Method and apparatus for liquid treatment of wafer shaped articles

1. Apparatus for treating a wafer-shaped article, comprising:

a spin chuck for holding a wafer-shaped article in a predetermined orientation relative to an upper surface of the spin chuck; and

a heating assembly comprising a housing containing at least one infrared heating element, said heating assembly being mounted above said upper surface of said spin chuck and adjacent a wafer-shaped article when mounted on the spin chuck, wherein said housing also contains a conduit having an inlet connected to a source of cooling fluid and an outlet returning cooling fluid to the source of cooling fluid;

wherein said housing comprises a cover having at least one opening through which passes a nozzle for dispensing a fluid onto an underside of a wafer-shaped article when mounted on said spin chuck.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said source of cooling fluid comprises a pump and a cooling section for removing heat from the cooling fluid.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said heating assembly is mounted underlying a wafer-shaped article when mounted on the spin chuck, the heating assembly being stationary in relation to rotation of said spin chuck.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said outlet and said inlet of said conduit are positioned in a central region of said spin chuck, and wherein an intermediate portion of said conduit is positioned in a peripheral region of said spin chuck.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said spin chuck comprises a rotary chuck body and a stationary hollow shaft passing through a central opening of said rotary chuck body, and wherein an upper end of said stationary hollow shaft carries said heating assembly.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said housing further comprises a gas inlet connected to a gas supply, and at least one outlet for discharging gas from said housing.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a temperature sensor positioned so as to sense a temperature of heated cooling fluid passing through said conduit and a flow controller that adjusts a flow of cooling fluid to said inlet based upon a temperature detected by said temperature sensor.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said heating assembly comprises at least two infrared heating elements, said at least two infrared heating elements being arranged in a generally concentric configuration surrounding an axis of rotation of said spin chuck.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein each of said at least two infrared heating elements is individually controllable, thereby to enable generating at least two heating zones across a surface of said spin chuck having heating profiles that differ from one another.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said conduit extends within said housing along a serpentine path whose length is at least twice a maximum length of said housing.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said at least one infrared heating element is generally U-shaped, and extends from a central region of said spin chuck to a peripheral region of said spin chuck.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said housing further comprises a second inlet connected to a source of cooling gas and a second outlet exhausting the cooling gas into a volume between the wafer-shaped article and the spin chuck.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the source of cooling fluid is a source of cooling liquid.

14. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said spin chuck comprises a circular series of gripping pins adapted to engage an edge region of a wafer-shaped article when mounted on said spin chuck, and wherein each of said gripping pins comprises a distal end projecting upwardly beyond an uppermost surface of said housing.