JP2010002819A - Quality control method and quality control system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a quality control method and a quality control system capable of performing sheet-by-sheet control by having an identification number for each blank, and automatically selecting a photomask blank satisfying required quality. <P>SOLUTION: The quality control method includes: a processing history acquisition and storage step for a raw blank; an inspection history acquisition and storage step; a reproduction history acquisition and storage step; and a history information disclosure step for controlling and disclosing changes in quality that occur by reproduction processing, as history information. In the method, the quality of the blank is determined based on the history information by using an inspection quality determination table, a reproduction damage table, and a quality variability table. The history information is stored in a recording medium through a network for each identification number of the raw blank. The quality is stored in the recording medium connected to a communication network, and is controlled by a terminal connected to the communication network. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  In the present invention, for example, a product manufactured by applying a resist on a glass substrate, such as a photomask blank, is inspected, and if necessary, the resist film is washed and peeled off to regenerate the blank and then apply the resist again. In this case, the present invention relates to a quality control method and a quality control system for managing the history information by the system to perform blank quality evaluation and providing the manufacturer with the result of quality evaluation.

  In recent years, the unit price of blanks has increased due to the higher quality of photomasks. Discarding a blank that has been determined to be unusable due to a defect found in the resist film layer during the manufacturing process is a cause of significant cost increase.

  Therefore, conventionally, a technique for regenerating a resist film layer has been used in which the blank resist film layer in which a defect in the resist film layer has been found is peeled off and washed, and the resist is applied again to prevent the blank from being discarded.

For example, in patent document 1, when manufacturing a product by performing processing by a plurality of processing steps on a glass substrate, process conditions such as information processed in each step and apparatus setting information in the step are described. A management system that includes a step of setting a glass substrate whose sensitivity change exceeds an allowable range in advance, a step of peeling the resist film layer, and a step of forming the resist film layer again is used.
JP 2006-154807 A

  In the process of the regeneration process in which the resist film layer is formed again after cleaning and peeling off the blank resist film, particles may be generated on the chromium film layer, which is the lower layer of the resist film layer. Although it has been known that it also affects itself, in the photomask quality that has been required in the past, the generation of the particles is within the allowable range of the required quality.

However, in recent years, with the demand for a photomask having a high-definition pattern, it is no longer allowed for light particles to be present on the chromium film layer.
Further, when patterning is performed with an exposure apparatus using laser light, the antireflection layer on the chromium film layer is reduced in the process of reproduction processing, thereby causing irregular reflection of the laser light and causing defects.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and by having an identification number for each blank sheet, it is possible to manage processing history, inspection history, and reproduction history on a sheet-by-sheet basis. It is an object to provide a quality control method and a quality control system capable of determining blank quality using information and automatically selecting an optimal photomask blank suitable for the required quality of a photomask to be manufactured. To do.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention takes the following measures.

  That is, the invention of claim 1 acquires and stores a processing history of a processing step of forming a resist film on a blank in a quality control method in a blank manufacturing process of manufacturing a blank by forming a resist film on the blank. Processing history acquisition and storage stage, inspection history acquisition and storage stage for acquiring and storing the inspection result when the presence or absence of defect is inspected for the blank after resist film formation, and the inspection result and defect A reproduction history acquisition and storage step for acquiring and storing a reproduction history that occurs when a reproduction process for cleaning and peeling the blank resist film that has been found to be performed, and a history of the processing history, the inspection history, and the reproduction history A history information disclosure stage to acquire, manage and disclose as information, and is determined based on a quality standard stored in advance based on the history information. , Inspection quality determination table, reproduction damage table, and using the quality variation table, a quality control method characterized by determining the quality of the blank.

  The invention of claim 2 is characterized in that the processing history, the inspection history, and the reproduction history are stored in a recording medium via a network for each identification number assigned to each blank. The quality control method according to claim 1.

  The invention of claim 3 is characterized in that the blank quality determination result is stored in a recording medium connected to a communication network and managed by a terminal connected to the communication network. Item 3. The quality control method according to Item 1 or 2.

  The invention according to claim 4 is a quality control system in a blank manufacturing process in which a resist film is formed on a raw blank to manufacture a blank, and processing for acquiring and storing a processing history of a processing process for forming a resist film on the raw blank. There is a history acquisition and storage means, an inspection history acquisition and storage means for acquiring and storing an inspection result as an inspection history when an inspection for the presence or absence of a defect is performed on a blank after resist film formation, and the inspection result is defective. Reproduction history acquisition and storage means for acquiring and storing a reproduction history that occurs when performing a reproduction process for cleaning and peeling the blank resist film, and the processing history, the inspection history, and the reproduction history as history information History information disclosure means for acquiring, managing and disclosing, and based on the quality information stored in advance based on the history information Quality inspection determination table, reproduction damage table, and using the quality variation table, a quality control system characterized by determining the quality of the blank.

  The invention of claim 5 is characterized in that the processing history, the inspection history, and the reproduction history are stored in a recording medium via a network for each identification number assigned to each blank. The quality control system according to claim 4.

  The invention of claim 6 is characterized in that the blank quality determination result is stored in a recording medium connected to a communication network and is managed by a terminal connected to the communication network. Item 6. The quality control system according to item 4 or 5.

  According to the invention of claim 1, an inspection quality determination table, a reproduction damage table, based on a processing history, an inspection history, and a reproduction history performed on the blank for determining whether or not the blank satisfies the required quality. , And using the quality variation table, it is possible to contribute to preventing the occurrence of defects.

  According to invention of Claim 2, the log | history information is preserve | saved for every intrinsic | native identification number provided to the raw blank, The processing history, inspection history, and reproduction | regeneration history which were given with respect to one arbitrary raw blank Thus, it becomes possible to contribute to preventing the occurrence of defects.

  According to the invention of claim 3, quality control work can be performed using a terminal connected to a communication network, and further, information relating to quality can be stored in a recording medium connected to the communication network. Therefore, it becomes possible to contribute to preventing the occurrence of defects.

  According to the invention of claim 4, it is possible to automatically determine whether or not the blank satisfies the required quality using the processing history, inspection history, and reproduction history performed on the blank. Thus, it is possible to contribute to prevention of occurrence of defects.

  According to the invention of claim 5, by storing history information for each unique identification number assigned to a blank, a processing history, an inspection history, and a reproduction history applied to any one blank Thus, it becomes possible to contribute to preventing the occurrence of defects.

  According to the invention of claim 6, the quality control work can be performed using a terminal connected to the communication network, and further, the information relating to the quality can be stored in the recording medium connected to the communication network. Therefore, it becomes possible to contribute to preventing the occurrence of defects.

  According to the quality control method and quality control system of the present invention, it is possible to manage the quality of blanks by managing the history of processing, inspection, and reproduction processing performed on the blank. In addition, by controlling the quality of the blank, it is possible to evaluate the influence of the chromium film layer that has caused defects when manufacturing a photomask with a high-definition pattern, which contributes to prevention of defects. Will be able to.

  Furthermore, according to the quality control method and the quality control system of the present invention, when the system is inquired about the specification information when manufacturing the photomask, it corresponds to the specification information based on the data that evaluates the quality of the glass substrate. It becomes possible for the system to automatically select a blank to be performed, and it is possible to contribute to prevention of occurrence of defects.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a photomask blank according to this embodiment. A blank in which the chromium film layer 3 is laminated on the glass substrate 2 and the antireflection layer 4 is formed on the surface of the chromium film layer 3 is referred to as a blank 5.
In the quality control method and quality control system of the present invention, the quality of the blank in a state where the resist film layer 6 is formed on the blank 5 is managed.

  FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a configuration example of a quality management system using the quality management method according to the present embodiment.

That is, the quality management system 10 includes a quality information database 11 and a quality determination unit 12, a specification information database 14 and a specification information input terminal 15, a processing history database 21 and a processing history input terminal 22 via a communication network 13. The inspection history database 31 and the inspection history input terminal 32 are connected to the reproduction history database 41 and the reproduction history input terminal 42, respectively, and the result determined by the quality determination unit 12 is displayed on the quality determination result display unit 16. It is like that.
There may be a plurality of specification information input terminals 15, and the processing history input terminal 22, the inspection history input terminal 32, and the reproduction history input terminal 42 may be singular or plural for each process. Also good.

FIG. 3 shows an example of quality information according to the present embodiment. In the quality information 50, a plurality of quality conditions 51 and actual values 52 for the respective quality conditions 51 are registered as a history, and the plurality of quality conditions 51 and the actual values 52 are associated with a unique identification number 53. Are managed in association with each other.
Note that the contents of the quality condition 51 and the actual value 52 are not limited to those shown in FIG. 3, and any contents can be applied in the quality management method and the quality management system according to the present embodiment. Is possible. Further, each relevance of the quality condition 51 is not limited to the contents of FIG.

  Quality management in the quality management system 10 is started when a blank is received.

  When the raw blank 5 is received, as shown in FIG. 4, an identification number assigning unit (not shown) assigns a unique identification number 53 to each glass substrate of the raw blank 5 (S1). The blank 5 to which the unique identification number 53 is assigned proceeds to a resist coating process, and a resist film is formed on the blank. The processing history input terminal inputs and stores the resist film forming process as a processing history in the processing history database 21 (S2).

  Thereafter, the blank that has proceeded to the inspection process is inspected. The inspection history input terminal 32 inputs and stores the blank inspection result in the inspection history database 31 (S3).

If a coating error has occurred as a result of the inspection, the blank proceeds to the regeneration process.
The blank that has proceeded to the regeneration process is subjected to the resist film formation process again after the resist film is washed and peeled (regenerated). The reproduction history input terminal 42 inputs and stores the resist film peeling as a reproduction history in the reproduction history database 41 (S4).

  If no application error occurs in the resist film forming process, the blank proceeds to the quality evaluation process. The inspection history database inputs the blank identification number 53, which indicates that there is no application error as the inspection history, to the quality information database 11 via the communication network 13 (S5).

When the blank identification number 53 is input to the quality information database 11, the quality information terminal (not shown) is connected to the processing history database 21, the inspection history database 31, and the reproduction history database 41 via the communication network 13. The processing history, inspection history, and reproduction history for the blank are urged to be input to the quality information database 11 (S6).
In response to a request from the quality information terminal, the processing history database 21, the inspection history database 31, and the reproduction history database 41 input the corresponding history information to the quality information database 11 for each identification number 53 via the communication network 13, respectively. (S7).

  The blank quality determination system is started when the history information associated with each identification number 53 is input to the quality information database 11 in S7.

As shown in FIG. 5, when the history information associated with each identification number 53 is input to the quality information database 11, the quality determination unit 12 determines the resist material and resist film thickness of the determination target blank from the processing history database 21. Are read out from the inspection history database 31 to determine the number of particles (defects) present in the blank to be determined, referring to the inspection quality determination table as shown in Table 1, and the resist material, the material of the chromium film layer, and the defects. The inspection quality class is determined from the size (S8).
Here, the inspection quality determination table is set in advance so that the quality class is uniquely determined from the number of defects for each size for each resist material used, and the quality class corresponding to the number and total number of defects of each size. Of these, the lowest quality class is determined as the inspection quality class. In addition, the defect sizes XS, XS, S, M, and L are set in advance so that the defect size increases in this order.

Thereafter, the quality determination unit 12 reads the presence / absence of the reproduction history of the determination target blank from the reproduction history database 41 (S9), and if there is no reproduction history, that is, the number of reproductions is 0, the quality remains in the inspection quality class. Is determined (S10). On the other hand, if regeneration has been performed, referring to the regeneration damage table as shown in Table 2 (a), damage to the blank due to the regeneration process from the resist material, the material of the antireflection layer, and the number of regenerations is performed. The value is determined, the quality variation table as shown in Table 2 (b) is referred, the variation from the inspection quality class determined in S8 is determined, and the variation result from the inspection quality class is obtained as the quality (S11). ).
Then, the quality management system 10 sends the quality obtained in S10 and S11 to the quality determination result display unit 16 (S12).

  For example, when determining the quality of a certain blank, information on the resist material and resist film thickness is read from the processing history database, the number of defects is read from the inspection history database, and an inspection quality determination table as shown in Table 1 is obtained. The quality class is determined by referring to the number of defect sizes. As an example, if there are four XS size defects, two S size defects, and one L size defect, the quality class is “normal”.

After the quality class is determined, if there is a reproduction history, the reproduction damage value is determined from the number of reproduction processes with reference to the reproduction damage table as shown in Table 2 (a). In the case where the number of regeneration processes is two, the damage value is 10 when the resist material is the resist 1 and the antireflection layer material is B.
Then, using the quality fluctuation table as shown in Table 2 (b), the quality class fluctuation value is determined from the damage value.

  In this example, since the damage value due to reproduction is 10 with respect to the quality class “normal” defined in the inspection quality judgment table, the quality class variation value is ± 0, and the final quality judgment result is “normal”. "

  Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 6, when there is a required quality from the product contractor, the blank extraction system is started when the required quality is input to the specification information database.

When the specification information input terminal 15 inputs the required quality from the product receiver to the specification information database 14 as specification information (S13), the usage information database 14 sends the specification information to the quality determination unit via the communication network 13. 12 (S14).
Upon receiving the specification information, the quality management system extracts a blank that matches the specification information from the blanks determined by the quality determination unit 12 (S15), and sends the result to the quality determination result display unit 16 (S16). ).

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention has been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to such a configuration. The values in the tables of Tables 1 and 2 are also examples, and are not limited to the numerical values given here.

It is an example of sectional drawing of the blank which concerns on this invention. It is a block diagram showing an example of composition to which a quality control system concerning an example of the present invention is applied. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the quality information which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the historical information acquisition method which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the quality evaluation method which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the specification applicable blank extraction method which concerns on this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Blank 2 Glass substrate 3 Chromium film layer 4 Antireflection layer 5 Elementary blank 6 Resist film layer 10 Quality control system 11 Quality information database 12 Quality judgment part 13 Communication network 14 Specification information database 15 Specification information input terminal 21 Processing history database 22 Processing History input terminal 31 Inspection history database 32 Inspection history input terminal 41 Playback history database 42 Playback history input terminal 50 Quality information 51 Quality condition 52 Actual value 53 Identification information

Claims (6)

In the quality control method in the blank manufacturing process of forming a resist film on the blank and manufacturing the blank,
A processing history acquisition and storage stage for acquiring and storing a processing history of a processing step for forming a resist film on the blank,
An inspection history acquisition and storage stage for acquiring and storing an inspection result as an inspection history when an inspection for the presence or absence of defects is performed on the blank after resist film formation,
As a result of the inspection, a reproduction history acquisition and storage stage for acquiring and storing a reproduction history that occurs when performing a reproduction process for cleaning and peeling the blank resist film that has been found to be defective, and
A history information disclosure step of acquiring, managing, and disclosing the processing history, the inspection history, and the reproduction history as history information,
Based on the history information, the quality of the blank is determined using an inspection quality determination table, a reproduction damage table, and a quality variation table, which are determined based on a quality standard stored in advance. Management method. 2. The processing history, the inspection history, and the reproduction history are stored in a recording medium via a network for each identification number assigned to each blank. Quality control method. The determination result of the blank quality is stored in a recording medium connected to a communication network, and is managed by a terminal connected to the communication network. Quality control method. In a quality control system in a blank manufacturing process in which a resist film is formed on a blank and a blank is manufactured,
Processing history acquisition and storage means for acquiring and storing a processing history of a processing step of forming a resist film on the raw blank;
An inspection history acquisition and storage means for acquiring and storing an inspection result as an inspection history when the presence or absence of a defect is inspected for the blank after the resist film is formed,
As a result of the inspection, reproduction history acquisition and storage means for acquiring and storing a reproduction history that occurs when performing a reproduction process for cleaning and peeling the blank resist film that has been found to be defective, and
A history information disclosure unit that acquires, manages, and discloses the processing history, the inspection history, and the reproduction history as history information,
Based on the history information, the quality of the blank is determined using an inspection quality determination table, a reproduction damage table, and a quality variation table, which are determined based on a quality standard stored in advance. Management system. 5. The processing history, the inspection history, and the reproduction history are stored in a recording medium via a network for each identification number assigned to each blank. Quality management system. The determination result of the blank quality is stored in a recording medium connected to a communication network, and is managed by a terminal connected to the communication network. Quality management system.

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