JPH09289162A - Temperature adjusting equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable uniform treatment by practically uniformly adjusting the temperature of a substrate. SOLUTION: A semiconductor wafer 104 is retained by three retainers 102 arranged in the vicinity of the periphery of a temperature adjusting body 101, and subjected to heat treatment. The retainer 102 consists of a buried part 102a which is buried in the temperature adjusting body 101, and a protruding part 102b formed at the center of the buried part 102a. Since the semiconductor wafer 104 is mounted on the protruding parts 102b, the wafer is heated at a high temperature by the protruding parts, and other parts are uniformly heated. Further heat treatment is enabled without contamination.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a temperature adjusting device for adjusting the temperature of a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer or a substrate for a liquid crystal display (LCD).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various heating apparatuses have been used for performing heat treatment on substrates such as semiconductor wafers and glass substrates for LCDs. For example, in a photoresist processing step of a semiconductor manufacturing process, a heat treatment is performed to dehydrate moisture on the surface of a semiconductor wafer, or to remove a solvent in a resist applied to the wafer surface. As the heating method, there are a direct hot plate method, a batch type hot air heating method, a microwave method, and the like.
The direct hot plate method has become the mainstream under the demands of efficiency improvement, cycle time reduction, and improvement of reproducibility and uniformity.

However, in the direct hot plate method, since the semiconductor wafer is brought into close contact with the hot plate and directly heated, the uniformity of heat is greatly affected by the state of contact between the hot plate and the semiconductor wafer. Therefore, there are problems such as heavy metal contamination and adhesion of particles to the back surface of the semiconductor wafer.

In order to eliminate such a problem, there is a proximity system in which a small gap is provided between the hot plate and the semiconductor wafer, and the heat treatment is performed without directly adhering the semiconductor wafer to the hot plate. As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, such a proximity type heating device includes a hot plate 701 having a heater built therein, and three rectangular recesses near the center of the hot plate 701. 705 are provided, and a ceramic sphere 702 for supporting the substrate is provided in each of the recesses 705.
It is disposed so as to slightly protrude from the upper surface. Further, in the vicinity of the central portion of the hot plate 701, a support pin hole 703 through which a substrate support pin (not shown) moves in and out in order to place the semiconductor wafer 704 on the hot plate 701 or carry it out of the hot plate 701. Is provided.

In the heating device constructed as described above, first, the substrate support pins are projected to the upper part of the hot plate 701 through the support pin holes 703, and then the semiconductor wafer 704 is placed on the substrate support pins. . Next, the semiconductor wafer 704 is placed on the sphere 702 by accommodating the substrate support pins in the lower portion of the hot plate 701, and heat treatment is performed. At this time, since the sphere 702 slightly protrudes from the upper surface of the hot plate 701, that is, since a minute gap exists between the semiconductor wafer 704 and the hot plate 701, the semiconductor substrate 704 is contaminated with particles or the like. Does not occur, and efficient heating is possible.

[0006]

By the way, the sphere 702
Are disposed in the recess 705 without being fixed, and therefore, when cleaning the hot plate 701 or when the semiconductor wafer 70 is used.
The sphere 702 pulls out from the concave portion 705 when the No. 4 is removed,
When the semiconductor wafer 704 is placed in this state, the semiconductor wafer 704 is tilted with respect to the upper surface of the hot plate 701, resulting in uneven heating.

In the above-mentioned substrate heating device,
A ball 702 is arranged near the center of the hot plate 701. Since the semiconductor wafer 704 is in contact with the hot plate 701 via the sphere 702, the vicinity of the central portion is heated to a higher temperature than other portions. Therefore, there is a problem that the in-plane temperature distribution of the semiconductor wafer 704 becomes non-uniform. In particular, in the case of post-baking for curing a resist pattern, there has been a problem that if the temperature of a portion corresponding to the resist pattern becomes too high, the thickness and shape of the resist pattern partially change.

The present invention provides a temperature adjusting device capable of uniformly adjusting the temperature of a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer or an LCD that requires heat treatment. Further, the present invention provides an integrated circuit (IC) formed on a semiconductor wafer 704.
Is usually formed on the entire surface of the semiconductor wafer 704 excluding the peripheral edge, and the main part such as a resist pattern that should be uniformly heated is disposed in the peripheral edge-excluding part. The present invention has been made, and an object thereof is to provide a temperature adjusting device capable of substantially uniformly adjusting the temperature of a substrate.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a temperature adjusting device of the present invention is provided with a temperature control body capable of setting a predetermined temperature and a temperature control body for supporting a temperature control body. In a temperature adjusting device including a plurality of support members for holding a temperature-controlled body in a non-contact manner with the temperature-controlled body, the support member includes an embedded portion embedded in the temperature-controlled body and a protruding portion protruding from the surface of the temperature control body And preferably, the support member is arranged at a position for supporting the peripheral portion of the temperature-controlled body.

Since the embedded portion of the support member is embedded in the temperature control body, it does not come out of the temperature control body or rise up. Therefore, the temperature-controlled body supported by the support member does not incline, and the temperature of the temperature-controlled body can be adjusted uniformly.
Further, by supporting the temperature-controlled body at its peripheral portion using a plurality of support members, the temperature of the temperature-controlled body can be adjusted substantially uniformly.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The temperature adjusting device of the present invention will be described below.
An embodiment applied to a substrate heating apparatus used for a heating process such as an adhesion process, a pre-baking process, and a post-baking process for a semiconductor wafer will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the substrate heating apparatus has a circular temperature control body 101, and the temperature control body 101 has a heating member (not shown) capable of adjusting a heating temperature such as an electric heater. ) Is built in. The heating temperature and the heating time of the temperature controller 101 can be variously set according to the purpose of the treatment. For example, in the case of adhesion treatment, heating is performed at about 80 to 100 ° C. for about 30 seconds. In the case of pre-baking, heating is performed at about 120 to 150 ° C. for one minute. For post-baking, approximately 120 to 1
Heat at 50 ° C. for about 1 minute. In the case of cooling for cooling, the temperature is controlled to room temperature (for example, 23 ° C.). Substrate support pins (not shown) move in and out of the temperature control body 101 to be used when the semiconductor wafer 104 which is the temperature controlled body is placed on the temperature control body 101 or is carried out from the temperature control body 101. A support pin hole 103 is provided for this purpose.

Three support members 10 for supporting the semiconductor wafer 104 are provided on the peripheral portion of the temperature controller 101.
2 are provided. The support member 102 is preferably made of ceramic or the like in order to prevent the back surface of the semiconductor wafer 104 from being contaminated. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the support member 102 includes a disc-shaped embedded portion 102 a and a disc-shaped embedded portion 102.
and a projecting portion 102b provided so as to project in the center of a.

On the other hand, the temperature control body 101 is provided with a recess 403 which is a storage portion, and the semiconductor wafer 1 mounted on the temperature control body 101.
It is formed at a position facing the peripheral portion of 04. Support member 1
The disk-shaped embedded portion 102a of No. 02 is housed in the recess 403, and is fixed by the nut 402 screwed with the screw portion 404 provided on the side wall of the recess 403. The tip of the protruding portion 102b is at a position protruding from the upper surface of the temperature control body 101 by about 0.1 to 0.3 mm. Therefore, between the semiconductor wafer 104 placed on the protrusion 102b and the temperature control body 101, a gap corresponding to the protrusion of the tip of the protrusion 102b is held. In addition, instead of screwing the nut 402, the above-mentioned fixing is made of the material PTF.
The support member 102 may be fixed by press-fitting and attaching a resinous ring-shaped member such as E to the recess.

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the concave portion 403a provided in the temperature control body 101 is a buried portion 1 of the support member 102.
02a is formed to be loosely fitted. The size of the recess 403 may be set to a size that can absorb the difference in volume that expands during heating due to the difference in expansion coefficient between the material forming the temperature control body 101 and the material forming the support member 102. After accommodating the embedded portion 102a of the supporting member 102, the recess 40 is formed as described above.
The support member 102 can be fixed by the screw portion 404 and the nut 402 provided on the side wall of No. 3. At this time, the protrusion 102 of the support member 102 formed on the nut
The hole for penetrating b may be larger than the outer diameter of the protrusion 102b, and the protrusion 102b may be loosely fitted therein.

Further, in order to fix the supporting member 102, not only the concave portion 403a but also the disk-shaped lid 402a which covers the entire surface of the temperature control body 101, is provided at a position corresponding to each protruding portion 102b. The lid may be fixed to the temperature control body 101 by forming a hole through which the tip is loosely fitted and projected. By loosely fitting the support member 102, it is possible to prevent the support member 102 from being damaged due to the difference in expansion coefficient between the temperature adjusting body 101 and the support member 102 which are different in increasing volume.

The operation of the substrate heating apparatus configured as above will be described below. A semiconductor wafer 10 transferred from a processing device such as a sender that sends out an unprocessed semiconductor wafer or a coater that applies photoresist to the semiconductor wafer.
4 is first placed on the three substrate support pins projecting to the upper part of the temperature control body 101 through the support pin holes 103 by the transport mechanism (not shown).

Next, each substrate support pin is housed in the lower part of the temperature control body 101, whereby the semiconductor wafer 104 is placed on the protruding portion 102b of the support member 102. In this state,
A semiconductor wafer 10 is provided by an electric heater built in the temperature controller.
4 is heat treated. The heating temperature and the heating time are variously set depending on the type of processing as described above. The tip of the protrusion 102b is about 0.1 to 0.1 mm above the upper surface of the temperature control body 101.
Since it protrudes by about 0.3 mm, that is, the semiconductor wafer 10
Since there is a gap of about 0.1 to 0.3 mm between the temperature control element 4 and the temperature control body 101, the semiconductor substrate 104 is not contaminated with particles and can be efficiently heated.

At this time, each support member 102 is attached to the temperature controller 10.
1, the semiconductor wafer 1
04, the vicinity of its end is supported by each support member 102. Therefore, the peripheral portion of the supporting member 102 near the edge of the semiconductor wafer 104 is heated to a higher temperature than the other portions, but since the IC is provided inside the edge of the semiconductor wafer 104, the IC The provided portion is heated uniformly by the radiation heat from the heating table and the like, so that the semiconductor wafer 104 can be heated substantially uniformly.

In the semiconductor wafer 104 which has been heat-treated as described above, the substrate support pins are projected from the support pin holes 103 to the upper part of the temperature control body 101, whereby the temperature control body 10
It is removed from 1 and transported to the next step. Furthermore, as another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 6, a support member 102 may be provided at the center of the temperature control body 101.
The tip of the support member 102, that is, the semiconductor wafer 10
The contact portion with 4 is preferably as thin as possible in terms of particle adhesion and heating uniformity.

When the diameter of the semiconductor wafer 104 becomes large, for example, about 8 inches, when the support member 102 supports only the vicinity of the end portion of the semiconductor wafer 104, the semiconductor wafer 104 bends and the central portion thereof becomes the temperature control body 101. They may come into contact with each other and be contaminated with particles or the like. However, by supporting the semiconductor wafer by the support member 102 provided in the central portion, it becomes possible to prevent the semiconductor wafer 104 from bending, and the entire semiconductor wafer 104 is heated more uniformly.

Although the above-described embodiment is applied to a substrate heating apparatus for a semiconductor wafer, it can also be used for various substrates such as LCD substrates which require heat treatment. In addition, although the description has been made with reference to the example of the circular substrate, the present invention can be applied to the case of a polygonal substrate such as a triangle and a square.

[0022]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, by fixing the support member to the temperature control body,
Without the support member pulling out or rising,
Since it is possible to prevent the substrate from tilting, it is possible to uniformly heat the temperature-controlled body, and since the peripheral portion of the temperature-controlled body is supported, the temperature-controlled body is made substantially uniform. It becomes possible to heat. Further, since the concave portion for accommodating the supporting member is not provided so as to be open, there is no problem that dust or the like is accumulated. Further, since the support member is provided by being loosely fitted to the temperature control body, it is possible to prevent the support member from being damaged during heating due to the difference in expansion coefficient.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line AA of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a main part of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a main part of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a conventional example.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference numeral 101 ... Temperature control element 104 ... Semiconductor wafer (temperature control object) 102 ... Support member 102a ... Embedded section 102b ... Projection section 403, 403a ... Storage section

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A temperature control body capable of setting a predetermined temperature, and a plurality of temperature control bodies provided on the temperature control body for supporting the temperature control body and holding the temperature control body in a non-contact manner with the temperature control body. In the temperature adjusting device including a supporting member, the supporting member includes an embedded portion embedded in the temperature adjusting body and a protruding portion protruding from the surface of the temperature adjusting body. 2. The temperature adjusting device according to claim 1, wherein the supporting member is arranged at a position for supporting a peripheral portion of the temperature-controlled body.