Photocopying – Projection printing and copying cameras – With temperature or foreign particle control
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-23
2001-04-10
Adams, Russell (Department: 2851)
Photocopying
Projection printing and copying cameras
With temperature or foreign particle control
C355S027000, C396S611000, C118S052000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06215545
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus having a heat treatment unit, a solution processing unit, and a conveying unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a photoresist process of a semiconductor device fabrication, resist solution is coated to a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as wafer). The resist film is exposed so that a predetermined pattern is formed. The resultant wafer is developed with developing solution. To do these processing steps, a coating and developing apparatus has been used.
The coating and developing apparatus has a heat treatment unit and a solution process unit. The heat treatment unit performs a hydrophobic process for improving the adhesion of for example resist, a heating process for heating a wafer coated with resist solution and for hardening the resist film, and a cooling process for cooling a heated wafer. The solution process unit is for example a resist coating unit or a developing process unit. The resist coating unit coats resist solution to a wafer and forms a resist film. The developing process unit develops an exposed wafer with developing solution. A wafer is conveyed from the heat treatment unit to the solution process unit by a conveying unit. The conveying unit has for example three pincettes that are disposed at an upper position, a middle position, and a lower position of the conveying unit (hereinafter, these pincettes are referred to as upper pincette, middle pincette, and lower pincette). The conveying unit loads/unloads a wafer to/from the heat treatment unit or the solution process unit while holding the wafer with these pincettes.
The upper pincette is used for the conveying unit to unload a wafer from the resist coating unit. The middle and lower pincettes are used for the conveying unit to load/unload a wafer to/from the heat treatment unit. In such a structure, a wafer unloaded from the resist coating unit is not affected by heat of the pincette. Thus, the film thickness of a resist film that is sensitive against temperature can be prevented from varying.
However, when the diameter of a wafer becomes large, the amount of heat stored in the wafer becomes large. Thus, the amount of heat applied to the middle and lower pincettes is larger than that of a smaller diameter wafer. Consequently, the influence of the heat radiation of the middle and lower pincettes against the upper pincette cannot be ignored. In other words, the heat radiation causes the upper pincette to heat up. Thus, the film thickness of the resist film of the wafer held by the upper pincette may vary. To solve such a problem, for example, a heat insulating plate is disposed in a space between the upper pincette in and the middle pincette.
However, the space between the upper pincette and the middle pincette is narrow, and therefore it is difficult to dispose the heat insulating plate in such a space. In addition, when the heat insulating plate is disposed in the space, the conveying unit becomes large and complicated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made from the above-described point of view. An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus that suppresses the film thickness of such as a resist film of a processing solution coated on a substrate such as a wafer with a large diameter from varying without need to use a heat insulating member.
A first aspect of the present invention is a substrate processing apparatus, comprising at least one solution processing unit for supplying a processing solution to a substrate and processing the substrate with the supplied processing solution, at least one heat treatment unit for heat-treating a substrate at a predetermined temperature, and at least one conveying unit for conveying a substrate while holding it with a holding member, wherein the conveying unit has a first conveying unit for conveying a substrate between at least one transferring table and the heat treatment unit, and a second conveying unit for conveying a substrate between the transferring table and the solution processing unit, and wherein the transferring table is disposed between the first conveying unit and the second conveying unit.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, the second conveying unit conveys only a substrate that is not heated. The first conveying unit conveys a substrate that has been heated in the heat treatment. Thus, heat of a substrate is not stored in the holding member of the second conveying unit. Consequently, thermal variation of the film thickness of a film of the process solution formed on a substrate held by the holding member of the second conveying unit can be prevented. As a result, since a heat insulating member such as a heat insulating plate that has been used in the conventional apparatus is not required, the second conveying unit can be prevented from becoming large and complicated.
A second aspect of the present invention is a substrate process apparatus, comprising a developing and coating process block having a plurality of solution processing units, a first heat treatment block and a second heat treatment block disposed on both sides of the developing and coating block, each of the first heat treatment block and the second heat treatment block having a plurality of heat treatment units, a first conveying unit disposed in the first heat treatment block, a second conveying unit disposed in the second heat treatment block, a third conveying unit disposed in the developing and coating block, and a first transferring table for transferring a substrate between the third conveying unit disposed in the developing and coating block and the first conveying unit disposed in the first heat treatment block, and a second transferring table for transferring a substrate between the third conveying unit disposed in the developing and coating block and the second conveying unit disposed in the second heat treatment block.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, with the transferring table disposed in the developing and coating block, the conveying unit disposed therein and the conveying units disposed in the first heat treatment block and the second heat treatment block transfer a wafer convey a wafer. Thus, the conveying units disposed in the first heat treatment block and the second heat treatment block convey a wafer that is heated through the transferring table. Consequently, heat of the wafer that has been heat-treated does not directly affects the conveying unit disposed in the developing and coating block.
Therefore, thermal variation of the film thickness of a film of processing solution on a wafer in the developing and coating block can be prevented.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in light of the following detailed description of a best mode embodiment thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5664254 (1997-09-01), Ohkura et al.
patent: 5762745 (1998-06-01), Hirose
patent: 5826129 (1998-10-01), Hasebe et al.
patent: 5876280 (1999-03-01), Kitano et al.
patent: 5972110 (1999-10-01), Akimoto
patent: 10-144763 (1998-05-01), None
Adams Russell
Nguyen Hung Henry
Rader Fishman & Grauer
Tokyo Electron Limited
LandOfFree
Substrate processing apparatus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Substrate processing apparatus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Substrate processing apparatus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2454951