JPH01209737A - Semiconductor manufacturing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to perform processing characterized by high throughputs, by providing a conveying mechanism comprising a conveying part which conveys bodies under processing into a heat treating mechanism and a standby part which temporarily holds the bodies under processing. CONSTITUTION:Four juxtaposed hot plates 110, 111, 112 and 113 are provided in a heat-treating mechanism 115 and a semiconductor wafer 114 is heat-treated there. A conveying mechanism 118 comprising a conveying part 116 and a standby part 117 is provided in the vicinity of the heat treating mechanism 115. The conveying part 116 can be moved in the lateral direction X in parallel with the mechanism 115 and sucks and holds the semiconductor wafer 114. The standby part 117 has a mounting stage for temporarily holding the semiconductor wafer 114. Both the number of the hot plates (n) and an allowance time 122Tw are set and controlled with respect to a cycle time T. Thus said cycle time can be synchronized with the cycle times of processing mechanisms other than the heat-treating mechanism. The decrease in throughputs of the apparatus can be prevented by the heat-treating time of the heat-treating mechanism.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Purpose of the invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

(Prior Art) In semiconductor manufacturing equipment, a photoresist coating and developing device, for example, is used as one device in the process of forming a circuit pattern on a semiconductor wafer. This photoresist coating and developing device has multiple processing mechanisms, such as a cleaning mechanism for the surface of the semiconductor wafer, a hydrophobic heat treatment mechanism for drying and removing water such as pure water used for this cleaning, and a mechanism for adhesion between the semiconductor wafer and the photoresist film. H done to improve sex
an MDS processing mechanism, a photoresist coating mechanism that applies photoresist to a semiconductor wafer, a pre-bake mechanism that heats and evaporates the solvent remaining in the applied photoresist;
A development mechanism that develops the exposed photoresist, a post-bake mechanism that evaporates and removes the developer remaining on the photoresist patterned by development and strengthens the adhesion between the semiconductor wafer and the photoresist, and a post-bake mechanism that develops the photoresist pattern. It is equipped with a resist curing mechanism to improve heat resistance and is configured to process semiconductor wafers continuously.

Each of the above-mentioned mechanisms is connected by a conveyance mechanism using a belt, for example, so that semiconductor wafers can be processed continuously.

However, as the degree of integration of VLSIs has increased in recent years, for example, resist processing steps have become more complex, and the number and types of processing steps have also increased.

Although fixed continuous processing is possible with the device described above,
It is impossible to add, for example, resist multilayer coating or other processing steps to this continuous processing process, or to delete certain processing steps.

Due to these two circumstances, there is a demand for an apparatus having a structure in which, for example, a processing mechanism and a transport mechanism are separated so that it is possible to add, delete, or change processing steps, and to cope with complex processing steps.

An example of this device is as described below.

As shown in FIGS. 4(a) and 4(b), around the main transfer mechanism
A processing machine WA■, a processing mechanism B■, a heat treatment mechanism ■, etc. are arranged. This heat treatment mechanism (■) consists of, for example, four heating plates (8) (■)
(10) (11) are vertically arranged in multiple stages, and a transfer mounting table (12) is arranged below this. Also, in the vicinity of this heat treatment mechanism ω, sub-transport mechanism A (13) and sub-transport mechanism B (
14). Then, the semiconductor wafer (■) is taken out from the loader (3) and moved to the processing section A by the main transport mechanism (■).
(c) and process the semiconductor wafer ■. When this process is finished, the main transport mechanism (1) transfers the semiconductor wafer (
2) is set on the transfer stage (12), and then the semiconductor wafer ■ is transferred by the sub-transfer mechanism A (13) from the hot plate (8) to the hot plate (11) of the heat treatment mechanism ■ according to the processing. and move it. When the heat treatment on the uppermost heating plate (11) is completed, the semiconductor wafer (2) is transported by the sub-transfer mechanism B (14) and set on the transfer stage (12). This transfer platform (
12) The upper semiconductor wafer (2) is carried out by the main transport mechanism (α) and stored in the unloader (A).

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, a loader (17) is mounted on the front side along the movement path (16) of the transport mechanism (15).
, 7'zo-der (18), processor t'il A (1
9), treatment mechanism B (20) is installed in parallel, and four hot plates (22) (23) are installed as a heat treatment mechanism (21) on the opposite side.
(24) and (25) are installed in parallel. And the loader (
A semiconductor wafer (26) is taken out from 17), transported by a transport mechanism (15), and set in, for example, a processing mechanism A (19) for processing. When this process is finished, the transport mechanism (15)
Processing mechanism A (19) to semiconductor wafer (26)
is carried out, set on a hot plate (22), and heat treatment is started. Next, another semiconductor wafer (26) is loaded onto the loader (1).
7) and remove it from the hot plate (23) using the same operation as above.
(24) Set to (25). Heat treatment mechanism (21)
After the heat treatment is completed, the transfer mechanism (15) transfers the semiconductor wafer (26) from the corresponding hot plate, for example, the hot plate (22).
) is carried out and stored in the unloader (18).

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, each of the above devices has the following problems.

In the former case, two sub-transport mechanisms are required.

Furthermore, it is necessary to control the operation of the sub-transport mechanism in order to match the cycle time of the main transport mechanism with the heat treatment time. For example, if the main transport mechanism is in operation, semiconductor wafers that have been heated cannot be removed from the heat treatment mechanism, resulting in a waiting time when transferring semiconductor wafers from one hot plate to another in the processing mechanism. In other words, it takes time to interrupt the heat treatment.

On the other hand, in the latter case, the heat treatment time needs to be managed extremely precisely depending on the resist used, so if you try to operate the transport mechanism to manage the heat treatment time, the throughput of the device may drop significantly. There is sex.

In other words, the above heat treatment time can be adjusted within a certain range by changing the number of hot plates, but if the number of hot plates is n, then nT
Only a limited waiting time can be selected in stages, and it is impossible to control the time in between.

Therefore, the cycle time T of the device is changed, but the cycle time T of the device is also affected by the processing times of other processing mechanisms, and the throughput of the device is based on the processing time of the slowest processing mechanism.

The heat treatment cycle time must be set to a longer time than that.

For example, if the processing time of the slowest processing mechanism is 51 seconds and the heat treatment time is 150 seconds, processing cannot be completed in 50 seconds using 3 hot plates, and in this case, it is necessary to use 2 hot plates and perform a 75 second cycle. However, throughput decreases significantly.

The present invention has been made in response to the above-mentioned conventional situation, and is intended to provide a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus with high throughput.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) That is, the present invention provides a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus that transports objects to be processed to a plurality of processing mechanisms for processing, which includes a transport unit that transports objects to be processed to a heat treatment mechanism, and a transport section that transports objects to be processed. The present invention is characterized in that it includes a transport mechanism that includes a standby section that temporarily stands by.

(Function) The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention is equipped with a transport mechanism consisting of a transport section that transports the object to be processed to the heat treatment mechanism and a standby section that temporarily waits for the object to be processed. By adjusting the margin time, the heat treatment time of the heat treatment mechanism can be changed.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example in which the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention is applied to a coating and developing apparatus will be described with reference to the drawings.

Near the center of the main body (101), there are tweezers (not shown) that are configured to be extendable and retractable and hold an object to be processed, such as a semiconductor wafer (102), by suction, and are arranged along a movement path (103) in the lateral (X) direction. ) and is configured to be able to rotate (θ) the tweezers (not shown).
4) is provided.

Next, the movement path (103) of this main transport mechanism (104)
On the front side, there are a plurality of processing mechanisms, such as a loader mechanism (105) for storing semiconductor wafers (102) before processing, an unloader mechanism (107) for storing semiconductor wafers (106) after processing, and a semiconductor wafer. A coating mechanism (108) for coating photoresist on the semiconductor wafer (102) and a development mechanism (109) for developing the exposed photoresist on the semiconductor wafer (102) are juxtaposed. The main transport mechanism (104) is configured to transport the semiconductor wafer (102) to each of the mechanisms as desired.

On the other hand, on the other side of the movement path (103), there are, for example, four hot plates (110) (111) (112) arranged in parallel.
) (113), and a heat treatment mechanism (115) for placing and heat-treating a semiconductor wafer (114) is disposed. Then, depending on the processing process, for example, a pre-bake treatment is performed to heat and evaporate the solvent remaining in the applied photoresist, and a developer solution remaining in the patterned photoresist is removed by evaporation to remove the semiconductor wafer and the photoresist. Used in post-bake treatment to strengthen adhesion.

In the vicinity of the heat treatment mechanism (115), there is a movable member that can move in the lateral (X) direction parallel to the heat treatment mechanism (115);
A transport section (1
16) and a waiting section (117) having a mounting table on which the semiconductor wafer (114) is temporarily placed on standby. The semiconductor wafer (114) can be arbitrarily transferred between the standby section (117) and the heat treatment mechanism (115).

Further, the transport mechanism (1
18) and the main transport mechanism (104).
4) The receiver is configured to allow handing over.

Next, the operation will be explained. First, the main transport mechanism (104) carries out, for example, a semiconductor wafer (102) to be developed from the loader mechanism (tOS), and transfers it to the developing mechanism (109).
and start the development process.

The semiconductor wafer (102), which has been developed by the developing mechanism (109), is carried out from the developing mechanism (109) by the main conveying mechanism (104) and conveyed to the left on the moving path (103). 102) is placed on the standby section (117) of the transport mechanism (118).

The semiconductor wafer (1) placed on the standby section (117) by the transfer section (116) of the transfer mechanism (118)
02) is held and transported, set on, for example, a hot plate (113) of a heat treatment mechanism (ttS), and post-bake processing is started.

On the other hand, the main transport mechanism (104) carries out the semiconductor wafer (102) to be developed next from the loader mechanism (tOS), transports and sets it in the developing mechanism (109), and starts the development process.

Next, the semiconductor wafer (102) which has been developed by the developing mechanism (109) is carried out from the developing mechanism (109) by the main transport mechanism (104), and is transferred to the moving path (103).
The semiconductor wafer (102) is then transported to the left and placed on the standby section (117) of the transport mechanism (118). The semiconductor wafer (102) placed on the standby section (117) by the transfer section (116) of the transfer mechanism (118)
) is held and conveyed, and set on, for example, a hot plate (112) of a heat treatment mechanism (115), and the boss bake process is started.

On the other hand, the main transport mechanism (104) carries out the semiconductor wafer (102) to be developed next from the loader mechanism (105), transports and sets it in the developing mechanism (109), and starts the developing process.

The above operation is repeated, and the hot plate (11) of the heat treatment mechanism (115) is
1) A semiconductor wafer (102) is also set in (110) and a boss bake process is performed.

Then, the hot plate (11
When the heat treatment for the predetermined time in step 3) is completed, the transport section (
Semiconductor wafer (116) which has been heat-treated by
4) from the heat treatment mechanism (115) and put it in the standby section (1
17). Next, the main transport mechanism (104) carries out the semiconductor wafer (114) placed on the standby section (117), and the unloader mechanism (107)
). Thereafter, the semiconductor wafer (IOZ) that has been developed according to the above-described operation is set on the hot plate (113), and the post-bake process is started.

In the above operation, the main transport mechanism (1
If the cycle time (119) of 04) is T, processing is performed in the following cycle.

That is, the main transport mechanism (104) carries out the semiconductor wafer (114) from the heated plate (113) that has been subjected to heat treatment and is placed in the standby section (117), and transfers the semiconductor wafer (102) to the semiconductor wafer (102) to be subjected to the primary heat treatment. After the main transport mechanism operating time (120) Ta has elapsed until the main transport mechanism is placed on the standby section (117),
The transport section (116) holds and transports the semiconductor wafer (102), and transfers it to the hot plate (113) at a transport time (121) Tb.
) and set it up.

Then, the transport unit (116) of the transport mechanism (118) waits for a margin time (122) Tv, and then unloads the semiconductor wafer (114) from the hot plate (112) at an unloading time (123) Tc. 117). This cycle is repeated on hot plates (113) to (110).

Here, the actual heat treatment time on the hot plate (124)T
m is Tm=nT-(T-T
b-T,v)=(n-1)T+(Tb+Tw), and by adjusting the margin time (121) Tv of the transport section (116), it becomes possible to control the heat treatment time (124) T+a.

The above margin time (121) Tw is the main transport mechanism (104)
Although the cycle time (119) of
121) Tb, Wi waiting time 123) By reducing Tc.

It can be adjusted within a considerable range.

Therefore, by setting and controlling both the number of hot plates n and the margin time (122) Tw for the above cycle time (119) T, it becomes possible to synchronize with the cycle time of processing mechanisms other than the heat treatment mechanism. , it is possible to prevent the throughput of the apparatus from decreasing due to the heat treatment time of the heat treatment mechanism.

Next, another embodiment of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b), the difference from the previous embodiment is that the heating plate (
210) (211) (212) (213) are vertically stacked in multiple stages, and two heat treatment mechanisms (315) with the same configuration are added by one, and the transport mechanism (218) is vertically stacked. Two movable transport units (216) (
316) and the heat treatment mechanism (215) (315)
Two standby sections (217) (317) placed below the
and that a loader mechanism (105) and an unloader mechanism (106) are arranged on the left and right sides of the coating mechanism (tOa) and the developing mechanism (109), respectively.

Note that the operation is the same as in the previous embodiment, and the explanation will be omitted here. In this example, the heat treatment mechanism (215) (
The heating plates of the main transport mechanism (10
4) and the standby section (217) (317), it is possible to eliminate vertical movement of the main transport mechanism (104).

Therefore, in addition to simplifying the configuration of the main transport mechanism, the moving speed of the main transport mechanism can be increased by eliminating vertical movement, so that the throughput of the apparatus can be increased.

In the above embodiment, a coating mechanism, a developing mechanism, and a heat treatment mechanism are arranged as a plurality of processing mechanisms. However, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and other processing mechanisms, such as cleaning mechanism, hydrophobic heat treatment mechanism, HM
The DS processing mechanism, resist cure mechanism, etc. may be combined and arranged in accordance with the actual process.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where development processing is performed was explained, but in the case of photoresist coating processing, the coating mechanism (108) is used, and the heat treatment mechanism (115), (21
5) and (315) can be used as a pre-bake process, and the process can be performed in the same manner as described above.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention enables high throughput processing.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment in which the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention is applied to a coating and developing device, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of FIG. 1, and FIG. The configuration diagrams shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 are diagrams showing conventional examples. 104... Main transport mechanism, 115, 215.315... Heat treatment mechanism, 116.2
16,316...Transportation section. 117.217,317...Standby section, 118.218
...transport mechanism. Patent applicant Tokyo Electron Ltd. Tel Kyushu Ltd. Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus that transports objects to be processed to a plurality of processing mechanisms for processing, including a transport mechanism that includes a transport section that transports the objects to be processed to the heat treatment mechanism, and a standby section that temporarily waits for the objects to be processed. A semiconductor manufacturing device characterized by: