Coating apparatus – Program – cyclic – or time control – Sequential energization of plural operations
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-16
2003-03-18
Crispino, Richard (Department: 1734)
Coating apparatus
Program, cyclic, or time control
Sequential energization of plural operations
C118S052000, C118S056000, C118S501000, C118S500000, C118S504000, C118S706000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06533864
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a solution processing apparatus and method for performing solution processing such as developing processing and the like for a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer or the like.
A mask for forming a circuit pattern on a front face of a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as a wafer) or an LCD substrate of a liquid crystal display is formed by the following process. Initially, coating of a photoresist solution (hereinafter, referred to as a resist) is performed for a front face of a wafer and irradiation with light or the like is performed. If the resist is a negative type by way of example, a portion thereof irradiated with light is cured, and a portion not cured, which is an easy-to-dissolve portion, is dissolved with a developing solution, whereby an object mask is formed. A developing processing apparatus comprises a spin chuck for suction-holding and rotating a semiconductor wafer and a developing solution supply nozzle for supplying a developing solution to the semiconductor wafer on the spin chuck.
Conventionally, a supply nozzle
12
in which many discharge holes
11
are arranged over a length corresponding to a wafer W in a diameter direction shown in
FIG. 9B
is used as the developing solution supply nozzle used in a developing process as described above.
The discharge of the developing solution by the supply nozzle
12
will be explained with FIG.
9
A. The supply nozzle
12
is positioned so that the discharge holes
11
are, for example, 1 mm above a front face of the wafer W at the middle portion of the wafer W, and the wafer W is rotated 180 degrees while the developing solution is supplied from the discharge holes
11
to a middle portion in the diameter direction of the front face of the wafer W. Thereby, the developing solution is spread all over the wafer W while being discharged from the middle portion over the diameter direction of the wafer W, thereby completing solution heaping. Simultaneously, a solution film of the developing solution with a predetermined thickness is formed on the entire front face of the wafer W.
Incidentally, a conventional process of heaping of the developing solution all over a top face of the semiconductor wafer is in need of causing a total stay time of the heaped developing solution to be uniform as much as possible to obtain uniformity of line width. To this end, the developing solution needs to be rapidly applied to the semiconductor wafer, and thus a supply pressure of the developing solution is kept high.
However, in the conventional developing processing method, the developing solution supply nozzle is arranged such that the discharge holes thereof are small in diameter and the supply pressure thereof is set high for the sake of uniform discharge, resulting in high discharge flow velocity. Therefore, an impact on a dissolved portion of the front face of the semiconductor wafer is high at the time of initial discharge to the front face of the semiconductor wafer, whereby the uniformity in line width is susceptible to decreasing.
Further, there exists a portion where the first discharged developing solution and the last discharged developing solution are overlapped within an area close to the middle of the semiconductor wafer under the supply nozzle, whereby old and new developing solutions are mixed and thus developing proceeds in the portion more than in other portions, thereby also bringing about a danger that uniformity in line width of the area close to the middle deteriorates.
Additionally, since the developing solution is discharged while the semiconductor wafer is rotated, solution face waviness occurs at the time of heaping of the developing solution caused by inertial force of the developing solution. As a result, there occurs an area where the developing solutions are vigorously mixed or an area without such vigorous mixture, thereby bringing about a disadvantage that the uniformity of the developing becomes worse.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, it is a conceivable case to employ coating means as shown in
FIG. 10
using the same developing solution supply nozzle as the aforementioned.
FIG. 10
shows a scan method in which the supply nozzle
12
is moved to the outside of the rim of the wafer W to be placed and further moved therefrom to the outside of the rim of the wafer on the other side while performing discharge.
The apparatus shown in
FIGS. 9A and 9B
has a cylindrical cup
13
around the wafer W and a series of developing processing is performed in the cup
13
. The cylindrical cup
13
is a component for preventing a liquid from splashing out and collecting a splashed rinse liquid in a rinse process in the case where the rinse liquid is discharged while the wafer W is rotated after the completion of the developing processing.
However, in the case where the processing method as shown in
FIG. 10
is performed in such a cylindrical cup
13
disposed near the substrate, when the supply nozzle
12
is allowed to scan from an initial discharge position to the rim of the wafer W on the other side, the supply nozzle
12
lies off the cylindrical cup
13
in an area close to a discharge start position and an area close to the completion position where the supply nozzle
12
is tangent to the rim of the wafer W, thus the developing solution leaks out of the cylindrical cup
13
as shown by the diagonally shaded areas a in
FIG. 10
, thereby making a developing unit dirty.
Further, if the cylindrical cup
13
is increased in size, more specifically, the cup is increased in size to cover areas a, there arises a disadvantage that the developing unit must be upsized.
An object of the present invention is to provide a solution processing apparatus and method capable of preventing upsizing of the apparatus and preventing a processing solution from leaking outside the apparatus when a supply of the processing solution is performed by scanning a wafer with a supply nozzle having a supply area with a length of almost the same as a diameter of the wafer or more.
To achieve the above object, a solution processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a substrate holding section configure to horizontally hold a substrate and rotatable; a cup configure to surround the side of the substrate held by the substrate holding section; a nozzle extending along one side of the inside of the cup configure to supply a processing solution to the substrate; a moving mechanism configure to move the nozzle along a side adjacent to the one side of the inside of the cup; a raising and lowering mechanism configure to raise and lower the substrate holding section and the cup relative to each other; and a control mechanism configure to control a position in height of the cup relative to the substrate through the raising and lowering mechanism, between a level where an upper side of the cup is positioned by the side of a moving area of a discharge hole of the supply nozzle, and a level where a lower side of the cup is positioned by the side of the substrate.
According to the apparatus as described above, the supply nozzle moves in the upper side of the cup, thereby preventing the processing solution from leaking outside the cup and reducing an occupied area by the cup.
The apparatus may be arranged in the following manners: The cup is formed such that the upper side thereof is formed in a rectangular shape and the lower side thereof is formed in a cylindrical shape. When seen the cup from above, the portion forming the cylindrical shape is positioned within the portion forming the rectangular shape. The supply nozzle includes a supply area of the processing solution with a length corresponding to a width of an effective area of the substrate to supply the processing solution to the entire effective area of the substrate while moving from a waiting position off the effective area of the substrate. The apparatus further comprises a rinse liquid supply mechanism configure to supply a rinse liquid to the rotating substrate after the processing solution is supplied. An air sup
Matsuyama Yuji
Nagamine Shuichi
Koch, III George R.
Rader & Fishman & Grauer, PLLC
Tokyo Electron Limited
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