KR100684246B1 - A liquid material coating apparatus and a method for preventing an organic contamination in a liquid material coating process - Google Patents

Abstract

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid material applying apparatus for forming a thin film on a semiconductor wafer or the like, and an object thereof is to prevent organic contamination of a substrate carried in a pod such as FOUP or SMIF.

The board | substrate is carried in to a liquid material application apparatus using the pod 18 which can be accommodated in the state which interrupted several board | substrates from the external environment. The liquid material applying apparatus includes a carry-in / out area 10 for storing the pods 18 and a processing area 14 for forming a thin film on the surface of the substrate using a liquid material containing an organic solvent. All substrates in the pods 18 are transferred to the substrate storage unit 22 in advance. The processed substrate processed in the processing region 14 is stored in the empty pod 18 in turn.

Loading / Exporting Area, Waiting Area, Processing Area, Pod, Carrier, Substrate Storage Unit, Coating Device, Semiconductor Wafer, Thin Film

Description

A LIQUID MATERIAL COATING APPARATUS AND A METHOD FOR PREVENTING AN ORGANIC CONTAMINATION IN A LIQUID MATERIAL COATING PROCESS}

1 is a plan perspective view of a liquid material applying apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a diagram for explaining the effect of the liquid material applying device of the first embodiment.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10: import and export area

12: waiting area

14: processing area

16: outer wall

18: Ford

20: first conveying device

22: substrate storage unit

24: storage space

26: air purifier

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid material applying apparatus and a method for preventing organic contamination in a liquid material applying process, and in particular, a liquid material applying apparatus suitable as a device for forming a thin film on a semiconductor wafer or the like, and a thin film with high yield on a semiconductor wafer or the like. The present invention relates to a method for preventing organic pollution effective in

In the manufacturing process of a semiconductor device or a liquid crystal device, the liquid material application | coating device which spin-coats a liquid material and forms a thin film is used. The liquid material application apparatus forms a thin film by rotating-coating a liquid material on a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer, and then volatilizing an organic solvent contained in the liquid material.

In recent years, a pod such as FOUP (Front 0pening Unified Pod) or SMIF (Standard Mechanical Inter Face) is used to bring a substrate into such a liquid material applying apparatus. According to FOUP and SMIF, a plurality of substrates can be brought into a liquid material applying apparatus in a state of being cut off from an external environment such as a clean room, and can be carried out from the liquid material applying apparatus without bringing the substrates into contact with the external environment. For this reason, when pods, such as FOUP and SMIF, are used, it can cope with the high integration of a semiconductor device, and can raise the yield.

The board | substrate brought into the liquid material application | coating apparatus in the state accommodated in FOUP, SMIF, etc. is taken out one by one inside of an apparatus, and is handed over to a thin film formation process. And the processed board | substrate (henceforth a "substrate with a thin film") is accommodated in a pod in the state in which the organic solvent contained in a thin film is not fully volatilized. For this reason, the gas of the organic solvent is generated in comparatively high density | concentration inside a pod.

At the time when the substrate with a thin film is accommodated in the pod, there is a substrate which has not yet been passed to the thin film forming process inside the pod. Gases of organic solvents generated inside the pods adhere to the surface of those untreated substrates, causing organic contamination of the substrates. When a thin film is formed on a substrate on which such organic contamination has occurred, abnormalities in foreign matter composition tend to be formed at the boundary between the thin film and the substrate or inside the thin film. As described above, the conventional method using FOUP or SMIF has a problem that anomalies due to organic contamination of the substrate are likely to occur.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and a first object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for applying a liquid material which can prevent organic contamination of a substrate carried in a pod such as FOUP or SMIF. do.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an organic contamination prevention method for preventing organic contamination of a substrate carried in a state of being accommodated in a pod such as FOUP or SMIF.

The invention according to claim 1 is a liquid material applying apparatus for carrying in and out of the substrate using a pod that can be stored in a state where a plurality of substrates are blocked from an external environment.

An import / export area for storing the pods,                     

A treatment region for forming a thin film on the surface of the substrate using a liquid material containing an organic solvent,

It is characterized by including the conveying apparatus which accommodates the processed board processed by the said process area | region in the pod which the unprocessed board | substrate is not stored.

The invention described in claim 2 is the liquid material application device according to claim 1.

A substrate storage unit capable of storing all the substrates stored in a single pod,

The conveying apparatus is characterized by storing the processed substrate in the pod after all the substrates in the pod are transferred to the substrate storage unit.

The invention described in claim 3 is the liquid material application device according to claim 2.

The substrate accommodating unit is characterized by having an air cleaner for distributing clean air or an inert gas around the substrate stored therein.

Invention of Claim 4 is a method of preventing an unprocessed board | substrate from organic contamination in the process of apply | coating the liquid material containing an organic solvent on a board | substrate,

A first step of bringing a plurality of substrates stored in the pod into the liquid material applying apparatus,

A second step of taking out the substrate from the pod;

Forming a thin film on the surface of the substrate taken out of the pod using the liquid material;

And a fourth step of accommodating the processed substrate having the thin film formed on the surface thereof in a pod in which the unprocessed substrate is not stored.

The invention according to claim 5 is the organic pollution prevention method according to claim 4,

In the second step, all the substrates in the pod are transferred to the substrate storage unit in the liquid material applying apparatus,

In the third step, thin films are sequentially formed on the substrate transferred to the substrate accommodating unit,

In the fourth step, all the substrates are transferred to the substrate storage unit, so that the processed substrate is returned to the empty pod.

Invention of Claim 6 is an organic pollution prevention method of Claim 5,

The substrate storage unit includes an air cleaner that distributes clean air or an inert gas around the substrate stored therein,

In the fourth step, the processed substrate is temporarily held in the substrate storage unit and then returned to the pod.

The invention according to claim 7 is the organic pollution prevention method according to claim 6,

All of the substrates taken out from a single pod are characterized in that they are returned to the pods in sequence or in batches at the stage when their last substrate becomes a finished substrate.

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiment of this invention is described with reference to drawings. In addition, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the element which is common in each figure, and the overlapping description is abbreviate | omitted.

<First Embodiment>                     

1 shows a plan perspective view of a liquid material application device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The liquid material applying apparatus of this embodiment is an apparatus suitable for formation of the interlayer insulation film of a semiconductor device, formation of the organic thin film of a liquid crystal device, etc. According to the liquid material applying apparatus, for example, an interlayer insulating film excellent in flatness and embedding property can be formed as compared to the interlayer insulating film formed by plasma CVD or thermal CVD.

The carrying-in / out area | region 10 of the board | substrate, the standby area | region 12 of the board | substrate, and the process area | region 14 of the board | substrate are provided in the inside of a liquid material application apparatus. These areas are blocked from the external environment such as a clean room by the outer wall 16. Pods 18, such as FOUP and SMIF, can be loaded into the carry-out area | region 10 from the exterior of a liquid material application apparatus. In the pod 18, a plurality of substrates are stored in a state of being cut off from an external environment such as a clean room.

The 1st conveying apparatus 20 for carrying in and out of the board | substrate in the pod 18 is provided in the waiting area 12. The board | substrate accommodation unit 22 is provided next to the 1st conveying apparatus 20. As shown in FIG. The substrate storage unit 22 includes a storage space 24 and an air cleaner 26 for temporarily storing all the substrates stored in one pod 18. The plurality of substrates are stored in the storage space 24 in parallel with each other at predetermined intervals. The air purifier 26 can distribute air cleaned by a HEPA filter or the like, or an inert gas such as nitrogen gas or argon gas in a direction parallel to the substrate in the storage space 24.

The treatment region 14 is provided with a first cooling plate 28, a coating treatment unit 30, first to third heat treatment plates 32, 34, and 36, and a second cooling plate 38. The 2nd conveying apparatus 40 for conveying a board | substrate in 14 is provided. The substrates temporarily stored in the waiting area 12 are brought into the processing area 14 one by one by the first and second conveying devices 20 and 40 and cooled to an appropriate temperature on the first cooling plate 28. Then, it is conveyed into the application | coating process part 30.

The coating processing unit 30 includes a rotating mechanism for adsorbing and holding the substrate and a mechanism for applying the liquid material onto the substrate, and applies the liquid material to the surface thereof while rotating the substrate at a speed of about 500 to 5000 rpm. As the substrate rotates, the applied liquid material spreads in a thin film form, and the excess is removed from the substrate. The organic solvent vaporizes to some extent in the liquid material extended to the front surface of the substrate, thereby forming a thin film on the substrate.

The board | substrate processed by the coating process part 30 is conveyed on the 1st thru | or 3rd heat treatment boards 32, 34, 36 one by one by the 2nd conveying apparatus 40, and is gradually processed to the heat processing of about 100-350 degreeC. Is passed. These heat treatments are performed for the purpose of stabilizing the thin film by volatilizing an organic solvent in the thin film and preliminarily thermosetting the thin film.

After the substrate processed by the third heat treatment plate 36, that is, the processed substrate is cooled to an appropriate temperature on the second cooling plate 38, the substrate is carried out from the processing region 14 to be carried out by the first conveying device 20. It is stored in the pod 18.

The thin film formed in the coating treatment section 30 is subjected to a final curing treatment outside the liquid material applying apparatus. Therefore, in the step processed by the third heat treatment plate 3, that is, the step carried out from the treatment region 14, some organic solvent remains in the thin film. For this reason, when an unprocessed board | substrate exists in the pod 18, the gaseous organic solvent which comes out of a processed board | substrate may adhere to an unprocessed board | substrate.

As described above, in this embodiment, after all the substrates in the pods 18 are transferred to the substrate storage unit 22, the thin film formation process is started. For this reason, there is no unprocessed substrate in the pod 18 at the time when the processed substrate is carried in the pod 18. Therefore, according to the liquid material application apparatus of this embodiment, even if the gas of the organic solvent is generate | occur | produced from the processed board | substrate, the organic contamination of an unprocessed board | substrate does not generate | occur | produce under the influence.

Fig. 2 shows a diagram for explaining the effect of the liquid material applying apparatus of the present embodiment. In FIG. 2, the horizontal axis shows time, and the vertical axis shows the number of samples in which abnormality was confirmed after the thin film formation process. In Fig. 2, the broken line connecting ■ indicates the relationship between the time at which the untreated substrate is exposed to the organic solvent gas and the abnormal number in the pod 18, and the broken line connecting Δ indicates that the untreated substrate is stored in the substrate. The relationship between the time hold | maintained in the unit 22 and the abnormal number is shown, respectively.

As shown in Fig. 2, when the untreated substrate is exposed to the organic solvent gas in the pod 18, the number of abnormalities increases with the passage of time. In contrast, in the case where the unprocessed substrate is held in the substrate storage unit 22, most abnormalities are not confirmed regardless of the long and short time. As can be seen from these relations, according to the liquid material applying apparatus of this embodiment, the number of abnormalities in the thin film forming process can be significantly reduced as compared with the case where the processed substrate is returned in the pod in which the untreated substrate is present. have.

By the way, in 1st Embodiment mentioned above, although the processed board | substrate is conveyed directly from the process area | region 14 to the pod 18, this invention is not limited to this. That is, the processed substrates are stored in the substrate storage unit 22 until the processing of all the substrates is finished after being taken out of the processing region 14, and collectively at the time when the processing of all the substrates is completed, the pods ( 18) may be stored.

In the liquid material applying apparatus of this embodiment, clean air (or inert gas) is always supplied to the periphery of the substrate stored in the substrate storage unit 22 by the air cleaner 26. For this reason, in the inside of the board | substrate accommodation unit 22, even if a processed board | substrate and an unprocessed board | substrate are mixed, an unprocessed board | substrate does not become organically contaminated. In addition, if the processed substrate is held in the substrate storage unit 22 and then stored in the pod 18, the amount of the organic solvent carried into the pod 18 can be reduced. Therefore, according to the above modification, the amount of contamination of the pods 18 itself can also be suppressed while effectively preventing the organic contamination of the untreated substrate.

In addition, although the processed board | substrate is returned to the pod 18 used for carrying in a board | substrate in 1st Embodiment mentioned above, this invention is not limited to this, separately from the pod 18 used for carrying in a board | substrate. The empty pod 18 may be prepared in the carry-in / out area 10, and the board | substrate carried out from the pod 18 and processed may be accommodated in the empty pod 18 sequentially. In this case, the substrate storage unit 22 is not necessarily required.

Since this invention is comprised as mentioned above, it has the effect as disclosed below.

According to invention of Claim 1 or 4, a processed board | substrate can be accommodated in the pod in which the unprocessed board | substrate is not accommodated. For this reason, according to this invention, it can reliably prevent contamination of an unprocessed board | substrate by the gas of the organic solvent which comes out from a processed board | substrate.

According to the invention as set forth in claim 2 or 5, by transferring all the substrates stored in the pods to the substrate storage unit, the pods can be emptied, and the processed substrates can be sequentially returned to the empty pods. According to the present invention, it is possible to reliably prevent organic contamination of the untreated substrate while using only one pod.

According to the invention according to claim 3, 6 or 7, the processed substrate can be temporarily stored in the substrate storage unit, and after the organic solvent is volatilized to some extent, the processed substrate can be returned into the pod. Therefore, according to the present invention, organic contamination of the untreated substrate can be prevented, and organic contamination of the pod itself can also be prevented.

Claims (7)

A carrying-in / out area for storing a first pod and a second pod that can accommodate a plurality of substrates, A treatment region for forming a thin film on the surface of the substrate loaded from the first pod using a liquid material containing an organic solvent, And a conveying device for storing the processed substrate processed in the processing region into the second pod in which an unprocessed substrate is not stored. An import / export area for storing a pod capable of storing a plurality of substrates, A substrate storage unit for storing all the substrates stored in the pod; A treatment region for forming a thin film on the surface of the substrate using a liquid material containing an organic solvent, And a conveying device for storing the processed substrate processed in the processing region in the pod. The liquid material application apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the substrate accommodating unit includes an air cleaner for distributing clean air or an inert gas around the substrate stored therein. A first step of bringing a plurality of substrates stored in the first pod into the liquid material applying apparatus, A second step of taking out the substrate from the first pod; A third step of forming a thin film using the liquid material on a surface of the substrate taken out from the first pod, And a fourth step of receiving the substrate having the thin film formed therein into a second pod. A first step of bringing a plurality of substrates stored in the pod into the liquid material applying apparatus, A second step of transferring all the substrates in the pod to a substrate storage unit in the liquid material applying apparatus; A third step of forming an order thin film on the plurality of substrates transferred to the substrate accommodating unit; And a fourth step of receiving the substrate having the thin film formed therein into the pod. The said substrate accommodating unit is provided with the air cleaner which distribute | cleans clean air or an inert gas around the said board | substrate stored in the inside, And in the fourth step, the substrate on which the thin film is formed is returned to the pod after being temporarily held in the substrate accommodating unit. 7. Method according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that for all the substrates taken out of the pod, the third step is returned to the pod in sequence or batch at the end of the step.

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