Semiconductor device manufacturing: process – Chemical etching – Liquid phase etching
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-18
2001-12-18
Hiteshew, Felisa (Department: 1765)
Semiconductor device manufacturing: process
Chemical etching
Liquid phase etching
C438S746000, C216S041000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06331489
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device production method and in particular, to a semiconductor device production method which can preferably be used for a photoresist pattern formation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, when forming a circuit pattern such as a semiconductor integrated circuit on a semiconductor substrate, a photoresist pattern is formed by a photolithography procedure shown in FIG.
3
and after this, various post-treatments are performed. The photolithography procedure includes: pre-treatment (S
100
); photoresist application onto a semiconductor substrate (S
101
) which has been subjected to the pretreatment; an exposure step (S
102
) for exposing a circuit pattern such as a semiconductor integrated circuit, onto the semiconductor substrate having the photoresist; and a developing step (S
103
) for developing the semiconductor substrate having the circuit pattern exposed.
Conventionally, a semiconductor substrate
1
is divided into a circuit pattern area
2
and a non-circuit pattern area
3
, i.e., a photoresist remaining area where the photoresist film is to remain so as not to be exposed to light. Only the circuit pattern area
2
is exposed to light and after this the entire semiconductor substrate
1
is developed to form the circuit pattern.
However, when the aforementioned photolithography uses a chemically amplified photoresist, in the circuit pattern area
2
, acid generated by exposure de-protects a protection group of the photoresist
4
and the surface of the photoresist
4
becomes hydrophilic while in a non-exposed area, i.e., the photoresist remaining area
3
, the surface of the photoresist
4
remains hydrophobic. Accordingly, in the development step S
103
, as shown in
FIG. 4
, water or developing solution
5
is expelled by the photoresist remaining area
3
and gathered in the circuit pattern area
2
.
As a result, the water or developing solution
5
is not uniformly placed on the circuit pattern area
2
, which disables uniform development. Fluctuation of pattern dimensions of the circuit pattern area
2
at the pattern dimension measuring row
6
shown in
FIG. 2
becomes greater toward the photoresist remaining area
3
. That is, the uniformity of the pattern dimensions in the semiconductor substrate
1
becomes worse. This problem is also present in the wet etching processing when using an etching solution for wet-etching the semiconductor substrate
1
having a photoresist pattern formed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor device production method for improving the dimension uniformity of a photoresist pattern formed on a semiconductor substrate so as to obtain uniformity of a processing such as a wet etching performed after the photoresist pattern formation.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device production method in which photoresist is applied to the entire surface of a semiconductor substrate and patterning is performed only on a region excluding a peripheral region of the semiconductor substrate, leaving the photoresist on a peripheral region of the semiconductor substrate, wherein when exposing the photoresist, a predetermined light quantity is applied to the peripheral region, so that the photoresist on the peripheral region will not be removed completely by development.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device production method in which photoresist is applied to the entire surface of a semiconductor substrate and patterning is performed only on a region excluding a peripheral region of the semiconductor substrate, leaving the photoresist on a peripheral region of the semiconductor substrate, after which a wet etching is performed using an etching solution, wherein when exposing the photoresist, a predetermined light quantity is applied to the peripheral region, so that the photoresist on the peripheral region will not be removed completely by development, thus making a surface of the photoresist on the peripheral region hydrophilic so as to improve wettability of the etching solution.
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patent: 4078945 (1978-03-01), Gonsiorawski
patent: 5078832 (1992-01-01), Tanaka
patent: 5204224 (1993-04-01), Suzuki
patent: 5854140 (1998-12-01), Jaso et al.
patent: 5885756 (1999-03-01), Yun et al.
patent: 5960305 (1999-09-01), Kumar
patent: 6214722 (2001-04-01), Lin et al.
Hayes, Soloway, Hennessey Grossman & Hage, P.C.
Hiteshew Felisa
NEC Corporation
Umez-Eronini Lynette T.
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