NSR Maintenance Streamlined With New WT Cleaning System
In our ongoing effort to reduce the cost of ownership for customers, Nikon offers a suite of options designed to enhance the performance of existing NSR steppers and scanners. We are continuously developing new upgrade solutions, and recently released the Wafer Table (WT) Automatic Cleaner, which is applicable to NSR-Sx08 and Sx10 systems.
Historically, in the event of wafer table contamination, manual cleaning of the wafer table could require up to two hours to perform. Recognizing this challenge for customers, Nikon developed the WT Automatic Cleaner. This upgrade enables the wafer holder to be cleaned without having to be removed, thereby requiring far less downtime than the traditional method.
Figure 1. The WT Automatic Cleaner provides an effective solution that requires far less downtime than traditional cleaning methods (left image). User-selectable modes enable customized application to best satisfy specific cleaning and timing requirements.
The WT Automatic Cleaner provides the additional benefit of flexible, application-specific cleaning modes. The user can choose to clean and remove only the selected particles, clean and remove all detected particles, or clean the entire wafer holder surface regardless of particle presence. These variable modes allow the user to determine the optimal mode to achieve their specific timing and cleaning objectives.
Figure 2. NSR performance was maintained following WT Cleaner installation.
Nikon has verified that NSR performance integrity is maintained after WT Cleaner installation, and the WT Automatic Cleaner has been proven effective in removing particles on the wafer table. This innovative solution is currently available for NSR-S208/S308, and NSR-S210/S310/S610 scanners. For further information about this or other NSR upgrades and enhancements, please contact accountsupport@nikon.com.
Figure 3. The "Before Cleaning" three wafer test identified particles ① and ② were on the wafer holder. After Cleaning, those particles were successfully removed.