JP5970864B2 - Slit nozzle - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a slit nozzle that can reduce the occurrence of an air pool generated in a liquid reservoir.

  For example, in the manufacture of semiconductors, a so-called lithography process is performed in order to form a resist pattern on the surface of a semiconductor wafer or the like. This lithography process includes various processes such as cleaning of a semiconductor wafer, application of a resist film to the surface of the semiconductor wafer, exposure of the resist film, development, and the like.

  When developing the resist film, it is important that the developer is uniformly supplied onto the substrate and the resist is uniformly developed over the entire surface of the substrate. A scanning method or the like is known as one of methods for supplying a developing solution onto a substrate. The scanning method is a method in which, for example, a slit nozzle having a slit-like discharge port is scanned on a substrate placed on a mounting table, and a developing solution is supplied to the entire substrate surface.

  When the developing solution is supplied to the substrate surface by the scanning method, air tends to be collected in the liquid reservoir formed inside the slit nozzle. The phenomenon in which the air pool is generated is that air is mixed into the liquid reservoir due to the reaction of dripping when the supply of the liquid is stopped.

  If the state in which the air is accumulated in the liquid reservoir inside the slit nozzle is left as described above, it becomes difficult to evenly discharge a sufficient amount of the developer from the slit-like discharge port. If the developer cannot be sufficiently supplied to the surface of the substrate, the development becomes insufficient and so-called development defects occur. Further, if the supply of the developer is not uniform, and there are portions with a lot of developer and portions on the resist film, uneven development occurs.

  In addition, if the supply of the developer is continued in a state where air has accumulated in the liquid reservoir inside the slit nozzle, bubbles may be mixed into the developer supplied to the surface of the substrate. When bubbles are mixed in the developer on the surface of the substrate as described above, the development is not sufficiently performed in that portion, and so-called development defects occur.

  In response to such a problem, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses a supply nozzle having an exhaust hole for exhausting the air in the liquid reservoir to the outside. By providing the exhaust holes in this way, air can be easily exhausted, but there are problems such as a complicated structure of the supply nozzle.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-070057

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and a main object of the present invention is to provide a slit nozzle that can reduce the occurrence of air accumulation in the liquid reservoir.

  In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention, a plurality of processing liquid supply ports and a plurality of processing liquids supplied from the plurality of processing liquid supply ports are stored, and a plurality of processing liquid supply ports corresponding to the number of the plurality of processing liquid supply ports are stored. And a slit-like discharge port that discharges the processing liquid from the plurality of liquid reservoirs, the inner angle of the corners in the shape of the longitudinal section of the plurality of liquid reservoirs is All of them are 90 ° or more, and among the corner portions, the inner angle of the supply port corner portion where the treatment liquid supply port is arranged is formed so as to face the slit-like discharge port side, and the angle is 90 ° to There is provided a slit nozzle having a range of 160 °, wherein the plurality of liquid reservoirs are connected on the slit-like discharge port side to form one chamber.

  According to the present invention, by providing the liquid reservoir having the above specific structure, the processing liquid can be smoothly discharged from the slit-like discharge port without staying in the liquid reservoir, and the occurrence of an air pool is prevented. Can be reduced. Specifically, in the shape of the vertical cross section of the plurality of liquid reservoirs, air reservoirs are provided by not providing corners with an inner angle of less than 90 ° and by setting the inner angle of the supply port corner within the above-mentioned range. The occurrence of this can be reduced. Furthermore, according to the present invention, since the liquid reservoir itself has a structure that reduces the occurrence of air accumulation, there is no need to provide an exhaust port or the like, and a slit nozzle that does not have a complicated structure can be obtained. it can. Further, in the present invention, since the plurality of liquid reservoirs are connected on the slit-like discharge port side to form a single chamber, the processing liquid can be uniformly discharged from the slit-like discharge port.

  In the above invention, it is preferable that all the internal angles of the corners in the cross-sectional shape of the plurality of liquid reservoirs are 90 ° or more. It is because generation | occurrence | production of an air pocket can be reduced more.

  Moreover, in the said invention, it is preferable that the space | interval of each said process liquid supply port exists in the range of 4.0 cm-8.0 cm. If the interval between the treatment liquid supply ports is within the above range, when designing the slit nozzle, if the number of supply ports and the number of piping systems are the same, the number of supply ports should be smaller in terms of particle generation. This is because the number of the supply ports can be set within an appropriate range in consideration of the preference.

  According to the present invention, there is an effect that it is possible to reduce the occurrence of air accumulation generated in the liquid reservoir.

It is a perspective view which shows an example of the slit nozzle of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which illustrates the slit nozzle of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which illustrates the slit nozzle of this invention. It is explanatory drawing explaining the connection part of the slit nozzle of this invention. It is explanatory drawing explaining the slit nozzle of Example 1 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2. FIG.

  Hereinafter, the slit nozzle of the present invention will be described in detail.

  The slit nozzle of the present invention stores a plurality of processing liquid supply ports, a processing liquid supplied from the plurality of processing liquid supply ports, a plurality of liquid reservoirs corresponding to the number of the plurality of processing liquid supply ports, A slit nozzle having a slit-like discharge port for discharging the processing liquid from the plurality of liquid reservoirs, wherein all the internal angles of the corners in the shape of the longitudinal section of the plurality of liquid reservoirs are 90 ° or more. Of the corners, the interior angle of the supply port corner where the treatment liquid supply port is disposed is formed so as to face the slit-like discharge port side, and the angle is within a range of 90 ° to 160 °. In addition, the plurality of liquid reservoirs are connected on the slit-like discharge port side to form a single chamber.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the slit nozzle of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the slit nozzle 10 of the present invention includes a plurality of treatment liquid supply ports 1, a plurality of liquid reservoirs (not shown) provided inside the slit nozzle 10 and having a specific structure, And a slit-like discharge port 3 for discharging the treatment liquid 2. The liquid reservoir that is a feature of the slit nozzle of the present invention will be described later with reference to the drawings.
Hereinafter, each structure of the slit nozzle of this invention is demonstrated.

1. Liquid Reservoir First, the liquid reservoir in the present invention will be described. The liquid reservoir in the present invention has a function of storing processing liquid supplied from a plurality of processing liquid supply ports, which will be described later, and the processing liquid stored in the liquid reservoir is discharged from a slit-like discharge port, which will be described later. . In the present invention, the same number of liquid reservoirs as the processing liquid supply ports are provided so as to correspond to the number of processing liquid supply ports.

  FIG. 2A is a longitudinal sectional view illustrating the slit nozzle of the present invention. In the present invention, for example, as shown in FIG. 2A, a plurality of liquid reservoirs 4 are provided so as to correspond to the number of processing liquid supply ports 1, and each of the liquid reservoirs 4 is formed in a slit shape. It is connected on the discharge port 3 side to form one chamber. By connecting the liquid reservoirs 4 in this manner, the processing liquid can be discharged uniformly.

  Moreover, FIG.2 (b) shows only the shape of the longitudinal cross-section of the some liquid reservoir part shown to Fig.2 (a). In the present invention, for example, as shown in FIG. 2 (b), the inner angles of the corners 5 in the shape of the longitudinal section of the plurality of liquid reservoirs 4 are all 90 ° or more. The inner angle of the supply port corner 6 where the port 1 is disposed is formed so as to face the slit-shaped discharge port 3 side, and the angle is in the range of 90 ° to 160 °. In particular, in the present invention, the angle is preferably in the range of 100 ° to 140 °, particularly in the range of 110 ° to 130 °. It is because generation | occurrence | production of an air pocket can be reduced more.

  FIG.2 (c) is an AA cross-sectional arrow view in Fig.2 (a), and is a cross-sectional view of a slit nozzle. Moreover, FIG.2 (d) is an enlarged view which shows only the shape of the cross section of the some liquid reservoir part shown in FIG.2 (c). In the present invention, for example, as shown in FIG. 2 (d), it is preferable that all the internal angles of the corner portions 5 in the cross-sectional shape of the plurality of liquid reservoir portions 4 are 90 ° or more. It is because generation | occurrence | production of an air pocket can be reduced more. In the present invention, the corner 5 ′ of the slit-like discharge port 3 is not included as a corner in the cross-sectional shape of the plurality of liquid reservoirs.

  FIG. 3A is a longitudinal sectional view showing another example of the slit nozzle of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3A, when there are openings 7 of the plurality of treatment liquid supply ports 1 on the upper surface side of the vertical cross-sectional shape of the plurality of liquid reservoirs 4, the corners of the supply ports are shown in FIG. ). FIG. 3B is an enlarged view of the region R in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3 (b), the intersection of the straight lines of the inclined portion 8 and the inclined portion 9 is set as the supply port corner portion 6, and the inner angle may be within the predetermined angle range described above.

  In addition, the slit nozzle of the present invention is formed by connecting the respective liquid reservoirs by connecting portions 11 as shown in FIG. Although it does not specifically limit as height h of the said connection part, For example, it is preferable to exist in the range of 1.0 cm-2.0 cm, especially 1.0 cm-1.5 cm.

2. Next, the processing liquid supply port and the slit-shaped discharge port in the present invention will be described.
The treatment liquid supply port in the present invention is for supplying the treatment liquid to the liquid reservoir described above. In the present invention, for example, as shown in FIG. 2 described above, the processing liquid supply port 1 is installed so that the processing liquid is supplied from the back of the shape of the longitudinal section of the plurality of liquid reservoirs 4. For example, as shown in FIG. 3 described above, the processing liquid supply port 1 (opening 7) may be installed on the upper surface side of the shape of the longitudinal section of the plurality of liquid reservoirs 4. .

  Further, in the present invention, the interval between the treatment liquid supply ports is not particularly limited, but for example, within a range of 4.0 cm to 8.0 cm, particularly within a range of 6.0 cm to 7.0 cm. Preferably there is. This is because, when the interval between the treatment liquid supply ports is within the above range, when designing the slit nozzle, the internal angle or the like of the supply port corner can be easily set within the predetermined angle range described above. . The inner diameter of the treatment liquid supply port is not particularly limited, but is usually in the range of 0.3 cm to 0.4 cm. In addition, the slit-like discharge port in the present invention is a portion that discharges the processing liquid from the liquid reservoir described above. Although it does not specifically limit as a slit width | variety of the said slit-shaped ejection opening, Usually, it is about 0.05 mm-0.5 mm.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the length L of the slit-shaped discharge port is preferably in the range of, for example, 14.0 cm to 25.0 cm, and more preferably in the range of 16.0 cm to 23.0 cm. . The height H from the slit-shaped discharge port to the corner of the supply port is preferably in the range of 2.2 cm to 4.2 cm, for example, and more preferably in the range of 3.0 cm to 3.5 cm.

3. Slit nozzle The slit nozzle of the present invention has the processing liquid supply port, the liquid reservoir, and the slit-shaped discharge port described above. The use of the slit nozzle of the present invention is not particularly limited, and for example, it can be used for the production of reticles, semiconductor wafers, optical disk substrates, liquid crystal display substrates, and the like. Examples of the processing solution used when the slit nozzle of the present invention is used include a developing solution and a rinsing solution.
Further, the length in the longitudinal direction of the slit nozzle of the present invention is not particularly limited. For example, when manufacturing a reticle or the like, it is preferably about the length of the diagonal of the resist layer or more. . This is because the developer can be uniformly discharged over the entire resist layer.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. The above-described embodiment is an exemplification, and the technical idea described in the claims of the present invention has substantially the same configuration and exhibits the same function and effect regardless of the case. It falls within the technical scope of the invention.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to examples.

[Example 1]
As shown in FIG. 5A, a slit nozzle having an inner angle of the supply port of 120 ° was produced. In FIG. 5A, h was 1.4 cm, H was 3.3 cm, and L was 22.2 cm.

[Comparative Example 1]
As shown in FIG. 5B, a slit nozzle was produced in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the inner angle of the supply port was set to 70 °. H ′ in FIG. 5B was 4.3 cm.

[Comparative Example 2]
As shown in FIG. 5C, a slit nozzle was produced in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the inner angle of the supply port was 180 °.

[Evaluation]
When the inner angle of the supply port is narrow as in Comparative Example 1, the bubbles mixed in the liquid reservoir portion were easily removed by liquid passage. However, when the distances L and h are designed to be equal to the embodiment, the supply port corner portion is formed from the slit-like discharge port. Needs to be larger than H in the first embodiment. In Comparative Example 1, there are five supply ports. However, when the same three as in Example 1, the height H ′ is further increased, which is not practically preferable. Moreover, when the internal angle of the supply port was wide as in Comparative Example 2, bubbles mixed in the left and right corners of the liquid reservoir were difficult to escape. On the other hand, in Example 1, since there are three supply ports and the inner angle is 120 °, it can be designed to have an appropriate size, and the ease of removal of bubbles mixed in the liquid reservoir can be maintained.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Processing liquid supply port 2 ... Processing liquid 3 ... Slit-like discharge port 4 ... Liquid storage part 5 ... Corner | angular part 6 ... Supply port corner | angular part 7 ... Opening part 5 ... Corner | angular part 5 '... Corner | angular part 6 ... Supply port corner | angular part 7 ... Opening portion 8 ... inclined portion 9 ... inclined portion 10 ... slit nozzle 11 ... connecting portion

Claims (3)

From the plurality of processing liquid supply ports, the processing liquid supplied from the plurality of processing liquid supply ports, a plurality of liquid storage portions corresponding to the number of the plurality of processing liquid supply ports, and the plurality of liquid storage portions have a, a slit-shaped discharge port for discharging the treatment liquid,
A slit nozzle not provided with an exhaust port for exhausting air in the liquid reservoir ,
The internal angles of the corners in the shape of the longitudinal section of the plurality of liquid reservoirs are all 90 ° or more,
Among the corners, an inner angle of a supply port corner where the treatment liquid supply port is disposed is formed to face the slit-like discharge port side, and the angle is within a range of 90 ° to 160 °. ,
The slit nozzle, wherein the plurality of liquid reservoirs are connected on the slit-like discharge port side to form one chamber.   2. The slit nozzle according to claim 1, wherein the inner angles of the corners in the cross-sectional shape of the plurality of liquid reservoirs are all 90 ° or more.   The slit nozzle according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an interval between the treatment liquid supply ports is within a range of 4.0 cm to 8.0 cm.

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