KR101810268B1 - Edge exposure apparatus, edge exposure method and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is characterized in that exposure is performed only to a region scheduled in the periphery of the wafer W regardless of the shaking of the rotary shaft 12 or the warp of the wafer W in the peripheral exposure processing of the circular wafer W The purpose is to do.
The circular wafer W is held in the rotary stage 11 and a guide face portion 46 opposing the face of the wafer W with a space is provided in exposing the peripheral edge of the wafer W, A peripheral edge of the substrate is held horizontally by using a Bernoulli effect which forms a wick flow along the guide surface portion 46 to generate a vacuum suction force between the guide surface portion 46 and the wafer W. [ Therefore, exposure can be performed only to the region scheduled on the periphery of the wafer W regardless of the shaking of the rotary shaft 12 of the rotary stage 11 and the warp of the wafer W, It is possible to suppress problems such as bulging.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to an edge exposure apparatus, a peripheral exposure method,

The present invention relates to a technical field for exposing a periphery of a circular substrate on which a photosensitive thin film is formed.

In the photolithography technique of forming a resist pattern on a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as a wafer), a resist film as a photosensitive thin film is formed on the surface of the wafer, and then the resist film on the periphery of the wafer is exposed. The reason why the peripheral exposure is performed as described above is that when the resist is spin-coated on the wafer, the resist solution becomes bulged at the periphery of the wafer and the film thickness becomes thick. When such a nonuniform film is formed, So that the particles remain, causing particle generation.

Such peripheral exposure processing is performed by holding the wafer horizontally on a rotating table and exposing the periphery of the wafer with an exposure apparatus. The irradiation light of the main-light exposure process is set so as to become linear band-shaped light as it passes through the mask portion, but it is irradiated so as to spread slightly through the irradiation port because it also contains scattered light. On the other hand, when the peripheral exposure process is performed while rotating the wafer, the peripheral area of the wafer is exposed to a region closer to the central portion of the wafer than the predetermined light irradiation area due to wobbling of the rotation axis, It may become a factor of peeling, and may be a factor deviating from the specification of the required exposure width.

The reason for this phenomenon is that the distance between the irradiation aperture and the surface of the wafer changes at the central position of the irradiation area as the rotation axis of the wafer shakes and the orthogonality between the optical axis and the surface of the wafer deteriorates, And the scattered light of the light beam reaches the unscheduled region. This problem also occurs when the wafer is warped in addition to the shaking of the rotation axis of the wafer. If the diameter of the wafer is increased to, for example, 450 mm in the future, the amount of change in the vertical direction and the degree of inclination of the peripheral portion of the wafer become large.

Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for smoothing the exposure amount per unit area in the main-light exposure process, but does not provide a technique for suppressing the error in the light irradiation area due to the difference in level as in the present invention.

Patent Document 1: JP-A-2011-238798

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made under such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a circular substrate which can suppress exposure of a periphery of a substrate, To provide the technology that is available.

A peripheral exposure apparatus of the present invention is a peripheral exposure apparatus that performs exposure processing on the periphery of the surface of a circular substrate on which a photosensitive thin film is formed,

A rotating table for holding the substrate horizontally and rotating the substrate about a vertical axis,

An exposure unit that irradiates light for exposure toward the periphery of the surface of the substrate held by the rotating table,

A driving mechanism for rotationally driving the rotating table,

And a non-contact suction mechanism for suctioning the substrate in a noncontact manner to horizontally maintain the peripheral edge of the substrate held by the rotating table,

The noncontact suction mechanism includes a guide surface portion facing the substrate with a surface and a space therebetween and a gas discharge portion for generating a vacuum suction force between the guide surface portion and the substrate by forming a worm flow along the guide surface portion in the space,

And the exposure unit performs exposure in a state in which the substrate is sucked by the non-contact suction mechanism.

A principal edge exposure method of the present invention is a peripheral edge exposure method for performing exposure processing on the periphery of the surface of a circular substrate on which a photosensitive thin film is formed,

Using the above-described peripheral exposure apparatus,

A step of horizontally holding the substrate on a rotating table,

Forming a wick flow along the guide surface portion in a space between the surface of the substrate and the guide surface portion to generate a vacuum suction force between the guide surface portion and the substrate thereby to hold the peripheral portion of the substrate horizontally,

Irradiating the periphery of the substrate with light from the exposing section in a state in which the periphery of the substrate is held horizontally,

And sequentially moving the peripheral portion of the substrate to the irradiation region of the light by rotating the rotation table.

A storage medium according to the present invention is a storage medium storing a computer program used in a peripheral exposure apparatus that performs exposure processing on the periphery of the surface of a circular substrate on which a photosensitive thin film is formed,

The computer program is characterized in that step groups are arranged to execute the above-described peripheral exposure method.

According to the present invention, in the case of holding a circular substrate on a rotating table and exposing the periphery of the substrate, a guide surface portion facing the surface of the substrate with a space therebetween is provided, The positional relationship between the periphery (surface) of the substrate and the irradiation aperture of the exposure apparatus is stabilized by using the Bernoulli effect that generates a vacuum suction force between the guide surface portion and the substrate. Therefore, even when the rotation axis of the rotation axis of the rotation axis or the substrate is warped, it is possible to suppress the exposure from being deviated from the intended light irradiation area and to suppress the problems such as convexity at the periphery of the thin film.

1 is a perspective view showing an outer appearance of a peripheral exposure apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a plan view of the peripheral exposure apparatus.
3 is a longitudinal side view of the peripheral exposure apparatus.
4 is an explanatory view showing an optical path formed by the exposure section;
5 is a perspective view showing an appearance of a Bernoulli chuck according to an embodiment of the present invention;
6 is a sectional view showing the configuration of the Bernoulli chuck.
7 is a cross-sectional view showing the action of the Bernoulli chuck.
8 is a plan view showing the action of the Bernoulli chuck.
9 is an explanatory view showing a control section of the peripheral exposure apparatus;
10 is a process chart showing a step of adjusting the height of the periphery of the substrate by the Bernoulli chuck;
11 is a process chart showing a process of adjusting the height of the periphery of the substrate by the Bernoulli chuck.
12 is a process chart showing a step of adjusting the height of the periphery of the substrate by the Bernoulli chuck;
13 is a process chart showing a step of adjusting the height of the periphery of the substrate by the Bernoulli chuck.
14 is a process chart showing a process of adjusting the height of the periphery of the substrate by the Bernoulli chuck;
15 is a process chart showing a process of adjusting the height of the periphery of the substrate by the Bernoulli chuck;
16 is a longitudinal side view showing a configuration of a Bernoulli chuck of a peripheral exposure apparatus according to a second embodiment;
17 is a perspective view showing a state in which a substrate is moved to a processing position in a peripheral exposure apparatus according to the second embodiment;
18 is a process chart showing the height adjustment process of the peripheral exposure apparatus according to the second embodiment;
19 is a process chart showing the height adjustment process of the peripheral exposure apparatus according to the second embodiment;
20 is a process chart showing the height adjustment process of the peripheral exposure apparatus according to the second embodiment;
21 is an explanatory view showing the configuration of a peripheral exposure apparatus according to the third embodiment;
22 is a characteristic diagram showing characteristics of the peripheral exposure apparatus according to the embodiment;

[First Embodiment]

1 to 3, the peripheral exposure apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention is provided with a rectangular parallelepiped base 1, and on the upper surface of the base 1, protruding walls are formed along the left and right edges And a guide mechanism 15 extending along the longitudinal direction (X direction) of the base 1 is provided at the central portion in the left and right direction and the stage unit 10 is provided so as to move along the guide mechanism 15 have. The stage unit 10 includes a moving unit 14 moving along the guide mechanism 15, a rotating mechanism 13 including a motor provided in the moving unit 14, A rotating shaft 12 (see FIG. 3) rotating around a vertical axis and a rotating stage 11 (rotating table) provided on the rotating shaft 12 and having a vacuum chuck.

The guide mechanism 15 is composed of, for example, a ball screw and a guide rail extending along the ball screw. The moving part 14 has a threaded portion screwed into the ball screw and a guide . In this case, a motor for rotating the ball screw is attached to the base 1. Alternatively, instead of using a ball screw, a timing belt may be hooked along an area where the ball screw is disposed, and a mechanism for fixing the moving part 14 to the timing belt may be used. The moving unit 14 and the guide mechanism 15 correspond to an X moving mechanism for moving the rotating stage 11 in the X direction.

1 and 2, the rotation stage 11 corresponds to a substrate holding section for holding and holding the wafer W, and transfers the wafer W corresponding to the dotted line position of the front portion of the base 1 And the processing position corresponding to the dotted line position inside the base 1 by the moving part 14 and the guide mechanism 15. [

An optical system member 5 of the exposure unit 2 is provided above the central portion in the left and right direction in the base 1 and on the right side from the inside of the base 1, And a peripheral detection unit 3 including a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit for optically detecting the light receiving unit. The optical irradiation area 9 of the optical system member 5 and the optical axis of the peripheral edge detection unit 3 are arranged in such a manner that the optical axis of the optical axis of the wafer W held by the rotating stage 11 when the rotation stage 11 is placed at the processing position And is set so as to traverse the passing area of the periphery. 9) is constituted by, for example, a light receiving element group arranged in the radial direction of the wafer W, and the position of the periphery of the wafer W can be known by a signal from the light receiving element group.

The exposure section 2 is disposed below the base 1 and includes a lamp house 18 as a light source, an optical path member 21 (for example, an optical fiber) for guiding light from the lamp house 18, And an optical system member 5 for irradiating the light emitted from the member 21 toward the wafer W. 4, the lamp house 18 is provided with, for example, a xenon lamp or a mercury lamp as the light source 20, and light emitted from the light source 20, for example, ultraviolet light, And is incident on the base end of the optical path member 21 connected to the lamp house 18. [ The light path member 21 is arranged inside the base 1 and fixed to the side of the base 1 by the light guide 16 so as to restrict the movement of the light path member 21. Further, And is horizontally extended and connected to the optical system member 5. [

The optical system member 5 is fixed to the pedestal portion 17 and has an opening directed downward through the pedestal portion 17. The optical member 5 is horizontally And reflects the light incident from the direction downward. A condenser lens 55 is provided in the opening, and light passing through the opening is condensed. A mask portion 52 is provided below the condenser lens 55. The mask portion 52 is formed in a reverse truncated conical shape, and a rectangular slit 56 is formed at the center. The light condensed by the condenser lens 55 is configured to be irradiated on the slit 56. The light is linearly extended into a rectangle by passing through the mask portion 52. The exposure spot is aligned in a rectangular shape, Regions 9 are formed.

In order to keep the peripheral edge of the wafer W horizontally below the wafer W as a side of the rotation stage 11 rather than the light irradiation area 9 of the optical system member 5, A Bernoulli chuck 4 constituting a non-contact aspirating mechanism for aspirating is mounted so as to be movable up and down by a lifting mechanism 47. In this example, the Bernoulli chucks 4 are arranged linearly in the width direction (Y direction) of the base 1, but may be one.

As shown in Fig. 5, the Bernoulli chuck 4 has a substantially cylindrical main body having an open top, and the upper surface of the Bernoulli chuck 4 forms a flat surface constituting the guide surface portion 46, Is formed as an annular convex portion 49 formed annularly along the circumferential direction of the Bernoulli chuck 4. Four gas ejection openings 41 are formed at equal intervals along the circumferential direction at the peripheral edge of the guide surface portion 46. Each gas ejection opening 41 is formed by, And an opening 61 through which gas is ejected is formed on the inner circumferential surface of the annular convex portion 49 facing the inclined surface 33. The opening portion 61 is formed in the inner circumferential surface of the annular convex portion 49 toward the counterclockwise direction.

A flat hollow portion is formed below the guide surface portion 46 to constitute a ventilation chamber 60. The ventilation chamber 60 and the opening portion 61 are formed in the shape of an annular convex portion 49 Through the gas flow path 64 formed at the lower side. A gas supply passage 42 is formed at the center of the bottom of the main body so as to open to the ventilation chamber 60. The gas supply passage 42 is connected to an external gas supply pipe 62, On the upstream side of the supply pipe 62, a gas supply mechanism 48 is provided. Therefore, when the gas sent from the gas supply pipe 62 to the gas supply path 42 and the ventilation chamber 60 is discharged from each gas discharge port 41 through the opening 61, the gas is guided by the inclined surface 33, So that a worm flow is formed on the guide surface portion 46 as shown in Figs. 7 and 8. This wafers serve to attract the wafer W in a noncontact manner as will be described later.

The control system will be described with reference to Fig. The peripheral exposure apparatus is provided with a control section 100 including, for example, a computer. The control section 100 has a program storage section and is provided with a program storage section for storing the program for causing the Bernoulli chuck 4 to ascend or descend or discharge gas or to detect the presence or absence A program in which an instruction is formed is stored so that eccentricity correction of the wafer W in accordance with the detection result by the wafer W is performed. Then, this program is read out to the control unit 100 and the operation to be described later is performed. The program is stored in a storage medium such as a flexible disk, a compact disk, a hard disk, an MO (magneto-optical disk), or a memory card, and is installed in the control unit 100.

Next, the operation of the peripheral exposure apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described. First, a wafer W coated with a resist film, for example, is transferred and held on the rotary stage 11 at the transfer position by an external transfer device (not shown). Then, the moving part 14 is guided by the guide mechanism 15 to move the wafer W to the processing position. Thereafter, the posture correction of the periphery of the wafer W by the Bernoulli chuck 4 and the detection of the position of the periphery of the wafer W are carried out. However, this is referred to as a wafer W, Will be described with reference to FIG. The reason why the wafer W takes such a posture is that the wafer W is bent at the stop position of the rotation shaft 12 due to warping or rotation of the rotation shaft 12, 9 may be lower than the surface of the rotary stage 11.

First, when viewed from the transfer position, the wafer W stops at a position immediately before being placed at the processing position (FIG. 10). At this time, the Bernoulli chuck 4 is set in the lowering position. The lowering position is set at a position away from the moving region of the wafer W so as not to collide with the wafer W in anticipation of the maximum amount of warping of the wafer W. [ As described above, while the Bernoulli chuck 4 is raised, gas is discharged through the gas discharge port 41 formed around the guide surface portion 46 to form a wick flow on the guide surface portion 46 (FIGS. 7, 8). At this time, since the guide surface portion 46 approaches the periphery of the wafer W, the worm flow is caught by the peripheral edge portion of the wafer W and the guide surface portion 46. Therefore, due to the centrifugal force of the worm flow, The inside of the waggle becomes negative pressure. As a result, the peripheral edge of the wafer W is pulled toward the guide surface portion 46 and is in a state of being sucked in the posture along the guide surface portion 46 due to the presence of the wake flow, that is, in the non-contact suction state. Therefore, as shown in Fig. 11, by raising the Bernoulli chuck 4, the peripheral edge of the wafer W bent downward is pushed up, the downward posture is corrected, and the posture becomes high in level.

Subsequently, the wafer W is moved through the moving part 14 to the processing position shown in FIG. 12 is a diagram schematically showing the details of the drawing in order to prevent the redundancy in the figure. It is also possible to estimate the distance in the horizontal direction between the Bernoulli chuck 4 and the light irradiation area 9 to be the maximum value of the inclination and warpage of the wafer W And the size and number of the Bernoulli chucks 4 are appropriately set, the posture of the periphery of the wafer W in the light irradiation area 9 becomes a state of high horizontalness. The peripheral edge position of the wafer W is detected by the peripheral edge detecting section 3 by one rotation of the wafer W and the eccentricity correction is performed at the peripheral exposure in accordance with the detection result, The positional deviation in the horizontal direction at the time of the peripheral exposure processing of the wafer W is corrected. As a means for correcting the positional deviation, for example, based on the detection result, the control unit 100 controls the cooperative action of the rotation of the rotation mechanism 13 and the movement in the X direction by the moving unit 14, In the plane direction of the light irradiation area 9 is corrected. Exposure is performed in a state in which the wafer W is rotated or stopped. However, because non-contact adsorption is performed by the Bernoulli chuck 4, exposure processing is performed on the periphery of the wafer W while maintaining a high horizontal posture .

On the other hand, a description will be given with reference to Figs. 13 to 15, for example, with the wafer W in which the peripheral edge portion is inclined upward. Similarly, the wafer W is stopped at a position immediately before the wafer W is placed in the processing position (Fig. 13). Then, as shown in Fig. 14, a worm flow is formed on the guide surface portion 46 while the Bernoulli chuck 4 is raised. At this time, as the guide surface portion 46 approaches the periphery of the wafer W, the negative pressure portion gradually forms in the worm flow. As a result, the peripheral edge of the wafer W is pulled toward the guide surface portion 46, and the peripheral edge of the upwardly curved wafer W is pulled, resulting in a high horizontal posture.

Subsequently, the wafer W is moved through the moving part 14 to the processing position shown in Fig. 15, and the detection of the peripheral position of the wafer W before the peripheral exposure processing is similarly performed, While the eccentricity correction of the wafer W is carried out, the periphery exposure processing is performed.

The wafers W are stopped at a position immediately before the wafer W is placed in the processing position and the wafer W is guided to the guide face portion 46 while raising the Bernoulli chuck 4 And the peripheral portion of the wafer W is subjected to non-contact adsorption. Thereafter, while the wafer W is moved to the processing position and the periphery of the wafer W is detected and the wafer W is subjected to eccentricity correction in accordance with the detected value, The periphery of the wafer W is attracted to the periphery of the wafer W in a non-contact manner. Thus, the peripheral exposure process is performed in a state where the wafer W is highly horizontal.

According to the above-described embodiment, the guide surface portion 46 opposed to the surface of the wafer W with a space is provided by holding the wafer W on the rotary stage 11 and exposing the peripheral edge of the wafer W (Surface) of the wafer W by using a Bernoulli effect that forms a wick flow along the guide face portion 46 in the space and generates a vacuum suction force between the guide face portion 46 and the wafer W. [ And the position of the light irradiation unit of the exposure apparatus is stabilized. Therefore, even if the rotation of the rotary shaft 11 of the rotary shaft 12 or the warp of the wafer W occurs, exposure from the planned light irradiation area 9 is suppressed, Can be suppressed.

[Second Embodiment]

In the second embodiment, the Bernoulli chuck may be combined with the mask part 52 to adjust the height or posture of the periphery of the wafer W transferred to the processing position. 16 shows this embodiment. In this example, the hole 44 forming the light irradiation path (slit) is formed so as to extend vertically (in the thickness direction) in the central portion of the body of a flat inverted truncated cone And the guide surface portion 46 of the Bernoulli chuck is formed on the lower surface side of the main body. That is, in this example, the Bernoulli chuck 4 described in FIGS. 5 to 7 described above is disposed upside down, and the gas supply path 42 is also used as the light irradiation path (slit) of the mask part 40. The upper side transmission window 63 including a transparent member such as glass is hermetically fitted to the upper portion of the hole portion 44 so that light from the optical system member 5 can be transmitted through the hole portion 44 And the lower side transmission window 43 is also provided between the ventilation chamber 60 and the guide surface portion 46 at the extended portion of the gas supply passage 42. [ The lower side transmission window 43 is formed in a rectangular shape along the shape of the light irradiation area 9. A gas flow path 64 is further formed in the body so that one end side thereof is opened just below the upper side transmission window 63 in the gas supply path 42, (62). 17, in order to suppress the wick flow formed between the guide surface portion 46 and the wafer W from leaking from the end portion of the wafer W in performing the non-contact adsorption of the wafer W, The auxiliary member 45 formed on the top surface of the auxiliary member 45 formed so as to follow the shape of the periphery of the wafer W is provided so as to be at the same height as the surface of the wafer W. [

In the second embodiment, as shown in Fig. 18, the wafer W is moved to the processing position, and the positional deviation of the wafer W in the horizontal direction is detected by the peripheral edge detection unit 3 in the same manner as in the first embodiment . 19, gas is discharged through the gas discharge port 41 and wafers are supplied to the gap between the wafer W and the auxiliary member 45 and the guide surface portion 46 of the mask portion 40 So as to adjust the posture of the periphery of the wafer W by adjusting the posture so as to have a high degree of parallelism with respect to the light-projecting surface of the mask portion 40, that is, to improve the parallelism. Subsequently, as shown in Fig. 20, irradiation is performed using the hole portion 44 as a slit to perform peripheral exposure processing of the wafer W. [

In this example, similarly to the Bernoulli chuck 4 in the first embodiment, the mask unit 40 can be raised and lowered by an elevating mechanism (not shown). In this case, the mask unit 40 is set to the standby position before the wafer W is placed in the processing position, and after the wafer W is placed at the processing position, the gas is discharged through the gas discharge port 41, The wafer W may be lowered to the exposure position while being adsorbed in a noncontact manner.

By combining the Bernoulli chuck in the mask unit 40 with the exposure apparatus in this example, the positional relationship between the periphery of the wafer W and the mask unit is stabilized and good peripheral exposure processing can be performed as in the first embodiment .

[Third embodiment]

In the third embodiment, the mask portion 40 used in the second embodiment follows the height of the periphery of the wafer W, and the height position is changed. For example, as shown in Fig. 21, the mask portion 40 is configured to be guided by the vertical guiding member 71 through the guided portion 71a. The mask portion 40 is suspended on one end of the wire 72 as a suspending member and the counterweight 74 is provided on the other end side of the wire 72 through the pulleys 73a and 73b, And is configured to be movable with a small force. When the wafer W is configured as described above, the wafer W is moved to the processing position and the gas is discharged to form a wake flow. When the non-contact adsorption is performed, the mask portion 40 follows the position of the periphery of the wafer W The positional relationship between the peripheral portion of the wafer W and the mask portion 40 is more stable than in the prior art. Therefore, exposure from the light irradiation region 9 can be suppressed.

[Other Embodiments]

As another embodiment, the height of the optical system member 5 can be adjusted without using the Bernoulli chuck 4, and the error of the peripheral light irradiation area 9 may be suppressed. A laser displacement meter is provided in the peripheral edge detecting section 3 to measure the height of the periphery of the wafer W when the wafer W is rotated in addition to the position of the wafer W in the horizontal direction and stored in a memory provided in the control section . The CPU of the control unit reads the program and changes the height position of the optical system member 5 in accordance with the data of the height of the periphery of the wafer W stored in the memory And the same effect can be obtained even if the peripheral exposure process is performed by rotating the wafer W while changing the height to which the light is irradiated.

Further, in the present invention, it is described that the substrate is held horizontally and rotated around the vertical axis in consideration of the ease of explanation. However, in the essence of the technology, the substrate is held along any plane, As shown in FIG. Therefore, when the substrate is held on the substrate holding portion in a tilted state with respect to "horizontal", which is commonly referred to as "common sense", the tilted surface corresponds to "horizontal" in the present invention and belongs to the technical scope of the present invention .

[Example]

In order to evaluate the present invention, the following evaluation test was conducted. The wafer W is rotated at 4 rpm and the relative height of the light irradiation area 9 of the wafer W is measured at every rotation time for each of the case where the Bernoulli chuck 4 is operated and the case where the Bernoulli chuck 4 is not operated Respectively.

Fig. 22 shows the result, showing the rotation angle of the wafer W on the horizontal axis and the height position on the vertical axis. In the case where the Bernoulli chuck 4 is not operated, the height difference of the periphery of the wafer W at the peripheral exposure, which is caused by the rotation of the wafer W, is maximum 66 탆. The height difference of the periphery of the wafer W is 18 mu m and the height difference of the periphery of the wafer W is reduced by about 70% as compared with the case where the Bernoulli chuck 4 is not operated. In the case of using the peripheral exposure apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, since the peripheral exposure process can be performed in a state where the height level of the periphery of the wafer W is more constant, exposure from a predetermined light irradiation area is suppressed can do.

1: Base, 2: Exposure section, 3: Periphery detection section, 4: Bernoulli chuck, 5: Optical system element, 9: Light irradiation area, 11: Rotation stage, 13: Rotation mechanism, 14: 41: gas discharge port, 46: guide surface portion, W: wafer

Claims (7)

A peripheral exposure apparatus for performing exposure processing on a periphery of a surface of a circular substrate on which a photosensitive thin film is formed,
A rotating portion having a rotating base which holds the center portion side of the substrate in a horizontal direction and rotates around a vertical axis,
An exposure unit that irradiates light for exposure toward the periphery of the surface of the substrate held by the rotating table,
A driving mechanism for rotationally driving the rotating table,
And a noncontact suction mechanism provided separately from the rotating portion at a position spaced apart from the rotating table to the peripheral side of the substrate and for attracting the substrate in a noncontact manner to horizontally hold the peripheral portion of the substrate held by the rotating table,
The noncontact suction mechanism includes a guide surface portion facing the substrate and a space therebetween and a gas discharge portion for generating a vacuum suction force between the guide surface portion and the substrate by forming a worm flow along the guide surface portion in the space,
Wherein the exposure unit performs exposure in a state in which the substrate is sucked by the non-contact suction mechanism. And a position adjusting mechanism for adjusting the position of the swivel base in the horizontal direction on the basis of the detection result of the peripheral edge detecting section. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a peripheral edge detecting section optically detecting a peripheral edge of the substrate held by the swivel; . The apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a lifting mechanism for lifting the non-contact suction mechanism between a processing position for holding the peripheral edge of the substrate horizontally and a standby position away from the substrate, . 3. The apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the non-contact suction mechanism is provided in combination with the exposure unit, the light of the exposure unit is configured to transmit through the guide surface,
An auxiliary surface portion is provided at a position opposite to the guide surface portion on the outer side of the substrate held by the rotating table so that the inner peripheral surface of the auxiliary surface portion faces the periphery of the substrate and a part of the wir- Wherein the peripheral exposure apparatus comprises: 1. A peripheral exposure method for performing an exposure process on a periphery of a surface of a circular substrate on which a photosensitive thin film is formed,
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising:
A step of horizontally holding the substrate on a rotating table,
Forming a wiper flow along a guide surface portion in a space between the surface of the substrate and the guide surface portion to generate a vacuum suction force between the guide surface portion and the substrate to thereby hold the periphery of the substrate horizontally,
Irradiating the periphery of the substrate with light from the exposing section in a state in which the periphery of the substrate is held horizontally,
And rotating the rotating table to sequentially move the peripheral edge of the substrate to the irradiation area of the light. The main exposure method according to claim 5, wherein the step of holding the peripheral portion of the substrate horizontally is performed while moving the guide surface portion in the up-and-down direction from the standby position and approaching the substrate to the standby position. A storage medium storing a computer program for use in a peripheral exposure apparatus that performs exposure processing on a periphery of a surface of a circular substrate on which a photosensitive thin film is formed,
Wherein the computer program is structured so as to carry out the peripheral exposure method according to claim 5 or 6.

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