JP2676249B2 - Semiconductor exposure equipment - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a projection type exposure apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor circuit elements such as ICs, LSIs, VLSIs, etc., and particularly to execution control means for periodical processing such as maintenance thereof. It is a thing.

[Conventional technology]

In a projection type semiconductor exposure apparatus, various regular maintenances are indispensable in order to maintain the performance of the apparatus and operate it in a high performance state. However, in order to manufacture a semiconductor integrated circuit with a higher degree of integration, the exposure apparatus itself tends to be more complicated, and as a result, the importance of regular maintenance increases, and maintenance items also increase. I'm crossing. As an example of maintenance, in an exposure apparatus using an excimer laser, there is a replacement of a laser excitation gas after a certain exposure time has elapsed. In addition, correction of orthogonality, magnification, etc. due to wear of the guide of the XY stage and change with time can be mentioned.

Most of the maintenance items, including these examples, are carried out manually by the operator, even though the timing, contents, and procedure of the maintenance are clearly defined.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

In the above-mentioned conventional example, the operation by the operator is required for each maintenance time, and there is a time lag in the execution time due to various maintenance items. There was a drawback that it was easy to induce human error. Further, it has been pointed out that due to these human errors, the defective rate of the semiconductor integrated circuit formed on the wafer by exposure is increased, the productivity is lowered, and further the economic loss is caused.

In view of the drawbacks of these conventional examples, an object of the present invention is to carry out regular maintenance, by storing the date and time, the contents and the procedure for each maintenance item in the device in advance so that the designated date and time can be set. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor exposure apparatus having a function of automatically performing maintenance and storing or displaying the result in the apparatus so that the result can be confirmed at a later date.

[Means and actions for solving the problem]

In order to achieve this object, in the present invention, in a semiconductor exposure apparatus for transferring and exposing the pattern of an original plate onto a semiconductor substrate,
Storage means for storing the contents and procedure of maintenance processing to be executed for the apparatus, timer means for counting the current date and time, designation means for designating date and time indicating the execution time of the maintenance processing, and timer means The maintenance process is executed in accordance with the content and procedure of the maintenance process stored in the storage unit after the current date and time counted in step 3 has a predetermined relationship with the designated date and time specified by the designating unit. By providing the executing means, when the predetermined relationship is established with respect to the designated date and time, for example, when the current date and time has passed the designated date and time at the time of comparison judgment of the current date and time and the designated date and time, the designated processing is automatically performed. It is made to be executed by.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a semiconductor exposure apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the exposure apparatus includes a control box 1 storing a control unit such as a CPU, a timer device having a calendar function and a memory device, a monitor display 2, a keyboard 3 for inputting, and a light source. However, the excimer laser device 4, a mirror 5 for guiding the laser light emitted from the excimer laser device 4 to the illumination device 6, a reticle 7 on which a circuit pattern is drawn, a projection lens 8 for printing, and a projection target 8 for printing. A wafer 9, a XY stage 10 for mounting the wafer and moving it under the projection lens 8 in two orthogonal directions of X and Y, and a pulse motor 11 for driving the XY stage are provided.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the operation sequence of this semiconductor exposure apparatus.

FIG. 2 (a) shows the flow of the entire operation, FIG. 2 (b) shows the flow of the pattern baking process, and FIG. 2 (c) shows the processing contents and procedure in the gas exchange processing.

After the start of the sequence, step S1 shown in FIG.
Then, the current date and time are input from the keyboard 3 to initialize a timer device (not shown) in the control box 1 (time adjustment and start of counting). Next, in step S2, the date and time for exchanging the gas of the excimer laser device 4 and the processing content and procedure are input from the keyboard 3 and stored in the storage device in the control box 1. Here, the processing contents and procedure will be described, and as an example thereof, steps S6-5-1 to S6-5-5 in FIG. First, in step S6-5-1, the monitor display 2 is set to display a message notifying the start of gas exchange. Next, in step S6-5-2, it is set to store the time of gas exchange. In step S6-5-3, the control box 1 to the excimer laser device 4
Set an instruction to exhaust the used gas to and wait until the gas exhaust is completed. Further, in step S6-5-4, the excimer laser device 4 is moved from the control box 1 to the excimer laser device 4.
Set to wait until the completion of gas injection by issuing an instruction to inject new gas into. Next, in step S6-5-5, the gas exchange completion time is set to be stored in the storage device in the control box 1.

Step S1 and step S in FIG.
2, and the method itself for inputting and setting each of steps S6-5-1 to S6-5-5 shown in FIG. 2 (c) may be a known method, for example, setting on the monitor display 3 Items are displayed one after another, and the operator uses the keyboard 3
For each item, you may enter the necessary parameters or select only the processing content you want to execute, or you can use the interactive method.
It may be a method of inputting as a program in a format that can be executed by the CPU.

Next, when the apparatus is started in step S3 shown in FIG. 2A, the exposure operation is started. First steps
In S4, the apparatus carries in and fixes the reticle 7 between the illumination device 6 and the projection lens 8. Next, in step S5, the wafer 9 to be exposed is placed on the XY stage 10 and carried under the projection lens 8. Next, exposure is performed in step S6. A description of this exposure apparatus will be given with reference to FIG. Wafer 9 in step S6-1
In an exposure area called a shot area, which is formed in a grid pattern on the upper side, alignment is performed such that a first shot position called a first shot in the exposure area is directly below the projection lens 8. Next, in step S6-2, the laser light emitted from the excimer laser device 4 is first reflected by the mirror 5 and is incident on the illumination device 6, and further passes through the reticle 7 on which a circuit pattern is drawn. Exposure of one shot is performed on the wafer by reducing the circuit pattern on the reticle 7 by the projection lens 8. Next, in step S6-3, after the exposure for one shot is completed, the current date / time is read from the timer device in the control box 1, and in step S6-4, it is compared with the previously set gas exchange date and time. If the current date and time is equal to the gas exchange execution date or time or the gas exchange execution date and time has elapsed, the memory of the gas exchange execution date and time is cleared and then the process proceeds to the execution of step S6-5 and the previously set second time is set. The processing contents of steps S6-5-1 to S6-5-5 in FIG. 6C are sequentially executed. If it is determined in step S6-4 that the current date and time is earlier than the gas exchange execution date and time, the process proceeds to step S6-6, and it is confirmed whether exposure of all shots of the wafer 9 is completed. If there is an unprocessed shot, the XY stage 10 is driven by the pastel motor 11 for driving the XY stage in step S6-7,
The next shot position is positioned below the projection lens 8, and the exposure process for the next shot is repeated from step S6-2. If it is determined in step S6-6 that the exposure of all shots has been completed, the exposure process is completed, the process returns to step S7 shown in FIG. 2A, and the wafer 9 after the exposure process is unloaded. . Next, in step S8, if there is a new unexposed wafer,
The execution from S5 will be repeated. If the exposure processing is completed for all the wafers, the sequence is completed. As a method for the operator to confirm whether or not the gas exchange is normally performed at a later date, the date and time of the gas exchange execution and the completion date and time stored in the device are confirmed by the process shown in FIG. 2 (c). Is possible, and if the operator was present during the gas exchange process,
The message displayed on the monitor display 2 can also be seen to know the execution of the gas exchange.

By the above method, it becomes possible to automatically perform gas exchange according to the processing content and procedure set at the designated date and time.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be modified and implemented as appropriate. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the current date and time, and the date and time of gas exchange, and further the content and procedure of the gas exchange process were set immediately after the sequence of the apparatus was started. For example, by storing in a memory for power backup, it is not necessary to set each time the apparatus is powered on. Furthermore, by storing the processing content and procedure in a magnetic storage device or the like, it is possible to download the same to another exposure apparatus of the same type via a magnetic storage medium. Furthermore, in the embodiment, the gas exchange of the excimer laser device has been described as an example of the periodic maintenance, but it can be used for other periodic maintenance, for example, the correction of the orthogonality of the XY stage and the magnification correction.

Conventionally, an operator manually operates the device, measures various XY stages, calculates the correction value by performing calculation based on the measured data, inputs the correction to the device again, and stores it. However, it is possible to automatically perform this by setting the implementation date and time, the processing content, and the procedure in the apparatus. Also,
Furthermore, by setting the execution date and time and processing of various maintenance items, it is possible to automatically perform each maintenance on different execution dates.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, by performing various types of periodic maintenance automatically at each designated date and time, not only the manual operation by the operator becomes unnecessary, but also the device has high reliability. It is possible to always operate in an optimal condition, which in turn improves yield and leads to economic effects. Moreover, since the user of the apparatus sets the date and time of the maintenance process, the date and time of execution of the maintenance process can be accurately recognized, and the maintenance process can be prevented from being performed at an unexpected time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a semiconductor exposure apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the operation of the semiconductor exposure apparatus of FIG. 1, FIG. )
The figure shows the flow of the pattern printing process, and the figure (c) is a sequence flowchart showing the procedure of the gas exchange process of the excimer laser. 1 ... control box, 2 ... monitor display, 3 ... keyboard, 4 ... excimer laser device, 7 ... reticle, 8 ... projection lens, 9 ... wafer.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. In a semiconductor exposure apparatus for transferring and exposing a pattern of an original plate onto a semiconductor substrate, storage means for storing the content and procedure of maintenance processing to be performed on the apparatus, and timer means for counting the current date and time. A storage unit for designating a date and time indicating the execution time of the maintenance process, and storing the current date and time counted by the timer unit after having a predetermined relationship with the designated date and time specified by the designating unit. A semiconductor exposure apparatus comprising: an execution unit that executes the maintenance process according to the content and procedure of the maintenance process stored in the unit. 2. The semiconductor exposure apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising display means for displaying a start of execution of said maintenance processing by said execution means. 3. The semiconductor exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said storage means stores an execution result of said maintenance processing by said execution means. 4. The apparatus exposes and transfers the pattern of the original plate onto the semiconductor substrate with light from an excimer laser light source, and the executing means executes processing for the excimer laser light source for the maintenance processing. The semiconductor exposure apparatus according to claim 1.