KR100808374B1 - Device for baking Photo resist - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a photoresist curing apparatus of a semiconductor manufacturing equipment that can be used both sides of the hot plate at the same time to increase the thermal efficiency and space utilization of the equipment.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a chamber in which a wafer curing process is performed, a hot plate installed inside the chamber to cure the wafer, four holes formed on the hot plate, and four wafers inserted and slidably inserted through the holes to support the wafer. Provided is a photoresist curing apparatus of a semiconductor manufacturing equipment including a fin, a lifting means for raising and lowering the fins, and a horizontal moving means for moving the pins in a horizontal direction along a long hole. .

Chamber, soleplate, slot, pin

Description

Photoresist curing apparatus of semiconductor manufacturing equipment

1 is a schematic view showing a photoresist curing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention,

2 is a plan view of a curing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention,

3 is a schematic perspective view of a photoresist curing apparatus according to the prior art.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

10 chamber 11: hot plate

12: long hole 13: pin

20: support

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and more particularly, to a photoresist curing apparatus for curing a photoresist applied to a wafer surface.

In general, the use of photomasks for pattern transfer is indispensable in the standard method of lithography, and the lithography process is also called a masking process.

The lithography process is divided into a process of transferring a mask pattern to a photoresist and a process of removing the resist by etching the underlying film using the pattern of the resist.

The basic composition of the four-resist process consists of wafer pretreatment, resist application, soft baking, mask fitting, exposure and development, wafer inspection, and hard baking.

Soft baking is a process of volatilizing the organic solvent in the coated photoresist at a relatively low temperature of about 80 ° C., thus affecting the sensitivity of the resist because the factor of time or temperature promotes chemical change. In addition, hard baking is a process for applying a photoresist pattern determined by development, and the resist pattern is heat-treated at a high temperature of about 150 to 200 ° C. after the exposure and the current state, because the organic component that has not yet evaporated or the part that is not cured remains. Do In this case, the adhesion to the base is also improved and the non-etching property is also increased.

In addition, the baking method includes a hot plate method, a heating nitrogen method, an infrared heating method, a microwave heating method, and the infrared heating, a plate microwave heating method, etc. are widely used in relation to in-line.

Hereinafter, a photoresist curing apparatus and a method using the same will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

3 is a view showing a conventional photoresist curing apparatus.

As shown in FIG. 3, an apparatus for performing a hard baken process, which is a finishing operation in a resist process, includes a chamber 100 in which a process is performed, and the wafer installed in the chamber 100 and coated with photoresist. (Not shown) for supporting the wafer to heat up and down the hot plate 110 through the hole formed on the hot plate 110, the heat plate 110 to support the wafer and to load onto the hot plate 110 A unit cover for opening and closing the fin 120 and the chamber 100 and a discharge line installed on the discharge line and the discharge line for discharging the fume inside the chamber 100 generated during the process by being communicated with the unit cover Include.

Looking at the curing process using a conventional curing apparatus configured as described above, first, the photoresist coated wafer, the exposed wafer or the developed wafer is loaded into the apparatus and protrudes onto the hot plate 110 inside the chamber 100. Is placed on the wafer support pin 120

Subsequently, when the wafer support pin 120 is lowered and the unit cover is closed, the wafer is brought into proximity to the hot plate 110, and the hot plate is heated for a predetermined time under a predetermined temperature condition to cure the wafer.

At this time, the fume, such as the solvent component generated from the wafer in the curing process is discharged to the outside along the discharge line through the fume discharge hole provided in the center portion of the unit cover by the pressure of the discharge pump.

However, according to the conventional structure, if any one of the three pins 120 is broken during the operation of the facility as the three fins 120 protruding from the hot plate 110 are in a pair, the wafer loading can proceed normally. Problem occurs.

That is, in the related art, three fins 120 are disposed at intervals of 120 degrees with respect to the center of the hot plate 110 to support three points of the wafer. When one of the three fins 120 is broken, the other two fins are broken. Only the wafer should be supported, but this is impossible because the center of the wafer is shifted from the support point by the pin, and thus the wafer cannot be normally seated on the hot plate 110 or moved to another process.

As a result, a huge disruption in productivity is caused.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a photoresist curing apparatus of a semiconductor manufacturing equipment that can improve the efficiency of the curing process by improving the support pin structure of the wafer.

In order to achieve the object as described above, the present invention, four wafer support pins are provided with respect to the hot plate and each support pin is to be able to move in the horizontal direction.

To this end, the present invention provides a wafer curing apparatus comprising a chamber in which a process is performed and a hot plate installed inside the chamber to cure the wafer, and a wafer supporting pin for supporting the wafer to approach the hot plate. Four pins are provided to be slidable up and down in each of the long holes formed on the hot plate, the lifting means for raising and lowering the pins in the lower portion of the hot plate, and to move the respective pins in the horizontal direction along the long hole It includes a horizontal movement means for.                     

Accordingly, when one of the four pins supporting the wafer is broken, the remaining pin supports the wafer and one pin moves along the long hole to be located outside the line passing through the center axis of the wafer so that the wafer can be three-point supported. do.

In this case, all the holes are preferably arranged in parallel.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a schematic view showing a photoresist curing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a plan view of a curing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

According to the above drawings, the curing apparatus is provided on a chamber 10 in which a wafer curing process is performed, on a hot plate 11 and a hot plate 11 for heating the wafer 50 by being installed at the inner bottom of the chamber 10. Four long holes 12 vertically penetrated, and installed on the hot plate 11 through the long holes 12 so as to be able to move up and down to support the wafers 13 to support the wafer and to approach the hot plate 11. Lifting means for raising and lowering each of the fins 13 is disposed under the hot plate 11, the lower end of the fin 13, the hot plate 11 along each of the long holes 12 Horizontal moving means for moving in the horizontal direction of the unit and the unit cover 14 installed on both sides of the chamber 10 to open the interior of the chamber 10, the unit cover 14 is installed in communication with each of the internal fume It includes a discharge line 15 for discharging the discharge pump, and the discharge pump 16 is installed on each discharge line (15).

As a result, the wafer is supported by four pins 13, and even if one of the four pins 13 is broken, the remaining three pins 13 support the wafer three points, so that the wafer hardening operation is normally performed. You will be able to proceed.

Here, two long holes 12 formed on the hot plate 11 form a pair as shown in FIG. 2, and two long holes 12 in each pair are arranged along the same line, and each pair is disposed in parallel with each other. .

Therefore, the pin 13 installed through the long hole 12 is also moved in the longitudinal direction of the long hole 12, and the installation position of each pin 13 is different, but the movement direction is all the same direction.

On the other hand, the lifting means includes a pin support 20, the lower end of the pin 13 is fixed, and drive means such as a drive cylinder or drive motor for raising and lowering the pin support 20. Therefore, when the driving means is operated, the pin support 20 is raised and lowered, and each pin 13 installed in the pin support 20 is all raised or lowered in the same manner.

Herein, the driving means may use a driving cylinder connected to the pin support 20 or a gear group for converting the rotational force of the drive motor and the drive motor into the linear motion of the pin support 20, It is not specifically limited to this.

The horizontal moving means is for horizontally moving each pin 13 with respect to the pin support 20 is installed on each pin 13 is configured to drive each pin 13 independently, This may also be used as a drive source or a group of gears for converting the rotational force of the drive motor and the drive motor and the linear motion of the pin (13).

And the moving range of each pin 13 corresponds to the size of the long hole 12.

Hereinafter, the operation of the apparatus will be described. First, the wafer 50 on which the photoresist coating is completed, the exposed wafer or the wafer on which the development has been performed are loaded into the apparatus, and the fins are formed on the hot plate 11 inside the chamber 10. Is laid through the media.

That is, when the pin support 20 is raised, the pin 13 installed on the pin support 20 is raised through the long hole 12 of the hot plate 11, and the wafer 50 is placed on the raised pin 13. You lose.

Subsequently, as the support 20 descends, the pin 13 is lowered through the hole 12 of the hot plate 11 so that the wafer 50 placed on the pin 13 is close to the upper surface of the hot plate 11. When the unit cover 14 is closed, the hot plate 11 is heated for a predetermined time at a predetermined temperature condition to cure the wafer in the chamber 10.

Heat dissipated through the hot plate 11 is transferred to the wafer 50 to heat the photoresist applied to the wafer, and unnecessary volatiles contained in the photoresist evaporate, and the wafer finally has a desired thickness. The coating film is formed.

If one of the four pins 13 is broken during the curing process, the three pins are supported by the three pins 13 by moving the other pins 13 located on the same line 15. So that you can continue to work normally.

That is, since two long holes 12 formed in the hot plate 11 form a pair and long holes 12 belonging to each pair are placed on the same line 15, the pins that are damaged when the one side pin 13 is damaged. By moving the position of the remaining pin 13 in pairs with the (13) into the hot plate 11 along the long hole 12, the remaining pair of pins 13 and the other pair of pins 13 moved inward Three wafers can be supported.

Therefore, the wafer is stably supported by three pins 13 which are balanced at a predetermined angle at the center of the wafer so that the normal process can be continued.

It can be seen that the present invention provides a curing apparatus having a significantly innovative function as described above. While exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, various modifications and other embodiments may be made by those skilled in the art. Such modifications and other embodiments are all considered and included in the appended claims, without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention.

According to the photoresist curing apparatus of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment according to the present invention as described above, even when the pin supporting the wafer is damaged, the normal process can be carried out, thereby improving the productivity by shortening the equipment repair time.

Claims (2)

A chamber in which a wafer curing process is performed, A hot plate installed inside the chamber to cure the wafer, Four holes formed on the hot plate, Four pins that are inserted to slide up and down through the long hole to support the wafer, An elevating means installed below the hot plate to elevate the fin; Horizontal movement means for moving each pin in the horizontal direction along the long hole Photoresist curing apparatus of a semiconductor manufacturing equipment comprising a. The photoresist curing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the two holes are formed in pairs, two holes in each pair are arranged along the same line, and each pair is disposed in parallel with each other.

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