Radiation imagery chemistry: process – composition – or product th – Imaging affecting physical property of radiation sensitive... – Finishing or perfecting composition or product
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-28
2001-02-06
Baxter, Janet (Department: 1752)
Radiation imagery chemistry: process, composition, or product th
Imaging affecting physical property of radiation sensitive...
Finishing or perfecting composition or product
C510S176000, C134S001300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06183942
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thinner composition for removing spin-on-glass and photoresist which is used in the semiconductor component manufacturing process. More particularly, the present invention relates to a thinner composition that can be used in washing and removing the unnecessary spin-on-glass (“SOG”) of an SOG layer at edges and a backside of a substrate, the SOG layer being produced when an oligomer solution of an organic silicon compound having a siloxane bond is spin-coated on a substrate during the formation of an intermediate insulated layer. The present also relates to a thinner composition that can be used in washing and removing photoresist from the edges and the backside of a substrate, the photoresist being used as a mask in a photolithography process.
(b) Description of the Related Art
The width and distance of components, i.e., the distances between the dimensions of metal wiring are experiencing increasing reductions as Large Scale Integrated circuits (“LSI”) become microscopic, highly integrated, and multi-layered. On the other hand, the component height of metal wiring, etc. has withnessed only minimal reductions so as not to increase wiring resistance and electric current density. Therefore, as side gap dimensions between metal wirings are becoming extremely narrowed, wiring height must naturally increase. As this type of wiring is formed by high anisotropic etching, the edges of the wiring have a sharp slope, and the number of wiring crossings and holes increase. Furthermore, the surface topography of LSI chips becomes greater due to the multi-layering of the wiring.
When wiring is formed on a surface with such severe protrusions and depressions, anisotropic wiring etching can leave residue at the sides of walls where there is a substrate topography that can lead to short circuits. In order to resolve this type of problem, there is a need to planarize sublayers to a minimum between wiring layers. Particularly, when the surface of an intermediate insulated layer on the primary aluminum wiring layer has not been sufficiently planarized, this leads to wiring short circuits on the upper layer and faults in confidence testing.
Accordingly, a siloxane oligomer solution, referred to as spin-on-glass (SOG), is used for the purpose of both acting as an intermediate insulated layer between wiring in the semiconductor multi-layer wiring process and planarizing a wiring layer before the next wiring process. Such SOG is typically structures such that an alkyl group side chain is bonded to a main chain of —Si—O—Si— as represented in the below General Formula 1:
where n is an inter equal to or greater than one.
The above SOG has been disclosed in literature (Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology Vol. A9 No. 5, 1991, p2696), patents (Japanese Laid-open Patent No. Showa 62-230828, Japanese Laid-open Patent No. Heisei 7-40 242747, and Japanese Laid-open Patent No. Heisei 9-260384), and other publications.
Furthermore, a material which provides the SOG with a photosensitive characteristic on an insulated layer capable of patterning in a semiconductor device was disclosed in Patents including Japanese Laid-open Patent No. Heisei 9-36110, and Japanese Laid-open Patent No. Heisei 8-203876.
In the formation of an intermediate insulated layer, when the oligomer solution of an organic silicon compound having a siloxane bond is spin-coated on the substrate and baked, the insulated layer of silicon oxide material is made by heated condensation polymerization. In this spin-on-glass process, a solution is used to penetrate into the microscopic wiring, filling in level differences to be evened out. A low temperature process is possible as condensation polymerization occurs below 400° C. Furthermore, regular processing technologies such as the conventional etching, etc., can still be employed as the resulting insulated layer is a silicon oxide substrate.
Although the process in which this SOG solution is spin-coated to form a film is similar to the below described photolithography process, the process for washing and removing the undesired SOG coating, generated during spin-coating, at the edges and backside of the substrate is essential.
A thinner composition can remove the SOG coating at the edges and backside of the substrate quickly and thoroughly. It is also useful in removing undesired photoresist generated when a photosensitive resin composition is spin-coated. The photoresist is used as a mask in the photolithography process for the microscopic circuit patterning.
The photolithography process in the semiconductor component manufacturing process is an electronic circuit forming technique accomplished through the steps of coating a photoresist on a substrate, transferring a pattern according to the original design, and cutting according to the transferred pattern, i.e., the etching process.
This photolithography process is performed through various processes including:
a) a coating process in which a photoreist is uniformly coated on a substrate;
b) a soft baking process in which a photoresist is adhered to a wafer surface by evaporating a solvent from of the coated photoresist;
c) an exposing process in which a mask pattern is transferred on the substrate by the consecutive scale-down projection of a light source, such as ultraviolet rays, into a circuit pattern on the mask repeatedly to thereby expose the substrate;
d) a development process in which the areas having different physical properties, such as a difference in solubility due to the photosensitive-activity resulting from exposure to the light source, are removed using a developer;
e) a hard baking process in which a residual photoresist on a substrate is more strongly affixed after the development process;
f) an etching process in which certain parts are etched to provide electrical characteristics according to a pattern of the developed substrate; and
g) a stripping process in which unnecessary photoresist is removed after the above processes.
Multiple microscopic circuits are formed on a substrate in order to ultimately manufacture an integrated semiconductor circuit through this photolithography process. Foreign materials, for example particles, should be eliminated to prevent their introduction into the fine gaps between the circuit wiring in these processes. Particles existing on a substrate can cause the various faults in the subsequent processes, such as etching, ion implantation, etc., resulting in decreased total productivity. It has been found that the main source of these unwanted particles is the unused photosensitive solution present at the periphery of the coated substrate.
In the above photolithography process, these edge beads of photosensitive materials can be produced after the spin-coating process in which a photoresist is applied to a substrate and the substrate is then rotated making the photoresist spread out evenly on the surface by the action of centrifugal force.
Photoresist inclined toward the edge and backside regions of a substrate by the centrifugal force is formed into small spherical shapes in this spin-coating process. This spherical shapes can be a source of particles in the apparatus after it is passed through the baking process and can be released during the transportation of a substrate, or can become a source of defocus during the light exposure process. As these undesired photosensitive materials become a source of apparatus contamination, reducing the yield of the semiconductor component manufacturing process, a spray nozzle is installed at edge parts of the substrate and at the upper and lower backside parts. A thinner composition composed of organic solvent constituents is sprayed through the nozzles to remove these excess photosensitive materials.
The practical aspects of chemically amplified resist are reviewed as follows. In a patterning method using a chemically amplified resist employing a novolak phenolic resin, a problem results in that a pattern which was formed by an absorption effect caused by a bi
Baik Ji-Hum
Kim Byung-Uk
Kim Won-Lae
Lee Sang-Dai
Oh Chang-Il
Ashton Rosemary
Baker & Botts L.L.P.
Baxter Janet
Dongjin Semichem Co., Ltd.
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