JPH05168982A - Treating liquid feed nozzle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a nozzle construction to deliver a treating liquid in such a manner that said liquid is uniformly fed onto the surface of a material to be treated by a small impact. CONSTITUTION:A main body 30, a nut 50, and a core material 70 are combined together to form an assembly. A treating liquid inlet port 12 is formed in the middle portion of the upper surface 10 and a nozzle center chamber 14 having a vertical-hole shape is formed in a nozzle so as to communicate with said port 12. An annular buffer chamber 18 is demarcated around the outer periphery of a bottom surface 14a of the chamber 14 through a plurality of communicating holes 16 and a plurality of passages 20 are provided so as to be extended radially from the lower end of the chamber 18 toward the outer periphery and a delivery port 22 facing outward is formed at the outer end of each passage 20.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a nozzle for supplying a processing liquid to the surface of an object to be processed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in the process of developing a resist film formed on the surface of a semiconductor wafer in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, generally, the wafer is placed and fixed on a spin chuck and rotated while the upper developing solution is rotated. By discharging a predetermined developing solution from the supply nozzle and supplying it onto the wafer surface, and in a state where the developing solution is film-shaped on the wafer surface by surface tension, the developing solution is brought into contact with the wafer surface for a predetermined time, Develop. Then, when the development is completed, the spin chuck is rotated at a high speed to shake off the developing solution from the wafer, and this time, a predetermined rinsing solution is discharged from the rinsing solution supply nozzle to be supplied onto the wafer surface to perform rinsing. Finally, the rinse liquid is shaken off from the wafer to complete the process.

As a developing solution supply nozzle or a rinsing solution supply nozzle used in such a developing process, it is disclosed in
57-192955, JP 59-50440, JP 59-7
8342, JP 59-119450, JP 60-29749
JP, JP60-45943, JP60-198818, JP61-65435, JP62-12128, JP63-20836, actual development Sho 61-106027, Japanese Patent Publication Sho
Various treatment liquid supply nozzles such as a spray type nozzle, a curtain type nozzle, a double head type nozzle, and a porous type nozzle have been proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-31340, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 3-9328, and the like.

[0004]

As described above, the processing liquid discharged from the processing liquid supply nozzle impacts the object to be processed, such as a semiconductor wafer having a resist film formed thereon, which is subjected to microfabrication as little as possible. In addition, it is important that the surface of the object is uniformly supplied.

However, in any of the above-mentioned conventional processing liquid supply nozzles, the processing liquid pressure-fed from the processing liquid supply source is guided from the introduction port at the base end of the nozzle to the tip end of the nozzle, and is straight as it is, that is, the nozzle shaft. Is a mechanism for discharging the processing liquid from the discharge port of the nozzle tip portion in the direction
The processing liquid ejected vertically hits the surface of the object to be processed with a strong impact. For this reason, it is difficult for the conventional developing solution supply nozzle to uniformly puddle the developing solution on the wafer surface, and for the conventional rinse solution supply nozzle, the strong rinse liquid impacts the wafer surface. There was a risk that the resist pattern would be destroyed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is possible to reduce the impact of the processing liquid on the object to be processed and to easily supply the processing liquid uniformly onto the surface of the object to be processed. The purpose is to provide.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the treatment liquid supply nozzle of the present invention is arranged so that its tip portion faces the object to be treated, and a predetermined treatment liquid is applied to the object. In the processing liquid supply nozzle for discharging and supplying, from the nozzle central chamber that receives the processing liquid from the processing liquid supply source from the processing liquid introduction port and temporarily receives it, from the buffer chamber and the buffer chamber that communicate with the nozzle central chamber And one or a plurality of ejection ports for ejecting the treatment liquid laterally from the tip of the nozzle.

[0008]

[Function] The processing liquid pressure-fed from the processing liquid supply source through the pipes, etc. passes through the processing liquid introduction port, is once received by the bottom surface of the nozzle central chamber, and then enters the adjacent buffer chamber. From here, it is discharged radially from each discharge port through a predetermined passage at a uniform pressure or flow rate. Normally, this type of processing liquid supply nozzle is arranged vertically above the object to be processed with the nozzle tip end facing the object, and thus the processing liquid discharged laterally from each ejection port, that is, in the horizontal direction. Is supplied as a parabola and drops (drops) on the surface of the object to be processed with a small impact. When a plurality of discharge ports are provided, the processing liquid is simultaneously supplied to several points on the object to be processed by one nozzle.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 to 6 show the structure of a processing liquid supply nozzle according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the processing liquid supply nozzle, FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the processing liquid supply nozzle, and FIG.
2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a view showing a configuration of a main body in the treatment liquid supply nozzle, FIG. 5 is a view showing a configuration of a nut portion in the treatment liquid supply nozzle, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the structure of the core material in the treatment liquid supply nozzle.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in the treatment liquid supply nozzle of this embodiment, a treatment liquid introducing port 12 is formed in the central portion of the upper surface 10 and communicates with the treatment liquid introducing port 12 inside the nozzle. A nozzle central chamber 14 having a vertical hole shape is formed therein. An annular buffer is provided on the outer peripheral side of the bottom surface 14a of the nozzle central chamber 14 through a plurality of communication holes 16.
r) A chamber 18 is formed, a plurality of passages 20 are provided radially from the lower end of the buffer chamber 18 toward the outer peripheral side, and a discharge port 22 is formed at the outer end of each passage 20.
As shown in FIG. 3, four communication holes 16 and four passages 20 are provided at positions corresponding to each other at intervals of 90 °.

In this structure, the processing liquid LQ pressure-fed from the processing liquid supply source through the pipe (not shown) is
After entering the nozzle central chamber 14 through the treatment liquid inlet 12 and once being received by the bottom surface 14a, the buffer solution 18 passes through each communication hole 16 and enters the buffer chamber 18, and the buffer chamber 18 passes through each passage 20 at a constant pressure. It is discharged radially from each discharge port 22 at a uniform flow rate. At this time, the processing liquid LQ is temporarily received by the bottom surface 14a and the flow force due to the pressure feeding is relieved. Therefore, the treatment liquid LQ is not discharged from each discharge port 22 with the above-mentioned force.

Further, the processing liquid L that has passed through each of the communication holes 16 described above.
Since Q enters the buffer chamber 18 whose cross-sectional area is wider than the cross-sectional area of each communication hole 16, and is discharged from each discharge port 22 whose cross-sectional area is smaller than the cross-sectional area of the buffer chamber 18,
The discharge flow rates from the discharge ports 22 can be made uniform.

Normally, the present processing liquid supply nozzle is arranged vertically with the nozzle tip portion 24 facing the object to be processed (not shown), and as described above, the processing liquid is supplied laterally from each discharge port 22, that is, in the horizontal direction. Since it is discharged radially to the object to be processed,
The developing solution discharged horizontally from each ejection port 22 falls (drops) on the surface of the wafer with a small impact so as to draw a parabola. That is, the developing solution that has flowed out horizontally from each ejection port 22 falls onto the wafer surface in a soft state where it falls by its own weight, and the impact can be made extremely small.

Therefore, when the processing solution supply nozzle is used as a developing solution supply nozzle in a developing process of a semiconductor manufacturing process, for example, the developing solution is not scattered on the surface of a semiconductor wafer which is an object to be processed and is uniformly dispersed. Can be supplied to. When the present treatment liquid supply nozzle is used as the rinse liquid supply nozzle in the developing step, the rinse liquid can be supplied without damaging the resist pattern on the surface of the semiconductor wafer that is the object to be processed. It is possible.

Further, according to the present treatment liquid supply nozzle, the treatment liquid is ejected from the nozzle tip portion 24 so as to be sprinkled radially in all directions, so that one nozzle can be used to
The treatment liquid can be supplied to the locations at the same time, and the treatment liquid supply efficiency can be improved.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 2, the present processing liquid supply nozzle has three parts, that is, the main body 30 and the nut portion 5.
0 and the core material 70. The configuration and function of each component will be described below with reference to FIGS.

In FIG. 4, the main body 30 is formed by integrally forming a disk-shaped mounting flange 32 and a substantially rectangular parallelepiped connector portion 34. The flange 32 has a pair of holes 32a, 32a through which bolts (not shown) for attaching the treatment liquid supply nozzle to a nozzle support portion (not shown) are inserted.
Is provided. The processing liquid introduction port 12 is formed in a stepped shape in the central portion of the flange 32, and the O-ring 36 is formed in the stepped portion.
Are arranged.

A vacuum suction port 38 is provided on one side surface of the connector portion 34, and a connector on the ejector tube (not shown) side is screwed into a screw hole 38a of the vacuum suction port 38. In the case of the development process, etc., after stopping the discharge of the processing liquid, an ejector device (pneumatic vacuum device) (not shown) is used to prevent the processing liquid remaining in the nozzle from dripping from the discharge port. Further, the residual processing liquid in the nozzle is sucked and removed by negative pressure through the vacuum suction port 38.

A hole 40, which constitutes the upper portion of the nozzle center chamber 14, is formed in the central portion of the connector portion 34 in the axial direction of the nozzle and communicates with the treatment liquid inlet 12. The hole 4 extends from the center of the lower surface of the connector 34 to the lower end of the hole 40.
A screw hole 42 having a diameter larger than 0 is provided. The screw 76 of the cylindrical portion 72 of the core member 70 described later is screwed into the screw hole 42.

In FIG. 5, the nut portion 50 is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape, but the upper portion 52 has a rectangular parallelepiped shape with two side surfaces 52a and 52b partially cut out so as to align with the connector portion 34 of the main body 30. Is becoming At the center of the nut portion 50, a through hole 54 for passing a cylindrical portion 72 of a core member 70 described later is formed. A screw hole 56 for screwing with the screw 76 of the cylindrical portion 72 of the core member 70 is provided in the upper portion of the through hole 54. The lower portion of the through hole 54 forms the outer peripheral surface of the buffer chamber 18, and is a hole 58 having a relatively larger diameter than the through hole 54. On the lower surface 60 of the nut portion 50, four grooves 62 are provided radially at 90 ° intervals from the lower end of the through hole 54. The passage 20 and the discharge ports 22 are formed between the grooves 62 and the dish 74 by closely contacting the annular horizontal surface 75 of the dish 74 of the core member 70, which will be described later, with the lower surface 60 of the nut 50. It has become so.

In FIG. 6, the core member 70 has a cylindrical portion 72.
And the plate portion 74 are integrally molded. Cylindrical part 7
A screw 76 is cut from the upper part of the outer peripheral surface of 2 to the middle part. A hole 78 in the cylindrical portion 72 constitutes an intermediate portion or a lower portion of the nozzle central chamber 14, and an upper end of the hole 78 is opened to communicate with the hole 40 of the main body 30.
The lower end of is closed by the circular convex portion 80 of the dish 72,
It forms the bottom surface 14a. An opening 82 is provided as a communication hole 16 on the side of the bottom surface 14a.

The cylindrical portion 72 of the core member 70 is inserted into the hole 40 of the main body 30 through the through hole 54 of the nut portion 50, and the screw 76 of the cylindrical portion 72 is inserted into the screw hole 56 of the through hole 54 and the hole 40. The annular horizontal surface 75 of the pan 74 is brought into close contact with the lower surface 60 of the nut part 50 by screwing into the screw hole 42 of the nut part 50, so that each passage 20 and each spout is formed between each groove 62 and the pan part 74 as described above. At the same time when the outlet 22 is formed, as shown in FIG. 2, the buffer chamber 18 is defined between the hole 58 of the nut portion 50 and the outer peripheral surface of the circular convex surface portion 80 of the dish portion 74.
The main body 30, the nut portion 50, and the core member 70 are integrally combined to assemble the processing liquid supply nozzle.

In the treatment liquid supply nozzle of this embodiment,
Since the three parts of the main body 30, the nut part 50, and the core material 70 are detachably coupled, each part can be replaced with a new one or another type as necessary. In particular, the groove 62 formed on the lower surface 60 of the nut portion 50 defines the number, direction, size, etc. of the passages 20 and the discharge ports 22. Therefore, by selecting various types of the groove 62, The treatment liquid discharge pattern can be arbitrarily changed.

For example, by providing the three grooves 62 on the lower surface 60 of the nut portion 50 at predetermined intervals and in predetermined directions as shown in FIG. 7, one processing liquid is supplied in the arrangement as shown in FIG. The treatment liquid is discharged in three directions by the nozzle 90,
The processing liquid can be evenly supplied onto the semiconductor wafer 92. It should be noted that the shape of the lower groove 62 of the three grooves 62 in FIG. 7C is changed so that the discharge direction is, for example, the center direction of the semiconductor wafer 92 as shown in FIG. Needless to say, this may be changed in various ways depending on the desired discharge direction. Further, as shown in FIG. 9, one groove 62 may be provided on the lower surface 60 of the nut portion 50 at a wide angle, for example, about 120 °, and the processing liquid may be laterally discharged from one discharge port 22 to a wide angle. ..

Further, in the main body 30, the processing liquid inlet 1
2 is provided on the side surface, or a plurality of treatment liquid inlets 12
It is also possible to provide. Further, as shown in FIG. 10, it is possible to provide a plurality of passages 20 and discharge ports 22 from the buffer chamber 18 in a plurality of stages in the nozzle axial direction. Also,
The directions of the passage 20 and the discharge port 22 do not have to be the direction (horizontal direction) perpendicular to the nozzle axis direction (vertical direction), and can be an oblique direction. Further, the present invention is not limited to the developing solution supply nozzle and the rinsing solution supply nozzle in the developing process of manufacturing a semiconductor device, and can be applied to various processing solution supply nozzles.

[0026]

As described above, according to the treatment liquid supply nozzle of the present invention, the treatment liquid is introduced from the treatment liquid introducing port into the central chamber of the nozzle, and once received at the bottom surface thereof, is passed through the buffer chamber to pass through the buffer chamber. Since the treatment liquid from the chamber is discharged laterally from the tip of the nozzle through one or a plurality of discharge ports, the treatment liquid can be uniformly supplied onto the object to be treated with a small impact. Therefore, for example, when the processing solution supply nozzle of the present invention is applied to the developing solution supply nozzle in the developing step of the semiconductor manufacturing process, the developing solution can be uniformly supplied on the surface of the semiconductor wafer without being scattered. When the treatment liquid supply nozzle of the present invention is applied to the rinse liquid supply nozzle in the developing step, the rinse liquid can be supplied without causing pattern collapse on the surface of the semiconductor wafer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a processing liquid supply nozzle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a processing liquid supply nozzle according to an embodiment.

3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a main body in the treatment liquid supply nozzle of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a nut portion in the treatment liquid supply nozzle of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of a core material in the treatment liquid supply nozzle of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a modified example of the discharge port of the treatment liquid supply nozzle of the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing another modified example of the discharge port in the treatment liquid supply nozzle of the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a schematic plan view showing an example of how the treatment liquid supply nozzle according to the modification of FIG. 8 is used.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing another modified example of the discharge port in the treatment liquid supply nozzle of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 12 Treatment Liquid Inlet Port 14 Nozzle Central Chamber 16 Communication Hole 18 Buffer 20 Passage 22 Discharge Port 30 Main Body 50 Nut Part 70 Core Material

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Akihiro Fujimoto 2655 Tsukyu, Kikuyo-machi, Kikuchi-gun, Kumamoto Prefecture Tokyo Electron Kyushu Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A processing liquid supply nozzle, which is arranged with its tip end facing toward the object to be processed, and which discharges and supplies a predetermined processing liquid to the object to be processed. A nozzle central chamber that is introduced through the processing liquid inlet and temporarily receives the buffer, a buffer chamber that communicates with the nozzle central chamber, and the processing liquid from the buffer chamber that is discharged laterally from the nozzle tip portion, or A treatment liquid supply nozzle comprising a plurality of ejection ports.