JP2868634B2 - Liquid supply device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid supply device used for, for example, a resist coating device or a developing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a resist coating device for coating a semiconductor wafer with a resist solution, for example, a device using a spin coating method is known. This is because the resist liquid is dropped on the center of the semiconductor wafer by a nozzle of a liquid discharge device provided in the apparatus, and then the semiconductor wafer is rotated at a predetermined rotation speed. It forms a thin film.

In such a resist coating apparatus, in order to control the film thickness of a resist thin film formed on a semiconductor wafer with high precision, a resist liquid dropped from a nozzle of a liquid discharging apparatus onto the semiconductor wafer is dropped. The amount needs to be precisely controlled.

For this reason, in a resist coating apparatus, an inspection of a discharge amount of a resist liquid is performed as a maintenance work of the liquid discharge apparatus.

Conventionally, as a method of inspecting the discharge amount of a resist solution, for example, a dummy dispensing mode is used to manually raise an arm having a nozzle fixed at the tip at a nozzle standby position, A method is known in which, for example, a graduated cylinder or the like is manually held underneath to drop a resist solution. As another method, there has been known a method in which a tube for supplying a resist solution to a nozzle is removed, and a resist solution discharged from the tube is received by a measuring cylinder or the like to measure a discharge amount.

[0006]

However, when the discharge amount of the resist liquid is measured by these methods, there has been a problem that the labor required for the measurement is extremely large.

When manually raising the arm with the nozzle fixed thereto, there is a mechanical restriction on the amount of arm raising. Therefore, there is a restriction on disposing a measuring cylinder or the like below the nozzle fixed to the tip of the arm. There was poor workability.

In the case of removing the tube from the nozzle, the work of attaching and detaching the tube is complicated, and it is conceivable to remove the nozzle from the arm.

In particular, with the recent increase in the degree of integration of semiconductor devices and the like, the demands on the accuracy of the thickness of the resist thin film have become strict. Therefore, the inspection of the discharge amount of the resist liquid should be performed as frequently as possible. desirable. Therefore, there is a demand for a liquid discharge apparatus that can inspect the discharge amount of the resist liquid by a simple operation.

In addition, conventionally, the discharge amount has to be inspected using the dummy dispense mode. Therefore, the discharge amount can be inspected only at a timing such as after the discharge is stopped for a long time. Also, there is a restriction on the timing of the discharge inspection. In particular, in recent years, since a variety of types of processes are required, it is necessary to replace the nozzle for each process and perform liquid ejection. In this case, conventionally, the ejection amount inspection must be performed by using the dummy dispense mode of the nozzle currently fixed to the arm, and it is impossible to arbitrarily perform the ejection amount inspection of the nozzle removed from the arm. there were.

The problem is not limited to a liquid discharge device used in a resist coating device, but also to a liquid supply device used in another device such as a developing device used for developing a semiconductor wafer. Are also common.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such problems of the related art, and has as its object to provide a liquid supply apparatus capable of inspecting a supply amount of a coating liquid by a simple method. .

[0013]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
Such a liquid supply device supplies a predetermined amount of a processing liquid to an object to be processed.
One or more nozzles, to wait in the nozzle standby unit when not in use, supplying a process liquid is moved automatically by automatically maintained to the nozzle holding means to the processing liquid supply position said nozzle desired waiting In the liquid supply apparatus, the inspection mode is set to an inspection mode for inspecting the processing liquid supply amount of the nozzle.
And査mode switch, the test mode, the nozzle holding means, in a state of not holding the nozzle, characterized in that a, a retracting means for retracting from the said nozzle standby unit. A liquid supply device according to the invention of claim 2.
The method according to claim 1, wherein in the inspection mode,
Press the discharge switch to discharge the processing liquid from the nozzle.
A liquid supply device provided in the liquid supply device.

[0014]

SUMMARY OF] According to the liquid supply apparatus according to the invention of claim 1, set the test mode by operating the test mode switch
Then, first, the retracting means retracts the nozzle holding means from above the nozzle standby means without holding the nozzle, and then the inspector takes out the nozzle, discharges the processing liquid from the nozzle, and discharges the processing liquid. Is received by a measuring cylinder or the like, the discharge amount can be inspected. Claim
According to the liquid supply device of the invention described in Item 2, the inspection mode
When the discharge switch is operated at one time, the
The physical solution is discharged. This discharge amount is the amount of processing liquid for one batch.
Therefore, it is necessary to check whether the amount of processing solution for one time is appropriate.
It can be done easily and quickly.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the apparatus of the present invention is applied to a semiconductor wafer resist coating apparatus will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are diagrams schematically showing the configuration of a resist coating apparatus according to this embodiment. FIG. 1 is a side view,
FIG. 2 is a top view. FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view showing a configuration of a nozzle standby block 32 as a nozzle standby unit.

In the resist coating apparatus of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, a semiconductor wafer 10 is mounted and fixed on a spin chuck 12 by vacuum suction or the like, and the spin chuck 12 is fixed to an output shaft of a motor 14. It is designed to be driven to rotate.

The motor 14 is composed of a high-performance motor having excellent acceleration characteristics, and has a flange 16 on the upper side thereof, and is fixed at an appropriate position in the coating apparatus by the flange 16. The temperature of the flange 16 can be adjusted by a temperature controller (not shown), so that the heat generated by the motor 14 is not transmitted to the upper side.

Above the wafer 10 supported by the spin chuck 12, an arm 20a is used to move the wafer 10
A resist nozzle 18 for dropping a resist liquid is held from substantially the center of the nozzle, and the resist nozzle 18 is movable by a scanner 20 as a moving mechanism.

As shown in FIG. 2, the resist nozzle 18 is provided on the semiconductor wafer 1 mounted on the spin chuck 12.
For example, four resist liquids are provided so as to be properly used depending on the type of the resist liquid dropped to zero. Each of the resist nozzles 18 forms a nozzle block 28 together with a pin 26 that is gripped by a chuck (not shown) of the arm 20a. The arm 20a is moved up and down to hold the pin 26.

As shown in FIG. 1, a resist liquid supply system for supplying the resist liquid to the resist nozzle
2, a pipe 25 extending from the N ₂ pressurizing section 24 and the resist liquid storage section 22 to the resist nozzle 18. The pipe 25 is provided with an opening / closing valve V1, a suck-back valve V2, and the like. The suck back valve V2 is a valve for discharging the resist liquid from the resist nozzle 18 and then drawing the resist liquid exposed by the surface tension at the tip of the resist nozzle 18 back into the resist nozzle 18, thereby preventing the resist liquid from solidifying. It is for doing.

Further, at the standby position of the resist nozzle 18, there is provided a nozzle standby block 32 having a line of four nozzle insertion portions 30 for inserting and supporting the tip portions of the resist nozzle 18 as shown in FIG. It is arranged.
The four nozzle insertion portions 30 formed in the nozzle standby block 32 are hollow inside, and are formed such that the inside is sealed with the tip of the resist nozzle 18 inserted. Each of these four nozzles 18 is connected to a resist solution container 22 by a pipe 25.

The interior of the cavity may be set to an atmosphere of a solvent of the resist liquid to prevent the resist liquid at the tip of the nozzle 18 from solidifying.

Also, beside the nozzle insertion portion 30,
A pin positioning hole 34 for receiving the lower end of the pin 26 is formed.

The operation of each component described above is controlled by the control unit 40 shown in FIG. In the resist coating apparatus of the present embodiment, under the control of the control unit 40, the resist is applied to the semiconductor wafer 10 as follows.

First, in a state where each resist nozzle 18 is inserted into the nozzle insertion portion 30 of the nozzle standby block 32, that is, in a state where the resist nozzle 18 is at the standby position,
The semiconductor wafer 10 is carried in and fixed on the spin chuck 12.

When the operator operates a switch (not shown) on the operation panel 42a to indicate the resist nozzle 18 to be selected, and then instructs to start coating, these instructions are transmitted to the connection board 44. It is sent to the CPU 46 through the CPU 46. The CPU 46 moves the nozzle standby block 32 and the arm 20a in accordance with the content of the input instruction, and causes the arm 20a to grip the selected resist nozzle 18.

Subsequently, the CPU 46 raises the arm 20a, further drives the scanner 20, and holds the arm 20a on the semiconductor wafer 10 placed on the spin chuck 12 while holding the resist nozzle 18.
Move up.

At this position, under the control of the CPU 46,
A predetermined amount of resist solution is supplied to the semiconductor wafer 10 via the resist nozzle 18 by the pressurization of the N ₂ gas, for example, is dropped.

Under the control of the CPU 46, the motor 14 is driven to rotate the spin chuck 12, and the resist liquid is uniformly applied on the entire surface of the semiconductor wafer 10 by the centrifugal force generated by this rotation.

When the application is completed, it is necessary to exchange the wafer with the next wafer.
Drives the scanner 20 to return the arm 20a to the standby position.

The arm 20a is lowered, and the tip of the resist nozzle 18 is inserted into the nozzle insertion portion 30 of the nozzle standby block 32, and is set in a solvent atmosphere.
The holding of the resist nozzle 18 by 0a is released, and the process ends. Note that the application operation described above is an example,
It goes without saying that various changes may be made.

Next, a method of inspecting the discharge amount of the resist liquid in such a resist coating apparatus will be described.

First, in a state where each resist nozzle 18 is inserted into the nozzle insertion portion 30 of the nozzle standby block 32, that is, in a state where the resist nozzle 18 is at the standby position,
When the operator operates the ejection amount inspection mode switch 50 on the inspection panel 42b (hereinafter abbreviated as the panel 42b), the CPU 46 raises the arm 20a without gripping the resist nozzle 18.

Subsequently, the CPU 46 drives the scanner 20 to move the arm 20a. Arm 20a
May be moved as long as the arm 20a does not hinder the subsequent discharge of the resist liquid from the resist nozzle 18. In this embodiment, however, FIG.
As shown in the figure, it is assumed that the robot is moved to a position near an intermediate position between the standby position and the ejection position, for example, to a retreat position 52 mm away from the standby position. Here, the CPU 46 and the scanner 20
Constitutes the evacuation means.

Next, the operator operates each of the resist nozzles 18.
Out of the resist nozzles 18 for inspecting the discharge amount
Is manually extracted from the nozzle insertion portion 30 of the nozzle standby block 32, and is supported on a graduated cylinder with the ejection port of the extracted resist nozzle 18 facing down. At this time, since the arm 20a has been previously retracted to a position other than the position above the standby position, no trouble occurs in the operation of extracting the resist nozzle 18. In addition, since the resist nozzle 18 is detached from the arm 20a due to the original function of the apparatus, there is no need to perform the work of attaching and detaching the resist nozzle 18 at the time of the discharge amount inspection.

Next, when the operator operates, for example, the discharge switch 52 on the panel 42b, the CPU 46
One time of the resist liquid is discharged from the extracted resist nozzle 18. The discharged resist liquid is received by a measuring cylinder which is a measuring container, and the discharge amount can be measured.

In this embodiment, since there are four resist nozzles 18 in the nozzle standby block 32, for example, a sensor (mechanical sensor) for detecting whether or not each nozzle 18 is inserted into the nozzle insertion portion 30 is provided. A contact sensor or a non-contact sensor such as an optical sensor) may be provided, and the resist liquid can be discharged by operating the discharge switch 52 to one of the resist nozzles 18 whose extraction has been detected. Alternatively, four ejection switches may be provided corresponding to each nozzle 18. Also in this case, based on the sensor signal, an indicator indicating a switch corresponding to the extracted nozzle 18 can be displayed to prevent erroneous operation.

The operator inserts the discharged resist nozzle 18 into the nozzle insertion section 3 of the nozzle standby block 32.
0, and the first inspection is completed.

Hereinafter, for each resist nozzle 18,
In the same manner as described above, the inspection of the ejection amount can be performed continuously.

Finally, the operator operates the end switch (not shown) on the panel 42b, etc.
6 drives the scanner 20 to return the arm 20a to the standby position.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention. For example, in the present embodiment, the resist nozzle 18
However, the same effect can be obtained when the number of the resist nozzles 18 is different (for example, when the number of the resist nozzles 18 is one).

Further, the present invention is not necessarily applied to the liquid discharge device of the resist coating device, but can be similarly applied to a liquid discharge device of another device such as a developing device and a magnetic paint coating device.

[0044]

As described in detail above, claim 1
According to the liquid supply device of the invention described in claim 2 ,
The discharge amount of the resist solution can be inspected by a very simple method. A liquid supply device according to the invention of claim 2.
According to the above, it is possible to check whether the amount of processing solution
It can be done easily and quickly.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view schematically showing a configuration of a resist coating apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view schematically showing a configuration of a resist coating apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a configuration of a nozzle standby block shown in FIG. 2 in detail.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a control circuit system of the resist coating apparatus shown in FIGS. 2 and 3;

FIG. 5 is a top view showing a retracted position of an arm when inspecting a discharge amount of a resist liquid in the resist coating apparatus shown in FIGS. 2 and 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

10 wafer 12 spin chuck 18 resist nozzle 20 scanner 24 N ₂ pressing 25 pipe 26 pin 28 the nozzle block 30 the nozzle insertion portion 32 nozzle standby block 40 controller

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method for supplying a predetermined amount of a processing liquid to an object to be processed.
Supplied by a plurality of nozzles, is waiting in the nozzle standby unit when not in use, the processing solution is moved automatically by automatically maintained to the nozzle holding means to the processing liquid supply position said nozzle desired waiting In the liquid supply device, set to an inspection mode for inspecting the processing liquid supply amount of the nozzle.
A test mode switch which, in the test mode, the nozzle holding means, in a state of not holding the nozzle, liquid supply apparatus characterized in that a, a retracting means for retracting from the said nozzle standby unit. 2. The liquid supply device according to claim 1, further comprising a discharge switch for discharging a single processing liquid from the nozzle in the inspection mode.