CN110060922B - Flow path cleaning method and flow path cleaning device - Google Patents
Flow path cleaning method and flow path cleaning device Download PDFInfo
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- CN110060922B CN110060922B CN201910020056.6A CN201910020056A CN110060922B CN 110060922 B CN110060922 B CN 110060922B CN 201910020056 A CN201910020056 A CN 201910020056A CN 110060922 B CN110060922 B CN 110060922B
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- 238000004140 cleaning Methods 0.000 title claims abstract description 289
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 title claims abstract description 72
- 239000002904 solvent Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 342
- 239000007788 liquid Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 253
- 238000002156 mixing Methods 0.000 claims abstract description 121
- 238000012545 processing Methods 0.000 claims abstract description 69
- 239000000758 substrate Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 28
- 239000001257 hydrogen Substances 0.000 claims description 19
- 229910052739 hydrogen Inorganic materials 0.000 claims description 19
- 230000010287 polarization Effects 0.000 claims description 18
- 238000003860 storage Methods 0.000 claims description 6
- 238000000576 coating method Methods 0.000 description 38
- JHIVVAPYMSGYDF-UHFFFAOYSA-N cyclohexanone Chemical compound O=C1CCCCC1 JHIVVAPYMSGYDF-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 36
- 239000011248 coating agent Substances 0.000 description 31
- 239000000126 substance Substances 0.000 description 17
- 238000012360 testing method Methods 0.000 description 17
- 238000011144 upstream manufacturing Methods 0.000 description 16
- 239000005416 organic matter Substances 0.000 description 15
- LLHKCFNBLRBOGN-UHFFFAOYSA-N propylene glycol methyl ether acetate Chemical compound COCC(C)OC(C)=O LLHKCFNBLRBOGN-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 15
- 238000010586 diagram Methods 0.000 description 14
- 238000011156 evaluation Methods 0.000 description 14
- 239000007789 gas Substances 0.000 description 14
- 238000007689 inspection Methods 0.000 description 14
- ARXJGSRGQADJSQ-UHFFFAOYSA-N 1-methoxypropan-2-ol Chemical compound COCC(C)O ARXJGSRGQADJSQ-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 12
- 239000002245 particle Substances 0.000 description 12
- 230000015654 memory Effects 0.000 description 6
- YEJRWHAVMIAJKC-UHFFFAOYSA-N 4-Butyrolactone Chemical compound O=C1CCCO1 YEJRWHAVMIAJKC-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 5
- 239000006185 dispersion Substances 0.000 description 5
- 230000007547 defect Effects 0.000 description 4
- 239000000203 mixture Substances 0.000 description 4
- 230000000694 effects Effects 0.000 description 3
- 239000004065 semiconductor Substances 0.000 description 3
- 238000004528 spin coating Methods 0.000 description 3
- 238000005406 washing Methods 0.000 description 3
- IJGRMHOSHXDMSA-UHFFFAOYSA-N Atomic nitrogen Chemical compound N#N IJGRMHOSHXDMSA-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 2
- 230000015572 biosynthetic process Effects 0.000 description 2
- 239000010419 fine particle Substances 0.000 description 2
- 239000012046 mixed solvent Substances 0.000 description 2
- 238000011084 recovery Methods 0.000 description 2
- GEWWCWZGHNIUBW-UHFFFAOYSA-N 1-(4-nitrophenyl)propan-2-one Chemical compound CC(=O)CC1=CC=C([N+]([O-])=O)C=C1 GEWWCWZGHNIUBW-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 1
- 230000005856 abnormality Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000000853 adhesive Substances 0.000 description 1
- 230000001070 adhesive effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000000052 comparative effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 150000001875 compounds Chemical class 0.000 description 1
- 238000001514 detection method Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000004090 dissolution Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000004519 manufacturing process Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000005259 measurement Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000012986 modification Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000004048 modification Effects 0.000 description 1
- 229910052757 nitrogen Inorganic materials 0.000 description 1
- 230000003287 optical effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000011368 organic material Substances 0.000 description 1
- 230000002093 peripheral effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000000206 photolithography Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000003756 stirring Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000003786 synthesis reaction Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000003936 working memory Effects 0.000 description 1
Classifications
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
- H01L21/02—Manufacture or treatment of semiconductor devices or of parts thereof
- H01L21/02041—Cleaning
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
- H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
- H01L21/67005—Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
- H01L21/67011—Apparatus for manufacture or treatment
- H01L21/67017—Apparatus for fluid treatment
- H01L21/67028—Apparatus for fluid treatment for cleaning followed by drying, rinsing, stripping, blasting or the like
- H01L21/6704—Apparatus for fluid treatment for cleaning followed by drying, rinsing, stripping, blasting or the like for wet cleaning or washing
- H01L21/67051—Apparatus for fluid treatment for cleaning followed by drying, rinsing, stripping, blasting or the like for wet cleaning or washing using mainly spraying means, e.g. nozzles
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- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
- Condensed Matter Physics & Semiconductors (AREA)
- General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
- Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
- Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Power Engineering (AREA)
- Cleaning Or Drying Semiconductors (AREA)
- Exposure Of Semiconductors, Excluding Electron Or Ion Beam Exposure (AREA)
- Cleaning In General (AREA)
- Application Of Or Painting With Fluid Materials (AREA)
- Coating Apparatus (AREA)
Abstract
The invention provides a flow path cleaning method and a flow path cleaning device capable of reliably cleaning a flow path for supplying a processing liquid to a substrate in a short time. In a flow path cleaning method for cleaning flow paths (20A, 20B) of a processing liquid such as a resist supplied to a substrate (W) by a cleaning liquid, the following steps are performed: a mixing step of mixing a plurality of solvents so that a solubility parameter approximates a solubility parameter of a solvent constituting the treatment liquid to generate the cleaning liquid; and a cleaning step of supplying the cleaning liquid to the flow paths (20A, 20B) of the processing liquid to clean the processing liquid. Thus, it is possible to prevent foreign matter that is dissolved in the solvent of the processing liquid from remaining in the flow paths (20A, 20B) when the processing liquid is supplied to the flow paths, and to clean the flow paths (20A, 20B) reliably in a short time.
Description
Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of cleaning a flow path for supplying a processing liquid to a substrate.
Background
In a photolithography process in a semiconductor device manufacturing process, various processing liquids are supplied to a surface of a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as a wafer) as a substrate to perform processing. As this process, for example, a process of forming a resist film by supplying a resist to a wafer is cited.
In a resist supply apparatus that performs a process of supplying a resist to a wafer as described above, before the apparatus is installed in a factory to be operated, a solvent is supplied to a flow path of the resist to clean the resist before changing the type of the resist used in the apparatus, and an organic substance that is a foreign substance adhering to a wall portion of the flow path is removed. The flow path of the resist is constituted by a pipe, a filter provided in the pipe, and the like. The organic substance adhering to the flow path is, for example, an organic substance mixed into the flow path from the surrounding environment at the time of assembling the device, or an organic substance contained in the resist before modification. By the above-described cleaning, the organic matter is prevented from becoming fine particles and adhering to the wafer when the resist is supplied to the wafer, and the wafer is prevented from generating defects.
However, with the miniaturization of semiconductor devices, standards set for wafer defects have become strict year by year, and even if flow path cleaning is performed as described above, a sufficient cleaning effect may not be obtained. In addition, the above-described flow path cleaning may be performed for a long period of time, for example, for several consecutive days, so that the cleaning time may be shortened. Patent document 1 describes a technique for removing foreign matter in a filter and a pipe by pressurizing and transporting a solvent to the pipe from an upstream side of the pipe provided with the filter, but the technique is intended to remove foreign matter more reliably and more quickly.
Patent document 1: japanese patent application laid-open No. 2014-222756
Disclosure of Invention
Problems to be solved by the invention
The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of reliably cleaning a flow path for supplying a processing liquid to a substrate in a short time.
Solution for solving the problem
The present invention provides a flow path cleaning method for cleaning a flow path of a processing liquid for supplying the processing liquid to a substrate to process the substrate, the flow path cleaning method comprising: a mixing step of mixing a plurality of solvents so that a solubility parameter approximates a solubility parameter of a solvent constituting the treatment liquid to generate the cleaning liquid; and a cleaning step of supplying the cleaning liquid to the flow path of the processing liquid to clean the processing liquid.
The present invention provides a flow path cleaning device for cleaning a flow path of a processing liquid for supplying the processing liquid to a substrate to process the substrate by using the cleaning liquid, the flow path cleaning device comprising: a mixing unit that mixes a plurality of solvents so that a solubility parameter approximates a solubility parameter of a solvent constituting the treatment liquid to generate the cleaning liquid; a solvent supply unit configured to supply the plurality of solvents to the mixing unit; and a cleaning mechanism that supplies the cleaning liquid to the flow path of the processing liquid to perform cleaning.
ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECTS OF INVENTION
According to the present invention, a plurality of solvents are mixed so that the solubility parameter approximates the solubility parameter of the solvent of the processing liquid constituting the substrate to generate a cleaning liquid, and the flow path of the processing liquid is cleaned by the cleaning liquid. By performing the cleaning in this manner, foreign matter in the treatment liquid flow path can be removed with high reliability in a relatively short time.
Drawings
Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a resist coating apparatus including a flow path cleaning apparatus according to the present invention.
Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining solubility parameters.
Fig. 3 is a schematic view showing a pipe through which a resist flows.
Fig. 4 is a schematic view showing a pipe through which a resist flows.
Fig. 5 is a block diagram of a control section provided in the resist coating apparatus 1.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for describing a mixing method of a solvent.
Fig. 7 is a diagram showing the operation of the resist coating apparatus.
Fig. 8 is a diagram showing the operation of the resist coating apparatus.
Fig. 9 is a diagram showing the operation of the resist coating apparatus.
Fig. 10 is a diagram showing the operation of the resist coating apparatus.
Fig. 11 is a diagram showing the operation of the resist coating apparatus.
Fig. 12 is a diagram showing the operation of the resist coating apparatus.
Fig. 13 is a diagram showing the operation of the resist coating apparatus.
Fig. 14 is a diagram showing the operation of the resist coating apparatus.
Fig. 15 is an explanatory diagram showing another configuration of the control unit.
Fig. 16 is a graph showing the relationship between solubility parameters of solvents, cleaning liquid and resist.
Fig. 17 is a block diagram of an apparatus used in the evaluation test.
Fig. 18 is a graph showing the results of the evaluation test.
Description of the reference numerals
W: a wafer; 1: a resist coating device; 10: a control unit; 11: a rotating chuck; 15A, 15B: a resist supply nozzle; 20: a piping system; 31: a solvent tank; 45: a mixer; 57A to 57D: a flow rate adjusting part.
Detailed Description
Fig. 1 shows a resist coating apparatus 1 according to an embodiment including a flow path cleaning apparatus of the present invention. The resist coating apparatus 1 supplies a resist as a processing liquid to the surface of the wafer W, and coats the resist to form a resist film. One resist is selected from the two resists to be supplied to the wafer W. Each resist contains a solvent as a solvent.
In the resist coating apparatus 1, a plurality of solvents are mixed to generate a cleaning liquid as a thinner, and the cleaning liquid is supplied to a flow path of the resist before the resist is coated on the wafer W, thereby cleaning the flow path. Regarding the solvent used for the generation of the cleaning liquid, n solvents (n is an integer of 2 or more) smaller than m solvents are selected from m solvents (m is an integer of 3 or more) based on information about the resist. Specifically, two solvents were selected in this example. The mixing ratio as a volume ratio is also set for the selected solvent. The information on the resist refers to information on the kind of solvent of the resist in this example.
The solvent used as the cleaning solution is selected and the mixing ratio is determined so that the Hansen (Hansen) Solubility Parameter (SP) of the cleaning solution approximates the Hansen solubility parameter of the solvent of the resist. The hansen solubility parameter described above is known as one of the indicators indicating the properties of a solvent. The solubility parameters include dispersion terms, polarization terms, and hydrogen bonding terms, with the solvent having three parameter values, as shown in fig. 2, the synthesis vector 200 can be used to specify the nature of the solvent.
The dispersion term is the energy from intermolecular dispersion forces, the polarization term is the energy from intermolecular polar forces, and the hydrogen bond term is the energy from intermolecular hydrogen bond forces. Thus, the closer the dispersion term, polarization term, and hydrogen bond term constituting the solubility parameter are, the closer the solvent exhibits solubility to an arbitrary substance. The determination of the respective solubility parameters is described in the literature "Hansen Solubility Parameters" (authors: hansen, charles (2007), publisher CRC publications). Moreover, if the molecular structure of the solvent is determined, the value of each solubility parameter is a uniquely determined value. In this specification, unless otherwise specified, the solubility parameter means hansen solubility parameter.
In this example, a cleaning liquid is provided that generates a polarization term and a hydrogen bond term in the solubility parameter similar to those in the solvent of the resist. More specifically, the cleaning solution is generated such that the resultant vector of the cleaning solution when the polarization term is set to the X-axis and the hydrogen bond term is set to the Y-axis in the XY coordinate system approximates to the resultant vector of the solvent of the resist. More specifically, the cleaning solution is generated such that the coordinates of the front end of the synthesized vector expressed as the cleaning solution are close to the coordinates of the front end of the synthesized vector expressed as the solvent of the resist.
In order to explain the operational effects of the cleaning liquid generated in this way, first, the processing of the comparative example of the present invention will be described with reference to fig. 3. In fig. 3, a pipe constituting a flow path of the resist is denoted by 101, and a vertical section of the pipe 101 is shown. As described in the background art, organic substances may adhere to the pipe 101 as foreign substances. 102. Reference numeral 103 denotes an organic substance composed of compounds of different types. Fig. 3 (a) and (b) show examples in which the inside of the pipe 101 is cleaned by supplying a solvent, for example, γ -butyrolactone (GBL), before the resist is supplied to the pipe 101. If the solubility of GBL is set to be high for the organic matter 102 and low for the organic matter 103, for example, only the organic matter 102 is removed by the cleaning treatment, and the organic matter 103 remains attached to the pipe 101. If the solvent of the resist supplied to the pipe 101 after the cleaning process is high in solubility for the organic matter 103, the organic matter 103 is removed from the pipe 101 as particles and supplied to the wafer W as a defect of the wafer W as shown in fig. 3 (c).
Therefore, as described above, the solvents are mixed based on the information of the resist, and the cleaning liquid is generated so as to have a solubility parameter close to the solubility parameter of the solvent of the resist, and is supplied to the pipe 101 (fig. 4 (a) and (b)). The organic material 103 has high solubility in the solvent of the resist, and thus has high solubility in the cleaning liquid. Thus, the organic matter 103 is dissolved by the cleaning liquid and removed from the pipe 101 (fig. 4 (c)). Therefore, the state where the organic matter 103 remains when the resist is supplied to the pipe 101 is suppressed, and the adhesion of the organic matter 103 as fine particles to the wafer W is suppressed.
In addition, fig. 4 shows that the organic matter 102 is also removed by the cleaning liquid. Even if the solubility of the cleaning liquid with respect to the organic matter 102 is low, the organic matter 102 remains attached to the pipe 101 after the supply of the cleaning liquid, and since the solubility of the cleaning liquid is similar to the solubility of the solvent of the resist, the organic matter 102 remains attached to the pipe 101 without being dissolved even when the resist is supplied to the pipe 101. Thus, the adhesion of the organic matter 102 to the wafer W can be suppressed.
Since two types of resists having different solvents are used in the resist coating apparatus 1, two types of cleaning solutions corresponding to the respective resists are generated. Returning to fig. 1, the structure of the resist coating apparatus 1 will be described. In the figure, 11 is a spin chuck for holding the center of the back surface of the wafer W horizontally. In the figure, 12 is a rotation mechanism that rotates the spin chuck 11 to rotate the wafer W about the vertical axis. In the figure, reference numeral 13 denotes a cup surrounding the wafer W mounted on the spin chuck 11, and receives liquid scattered from the wafer W. In the figure, 14 is a drain opening in the cup 13. In the figure, 15A and 15B are resist supply nozzles for ejecting different types of resist vertically downward.
In the processing of the wafer W, either one of the resist supply nozzles 15A and 15B is used, and the resist is supplied from each of the resist supply nozzles 15A and 15B to the center portion of the wafer W that rotates. The resist film is formed on the entire surface of the wafer W by spin coating in which the resist spreads from the center portion to the peripheral portion of the wafer W due to centrifugal force. The resist ejected from the resist supply nozzle 15A is referred to as a resist a, and the resist ejected from the resist supply nozzle 15B is referred to as a resist B. For example, the composition of the solvent constituting the resist a and the composition of the solvent constituting the resist B are different from each other. The resist supply nozzles 15A and 15B are connected to a driving mechanism, not shown, so that the resist supply nozzles 15A and 15B can be moved between positions outside the cup 13 and positions inside the cup 13 for supplying the resist to the wafer W as described above.
The resist supply nozzles 15A and 15B are connected to the piping system 20, and each member constituting the piping system 20 will be described below. In the drawing, reference numerals 21A and 21B denote resist supply pipes, which are connected to resist supply nozzles 15A and 15B, respectively. The resist supply pipes 21A and 21B correspond to the pipe 101 described above.
The resist supply pipe 21A is provided with a valve V1, a pump 22A, a filter 23A, an intermediate tank 24A, and a valve V2 in this order toward the upstream side. The resist supply nozzle 15A, the resist supply pipe 21A, the valve V1, the pump 22A, the filter 23A, the intermediate tank 24A, and the valve V2 constitute a flow path 20A of the resist a. The resist supply pipe 21B is provided with a valve V3, a pump 22B, a filter 23B, an intermediate tank 24B, and a valve V4 in this order toward the upstream side. The resist supply nozzle 15B, the resist supply pipe 21B, the valve V3, the pump 22B, the filter 23B, the tundish 24B, and the valve V4 constitute a flow path 20B of the resist a.
On the upstream side of the valves V2 and V4, the resist supply pipes 21A and 21B are joined together to form a joint pipe 25, and on the upstream side of the joint pipe 25, pipes 26A and 26B are branched. The upstream side of the pipe 26A is connected to a resist supply bottle 27A storing a resist a via a valve V5. The resist a stored in the resist supply bottle 27A is pressurized and conveyed to the resist supply nozzle 15A by the pump 22A described above. The resist B stored in the resist supply bottle 27B is pressurized and conveyed to the resist supply nozzle 15B by the pump 22B described above.
The resist supply bottle 27A stores a resist a, and the resist supply bottle 27B stores a resist B. The resist supply bottle 27A can supply the stored resist a to the resist supply pipe 21A, the confluence pipe 25, and the pump 22A of the resist supply pipe 21A. By the operation of the pump 22A and the opening and closing operations of the valves, the resist a stored in the resist supply bottle 27A is supplied to the resist supply nozzle 15A. By the operation of the pump 22B and the opening and closing operations of the valves, the resist B stored in the resist supply bottle 27B is supplied to the resist supply nozzle 15B.
The shunt tube 25 is connected to one end of the pipe 28, and the other end of the pipe 28 is connected to a cleaning liquid tank 31 for storing the cleaning liquid. The cleaning liquid tank 31 is connected to one end of the gas supply pipe 32, one end of the exhaust pipe 33, and one end of the cleaning liquid supply pipe 34, respectively. The other end of the gas supply pipe 32 is connected to a supply source 35 of N 2 (nitrogen) gas. The other end of the exhaust pipe 33 is connected to an exhaust mechanism 36. The cleaning liquid supply pipe 34 is provided with a valve V7. The N 2 gas supplied from the N 2 gas supply source 35 pressurizes the inside of the cleaning liquid tank 31, and supplies the cleaning liquid stored in the cleaning liquid tank 31 to the resist supply nozzles 15A and 15B via the merging pipe 25 and the resist supply pipes 21A and 21B. The exhaust mechanism 36 can return the cleaning liquid supplied toward the resist supply nozzles 15A and 15B to the cleaning liquid tank 31 by exhausting the cleaning liquid tank 31. The cleaning liquid is reciprocated in this way to clean the flow path 20A of the resist a and the flow path 20B of the resist B. The cleaning mechanism is composed of a cleaning liquid tank 31, an N 2 gas supply source 35, and an exhaust mechanism 36.
The cleaning liquid supply pipe 34 is branched into four branches on the upstream side, for example, to form a pipe 41 and single solvent supply pipes 42 to 44. The upstream side of the pipe 41 is connected to the mixing section 45 via a valve V11. The mixing section 45 is connected to the downstream ends of the solvent supply pipes 51 to 54. The mixing section 45 is configured to mix the solvents supplied from the solvent supply pipes 51 to 54 by stirring, for example.
The upstream side of the solvent supply pipe 51 is connected to a solvent supply path 55 of a factory where the resist coating apparatus 1 is installed. PGME (propylene glycol methyl ether) is supplied as a solvent to the solvent supply pipe 51 from the solvent supply path 55, for example. The solvent supply pipe 51 is provided with a valve V21, a filter 56A, a flow rate adjusting unit (flow rate controller) 57A, and a valve V22 in this order, so that the supply of the solvent from the solvent supply path 55 to the mixing unit 45 can be shut off and the flow rate can be adjusted.
The upstream side of the solvent supply pipe 52 is connected to a solvent tank 61B in which PGMEA (propylene glycol methyl ether acetate) as a solvent is stored, via a valve V23, a filter 56B, and a flow rate adjusting unit 57B in this order. The upstream side of the solvent supply pipe 53 is connected to a solvent tank 61C storing cyclohexanone as a solvent through a valve V24, a filter 56C, and a flow rate adjusting unit 57C in this order. The upstream side of the solvent supply pipe 54 is connected to a solvent tank 61D in which GBL as a solvent is stored, through a valve V25, a filter 56D, and a flow rate adjusting unit 57D in this order. By the valves and the flow rate adjusting sections provided in the solvent supply pipes 52 to 54, respectively, it is possible to cut off the supply of the solvent from the solvent tanks 61B, 61C, 61D storing the solvents to the mixing section 45 and adjust the flow rate of the solvent to the mixing section 45. The flow rate adjusting portions 57A to 57B constitute a solvent supply portion, and can adjust the flow rate of the solvent toward the downstream side independently of each other.
The upstream sides of the flow rate adjustment portions 57B, 57C, 57D of the solvent supply pipes 52, 53, 54 are connected to the upstream ends of the single solvent supply pipes 42, 43, 44, respectively, and the valves V31, V32, V33 are provided in the single solvent supply pipes 42, 43, 44, respectively. Accordingly, the state of supplying each solvent from the solvent tanks 61B, 61C, 61D to the cleaning solution tank 31 via the mixing section 45 and the state of bypassing the mixing section 45 and supplying each solvent to the cleaning solution tank 31 are switched to each other.
The solvent tanks 61B, 61C, 61D are connected to downstream ends of the N 2 gas supply pipes 62B, 62C, 62D, respectively. N 2 gas is supplied from the upstream side of the N 2 gas supply pipes 62A, 62B, 62C to the solvent tanks 61B, 61C, 61D, respectively, to pressurize the solvent tanks 61B, 61C, 61D. By pressurizing in this manner, the solvents can be supplied to the solvent supply pipes 52, 53, and 54, the cleaning solution tank 31, the flow path 20A of the resist a, and the flow path 20B of the resist B. Valves V31, V32, and V33 are provided in the N 2 gas supply pipes 62B, 62C, and 62D, respectively, so that the supply of N 2 gas to the solvent tanks 61B, 61C, and 61D can be controlled to be shut off. In the piping system 20, a part of the valves, a tank provided in the piping to store the solvent, and other structural members are omitted to prevent complexity of the drawings and description.
Next, the control unit 10 provided in the resist coating apparatus 1 will be described with reference to fig. 5. The control unit 10 is constituted by a computer, for example, and 71 is a bus in the figure. The bus 71 is connected to a CPU 72, a program storage unit 73, an input unit 74, a memory 75, and a work memory 76, which perform various operations. The program storage unit 73 stores a program 77, and a command (step set) is programmed into the program 77 to enable the cleaning of the resist flow path and the application of the resist to the wafer W described above.
Control signals are output from the control unit 10 to the respective units of the resist coating apparatus 1 by a program 77. Thereby, the operations of the respective parts of the resist coating apparatus 1 are controlled. The opening and closing of the valves included in the piping system 20, the flow rate adjustment of the solvent on the downstream side by the flow rate adjustment units, the rotation of the wafer W by the rotation mechanism 12, and other operations are controlled by the program 77. The program 77 also performs selection of a solvent to be used as a cleaning liquid and calculation of a mixing ratio of the solvent, which will be described later. The program 77 is stored in the program storage unit 73 in a state of being stored in a storage medium such as a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a memory card, or a DVD, for example.
Values of hydrogen bond terms and polarization terms for various solvents are stored in the memory 75. The various solvents include PGME, PGMEA, cyclohexanone, and GBL that constitute the cleaning liquid in the resist coating apparatus 1, and various solvents that can constitute the solvent of the resist. The working memory 76 is used for performing an operation of determining a mixing ratio of the solvent used as the cleaning liquid and the solvent based on the respective values of the hydrogen bond term and the polarization term stored in the memory 75. An example of this operation is described in detail below. The input unit 74 is a mouse, a keyboard, a button, or the like, and for example, an operator of the resist coating apparatus 1 inputs information on the resist. Thus, the input section 74 is configured as an information acquisition section for acquiring the information. When the operator performs a predetermined operation from the input unit 74, a cleaning process described later is performed.
An example of selection of the solvent constituting the cleaning liquid and determination of the mixing ratio based on the above-described resist information will be described with reference to fig. 6. Here, for simplicity of explanation, the explanation will be given of the case where two kinds of solvents constituting the cleaning liquid are selected from PGMEA, cyclohexanone, and GBL and mixed as the cleaning liquid, but the cleaning liquid may be produced so as to contain PGME. Fig. 6 is a graph showing polarization terms as X-axis and hydrogen bond terms as Y-axis in an XY coordinate system, and the numerical values of the respective axes are expressed in units of (J/cm 3)0.5. In this XY coordinate system, solubility parameters of resist a, resist B, PGMEA, cyclohexanone, GBL are expressed as coordinates a (Ax, ay), coordinates B (Bx, by), coordinates C (Cx, cy), coordinates D (Dx, dy), and coordinates E (Ex, ey), respectively.
Cleaning solutions corresponding to the resists A, B are generated as described above. The explanation will be given with the cleaning liquid corresponding to the resist a being the cleaning liquid a and the cleaning liquid corresponding to the resist B being the cleaning liquid B. First, a method of selecting two solvents for producing the cleaning liquid a and a method of determining a mixing ratio of the two solvents will be described. First, the distances from the coordinates a to C, D, and E in the XY coordinate system are calculated. Thus, the distance between coordinates ac= { (Ax-Cx) 2+(Ay-Cy)2}1/2, the distance between coordinates ad= { (Ax-Dx) 2+(Ay-Dy)2}1/2, and the distance between coordinates ae= { (Ax-Ex) 2+(Ay-Ey)2}1/2 are calculated, respectively. Then, two distances are selected from the three calculated distances in order from a short distance to a long distance. For the distance between the two coordinates selected, the solvent of the coordinates used for calculation of each distance is determined as the solvent used for generation of the cleaning liquid a. Specifically, for example, if the distance between coordinates AC > the distance between coordinates AD > the distance between coordinates AE, the distance between coordinates AD and the distance between coordinates AE are selected. Then, cyclohexanone corresponding to the coordinate D for calculating the distance between the coordinates AD and GBL corresponding to the coordinate E for calculating the distance between the coordinates AE are determined as solvents for generating the cleaning liquid a, respectively.
Then, the mixing ratio of the solvents is determined in correspondence with the ratio of the distances between the two coordinates selected. When the selected inter-coordinate distance is set to one inter-coordinate distance, another inter-coordinate distance, and one inter-coordinate distance: another inter-coordinate distance = M: in the case of N, the number of the N-th,
Calculated as the mixing ratio of the solvents corresponding to one coordinate=100×n/(m+n)%
The mixing ratio of the solvent corresponding to the other coordinate=100×m/(m+n)%.
Specifically, when the distance between coordinates AD is set as: inter-coordinate AE distance=3: 4, at the time of 4, calculated as,
The mixing ratio of cyclohexanone as the solvent corresponding to the coordinate ad=100×4/(3+4)% =57%
The mixing ratio of GBL as a solvent corresponding to the inter-coordinate ae=100×3/(3+4)% =43%.
The solvent and the mixing ratio used for generating the cleaning liquid B are determined in the same manner as the solvent and the mixing ratio used for generating the cleaning liquid a. Thus, the distance between coordinates BC, the distance between coordinates BD, and the distance between coordinates BE are calculated, respectively, and the two distances are selected in order of the distance from short to long. Then, the solvent of the coordinates used in the calculation of the selected distance is set as the solvent for generating the cleaning liquid B. For example, when the inter-coordinate BE distance > the inter-coordinate BD distance > the inter-coordinate BC distance is set, PGMEA and cyclohexanone corresponding to the coordinates C and D, respectively, are determined as the solvent for generating the cleaning liquid B. Then, the distance between coordinates BC is: distance between coordinates BD = 1:8, the mixing ratio is calculated as follows. Such selection of the solvent and calculation of the mixing ratio of the selected solvent are performed by the above-described program 77.
PGMEA ratio=100×8/(1+8)% =89%
Cyclohexanone ratio = 100 x 1/(1+8)% = 11%
For convenience of explanation, the resist A, B is described with a solvent constituting the resist A, B as one solvent, but the resist A, B may be formed of a plurality of solvents. In the case where the solvent is composed of a plurality of solvents as described above, for example, the type of each solvent constituting the solvent and the mixing ratio of each solvent are input as information of the resist from the input unit 74. Then, the coordinates (Ax, ay) of the resist a and the coordinates (Bx, by) of the resist B are set, respectively, by performing calculation based on the data inputted as described above and the solubility parameter stored in the memory 75. Specifically, if the solvent for the resist a is, for example, a mixture of two solvents, i.e., the solvent F (Fx, fy) and the solvent (Gx, gy), the mixing ratio is the solvent F: solvent g=p: q, the coordinates of the resist a are calculated by the following equation 1. Even if the solvent is a mixture of three or more solvents, the coordinates of the resist a are set by performing the calculation using the same calculation formula. That is, when the solvent is a solvent in which three solvents are mixed, the coordinates of a mixed solvent in which two solvents among the three solvents are mixed are substituted into the following formula 1 to calculate, and the calculated coordinates of the mixed solvent and the coordinates of the remaining one solvent among the three solvents are substituted into the following formula 1 to calculate.
Ax= ((p·fx+q·gx)/(p+q)) ay= (p·fy+q·gy)/(Gy) (P+Q)). Cndot. Formula 1
Next, a process of cleaning a flow path of the resist in the resist coating apparatus 1 and a process of performing a process of processing the wafer W after the cleaning will be described with reference to fig. 7 to 14 showing flow states of liquid and gas in each tube. In fig. 7 to 14, the pipe through which the liquid and the gas circulate is shown thicker than the pipe through which the liquid and the gas do not circulate. The opening/closing state of the valve in the piping system 20 is appropriately switched to perform a cleaning process and a resist coating process for the wafer W as described below. In the figures, closed valves are shown with diagonal lines to distinguish them from open valves.
First, the operator inputs information about the resist a and the resist B, and sets the coordinates a and B corresponding to the resist a and the resist B described in fig. 6. Then, when the operator performs a predetermined process of starting the cleaning process from the input part 74, as described in fig. 6, it is determined to use cyclohexanone and GBL as the cleaning liquid a corresponding to the resist a, and the mixing ratio of these solvents is determined to be cyclohexanone: gbl=57%: 43%. In addition, PGMEA and cyclohexanone were decided to be used as the cleaning liquid B corresponding to the resist B, and the mixing ratio of these solvents was decided as PGMEA: cyclohexanone=89%: 11%.
After that, for example, the solvent tank 61D is pressurized, GBL in the solvent tank 61D is pressurized and conveyed to the resist supply nozzles 15A and 15B via the single solvent supply pipe 42 and the cleaning liquid tank 31 in order, and is discharged from the resist supply nozzles 15A and 15B (fig. 7). Thus, the flow path 20A of the resist a and the flow path 20B of the resist B are subjected to rough cleaning (step S1).
Next, GBL supply to the single solvent supply pipe 42 is stopped, and the solvent tank 61C and the solvent tank 61D are pressurized. Thus, cyclohexanone and GBL are supplied from the solvent tanks 61C and 61D to the mixing section 45, respectively, and the solvents are mixed by the mixing section 45 to generate the cleaning liquid a. The flow rate of cyclohexanone supplied to the mixing unit 45 by the flow rate adjusting units 57C and 57D: the GBL supply flow rate to the mixing section 45 is set to 57 which is the determined mixing ratio: 43. the cleaning liquid a is supplied from the mixing section 45 to the cleaning liquid tank 31 and stored (fig. 8).
After that, the pressurization of the solvent tanks 61C and 61D is stopped, and the supply of the cleaning liquid a from the mixing section 45 to the cleaning liquid tank 31 is stopped. Then, the inside of the cleaning liquid tank 31 is pressurized, whereby the cleaning liquid a is supplied to the resist supply nozzle 15A in the flow path 20A of the resist a (fig. 9). Next, pressurization in the cleaning liquid tank 31 is stopped, and the cleaning liquid tank 31 is exhausted, whereby the cleaning liquid a supplied to the downstream side of the cleaning liquid tank 31 is returned to the cleaning liquid tank 31. As described above, the supply of the cleaning liquid a to the resist supply nozzle 15A and the recovery of the cleaning liquid a to the cleaning liquid tank 31 are repeated to clean the flow path 20A of the resist a (step S2).
When the cleaning is specifically described, since the solubility of the cleaning liquid a is similar to the solubility of the resist a, as described in fig. 3, the organic substances that would be dissolved when the resist a is supplied are dissolved in the cleaning liquid a and removed from the wall portions of the flow path 20A constituting the resist a. Then, the inside of the cleaning liquid tank 31 is pressurized, and the cleaning liquid a in the cleaning liquid tank 31 and in the flow path 20A is discharged from the resist supply nozzle 15A and removed. Thus, the organic substances dissolved in the cleaning liquid a are also removed from the flow path 20A of the resist a.
Then, the solvent tanks 61B and 61C are pressurized, PGMEA and cyclohexanone are supplied from the solvent tanks 61B and 61C to the mixing section 45, and the solvents are mixed by the mixing section 45 to generate the cleaning liquid B. Flow rate adjusting units 57B and 57C supply PGMEA to mixing unit 45: the flow rate of the cyclohexanone supplied to the mixing section was set to 89 as the determined mixing ratio: 11. the cleaning liquid B thus produced is supplied from the mixing section 45 to the cleaning liquid tank 31 and stored (fig. 10).
Thereafter, the supply of the cleaning liquid B from the mixing section 45 to the cleaning liquid tank 31 is stopped, the inside of the cleaning liquid tank 31 is pressurized, and the supply of the cleaning liquid a from the mixing section 45 to the cleaning liquid tank 31 is stopped. Then, the inside of the cleaning liquid tank 31 is pressurized, whereby the cleaning liquid B is supplied to the resist supply nozzle 15B in the flow path 20B of the resist B (fig. 11).
Next, the pressurization of the inside of the cleaning liquid tank 31 is stopped, and the inside of the cleaning liquid tank 31 is exhausted, whereby the cleaning liquid B supplied to the downstream side of the cleaning liquid tank 31 is returned to the cleaning liquid tank 31. The supply of the cleaning liquid B to the resist supply nozzle 15B and the recovery of the cleaning liquid B to the cleaning liquid tank 31 are repeated to clean the flow path 20B of the resist B. Specifically, since the solubility of the cleaning liquid B is similar to the solubility of the resist B, as described with reference to fig. 3, the organic substances that would be dissolved when the resist B is supplied are dissolved in the cleaning liquid B and removed from the wall portions of the flow path 20B that constitute the resist B. Then, the inside of the cleaning liquid tank 31 is pressurized, and the cleaning liquid B in the cleaning liquid tank 31 and in the flow path 20B is discharged from the resist supply nozzle 15B and removed. Thus, the organic substances dissolved in the cleaning liquid B are also removed from the flow path 20B of the resist B.
Thereafter, the solvent tank 61B is pressurized, and PEGMEA in the solvent tank 61B is pressurized and conveyed to the resist supply nozzles 15A and 15B via the single solvent supply pipe 42 and the cleaning liquid tank 31 in this order. Then, PEMEA is discharged from these resist supply nozzles 15A and 15B, and the cleaning process is ended (fig. 12, step S4). The PGMEA is ejected from the resist supply nozzles 15A and 15B in this way, and whether or not cleaning is properly performed is checked by performing a check so that the operator obtains the PGMEA ejected in this way. If there is no abnormality in the inspection, for example, an operator of the apparatus performs a predetermined operation from the input unit 74 to start the resist coating process for the wafer W.
Thereafter, the wafer W is sequentially transferred into the cup 13, and a resist coating process is performed. In this resist coating process, the resist a is supplied from the resist supply bottle 27A to the flow path 20A after being cleaned, and is ejected from the resist supply nozzle 15A to the wafer W held by the spin chuck 11 and rotated, thereby performing spin coating (fig. 13). The resist B is supplied from the resist supply bottle 27B to the flow path 20B after being cleaned, and is ejected from the resist supply nozzle 15B to the wafer W held by the spin chuck 11 and rotated, thereby performing spin coating (fig. 14).
According to the resist coating apparatus 1, the solvents are mixed to generate the cleaning liquid A, B so that the hansen solubility parameter approximates the hansen solubility parameter of the solvent constituting the resist A, B. Then, before the resist a and the resist B are supplied to the resist flow paths 20A and 20B, respectively, and the resist coating process is performed, the cleaning liquid A, B is supplied to the resist flow paths 20A and 20B, respectively, and the cleaning process is performed. Therefore, when the resist A, B is supplied to the wafer W to process the wafer W, the foreign matters adhering to the flow paths 20A and 20B are prevented from being dissolved in the solvent of the resist A, B and supplied to the wafer W. As a result, occurrence of defects on the wafer W can be suppressed.
Further, since the solubility of the cleaning liquid A, B is similar to the solubility of the solvent constituting the resist A, B, it is possible to quickly remove foreign matter that is at risk of being supplied from the resist flow paths 20A and 20B to the wafer W when the resist A, B is supplied during the cleaning process. Thus, the time required for cleaning can be reduced. In another aspect, the risk of foreign matter adhering to the wafer W due to insufficient time for performing cleaning can be reduced. In addition, since foreign matter can be removed efficiently in a short time as described above, the amount of each solvent used in the cleaning process can be reduced.
Further, according to the resist coating apparatus 1, the solvent constituting the cleaning liquid is selected, and the mixing ratio of the selected solvents is adjusted, so that the solubility parameter of the cleaning liquid and the solubility parameter of the solvent of the resist can be made more similar. As a result, the foreign matter can be removed from the flow paths 20A, 20B of the resist more reliably.
The solvent used in the step S1 of performing the rough cleaning and the step S4 of confirming the state after the cleaning is not limited to the above example. The resist supply pipes 21A and 21B may be provided with particle counters, and the control unit 10 may detect the number of foreign substances based on the detection signal transmitted from the particle counter and compare the number of foreign substances with a threshold value when step S4 is executed. Thus, the above-described step S4 is not limited to the inspection by the operator.
In the case where the control unit 10 compares the number of foreign matters with the threshold value as described above, the cleaning process may be terminated to perform the processing of the wafer W when the number of foreign matters is determined to be lower than the threshold value, and the cleaning process may be continued by, for example, executing the operations of step S2 and the subsequent steps again when the number of foreign matters is determined to be equal to or higher than the threshold value. That is, the operation from the start of the cleaning process to the end of the cleaning process can be automatically performed. When it is determined that the number of foreign matters is lower than the threshold value and the processing of the wafer W is possible as described above, the control unit 10 may output a control signal to the conveying mechanism that conveys the wafer W to the spin chuck 11, and automatically perform the resist coating processing for the wafer W. As described above, the resist coating apparatus 1 can be configured to automatically perform a series of processes from the start of the cleaning process to the end of the process for the wafer W.
In the above-described example, the calculation is performed based on the solubility parameter of each solvent and the solubility parameter of the solvent of the resist, the solvent used as the cleaning liquid is selected, and the mixing ratio of the selected solvents is determined, but the selection and mixing ratio of the solvents are not limited to the determination as described above. Fig. 15 shows a control unit 10A as another configuration example of a control unit provided in the resist coating apparatus 1. As a point of difference between the control unit 10A and the control unit 10, a storage unit 78 that stores a table is provided so as to be connected to the bus 71. The table defines the correspondence between the mixing ratio of each solvent of GBL, PGME, PGMEA and cyclohexanone, which can be supplied to the mixing section 45 to generate the cleaning liquid, and the hydrogen bond term and polarization term of the cleaning liquid generated when the mixing ratio is used. That is, there is stored a correspondence relationship between the cleaning liquid in which the mixing ratios of the respective solvents are different from each other and the dissolution parameter of the cleaning liquid.
When the control unit 10A is configured as described above, when information on the resist is acquired and each value of the hydrogen bond term and the polarization term of the solvent of the resist is acquired based on information on the kind of the solvent and the mixing ratio of the solvent contained in the information, the mixing ratio of each of the hydrogen bond term and the polarization term to the solvent closest to the acquired hydrogen bond term and polarization term of the solvent of the resist is selected from the table of the storage unit 78. Then, the flow rates of the solvents supplied to the mixing section 45 are adjusted based on the mixing ratio selected in this way, and the cleaning liquid is generated and cleaned.
In the above table, various settings were made for the mixing ratio of GBL, PGME, PGMEA and cyclohexanone, and the mixing ratio set as such includes a mixing ratio in which the mixing ratio of one or two solvents of the four solvents is set to 0%. That is, the table is set so that there are cases where four, three, or two solvents are selected from the above four solvents to be mixed. That is, there are cases where n (n is an integer of 2 or more) solvents smaller than m are selected from m solvents (m is an integer of 3 or more). Accordingly, the table corresponds to first data set in advance for selecting n or less solvents from m types of solvents (m is an integer of 3 or more) based on the acquired information on the resist, and second data set in advance for determining the mixing ratio of the plurality of solvents based on the acquired information on the resist. The table of the storage unit 78 may be set so that the above-described selection of the solvents is not performed, and the mixing ratio of the four solvents may be changed depending on the solvent of the resist. The table may be set so that only the type of solvent used is changed depending on the solvent of the resist, and the mixing ratio of the solvents is not changed depending on the type of solvent. That is, the table may be configured to include only one of the first data and the second data.
As described with reference to fig. 5 and 6, when the control unit 10 selects the solvent to be used by calculation based on the coordinates of the solubility parameter of each solvent, the solvents to be selected are not limited to two types. Three solvents having coordinates close to those of the solvent of the resist may be selected for mixing with respect to the coordinates of the four solvents. In addition, the control unit 10 may set the mixing ratio according to the solubility parameter of each solvent, or may set the mixing ratio, and if the solvent constituting the cleaning liquid is selected, the selected solvent is supplied to the mixing unit 45 at a predetermined ratio to generate the cleaning liquid. Specifically, for example, the solvents are supplied to the mixing section 45 so that the ratios of the solvents in the cleaning liquid are equal to each other, thereby generating the cleaning liquid.
In addition, in the memory constituting the control unit 10 or 10A, for example, information for specifying the type of the resist and combinations of solvents constituting the cleaning liquid corresponding to the resist may be stored in plural in correspondence with each other. The information for specifying the type of the resist specifically refers to, for example, the product name of the resist, a predetermined ID number, or the like. When the operator inputs information for specifying the type of resist, a combination of solvents constituting the cleaning liquid corresponding to the information may be selected, and the solvent of the combination may be supplied to the mixing section 45 to generate the cleaning liquid. That is, the information on the resist obtained by the control units 10 and 10A is not limited to the information for specifying the solubility parameter of the solvent of the resist as in the above example. The control units 10 and 10A may not acquire such information about the resist, and the operator of the apparatus may manually operate the apparatus based on the resist used in the resist coating process, thereby supplying two or more solvents corresponding to the resist to the mixing unit 45 to generate the cleaning liquid, and to the flow paths 20A and 20B of the resist.
Further, the generation of the cleaning liquid to be similar to the solvent of the resist will be described in detail. The two-dimensional coordinate system is set to indicate the coordinates of the solubility parameter of each solvent used for generating the cleaning solution, the coordinates of the solubility parameter of the cleaning solution, and the coordinates of the solubility parameter of the solvent of the resist, respectively. Further, when the distances between the coordinates of the solvent and the coordinates of the solvent of the resist are greater than the distances between the coordinates of the cleaning liquid and the coordinates of the resist, a cleaning liquid having a solubility parameter similar to the solubility parameter of the solvent of the resist is generated.
And is described with particular reference to fig. 16. In fig. 16, the coordinates of the solvent 1, the coordinates of the solvent 2, the coordinates of the cleaning liquid produced by mixing the solvents 1 and 2, and the coordinates of the solvent of the resist are shown in the XY coordinate system described above in which the polarization term is the X axis and the hydrogen bond term is the Y axis. In the example shown in fig. 16, the distance L3 between the coordinates of the cleaning liquid and the coordinates of the solvent of the resist is smaller than the distance L1 between the coordinates of the solvent 1 and the coordinates of the solvent of the resist and the distance L2 between the coordinates of the solvent 2 and the coordinates of the solvent of the resist. Thus, the cleaning liquid is produced by mixing a plurality of solvents so that the solubility parameter approximates the solubility parameter of the solvent of the resist. In addition, as in the case of obtaining the coordinates of the solvent of the resist in which a plurality of solvents are mixed, the coordinates of the cleaning liquid can be calculated from the coordinates of the respective solvents by the above-described formula 1. Further, the distance L3 is preferably 6[ (J/cm 3)0.5 ] or less, more preferably 3[ (J/cm 3)0.5 ] or less, and the above-described relationship may be satisfied between the coordinates of each solvent, the coordinates of the solvent of the resist, and the coordinates of the cleaning liquid in the two-dimensional coordinate system, and therefore, the X-axis and the Y-axis are not limited to the polarization term and the hydrogen bond term as described above, and one of the X-axis and the Y-axis may be the dispersion term.
The processing liquid is not limited to resist. For example, the present invention can be used to clean a flow path for supplying a chemical solution for forming an insulating film, a chemical solution for forming an antireflection film, and an adhesive. The resist coating apparatus 1 may be configured such that the resist supply bottles 27A and 27B for storing the resist A, B are not provided. That is, the apparatus may be configured as a flow path cleaning apparatus that performs only cleaning of the flow paths 20A and 20B without performing resist processing on the wafer W. The flow paths 20A and 20B cleaned by the flow path cleaning device may be mounted in a resist coating device that uses the resist a and the resist B to perform a process, and the resist coating device may perform a resist coating process. That is, the apparatus for cleaning the flow path is not limited to the substrate processing apparatus for processing the substrate.
Further, the description has been made with the hansen solubility parameter as the solubility parameter when a plurality of solvents are mixed so that the solubility parameter approximates to the solubility parameter of the solvent constituting the treatment liquid, but the present invention is not limited to the hansen solubility parameter. For example, a cleaning liquid may be produced by mixing a plurality of solvents so that the solubility parameters of Hildebrand (Hildebrand), fedors, VAN KREVELEN, hoy, or Small are similar to those of the solvent constituting the treatment liquid.
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various embodiments may be appropriately modified or combined with each other.
(Evaluation test)
Next, an evaluation test 1 performed in connection with the present invention will be described. Fig. 17 shows a schematic configuration of an experimental apparatus used in the evaluation test. The resist supply apparatus includes a resist supply pipe 21A, a resist supply nozzle 15A is connected to a downstream side of the resist supply pipe 21A, a resist supply bottle 27A for storing a resist is connected to an upstream side of the resist supply pipe 21A, and a valve V1, a pump 22A, and a filter 23A are provided in the resist supply pipe 21A. The resist supply pipe 21A of the experimental apparatus is constituted by a pipe main body 17 and an inspection pipe 18, the inspection pipe 18 is provided on the pipe main body 17, and the inspection pipe 18 is detachable from the pipe main body 17.
The cleaning process is performed by circulating the solvent through each of the plurality of inspection pipes 18 in a state of being removed from the pipe main body 17. After the cleaning process of each inspection pipe 18, the cleaned inspection pipe 18 is connected to the pipe main body 17, and the solvent used for cleaning the inspection pipe 18 is flowed into the pipe main body 17, thereby further performing the cleaning process. In this cleaning process, the number of particles adhering to the wafer W, which are ejected from the resist supply nozzle 15A, is measured, and the cleaning process is terminated with a time point at which the number of particles is smaller than eight as a reference value as a reference time. During the period of 4 days after the reference time, the resist was supplied to the wafer W to perform the film forming process, and the number of particles adhering to the processed wafer W was measured every morning and afternoon. Further, the particles were measured with particles of 80 μm or more. The above-described cleaning process of the inspection pipe 18 is performed by supplying the solvent 11A, or supplying the solvent 12A of a different type from the solvent 11A, or sequentially supplying the solvent 11A and the solvent 12A. The test performed using the inspection pipe 18 after washing with the solvent 11A was set as an evaluation test 1-1, the test performed using the inspection pipe 18 after washing with the solvent 12A was set as an evaluation test 1-2, and the test performed using the inspection pipe 18 after washing with the solvent 11A and the solvent 12A in this order was set as an evaluation test 1-3.
The graph of fig. 18 shows the results of this evaluation test 1. The horizontal axis of the graph represents the timing of measuring particles, and the vertical axis of the graph represents the number of particles measured. In the evaluation tests 1-1 and 1-2 in which cleaning was performed with one solvent, the particles measured from the start of the film formation treatment increased with the lapse of time, the reference value was exceeded after the third day in the evaluation test 1-1, and the reference value was exceeded after the second day in the evaluation test 1-2. In contrast, in the evaluation tests 1 to 3 in which the cleaning was performed with two solvents, the number of particles measured during the measurement period was smaller than the reference value. Accordingly, it is considered that foreign matters having different solubilities with respect to the solvents 11A and 12A are adhered to the inspection pipe 18, and the foreign matters are not completely removed by the cleaning treatment in the evaluation tests 1-1 and 1-2, and the foreign matters are dissolved in the solvent of the resist at the time of the resist supply and are ejected from the resist supply nozzle 15A to the wafer W. Based on the result, it is assumed that: in order to reliably remove foreign matter adhering to the pipe, it is effective to perform cleaning using a cleaning liquid having a solubility parameter similar to that of the solvent of the resist as in the above-described embodiment, as compared to cleaning using a single solvent.
Claims (16)
1. A flow path cleaning method for cleaning a flow path of a processing liquid for supplying the processing liquid to a substrate to process the substrate by using a cleaning liquid, the flow path cleaning method comprising:
A mixing step of mixing a plurality of solvents so that a solubility parameter approximates a solubility parameter of a solvent constituting the treatment liquid to generate the cleaning liquid; and
A cleaning step of supplying the cleaning liquid to the flow path of the processing liquid to clean the processing liquid,
The mixing step is performed based on the solubility parameter of the solvent of the treatment liquid and the solubility parameter of each solvent of the plurality of solvents,
The mixing process comprises the following steps:
A solvent selection step of selecting n solvents less than m solvents from among m solvents, wherein m is an integer of 3 or more and n is an integer of 2 or more, based on the solubility parameter of the solvent of the treatment liquid and the solubility parameter of each solvent of the plurality of solvents; and
A step of mixing the selected solvents to produce the cleaning liquid,
The solvent selection step is performed based on the coordinates of each solvent and the coordinates of the solvent of the treatment liquid when the size of the polarization term included in the solubility parameter is set to the X axis and the size of the hydrogen bond term included in the solubility parameter is set to the Y axis.
2. The flow path cleaning method according to claim 1, wherein,
The solubility parameter is hansen solubility parameter.
3. A flow path cleaning method for cleaning a flow path of a processing liquid for supplying the processing liquid to a substrate to process the substrate by using a cleaning liquid, the flow path cleaning method comprising:
A mixing step of mixing a plurality of solvents so that a solubility parameter approximates a solubility parameter of a solvent constituting the treatment liquid to generate the cleaning liquid; and
A cleaning step of supplying the cleaning liquid to the flow path of the processing liquid to clean the processing liquid,
The mixing step is performed based on the solubility parameter of the solvent of the treatment liquid and the solubility parameter of each solvent of the plurality of solvents,
The mixing process comprises the following steps:
a mixing ratio determining step of determining a mixing ratio of each of the plurality of solvents based on the solubility parameter of the solvent of the processing liquid and the solubility parameter of each of the plurality of solvents; and
A step of mixing a solvent at a predetermined mixing ratio to produce the cleaning liquid,
The mixing ratio determining step is performed based on the coordinates of each solvent and the coordinates of the solvent of the processing liquid when the size of the polarization term included in the solubility parameter is set to the X axis and the size of the hydrogen bond term included in the solubility parameter is set to the Y axis.
4. The flow path cleaning method according to claim 3, wherein,
The solubility parameter is hansen solubility parameter.
5. A flow path cleaning method for cleaning a flow path of a processing liquid for supplying the processing liquid to a substrate to process the substrate by using a cleaning liquid, the flow path cleaning method comprising:
A mixing step of mixing a plurality of solvents so that a solubility parameter approximates a solubility parameter of a solvent constituting the treatment liquid to generate the cleaning liquid; and
A cleaning step of supplying the cleaning liquid to the flow path of the processing liquid to clean the processing liquid,
The flow path cleaning method includes a step of acquiring information on the type of solvent of the treatment liquid,
The flow path cleaning method comprises the following steps: the cleaning liquid is generated by mixing n or less solvents based on first data, which is preset to select n or less solvents smaller than m from m solvents based on the acquired information on the treatment liquid, wherein m is an integer of 3 or more and n is an integer of 2 or more.
6. The flow path cleaning method according to claim 5, wherein,
The solubility parameter is hansen solubility parameter.
7. A flow path cleaning method for cleaning a flow path of a processing liquid for supplying the processing liquid to a substrate to process the substrate by using a cleaning liquid, the flow path cleaning method comprising:
A mixing step of mixing a plurality of solvents so that a solubility parameter approximates a solubility parameter of a solvent constituting the treatment liquid to generate the cleaning liquid; and
A cleaning step of supplying the cleaning liquid to the flow path of the processing liquid to clean the processing liquid,
The flow path cleaning method includes a step of acquiring information on the type of solvent of the treatment liquid,
The flow path cleaning method comprises the following steps: the cleaning liquid is generated by mixing the plurality of solvents based on second data, which is preset to determine the mixing ratio of the plurality of solvents based on the acquired information on the processing liquid.
8. The flow path cleaning method according to claim 7, wherein,
The solubility parameter is hansen solubility parameter.
9. A flow path cleaning device for cleaning a flow path of a processing liquid for supplying the processing liquid to a substrate to process the substrate by using a cleaning liquid, the flow path cleaning device comprising:
a mixing unit that mixes a plurality of solvents so that a solubility parameter approximates a solubility parameter of a solvent constituting the treatment liquid to generate the cleaning liquid;
A solvent supply unit configured to supply the plurality of solvents to the mixing unit;
a cleaning mechanism that supplies the cleaning liquid to a flow path of the processing liquid to clean the processing liquid; and
A control unit that acquires information for specifying a solubility parameter of the solvent of the treatment liquid,
The control unit outputs a control signal to perform mixing of the respective solvents in the mixing unit based on the solubility parameter of the solvent of the treatment liquid and the solubility parameter of each solvent of the plurality of solvents,
The solvent supply unit is configured to be capable of independently supplying m kinds of solvents to the mixing unit, m being an integer of 3 or more,
The control unit outputs a control signal to select n types of solvents smaller than m types of solvents from the solvent supply unit based on the solubility parameter of the solvent of the treatment liquid and the solubility parameter of each solvent of the plurality of solvents, and supply the n types of solvents to the mixing unit, n being an integer of 2 or more,
The solvent is supplied to the mixing section based on the coordinates of the solvents and the coordinates of the solvent of the processing liquid when the size of the polarization term included in the solubility parameter is set to the X axis and the size of the hydrogen bond term included in the solubility parameter is set to the Y axis.
10. The flow path cleaning apparatus according to claim 9, wherein,
The solubility parameter is hansen solubility parameter.
11. A flow path cleaning device for cleaning a flow path of a processing liquid for supplying the processing liquid to a substrate to process the substrate by using a cleaning liquid, the flow path cleaning device comprising:
a mixing unit that mixes a plurality of solvents so that a solubility parameter approximates a solubility parameter of a solvent constituting the treatment liquid to generate the cleaning liquid;
A solvent supply unit configured to supply the plurality of solvents to the mixing unit;
a cleaning mechanism that supplies the cleaning liquid to a flow path of the processing liquid to clean the processing liquid; and
A control unit that acquires information for specifying a solubility parameter of the solvent of the treatment liquid,
The control unit outputs a control signal to perform mixing of the respective solvents in the mixing unit based on the solubility parameter of the solvent of the treatment liquid and the solubility parameter of each solvent of the plurality of solvents,
The control section outputs a control signal to control the supply of the plurality of solvents to the mixing section to mix the plurality of solvents based on a mixing ratio of the solubility parameter of the solvent of the treatment liquid and the solubility parameter of each solvent of the plurality of solvents,
The solvent is supplied to the mixing section based on the coordinates of the solvents and the coordinates of the solvent of the processing liquid when the size of the polarization term included in the solubility parameter is set to the X axis and the size of the hydrogen bond term included in the solubility parameter is set to the Y axis.
12. The flow path cleaning apparatus according to claim 11, wherein,
The solubility parameter is hansen solubility parameter.
13. A flow path cleaning device for cleaning a flow path of a processing liquid for supplying the processing liquid to a substrate to process the substrate by using a cleaning liquid, the flow path cleaning device comprising:
a mixing unit that mixes a plurality of solvents so that a solubility parameter approximates a solubility parameter of a solvent constituting the treatment liquid to generate the cleaning liquid;
A solvent supply unit configured to supply the plurality of solvents to the mixing unit;
A cleaning mechanism that supplies the cleaning liquid to a flow path of the processing liquid to clean the processing liquid;
an information acquisition unit for acquiring information on the type of the solvent in the treatment liquid;
a storage unit that stores first data that is preset to select n or less solvents smaller than m types of solvents based on acquired information on a processing liquid, m being an integer of 3 or more and n being an integer of 2 or more; and
And a control unit that outputs a control signal to supply the selected n or less solvents to the mixing unit.
14. The flow path cleaning apparatus according to claim 13, wherein,
The solubility parameter is hansen solubility parameter.
15. A flow path cleaning device for cleaning a flow path of a processing liquid for supplying the processing liquid to a substrate to process the substrate by using a cleaning liquid, the flow path cleaning device comprising:
a mixing unit that mixes a plurality of solvents so that a solubility parameter approximates a solubility parameter of a solvent constituting the treatment liquid to generate the cleaning liquid;
A solvent supply unit configured to supply the plurality of solvents to the mixing unit;
A cleaning mechanism that supplies the cleaning liquid to a flow path of the processing liquid to clean the processing liquid;
an information acquisition unit for acquiring information on the type of the solvent in the treatment liquid;
A storage unit that stores second data that is preset to determine a mixing ratio of the plurality of solvents based on the acquired information on the processing liquid; and
And a control unit that outputs a control signal to supply the plurality of solvents to the mixing unit in accordance with the determined mixing ratio, and performs mixing.
16. The flow path cleaning apparatus according to claim 15, wherein,
The solubility parameter is hansen solubility parameter.
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| JP2018-007573 | 2018-01-19 | ||
| JP2018007573A JP6984431B2 (en) | 2018-01-19 | 2018-01-19 | Channel cleaning method and channel cleaning device |
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| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CN110060922A CN110060922A (en) | 2019-07-26 |
| CN110060922B true CN110060922B (en) | 2024-05-17 |
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| JP2019129157A (en) | 2019-08-01 |
| CN110060922A (en) | 2019-07-26 |
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