JP2006276206A - Exposure device and exposure method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an exposure device and an exposure method that are suitably adaptive to changes of a photosensitive material (resist material etc.). <P>SOLUTION: The exposure device which performs exposure by the exposure means of reading a reference alignment mark for an exposure position provided on a substrate, positioning the photosensitive material that the substrate has for exposure based upon acquired data on the reference position, and projecting a light beam modulated corresponding to image data on the surface of the photosensitive material while relatively moving the substrate in a designated scanning direction, has an exposure condition adjusting means and a kind specifying means for the photosensitive material which previously hold a plurality of pieces of exposure device control information depending upon photosensitive materials together by kinds of the photosensitive materials and adjust condition settings of the exposure means according to the exposure device control information, and switches the exposure device control information according to the kinds of photosensitive materials. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an exposure apparatus and an exposure method. More specifically, in an exposure apparatus such as a printed circuit board, control information (hereinafter referred to as exposure apparatus control information) that depends on a photosensitive material formed on the surface of the exposure apparatus is exposed. The present invention relates to an exposure apparatus and an exposure method which are held together for each type of material and change the condition setting of an exposure means for exposing the photosensitive material based on this information.

  In a conventional exposure apparatus such as a printed circuit board, the substrate size, thickness, exposure light quantity, exposure size, etc. are determined in advance according to the type of printed circuit board (hereinafter simply referred to as a substrate) manufactured (exposed) using this apparatus. The information is set, the information is collectively managed, and the exposure is controlled by the exposure apparatus. An operator handling an exposure apparatus confirms the contents of the information and issues an operation start instruction to operate the apparatus to manufacture (exposure) the substrate.

  In addition, the board | substrate handled here usually has a layer of the above-mentioned photosensitive material formed on a support with a copper foil attached. In general, since substrate materials made of the same raw material are supplied, there is no particular problem if the above-mentioned points are handled with care.

In practice, a problem arises, for example, when a manufacturing batch (lot) of the above-described photosensitive material is changed.
In other words, when the production batch (lot) of the photosensitive material is changed, the sensitivity, development characteristics, and the like may change, so it is often necessary to deal with these changes on the apparatus side.

  Further, when the manufacturing batch (lot) of the photosensitive material is changed, specifically, various manufacturing conditions are controlled with high accuracy depending on the substrate to be manufactured, in response to the problem that the sensitivity varies as described above. Need arises. For example, in the case of the above-mentioned substrate, with respect to the alignment mark position measurement for alignment at the time of exposure, the shutter time and strobe emission time at the time of measurement, image processing parameters, etc. are controlled, and the substrate surface is smoothed with respect to exposure. The autofocus value of the exposure head according to the position of the measuring instrument is a control target. These control objects correspond to the above-described exposure apparatus control information.

  Regarding the exposure, in the case of an apparatus using a plurality of exposure heads (details will be described later), there are generally differences in the exposure heads. Since there may be machine differences, it is often necessary to examine the exposure light quantity (exposure speed / exposure time, exposure light quantity, exposure density by thinning of the exposed image) for correction for each exposure head.

  However, regarding various corrections at the time of exposure of such a substrate, it is not considered to process them efficiently and collectively, and in most cases, it is sufficient to cope with each substrate type.

  In this regard, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique in a technical field different from the technical field of the exposure apparatus according to the present invention, but it responds to changes in the base film thickness, resist (photosensitive material) type, and substrate reflectivity. Possible exposure time setting methods have been proposed. In this technology, the relationship between the light intensity of the alignment light when the alignment light is irradiated onto the substrate, the light intensity of the reflected light from the substrate side of the alignment light, and the value of the optimum exposure time with respect to the reflectance when applying the reference resist Therefore, the optimum exposure time under a new situation after the undercoat film thickness, resist type and substrate reflectivity are changed is obtained.

  The above technique is basically for controlling the line width with high precision, and actually, as shown in FIG. 1 in the above-mentioned patent document, a detection circuit in which two light quantity detectors are combined. Is used to detect the ratio of the light intensities of the two alignment lights, and the value of the optimum exposure time with respect to the reflectance at the time of applying the reference resist stored in advance (considered to be tabulated in advance) The optimum exposure time for obtaining the target line width is obtained.

JP-A-5-36580

In the technique described in Patent Document 1 described above, the above-described calculation is performed for each exposure to obtain the optimum exposure time for obtaining the target line width. When the calculation is performed, there is a problem that the tact time of the process becomes long and the productivity decreases.
Actually, it is unlikely that the variation in thickness at the time of resist coating will be so large, so it is preferable to use a method that does not reduce the productivity.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an exposure apparatus and an exposure method that can suitably cope with changes in a photosensitive material (resist material) and solve the problems based on the conventional technique. Is to provide.

  Another object of the present invention is that the information corresponding to the change of the photosensitive material (resist material) as described above, that is, the above-described exposure apparatus control information is incorporated in the control unit of the exposure apparatus in advance, and the operation of the operator It is an object of the present invention to provide an exposure apparatus and an exposure method that can be handled without increasing the number.

  More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide an exposure apparatus that allows an operator to operate without being aware of machine differences of components such as reading means and exposure means provided in the exposure apparatus.

  In order to achieve the above object, an exposure apparatus according to the present invention is an exposure apparatus that emits a light beam modulated according to image data to the surface of the photosensitive material while relatively moving the substrate in a predetermined scanning direction by a moving means. An exposure apparatus that performs exposure by means, wherein a plurality of exposure apparatus control information depending on the photosensitive material is held together for each type of the photosensitive material, and the exposure means based on the exposure apparatus control information Exposure condition adjusting means for adjusting the condition setting and photosensitive material type designation means, and the exposure apparatus control information is switched according to the type of photosensitive material.

  Here, in the exposure apparatus according to the present invention, the type of the photosensitive material is read by a type information reading unit of the photosensitive material. Further, it is preferable that the type information reading means reads a mark (alignment mark) serving as a reference of the exposure position provided on the substrate.

  Here, in the exposure apparatus according to the present invention, instead of the photosensitive material type designation means, the reading means reads the type information of the photosensitive material provided in the photosensitive material, and sets the type of the photosensitive material. It is also possible to configure to specify automatically.

In the exposure apparatus according to the present invention, it is preferable that the exposure condition adjusting unit includes at least an exposure light amount and an exposure speed as exposure apparatus control information depending on the photosensitive material.
The exposure condition adjusting unit preferably includes, as exposure apparatus control information depending on the photosensitive material, photographing conditions when a reference mark provided on the photosensitive material is measured by the reading unit.

Further, in the exposure apparatus according to the present invention, the exposure condition adjusting means performs image processing when measuring a reference mark provided on the photosensitive material by the reading means as exposure apparatus control information depending on the photosensitive material. It is preferable to include conditions.
Further, it is preferable that the exposure condition adjusting unit sets exposure apparatus control information depending on the photosensitive material individually for each of the plurality of exposure units when there are a plurality of the exposure units.

  On the other hand, the exposure method according to the present invention reads an alignment mark serving as a reference of the exposure position provided on the substrate, performs exposure position alignment with respect to the photosensitive material of the substrate based on the acquired reference position data, An exposure method in which exposure is performed by an exposure unit that emits a light beam modulated in accordance with image data to the surface of the photosensitive material while moving the substrate in a predetermined scanning direction, and a plurality of exposure apparatuses depending on the photosensitive material Control information is collectively held for each type of photosensitive material, and the exposure apparatus control information is switched according to the type of photosensitive material when adjusting the condition setting of the exposure unit based on the exposure apparatus control information. It is characterized by.

  Here, the selection of the type of the photosensitive material when adjusting the condition setting of the exposure means may be made in accordance with an instruction by an operator, and the type information of the photosensitive material provided in the photosensitive material is read. The type may be automatically specified.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an exposure apparatus that can suitably cope with a change in photosensitive material. More specifically, it is possible to realize an exposure apparatus that can cope with the increase in the number of operations of the operator by incorporating the information on the change in the photosensitive material into the control unit of the exposure apparatus in advance. .

  More specifically, it is possible to realize an exposure apparatus that allows an operator to operate without being aware of the machine differences of components such as reading means and exposure means provided in the exposure apparatus. .

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on preferred embodiments shown in the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a view showing an example of a substrate handled by an exposure apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, alignment marks 12 a to 12 d serving as reference positions for exposure positions are formed as drill holes at four corners of the substrate 10. ing. As the alignment mark, in addition to a through hole such as a drill hole, a via hole, and a wiring pattern, a black dot drawn by an ink jet printer can be used.

  Further, a photosensitive material (meaning photosensitive material) type mark 14 indicating the type of photosensitive material (resist material or the like) of the substrate 10 is formed at the upper center of the substrate 10 in FIG. Here, various forming methods can be adopted as the photosensitive material type mark 14 and, like the alignment mark, an array pattern, figure, alphanumeric pattern by black holes drawn by the drill hole as described above or an ink jet printer. In general, any pattern can be used as long as it can be read under the same reading conditions and pattern matching is possible when the photosensitive material types are different.

FIG. 2 shows an example in which the photosensitive material type is represented by the above-described arrangement pattern by drill holes. In the example shown here, FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C correspond to the photosensitive material types a, b, and c, respectively. In addition to such an arrangement pattern, the photosensitive material type mark 14 can also be represented by simple figures having different shapes as shown in FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C, for example. There is no particular limitation.
In addition, by arranging the photosensitive material type mark 14 on the same straight line in the scanning direction as the alignment mark 12b, the photosensitive material identification mark can be read even when the number of mounted CCD cameras is small.

  If the alignment mark is formed with a drill hole as shown in FIG. 1, the photosensitive material type mark 14 can also be used as the alignment mark 12. Similarly, when the alignment mark 12 is formed by a black dot drawn by an ink jet printer, the photosensitive material type mark can also be used as the alignment mark 14. An example is shown in FIG. The example shown in FIG. 4 is an example in which the photosensitive material type mark 14 corresponding to the photosensitive material type c is also used as the alignment mark 12a (see FIG. 1).

  In addition, regarding exposure, in addition, regarding the difference in exposure head in the case of an apparatus using a plurality of exposure heads, this difference may be recognized also for the influence of the sensitivity fluctuation of the photosensitive material as described above. It is necessary to examine the exposure light quantity for the correction for each exposure head.

  In the exposure apparatus according to the present embodiment, the control of the manufacturing conditions according to the photosensitive material type as described above is stored in advance as a file in the storage unit of the exposure apparatus, and designated (operator designation or This is efficiently realized by reading out and applying the exposure apparatus control information corresponding to the photosensitive material type designated by automatic identification).

  Hereinafter, a plurality of files (hereinafter referred to as photosensitive material information files) storing exposure control information corresponding to the above-described photosensitive material types will be described with an example. The photosensitive material information file is in a text format, and has an individual name (for example, a photosensitive material name) for designating the type of photosensitive material for each file.

Parameters recorded in the photosensitive material information file include an exposure speed and an exposure light amount. In addition, the flash emission time, shutter time, image processing parameters, and the like when an alignment mark is photographed using a reading unit such as a CCD camera before exposure are held. Furthermore, when performing exposure by autofocus, the autofocus correction value of the exposure head for adjusting the distance by the substrate surface smoothness measuring instrument is held. Further, a correction value for each exposure head is held in order to adjust a machine difference between exposure heads.
These data are recorded in the photosensitive material information file and stored in the storage means.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a block arrangement of a part related to control of the exposure apparatus according to the present embodiment and a data flow therebetween.
Reference numeral 50 denotes a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC) that controls the overall control of the exposure apparatus according to the present embodiment. Under this PC, an alignment measurement unit that executes alignment measurement and transmits acquired data to the PC 50. 52, the mechanical control part 54 which controls each mechanical part mentioned later is connected.

  Here, as each mechanical unit controlled by the mechanical control unit 54, here, a light amount control unit 54a that controls the amount of light that is exposed to the substrate, a speed control unit 54b that controls the moving speed of a stage that holds the substrate, which will be described later, and also later described. An AF (autofocus) control unit 54c for adjusting the focus of the exposure head based on the measurement result of the substrate smoothness is included.

  The PC 50 is connected to a storage means 58 that stores the above-described photosensitive material information files (56a, 56b,...). In addition to this, the storage means 58 stores programs and data necessary for performing various controls by the PC 50, and is provided with a work area necessary for processing execution.

Hereinafter, the overall configuration and operation of the exposure apparatus according to the present embodiment will be sequentially described.
First, the alignment measurement unit 52 reads a photosensitive material type mark using a reading unit such as a CCD camera, and acquires a photosensitive material type information number corresponding to the mark. The acquired number is transmitted to the PC 50. In the PC 50, the photosensitive material information file 56a corresponding to the transmitted number is selected from a plurality of photosensitive material information files stored in the storage means 58.

  The control parameters held in the selected photosensitive material information file 56 a are transmitted to the alignment measurement unit 52 and the mechanical control unit 54. The alignment measurement unit 52 receives a strobe light emission time at the time of alignment mark measurement and an image processing parameter at the time of mark position measurement for setting at the time of alignment mark measurement.

  In the mechanical control unit 54, the parameter of the exposure light amount is transmitted to the light amount control unit 54a, the parameter of the exposure speed is transmitted to the speed control unit 54b, and the autofocus correction value is transmitted to the autofocus control unit 54c. Each control unit performs exposure while performing control based on this data.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing for selecting a photosensitive material information file from the storage means.
First, a mode for selecting a photosensitive material information file is selected (S61). When the user himself selects the photosensitive material information file (N in S61), the designated photosensitive material information file is referred to (S62).

  In the case of automatic switching (Y in S61), first, the photosensitive material identification mark position calculation for each substrate size is performed (S63). This is because, in the case of an exposure apparatus that exposes a photosensitive material set at the center of the stage (a so-called center registration method), the position of the photosensitive material type mark 14 with respect to the stage (exposure apparatus) differs depending on the size of the photosensitive material. Therefore, the adjustment is performed.

  Next, the photosensitive material identification mark 14 is photographed using a reading means such as a CCD camera, and the photographed image is taken into the PC 50 in FIG. 5 (S64). In the PC 50, the type of photosensitive material is searched by pattern matching using the captured image and data of a number of photosensitive material identification marks held in advance by the PC 50 (S65).

If a matching mark is detected in this search step (Y in S66), the photosensitive material information file corresponding to the detected data is referred to (S68), and exposure is performed based on the parameters recorded there. Adjust the conditions.
If no matching mark is detected in the search step (N in S66), the data (template) of the photosensitive material identification mark to be compared is changed (S67), and the search step (S65) and subsequent steps are repeated. .

  In this way, the photosensitive material information file is selected, and the photosensitive material is exposed based on the parameters described in the file. Thereby, it is possible to realize an exposure apparatus and an exposure method that can suitably cope with a change in photosensitive material type.

  As described above in detail, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an exposure apparatus that can suitably cope with a change in photosensitive material type.

It is a figure which shows an example of the board | substrate which the exposure apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention handles. It is a figure which shows one Example of the sensitive material classification mark on a board | substrate. It is FIG. (1) which shows the other Example of a photosensitive material classification mark. It is FIG. (2) which shows the other Example of a photosensitive material classification mark. It is a figure which shows the block arrangement | positioning of the part which concerns on control of the exposure apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention, and the data flow between them. It is a flowchart explaining the process of the exposure apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

10 Substrate 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d Alignment mark 14 Sensitive material type mark 50 Personal computer (PC)
52 Alignment Measurement Unit 54 Mechanical Control Unit 54a Light Amount Control Unit 54b Speed Control Unit 54c Autofocus Control Units 56a, 56b Photosensitive Material Information File 58 Storage Means S61-S68 Processing Steps

Claims (11)

An exposure apparatus that performs exposure by an exposure unit that emits a light beam modulated according to image data to the surface of a photosensitive material while relatively moving the substrate in a predetermined scanning direction by a moving unit,
Holding means for collectively holding a plurality of exposure apparatus control information depending on the photosensitive material for each type of the photosensitive material;
Exposure condition adjustment means for adjusting the condition setting of the exposure means based on the exposure apparatus control information, and a photosensitive material type designation means,
An exposure apparatus characterized in that the exposure apparatus control information is switched according to the type of photosensitive material.   2. The exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the type of the photosensitive material is read by a type information reading unit of the photosensitive material.   The exposure apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the type information reading unit reads a mark (alignment mark) serving as a reference of an exposure position provided on the substrate.   The type of the photosensitive material is automatically designated by reading the type information of the photosensitive material provided in the photosensitive material by the reading unit instead of the type designation unit of the photosensitive material. The exposure apparatus according to any one of the above.   The exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the exposure condition adjusting unit includes at least an exposure light amount and an exposure speed as exposure apparatus control information that depends on the photosensitive material.   6. The exposure condition adjusting means according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the exposure apparatus control information depending on the photosensitive material includes photographing conditions when measuring an alignment mark provided on the substrate by the reading means. Exposure equipment.   The exposure condition adjusting unit includes an image processing condition when measuring a reference mark provided on the photosensitive material by the reading unit as exposure apparatus control information depending on the photosensitive material. The exposure apparatus described in 1.   8. The exposure condition adjusting unit sets exposure apparatus control information depending on the photosensitive material individually for each of the plurality of exposure units when there are a plurality of exposure units. An exposure apparatus according to claim 1. An alignment mark serving as a reference of the exposure position provided on the substrate is read, and the exposure position of the photosensitive material included in the substrate is adjusted based on the acquired reference position data, and the substrate is moved in a predetermined scanning direction. An exposure method in which exposure is performed by an exposure unit that emits a light beam modulated according to image data to the surface of the photosensitive material,
A plurality of exposure apparatus control information depending on the photosensitive material is collectively held for each type of the photosensitive material,
An exposure method characterized in that, when adjusting the condition setting of the exposure means based on the exposure apparatus control information, the exposure apparatus control information is switched depending on the type of photosensitive material.   10. The exposure method according to claim 9, wherein selection of the type of photosensitive material when adjusting the condition setting of the exposure means follows an instruction from an operator.   10. The type of the photosensitive material when adjusting the condition setting of the exposure unit is such that the type information of the photosensitive material provided in the photosensitive material is read and the type is automatically specified. Exposure equipment.

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