JP2002064053A - Method and device for heat-treating substrate coated with resist - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and device by which a substrate can be uniformly heat-treated without causing pattern defects by waste after the substrate is coated with a resist. SOLUTION: In the method, the substrate coated with the resist is successively baked by means of a first heat-treating body equipped with a lower heating body, and a second heat-treating body equipped with upper and lower heating bodies. The device is composed of the first heat-treating body equipped with the lower heating body, the second heat-treating body equipped with the upper and lower heating bodies, and a substrate transporting means.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a heat treatment method and a heat treatment apparatus for a semiconductor, a liquid crystal panel and a photomask of the substrate after applying a resist.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A photomask for semiconductors will be described as an example. The latest semiconductor photomask sputters a 0.1-μm chromium film on a 152-mm square 6.3-mm-thick quartz substrate, coats it with a resist, and performs heat treatment.
After drawing a pattern with an electron beam, the resist is developed, followed by etching of the chromium film and stripping of the resist, thereby completing the process.

With the improvement in the degree of integration of LSIs and miniaturization of patterns, chemically amplified resists having high sensitivity and capable of obtaining high-precision patterns have been developed and put to practical use. A representative product is Shipley's SAL601.

A chemically amplified resist is applied to a substrate and then baked at about 120 ° C. to evaporate a solvent, thereby improving the adhesion to the substrate and stabilizing the resist.

The sensitivity of the chemically amplified resist has a high temperature dependence during baking, and the difference in sensitivity due to baking after pattern writing is particularly large, and the pattern size changes by about 8 nm per 1 ° C. in-plane temperature difference of the photomask.

Also, the pattern size changes by about 2 nm for an in-plane temperature difference of 1 ° C. even in a bake after resist application.

In order to obtain a high-precision pattern, it is not possible to cope with high integration and high density unless the temperature uniformity of the bake after the application of the resist is increased as well as the temperature uniformity of the bake after the pattern drawing.

On the other hand, as for the post-exposure bake, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-95810 has been proposed as an apparatus for baking a substrate uniformly. In this proposal, a substrate is heated while being closed by a lower hot plate and an upper hot plate to improve temperature uniformity.

If this proposal is applied to baking after application of a resist, there is a problem that the solvent in the resist adheres to the upper hot plate and drops as particles on the mask, causing pattern defects due to dust. .

In addition, the conventional open type heat treatment body has a problem that the temperature uniformity of the substrate is poor and the resist sensitivity becomes non-uniform.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for uniformly heat-treating a substrate after resist application without causing pattern defects due to dust.

[0012]

[MEANS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEMS] A first device having a lower heating element
After baking with the heat treatment body, baking is performed with a second heat treatment body including an upper heat body and a lower heat body.

A first heat treatment body having a lower heat body, a second heat treatment body having an upper heat body and a lower heat body,
And a substrate transfer means.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1A is a longitudinal sectional view of a first heat-treated body of the present invention, and FIG.
(B) is a plan view thereof.

The surface heater 4 of the lower heating element 13 is sandwiched between the hot plate 2 and the bottom plate 5, and the hot plate 2 is heated. A temperature sensor 6 is attached to the center of the hot plate 2 and is heated to a constant temperature, for example, 120 ° C. by a temperature controller 7 and a temperature setting means 8.

The substrate supports 11a to 11 of the substrate lifter 10
The mask 3 is placed on the hot plate 2, and the motors 9a and 9b are driven to lower the screw-connected substrate supports 11a to 11d. At this time, the substrate supports 11a to 1a
1 d sinks into the grooves 12 a to 12 d of the hot plate 2.

Although a large amount of solvent evaporates from the resist on the mask 3, since the upper part of the mask 3 is open, the solvent diffuses upward and is exhausted from an exhaust port (not shown) of the apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the substrate support. The mask is placed on the substrate supports 11a, 11b, 11c, 11d and moves up and down in parallel with the hot plate 2. On the hot plate 2,
Grooves 12a to 12d corresponding to substrate supports 11a to 11d
There is.

FIG. 3A is a longitudinal sectional view of a second heat-treated body of the present invention. 1 are given the same reference numerals.

The lower heating element 21 operates similarly to the lower heating element 13 in FIG.

The surface heater 16 of the upper heating element 22 is sandwiched between the hot plate 15 and the upper plate 17, and the hot plate 15 is heated. The temperature sensor 14 is attached to the center of the hot plate 15 and is heated to a constant temperature, for example, 122 ° C. by the temperature controller 18 and the temperature setting means 19.

By baking in a substantially closed space between the upper heating element 22 and the lower heating element 21 , the substrate can be heat-treated at a highly uniform temperature. Therefore, the sensitivity of the chemically amplified resist that is sensitive to temperature can be made uniform.

The solvent in the resist is the first heat-treated body
Since the heat treatment is performed in step 1 , even when the second heat treatment body 20 is almost closed, the upper heat body 22 is not contaminated and does not become a pattern defect due to dust.

The smaller the gap 23 between the lower surface of the upper heating element 22 and the upper surface of the mask 3 is, the better the temperature uniformity is.

In the case of a 152 mm square mask, 0.5 to 0.5 mm
The heat uniformity was good at 5 mm, and the in-plane temperature difference of 0.2 ° C. was obtained at 1.5 mm.

FIG. 4A is a front view of the system of the apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 4B is a plan view thereof. Robot 3
Reference numeral 0 denotes a vertically movable three-axis robot.

The mask 3 is taken out of the cassette (not shown) by the hand 31 of the robot 30 and the first heat-treated body 1
After being placed on the substrate supports 11a to 11d, the substrate lifter
10 is lowered, the mask 3 is placed on the lower heating element 13 and baked.

After the solvent of the resist on the substrate evaporates, the lifter 10 rises, and the mask 3 is taken out by the robot 30.
Substrate support 11a of upper heat body 22 of second heat treatment body 20
To 11d and perform high-precision baking.

After the robot hand 31 has evacuated, the upper heating element 22 descends, and the mask 3 is placed on the lower heating element 21 .

After baking for a predetermined time, the upper heating body 22 rises, the mask 3 is taken out by the robot 30, cooled by a cooling body (not shown), and then stored in a cassette (not shown).

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the lid of the substrate lifter 10 of the first heat treatment body 1 according to the present invention. Substrate support 11
The lid body 25 is fixed on the upper part of a to 11d, and is simultaneously moved up and down by the lifter 10.

In the description of FIG. 1, the state where there is nothing above the first heat treatment body 10 has been described. However, if the gap 23 with the mask 3 is 5 mm or more, the vaporized solvent adheres to the lid 25. Since it is discharged to the outside without any occurrence, it does not become a pattern defect. Further, by providing the lid, dust falling from the upper part of the apparatus can be prevented.

[0033]

As described above, the present invention has the following effects. Since the substrate after the application of the resist can be uniformly heat-treated without generating pattern defects due to dust, a resist having a uniform sensitivity can be obtained, and high integration and a fine pattern can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view and a plan view of a first heat treatment body of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a mounting body of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of a second heat treatment body of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a system diagram of the apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a lid according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 10, 20: heat-treated body, 2, 15: hot plate, 3: mask, 4, 16: surface heater, 5: bottom plate, 6, 14: temperature sensor, 7, 18: temperature controller, 8, 19 ... Temperature setting means, 9
... Motor, 10 ... Substrate lifter, 11 ... Substrate support, 12
... grooves, 13, 21 ... lower heating element, 17 ... upper plate, 22 ... upper heating element, 23 ... gap between upper surfaces of mask 3, 25 ... lid, 30 ...
Robot, 31 ... Robot hand

Claims (7)

[Claims] In a method of heat-treating a substrate after applying a resist, baking is performed with a first heat-treating body having a lower heat body and then baking with a second heat-treating body having an upper heat body and a lower heat body. A heat treatment method for a substrate, characterized in that: 2. The heat treatment method according to claim 1, wherein a gap between an upper heating body of the second heat treatment body and an upper surface of the substrate is 0.3 to 5 mm. 3. An apparatus for heat-treating a substrate after applying a resist, comprising: a first heat-treated body having a lower heat body, a second heat-treated body having an upper heat body and a lower heat body, and a substrate transfer means. A heat treatment apparatus for a substrate, comprising: 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said upper heating element includes a vertical moving means. 5. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the upper heating body comprises a substrate support. 6. The substrate heat treatment apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a height adjusting means for an upper heat body of said second heat treatment body. 7. The substrate heat treatment apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the first heat treatment body has a lid.