JPH08316185A - Ultraviolet treatment apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an ultraviolet treatment apparatus capable of exhibiting highly uniform workpiece temperature by providing a plurality of heating means in the width direction of workpiece conveyance means together with an ultraviolet lamp and the workpiece conveyance means and individually making them temperature adjustable. CONSTITUTION: An ultraviolet treatment apparatus includes a heating part 1, a conveyance part 2, a lamp house 3, a treatment chamber 4, and a cooling part 5. The heating part 1 includes an IR heater 6, as the heater a plurality of heaters 6a to 6e are disposed parallely in the conveyance direction including just above a roller 7. These heaters 6a to 6e can be set to be higher by 20 deg.C with respect to the heaters 6b to 6d. The heaters 6 for temperature adjustment are not limited to 5 lines and may be varied in response to temperature distribution in the surface of a workpiece 8. On the lamp house 3 there are disposed an ultraviolet lamp 9 and an ozone spray nozzle 10.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultraviolet treatment apparatus for decomposing and removing organic compound coatings such as resists and organic compounds adhered on a wafer or a glass substrate by ultraviolet rays and ozone, and particularly to a large glass substrate. It relates to the decomposition and removal of the applied organic compound film such as resist.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in the manufacture of semiconductor integrated circuits and liquid crystal driving circuits, the resist after exposure and development is removed after the etching process used as a mask. An ashing process is performed as a method of removing this resist. As one of the ashing processes, there is an ashing method using ultraviolet rays and ozone.

The ultraviolet lamp used for the ashing process is a low-pressure mercury lamp made of synthetic quartz, which emits ultraviolet rays having wavelengths of 185 nm and 254 nm.

Wavelength 185n emitted from an ultraviolet lamp
Light energies at m and 254 nm can break the bonds in most organic compounds, producing free radicals and excited-state molecules of the organic compounds.

On the other hand, when ultraviolet rays having a wavelength of 185 nm are absorbed by oxygen in the atmosphere, ozone is generated. When this and ozone generated by the ozone generator absorb ultraviolet rays having a wavelength of 254 nm, excited oxygen atoms are generated.

Excited oxygen atoms having a strong oxidizing power and ground-state oxygen atoms generated by thermal decomposition of ozone are
It reacts with free radicals of organic compounds generated by ultraviolet irradiation and molecules in an excited state to generate volatile substances such as CO ₂ and H ₂ O. In this way, the organic compound is decomposed and removed.

When a large substrate is continuously processed by utilizing this action, the substrate is conveyed by a roller or a belt, the temperature of the object to be processed is raised in advance, and then it is processed with ultraviolet rays and ozone in the processing chamber or hot. There is a method in which a plate is installed in a processing chamber and heating and ashing are performed at the same time. Such a material is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-46225 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
-165028 and the like.

[0008]

In the prior art, when processing an object to be processed such as a liquid crystal glass substrate, the following factors cause temperature unevenness in the object to be processed, resulting in non-uniform processing. There was a problem.

The temperature of the edge portion in contact with the roller is likely to drop as compared with other portions. In order to maintain the lamp characteristics, it is desirable to lower the temperature in the vicinity of the lamp, and the lamp house is cooled by supply / exhaust air and liquid. At this time, the temperature of the object to be processed becomes uneven due to the influence of the temperature difference generated in each part of the lamp house due to the routing of the pipes and the condition of the air flow. Due to the influence of the air flow due to the exhaust of ozone in the processing chamber, the temperature of the object to be processed becomes uneven.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide an ultraviolet processing apparatus having a high uniformity of the temperature of the object to be processed.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the ultraviolet processing apparatus of the present invention, the organic contaminants adhering to the wafer or the glass substrate are heated while being conveyed in the horizontal direction, and are irradiated with ultraviolet rays and supplied with ozone. In the apparatus for disassembling and removing the resist and the resist, the heating mechanism has two or more heaters arranged in the width direction of the transport direction so that the temperature can be adjusted individually. Alternatively, one or more reflectors are installed under the transport surface, the distance between each reflector and the object to be processed can be adjusted, and the reflection and radiant heat from the reflectors are used to correct the temperature distribution. .

[0012]

According to the ultraviolet processing apparatus having the above-described structure, the heater temperature can be set according to the portion where the temperature of the object to be processed is low, so that the temperature difference within the surface of the object to be processed can be reduced. For example, by setting the temperature of the heater directly above the roller higher than that of other portions, it is possible to compensate for the temperature decrease caused by contact with the roller and prevent uneven temperature.

Further, a heat reflecting plate is installed under the conveying means,
If the reflected or radiant heat from this is used to heat the substrate, the temperature difference can be reduced. In particular, a plurality of heat reflecting plates are provided, and the distance between each heat reflecting plate and the object to be processed can be adjusted, and if the distance between each reflecting plate and the substrate is changed according to the temperature unevenness of the object to be processed, The temperature difference can be made smaller.

[0014]

An embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an ultraviolet processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, which includes a heating unit 1, a transfer unit 2, a lamp house 3, a processing chamber 4, and a cooling unit 5.

The heating unit 1 is equipped with an IR heater 6. As an example of the configuration of the heater 6, as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of heaters 6a to 6e are arranged in parallel to the transport direction including immediately above the roller 7. This heater 6
The temperature of each of a to e can be set. For example, the heaters 6a and 6e at both ends can be set to be higher than the heaters 6b to 6 by 20 ° C. In addition, the heater 6 for adjusting the temperature
Need not be limited to 5 rows, and may be increased or decreased according to the in-plane temperature distribution of the object 8.

An ultraviolet lamp 9 and an ozone spray nozzle 10 are installed in the lamp house 3. Ozone spraying nozzle 1
High concentration ozone is supplied to 0 from the ozone generator 20. An ultraviolet light transmissive material 11 such as synthetic quartz is installed between the ozone spray nozzles 10 to prevent high concentration ozone from entering the lamp house 3 from the processing chamber 4.

The lamp house 3 has an air supply hole 12 and an exhaust hole 1
3, the atmosphere of the lamp house 3 is exhausted by the blower 15 through the ozone decomposition filter 14, and the lamp house 3 is cooled.

Below the lamp house 3 is a processing chamber 4.
In order to prevent ozone from flowing to the outside, the processing chamber 4 exhausts the atmosphere of the processing chamber 4 from the exhaust hole 16 through the ozone decomposing filter 14 by the blower 17 to make the inside of the processing chamber 4 a negative pressure with respect to the outside. To be kept.

When the temperature control within the surface of the object 8 to be processed is insufficient by the adjustment of the heater 6, a reflecting plate 18 is installed below the conveying surface.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the arrangement of the reflection plate 18. The reflector 18 is divided into reflectors 18a to 18e, and the height of the column 19 is changed so that the distance to the object 8 to be processed can be adjusted. In this example, the reflectors 18a and 18e near the roller 7 are brought closer to the object 8 to be processed and are further away from 18b and 18d toward the central portion 18c.

In addition, as shown in FIG.
You may bend and install.

After the treatment with ozone and ultraviolet rays is completed, the object 8 is cooled in the cooling section 5 by blowing dry air or the like.

[0024]

Since the ultraviolet treatment apparatus according to the present invention is constructed as described above, it has the following effects.

The heater temperature of the heating section can be adjusted individually,
By arranging the heat reflection plate arranged under the transport surface,
Since the temperature unevenness of the object to be treated can be reduced, the organic compound film can be decomposed and removed with good uniformity.

Further, according to the present invention, it is effective not only for reducing the temperature unevenness of the object to be processed, but also when the film thickness of the residual film is uneven due to the characteristics of the apparatus in the previous process such as the development residue. Since it is possible to give a temperature difference to each position of the object to be processed according to the film thickness, it is possible to perform processing with a higher degree of uniformity.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a heater array according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an arrangement example of heat reflecting plates according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another example of the heat reflection plate according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Heating part 2 Conveying part 3 Lamp house 4 Processing chamber 5 Cooling part 6a-e Heater 7 Roller 8 Processed object 9 Ultraviolet lamp 10 Ozone spraying nozzle 11 Ultraviolet permeate 12 Air supply hole 13 Exhaust hole 14 Ozone decomposition filter 15 Blower 16 Exhaust Hole 17 Blower 18 Reflector 19 Support 20a-e Ozone Generator

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An ultraviolet processing apparatus comprising an ultraviolet lamp, a processing object conveying means and a heating means, wherein two or more heating means are arranged in the width direction of the processing object conveying means and each heating means is provided. An ultraviolet processing apparatus, characterized in that the temperature of each means can be adjusted individually. 2. The ultraviolet processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a heat reflecting plate is arranged below the conveying means. 3. The ultraviolet processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a plurality of heat reflecting plates, wherein the distance between each heat reflecting plate and the object to be processed can be adjusted.