JPH07130721A - Treatment equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To raise the yield rate and the throughput of products by performing continuously application and heat treatment of substances to be treated. CONSTITUTION:An interface part 40 is arranged between an application treatment part 20 for applying an SOG solution sheet by sheet on wafers W supplied from a load/unload part 10, and a heat treatment part 30 for conveying a plurality of wafers W after the application holding them with a wafer boat 41 and heat-treating them. And in the interface part 40, a boat liner 46 is provided for putting a plurality of wafer boats 41 on in a removable state and moving them simultaneously. And a boat transferring mechanism 35 is provided in a heat treatment part 30 for transferring the wafer boats 41 between the boat liner 46 and a heating furnace side. Consequently, it becomes possible to simultaneously convey a plurality of substances to be treated, having been treated sheet by sheet in an application treatment part, to the heat treatment part 30, and perform heat treatment.

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 forming a coating film on the surface of an object to be processed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a semiconductor device manufacturing process, a predetermined circuit pattern is transferred onto the surface of an object to be processed such as a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as a wafer) by using a photolithography technique.

Also, with the recent increase in the degree of integration of circuit patterns, the number of circuit wirings is increasing. In such a multilayer wiring structure, it is important to reduce the unevenness of the lower layer wiring as much as possible. Therefore, there is a need for a technique for flattening the interlayer insulating film for mutually insulating the lower layer wiring and the upper layer wiring.

Therefore, conventionally, as a method for flattening the interlayer insulating film, coated glass [SOG; Spin On Glass] is used.
A method using is known. In this SOG film coating method, a film component (for example, a silanol compound (Si (O
H) 4)) and a treatment liquid (solution) mixed with a solvent (for example, ethyl alcohol) are applied on the wafer to be treated, and the solvent is evaporated by heat treatment to promote the polymerization reaction and form an insulating film. Is. Specifically, first, the wafer is placed on a spin chuck, and the wafer is rotated (2000 to
An SOG film is formed by dropping and applying a solution of SOG on the wafer while rotating the wafer at 6000 rpm. Next, in a preheating process, the solvent is evaporated by heat treatment at a temperature of 100 to 140 ° C., and then the wafer is loaded into a heating device and heat treated at a temperature of about 400 ° C.
The G film is siloxane-bonded. In the case of forming the SOG film in multiple layers, after repeating the steps of applying the SOG solution on the wafer and evaporating the solvent, the applied wafer is carried into a heating device for heat treatment, or Alternatively, a step of applying a SOG solution onto a wafer to evaporate the solvent, and then carrying it into a heating device and performing heat treatment is repeated to form a multilayer SOG film.

[0005]

By the way, in the coating process of coating the SOG solution on the surface of the wafer, as described above, the SO is deposited on the surface of the wafer while rotating the wafer.
1 by spin coating method in which G solution is dropped and diffused
Single-wafer processing is performed in which the SOG solution is applied to each wafer. Further, in the heat treatment step of heat-treating the coated wafer, batch processing in which a plurality of wafers are held by a holding means such as a wafer boat and carried into a heating device is suitable in terms of work efficiency. There is. for that reason,
Conventionally, the coating treatment process of the single-wafer treatment and the heat treatment process of the batch treatment are performed by different devices.

[0006] However, performing the coating treatment step and the heat treatment step by different apparatuses not only requires a large installation space, but also heat treatment apparatus after the object to be treated is once transported out of the coating apparatus after the coating treatment. However, there is a problem in that the processing efficiency is lowered because it is carried in. Furthermore, if the object to be treated is exposed to the air after the coating treatment, there is a risk that organic matter, fine dust, or the like will adhere to the coating surface, resulting in a decrease in yield.
In order to solve this, it is necessary to pay close attention to the management of the object to be processed after the coating process.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a processing apparatus capable of continuously performing a coating process and a heating process on an object to be processed, thereby improving product yield and throughput. It is the one we are trying to provide.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a first processing apparatus of the present invention comprises a coating processing section for coating a processing liquid on an object to be processed by single-wafer processing, and a coating processing solution for coating the above processing liquid. A heat treatment unit for holding and heat-treating a plurality of subsequent objects to be processed by a holding unit, an interface unit for conveying the objects to be processed between the coating processing unit and the heat treatment unit, and the interface unit. And a transfer means for detachably mounting the holding means and simultaneously moving a plurality of holding means, and a transfer means for transferring the holding means between the moving means and the heating device in the heat treatment section. It is characterized by being provided.

In the present invention, at least a plurality of holding means may be removably mounted on the moving means, but it is preferable that the number of objects to be processed that the holding means can hold on the moving means. It is better to mount a holding means for the dummy processing target object that accommodates the dummy processing target object that replenishes the lacking amount.

Further, as a mode of placing the holding means on the moving means, a method of placing the holding means on a chemical-resistant and corrosion-resistant fixed pin standing upright at appropriate intervals on concentric circles on the moving means. Is preferred. In this case, it is preferable to provide the holding means presence / absence detection means and / or the positional deviation detection means on the moving means side. Further, it is preferable to provide a fall prevention member for preventing the holding means from falling over on the moving means side.

Further, it is preferable that the moving means or the holding means is provided with a detecting means for detecting the proper position of the object to be processed held by the holding means. In this case, it is preferable to use a carry-in / carry-out mechanism for carrying in / out the object to be processed with respect to the holding means, as a means for correcting the positional deviation of the object to be processed.

The second processing apparatus of the present invention includes a coating processing section for coating the processing liquid on the object to be processed by single-wafer processing,
The heat treatment unit holds a plurality of objects to be treated after applying the treatment liquid by a holding means and heat-treats, and an interface unit that conveys the objects to be treated between the application treatment unit and the heat treatment unit. A plurality of (n) holding means are arranged in the interface section, and the number of objects to be processed held by n-1 holding means is arranged in the object supply section. To do.

[0013]

According to the processing apparatus of the present invention configured as described above, a predetermined number of the objects to be processed, which have been subjected to the single-wafer processing by the coating processing section, are carried into the holding means of the interface section, and then the moving means After moving the holding means holding the object to be processed by a predetermined distance, the holding means is carried into the heating device by the transfer means of the heat treatment section and the object to be processed is batch-heated at an appropriate temperature. You can The heat-treated objects are again conveyed into the interface section, and are carried out one by one from the holding means and taken out to the outside, or they are again conveyed to the coating step and subjected to the coating treatment. Therefore, it is possible to continuously perform the coating process and the heating process of the object to be processed through the interface section, so that the throughput can be improved, and
Since the coated object is not exposed to the outside air, organic matter, fine dust, etc. do not adhere to the object, and the product yield can be improved.

Further, by placing the holding means for holding the dummy processing object that accommodates the dummy processing object on the moving means, the number of sheets that the holding means can hold when carrying the processing object into the holding means. If the number of objects to be processed is not enough, the dummy processing objects are carried into the insufficient parts by the insufficient number of objects, and the number of objects to be processed and dummy object objects to be held by the holding means are held by the holding means at all times for heat treatment. Therefore, the heat treatment of the object to be processed can be performed uniformly, and the coating film can be made uniform.

In addition, a plurality (n) of the above-mentioned holding means are arranged in the interface section, and the number of objects to be processed held by n-1 holding means is arranged in the object supply section, so that preliminary Since the object to be treated which has been subjected to the coating treatment can be accommodated in the holding means and made to stand by, it becomes possible to perform the coating treatment a plurality of times. Further, even when the holding means is washed or replaced, the coating process and the heating process can be continuously performed without stopping the operation of the entire apparatus.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Here, the processing apparatus of the present invention is SO
The case of application to a G coating / heating device will be described. FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of the SOG coating / heating apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view thereof.

The SOG coating / heating apparatus described above includes a load / unload unit 10 (wafer supply unit) for carrying in (supplying) or unloading an object to be processed, for example, a semiconductor wafer W (hereinafter referred to as a wafer), and a wafer serving as a carrier. The wafer W transferred by the transfer arm 21 is treated as a processing liquid by the single-wafer processing.
A coating processing unit 20 for coating the wafer W with the OG solution;
A plurality of wafers W coated with the G solution are attached to the wafer boat 41.
A heating furnace 3 which is a heating device housed and held by (holding means)
The heat treatment section 30 that carries the wafer W into one and heat-treats it, the coating section 20 and the heat treatment section 30, and the interface section 40 that carries the wafer W constitute the main part.

The loading / unloading unit 10 linearly mounts a wafer cassette 11 containing an unprocessed wafer W and a wafer cassette 12 containing a processed wafer W on a mounting table 13. Wafer transfer tweezers 14 that are movable in the X, Y (horizontal) and Z (vertical) directions are provided on the opening side of the wafer cassettes 11 and 12. In the load / unload unit 10 thus configured, the unprocessed wafer W taken out from the wafer cassette 11 by the tweezers 14 is transferred to the delivery position near the central portion and is a transfer unit of the coating processing unit 20. The wafer is transferred to the wafer transfer arm 21 and applied. Further, when the coated and heat-treated wafer W is held by the wafer transfer arm 21 and transferred to the delivery position, the processed wafer W is received by the tweezers 14 and is placed in the processed wafer cassette 12. It is designed to carry W.

The coating processing section 20 is movable along a conveying path 22 extending in the X direction and also in the Y direction, the θ direction and the Z direction.
A wafer transfer arm 21 that can move up and down in a direction is provided, and a cooling mechanism 23 that cools the uncoated wafer W to a predetermined temperature is provided on one side facing the transfer path 22.
The coated wafer W at a predetermined temperature (for example, 100 to 14
And a bake mechanism 24 that is stacked in multiple stages to evaporate the solvent in the SOG solution by heating to 0 ° C.).
On the other side, a coating mechanism 25 for supplying, for example, dropping and coating a SOG solution as a processing liquid on the surface of the wafer W cooled by the cooling mechanism 23, and a chemical tank (not shown) for the SOG solution or the like are provided. An accommodation chamber 26 for accommodating is disposed.

In this case, the coating mechanism 25 includes the cup 25 on the outer peripheral side of the spin chuck 25a for holding and rotating the wafer W.
b is provided around the cup 25b, and an SOG solution supply nozzle 25c and a side rinse nozzle 25d for dissolving and removing the SOG in the peripheral portion of the wafer W are provided outside the cup 25b, and these nozzles 25c and 25d are used as a scan arm. At 25e, the wafer W can be transferred to the upper surface side.
A UV (Ultraviolet) irradiation device 27 may be provided above the cooling mechanism 23 for decomposing organic matter adhering to the surface of the wafer before coating with ozone (O3) and removing it by ashing.

The interface section 40, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, is provided in a substantially sealed box-shaped chamber 42.
A positioning mechanism 43 for receiving the wafer W transferred from the coating processing section 20, and a loading / unloading mechanism 44 for receiving the wafer W positioned by the positioning mechanism 43 and loading it into the wafer boat 41 or unloading the wafer W from the wafer boat 41. A plurality of n (three in the drawing are shown) wafer boats 41 are detachably mounted, and one dummy object to be processed, for example, a dummy wafer boat 45 is erected and fixed, and can be reciprocated in the Y direction. A boat liner 46 (moving means) is arranged.

In this case, the positioning mechanism 43 has, as shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, three wafer holding pins 43a on the same circumference, and the inner peripheral portion is arcuate at a position opposed to the center point. Alignment stage 43c having a centering guide 43b, a chuck 43d disposed in the center of the alignment stage 43c for holding the lower surface of the wafer W by vacuum suction, and an orientation flat position detection of the wafer W. The chuck 4 is composed of a sensor 43e.
3d is formed so as to be rotatable (rotatable) in the horizontal direction by a stepping motor 43f, and is formed so as to be able to project and retract above the alignment stage 43c by an air cylinder 43h that mounts the stepping motor 43f on a motor mounting plate 43g.

When the wafer W is transferred onto the alignment stage 43c in the positioning mechanism 43 thus constructed, the wafer W is held by the wafer holding pins 43a and centered by the centering guide 43b. Done. The operation of the air cylinder 43h raises the chuck 43d and lifts the wafer W above the wafer support pins 43a to drive the stepping motor 43f to rotate the wafer W in the horizontal direction. The position of the orientation flat Wa of the wafer W is detected by the sensor 43e, and based on the detection signal, the stepping motor 43f stops after rotating forward or backward by a predetermined rotation angle from the end of the orientation flat Wa to stop the orientation flat Wa of the wafer W. It is possible to position Wa in a fixed direction. Alternatively, when the wafer W is transferred onto the alignment stage 43c, the wafer W is transferred to the air cylinder 43h.
Is held by the chuck 43d which has been raised by the operation of
With the wafer W being lifted upward, the stepping motor 43f is driven to rotate the wafer W in the horizontal direction. At this time, the orientation flat position detection sensor 43e is used to rotate the wafer W.
The orientation pin Wa of the wafer W is positioned in a certain direction by detecting the position of the orientation flat Wa of the wafer W and stopping the stepping motor 43f from the end of the orientation flat Wa by a predetermined rotation angle based on the detection signal. To do. Then, the chuck 43d is lowered by the operation of the air cylinder 43h, the wafer W is held by the wafer holding pins 43a, and the centering is performed by the centering guide 43b.

The loading / unloading mechanism 44 is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a movable body 44a that is movable along a guide rail 47 laid in the Y direction of the interface unit 40, and a movable body 44a that can be moved up and down by an elevator device (not shown). Lifting platform 44b
And a carrier base 44d that is rotated on the lift base 44b with a rotation shaft 44c, and an arm 44e that is mounted on the carrier base 44d and that rotates in the θ direction and that can extend and contract on a horizontal plane. Has been done. In this case, the arm 44e
Comprises a stepped tongue piece 44f for holding the wafer W, and a pair of arcuate positioning pieces 44g on the inner peripheral side provided at both ends on the base side of the stepped tongue piece 44f. In addition, a light emitting portion 48a and a light receiving portion 48b, which are mounted on a mounting member on both sides of the leading end side of the carrier base 44d and are spaced apart from each other so as to be positioned on both left and right sides of a part of the peripheral edge of the wafer W, are formed. The mapping sensor 48 is provided so as to be movable back and forth independently of the arm 44e, and the mapping sensor 48 can detect the presence or absence of the wafer W stored in the wafer boat 41. To detect the presence / absence of the wafer W by this mapping sensor 48,
After advancing the light emitting portion 48a and the light receiving portion 48b to a position where a part of the peripheral edge portion of the wafer W in the wafer boat 41 falls between them, the transfer base 44d is continuously moved from the uppermost stage to the lowermost stage of the wafer boat 41, Alternatively, the presence or absence of the wafer W at each stage and the height position of the wafer W can be detected at high speed by lowering or raising from the lowermost level to the uppermost level based on the blocking / transmitting state of the light beam.

The boat liner 46 is shown in FIGS.
As shown in, the boat stage 46 slidably mounted on the pair of linear guides 49 arranged along the Y direction.
A is formed so as to be movable by a certain amount in the Y direction by a ball screw mechanism 46d including a stepping motor 46b and a ball screw 46c. On the upper surface of the boat stage 46a, four dummy fixing pins 46e made of quartz for mounting one dummy wafer boat 45 and a plurality n of, for example, three wafer boats 41 in a straight line at equal intervals, are concentrically arranged. The wafer boat 41 and the dummy wafer boat 45 are mounted on the fixing pins 46e so as to project. And the boat 45,
Four 41 are simultaneously moved.

As described above, by disposing the wafer boat 41 and the dummy wafer boat 45 adjacent to each other, the wafer W is loaded into the wafer boat 41 by the loading / unloading mechanism 44. The dummy wafer Wd can be quickly loaded into the upper part and the lower part. Specifically, for example, 60 wafers W are accommodated in the wafer boat 41, and for example, a maximum of 5 wafers W are accommodated.
0 wafers W are accommodated in the wafer boat 41, and
Five dummy wafers Wd are accommodated in each of the upper and lower portions of the zero wafers W, and the wafer boat 41 can be heat-treated in the heat treatment unit 30 in a state of accommodating a total of 60 wafers. One reason for arranging the dummy wafers Wd in the upper and lower parts of the wafer boat 41 in this way is that the temperature states of the upper and lower parts and the intermediate part during the heat treatment of the wafer W are different, for example, in the upper and lower parts. This is to prevent the temperature of the positioned wafer from becoming lower than the temperature of the wafer positioned in the middle portion and to cause unevenness in the heat treatment, which prevents the uniform heat treatment from being performed, thereby enabling uniform heat treatment. . Therefore, when heating the maximum number of wafers W that the wafer boat 41 can hold, a total of 10 dummy wafers W are provided, 5 for each of the upper and lower wafers.
Arrange d and arrange 50 wafers W in the middle.
In addition, the number of wafers W arranged in the middle portion is insufficient for some reason, and the wafer W that should be held by the wafer boat 41.
If the number is less than 50 (50 sheets), the loading / unloading mechanism 4
4, the shortage is taken out from the dummy wafer boat 45 and replenished, and the inside of the wafer boat 41 is constantly filled with the wafer W.
By filling 60 dummy wafers Wd with each other, uniform heat treatment can be performed. 6 like this
The reason why the number of sheets is set to 0 is that, for example, the atmosphere at the insufficient portion is different from the other normally contained atmospheres, and turbulence occurs, which adversely affects the uniformity of processing. The dummy wafers Wd loaded into the upper and lower portions of the wafer boat 41 are automatically loaded before the loading of the wafers W, for example, when the number of deficient wafers is known in advance. In this case, it is possible to save the labor of loading the dummy wafer Wd.

When the three wafer boats 41 are mounted on the boat liner 46, the number of wafers W held by two wafer boats 41 is arranged in the loading / unloading section 10 so that one wafer boat 41 can be loaded. Since the wafer boat 41 is always reserved as a spare, even when the wafer boat 41 is cleaned or replaced, the coating process and the heating process of the wafer W can be performed without stopping the operation of the entire apparatus. Further, the system is configured so that the loading lot can be limited by feeding back to the loading / unloading unit 10 so that the wafer W is not loaded into the coating processing unit 20 beyond the number of wafers W of two wafer boats 41. I'll do it.

As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, the wafer boat 41 mounted on the boat stage 46a of the boat liner 46 has a longitudinal direction between an upper substrate 41a and a lower substrate 41b facing each other vertically. 4 wafer-holding rods 41d having 60 wafer-holding grooves 41c engraved at appropriate intervals are interposed, and the fixing pin is attached to a tubular portion 41e fixedly provided on the lower side of the lower substrate 41b. A flange portion 41f placed on the upper end of 46e is provided around. The wafer boat 41 configured in this manner is made of a quartz member, and the material of the wafer W and materials other than quartz are used in the contact portion with the wafer W, for example, the contact portions with the wafer holding groove 41c and the fixing pin 46e. It is considered that particles such as metal are not generated.

Further, at a position near the outside of the wafer boat mounting fixing pin 46e on the boat stage 46a, a boat presence / absence detection sensor 50 for detecting the presence / absence of the wafer boat 41 and a deviation from the normal position of the wafer boat 41 are provided. The boat displacement detection sensor 51 for detecting is the boat stage 4
6 is arranged on the upper surface so that the presence or absence of the wafer boat 41 and the deviation can be detected. These sensors 50, 5
Reference numeral 1 denotes, for example, a light transmissive photo interrupter (photo sensor), and the boat presence / absence detection sensor 50.
Is a flange portion 41f of the wafer boat 41 located above
The existence of the wafer boat 41 is confirmed by confirming that the light shielding plate (not shown) moved by the flange portion 41f blocks the light beam of the photo interrupter.
Is mounted, and the boat deviation detection sensor 51 recognizes the notch 41g provided on the outer peripheral edge of the flange portion 41f of the wafer boat 41 (confirms that there is no reflected light). By recognizing), the normal position of the wafer boat 41 is notified, and when the notch 41g is displaced, the wafer boat 41 is displaced from the normal position. The presence or absence of the wafer boat 41 may be detected by using a light reflection type photo sensor and detecting the reflected light from the flange portion 41f to recognize the placement.

Further, at a position near the wafer loading / unloading mechanism 44 side of the wafer boat mounting fixing pin 46e on the boat stage 46a, the pair of wafer boat 41 overturning prevention pins 52 are erected at appropriate intervals. (See FIGS. 10 and 13). The tipping prevention pin 52 is formed of a member, such as a stainless steel member, which is not damaged even if the wafer boat 41 or the like is inclined and comes into contact with the wafer boat 41. It is erected at a position to be in contact with the wafer boat 41 during normal operation. In this way, the fall prevention pin 5
The reason why 2 is not contacted with the wafer boat 41 during normal operation is to prevent generation of dust due to contact.

The dummy wafer boat 45 is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, a pair of holding plates 45d having, for example, 60 dummy wafer holding grooves 45c engraved at appropriate intervals in the longitudinal direction are interposed between the upper substrate 45a and the lower substrate 45b facing each other vertically. As shown in FIG. 13, the lower substrate 45b is fixed to the boat stage 46a with a fixing bolt (not shown) with the lower substrate 45b placed on the fixing pin 46e.

A frame 53 is installed above the boat stage 46a so as to surround the wafer boat 41 and the dummy wafer boat 45, as shown in FIG. Wafer boats 41 and dummy wafer boats 45 in
Wafer carry-in / carry-out mechanism 44 side center part and upper cross girder 53
A light transmission type wafer ejection detection sensor 54, which includes a light emitting portion 54a and a light receiving portion 54b, is attached to the boat stage 46a that faces a. in this way,
By attaching the wafer ejection detection sensor 54 to the mounting positions of the wafer boats 41 and the dummy wafer boats 45, the wafers W and the dummy wafers Wd loaded into the wafer boats 41 and the dummy wafer boats 45 by the loading / unloading mechanism 44 are removed. It is possible to detect a state in which the wafer is not exactly carried into the boat 41, 45 and is projected to the outside. For example, an alarm (not shown) is sounded in response to the detection signal, and the wafer is accurately stored in the boat 41, 45. Workers can be automatically informed that they have not been delivered to.

In addition to the wafer pop-out detection sensor 54, as shown in FIG.
4 is attached to the front side of the light emitting portion 54a and the light receiving portion 54b, or instead of this, by attaching a line sensor 55 including a light emitting portion 55a that emits linear light and a light receiving portion 55b in which fine sensor elements are linearly arranged. The ejection distance of the wafers W and Wd can be detected. Further, as shown in FIG.
The wafer boat 41, the wafers W accommodated in the dummy wafer boat 45, and the light-emitting portions 56a and light-receiving portions 56b for the number of the dummy wafers Wd (for example, 60 wafers) at positions facing each other b.
By attaching the light-transmitting type pop-out position detection sensor 56 composed of and detecting from the left and right directions, the positions of the popped-out wafers W and Wd can be specified. In addition, it is also possible to similarly attach the pop-out position detection sensor 56 to each boat. In this way, by mounting the line sensor 55 and the pop-out position detection sensor 56, it is possible to detect which wafer W, Wd in which boat 41, 45 is popping out by what mm.

The protruding wafers W and Wd are attached to the boat 4
For example, the arm 44e of the carrying-in / carrying-out mechanism 44 can be used as a means for pushing into the inside of 1, 45. That is, the step 4 on the base side of the stepped tongue 44f of the arm 44e.
4h is formed slightly higher, and when carrying in a normal wafer W, as shown in FIG. 16A, the wafer W held on the stepped tongue piece 44f is carried into the wafer boat 41, and , When the wafer W is protruding, FIG.
As shown in (b), the wafer W is not held on the stepped tongue piece 44f, but the arm 44e is moved forward into the boats 41 and 45 so that the wafer W is brought into contact with the stepped portion 44h.
Wd can be pushed in automatically. Since the line sensor 55 detects the jumping distance of the wafer W, it is possible to prevent collision and contact between the jumped wafer W and the arm 44e when the arm 44e moves.
The pushing may be performed while holding the wafer W on the stepped tongue piece 44f.

In the above embodiment, the left and right vertical girders 5 of the frame 53 are
Wafer W by attaching the pop-out position detection sensor 56 to 3b
However, it is not always necessary to do so, and the mapping sensor 48 provided on the transport base 44d below the arm 44e of the loading / unloading mechanism 44 is detected.
It is also possible to detect the pop-out position of the wafer W by using. That is, the light emitting unit 48 of the mapping sensor 48
a and the light receiving portion 48b are advanced to a position where the peripheral tangent portion (specifically, the orientation flat portion) of the wafer W housed at the regular position in the wafer boat 41 enters between them, and then the transfer base 44d is placed on the wafer boat 44d. The position of the jumped-out wafer W can be detected by lowering the level of the uppermost 41 to the level of the lowermost 41 or by raising the level of the lowermost 41 to the level of the uppermost. When it is flying out, the light beam emitted from the light emitting portion 48a is blocked by the wafer W.

In the chamber 42 of the interface section 40, as shown in FIG.
3, an air supply port 57 is provided above the carry-in / carry-out mechanism 44, and the air supply duct 5 connected to the air supply port 57.
An air supply fan 60 is disposed in the unit 8 via a filter 59. Further, an exhaust port 61 is provided below the positioning mechanism 43 on the floor, and an exhaust duct 62 connected to the exhaust port 61 has a direction (Y direction) orthogonal to the paper surface of FIG. 4 in an exhaust duct 62. One or a plurality of exhaust fans 63 are arranged at appropriate intervals. This exhaust fan 6
3 is turned on and off when a door 65 attached to a doorway 64 provided on the side wall of the interface chamber 42 is opened and closed.
Driven by FF operated magnet type switch 66,
The exhaust fan 63 can be automatically stopped by operating the switch 66 when the door 65 is opened. In this way, the air supply fan 60 is arranged on the ceiling of the chamber 42, and the exhaust fan 63 is arranged on the floor.
By setting the air supply capacity to be larger than the exhaust capacity, it is possible to downflow the purified air into the chamber 42 in a normal state to make the inside of the chamber a weak positive pressure state and open the door 65. At this time, the switch 66 is activated and the exhaust fan 63 is stopped to increase the pressure in the room to eliminate the air flowing into the room from the outside and prevent dust from entering the room.

A dehumidified air inlet 67 is provided in the ceiling of the interface chamber 42 above the boat liner 46. A dehumidified air supply duct 68 connected to the dehumidified air inlet 67 has a filter 69 ( UL
Dehumidified air can be supplied from the outside via a PA filter). The dehumidification supply fan 70 may be provided on the upstream side of the filter 69. A curtain 71 hangs between the dehumidified air inlet 67 and the air supply port 57 to partition the two openings to prevent the downflow air and the dehumidified air from mixing on the ceiling side. . Another reason for partitioning the air supply port side and the dehumidified air introduction port side with the curtain 71 is an overhead risk when a worker enters the room and performs maintenance / inspection and replacement work of equipment and parts. This is because it is designed to prevent With this configuration, the dehumidified air supplied from the dehumidified air inlet 67 into the room is concentrated downward and discharged from the exhaust port 61 by the exhaust fan 63. As shown in the drawing, the wafer W, which has been loaded into the wafer boat 41, flows in a concentrated manner in front of (around) the wafer W so as to lick (to be along or along the surface of the wafer W), contact with the surface of the wafer W, and be applied to the wafer surface. It is possible to maintain a constant humidity to prevent the hygroscopic SOG film from being deteriorated by moisture absorption. Therefore, the dehumidifying capacity can be relatively small, and the humidity of the wafer W loaded into the wafer boat 41 can be maintained at a constant state without disposing a large dehumidifier.

As shown by an imaginary line in FIG. 4, the dehumidified air introduction port 67 and the exhaust port 61 side are connected by a circulation duct 72, and an air purifier 73 and a dehumidifier 74 are connected to the circulation duct 72. Interface room 4 by interposing
The dehumidified air can be circulated and supplied into the inside of 2. In this case, the dehumidifier can be further downsized.

On the other hand, the heat treatment section 30 is shown in FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 7, the interface section 40 communicates with an opening window 75, and in the heat treatment section 30, a vertical type in which a heater 33 is surrounded by an outer circumference of a quartz process tube 32 having an inverted U-shaped cross section. A heating furnace 31 (heating device) and a boat elevator 3 which is arranged below the heating furnace 31 and carries the wafer boat 41 into the process tube 32.
4 and a boat transfer mechanism 35 (transfer means) that controls the transfer of the wafer boat 41 between the boat liner 46 of the interface section 40 and the boat elevator 34.

In this case, a manifold 36 is connected to the lower end of the opening of the process tube 32,
A gas introduction pipe (not shown) for introducing a predetermined processing gas into the process tube 32 is provided in the manifold 36.
And an exhaust pipe (not shown) for exhausting the treated gas are connected. Further, the boat elevator 34 is provided with a lid 37 that is in contact with the manifold 36 and maintains the inside of the process tube 32 in a sealed state, and a heat insulating cylinder 38 is mounted on the lid 37.

As shown in FIG. 18, the boat transfer mechanism 35 has an elevating base 35b which is moved up and down by an elevating means 35a such as a ball screw, and a rotation which is rotatably mounted on the elevating base 35b in the θ direction. The drive unit 35c and a boat mounting arm 35e having a U-shaped tip that is movable along a guide groove 35d provided on the upper surface of the rotation drive unit 35c. The boat transfer mechanism 35 configured as described above is configured so that the boat liner 46 moved to the opening window 75.
The wafer boat 41 of the boat stage 46a is transferred to the boat elevator 34 and delivered to the boat elevator 34, or the boat elevator 34
Wafer boat 41 containing wafer W after the above heat treatment
Receive the boat liner 46 boat stage 46
It can be transferred onto the boat stage 46a and transferred onto the boat stage 46a.

Next, the operation mode of the processing apparatus of the present invention will be described. When the SOG film is applied to the wafer W once, the processing is performed as follows. First, the tweezers 14 of the loading / unloading unit 10 is moved to the front of the wafer cassette 11 that accommodates the unprocessed wafer W, receives the wafer W from the wafer cassette 11, and conveys it to the delivery position. The wafer W transferred to the delivery position is applied to the coating processing unit 20.
After being received by the wafer transfer arm 21, the wafer is transferred to the cooling mechanism 23 and cooled to a predetermined temperature.
Then, the wafer is again received by the wafer transfer arm 21, transferred to the coating mechanism 25, and placed on the spin chuck 25 a of the coating mechanism 25.

When the wafer W placed on the spin chuck 25a rotates together with the spin chuck 25a, the SOG
The solution supply nozzle 25c is held by the scan arm 25e and moved onto the wafer W to drop the SOG solution. At this time, the wafer W is rotated at a high speed (2000 to 600).
(0 rpm), the SOG solution is diffused from the central portion of the wafer W toward the peripheral portion due to the centrifugal force.
An SOG film is formed on top. After the SOG film is formed,
The side rinse supply nozzle 25d moves onto the wafer W, and the SOG film on the peripheral portion of the wafer W is dissolved and removed by the rinse liquid. Wafer W thus coated
Is again received by the wafer transfer arm 21 and transferred to the bake mechanism 24, where it is heated at a temperature of about 100 to 140 ° C. to evaporate the solvent (eg, ethyl alcohol) in the SOG solution. The wafer W that has undergone the pre-baking process by the bake mechanism 24 is again received by the wafer transfer arm 21, transferred to the interface section side, and transferred to the positioning mechanism 43, and the orientation flat Wa of the wafer W is positioned in a fixed direction. It

The wafer W positioned in the predetermined direction is
After being received by the arm 44e of the loading / unloading mechanism 44, the wafers are loaded into the empty wafer boat 41 placed on the boat liner 46, for example, in a state of being aligned in order from top to bottom. In this way, the wafers W, which have been subjected to the single-wafer processing in the coating processing section 20, are sequentially loaded into the wafer boat 41 one by one, and the wafer boat 41 receives a predetermined number of wafers W.
Is delivered. The dummy wafers Wd accommodated in the dummy wafer boat 45 are carried into the wafer boat 41 by the arm 44e of the carry-in / carry-out mechanism 44 in a shortage portion which is less than the number of wafer boats 41 (for example, 60). In this case, the time required can be shortened by not moving the wafer boat 41 side but using the arm 44e which can be moved quickly to carry the wafer. Also,
Since the dummy wafer boat 45 and the wafer boat 41 are juxtaposed on the boat stage 46a, the arm 44
In the case where the number of wafer boats 41 is 3, the maximum distance e moves in the Y direction is three times the boat pitch, and since the moving distance is also an integral multiple of the pitch, rapid transfer is possible. It becomes possible and the transfer control becomes easy.

When a predetermined number of wafers W and dummy wafers Wd are loaded into the wafer boat 41, the boat liner 46
Is a predetermined distance, for example, an integral multiple of the boat interval pitch,
The wafer boat 41 moves to a front position of the opening window 75 while moving at a low speed so that the wafer boat 41 does not shake.
Then, after the boat mounting arm 35e of the boat transfer mechanism 35 of the heat treatment unit 30 enters under the wafer boat 41 to mount and support the wafer boat 41, the wafer boat 41 is transferred onto the boat elevator 34. Then, the wafer boat 41 is placed on the boat elevator 34. next,
The boat elevator 34 moves up to carry the wafer boat 41 into the process tube 32 of the heating furnace 31. Then, by heating the wafer W at a temperature of about 400 ° C. by the heating furnace 31, the SOG film coated on the surface of the wafer W is heat-treated, for example, baked. While this wafer W is being heat-treated, another wafer W is loaded into another wafer boat 41 in the same procedure as described above.

After the heating treatment in the heating furnace 31 is performed, the boat elevator 34 descends and the wafer boat 41 is taken out below the heating furnace 31. By the operation reverse to the above, the boat transfer mechanism 35 is mounted on the boat. The mounting arm 35e enters the lower portion of the wafer boat 41 to receive the wafer boat 41, and then moves to the boat mounting position of the boat liner 46 to transfer the wafer boat 41 onto the boat liner 46. After receiving the wafer boat 41, the boat liner 46 moves for a predetermined distance to move the wafer boat 41 containing another wafer W before the heat treatment to the front position of the opening window 75, and the boat transfer mechanism 35 as described above. The wafer boat 41 is transferred to the boat elevator 34 by the heating furnace 31.
While the wafers W are carried into the inside to start the heat treatment, the heat-treated wafers W are carried out one by one from the wafer boat 41 by the arm 44e of the carrying-in / carrying-out mechanism 44, and the positioning mechanism 43.
After being received by the wafer transfer arm 21 of the coating processing section 20 via the, the tweezers 14 of the loading / unloading section 10 stores the wafer in the processed wafer cassette 12 and the processing step is completed.

Therefore, by using the three wafer boats 41, the wafer W is loaded into the wafer boat 41, the wafer W loaded into the wafer boat 41 is heated, and the wafer W after the wafer W is heated. It is possible to simultaneously carry out 50 wafers each, and it is possible to continuously perform SOG coating processing and heating processing on 150 wafers W.

In the above embodiment, the case where the SOG film is once coated on the surface of the wafer W has been described.
When the G film is applied twice, it is processed as follows. In this case, the number of wafers W that can be held by two wafer boats 41, which is one less than three wafer boats 41, for example, three wafer boats 41 (for example, 5).
Load 0 (sheets) x 2 (pieces) = 100 wafers W
It is placed in the unload unit 10.

When the SOG film is to be applied twice to the wafer W, the wafer W is taken out from the wafer cassette 11 with the tweezers 14 and transferred to the wafer transfer arm 21 at the transfer position, as described above. Then, the wafer transfer arm 21
After being conveyed to the cooling mechanism 23 and cooled to a predetermined temperature, it is conveyed to the coating mechanism 25 to apply the SOG film, and then conveyed to the bake mechanism 24 to evaporate the solvent in the SOG solution.

The wafer W after the solvent is evaporated is carried to the interface section 40 and carried into the wafer boat 41. The wafer W coated with the SOG film for the first time in this way is positioned by the positioning mechanism 43, and then sequentially carried into the wafer boat 41 by the carry-in / carry-out mechanism 44 and a predetermined number of wafers W in the wafer boat 41. Is housed.

The wafer W once coated with the SOG film is again carried out of the wafer boat 41 by the carrying-in / carrying-out mechanism 44 and transferred to the wafer carrying arm 21 of the coating processing section 20, and in the same manner as described above, the cooling mechanism 23. After being cooled by, the coating mechanism 25 forms a second SOG film, and is transported to the baking mechanism 24 to evaporate the solvent in the SOG solution. In this way, the second SOG
The wafer W on which the film is formed is positioned by the positioning mechanism 43, and then sequentially carried into the wafer boat 41 by the carry-in / carry-out mechanism 44, and a predetermined number of wafers W are accommodated in the wafer boat 41. As described above, the dummy wafers Wd accommodated in the dummy wafer boat 45 are transferred to the inside of the wafer boat 41 by the arm 44e of the loading / unloading mechanism 44 in the shortage portion less than the number (for example, 60) of the wafer boat 41. Be delivered to.

When a predetermined number of wafers W and dummy wafers Wd are loaded into the wafer boat 41, the boat liner 46
After a predetermined distance, the wafer boat 41 is moved to the front position of the opening window 75. The wafer boat 41 moved to the opening window 75 is moved to the boat transfer mechanism 35 of the heat treatment unit 30.
It is transferred onto the boat elevator 34 by and is carried into the process tube 32 of the heating furnace 31. Then, by heating the wafer W at a temperature of about 400 ° C. by the heating furnace 31, the SOG film coated on the surface of the wafer W is baked. While the wafer W is being heated, another wafer W is loaded into another wafer boat 41 by the same procedure as described above.

After the heat treatment in the heating furnace 31, the boat elevator 34 descends and the wafer boat 41 is taken out below the heating furnace 31, the boat transfer mechanism 35 operates in the reverse order to the above, and the boat liner is operated. The wafer boat 41 is transferred to the boat mounting position 46 and the wafer boat 41 is transferred onto the boat liner 46. After receiving the wafer boat 41, the boat liner 46 moves a predetermined distance to move another wafer boat 41 to the front position of the opening window 75, and moves the wafer boat 41 to the boat elevator 34 by the boat transfer mechanism 35 as described above. While being transported and loaded into the heating furnace 31,
The heated wafer W is unloaded from the wafer boat 41 by the arm 44e of the loading / unloading mechanism 44 and received by the wafer transfer arm 21 of the coating processing unit 20, and then processed by the tweezers 14 of the loading / unloading unit 10. The wafer is accommodated in the wafer cassette for use 12 and the processing process is completed.

As another method of applying the SOG film twice to the wafer W, the SOG solution is applied on the wafer W to evaporate the solvent, and then the SOG solution is applied again to evaporate the solvent. It is possible to form a multi-layer SOG film on the wafer W by repeating the step of carrying in the heating furnace 31 and performing the heat treatment.

In the above embodiment, the dummy wafer boat 45 is connected to the boat liner 4 of the interface section 40.
The case where one dummy wafer boat 45 is mounted on the dummy wafer 6 has been described, but the dummy wafer boat 45 is further provided on the interface unit 40 (not shown), or as shown by an imaginary line in FIG.
If the loading / unloading unit 10 is provided with the wafer cassette 45a for accommodating the dummy wafers, the insufficient dummy wafers Wd can be replenished, and the dummy wafers Wd are recovered from the wafer boat 41 and accommodated in the dummy wafer wafer cassette 45a. be able to.

In the above embodiment, the case where the processing apparatus of the present invention is applied to the SOG coating / heating apparatus for semiconductor wafers has been described, but the object to be processed is, for example, L other than the wafer.
It is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to a CD substrate and the like, and can also be applied to a material in which a treatment liquid other than the SOG solution is applied to the object to be treated and then heat-treated.

[0057]

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

1) According to the processing apparatus of the first aspect, since a plurality of coated objects can be heated at the same time, the throughput can be improved and the product yield can be improved. Can be achieved.

2) According to the processing apparatus of the second aspect, since the holding means for holding the dummy object to be processed is placed on the moving means, the object to be processed is carried into the holding means. In doing so, the dummy processing target objects are carried into the insufficient portion that is less than the number that the holding means can hold, and the holding means holds the number of processing target objects and dummy processing target objects that the holding means always holds. The heat treatment can be performed, the heat treatment of the object to be processed can be uniformly performed, and the coating film can be made uniform.

3) According to the processing apparatus of the third aspect, a plurality of holding means are arranged in the interface section, and the number of holding means arranged in the interface is one less than the number of holding means in the workpiece supply section. By arranging the number of objects to be processed held by the number of holding means, it is possible to make the preliminary holding means stand by for the objects to be processed which have been subjected to the coating processing, so that it is possible to perform the coating processing a plurality of times. Further, even when the holding means is washed or replaced, the coating process and the heating process can be continuously performed without stopping the operation of the entire apparatus.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of an example of a processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of an example of the processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of an interface section according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view of an interface section.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a positioning mechanism according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a positioning mechanism.

FIG. 7 is a side view of the positioning mechanism.

FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a cross section of a part of the boat liner according to the present invention.

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

FIG. 10 is an exploded perspective view showing a mounted state of the boat liner and the holding means in the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a side view showing a part of the holding means in section and a BB sectional view thereof.

FIG. 12 is a side view showing a part of the dummy wafer boat according to the present invention in a cross section and its CC cross sectional view.

FIG. 13 is a front view showing a mounting state of a wafer pop-out detection sensor carried in the holding means in the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a side view showing a state in which a protrusion distance detection sensor is attached in addition to the wafer protrusion detection sensor.

FIG. 15 is a perspective view showing a wafer ejection position detection sensor and a wafer pushing unit.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing a loading state and a pushing state of a wafer into a holding unit.

FIG. 17 is a schematic sectional view of a heat treatment section in the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a perspective view showing a transfer mechanism of the holding means in the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Loading / Unloading Part (Subject Supplying Part) 20 Coating Part 30 Heat Treatment Part 31 Heating Furnace (Heating Device) 35 Boat Transfer Mechanism (Transfer Means) 40 Interface Part 41 Wafer Boat (Holding Means) 45 Dummy Wafer Boat ( Holding means) 46 Boat liner (moving means) W Semiconductor wafer (object to be processed) Wd Dummy wafer

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hideaki Goto 2655 Tsukure, Kikuyo-cho, Kikuchi-gun, Kumamoto Prefecture Tokyo Electron Kyushu Co., Ltd. Kumamoto Plant (72) Inventor Takuma Tateyama 2655 Tsukure, Kikuyo-cho, Kikuchi-gun, Kumamoto Prefecture Tokyo Electron Kyushu Co., Ltd., Kumamoto Plant (72) Inventor Yuji Yoshimoto 2655 Tsukyu, Kikuyo-cho, Kikuchi-gun, Kumamoto Prefecture Tokyo Electron Kyushu Corp., Kumamoto Plant

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A coating processing unit for applying a treatment liquid to a treatment target by a single-wafer treatment, and a heat treatment unit for holding a plurality of treatment subjects after coating the treatment liquid by a holding means and performing heat treatment. A moving unit that has an interface unit that conveys the object to be processed between the coating processing unit and the heat treatment unit, and that detachably mounts the holding unit on the interface unit and simultaneously moves a plurality of holding units. And a transfer means for transferring the holding means between the moving means and the heating device in the heat treatment section. 2. The processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein holding means for holding the dummy processing target object that accommodates the dummy processing target object is mounted on the moving means. 3. A coating treatment section for applying a treatment liquid to a treatment object by a single-wafer treatment, and a heat treatment section for holding a plurality of treatment objects after the treatment liquid is applied by a holding means for heat treatment. An interface unit for conveying the object to be processed between the coating processing unit and the heat treatment unit, and a plurality of (n) holding means are provided in the interface unit.
The processing apparatus is characterized in that the processing target supply unit is provided with the number of processing targets held by n-1 holding means.