JPH0262549A - Spin developer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To supply rinse liquid entirely on a wafer and to perform effective cleaning by the use of irreducible rinse liquid by providing one nozzle for supplying the rinse liquid at the center part of a wafer and one nozzle at the peripheral part of the wafer at an angle where the rinse is supplied. CONSTITUTION:When a conveyor belt 17 is moved out of a cup 12 by a horizontal mechanism, the cup 12 is elevated and a dripping whole 10' for dripping a liquid developer moves to a position 10, thereby dripping the liquid developer on the wafer W which is rotated by the rotation of a spin motor 8. Then when the liquid developer is supplied entirely to the wafer W, the dripping hole 10 finishes dripping the liquid developer and moves to a position 10' and an excessive liquid developer is collected in the cup 12 and discharged through a drain pipe 13. Then development is stopped and while the wafer W is rotated again for liquid developer cleaning, the rinse liquid is spouted from a 1st nozzle 15 and a 2nd nozzle 16 to perform a rinse process. At this time, the nozzle 15 is directed to the center part 15' of the wafer and the nozzle 16 is directed to the peripheral part 16' of the wafer to spout the rinse liquid, which is supplied to the entire surface uniformly, thereby obtaining sufficient cleaning effect.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a spin developer for developing a photosensitive agent such as a resist.

[Prior Art and Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Conventionally, the photoresist processing process for forming a pattern of semiconductor integrated circuit elements on a wafer involves applying a photosensitive layer to the silicon P-type crystal or N-type crystal film formed on the wafer. The process consists of a coating process in which a resist with a desired pattern is applied, an exposure process in which a mask with a desired pattern is placed on it and exposed to light, and a development process in which the exposed resist is treated with a developer to remove excess resist. By repeating these steps, P-type crystals and N-type crystals are stacked to form a desired circuit element.

In equipment for such processes, the coater that applies the resist and the developer that processes the exposed and exposed resist with a developer to remove unnecessary portions of the resist are equipped with a second
As shown in the cross-sectional view of the figure, a wafer W is placed on a spin chuck 2 fixed to a spin motor 1 that rotates at high speed, and a resist in the case of a coater and a developer in the case of a developer are dripped onto the rotating wafer W. There is a spin-type method in which a uniform film is formed by dropping the film from No. 3. The dripping port 3 is fixed in some cases, but in order to prevent droplets from dropping onto the wafer that is not being processed on the spin chuck 2, it is moved horizontally except during processing and is kept at position 3', avoiding the top of the wafer. ing. In a developer having such a structure, after the developer is dropped and the development process is performed, the development is stopped and the rinsing process is performed to clean the developer. The rinsing liquid is discharged from the nozzle 4 while being rotated by the spin motor 1. The drained liquid received by the cup 5 passes through a drain pipe 6, and the gas is separated from the drained liquid by a drain pipe 7 and exhausted. In this type of rinsing process, even the slightest unevenness can affect the characteristics due to the recent trend toward higher integration such as IM, 4M, and 16M.
Super uniformity is required. Spin wafer W with motor 1
Even if the rinsing liquid is discharged while rotating the wafer W, the rinsing liquid is not evenly distributed over the entire surface of the wafer W, resulting in uneven cleaning, which has the disadvantage that a satisfactory rinsing effect cannot be obtained.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks and provide a spin developer that can uniformly clean the entire wafer surface.

[Summary of the Invention] The spin developer of the present invention is a spin developer that cleans the developing solution by supplying a rinsing liquid from a rinsing nozzle to an object to be cleaned after development processing, and in which the rinsing liquid flows out into the center of the object to be cleaned. and a second nozzle that causes the rinsing liquid to flow out to a peripheral area of the object to be cleaned.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the spin developer of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of the spin developer. A spin chuck 9 that supports an exposed wafer W is fixed to a spin motor 8, and in order to transmit the rotation of the spin motor 8 to the wafer W, the wafer is moved by vacuum suction. I support W. After exposure processing, a dripping port 10 through which a developer is dropped to remove excess resist, whether it is a positive resist or a negative resist, is supported by a support 11, and the dripping port 10 escapes from the wafer W to prevent droplets from falling during processing. It is designed to wait at Ill O'. A drain pipe 13 is connected to the cup 12 for receiving excess developer, and a drain pipe 14 is further provided for separating and exhausting gas from the waste liquid. Two nozzles are provided for spouting a rinsing liquid for cleaning the developing liquid after the processing of the developing liquid. A second nozzle 16 is provided at an angle such that it discharges a rinse liquid into the peripheral portion 16'.The first nozzle 1
Both the nozzle 5 and the second nozzle 16 are provided at positions where the tips of the nozzles are located above the plane of the wafer W, which is the object to be cleaned, in order to prevent droplets from dropping. For transporting wafers before and after processing, a transport belt 17 connected to a vertical drive mechanism (not shown) descends to a position 12' indicated by a dotted line and is moved by a horizontal drive mechanism (not shown) is attached to the cup. The configuration is such that the wafer W is placed and transported from both sides.

The operation of the spin developer configured as above will be explained. In order to form a desired pattern, a wafer coated with a photosensitive resist is placed on a mask with a desired pattern and subjected to exposure processing, and then the wafer W is loaded into a spin developer. This developer performs the developing process. If necessary, the wafer W is transported by a transport belt 17 and supported on a spin chuck 9 with the cup at the 12'' position.

When the conveyor belt 17 moves to the outside of the cup 12 by the horizontal mechanism, the cup 12 rises, and the drip opening opens to 1 for the developer to drip.
Move from position 0' to position 10.

The developer is dropped onto the wafer W which is rotated by the rotation of the spin motor 8. When the developer is supplied to the entire surface of the wafer W, the dripping port 10 finishes dropping the developer and moves to the 10'' position. Excess developer is collected in the cup 12 and drained through the drain pipe 13.

Thereafter, the development is stopped, and the rinsing liquid is discharged from the first nozzle 15 and the second nozzle 16 while the wafer W is rotated again to clean the developing solution. At this time, the first nozzle 15 is directed toward the center 15' of the wafer,
The second nozzle 16 is designed to eject the rinsing liquid toward the periphery 16'' of the wafer, so that the rinsing liquid can be evenly distributed over the entire surface and there is no need for excessive rinsing liquid.
Moreover, a sufficient rinsing effect can be obtained. Cup 1
The rinsing liquid received in 2 is drained through a drain pipe 13.

After a series of development processes, the cup 12 is lowered again to the position 12', and the conveyor belt 17 moves horizontally to place the processed wafer W into the photoresist film or on the surface of the post-bake device for the next process. The remaining developer and rinse solution are removed by evaporation, and the photoresist is transported to a heat treatment device for curing the photoresist and strengthening its adhesion to the wafer.

The developer of the present invention described above is one embodiment,
The invention is not limited to the above embodiments. That is, as another embodiment of the present invention, the support for the developer dripping port may be provided with another rail that supports the rinsing liquid nozzle in addition to the rail that supports the dripping port. However, if the rail supporting the nozzle has two discharge ports, one at the center of the wafer and the other at an angle so that the rinsing liquid is discharged at the periphery of the wafer. good. In this case as well, the ejection port may be moved horizontally so that it is not on the wafer W and waits at a position outside the wafer W when processing is not in progress.

Further, the rinsing liquid may be injected intermittently, and the cleaning effect can be further improved by applying ultrasonic waves to the rinsing liquid or the wafer during cleaning.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the developer of the present invention, one nozzle for supplying the rinsing liquid is provided at the center of the wafer, and one is provided at an angle such that the rinsing liquid is supplied to the periphery of the wafer. Therefore, the rinsing liquid is evenly supplied to the entire wafer, and moreover, effective cleaning can be achieved with a minimum amount of rinsing liquid without wasting the rinsing liquid. Therefore, the quality can be maintained at a constant level, processing can be done in a short time, and costs can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a spin developer according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a sectional table of a conventional device. 8... Spin motor 9... Spin chuck 10... Dripping port 15... First nozzle 16... Second nozzle 15'... Center part 16'...Peripheral part W...Wafer (object to be cleaned)

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a spin developer that cleans the developing solution by supplying a rinsing liquid from a rinsing nozzle to an object to be cleaned after development processing, the spin developer includes a first nozzle that flows out the rinsing liquid to the center of the object to be cleaned; A spin developer comprising: a second nozzle for causing the rinsing liquid to flow out to a peripheral portion.