Rotary drier apparatus for semiconductor wafers

Claim 1

An apparatus for drying semiconductor wafers on wafer carriers by centrifugal force, said apparatus comprising: a turntable; a pair of cradles, each mounted adjacent to each other on said turntable for rotation therewith for removably carrying a wafer carrier therein; means, including a motor and a shaft, for driving said turntable in rotation on said shaft; a container housing said turntable at a lower position therein, said container having side walls for receiving splatterings from semiconductor wafers on the wafer carriers carried by the cradles when said turntable is rotated by said driving means, an upper opening through which the wafer carriers are vertically removable from said turntable and said container, and a bottom plate having a hole in a middle portion thereof, said shaft extending vertically upward through said hole from said motor to a middle portion of said turntable; a pair of supporting members fixedly mounted on a surface of said turntable, horizontally spaced apart on opposite sides of said middle portion of said turntable, said cradles being disposed between and pivotably mounted to said supporting members on opposite sides of said middle portion of said turntable for pivotal movement about respective parallel horizontal axes extending between said supporting members, said cradles having respective centers of gravity spaced from said axes so as to provide a turning moment biasing the bottom ends of said cradles toward each other, such that rotation of said turntable pivots said cradles about said axes radially outward of said turntable by centrifugal force; and stopper means, disposed between said cradles so as to abut said cradles when said turntable is not rotating, for preventing said cradles from touching each other when said turntable is not rotating.

Claim 2

An apparatus for drying semiconductor wafers on wafer carriers by centrifugal force, said apparatus comprising: a turntable; a pair of cradles, each mounted adjacent to each other on said turntable for rotation therewith for removably carrying a wafer carrier therein; means, including a motor and a shaft, for driving said turntable in rotation on said shaft; a container housing said turntable at a lower position therein, said container having side walls for receiving splatterings from semiconductor wafers on the wafer carriers carried by the cradles when said turntable is rotated by said driving means, an upper opening through which the wafer carriers are vertically removable from said turntable and said container, and a bottom plate having a hole in a middle portion thereof, said shaft extending vertically upward through said hole from said motor to a middle portion of said turntable; a pair of supporting members fixedly mounted on a surface of said turntable, horizontally spaced apart on opposite sides of said middle portion of said turntable, said cradles being disposed between and pivotably mounted to said supporting members on opposite sides of said middle portion of said turntable for pivotal movement about respective parallel horizontal axes extending between said supporting members, said cradles having respective centers of gravity spaced from said axes so as to provide a turning moment biasing the bottom ends of said cradles toward each other, such that rotation of said turntable pivots said cradles about said axes radially outward of said turntable by centrifugal force; and stopper means, disposed between said cradles so as to abut said cradles when said turntable is not rotating, for preventing said cradles from touching each other when said turntable is not rotating.