JP3120315B2 - Processing equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a processing apparatus for removing static electricity charged on an object to be processed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, when processing an object such as a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as a wafer) in a semiconductor device manufacturing process, a wafer cassette for storing an unprocessed wafer and a processed wafer are stored. A loading / unloading mechanism having a wafer cassette and loading / unloading arms for loading / unloading wafers corresponding to these wafer cassettes, applying a processing liquid such as a resist solution or a developing solution to the wafer surface, and heating the wafer Or an appropriate processing unit such as cooling,
A processing mechanism unit having a main arm for transferring a wafer to and from the processing unit, and performing predetermined various processes on the wafer while transferring the wafer between the loading / unloading mechanism and the processing mechanism unit. Processing equipment is used.

Since the processing apparatus constructed as described above is installed and used in a clean room for down-flowing the air cleaned from above, the loading / unloading mechanism and the processing mechanism unit constituting this processing apparatus are used. Has a relatively low humidity atmosphere. Further, since the wafer to be processed is a semiconductor in terms of electric conductivity, the wafer is in a state of being easily charged during processing.

[0004]

However, when the wafer is charged and static electricity is generated, fine dust adheres to the surface of the wafer, which not only lowers the product yield but also causes wafer contamination (contamination). There was a problem. Further, there is also a problem that a discharge is generated during the transfer of the wafer due to the static electricity charged on the wafer, and this discharge destroys elements formed on the surface of the wafer and malfunctions of precision devices such as sensors. Furthermore, the wafer may be attracted to the wafer mounting table or the like due to static electricity and the position of the wafer may be shifted or dropped when the wafer is transferred, which may hinder the continuous processing of the wafer. .

As a means for solving the above problem, a method of removing static electricity by bringing a conductive member into contact with a wafer can be considered. However, according to this method, a metal as a conductive member contacts the wafer. As a result, wafer contamination due to metal occurs, and it is not possible to solve a reduction in product yield.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and eliminates the charging of a processing object without contacting the processing object, thereby preventing the attachment of fine dust and preventing the element from being destroyed due to electric discharge. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a processing apparatus capable of improving the product yield.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a first processing apparatus of the present invention comprises a loading / unloading mechanism for transporting unprocessed and processed workpieces by loading / unloading means. Assuming a processing apparatus including a processing mechanism unit that appropriately transports the object to be processed to the processing unit by the transport unit,
Ion irradiation means for irradiating the object with ions, a control unit for selecting the polarity of ions and adjusting the amount of ion irradiation ;
And an air blowing means for circulating ions generated from the ion irradiation means toward the object to be processed.

In the present invention, the ion irradiating means may be arranged at any position as long as it can irradiate the object with ions. For example, the ion irradiating means may be provided with a loading / unloading mechanism and a processing mechanism. In addition to being able to be arranged above a relay position which controls delivery of an object to and from a mechanism unit, ion irradiating means is arranged in at least one of a moving area of the loading / unloading means or a moving area of the carrying means. And can be arranged above the processing unit.

In another arrangement of the ion irradiation means, for example, it is possible to dispose the object to be processed at an appropriate interval on a side of an object accommodating portion for accommodating the object in a multistage manner.

Further, it is preferable to provide a detecting means for detecting whether or not the object to be processed is charged and the amount of charge, and to transmit a detection signal from the detecting means to the control unit.

The second processing apparatus of the present invention, like the first processing apparatus, includes a loading / unloading mechanism for transporting unprocessed and processed workpieces by loading / unloading means, and a transport mechanism. Assuming a processing apparatus having a processing mechanism unit that conveys the object to be processed to the processing unit as appropriate by means and performs processing,
The loading / unloading means and the transporting means include an arm capable of holding the workpiece and moving the workpiece horizontally, vertically, and in a rotating direction, and a moving area of the loading / unloading means or a transporting means. At least one of the moving regions includes ion irradiation means for irradiating the object with ions ,
The ions generated from the ion irradiation means flow to the object
It is characterized by further comprising a blowing means for passing air .

[0012]

According to the processing apparatus of the present invention configured as described above, the unprocessed object to be processed or the processed object is irradiated with ions from the ion irradiating means to transport the object. It is possible to remove static electricity charged on the object during or during processing. At this time, the polarity of the ions and the ion irradiation amount are adjusted by the control unit, and the target object is irradiated with the ions, so that the ions can be irradiated according to the polarity and the charge amount of the electrode charged on the target object. Accordingly, the charge of the object to be processed irradiated with ions can be made zero. Therefore, it is possible to prevent fine dust from adhering to the object to be processed, and to prevent destruction of an element on the object to be processed due to discharge due to charging.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. Here, a case where the processing apparatus of the present invention is applied to a semiconductor wafer coating and developing apparatus will be described.

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a first embodiment of the processing apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part of the first embodiment.

The processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a processing mechanism unit 20 for performing various processes on a semiconductor wafer W (hereinafter, referred to as a wafer) as an object to be processed, and automatic loading and unloading of the wafer W to and from the processing mechanism unit 20. A main part is constituted by a loading / unloading mechanism 10 called a cassette station which performs transfer of a wafer W to a connection portion of the loading / unloading mechanism 10 with the processing mechanism unit 20 (a relay position 30). ) Is arranged, and ion irradiation means 40 is provided above the wafer transfer position 30.

The loading / unloading mechanism 10 includes a wafer carrier 11 for accommodating unprocessed wafers W at appropriate intervals in multiple stages and a wafer carrier for accommodating processed wafers W at appropriate intervals in multiple stages. And a loading / unloading unit 13 for loading and unloading the wafer W corresponding to the wafer carriers 11 and 12. In this case, the loading / unloading means 13 includes an arm 14 for holding the wafer W by suction, and a moving mechanism 15 for moving the arm 14 in X, Y (horizontal), Z (vertical), and θ (rotation) directions. Have been.

The wafer transfer position 30, which is a relay position for transferring the wafer W, is located, for example, substantially at the center of the transfer path in the Y direction of the loading / unloading means 13. The loading / unloading means 13 is provided with a plurality of, for example, four, support pins 14a which penetrate the arm 14 without any trouble and can be moved up and down. The support pins 14a support the wafer W and It is configured to lift.
Instead of the support pin 14a, a delivery member such as a delivery table, a support pin, etc. (not shown) may be separately provided.

The processing mechanism unit 20 includes a plurality of processing units 21 for performing predetermined processing on the wafer W,
And a transfer means 22 for loading and unloading the wafer W from and to the wafer W. In this case, the transfer unit 22 includes a transfer table 24 that is movable along a transfer path 23 formed in the X direction from a wafer transfer position 30 disposed between the processing mechanism unit 20 and the load / unload mechanism 10, The wafer W is movably mounted on the transfer table 24 in the X, Y, Z and θ directions.
And a main arm 25 that holds

Further, on one side of the transfer path 23, an adhesion processing mechanism 21a for performing an adhesion process for improving the adhesion between the wafer W and the resist film, and remaining in the resist applied to the wafer W. A pre-bake mechanism 21b for heating and evaporating the solvent and a cooling mechanism 21c for cooling the heated wafer W are arranged. On the other side of the transfer path 23, a resist coating mechanism 21d for coating a resist liquid on the surface of the wafer W, a developing mechanism 21e for developing a resist film having a predetermined pattern exposed, and a resist liquid are coated. A stepper mechanism 21f for exposing a predetermined pattern on the surface of the wafer W is disposed. The processing unit 21 is formed by these mechanisms 21a to 21f.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, the ion irradiation means 40 disposed above the wafer transfer position 30 includes an emitter bar 41 and a lower surface of the emitter bar 41 along the length direction of the emitter bar 41. A plurality of (five in the drawing, five cases) electrodes E1 protruding at appropriate intervals
To E5, and a control unit 50 (hereinafter referred to as a controller) having a DC power supply generates ions of a predetermined polarity and quantity. In this case, the electrodes E1 to E5 are formed of single-crystal Si of the same quality as the wafer W. Of the five electrodes, the electrodes E1, E3 and E5 at both ends and the center generate + (plus) ions, Other than that, the second electrodes E2 and E4 on both sides generate negative ions. The reason for increasing the number of positive ion electrodes is that positive ions are more difficult to generate.

The controller 50 is provided with a cathode output adjustment knob 51 for adjusting the amount of negative ions, an anode output adjustment knob 52 for adjusting the amount of positive ions, and a timing adjustment knob 53 for adjusting the total amount of ions. A switch 54 and an LED (light emitting diode) monitor 55 are provided. Each ion is blown toward the wafer transfer position 30 by a blowing means (not shown) at a predetermined flow rate. That is, the configuration is such that the ions generated from the ion irradiation means 40 flow to the wafer W side.

In the processing apparatus of the present invention configured as described above, first, the unprocessed wafer W is vacuum-adsorbed on the back surface by the arm 14 of the loading / unloading mechanism 10, and is taken out of the wafer carrier 11, and the wafer is transferred to the wafer transfer position. It is transported to 30. The wafer W transferred to the wafer transfer position 30 is placed above the wafer transfer position 30 while being held on the arm 14 or while being lifted from the arm 14 while being supported on the support pins 14a. The ions generated by the irradiation unit 40 are irradiated, and the static electricity charged on the wafer W is removed. In this case, the cathode output adjustment knob 51 or the anode output adjustment knob 52 of the controller 50 is adjusted in accordance with the polarity of the static electricity charged on the wafer W, that is, positive or negative, to irradiate a predetermined amount of negative or positive ions to thereby charge the wafer W. The timing adjustment knob 53 is adjusted in response to the control to adjust the irradiation amount of the ions, for example, the irradiation time of the positive ions and the negative ions, the mutual irradiation interval, and the like.

In order to measure the static electricity charged on the surface of the wafer W, a dummy wafer is passed through an actual processing step and, for example, as shown in FIG.
The presence / absence, polarity and amount of static electricity charged on the surface of the dummy wafer (not shown) are measured (detected) in advance by a static electricity measuring device 60 which is a detecting means disposed on the side of the device. By transmitting a detection signal from the controller 50 to the ion irradiation means 40 based on the information, the presence / absence, polarity, and charge amount of static electricity charged on the surface of the wafer W can be easily grasped, and an appropriate amount can be determined based on the information. To the wafer W. Therefore, the static electricity charged on the wafer W can be reliably removed, and adhesion of fine dust to the wafer W can be prevented. Further, it is possible to prevent the destruction of the element due to the discharge of the charged static electricity, and to prevent the malfunction of a sensor or the like used in the transfer system of the wafer W or the processing mechanism.

Next, the wafer W on the wafer transfer position 30 from which the ions have been irradiated and whose charge has been removed is held by the main arm 25 of the transfer means 22, and is processed by each of the processing mechanisms 21a to 21f.
And are subjected to appropriate processing. Then, the processed wafer W is again transferred to the wafer transfer position 30 by the main arm 25, and is transferred to the arm 14 of the loading / unloading mechanism 10 in the same manner as described above.
After the ions generated at 0 are irradiated to remove static electricity charged during processing, the wafer is transferred to the wafer carrier 12 by the arm 14 and stored therein.

Therefore, the unprocessed and processed wafers W are placed at the wafer delivery position 30 at the ion irradiation means 40.
, The static electricity charged on the wafer W during transfer and processing can be removed.

In the above embodiment, the case where the ion irradiation means 40 is disposed above the wafer transfer position 30 to remove the charge of the wafer W on the wafer transfer position 30 has been described. For example, as shown by an imaginary line in FIG. 2, the ion irradiation means 40 may be arranged on the ceiling of the processing mechanism unit 20 to irradiate the entire movement area of the transport means 22 with ions. Similarly, ion irradiating means (not shown in FIG. 2) is arranged on the upper surface of the moving area of the loading / unloading means 13 of the loading / unloading mechanism 10 so that the entire moving area of the loading / unloading means 13 is irradiated with ions. It may be. With this configuration, it is possible to irradiate ions on the wafer W being transferred, and thus the charged wafer W before and after the processing is charged.
Static electricity can be removed.

The arrangement position of the ion irradiation means 40 is not limited to the above case,
The ion irradiating means 40 may be disposed above each of the processing units 0, that is, the processing mechanisms 21a to 21f. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, an emitter bar 26a is provided on the lid 26 of the pre-bake mechanism 21b, and the electrodes E1 to E1 projecting from the lower surface thereof are provided.
The ions may be irradiated from E5 onto the wafer W supported by the support pins 28 on the mounting table 27. In particular, in the case of such a heat treatment mechanism, it becomes easy to be charged,
After the heating process, when the wafer W is suctioned by the mounting table 27 and is lifted while the wafer W is supported by the mounting pins 27 and supported by the support pins 28, the wafer W is inclined or discharged. With this configuration, it is possible to remove static electricity charged before and after the processing of the wafer W to be processed.

Further, as another arrangement of the ion irradiation means 40, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, the ion irradiation means 40 may be provided on the side of the wafer carrier 11 or 12 for accommodating the wafer W horizontally and in multiple stages. Are vertically arranged, and a fan 16 as a blowing means is provided outside the ion irradiation means 40, for example, by using nitrogen (N2) gas or argon (A).
r) By supplying an inert gas such as a gas, the ions generated by the ion irradiation means 40 may be caused to flow horizontally above the wafer W by the fan 16.
With this configuration, ions can be positively circulated on the upper surface of the wafer W accommodated in the wafer carrier 11 or 12, so that static electricity charged on the horizontal wafer W can be removed. it can.

In FIG. 4, the ion irradiation means 40
A plurality of electrodes projecting from the emitter bar 41
4 and 5 are the same as those of the above-described embodiment except for the representative example, and therefore, the same portions are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof will be omitted.

The ion irradiating means 40 can be attached to the arm 15 of the loading / unloading means 13 or the main arm 25 of the transfer means 22 to irradiate the wafer W being transferred with ions. Further, the entire upper surface of the loading / unloading mechanism 10 or the upper part of the moving area of the loading / unloading means 13 is covered with the cover 17 so that the ion irradiation means 40 is provided on the ceiling.
May be provided.

In the above embodiment, the case where the processing apparatus of the present invention is applied to a semiconductor wafer coating and developing apparatus has been described. However, the present invention is also applied to an apparatus for processing an object to be processed such as an LCD substrate or a CD other than a semiconductor wafer. Of course, you can.

[0032]

As described above, since the processing apparatus of the present invention is configured as described above, the following effects can be obtained.

1) The object to be processed is irradiated with ions from the ion irradiating means to remove static electricity charged on the object to be processed, so that fine dust can be prevented from adhering to the object to be processed and the object to be processed can be prevented. The element can be prevented from being destroyed due to the discharge of static electricity charged on the body, and can be prevented from being shifted or dropped when the object is delivered. In this case, by circulating ions generated from the ion irradiation means by the blowing means to the object side, the ions can be efficiently irradiated and the object to be processed can be prevented from being charged.

2) Since the ion irradiating means is disposed above the relay position which controls the delivery of the object between the loading / unloading mechanism and the processing mechanism unit, regardless of whether the object is unprocessed or processed, The charge can be removed, and the object to be processed can be transported and processed smoothly.

3) Since the ion irradiating means is arranged in at least one of the moving area of the loading / unloading means and the moving area of the transporting means, it is possible to irradiate the workpiece to be transported with ions, Irradiation can be performed reliably.

4) Since the ion irradiating means is arranged above the processing section, the object to be processed can be irradiated with ions without fail.

5) The ion irradiating means is arranged on the side of the object accommodating portion for accommodating the objects to be processed in a multistage manner at appropriate intervals, and the ions generated from the ion irradiating means are directed toward the object to be processed. Since the ions are circulated, the object to be processed disposed in a horizontal state can be efficiently irradiated with ions, and the object to be processed can be prevented from being charged.

6) Detecting means for detecting whether or not the object is charged and detecting the amount of charge is provided, and a detection signal from the detecting means is transmitted to the control unit. By positively irradiating appropriate ions according to the amount, static electricity charged on the object to be processed can be reliably removed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a first embodiment of a processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a main part of the processing apparatus of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an ion irradiation unit and a control unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 W semiconductor wafer (object to be processed) 10 loading / unloading mechanism 11 wafer carrier (object to be processed) 12 wafer carrier (object to be processed) 13 loading / unloading means 16 fan (blowing means) 20 processing mechanism unit 21 ( 21a to 21f) Processing unit 22 Transport unit 30 Wafer transfer position (relay position) 40 Ion irradiation unit 50 Controller (control unit) 60 Static electricity measuring device (detection unit)

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] 1. An unprocessed and processed object is loaded and
In a processing apparatus, comprising: a loading / unloading mechanism for transporting the workpiece by an unloading unit; and a processing mechanism unit for transporting the workpiece to a processing unit as appropriate by the transport unit, and processing the workpiece, ion irradiation for irradiating the workpiece with ions. A processing unit, comprising: a control unit for selecting the polarity of ions and adjusting the amount of irradiation of ions; and a blowing unit for flowing ions generated from the ion irradiation unit to the object to be processed. . 2. The processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ion irradiation means is disposed above a relay position which controls delivery of the object between the loading / unloading mechanism and the processing mechanism unit. 3. The processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ion irradiation means is arranged in at least one of a moving area of the loading / unloading means and a moving area of the carrying means. 4. The processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ion irradiation means is disposed above the processing section. 5. An ion irradiating means is disposed on a side of a processing object accommodating portion for accommodating processing objects in a multi-stage manner at appropriate intervals, and an ion generated from the ion irradiating means is provided. 2. The processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing device is circulated to the object to be processed. 6. The processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising detection means for detecting whether or not the object to be processed is charged and detecting the amount of charge, and transmitting a detection signal from the detection means to a control unit. 7. An unprocessed and processed object is loaded and
In a processing apparatus comprising a loading / unloading mechanism for transporting by an unloading unit, and a processing mechanism unit for transporting and processing an object to be processed to a processing unit as appropriate by the transporting unit, the loading / unloading unit and the transporting unit may include: An arm capable of holding the object to be processed and moving the object in the horizontal, vertical, and rotational directions is provided, and the object to be processed is provided in at least one of the moving area of the loading / unloading means or the moving area of the transporting means. And ion irradiation means for irradiating ions to
A blowing means for circulating the generated ions to the object
A processing device, further comprising: