JPS61198723A - Applicator for resist - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To equalize a coating by discharging air in a resist supply line outside the line when the quantity of air in the line extends over a predetermined value or more. CONSTITUTION:A resist 22 in a vessel 21 is dropped onto a wafer 25 through a nozzle 24 by a pump 23. When air bubbles increase in the resist 22 and the quantity of collection in a device 26 augments, a sensor 27 is operated and an alarm is given, and collecting air 28 is discharged to the vessel 21 through a line 29. Accordingly, there is not air bubble in the resist 22 in the nozzle 24, and the resist does not drip onto the wafer, thus resulting in no unevenness on application, then forming a normal pattern.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a resist coating apparatus, and more particularly to a resist coating apparatus that uses a pump to drop resist onto a wafer surface from a nozzle through a supply line.

[Technical Background of the Invention and Problem 1] Generally, in a resist coating apparatus, resist is sucked up from a resist container by a pump and dripped onto a wafer surface through a resist supply line. The wafer onto which the resist has been dropped is rotated by a rotating mechanism, thereby making the resist film uniform in thickness. At this time, as shown in FIG. 4, the resist 12 inside the nozzle 11 has viscosity;
Moreover, since the resist 12 is equipped with a mechanism that sucks it back a little in the direction of the arrow after it has been dropped, it hardly ever falls down.

However, bubbles 13, 13...
If there is a resist 12 in the nozzle 1 as shown in FIG.
It may accumulate on the tip of the wafer 14, or worse, it may drip onto the surface of the wafer 14 after resist coating, causing it to fall twice. Therefore, it becomes impossible to uniformly coat the surface of the wafer 14, and uneven coating a occurs as shown in FIG. 6(a). If there is uneven application a in this way, it will cause close contact with the mask, pattern distortion, etc., and normal P E P
(Photo Engraving Pro
cess) becomes impossible. That is, with respect to the mask dimension L1 shown in FIG. 3(a), the finished dimension after patterning is L2 (Ll > 12
), and a phenomenon occurs in which the holes are not opened accurately.

For this reason, defective pellets occur at various locations within the wafer 14.

The bubbles 13 in the resist 12 are inevitably generated due to the influence of the viscosity of the resist 12. Furthermore, due to the accumulation of the air bubbles 13, when supplying the resist 12, it takes time and effort to pump up the resist 12, and the work cannot be performed smoothly.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and its purpose is to automatically remove air bubbles contained in the resist, to uniformly drop the resist onto the wafer surface, and to create a normal pattern. An object of the present invention is to provide a resist coating device that can form a resist coating device.

[Summary of the Invention] The present invention provides a resist coating apparatus that drops and coats resist supplied from a resist supply source through a resist supply line onto a wafer surface from a nozzle, by reducing the Φ of air in the one resist supply line. an air amount detection mechanism to detect;
A discharge mechanism is provided to discharge the air to the outside of the resist supply line when the amount of air in the resist supply line exceeds a predetermined value, thereby making the coating film uniform.

[Embodiment of the Invention] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a resist device according to the present invention. In the figure, 21 is a resist container, and the resist 22 in this resist container 21 is dropped onto the surface of a wafer 25 through a nozzle 24 by a resist supply pump 23. Resist supply pump 23
An air vent device 26 is provided between the nozzle 24 and the nozzle 24 . This air venting device 26 is provided with a liquid level sensor 27, and when the amount of air accumulated in the air venting device 26 exceeds a specified value, this liquid level sensor 27 is activated to stop the operation of the coating device, so that, for example, an alarm is activated. It is designed to sound to notify you of an abnormality. When the liquid level sensor 27 operates, the accumulated air 28 is discharged through the discharge line 29. In this case, the discharge line 29 is connected to the original resist container 21 so that the resist 22 may be collected at the same time as the air 28 .

That is, in this coating device, the resist container 21
The resist 22 inside is dropped onto the surface of the wafer 25 through a nozzle 24 by a resist supply pump 23. When the number of bubbles in the resist 22 increases and the amount accumulated in the air venting device 26 increases, the liquid level sensor 27 becomes activated.

This will cause an alarm to sound and notify you of an abnormality, as well as
The air purge device 26 operates, and the accumulated air 28 is discharged into the resist volume fi21 through the discharge line 29. This series of operations is performed automatically.

Therefore, in this resist coating apparatus, as shown in FIG. 2, there are no air bubbles in the resist 22 within the nozzle 24, and the resist 22 no longer drips onto the wafer 25 as in the prior art. Therefore, unevenness in coating the resist 22 is reduced, and as a result, normal PEP is performed. That is, the pattern dimension L1 of the mask as shown in FIG. 3(a)
, the pattern dimensions L2 of the developed resist film 30 shown in FIG. 3B become equal, the pattern accuracy is improved, and the occurrence of defective pellets can be prevented.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a resist coating apparatus that can uniformly coat a resist on a wafer surface, improve patterning accuracy, and improve product yield.

[BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS] FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a resist coating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a resist coating state in the apparatus of FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the patterning process of a wafer obtained by the apparatus, FIGS. 4 and 5 are diagrams for explaining the conventional coating apparatus, respectively, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the patterning process of the wafer obtained by the conventional coating apparatus. It is a figure showing the buttering process of. 21... Resist container, 22... Resist, 23.
...Resist supply pump, 24...Nozzle, 25...
- Wafer, 26... Air venting device, 27... Liquid level sensor, 28... Accumulated air, 29... Discharge line.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A resist coating device that drops and coats a resist supplied from a resist supply source through a resist supply line onto a wafer surface from a nozzle includes an air amount detection mechanism that detects an amount of air in the resist supply line; A resist coating apparatus comprising: an air exhaust mechanism that discharges air from the resist supply line to the outside when the amount of air in the supply line exceeds a predetermined value.