JP2011146683A - Liquid treatment device, coating and developing device, coating and developing method, and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a liquid treatment device capable of surely determining whether hydrophobic treatment on a wafer (substrate) is carried out normally. <P>SOLUTION: A resist coating unit (liquid treatment device) that forms a coating film by supplying a resist (processing liquid) from a resist discharge nozzle 67 to the wafer for integrated circuit formation subjected to the hydrophobic treatment includes: a rotatable substrate holding section which holds the wafer horizontally; a cup (enclosure member) which encloses the wafer held by the substrate holding section; a pure water supply section 60 which supplies pure water (inspection liquid) to a surface of the wafer; a camera (imaging section) 7 which images the pure water supplied to the wafer; and a determination program (determination section) 95 which determines whether the wafer is subjected to the hydrophobic treatment normally based upon a picked-up image of the pure water. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a liquid processing apparatus that forms a coating film by supplying a processing liquid from a nozzle to a substrate for forming an integrated circuit that has been subjected to a hydrophobization process, and a resist is applied to the substrate and developed on the exposed substrate The present invention relates to a coating, a developing apparatus, a coating and developing method, and a storage medium storing a program used for this method.

  A resist is applied to a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter simply abbreviated as “wafer”), and a developing process is performed on the exposed substrate with a developer. A unit for performing a hydrophobic treatment on the wafer is provided in the developing apparatus. There is a case. This hydrophobic treatment is a treatment for changing the surface of the wafer to be hydrophobic by spraying, for example, hexamethyldisilazane (hereinafter, simply referred to as “HMDS”) gas, which is a hydrophobic treatment gas, on the surface of the wafer. This treatment improves the adhesion between the base film and the coating film, and is generally a necessary treatment depending on the type of resist, but may be performed before the antireflection film is applied. .

  In the apparatus 1 for performing the hydrophobization treatment, as shown in FIG. 30, after the wafer W is first placed on the mounting table 12 provided in the processing container 11, the HMDS liquid is supplied from the gas supply source 13 through the carrier gas supply pipe 14. The carrier gas which is nitrogen gas is ventilated in the tank 15 storing the gas. Thereby, the vaporization of HDMS in the tank 15 is promoted, and the HMDS gas together with the carrier gas is supplied to the processing space 11 s in the processing container 11 through the supply pipe 16, and the surface of the wafer W is hydrophobized.

  As a method for determining whether or not the hydrophobic processing is normally performed on the wafer W in the hydrophobic processing apparatus 1, the flow rate of the carrier gas is measured by the flow meter 18 provided in the carrier gas supply pipe 14. Based on this flow rate measurement value, the amount of HMDS gas supplied to the processing space 11s is indirectly estimated. The reason why the amount of HMDS gas is not directly measured is that HMDS gas is a flammable gas, and therefore there is a situation where it is difficult to apply a flow meter that is a hot-wire type.

  However, in the method of indirectly determining the flow rate of the HMDS gas, when the HMDS liquid is not stored in the tank 15 or when the HMDS gas leaks due to damage to the HMDS gas supply pipe 16, these There was a problem that could not be detected. For this reason, a resist film is formed on the wafer without performing the hydrophobic treatment normally, and a pattern is formed. Therefore, there is a concern that the entire lot becomes a defective product. In paragraph 0004 of Patent Document 1, it is described that the hydrophobicity of the substrate before applying the resist is estimated by using the contact angle of water dropped on the substrate surface as an index. It has not been.

JP 2001-291655 A

  The present invention has been made under such a background, and an object of the present invention is to provide a liquid processing apparatus capable of reliably determining whether or not a hydrophobic treatment has been normally performed on a substrate. There is. Another object of the present invention is to provide a coating, developing apparatus, coating and developing method that can reduce or prevent a lot defect based on a defect in the hydrophobization treatment for a substrate and suppress a decrease in throughput. .

The liquid processing apparatus of the present invention is a liquid processing apparatus for forming a coating film by supplying a processing liquid from a nozzle to a substrate for forming an integrated circuit that has been subjected to a hydrophobic treatment.
A rotatable substrate holding part for holding the substrate horizontally;
An enclosing member surrounding the substrate held by the substrate holding unit;
A test liquid supply unit for supplying a test liquid to the substrate;
An imaging unit for imaging the test solution supplied to the substrate;
And a determination unit that determines whether or not the substrate has been normally hydrophobized based on an image of the captured test solution.

Specific examples of the present invention include the following configurations.
(1) The test liquid supply unit includes a supply mechanism that supplies a predetermined amount of test liquid to the substrate.
(2) The imaging unit is provided so as to capture a plan view or a side view of the test solution supplied to the substrate, for example.
(3) In order to hold the substrate at a position higher than the surrounding member, the substrate holding unit is movable up and down, and an elevating mechanism that pushes up and holds the back surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit is provided. The imaging unit is provided so as to image the test solution in a state where the substrate is held at a position higher than the surrounding member.
(4) The nozzle is configured to be movable by a moving mechanism, and the imaging unit is provided in the moving mechanism.
(5) The coating film is, for example, a resist film or an antireflection film.
(6) An abnormality notifying unit is provided for notifying the abnormality when the determining unit determines that the substrate is not normally hydrophobized.
(7) The test liquid supply unit supplies the test liquid to the hydrophobic surface outside the integrated circuit formation region of the substrate.
(8) In the case of (7), the test solution is water or thinner.
(9) The inspection liquid supply unit supplies the inspection liquid to the central part of the substrate.
(10) In the case of (9), the inspection liquid is also used as a pretreatment liquid supplied to the substrate before the treatment liquid is supplied in order to improve the wettability of the treatment liquid to the substrate.
(11) In the case of (9) and (10), the test solution is a thinner.
(12) The inspection liquid supply unit is located above the substrate and has a nozzle opened to supply the inspection liquid to the substrate, and an amount of the inspection liquid supplied to the nozzle so that the inspection liquid hangs down from the nozzle. A liquid amount control mechanism for controlling, and a drive mechanism for lowering the nozzle toward the substrate so that the inspection liquid hanging from the nozzle adheres to the substrate.

The coating and developing apparatus of the present invention is a coating and developing apparatus for applying a resist to a substrate and developing the exposed substrate with a developer.
A carrier block for storing a plurality of substrates is loaded from the outside, and the substrate after development is stored in the carrier and carried outside.
A hydrophobizing unit for hydrophobizing the surface of the substrate delivered from the carrier block;
A liquid processing apparatus for supplying a processing liquid to a hydrophobized substrate and forming a coating film for forming a resist pattern;
A developing unit for supplying a developing solution to the exposed substrate to perform a developing process, wherein the liquid processing apparatus of the present invention is used as the liquid processing apparatus.

The coating and developing method of the present invention is a coating and developing method in which a resist is applied to a substrate, and the exposed substrate is developed with a developer.
Performing a hydrophobic treatment on the substrate in a hydrophobic treatment unit;
Carrying the hydrophobized substrate into the liquid processing unit;
Supplying a test liquid to the substrate in the liquid processing unit;
Imaging an inspection solution supplied to the substrate with an imaging unit;
A step of determining by the determination unit whether or not the substrate has been normally hydrophobized based on an image of the test liquid imaged by the imaging unit;
And a step of supplying a treatment liquid to the substrate from a nozzle to form a coating film for forming a resist pattern.
As specific examples of the coating and developing method of the present invention, for example, the following constitution can be mentioned.
(13) A step of removing the inspection liquid supplied to the substrate by rotating the substrate by the substrate holding unit.
(14) The inspection liquid is also used as a pretreatment liquid to be supplied to the substrate before the treatment liquid is supplied in order to enhance the wettability of the treatment liquid to the substrate, and the substrate is rotated by the substrate holding unit, thereby being centrifuged. A step of spreading the test solution on the substrate by force.

  The storage medium of the present invention supplies a processing liquid to a substrate, forms a coating film for forming a resist pattern, and performs a development process on the substrate after exposure. A storage medium storing a program, wherein the computer program is for carrying out the coating and developing method according to the present invention.

  According to the present invention, in a liquid processing apparatus that forms a coating film on a hydrophobized substrate, a test liquid is supplied to the substrate, the test liquid is imaged, and a contact angle is obtained based on the imaging result. Since the corresponding information is grasped, it can be reliably determined whether or not the hydrophobization process has been normally performed on the substrate. In addition, since the inspection liquid is handled in the liquid processing apparatus that originally handles the processing liquid, the liquid spills or adheres to the apparatus and becomes contaminated. Absent. By incorporating this liquid processing apparatus into the coating and developing apparatus, it is possible to determine the hydrophobizing process in-line, so that it is possible to reduce or prevent lot defects while suppressing a decrease in throughput.

1 is an overall plan view showing a resist pattern forming system in which an exposure apparatus is connected to a coating and developing apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of the resist pattern forming system shown in FIG. 1. It is a whole side view of the resist pattern formation system shown in FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the resist coating unit of 1st Embodiment with which the resist pattern formation system shown in FIG. 1 was equipped, and applied the liquid processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the resist coating unit shown in FIG. 4. It is explanatory drawing which shows the control system of the resist coating unit shown in FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the effect | action of the resist coating unit shown in FIG. It is the same figure. It is a top view which shows the wafer (substrate | substrate) used for the liquid processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the contact angle of the water droplet used as a parameter | index for determining whether the normal hydrophobization process was performed to the wafer. (A) is explanatory drawing which shows the water droplet when a wafer is normally hydrophobized, (b) is explanatory drawing which shows the water droplet when a wafer is not normally hydrophobized. It is explanatory drawing which shows the time of forming a resist film on a wafer by spin coating. It is a perspective view which shows the principal part of the resist coating unit of 2nd Embodiment with which the resist pattern formation system shown in FIG. 1 is provided, and applying the liquid processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the effect | action of the resist coating unit shown in FIG. It is the same figure. (A) is explanatory drawing which shows the water droplet when a wafer is normally hydrophobized, (b) is explanatory drawing which shows the water droplet when a wafer is not normally hydrophobized. It is explanatory drawing which shows the modification of 2nd Embodiment. It is a perspective view of the front-end | tip of the arm of the resist coating unit of 3rd Embodiment. It is a side view which shows the effect | action of the resist application unit of 3rd Embodiment. It is a side view which shows the effect | action of the resist application unit of 3rd Embodiment. It is a top view which shows the effect | action of the resist coating unit of 3rd Embodiment. It is a top view which shows the effect | action of the resist coating unit of 3rd Embodiment. It is a side view which shows the effect | action of the resist application unit of the modification of 3rd Embodiment. It is a side view which shows the effect | action of the resist application unit of the modification of 3rd Embodiment. It is a side view which shows the effect | action of the resist application unit of the modification of 3rd Embodiment. It is a side view which shows the effect | action of the resist application unit of 4th Embodiment. It is a side view which shows the effect | action of the resist application unit of 4th Embodiment. It is a side view which shows the effect | action of the resist application unit of 4th Embodiment. It is a side view which shows the effect | action of the resist application unit of 4th Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing which showed the conventional hydrophobic treatment apparatus.

(First embodiment)
A first embodiment of a coating and developing apparatus to which the liquid processing apparatus of the present invention is applied will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The embodiment of the coating and developing apparatus according to the present invention includes a hydrophobic processing unit (hydrophobic processing apparatus) that performs hydrophobic processing on a wafer as a substrate, and resist coating having a function of examining the hydrophobicity of the wafer surface. And a unit (liquid treatment device). The detailed structure of the resist coating unit will be described in detail later. First, the overall configuration of the coating and developing apparatus will be briefly described.

  FIG. 1 is a plan view of a resist pattern forming system 100 in which an exposure apparatus C4 is connected to a coating / developing apparatus 101, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the coating and developing apparatus 101. The coating / developing apparatus 101 is provided with a carrier block C1, and the transfer arm 103 takes out the wafer W from the sealed carrier C mounted on the mounting table 102 and transfers it to the processing block C2. The transfer arm 103 is configured to receive the processed wafer W from C2 and return it to the carrier C.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the processing block C2 includes a first block (DEV layer) B1 for performing development processing and an antireflection film (coating film) forming process formed under the resist film in this example. A second block (BCT layer) B2 for performing, a third block (COT layer) B3 for applying a resist, and a fourth block for forming an antireflection film formed on the resist film. Blocks (ITC layers) B4 are stacked in order from the bottom.

  The layers of the processing block C2 are configured in substantially the same plan view. The third block (COT layer) B3 will be described as an example. The COT layer B3 is a resist coating unit 110 for forming a resist film as a coating film, and a pre-process of processing performed in the resist coating unit 110. And the shelf units U1 to U3 constituting the heating / cooling system processing module group for performing post-processing, and the resist coating unit 110 and the heating / cooling system processing module group. And a transfer arm A3 that transfers the wafer W. In this example, the resist coating unit 110 corresponds to the liquid processing apparatus described above. In this example, the hydrophobic treatment unit 1 is provided next to the shelf unit U1. The hydrophobizing unit 1 has been described with reference to FIG.

  The second block (BCT layer) B2 and the fourth block (ITC layer) B4 are each provided with a lower antireflection film forming unit and an upper antireflection film forming unit. These units have the same structure as the resist coating unit 110, and the corresponding chemical solution is spin-coated on the wafer W. In addition, in these blocks B2 and B4, a shelf unit that constitutes a processing module group of a heating / cooling system for performing pre-processing and post-processing of chemical solution application is provided.

  For the first block (DEV layer) B1, development units corresponding to the resist coating unit 110 are stacked in two stages in one DEV layer B1, and the pre-processing and post-processing for the development unit are performed. A shelf unit constituting a processing module group of the heating / cooling system is provided. In FIG. 3, A1, A2, and A4 are transfer arms that transfer the wafer W between the blocks.

  Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the processing block C2 is provided with a shelf unit U5, and a transfer arm D1 that is capable of moving up and down and moving back and forth between the wafer mounting portions of the shelf unit U5 is provided. It has been. A unit displayed by CPL is a cooling unit, a unit displayed by TRS is a delivery unit, and a unit displayed by BF is a buffer unit.

The wafer W from the carrier block C1 is transferred to the layer (B2 to B4) selected from the B2 to B4 layers according to the processing recipe through the transfer arm D1 and the wafer mounting portion of the shelf unit U5, and the coating film is formed. After that, it is conveyed to the exposure apparatus C4 via the shuttle arm 106 and the interface arm 107 of the interface block C3 shown in FIG. 3, and an exposure process is performed. Thereafter, the wafer W is transferred to the first block B1 via the interface block C3, developed, and then returned to the carrier block C1 via the transfer unit TRS1.
Here, according to the processing recipe, for example, the following processing is performed on the wafer W according to the type of resist, for example.
a. After performing the hydrophobization treatment, a resist film is formed. In this case, the lower antireflection film is not formed.
b. After forming the lower antireflection film, a resist film is formed. In this case, the hydrophobic treatment is not performed.
c. After the hydrophobic treatment, a lower antireflection film is formed, and then a resist film is formed.
Accordingly, the transfer path of the wafer W is determined according to these processing modes. For example, in the case of the processing mode a, the wafer W is transported in the order of the hydrophobic treatment unit 1 → the cooling unit in the shelf units (U1 to U3) → the resist coating unit 110. W is conveyed in the order of hydrophobic treatment unit 1 → cooling unit CPL3 → lower antireflection film forming unit. The hydrophobic treatment unit 1 may be provided at a height position corresponding to the BCT layer B2 in the shelf unit U5.

  Next, the resist coating unit 110 corresponding to the embodiment of the liquid processing apparatus of the present invention will be described. The resist coating unit 110 is provided inside the housing 2 as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. A fan filter unit 21 that forms a clean downflow is provided in an upper portion of the internal space 20s of the housing 2.

  The resist coating unit 110 includes a substrate holding unit 3. The substrate holding unit 3 is configured by a spin chuck 31 that holds the wafer W horizontally by vacuum suction, can be moved up and down via a shaft unit 30 by a lower driving unit 32, and can rotate about a vertical axis. It is configured.

  The resist coating unit 110 includes a cup (enclosing member) 4. The cup 4 surrounds the periphery of the wafer W held by the substrate holding unit 3 and has a liquid processing space 4s inside, and prevents the processing liquid such as resist supplied to the wafer W from scattering. To do. Further, the cup 4 is provided with a liquid receiving portion 41 having a concave shape on the lower side on the lower peripheral edge of the wafer W in such a manner that it is partitioned into an outer region and an inner region over the entire circumference. The bottom is provided with a waste liquid port 42 for discharging drainage such as the stored coating liquid, and two exhaust ports 43 and 44 are provided at the bottom of the inner region. In addition, a disc member 45 that guides the coating liquid to the outer region is provided inside the cup 4. The disc member 45 is formed with a through hole 45a that penetrates the shaft portion 30 in the center, and a mountain-shaped guide portion 45b is provided at the peripheral portion.

  In addition, the resist coating unit 110 includes an elevating mechanism 5. The elevating mechanism 5 includes an elevating motor 50, a main body 51, three elevating pins 52, and the like. The elevating mechanism 5 is provided with three elevating pins 52 so as to penetrate the guide member 45, and by driving the elevating motor 50, the main body 51 and the elevating pins 52 are moved in the vertical direction. Is brought into contact with the back surface of the wafer W to raise and lower the wafer W in the vertical direction, whereby the wafer W is inserted into and removed from the liquid processing space 4s.

  Further, the resist coating unit 110 includes a pure water supply nozzle 63, a resist supply nozzle 67, and a solvent supply nozzle 69 as shown in FIG. Each of the nozzles 63, 67, and 69 is connected to a supply system (not shown in FIG. 4) including a corresponding liquid supply source, a valve, and a metering pump. In FIG. 6, these supply systems are shown as a pure water supply system 61, a resist supply system 65, and a solvent supply system 68a.

  Further, the resist coating unit 110 includes a camera 7 that is an imaging unit. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the camera 7 is provided in the nozzle moving mechanism 8 so that the field of view faces the lower side in order to capture the lower image. The pure water supplied to the wafer W by the supply part 60 is imaged. In this example, the camera 7 captures a plan view of pure water supplied to the wafer W.

  Further, the resist coating unit 110 includes nozzle moving mechanisms 8 and 84. The nozzle moving mechanism 8 moves the nozzles 63 and 69 and the camera 7, and the nozzle moving mechanism 84 moves the nozzle 67. Since the nozzle moving mechanism 84 has the same configuration, the nozzle moving mechanism is representative. 8 will be described. The nozzle moving mechanism 8 has an arm 80 to which the nozzles 63 and 69 and the camera 7 are attached, and the nozzles 63 and 69 and the camera 7 through the arm 80 in the vertical direction shown in FIG. And an arm drive unit 81 that moves in the X-axis direction. The arm drive unit 81 includes a Z-axis moving mechanism 82 that moves the arm 80 up and down in the Z-axis direction, and an X-axis moving mechanism that moves the arm 80 along a guide rail 83 that extends in the X-axis direction. is there. Further, the resist coating unit 110 is provided with a waste liquid storage portion 89 that receives waste liquid from the nozzles 63 and 69 placed at the standby position.

  In addition, the resist coating unit 110 includes an edge remover 130. As shown in FIG. 5, the edge remover 130 includes an arm 132 that can be swung and raised and lowered with the nozzle 131 shown in FIG. 4 attached to the tip. The edge remover 130 removes the resist film at the peripheral edge outside the integrated circuit formation region W1 with a solvent in order to prevent film peeling after resist application.

  Next, a control apparatus for the coating and developing apparatus 101 and a control apparatus for the resist coating unit 110 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 90 denotes a bus, to which a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 91, a memory 92, and a program storage unit 93 are connected. The program storage unit 93 stores an image processing program 94, a determination program (determination unit) 95, a processing recipe 96, and the like. Examples of the storage medium include a hard disk, a compact disk, a magnetic optical disk, and a memory card.

  The image processing program 94 performs image processing on an image captured by the camera 7. The determination program 95 obtains the area of the water drop m based on the image-processed data, and determines whether or not this area exceeds a preset threshold value. When the area of the water drop m exceeds the threshold value, On the other hand, when it is determined that the wafer W is not normally hydrophobized, if the area of the water droplet m does not exceed the threshold value, it is determined that the wafer W is normally hydrophobized. The process recipe 96 performs the following process based on the determination result of the determination program 95. Specifically, when the determination program 95 determines that the wafer W has been subjected to normal hydrophobization processing, the processing recipe 96 continues a series of resist film formation processing, while the wafer W has normal hydrophobic processing. When it is determined that the process is not performed, a step is set so as to notify the abnormality by, for example, an alarm 97 which is an abnormality notification unit. As the alarm 97, for example, a display that displays a warning on the screen or a buzzer that emits a warning sound may be used.

  Next, the operation of the resist coating unit 110 configured as described above will be described. First, the wafer W is transported above the spin chuck 31 by the transport arm A3, and the wafer W is placed on the spin chuck 31 by the cooperative action of the transport arm A3 and the lift pins 52. Next, a determination process for determining whether or not the wafer W is normally hydrophobized is performed as follows. First, as shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, the pure water supply nozzle 63 is moved to the supply position, and is preset by the pure water supply system 61 from the pure water supply nozzle 63 as shown in FIG. Pure water is supplied to the peripheral edge outside the integrated circuit formation region W1 on the surface of the wafer W by an amount. The pure water supplied to the wafer W becomes water droplets m due to surface tension.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 8B, the wafer W is rotated by the driving unit 32 to move the water droplet m directly below the moving path of the camera 7, and the arm 80 is shown by a one-dot chain line in FIG. The camera 7 is disposed from the pure water supply position indicated by (2) to an imaging position that is indicated by a solid line in FIG. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 8A, the water droplet m is imaged by the camera 7.

  Here, as an index of hydrophobicity of the surface of the wafer W, as shown in FIG. 10, the contact angle θ of water (a line connecting the top of the water droplet m and the outer edge of the water droplet m on the surface of the wafer W is the surface of the wafer W). As an example, it can be seen that the surface of the wafer W shown in FIG. 11 (a) is more hydrophobic than that of FIG. 11 (b). When the wafer W is normally hydrophobized, the hydroxyl groups on the surface of the wafer W are replaced with trimethylsilanol groups by HDMS molecules. For this reason, the surface of the wafer W is hydrophobized, and the water droplets m are repelled on the surface of the wafer W, and the diameter R1 of the water droplets m becomes relatively small as shown in FIG. Becomes relatively small. On the other hand, when the wafer W is not normally hydrophobized, the surface of the wafer W is hydrophilic due to the presence of hydroxyl groups on the surface of the wafer W, so that the water droplet m becomes familiar with the surface of the wafer W, and FIG. ), The diameter R2 of the water droplet m is relatively large, and thereby the area of the water droplet m is relatively large.

  Therefore, the coating and developing apparatus 101 stores the image captured by the camera 7 in the memory 92, obtains the area of the water droplet m based on the image data, and compares this area with a threshold value as described above. If the area of the water droplet m is smaller than the threshold value, it is determined that the wafer W has been normally hydrophobized, and a series of resist film forming processes are continued. On the other hand, if the area of the water droplet m is larger than the threshold value, the wafer W is normally hydrophobic. It is determined that the processing is not performed, and a warning is output to the alarm 97. When continuing a series of resist film formation processing, the wafer W is then rotated by the drive unit 32 to remove water droplets m from the wafer W by centrifugal force, and then the solvent is supplied to the center of the wafer W by the solvent supply nozzle. And the wafer W is rotated, and the entire surface of the wafer W is pre-wet by the solvent. The removal of water droplets m from the wafer W may be combined with this pre-wet process without using a single process as described above. Next, for example, while the wafer W is rotated, a resist is supplied from the resist supply nozzle 67 to the center of the wafer W, and a resist film (coating film) is spin-coated on the entire surface of the wafer W. In the series of resist film forming processes described above, the CPU 91 reads data and programs stored in the memory 92 and the program storage unit 93, and based on the read programs, the camera 7 and the nozzle moving mechanism 8 described above. 83, the drive unit 32, the motor 50, the supply systems 61, 65, 68a, the alarm 97, etc., by outputting control signals for driving.

  According to one form of the resist coating unit 110 according to the present invention, pure water is supplied to the wafer W, a water droplet m of pure water is imaged, and information corresponding to the contact angle θ is grasped based on the imaging result. Therefore, it can be reliably determined whether or not the hydrophobic treatment has been normally performed on the wafer W. In addition, since pure water is handled in the resist coating unit 110 that originally handles the resist, the pure water spills or adheres to the unit 110 and becomes dirty if it is another unit. Does not happen. By incorporating this unit 110 into the coating and developing apparatus 101, it is possible to determine the hydrophobic treatment in-line, so that it is possible to reduce or prevent lot defects while suppressing a decrease in throughput.

The present invention is a method of supplying a test solution (pure water) to the surface of a wafer W that has been subjected to a hydrophobic treatment. However, the timing of supplying the test solution is limited to before the resist film is formed on the surface of the wafer W. It may be after the resist film on the peripheral portion of the wafer W is removed by the solvent discharged from the edge remover 130 after the resist film is formed. In this case, after the water droplet m is imaged by the camera 7 and the above-described determination is performed, the wafer W is rotated and the water droplet m is shaken off from the wafer W and removed.
In the resist coating unit 110 described above, it is possible to determine whether or not the wafer W is normally hydrophobized based on the diameter of the water drop m or the circumference length, not limited to the area of the water drop m. That is, if the parameter corresponds to the contact angle θ, the hydrophobicity can be evaluated based on the parameter. Alternatively, pure water may be supplied to a plurality of locations on the wafer W, the water droplets m at each location may be captured by a plurality of cameras, and the determination may be made based on the images of each water droplet m. In this case, if the area of at least one water droplet m exceeds the threshold value, a determination method that the hydrophobic treatment is not normally performed can be adopted, and a more reliable determination can be performed. Further, the determination of the hydrophobizing process may be performed by checking all of the wafers W. However, the hydrophobizing process may be inspected for, for example, one selected from a lot. The test liquid is not limited to pure water, and for example, a solvent may be used. When it is determined that the wafer W has not been normally hydrophobized, a processing recipe for notifying the abnormality by the alarm 97 and stopping a series of resist film forming processes may be provided in the program storage unit 93.

  The liquid processing apparatus of the present invention is not limited to the resist coating unit 110, but may be applied to an antireflection film forming unit, for example, when performing a process of hydrophobic treatment → antireflection film formation → resist film formation. Good. In the present invention, the timing for supplying a test solution such as pure water and the timing for imaging the test solution may be a state in which the wafer W is placed on the transfer arm A3 that carries the wafer W from the outside. The wafer W may be transferred from the transfer arm A3 to the lift pins 52.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, another embodiment of the resist coating unit according to the present invention will be described. In this embodiment, the same components as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, description thereof will be omitted, and differences from the first embodiment will be mainly described. FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing a main part of the resist coating unit 120 in the second embodiment. The resist coating unit 120 captures a side view of the water droplet m of pure water supplied to the wafer W in a state where the wafer W is held at a position higher than the cup 4 by the lift pins 52 of the lift mechanism 5. Is. The camera 70 of the resist coating unit 120 is attached to the arm 80 via an auxiliary member 85 so that the field of view faces sideways.

  Also in this embodiment, as in the previous embodiment, pure water is supplied to the surface of the wafer W as shown in FIGS. The pure water supplied to the wafer W becomes water droplets m. Next, the arm 80 is moved upward to separate the pure water supply nozzle 63 from the wafer W. Next, by driving the elevating motor 50, as shown in FIGS. 15A and 15B, the back surface of the wafer W held by the substrate holder 3 is pushed up by the elevating pins 52, and the wafer W is moved to the cup 4 Hold in a higher position. Next, by rotating the wafer W to move the water droplet m and driving the arm driving unit 81, the position indicated by the alternate long and short dash line in FIG. 15B is indicated by the solid line in FIG. After the camera 70 is arranged at the imaging position that is the side position of m, the side view of the water droplet m is imaged by the camera 70.

  As to the determination as to whether or not the wafer W has been normally hydrophobized, as shown in FIG. 16A, if the height H1 of the water droplet m is higher than the threshold value, the wafer W has been normally hydrophobized. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 16B, if the height H2 of the water droplet m is lower than the threshold, it is determined that the wafer W is not normally hydrophobized. That is, since the discharge amount of pure water is constant by a metering pump or the like, the contact angle θ and the height of the water droplet m are in a corresponding relationship. Therefore, in this example, the height of the water droplet m is used as an evaluation factor. The length or curvature of the circumferential line of m may be used as an evaluation factor. Also in the resist coating unit 120 according to the second embodiment, the same operations and effects as the resist coating unit 110 described in the first embodiment can be achieved.

  Further, when the wafer W is held at a position higher than the cup 4 and imaged by the camera 7, the wafer W may be held at a position higher than the cup 4 by moving the substrate holding unit 3 up and down. Furthermore, although the camera 70 was provided in the nozzle moving mechanism 8 in the above-described embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, as shown in FIG. 17, the camera 71 is attached to the cup 4 via a support member (not shown), while the opening 46 formed in the cup 4 is closed with a transparent member 47, and water droplets m are transmitted through the transparent member 47. May be captured by the camera 7.

(Third embodiment)
Next, a third embodiment of the resist coating unit according to the present invention will be described focusing on differences from the first embodiment. In the third embodiment, the suitability of the hydrophobizing treatment is determined based on the extent of spreading of the thinner, which is a solvent used for prewetting, on the surface of the wafer W instead of pure water. As shown in FIG. 18, in the resist coating unit of the third embodiment, a camera 7 and a solvent supply nozzle 69 are provided at the tip of an arm 80. The camera 7 is located on the center of the wafer W and can image the center of the wafer W.

  A processing procedure in the resist coating unit 110 of the third embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 19 to 20 which are side views of the wafer W and FIGS. 21 to 22 which are plan views of the wafer W. FIG. When the wafer W is delivered to the spin chuck 31 as in the first embodiment, the solvent supply nozzle 69 is positioned on the center portion of the wafer W, and is within the range of 3 mL to 5 mL, for example, at the center portion of the wafer W. A preset amount of thinner T (pretreatment liquid) is supplied (FIG. 19) to form a reservoir 121 of thinner T (FIG. 20). The supply amount of the thinner T is constant for each wafer W. After supply of the thinner T, the arm 80 moves, and the camera 7 is positioned on the center of the wafer W instead of the solvent supply nozzle 69 and images the liquid pool 121. Then, the image of the puddle 121 is stored in the memory 92 (FIG. 21).

  The thinner puddle 121 is relatively smaller in area as the surface of the wafer W is more hydrophobic, as is the case with the water droplets m of the first embodiment. Therefore, the determination program 95 obtains the area of the liquid pool 121 from the stored image, and compares the obtained area with a preset threshold value. Then, the determination program 95 determines that the hydrophobic process has been normally performed if the area is equal to or smaller than the threshold value, and determines that the wafer W has not been normally hydrophobized if the area is larger than the threshold value. If it is determined that the hydrophobic treatment has been normally performed, the wafer W is rotated by the spin chuck 31. As a result, the thinner T constituting the liquid pool 121 spreads to the peripheral edge of the wafer W by centrifugal force (FIG. 22), the wafer W is pre-wet, and the wettability of the resist to the surface of the wafer W is improved. Thereafter, the resist is applied in the same manner as in the first embodiment. When it is determined that the hydrophobic treatment is not normally performed, the alarm 97 notifies the abnormality as in the first embodiment.

  The third embodiment also has the same effect as the first embodiment. Further, in this example, since the thinner used for the pre-wet is used as a test liquid to determine the suitability of the hydrophobic treatment, the test liquid is prevented from being wasted, and the test liquid is separately supplied to the wafer W in addition to the thinner used for the pre-wet. Since there is no need, the time required for inspection can be shortened.

(Modification of the third embodiment)
Similarly to the water droplet m, the thinner the liquid pool 121 of the thinner, the higher the hydrophobicity of the wafer W, the larger the height thereof. Therefore, the suitability of the hydrophobic treatment can be determined based on the height of the liquid pool 121. In the modification of the third embodiment, a test substantially similar to that of the second embodiment is performed except that the suitability of the hydrophobizing process is determined based on the height of the liquid pool 121. In this example, the resist coating unit 120 described in the second embodiment is used.

  Specifically, the inspection procedure will be described. After the wafer W is delivered to the spin chuck 31 as in the embodiments, the thinner T is supplied to the central portion of the wafer W as described in the third embodiment. A puddle 121 is formed (FIG. 23). After formation of the liquid pool 121, the wafer W is lifted above the cup 4 by the lift pins 52, and the side surface of the liquid pool 121 is imaged by the camera 70. 24 and 25 show a side surface and a plane of the wafer W at the time of imaging, respectively.

  Then, the determination program 95 detects the height H3 of the liquid pool 121 from the image of the liquid pool 121, compares it with a preset threshold value, and if the height H3 of the liquid pool 121 is equal to or greater than the threshold value, the wafer W Is determined to be normally hydrophobized, and if the height H3 is lower than the threshold value, it is determined that the wafer W is not normally hydrophobized. When it is determined that the hydrophobic treatment has been normally performed, the elevating pins 52 are lowered and the wafer W is transferred to the spin chuck 31 again, and pre-wetting is performed as in the third embodiment. When it is determined that the hydrophobic treatment is not normally performed, an abnormality is notified by the alarm 97. This modification has the same effect as the third embodiment.

  In the third embodiment and its modification, after a drop of thinner is dropped from the solvent supply nozzle 69 to an arbitrary location on the wafer W before the liquid pool 121 is formed, the surface or side surface of the droplet is dropped by the camera 7 or the camera 70. Then, the suitability of the hydrophobization treatment may be inspected by comparing the area or height of the droplet with a threshold based on the obtained image. When it is determined that the hydrophobizing process is normally performed, thinner is supplied from the solvent supply nozzle 69 to perform pre-wetting, and when it is determined that the hydrophobizing process is not normally performed. An alarm is output and processing stops. In this way, it is possible to prevent wasteful use of the thinner used for prewetting.

(Fourth embodiment)
In the fourth embodiment, as described as an example of the second embodiment, the camera 71 is attached to the cup 4, and the surface of the wafer W is imaged from the side by the camera 71 through the transparent member 47. Is done. In the fourth embodiment, the method of dropping the inspection liquid onto the wafer W is different from the above-described embodiments. More specifically, when the wafer W is placed on the spin chuck 31, the pure water supply nozzle 63 moves upward outside the integrated circuit formation region W <b> 1 of the wafer W, and its lower end falls within the field of view of the camera 71. (FIG. 26).

  Pure water is supplied to the pure water supply nozzle 63 at a relatively gentle flow rate by the pure water supply system 61, and the droplet L hangs down at the lower end of the pure water supply nozzle 63. The droplet L is imaged by the camera 71, and the determination program 95 detects the size of the distance L1 between the lower end of the pure water supply nozzle 63 and the lower end of the droplet L as shown in FIG. When the supply of pure water is continued and the droplet L grows and the distance L1 reaches a preset size, the supply of pure water to the pure water supply nozzle 63 stops and the growth of the droplet L stops. To do.

  Subsequently, the pure water supply nozzle 63 is lowered by the arm driving unit 81. During this descending, imaging of the lower end of the pure water supply nozzle 63 is continued, and the determination program 95 detects the distance L2 between the lower end of the droplet L and the surface of the wafer W. When the distance L2 becomes zero, that is, when the droplet L comes into contact with the wafer W, the descent of the pure water supply nozzle 63 stops (FIG. 28). Thereafter, the pure water supply nozzle 63 rises, and the droplet L separates from the pure water supply nozzle 63 due to surface tension and gravity (FIG. 29). Thereafter, the height of the droplet L is detected as in the second embodiment, and the suitability of the hydrophobizing process is determined based on the detected height.

  In the fourth embodiment, since the droplets adhering to the pure water supply nozzle 63 are brought into contact with the wafer W by lowering the pure water supply nozzle 63, as described in other embodiments, the wafer W The droplets can be made smaller than when the droplets are dropped from the nozzle, and the droplets can be prevented from scattering due to air resistance during the fall. Therefore, since the droplet constituted by the predetermined liquid amount can be more reliably attached to the preset position of the wafer W, the suitability of the hydrophobic treatment can be more reliably inspected. Since it is possible to prevent droplets from adhering to the integrated circuit formation region W1, there is an advantage that problems such as formation of a watermark can be suppressed.

  In the above example, the distance L2 between the droplet hanging from the pure water supply nozzle 63 and the surface of the wafer W is measured, and the position of the pure water supply nozzle 63 is controlled based on the measurement result. The lowering position of the pure water supply nozzle 63 for adhering to W is set in advance, and when the distance L1 between the lower end of the nozzle 63 and the lower end of the droplet becomes a predetermined size, the pure water supply nozzle 63 is moved. The droplet may be attached to the wafer W by being lowered to the lowered position. Note that a predetermined amount of pure water is supplied to the supply nozzle 63 in a state where the pure water supply nozzle 63 is brought close to the surface of the wafer W in advance, and droplets hanging from the pure water supply nozzle 63 are attached to the wafer W. After that, the pure water supply nozzle 63 may be raised. After raising the pure water supply nozzle 63, the droplets adhering to the wafer W are imaged, and the area or height thereof is measured to determine the suitability of the hydrophobic treatment.

  In the fourth embodiment, instead of the pure water supply nozzle 63, a solvent supply nozzle 69 may be used to deposit thinner droplets on the wafer W. When the inspection liquid is a thinner as described above, a droplet may be attached to the central portion of the wafer W. In addition, the fourth embodiment may be applied to other embodiments, and the nozzles may be raised and lowered to cause the droplets to adhere to the wafer W.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hydrophobic processing unit 3 Substrate holding part 31 Spin chuck 32 Drive part 4 Cup (enclosing member)
5 Lifting mechanism 52 Lifting pin 6 Nozzle 60 Pure water supply part (test liquid supply part)
61 Pure water supply system (supply mechanism)
63 Pure water supply nozzle 64 Resist supply unit 67 Resist discharge nozzles 7, 70, 71 Camera (imaging unit)
8 Nozzle moving mechanism (moving mechanism)
91 CPU
93 Program storage (storage medium)
94 Image processing program 95 Determination program (determination unit)
96 Processing recipe 97 Alarm (Abnormality notification unit)
101 Coating and developing apparatus 110, 120 Resist coating unit (liquid processing apparatus)
C carrier C1 carrier block W wafer (substrate)
W1 Integrated circuit formation area

Claims (20)

In a liquid processing apparatus for forming a coating film by supplying a processing liquid from a nozzle to a substrate for forming an integrated circuit that has been subjected to a hydrophobic treatment,
A rotatable substrate holding part for holding the substrate horizontally;
An enclosing member surrounding the substrate held by the substrate holding unit;
A test liquid supply unit for supplying a test liquid to the substrate;
An imaging unit for imaging the test solution supplied to the substrate;
A liquid processing apparatus comprising: a determination unit that determines whether or not the substrate has been normally hydrophobized based on an image of the imaged test liquid.   The liquid processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the inspection liquid supply unit includes a supply mechanism that supplies a predetermined amount of the inspection liquid to the substrate.   The liquid processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the imaging unit is provided so as to capture a plan view of the inspection liquid supplied to the substrate.   The liquid processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the imaging unit is provided so as to capture a side view of the inspection liquid supplied to the substrate. In order to hold the substrate at a position higher than the surrounding member, the substrate holding part can be raised and lowered, and an elevating mechanism for pushing up and holding the back surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding part is provided. Comprising at least one of the configurations of
The liquid processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the imaging unit is provided so as to image the test liquid in a state where the substrate is held at a position higher than the surrounding member. The nozzle is configured to be movable by a moving mechanism,
The liquid processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the imaging unit is provided in the moving mechanism.   The liquid processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the coating film is a resist film.   The liquid processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the coating film is an antireflection film.   The liquid processing according to any one of claims 1 to 8, further comprising an abnormality notifying unit that notifies an abnormality when the determination unit determines that the substrate is not normally hydrophobized. apparatus.   The liquid processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the inspection liquid supply unit supplies the inspection liquid to a hydrophobic surface outside the integrated circuit formation region of the substrate.   The liquid processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the test liquid is water or thinner.   The liquid processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the inspection liquid supply unit supplies the inspection liquid to a central portion of the substrate.   The liquid processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the inspection liquid is also used as a pretreatment liquid that is supplied to the substrate before the treatment liquid is supplied in order to improve wettability of the treatment liquid to the substrate.   The liquid processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the test liquid is a thinner. The inspection liquid supply unit is located above the substrate and has an opening for supplying the inspection liquid to the substrate,
A liquid amount control mechanism for controlling the amount of the inspection liquid supplied to the nozzle so that the inspection liquid hangs down from the nozzle;
A drive mechanism for lowering the nozzle toward the substrate so that the inspection liquid hanging from the nozzle adheres to the substrate;
The liquid processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: In a coating and developing apparatus for applying a resist to a substrate and developing the exposed substrate with a developer,
A carrier block for storing a plurality of substrates is loaded from the outside, and the substrate after development is stored in the carrier and carried outside.
A hydrophobizing unit for hydrophobizing the surface of the substrate delivered from the carrier block;
A liquid processing apparatus for supplying a processing liquid to a hydrophobized substrate and forming a coating film for forming a resist pattern;
And a developing unit that performs a developing process by supplying a developing solution to the substrate after exposure, wherein the liquid processing apparatus uses the liquid processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 15. A coating and developing apparatus. In a coating and developing method in which a resist is applied to a substrate and the exposed substrate is developed with a developer.
Performing a hydrophobic treatment on the substrate in a hydrophobic treatment unit;
Carrying the hydrophobized substrate into the liquid processing unit;
Supplying a test liquid to the substrate in the liquid processing unit;
Imaging an inspection solution supplied to the substrate with an imaging unit;
A step of determining by the determination unit whether or not the substrate has been normally hydrophobized based on an image of the test liquid imaged by the imaging unit;
And a step of forming a coating film for forming a resist pattern by supplying a treatment liquid from a nozzle to the substrate.   18. The coating and developing method according to claim 17, further comprising a step of removing the inspection liquid supplied to the substrate by rotating the substrate by a substrate holding unit.   The inspection liquid is also used as a pretreatment liquid that is supplied to the substrate before the treatment liquid is supplied in order to increase the wettability of the treatment liquid to the substrate, and the substrate is rotated by the substrate holding unit, so that the centrifugal force 18. The coating and developing method according to claim 17, further comprising a step of spreading the inspection liquid on the substrate. A storage medium storing a computer program used in a coating and developing apparatus for supplying a processing liquid to a substrate, forming a coating film for forming a resist pattern, and performing development processing on the exposed substrate Because
A storage medium for performing the coating and developing method according to any one of claims 17 to 19.

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