CN112882354A

CN112882354A - Universal photoetching equipment and photoetching process

Info

Publication number: CN112882354A
Application number: CN202110121109.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张弩
Original assignee: Jiangsu Dynamic Automation Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Jiangsu Dynamic Automation Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2021-01-28
Filing date: 2021-01-28
Publication date: 2021-06-01
Anticipated expiration: 2041-01-28
Also published as: CN112882354B

Abstract

The invention discloses a universal photoetching device and a photoetching process, which comprise a point light source, a pattern generator, a substrate, a self-moving platform and a control system, wherein the pattern generator is rotationally arranged and comprises a first forming plate and a second forming plate which are fixedly connected, a plurality of first through holes are formed in the first forming plate along the circumference taking a rotating shaft as the circle center, a plurality of second through holes are formed in the second forming plate, the first through holes are connected with the second through holes through optical transmission lines, the point light source is arranged corresponding to one of the first through holes, light beams generated by the point light source penetrate through the first through holes and the second through holes through the optical transmission lines and form a cutting light spot on the substrate borne by the self-moving platform, and the control system controls the point light source and the pattern generator to operate so that the cutting light spot forms a cutting line on the. The invention can generate any pattern by using the pattern generator, omits the use of a photomask, greatly reduces the photoetching cost, and directly cuts the substrate, thereby simplifying the photoetching process.

Description

Universal photoetching equipment and photoetching process

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of semiconductor processing equipment, in particular to universal photoetching equipment and a photoetching process.

Background

Photolithography is a technique for forming fine circuit patterns on the surface of a substrate. These patterns are transferred into the wafer structure by subsequent etching or deposition processes. Ideally, the lithography step produces a pattern at the designed location that exactly matches the designed dimensions.

Photolithography is a multi-step process in which a desired pattern is first formed on a photomask. The pattern is transferred to the substrate by a photomasking operation in which radiation is transmitted through the patterned photomask to expose a photoresist coating on the substrate. The photoresist coating undergoes a chemical change upon exposure to radiation, resulting in exposed areas that are soluble to subsequent development chemistries. And after removing the photoresist in the exposed area, dissolving the metal layer of the exposed part of the substrate, and finally removing the photoresist of other parts to obtain the required pattern. For the lithographic apparatus in such lithography, the photomask plays a dominant role in generating circuit patterns on a large number of substrates, and therefore any defects introduced during the manufacture of the photomask will be replicated on all wafers imaged with the photomask, and the photomask will therefore be expensive to manufacture; one photomask can only correspond to one pattern, different circuits need different photomasks, and frequent replacement of the photomasks also has influence on the precision of the photoetching equipment; meanwhile, the photoetching equipment removes the photoresist, so that the processing steps of the substrate are various and complicated.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to solve the technical problem of providing a universal photoetching device and a photoetching process, wherein any pattern can be generated by utilizing a pattern generator, the use of a photomask is omitted, the photoetching cost is greatly reduced, and the photoetching process is simplified by directly cutting a substrate.

In order to solve the above technical problems, the present invention provides a general lithography apparatus, comprising a point light source, a pattern generator, a substrate, a self-moving platform and a control system, the pattern generator is rotationally arranged and comprises a first forming plate and a second forming plate which are fixedly connected, the first forming plate is provided with a plurality of first through holes along the circumference taking the rotating shaft as the center of a circle, the second forming plate is provided with a plurality of second through holes, the first through holes and the second through holes are connected through optical transmission lines, the point light source is arranged corresponding to one of the first through holes, the light beam generated by the point light source passes through the first through hole and the second through hole through the light transmission line, and forming a cutting light spot on the substrate borne by the self-moving platform, wherein the control system controls the operation of the point light source and the pattern generator, so that the cutting light spot forms a cutting line on the substrate.

Preferably, the diameter of the light beam generated by the point light source is smaller than that of the first through hole.

Preferably, a condensing lens is arranged at one end of the second through hole, which is far away from the first forming plate.

Preferably, the optical transmission line is an optical fiber, and two ends of the optical fiber, which are connected with the pattern generator, are in the same plane with the surface of the pattern generator through polishing.

Preferably, the light source is a high-frequency laser light source.

Preferably, the first forming plate and the second forming plate are integrally formed.

Preferably, the control system comprises an interaction device, a data processing engine and a data transmission board, the design pattern is transmitted to the data processing engine and the data transmission board through the interaction device, and the data processing engine controls the rotating speed of the pattern generator and the frequency of the light source according to the design pattern.

Preferably, an energy detector is arranged between the point light source and the pattern generator, and the energy detector is connected with the control system.

The invention also provides a photoetching process, which comprises the following steps:

pre-cleaning, cleaning the substrate to remove impurities and contaminants on the surface of the substrate;

debugging, namely adjusting the frequency and duration of a light source according to a required pattern, adjusting the rotating speed of a pattern generator, and placing a substrate on a self-moving platform;

and cutting, starting the photoetching equipment to cut the substrate, and driving the substrate to move along the direction of a cutting line formed by a cutting light spot by the self-moving platform in the process so as to form a fine three-dimensional pattern.

Preferably, the method further comprises post-cleaning, and cleaning the substrate after photoetching cutting to remove residual slag after cutting.

Compared with the prior art, the universal photoetching equipment and the photoetching process have the advantages that the pattern generator can be used for generating any pattern, the use of a photomask is omitted, the photoetching cost is greatly reduced, the substrate is directly cut, and the photoetching process is simplified.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of the overall structure of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of the first and second forming plates of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a process flow diagram of the present invention.

The reference numbers in the figures illustrate: 10. point light source, 20, pattern generator, 21, first forming plate, 22, second forming plate, 23, first through hole, 24, second through hole, 25, optical fiber, 26, condenser lens, 27, cutting light spot, 28, cutting line, 30, substrate, 40, self-moving platform, 50, control system, 51, interaction device, 52, data processing engine, 53, data transmission plate, 60, energy detector.

Detailed Description

The present invention is further described below in conjunction with the following figures and specific examples so that those skilled in the art may better understand the present invention and practice it, but the examples are not intended to limit the present invention.

Referring to fig. 1, a general-purpose lithography apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. The lithographic apparatus of the present invention comprises a point light source 10, a pattern generator 20, a substrate 30, a self-moving stage 40 and a control system 50. The light beam emitted by the point light source 10 passes through the pattern generator 20 to form a cutting spot 27, the cutting spot 27 is irradiated on the substrate 30 to cut the substrate 30, and the control system 50 controls the frequency and the generation time of the light source and the rotation speed of the pattern generator 20 to form different design patterns, thereby completing the photolithography.

Referring to fig. 2, in order to form various patterns, in this embodiment, the pattern generator 20 is rotatably disposed, and includes a first forming plate 21 and a second forming plate 22, a plurality of first through holes 23 are arranged on the first forming plate 21 along the circumference taking the rotating shaft as the center of circle, the second forming plate 22 is provided with a plurality of second through holes 24, the first through holes 23 and the second through holes 24 are connected through optical transmission lines, the point light source 10 is disposed corresponding to one of the first through holes 23, the light beam generated by the point light source 10 passes through the first through hole 23 and the second through hole 24 via the light transmission line, and forms a cutting spot 27 on a substrate 30 carried by the self-moving platform 40, and the control system 50 controls the operation of the point light source 10 and the pattern generator 20 so that the cutting spot 27 forms a cutting line 28 on the substrate 30. Since the first through holes 23 are arranged in the circumferential direction, the point light source 10 can emit light beams into any one of the first through holes 23 when the pattern generator 20 rotates. The light beam passes through the second through hole 24 through the optical transmission line to form a cutting spot 27 on the substrate 30, and due to the energy concentration of the point light source 10, the material on the surface of the substrate 30 is quickly heated to the vaporization temperature to form a hole, so that the substrate 30 is cut. Referring to fig. 3, in the present embodiment, different first through holes 23 are connected to different second through holes 24, when the point light source 10 emits light beams to the different first through holes 23, the light beams pass through the different second through holes 24 to generate cutting light spots 27 at different positions of the substrate 30, when a plurality of cutting light spots 27 are connected, i.e., a cutting line 28 is formed on the substrate 30, and a plurality of parallel cutting lines 28 are connected, i.e., a cutting pattern is formed. The control system 50 controls the frequency of the point light source 10 and the rotation speed of the pattern generator 20 to ensure that the point light source 10 emits a light beam in alignment with the center of the first through hole 23, and prevent the light beam from covering other first through holes 23 to cut the substrate 30 at an unset position. If the lithographic apparatus continues to produce a continuous cut line 28, the surface material of the substrate 30 is completely cut, and to form the desired pattern, the control system 50 controls the point light source 10 to stop generating the light beam when the pattern generator 20 rotates to the first through hole 23 capable of cutting at that position until the pattern generator 20 rotates through that angle, so that there is a break point in the cut line 28, and the material at the position corresponding to the break point is retained to form the designed pattern. To increase the range of patterns formed by the pattern generator 20, a plurality of sets of first through holes 23 are formed on the first forming plate 21 to form circumferences of different diameters, and a plurality of point light sources 10 are disposed corresponding to the first through holes 23 on the circumferences of the different diameters. So that a greater number of first through holes 23 and corresponding second through holes 24 can be provided, ensuring that the resulting cut line 28 is continuous and of sufficient length. Different patterns are processed on the substrate 30, parts do not need to be replaced, only the position of the photoetching equipment which needs to be reserved when the photoetching equipment cuts a straight line needs to be changed, and the precision of the photoetching equipment is not influenced. In order to simplify the structure of the apparatus, in the present embodiment, the first forming plate 21 and the second forming plate 22 are integrally formed.

Preferably, in this embodiment, the diameter of the light beam generated by the point light source 10 is smaller than the diameter of the first through hole 23. On one hand, the light beam is concentrated, the energy is larger, and the cutting of the substrate 30 is guaranteed; on the other hand, the light beam will pass through only one first through hole 23 and will not cut to other locations of the substrate 30. In order to prevent the beam diameter from being too large and the cutting precision from being insufficient, a condensing lens 26 is disposed at one end of the second through hole 24 far away from the first forming plate 21. That is, the light beam is condensed at the light beam transmission outlet position, so that the diameter of the light spot projected onto the substrate 30 is smaller, thereby improving the cutting accuracy. Further, in order to ensure the transmission quality of the light beam between the first through hole 23 and the second through hole 24, the optical fiber 25 is used to connect the first through hole 23 and the second through hole 24 in the present embodiment. And the point light source 10 is selected as a high-frequency laser light source, which is beneficial to the transmission of the optical fiber 25, and ensures that the metal layer on the substrate 30 can be cut directly without coating photoresist on the substrate 30, thereby omitting the steps of developing, stripping film and the like, reducing the use of chemical liquid medicine and reducing the pollution to the environment. The two ends of the optical fiber 25 connected to the pattern generator 20 are polished to be in the same plane as the surface of the pattern generator 20. So that the optical fiber 25 does not expose the outer surfaces of the first and second forming

plates

21 and 22, and the positions of both ends of the optical fiber 25 are fixed to ensure the incidence of the light beam.

Further, the control system 50 includes an interactive device 51, a data processing engine 52 and a data transmission board 53, the design pattern is transmitted to the data processing engine 52 and the data transmission board 53 through the interactive device 51, and the data processing engine 52 controls the rotation speed of the pattern generator 20 and the frequency of the light source according to the design pattern. The desired design pattern and the thickness of the metal layer on the substrate 30, etc. are transmitted to the data processing engine 52 through the interactive device 51, and the data processed by the data processing engine 52 is transmitted to the light source, the pattern generator 20 and the self-moving platform 40 through the data transmission plate 53. The light source determines the frequency and the output energy according to the input data, so that the light source is accurately matched with the first through hole 23 and the metal layer can be completely cut by the light beam. The pattern generator 20 determines the rotation speed based on the input data to ensure that the spot of light projected by the pattern generator 20 onto the substrate 30 forms the cut line 28. The substrate 30 is driven by the self-moving platform 40 to move along a direction perpendicular to the cutting lines 28, so that a plurality of cutting lines 28 are formed on the substrate 30, the plurality of cutting lines 28 further form a plane, and only the designed pattern is reserved on the substrate 30 after the final cutting. An energy detector 60 is also arranged between the light source and the pattern generator 20, and the energy detector 60 is connected with the control system 50. The energy detector 60 detects whether the final incident energy of the beam meets the cutting requirements and feeds back to the control system 50 for adjustment.

Referring to FIG. 4, a flow chart of a photolithography process of the present invention is shown. The photoetching process comprises the following steps:

pre-cleaning, cleaning the substrate to remove impurities and contaminants on the surface of the substrate; ensuring the cleanness of the substrate.

Debugging, namely adjusting the frequency and duration of a light source according to a required pattern, adjusting the rotating speed of a pattern generator, and placing a substrate on a self-moving platform; the self-moving platform drives the substrate to move along the direction vertical to the cutting line, which is the basic function of the direct-write scanning lithography equipment and belongs to the prior art. After the debugging of the photoetching equipment is completed, the light source can be matched with the first through hole accurately, the metal layer can be completely cut by the light beam, and the light beam penetrates through the light spot projected on the substrate by the pattern generator to form a cutting line.

And cutting, starting the photoetching equipment to cut the substrate, and driving the substrate to move along the direction of a cutting line formed by a cutting light spot by the self-moving platform in the process so as to form a fine three-dimensional pattern. And finishing photoetching cutting.

Because residues exist on the substrate after the photoetching and cutting, a post-cleaning step is also arranged in the embodiment to clean the substrate after the photoetching and cutting so as to remove the residues left after the cutting.

The above-mentioned embodiments are merely preferred embodiments for fully illustrating the present invention, and the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto. The equivalent substitution or change made by the technical personnel in the technical field on the basis of the invention is all within the protection scope of the invention. The protection scope of the invention is subject to the claims.

Claims

1. A universal photoetching equipment is characterized by comprising a point light source, a pattern generator, a substrate, a self-moving platform and a control system, the pattern generator is rotationally arranged and comprises a first forming plate and a second forming plate which are fixedly connected, the first forming plate is provided with a plurality of first through holes along the circumference taking the rotating shaft as the center of a circle, the second forming plate is provided with a plurality of second through holes, the first through holes and the second through holes are connected through optical transmission lines, the point light source is arranged corresponding to one of the first through holes, the light beam generated by the point light source passes through the first through hole and the second through hole through the light transmission line, and forming a cutting light spot on the substrate borne by the self-moving platform, wherein the control system controls the operation of the point light source and the pattern generator, so that the cutting light spot forms a cutting line on the substrate.

2. A universal lithography apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said point light source produces a light beam having a diameter smaller than the diameter of said first through hole.

3. A universal lithography apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said second through hole is provided with a condenser lens at an end thereof remote from said first shaping plate.

4. The universal lithography apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said optical transmission line is an optical fiber, and both ends of said optical fiber connected to said pattern generator are in the same plane as the surface of said pattern generator.

5. A universal lithography apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein said light source is a high frequency laser light source.

6. A universal lithography apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first and second shaping plates are integrally formed.

7. A universal lithography apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said control system comprises an interaction means, a data processing engine and a data transmission board, the design pattern being transmitted to the data processing engine and the data transmission board via the interaction means, the data processing engine controlling the rotation speed of said pattern generator and the frequency of the light source in accordance with the design pattern.

8. A universal lithography apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein an energy detector is arranged between said point light source and said pattern generator, said energy detector being connected to said control system.

9. A lithographic process using a lithographic apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, comprising the steps of:

10. A lithographic process as in claim 8, further comprising a post-cleaning step of cleaning the lithographically diced substrate to remove residual debris after dicing.