KR20100112795A - Substrate treating apparatus and method for controlling temperature thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A substrate treating apparatus and a method for controlling temperature thereof are provided to remove unreasonable components from a scheduler according to temperature change by supplying a plurality of offset tables. CONSTITUTION: A substrate is mounted on top of a bake plate(110). A heater(112) heats the bake plate in order to uniformly control the temperature of the substrate. The heater is installed inside the bake plate. A temperature sensor(114) senses the temperature of the bake plate. A controller(102) controls the heater in order to control the temperature of the substrate which is detected by the temperature sensor.

Description

Substrate processing apparatus and its temperature control method {SUBSTRATE TREATING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING TEMPERATURE THEREOF}

The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus, and more particularly, to a substrate processing apparatus and a method for controlling the temperature of the baking plate.

The photolithography process of the semiconductor manufacturing process is a process of forming a desired pattern on a wafer. The photographic process is usually carried out in a spinner which is connected to an exposure apparatus and processes the coating process, the exposure process, and the developing process collectively. Such spinner installations sequentially or selectively perform a coating process, a bake process, a development process, and the like. Here, the baking process is a process of heating and cooling the wafer to strengthen the photoresist film formed on the wafer or to adjust the temperature of the wafer to a predetermined process temperature.

A substrate processing apparatus for performing this baking process generally includes a plurality of baking units. A plurality of bake units are arranged up, down, left and right. When the baking process is started, the substrate processing apparatus loads the substrate into the baking unit required for the process among the baking units, and then, the substrate processing apparatus is mounted on the baking plate and heated to the predetermined process temperature.

When the baking unit changes the temperature condition during the process, the baking process is stopped. That is, when the process conditions of the photographic process are changed, the temperature conditions of the bake process may be changed to change the wafer cooling or heating temperature of some or all of the bake units. If the temperature condition of some or all of the bake units is changed, the wafer transfer to all the bake units is stopped until the temperature condition change of the bake units whose temperature condition is changed is stopped and the bake process is stopped.

Each bake unit has a chamber that provides a space therein for performing a bake process, and at least one bake plate that is installed inside the chamber to cool and heat the temperature of the wafer during the process. The bake plate is generally provided with a heater. The heater heats the wafer to a predetermined process temperature during the process. The heater, for example, has a plurality of heater channels arranged for each region, that is, for each channel of the baking plate, in order to adjust the temperature for each region of the substrate.

In recent years, as the requirements for the line width dimension and the line width uniformity of the pattern formed on the substrate become stricter, the demand for temperature uniformity in the photographic process also increases. However, since the heater simply heats the entire substrate to the same temperature, precise temperature control cannot be performed for each region of the substrate, resulting in temperature imbalance for the entire substrate. As a result, warpage of the substrate occurs.

For example, in the future market response, such as an immersion lithography process, such warpage phenomenon and a change in the baking environment causes problems such as line width fluctuations. In order to solve this problem, the substrate processing apparatus corrects and compensates offset data with respect to a set temperature of the baking unit. Therefore, a problem arises in that offset data of several steps is set differently per one semiconductor device.

As described above, since the offset data for a specific temperature band in the bake unit is uniquely operated, in order for the operator to set and control the bake plate with different offset data in the same temperature band, the operator can modify and input the data individually. It must be set up and managed.

For example, the substrate processing apparatus which processes a general baking process sets and controls one offset data per set temperature band and the offset data of the temperature at the time of setting the temperatures of all the baking units. Here, one offset data is set for each heater channel. That is, the offset data corresponds to the same temperature band, and inputs the set offset value for each heater channel, and initializes the data by the controller controlling the corresponding baking unit. Subsequently, the substrate processing apparatus applies the offset value set through the recipe change to the corresponding baking unit. Therefore, the bake unit has to correct and input the offset value manually every time the temperature offset is changed, thereby increasing the amount of work and time required.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a substrate processing apparatus having a bake plate having a plurality of heater channels and a temperature control method thereof.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus and a temperature control method thereof in which the temperature offset data of the baking unit is easy to operate.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus and a temperature control method thereof for setting and providing a plurality of offset tables corresponding to the same temperature band.

In order to achieve the above objects, the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention is characterized by providing a plurality of offset tables in which different temperature offset data are set corresponding to the same temperature band. Such a substrate processing apparatus may control temperature by selecting any one of offset tables when a temperature of the baking plate is changed.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus comprising: a baking plate on which a substrate on which a baking process is to be processed is mounted; A heater installed inside the baking plate to provide a heater channel for each of a plurality of regions, and to heat the substrate; A sensor for sensing a temperature for each heater channel; Sensing a temperature of the baking plate from the sensor, and having a plurality of offset tables in which offset data is set per one temperature band of the baking plate, and when changing the temperature band, selecting one of the offset tables It includes a control unit for controlling the heater.

In one embodiment, the temperature table; Offset data is set for each heater channel corresponding to one temperature band.

In another embodiment, the temperature table; The heater channels are set to different offset data corresponding to the same temperature band. Here, the control unit controls the heater in the temperature band using the offset table.

In another embodiment, the control unit; When the temperature band is changed, the temperature of the substrate is controlled by linking offset tables having offset data set differently for each heater channel to the same temperature band.

According to another feature of the invention, there is provided a temperature control method of a substrate processing apparatus having at least one baking unit. According to this method, one of offset tables having different offset data corresponding to the same temperature band of the baking unit is selected and applied to the process.

The method according to this aspect provides a plurality of offset tables provided in the baking unit to which the offset data is set corresponding to one temperature band for the baking plate on which the substrate is mounted. When changing the temperature band, one of the offset tables is selected. Subsequently, the offset data of the selected offset table is applied to the baking unit to control the temperature of the baking plate.

In one embodiment, providing the offset tables; A plurality of offset tables are provided in which offset data is differently set for each heater channel per one temperature band for the entire temperature of the baking plate.

In another embodiment, the changing of the temperature bands; Change to the same temperature band or different temperature bands.

In yet another embodiment, the change to the same temperature band; At least some of the heater channels are selected from among a plurality of offset tables having offset data differently set corresponding to the same temperature band.

In another embodiment, the method; The method further includes applying the offset data of the selected offset table to the baking unit and monitoring the applied offset data by using a plurality of sensors that sense temperature for each heater channel of the baking plate.

In another embodiment, the method; Processing to confirm the history of the change of the offset data or to restore the data prior to the change of the offset data.

As described above, the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention separates initial data and recipe data for temperature control, and links an offset table to a process recipe so that any one of a plurality of offset temperatures for one set temperature of the baking unit is obtained. By operating to select, the change and application of the offset data of the bake unit are simplified.

The substrate processing apparatus of the present invention simplifies the change and application of offset data, thereby reducing the user's input labor according to the process recipe and the initial data change, thereby reducing downtime of the facility.

By providing a plurality of offset tables corresponding to one temperature band, the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention enables anomalous temperature management of the baking unit, and eliminates irrational elements such as setting an abnormal environmental range of the scheduler due to temperature change. Can be.

The embodiments of the present invention may be modified in various forms, and the scope of the present invention should not be interpreted as being limited by the embodiments described below. This embodiment is provided to more completely explain the present invention to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the shapes and the like of the components in the drawings are exaggerated in order to emphasize a clearer explanation.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

1 to 3 are views showing some configurations of a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention.

1 and 3, the substrate processing apparatus 100 is a spinner apparatus for processing a photographic process and includes a plurality of bake units. The substrate processing apparatus 100 is disposed inside the bake plate 110 and the bake plate 110 on which the substrate W is seated, and heats the bake plate 110 to uniformly adjust the temperature of the substrate W. FIG. Control unit 102 for controlling the heater 112, the temperature sensor 114 for sensing the temperature of the baking plate 110, and the heater 112 to adjust the temperature of the substrate (W) detected from the temperature sensor 114 , 104).

The baking plate 110 is mounted on the substrate (W) on the upper surface. The baking plate 110 is provided with a heater 112 therein. The baking plate 110 is divided into a plurality of regions, and heater channels (112a to 112o of FIG. 3) are disposed in each region.

The heater 112 is provided with a plurality of heater channels 112a to 112o disposed in the baking plate 110 by equal regions. The heater channels 112a-112o heat the bake plate 112, respectively. As a result, the heater 112 heats the substrate W. As shown in FIG.

The temperature sensors 114 are installed inside the bake plate 110 in correspondence with the respective heater channels 112a through 112o, and sense the temperature of each of the heater channels 112a through 112o and provide them to the controllers 102 and 104. do.

The controllers 102 and 104 include lower and upper controllers 102 and 104. The lower controller 102 is provided with a programmable logic controller (PLC) or the like that controls the overall operation of the substrate processing apparatus 100. The lower control unit 102 controls the baking units. The lower controller 102 inputs offset data according to a temperature change of the baking plate 110 or initializes offset data of the baking unit. The lower controller 102 includes a plurality of offset tables 108 corresponding to the plurality of temperature bands 106. The offset table 108 sets offset data for each heater channel 112a to 112o. The lower control unit 102 senses a temperature for each heater channel 112a to 112o from the temperature sensors 114 of the bake plate 110, and each heater channel (Sense) corresponds to the set temperature. 112a to 112o).

The lower control unit 102 is connected to the upper control unit 104 such as a host, a cluster tool controller (CTC), and the like through a network.

The upper control unit 104 sets and stores a process recipe. The upper control unit 104 provides a process recipe to the lower control unit 102. Therefore, the upper control unit 104 controls the process recipe to be applied to the baking unit through the changed offset data. That is, whenever the offset data is changed, the substrate processing apparatus 100 corrects and inputs the offset data in the lower controller 102, and initializes the baking unit through the offset data. Subsequently, the upper control unit 104 modifies the changed offset data to be applied to the process recipe and proceeds with the run.

Specifically, referring to FIG. 2, the bake plate 110 includes a plurality of heater channels 112a to 112o.

The bake plate 110 is composed of a plurality of heater channels 112a through 112o, for example, first through fifteenth heater channels 112a through 112o. At this time, the bake plate 110 sets offset data for each heater channel 112a ˜ 112o to adjust the overall temperature of the bake plate 110.

That is, the bake plate 110 provides a plurality of offset tables corresponding to one temperature band. The offset table sets offset data for each of the plurality of heater channels 112a to 112o for each temperature band. The offset table may be set with different offset data corresponding to the same temperature band. The offset table may be set with different offset data corresponding to different temperature bands. Here, a plurality of offset tables may be provided for each baking unit of the substrate processing apparatus 100. The temperature band can be set by the number of process recipes that can be created by the lower control unit 102 or the upper control unit 104. This is because a process recipe is written for each type of semiconductor device, but a flow recipe is written for each unit, so it is not possible to select which unit of process recipes to be applied during a run in progress.

When the temperature of the baking plate 110 is changed, the substrate processing apparatus 100 of the present invention selects one of a plurality of offset tables and applies the offset data of the selected offset table to the baking unit to process the process.

Therefore, the substrate processing apparatus 100 of the present invention separates initial data, which is the default control data of the baking plate 110 temperature, and recipe data for temperature control, and links the offset table to the process recipe, Operate to select any one of a plurality of offset temperatures for one set temperature.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a temperature control procedure of the substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, in operation S150, the substrate processing apparatus 100 includes a plurality of offset tables 108 corresponding to one temperature band 106 for the baking plate. In the offset table 108, offset data is set for each heater channel 112a to 112o of the bake plate 110. The offset table 108 is provided in plural in correspondence with the same temperature band. In this case, some of the heater channels 112a to 112o set offset data differently for the same temperature band. In addition, a plurality of offset tables 108 are provided corresponding to different temperature bands.

In step S152, it is determined whether there is a change in the offset (or the temperature band). For example, the change in offset is changed to the same temperature band or to a different temperature band. As a result of the determination, if there is a change in the offset, the procedure proceeds to step S154.

In step S154, one of the plurality of offset tables is selected corresponding to the changed temperature band. Subsequently, the process is performed by applying the offset data of the offset table selected in step S156 to the baking unit. At this time, the temperature of the baking unit can be monitored in real time by the offset data of the applied offset table, and the history according to the data change can be confirmed. In addition, a tool that can restore the data prior to the change of the offset data can be provided to prevent equipment malfunction and process error.

5A and 5B are diagrams illustrating a temperature band and an offset table according to the present invention.

First, referring to FIG. 5A, offset data for temperature control of a general baking plate is provided with one offset table 30 or 40 for one temperature band 10 or 20. In the offset tables 30 and 40, offset data (Ch1 Offset to Ch15 Offset) are set for each of the plurality of heater channels.

In the first temperature band 30, first offset data is set for each of the first to fifteenth channels. In the second temperature band 40, the second offset data is set for each of the first to fifteenth channels. At this time, even when the first and second temperature bands 30 and 40 are the same, the first and second offset data must be set and created as separate offset data. Although the overall temperature of the bake plate is the same, if temperature control is required for each heater channel in order to solve a warpage phenomenon, the temperature should be set differently for each heater channel. However, in general bait plate temperature control, one set of offset data is set in one temperature band, and therefore, to control the temperature of the bake plate with different offset data for the same temperature band, a new offset table must be provided.

However, referring to FIG. 5B, the offset data of the present invention is provided with a plurality of offset tables 170 to 174 corresponding to one temperature band 160 or 162. In the offset tables 170 to 174, offset data (Ch1 Offset to Ch15 Offset) is set for each of the plurality of heater channels 112a to 112o.

According to the present invention, a plurality of offset tables Ch1 Offset to Ch15 Offset are provided corresponding to the plurality of temperature bands 160 and 162. In addition, a plurality of offset tables 170 to 174 are provided to correspond to the same temperature band 160 or 162. In this case, offset tables of the same temperature band partially set offset data (Ch1 Offset to Ch15 Offset) differently for the same heater channels 112a to 112o.

In the first temperature band 160, first offset data is set for each of the first to fifteenth channels 112a to 112o. In the second temperature band 162, second offset data is set for each of the first to fifteenth channels 112a to 112o. At this time, even when the first and second temperature bands 160 and 162 are the same, the offset data is set differently for the first and second offset data, respectively. For example, when the first and second temperature bands 160 and 162 have an overall temperature of the baking plate 110 at 105.1 ° C., the offset data of some heater channels are set differently, and the offset data of the remaining heater channels is different. Although set equally, the overall temperature of the bake plate 110 is maintained at 105.1 ° C. Therefore, even in the same temperature band, the baking plate 110 can be adjusted to different temperatures for each region.

Of course, the substrate processing apparatus 100 of the present invention, when changing the temperature of the baking plate 110, a plurality of offset table for differently setting the offset data for each of the first to fifteen channels (112a to 112o) corresponding to different temperature bands To provide. Also in this case, any one of the plurality of offset tables is selected, and the offset data of the selected offset table is applied to the baking unit to process the process.

In the above, the configuration and operation of the substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention are shown in accordance with the detailed description and drawings, which are merely described by way of example, and various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. It is possible.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 shows a part of a configuration of a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows heater channels of the bake plate shown in FIG. 1; FIG.

3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

4 is a flowchart showing a temperature control procedure of the substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention; And

5A and 5B are diagrams illustrating a temperature band and an offset table according to the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

100 substrate processing apparatus 102 lower control unit

104: upper control unit 108: offset table

110: baking plate 112: heater

112a to 112o: Heater channel 114: Temperature sensor

Claims (10)

In the substrate processing apparatus: A baking plate on which a substrate on which a baking process is to be processed is mounted; A heater installed inside the baking plate to provide a heater channel for each of a plurality of regions, and to heat the substrate; A sensor for sensing a temperature for each heater channel; Sensing a temperature of the baking plate from the sensor, and having a plurality of offset tables in which offset data is set per one temperature band of the baking plate, and when changing the temperature band, selecting one of the offset tables And a control unit for controlling the heater. The method of claim 1, The temperature table; And offset data for each heater channel corresponding to one temperature band. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The temperature table; Setting the heater channels to different offset data corresponding to the same temperature band; The control unit is a substrate processing apparatus, characterized in that for controlling the heater in the temperature band using the offset table. The method of claim 3, wherein The control unit; And changing the temperature band to control the temperature of the substrate by linking offset tables having different offset data set for each heater channel to the same temperature band. In the temperature control method of a substrate processing apparatus having at least one baking unit: Providing a plurality of offset tables in which the offset data is provided in correspondence with one temperature band to the baking plate on which the substrate is seated, and selecting one of the offset tables when the temperature band is changed; And applying offset data of the selected offset table to the bake unit to control the temperature of the bake plate. The method of claim 5, Providing the offset tables; And a plurality of offset tables in which offset data is set differently for each heater channel per one temperature band for the entire temperature of the baking plate. The method according to claim 5 or 6, Changing the temperature band; The temperature control method of the substrate processing apparatus characterized by changing to the same temperature band or a different temperature band. The method of claim 7, wherein Changing to the same temperature band; And selecting one of a plurality of offset tables having offset data differently set in at least some of the heater channels corresponding to the same temperature band. The method of claim 5, The method; Applying the offset data of the selected offset table to the bake unit, and monitoring the applied offset data by using a plurality of sensors that sense temperature for each heater channel of the bake plate. Control method. The method of claim 9, The method; The method for controlling the temperature of the substrate processing apparatus further comprising the step of checking the history of the change of the offset data or restoring to the data before the change of the offset data.

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