JP2001007019A - Coating and developing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve yield of an object processed by preventing the adhesion of very fine dust to an object to be treated, the breakage of an element through discharging, and so on, by eliminating charging of the object. SOLUTION: A coating and developing apparatus is provided with a carry-in/ carry-out mechanism 10, which carries untreated and treated wafers W by means of a carry-in/carry-out means 13 and a treating mechanism unit 20 which carries wafers W to a treating mechanism (21a-21f), which treats the wafers W with solutions by supplying at least a prescribed treating solution to the wafers W carried appropriately to treating sections by means of a carry means 22. The carry-in/carry-out means 13 is provided with an arm 14, which can move the wafers W in the horizontal, vertical, and rotational directions and an ion irradiating means 40 which causes ions to be irradiated upon the wafers W is provided in at least either one of the moving regions of the means 13 and 22. Therefore, the electrostatics charged in the wafers W can be eliminated by having the ions generated irradiated by the ion irradiating means 40 upon the wafers W.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a coating and developing apparatus for removing static electricity charged on an object to be processed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, when processing an object such as a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as a wafer) in a semiconductor device manufacturing process, a wafer cassette for storing an unprocessed wafer and a processed wafer are stored. A loading / unloading mechanism having a wafer cassette and loading / unloading arms for loading / unloading wafers corresponding to these wafer cassettes, applying a processing liquid such as a resist solution or a developing solution to the wafer surface, and heating the wafer Or an appropriate processing unit such as cooling,
A processing mechanism unit having a main arm for transferring a wafer to and from the processing unit, and performing predetermined various processes on the wafer while transferring the wafer between the loading / unloading mechanism and the processing mechanism unit. A coating and developing apparatus is used.

[0003] The coating and developing apparatus constructed as described above is installed and used in a clean room in which the air cleaned from above is down-flowed. Therefore, a loading / unloading mechanism and a processing mechanism constituting the coating and developing apparatus. The atmosphere in the unit is relatively low humidity, and the wafer to be processed is a semiconductor in terms of electrical conductivity.
The wafer is in a state of being easily charged during processing.

[0004]

However, when the wafer is charged and static electricity is generated, fine dust adheres to the surface of the wafer, which not only lowers the product yield but also causes wafer contamination (contamination). There was a problem. Further, there is also a problem that a discharge is generated during the transfer of the wafer due to the static electricity charged on the wafer, and this discharge destroys elements formed on the surface of the wafer and malfunctions of precision devices such as sensors. Furthermore, the wafer may be attracted to the wafer mounting table or the like due to static electricity and the position of the wafer may be shifted or dropped when the wafer is transferred, which may hinder the continuous processing of the wafer. .

As a means for solving the above problem, a method of removing static electricity by bringing a conductive member into contact with a wafer can be considered. However, according to this method, a metal as a conductive member contacts the wafer. As a result, wafer contamination due to metal occurs, and it is not possible to solve a reduction in product yield.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and eliminates the charging of a processing object without contacting the processing object, thereby preventing the attachment of fine dust and preventing the element from being destroyed due to electric discharge. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a coating and developing apparatus capable of improving the product yield.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a coating and developing apparatus according to the present invention comprises a loading / unloading mechanism for transporting unprocessed and processed workpieces by loading / unloading means; The loading / unloading means and the transporting means in a coating and developing apparatus comprising: a processing mechanism unit for appropriately transporting the workpiece to the processing unit by means and supplying a predetermined processing liquid to the workpiece and performing liquid processing. An arm that holds the object to be processed and is capable of moving the object to be processed horizontally, vertically and in a rotating direction, and at least one of the moving area of the loading / unloading means or the moving area of the transporting means, An object is provided with ion irradiation means for irradiating ions to the object to be processed.

In the present invention, it is preferable to further comprise a control unit for selecting the polarity of ions and adjusting the dose of ions.

Further, it is preferable to provide a detecting means for detecting whether or not the object to be processed is charged and the amount of charge, and to transmit a detection signal from the detecting means to the control unit.

[0010] It is preferable that the apparatus further comprises a blowing means for flowing ions generated from the ion irradiation means toward the object to be processed.

In addition, it is possible to attach ion irradiation means to the arm.

According to the coating and developing apparatus of the present invention configured as described above, ions are irradiated from the ion irradiating means to the unprocessed object to be processed or the processed object to be processed. It is possible to remove static electricity charged on the object to be processed during transportation or processing. At this time, the polarity of the ions and the ion irradiation amount are adjusted by the control unit, and the target object is irradiated with the ions, so that the ions can be irradiated according to the polarity and the charge amount of the electrode charged on the target object. Accordingly, the charge of the object to be processed irradiated with ions can be made zero. Therefore, it is possible to prevent fine dust from adhering to the object to be processed, and to prevent destruction of an element on the object to be processed due to discharge due to charging.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. Here, a case where the coating and developing apparatus of the present invention is applied to a semiconductor wafer coating and developing apparatus will be described.

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a first embodiment of the coating and developing apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part of the first embodiment.

The coating and developing apparatus according to the present invention includes a processing mechanism unit 20 for performing various processes on a semiconductor wafer W (hereinafter, referred to as a wafer) as a processing object, and a processing mechanism unit 20.
The main part is constituted by a loading / unloading mechanism 10 called a cassette station for automatically loading and unloading the wafer W into and from the processing mechanism unit 20 of the loading / unloading mechanism 10.
A wafer transfer position 30 (relay position) for controlling the transfer of the wafer W is arranged at a connection portion with the above, and ion irradiation means 40 is provided above the wafer transfer position 30.

The loading / unloading mechanism 10 includes a wafer carrier 11 for accommodating unprocessed wafers W at appropriate intervals in multiple stages and a wafer carrier for accommodating processed wafers W at appropriate intervals in multiple stages. And a loading / unloading unit 13 for loading and unloading the wafer W corresponding to the wafer carriers 11 and 12. In this case, the loading / unloading means 13 includes an arm 14 for holding the wafer W by suction, and a moving mechanism 15 for moving the arm 14 in X, Y (horizontal), Z (vertical), and θ (rotation) directions. Have been.

The wafer transfer position 30, which is a relay position for transferring the wafer W, is located, for example, substantially at the center of the transfer path in the Y direction of the loading / unloading means 13. The loading / unloading means 13 is provided with a plurality of, for example, four, support pins 14a which penetrate the arm 14 without any trouble and can be moved up and down. The support pins 14a support the wafer W and It is configured to lift.
Instead of the support pin 14a, a delivery member such as a delivery table, a support pin, etc. (not shown) may be separately provided.

The processing mechanism unit 20 includes a plurality of processing units 21 for performing predetermined processing on the wafer W,
And a transfer means 22 for loading and unloading the wafer W from and to the wafer W. In this case, the transfer unit 22 includes a transfer table 24 that is movable along a transfer path 23 formed in the X direction from a wafer transfer position 30 disposed between the processing mechanism unit 20 and the load / unload mechanism 10, The wafer W is movably mounted on the transfer table 24 in the X, Y, Z and θ directions.
And a main arm 25 that holds

Further, on one side of the transfer path 23, an adhesion processing mechanism 21a for performing an adhesion process for improving the adhesion between the wafer W and the resist film, and remaining in the resist applied to the wafer W. A pre-bake mechanism 21b for heating and evaporating the solvent and a cooling mechanism 21c for cooling the heated wafer W are arranged. On the other side of the transfer path 23, a resist coating mechanism 21d for coating a resist liquid on the surface of the wafer W, a developing mechanism 21e for developing a resist film having a predetermined pattern exposed, and a resist liquid are coated. A stepper mechanism 21f for exposing a predetermined pattern on the surface of the wafer W is disposed. The processing unit 21 is formed by these mechanisms 21a to 21f.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, the ion irradiation means 40 disposed above the wafer transfer position 30 includes an emitter bar 41 and a lower surface of the emitter bar 41 along the length direction of the emitter bar 41. A plurality of (five in the drawing, five cases) electrodes E1 protruding at appropriate intervals
To E5, and a control unit 50 (hereinafter referred to as a controller) having a DC power supply generates ions of a predetermined polarity and quantity. In this case, the electrodes E1 to E5 are formed of single-crystal Si of the same quality as the wafer W. Of the five electrodes, the electrodes E1, E3 and E5 at both ends and the center generate + (plus) ions, Other than that, the second electrodes E2 and E4 on both sides generate negative ions. The reason for increasing the number of positive ion electrodes is that positive ions are more difficult to generate.

The controller 50 is provided with a cathode output adjustment knob 51 for adjusting the amount of negative ions, an anode output adjustment knob 52 for adjusting the amount of positive ions, and a timing adjustment knob 53 for adjusting the total amount of ions. A switch 54 and an LED (light emitting diode) monitor 55 are provided. Each ion is blown toward the wafer transfer position 30 by a blowing means (not shown) at a predetermined flow rate. That is, the configuration is such that the ions generated from the ion irradiation means 40 flow to the wafer W side.

In the coating and developing apparatus of the present invention configured as described above, first, the unprocessed wafer W is vacuum-adsorbed on the back surface by the arm 14 of the loading / unloading mechanism 10, and is taken out of the wafer carrier 11, and the wafer is transferred. Position 3
Transported to zero. The wafer W transferred to the wafer transfer position 30 is placed above the wafer transfer position 30 while being held on the arm 14 or while being lifted from the arm 14 while being supported on the support pins 14a. The ions generated by the irradiation unit 40 are irradiated, and the static electricity charged on the wafer W is removed. In this case, according to the polarity of the static electricity charged on the wafer W, that is, plus or minus, the cathode output adjustment knob 5 of the controller 50 is used.
1 or the anode output adjustment knob 52 is adjusted to irradiate a predetermined amount of negative or positive ions, and the timing adjustment knob 53 is adjusted according to the charge amount to irradiate the ions, for example, irradiation of positive ions and negative ions. Time, mutual irradiation interval, etc. are adjusted.

In order to measure the static electricity charged on the surface of the wafer W, a dummy wafer is passed through an actual processing step and, for example, as shown in FIG.
The presence / absence, polarity and amount of static electricity charged on the surface of the dummy wafer (not shown) are measured (detected) in advance by a static electricity measuring device 60 which is a detecting means disposed on the side of the device. By transmitting a detection signal from the controller 50 to the ion irradiation means 40 based on the information, the presence / absence, polarity, and charge amount of static electricity charged on the surface of the wafer W can be easily grasped, and an appropriate amount can be determined based on the information. To the wafer W. Therefore, the static electricity charged on the wafer W can be reliably removed, and adhesion of fine dust to the wafer W can be prevented. Further, it is possible to prevent the destruction of the element due to the discharge of the charged static electricity, and to prevent the malfunction of a sensor or the like used in the transfer system of the wafer W or the processing mechanism.

Next, the wafer W on the wafer transfer position 30 from which the ions have been irradiated and whose charge has been removed is held by the main arm 25 of the transfer means 22, and is processed by each of the processing mechanisms 21a to 21f.
And are subjected to appropriate processing. Then, the processed wafer W is again transferred to the wafer transfer position 30 by the main arm 25, and is transferred to the arm 14 of the loading / unloading mechanism 10 in the same manner as described above.
After the ions generated at 0 are irradiated to remove static electricity charged during processing, the wafer is transferred to the wafer carrier 12 by the arm 14 and stored therein.

Therefore, the unprocessed and processed wafers W are placed at the wafer delivery position 30 at the ion irradiation means 40.
, The static electricity charged on the wafer W during transfer and processing can be removed.

In the above embodiment, the wafer transfer position 30
A case has been described in which the ion irradiation means 40 is disposed above the wafer and the charge of the wafer W on the wafer transfer position 30 is removed. However, such a structure is not necessarily required. For example, as shown by an imaginary line in FIG. The processing mechanism unit 20
The ion irradiation means 40 is arranged on the ceiling of the
May be irradiated with ions over the entire moving area,
Alternatively, ion irradiating means (not shown in FIG. 2) is similarly arranged on the upper surface of the moving area of the loading / unloading means 13 of the loading / unloading mechanism 10 to irradiate the entire moving area of the loading / unloading means 13 with ions. You may make it. With this configuration, it is possible to irradiate the wafer W during transfer with ions, and thus, it is possible to remove static electricity charged on the wafer W before and after processing.

The arrangement position of the ion irradiation means 40 is not limited to the above case,
The ion irradiating means 40 may be disposed above each of the processing units 0, that is, the processing mechanisms 21a to 21f. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, an emitter bar 26a is provided on the lid 26 of the pre-bake mechanism 21b, and the electrodes E1 to E1 projecting from the lower surface thereof are provided.
The ions may be irradiated from E5 onto the wafer W supported by the support pins 28 on the mounting table 27. In particular, in the case of such a heat treatment mechanism, it becomes easy to be charged,
After the heating process, when the wafer W is suctioned by the mounting table 27 and is lifted while the wafer W is supported by the mounting pins 27 and supported by the support pins 28, the wafer W is inclined or discharged. With this configuration, it is possible to remove static electricity charged before and after the processing of the wafer W to be processed.

Further, as another arrangement of the ion irradiation means 40, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, the ion irradiation means 40 may be provided on the side of the wafer carrier 11 or 12 for accommodating the wafer W horizontally and in multiple stages. Are vertically arranged, and a fan 16 as a blowing means is provided outside the ion irradiation means 40, for example, by using nitrogen (N2) gas or argon (A).
r) By supplying an inert gas such as a gas, the ions generated by the ion irradiation means 40 may be caused to flow horizontally above the wafer W by the fan 16.
With this configuration, ions can be positively circulated on the upper surface of the wafer W accommodated in the wafer carrier 11 or 12, so that static electricity charged on the horizontal wafer W can be removed. it can.

In FIG. 4, the ion irradiation means 40
A plurality of electrodes projecting from the emitter bar 41
4 and 5 are the same as those of the above-described embodiment except for the representative example, and therefore, the same portions are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof will be omitted.

The ion irradiating means 40 can be attached to the arm 15 of the loading / unloading means 13 or the main arm 25 of the transfer means 22 to irradiate the wafer W being transferred with ions. Further, the entire upper surface of the loading / unloading mechanism 10 or the upper part of the moving area of the loading / unloading means 13 is covered with the cover 17 so that the ion irradiation means 40 is provided on the ceiling.
May be provided.

In the above embodiment, the case where the coating and developing apparatus of the present invention is applied to a coating and developing apparatus for a semiconductor wafer has been described. Of course, it can also be applied.

[0032]

As described above, since the coating and developing apparatus of the present invention is configured as described above, the following effects can be obtained.

1) Since the object to be processed is irradiated with ions from the ion irradiation means to remove static electricity charged on the object to be processed, it is possible to prevent fine dust from adhering to the object to be processed. In addition, it is possible to prevent the destruction of elements due to the discharge of static electricity charged on the object to be processed, and to prevent malfunctions of a sensor used for a transport system of the object to be processed or a processing mechanism. Displacement, dropping, and the like can be prevented.

2) Since the ion irradiating means is disposed above the relay position which controls the delivery of the object between the loading / unloading mechanism and the processing mechanism unit, regardless of whether the object is unprocessed or processed, The charge can be removed, and the object to be processed can be transported and processed smoothly.

3) Since the ion irradiating means is arranged in at least one of the moving area of the loading / unloading means and the moving area of the transporting means, it is possible to irradiate the workpiece to be transported with ions, Irradiation can be performed reliably. In addition, since the object to be processed during transportation can be irradiated with ions, static electricity charged to the object to be processed before and after the treatment can be removed.

4) Since the ion irradiating means is arranged above the processing section, the object to be processed can be irradiated with ions without fail.

5) By circulating the ions generated from the ion irradiating means by the air blowing means to the object to be processed, the ions can be efficiently irradiated and the object to be processed can be prevented from being charged.

6) Detecting means for detecting whether or not the object is charged and detecting the amount of charge is provided, and a detection signal from the detecting means is transmitted to the control unit. By positively irradiating appropriate ions according to the amount, static electricity charged on the object to be processed can be reliably removed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a first embodiment of a coating and developing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a main part of the coating and developing apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an ion irradiation unit and a control unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 W Semiconductor wafer (object to be processed) 10 Loading / unloading mechanism 11 Wafer carrier (object to be processed) 12 Wafer carrier (object to be processed) 13 Loading / unloading means 14 Arm 16 Fan (blowing means) 20 Processing mechanism unit 21 (21a to 21f) Processing unit 22 Transport unit 30 Wafer transfer position (relay position) 40 Ion irradiation unit 50 Controller (control unit) 60 Static electricity measuring device (detection unit)

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An unprocessed and processed object is loaded and
A carry-in / carry-out mechanism for carrying the article by the carry-out means, and a treatment mechanism unit for carrying the object to be treated by the carrying means to an appropriate processing section, supplying at least a prescribed treatment liquid to the object to be treated, and performing the liquid treatment. In the coating and developing apparatus, the loading / unloading means and the transporting means include an arm capable of holding the workpiece and moving the workpiece in horizontal, vertical, and rotational directions, and moving the loading / unloading means. A coating and developing apparatus, comprising: ion irradiation means for irradiating the object with ions to at least one of the area and the moving area of the transport means. 2. The coating and developing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a control unit for selecting the polarity of ions and adjusting the amount of ion irradiation. 3. The coating and developing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising detecting means for detecting whether or not the object to be processed is charged and detecting the amount of charge, and transmitting a detection signal from the detecting means to a control unit. 4. The coating and developing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a blower for flowing ions generated from the ion irradiator toward the object to be processed. 5. The coating and developing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ion irradiation means is attached to the arm.