JPH07307274A - Production device for semiconductor device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the control of size in forming a resist pattern. CONSTITUTION:An ultraviolet light irradiator 15 having a hot plate 12 stored in an airtight chamber 1 and exposing a substrate 4 on the hot plate 12 is provided, and a vacuum pump 3 exhausting internal air from an exhaust port 17 for keeping the inside of an airtight chamber vacuum is provided. Accordingly, when a specified circuit pattern is transferred and exposed onto a photoresist and the whole surface of the main surface of the photoresist is irradiated with ultraviolet light before development, temperature uniformity on a substrate surface is improved, and size control in forming a resist pattern is enhanced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus used in a resist pattern forming step of a semiconductor device manufacturing step.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Stable dimensional controllability is required in a resist pattern forming process in a semiconductor device manufacturing process. In recent years, with the miniaturization of resist patterns, dimensional fluctuation due to the standing wave effect has become a problem. This occurs because the traveling wave of the pattern transfer light and the reflected wave from the substrate interfere with each other in the pattern transfer exposure process to generate a standing wave in the resist film. As a result, it is widely known that subtle variations in the reflectance of the substrate and the resist film thickness affect the dimensions of the resist. The standing wave effect can be reduced by lowering the light transmittance of the resist material with respect to the pattern exposure wavelength, but it adversely affects the resolution and the verticality of the pattern side walls, and therefore the light transmittance is significantly increased in consideration of overall performance. The current situation is that it cannot be lowered. As a method of reducing the adverse effect of reducing the light transmittance of the resist material, a method of irradiating the main surface of the substrate with ultraviolet light and then developing it while heating the substrate with the resist film after pattern transfer exposure There is. According to this method, after the pattern is transferred and exposed, the development dissolution ratio of the exposed region and the unexposed region is expanded to improve the limiting resolution and the shape of the resist pattern. In this method, since a general novolac-based positive resist can be used, it is a means suitable for a mass production process of semiconductor devices.
Further, at the time of irradiation with ultraviolet light, it is necessary to eliminate oxygen in the airtight chamber, and it is replaced with high-purity nitrogen gas. The size of the formed resist pattern is proportional to the amount of irradiation energy of ultraviolet light and the temperature of the resist film on the substrate near practical conditions. The apparatus for carrying out this method has a hot plate housed in an airtight chamber, and the airtight chamber is equipped with a mechanism capable of supplying and exhausting high-purity nitrogen gas at room temperature, and a substrate fixed on the surface of the hot plate. It is equipped with an ultraviolet light irradiation device for exposing.

[0003]

In recent years, as semiconductor devices have become finer and finer, dimensional variations in the manufacturing process have become a factor of lowering the manufacturing yield. In the above conventional apparatus, the temperature of the inert gas supplied into the airtight chamber is set to be the same as that of the hot plate surface, thereby reducing the transfer of heat between the substrate heated by the hot plate and the surrounding atmosphere. The device is designed to keep the temperature of the resist film on the substrate uniform. Therefore, when this apparatus is used, dimensional variation is suppressed as compared with the case where only a general developing process is performed. However, in reality, the resist film on the substrate is exposed to the atmosphere when the high-purity nitrogen gas is supplied, so that the uniformity of the resist film surface temperature can be ensured due to the influence of the high-purity nitrogen gas flow. There was a drawback to say no. This effect appears as deterioration of the dimensional uniformity of the resist pattern formed on the surface of the substrate after the development processing. In view of the above problems, the present invention aims to improve the uniformity of the resist film surface temperature.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, a semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention comprises a method for forming a photoresist film after transfer exposure of a predetermined circuit pattern onto the photoresist film and before development. An apparatus that irradiates the main surface with ultraviolet light over the entire surface is equipped with a vacuum pump that evacuates the airtight chamber. Further, a preliminary chamber is provided in order to always maintain a constant degree of vacuum in the airtight chamber.

[0005]

With this structure, it is possible to prevent the uniformity of the resist film surface temperature from being deteriorated due to the influence of the air flow in the chamber before the irradiation of ultraviolet light.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

First, a vacuum pump 3 is provided in the airtight chamber 1.
Keeps a certain level of vacuum.
The substrate 4 for which the pattern transfer exposure has been completed is the substrate transfer port 5
And is conveyed to above the vacuum chuck 6 in the preliminary chamber 2. When the shutter 7 is closed, the vacuum pump 8 is operated, and the air inside is exhausted from the exhaust port 9 until the preliminary chamber 2 reaches the same degree of vacuum as the inside of the airtight chamber 1. When the degree of vacuum in the preliminary chamber 2 reaches that in the airtight chamber 1, the shutter 10 is opened, the substrate 4 is carried out through the substrate carry-out port 11 onto the column 13 of the hot plate 12, and the shutter 10 is closed. .
The surface temperature of the hot plate 12 is controlled to (100 ± 1) ° C., and the gap between the substrate 4 and the hot plate 12 is maintained at about 100 μm. When the substrate 4 reaches a predetermined temperature, the ultraviolet light irradiation device 15 irradiates the main surface of the substrate 4 with ultraviolet light of a predetermined energy amount through the quartz plate 14.
When the irradiation of ultraviolet light is completed, the shutter 10 is opened, and the substrate 10 is conveyed through the substrate outlet 11 onto the vacuum chuck 6 in the preliminary chamber 2. The shutter 10 is closed again,
Air is introduced into the auxiliary chamber 2 through the intake port 16. When the replacement with air is completed, the shutter 7 is opened, the substrate 4 is taken out from the substrate carry-out port 5, and the developing process is performed.

An important point in the semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus of the present invention is that, in the conventional apparatus, oxygen in the hermetic chamber was replaced with high-purity nitrogen gas at the time of irradiation with ultraviolet light.
In the present invention, the vacuum pump 3 is used to make the airtight chamber 1
That is to make the inside a vacuum of a certain level. This allows
It goes without saying that the deterioration of the temperature distribution in the substrate surface due to the influence of the air flow when the high-density nitrogen gas flows is solved by the conventional device.

[0009]

Industrial Applicability The present invention prevents the temperature distribution on the substrate surface from deteriorating due to the influence of the air flow when the inside of the airtight chamber is evacuated by using a vacuum pump to prevent the temperature distribution from deteriorating. In the forming process, excellent dimensional control can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of Codes] 1 Airtight chamber 2 Preliminary chamber 3 Vacuum pump 4 Substrate 5 Substrate carry-out port 6 Vacuum chuck 7 Shutter 8 Vacuum pump 9 Exhaust port 10 Shutter 11 Substrate carry-out port 12 Hot plate 13 Strut 14 Quartz plate 15 Ultraviolet light irradiation device 16 Intake port 17 Exhaust port 18 Exhaust pipe

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI technical display location G03F 7/38 512

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A vacuum pump for vacuuming the inside of an airtight chamber in an apparatus for irradiating the entire main surface of the photoresist film with ultraviolet light after transfer exposure of a predetermined circuit pattern onto the photoresist film and before development. An apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising: 2. The apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to claim 1, further comprising a preliminary chamber for keeping a constant degree of vacuum in the airtight chamber.