Coating apparatus – With means to centrifuge work
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-23
2002-09-03
Crispino, Richard (Department: 1734)
Coating apparatus
With means to centrifuge work
C118S066000, C118S321000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06444029
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a multistage spin type substrate processing system for applying a photoresist onto a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer and for developing the same.
In a photolithographic process for manufacturing a semiconductor device, a photoresist is applied onto a surface of a semiconductor wafer, and is pattern-exposed and developed. For such a series of substrate processes, for example, a substrate processing system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,254 is used.
As shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2
, a conventional substrate processing system
100
comprises a cassette station
110
having a first subarm mechanism
21
, process sections
111
,
112
and
113
, each having a main arm mechanism
24
, and an interface section
114
having a second subarm mechanism
26
. As shown in
FIG. 1
, the main arm mechanism
24
is provided on the center of each of the first, second and third process sections
111
,
112
and
113
, and various processing device groups G
1
to G
15
are provided to surround the main arm mechanism
24
on all sides. Liquid treatment system processing device groups G
1
to G
6
are provided on the front side of the processing system
100
, and heat treatment system processing device groups G
7
to G
15
are provided on the back side and the side face side of the processing system
100
.
As shown in
FIG. 2
, each of the liquid treatment system processing device groups G
1
to G
6
comprise pairs of right and left units BCTs, COTs and DEVs stacked vertically in two stages. A spin rotation liquid treating device having a cup CP and a spin chuck SC is provided in each of the units BCT, COT and DEV. In order to prevent a contamination from being caused by sticking of particles and the like and to stabilize process performance during a liquid treatment, clean air having a temperature and a humidity controlled is introduced into each of the units BCT, COT and DEV, and air is forcibly discharged from each of the units BCT, COT and DEV.
In such a processing system
100
, a wafer W is fetched from a cassette CR of the cassette station
110
by the first subarm mechanism
21
and is transferred to the main arm mechanism
24
, a treating solution for a substrate reflection preventing film is applied onto the wafer W by the applying unit BCT in the first process section
111
and is baked, the resist solution is applied onto the wafer W by the applying unit COT provided in the second process section
112
and is baked, and the wafer W is further transferred to the second subarm mechanism
26
, is delivered to an exposure system (not shown) through the interface section
114
and is subjected to an exposing treatment. Furthermore, the wafer W is delivered into the third process section
113
through the interface section
114
, is baked (PEB) after the exposure, is subjected to a developing treatment by the developing unit DEV, and is rinsed, dried and finally returned to the cassette CR of the cassette station
110
.
With an increase in the size of the wafer, a user has greatly desired an increase in the process number (a high throughput) per unit time in order to further enhance productivity. In a series of resist processes, however, the fineness of a circuit pattern has further been enhanced and the wafer size has further been increased and a time taken for each process step tends to be increased. Therefore, it has been hard to enhance the throughput. In order to obtain a clear pattern at a developing step, for example, it is also necessary to keep a developing time as long as possible. In a chemical amplification type photoresist, particularly, the same wafer W is repeatedly subjected to the developing process twice or three times in order to enhance a resolution during the development. For this reason, a long time is required for the process so that the throughput is easily lowered.
In step of applying and forming a reflection preventing film and a photoresist film on a wafer by a spin applying method, it is necessary to reduce a wafer rotating speed in order to achieve film thickness uniformity with an increase in a wafer diameter from 8 inches to 12 inches. Consequently, it takes too much time to shake a resist solution off and to perform a drying process. Consequently, the throughput tends to be reduced.
If another process section is further provided on the conventional substrate processing system
100
to enhance the throughput of the substrate process, the footprint (occupied floor space) of the device is increased. When the footprint of the device is increased, the total floor space of a clean room is necessarily increased, and an equipment investment and a running cost for controlling a clean room environment are excessively increased. For this reason, the user has greatly desired that the footprint of the device should be reduced as much as possible.
Furthermore, it is regulated that a distance between the floor of the clean room and a ceiling thereof should be equal to or smaller than 3.5 m. Therefore, it is necessary to make the height of the whole system smaller than an upper limit (3.5 m) of the height of the clean room. Within a range meeting the room height limiting conditions, the stacked conventional spin units have a limit of two stages. In order to further enhance the throughput of the resist applying and developing processes, a consumer has greatly desired that the spin units can be stacked in three stages or more.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a multistage spin type substrate processing system which has a high throughput and a small footprint and meets the height limiting conditions of a clean room.
The present invention provides a multistage spin type substrate processing system comprising a multistage spin unit having a plurality of compartments stacked vertically in a multistage, a main arm mechanism comprising a holder for holding a processed substrate to put the processed substrate in and out of each of the compartments, and driving means for causing the holder to advance and retreat longitudinally, moving the holder up and down along a vertical shaft and turning the holder around the vertical shaft, a spin chuck provided on each of the compartments for holding and spin-rotating the substrate delivered by the main arm mechanism, a cup for surrounding the spin chuck to receive and discharge a treatment solution separated from the substrate by centrifugal force, a common nozzle for supplying the treatment solution toward the substrate held by the spin chuck in the compartment, a nozzle moving passageway provided along the multistage spin unit for communicating with the compartment to move the common nozzle therethrough, and a nozzle moving mechanism for moving the common nozzle.
The system according to the present invention aggregates more liquid treating devices having a spin rotating method into one multistage spin unit than that in the prior art. Therefore, the throughput of the liquid treatment can be enhanced. Furthermore, one nozzle is shared, or in common with, the liquid treating devices. Therefore, the size of each of the liquid treating devices is reduced. Consequently, the size of the device is reduced as a whole (particularly, the height of the device is reduced) and the footprint of the device in a clean room is further reduced. Furthermore, the spin rotating liquid treating section, the main arm mechanism section and heat treating section can be modularized respectively, and each of them can be divided into blocks to be delivered and assembled. Therefore, the device can be delivered into and installed in the clean room more easily than in the prior art. Furthermore, a multistage spin processing system device group (multistage spin unit) is arranged in a vertical line differently from the prior art in which it is arranged in two horizontal lines. Consequently, the main delivery arm mechanism and the multistage spin processing system device group arranged in a vertical one line can be caused to correspond to each other at a ratio of
Kimura Yoshio
Ueda Issei
Crispino Richard
Shortsle Kevin P
Tokyo Electron Limited
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