Development of Fixture Element for Vacuum Transportation of Silicon Wafer Using Electro-Rheological Gel

Semiconductor process technology increasingly requires high accuracy and efficiency. In the case of processing thin fragile substrate such as silicon wafer, it has to be fixed with low strain. In addition, its fixture device can be used under vacuum condition because some processes are carried out in vacuum. It is required to develop a new fixture device for vacuum transportation of silicon wafer. ERG is the functional material whose friction characteristic varies according to the intensity of applied electric field. The surface friction of ERG can be changed quickly and reversibly applying the electric field. In other words, it becomes easy to fix and release a substrate by control of electric field. In this study, ERG is applied to a fixture element of silicon wafer available for vacuum process. The ERG fixture element was trial-manufactured and its performance under vacuum condition was evaluated experimentally. The result shows that the ERG effect emerges in vacuum and ERG can fix silicon wafer sufficiently. Moreover, numerical analysis of electric filed was carried out to obtain the optimal pattern of the one-sided electrodes used for the ERG fixture element. It is clear that the optimal width of electrodes exists according to the gap of electrodes and the thickness of ERG.