JPH05234871A - Photoresist coater - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make the photoresist film thickness uniform by creating an atmo sphere of a vaporized photoresist solvent between a roll coater and a drying path. CONSTITUTION:A substrate 1 coated with a photoresist in a roll coater 6 moves on a conveyor arm 11 within an atmosphere, in which an appropriate amount of a solvent 2 of the photoresist is dripped by pumps 3 from bottles containing the solvent 2 to pans 4 through nozzles 5 and the dripped solvent 2 becomes a vaporized photoresist solvent 14, and enters a drying path 12 and dries. The drying of the surface is delayed by this, and the number of remaining crater-like air bubbles on average per cm<2> decreases from one to zero. Accordingly, the surface is uniformly leveled with the surrounding photoresist to form a uniform coated surface.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for applying a photoresist to a substrate, and more particularly to an apparatus for uniformizing the photoresist surface on the substrate surface.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional coating apparatus, as shown in FIG.
It has a roll coater 6 and a drying furnace 12. Roll coater 6
Is composed of a photoresist dropping nozzle 7, a coating roll 9, a backup roll 10 and a doctor roll 8. The coating roll 9 used in the roll coater has a large number of rolls on its surface for the purpose of holding an appropriate amount of photoresist on the surface. It is applied by engraving fine grooves in the circumferential direction. The substrate 1 coated with the photoresist by the roll coater 6 passes through the atmosphere, enters the drying furnace 12, and the oven plate 1 is maintained at a predetermined temperature.
3. Allow to dry for the time specified above.

[0003]

However, in this conventional coating apparatus, when the photoresist is held on the coating roll of the roll coater, the fine powder cut in the coating roll causes dusts generated by the photoresist powder and the apparatus. If such an object is sandwiched, the photoresist powder and the area around the dust generated by the device will repel the photoresist. As shown in FIG. 3, when the substrate is applied in that state, bubbles 19 are generated on the applied surface of the applied substrate surface. The bubbles 19 are repelled by vaporization of the solvent in the photoresist after coating and leveled uniformly with the surrounding photoresist, and as shown in FIG. 4, they are dried in a crater state. There is. This crater-shaped photoresist 20 has a thinner photoresist film thickness than the surroundings, and even if a desired pattern is baked and etched, the crater-shaped photoresist 20 is not formed with the required pattern. There was a problem.

Therefore, a technical object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for applying a photoresist having a uniform film thickness in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks.

[0005]

The coating apparatus of the present invention is a roll coater that allows a solvent of the photoresist to pass through in a vaporized atmosphere before a substrate coated with the photoresist by a roll coater enters a drying oven. A device for creating an atmosphere in which the solvent of the photoresist is vaporized is provided between the drying oven and the drying oven.

[0006]

The bubbles generated on the surface of the substrate coated by the roll coater pass through a device that creates an atmosphere in which the solvent of this photoresist is vaporized, and the drying of the surface is delayed, causing the crater to dry. Without entering the furnace
The level is uniformly leveled with the surrounding photoresist, resulting in a uniform coating surface.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front sectional view showing an embodiment of a coating apparatus for carrying out the present invention.

The substrate 1 coated with the photoresist by the roll coater 6 is dropped from the bottle containing the solvent 2 of the photoresist by the pump 3 from the nozzle 5 to the pan 4 and the dropped solvent 2 of the photoresist is vaporized. The photoresist solvent 14 is moved inside the apparatus under the atmosphere of the carrier arm 11 and enters the drying furnace 12 to be dried.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing only an apparatus having a mechanism for creating an atmosphere in which a solvent of a photoresist is vaporized among the embodiments of the second coating apparatus for carrying out the present invention. The N ₂ gas 16 is sent from the main N ₂ pipe 15 to the tank containing the photoresist solvent, the photoresist solvent 14 vaporized by the N ₂ gas 16 is transferred, and sprayed onto the substrate 1 coated with the photoresist. To do.

[0011]

As described above, according to the present invention, the air bubbles generated when the photoresist is applied to the substrate by the roll coater are passed through the apparatus in the atmosphere in which the solvent of the photoresist is vaporized to dry the surface. Be late. Therefore, the number of bubbles remaining in the crater shape per 1 cm ^{2 of the} substrate is reduced from 1 to 0 on average, and the bubbles are uniformly leveled with the surrounding photoresist, resulting in a uniform coating surface. Therefore, even if a desired pattern is printed on the substrate and an etching process is performed, the desired pattern can be obtained without missing the pattern.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front sectional view of a coating apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front sectional view of a second embodiment of the coating apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram immediately after applying a photoresist.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a result of applying a photoresist with a conventional coating apparatus and drying the photoresist.

FIG. 5 is a front sectional view of a conventional coating device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 substrate 2 photoresist solvent 3 pump 4 saucer 5 nozzle 6 roll coater 7 resist dropping nozzle 8 doctor roll 9 coating roll 10 backup roll 11 transfer arm 12 drying oven 13 oven plate 14 vaporized photoresist solvent 15 main N ₂ piping 16 N ₂ gas 17 Nozzle for spraying 18 Photoresist 19 Bubbles 20 Cratered photoresist

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A roll coater for coating a photoresist on the surface of a substrate, a drying oven for drying the substrate coated by the roll coater, and a photoresist provided between the roll coater and the drying oven. And a means for creating a vaporized atmosphere of the solvent described in (1) above.