable processing recipes
With technologically-advanced equipment such as the IPA dryer readily available in the market today, manufacturing processes are made simpler now. Kudos to those individuals who continue to innovate for advancement in the industry.
