TW202327737A - Slit nozzle and substrate processing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

An end surface of a body part constituting a slit nozzle has: a first-half facing region which partially overlaps with a substrate in a longitudinal direction in plan view from above from a first half of an overlap increase operation; and a second-half facing region extending from the first-half facing region in the longitudinal direction, and which overlaps with the substrate in the longitudinal direction in plan view from above in a second half of the overlap increase operation. In addition, the end surface of the body part is finished such that the first-half facing region has a larger surface roughness than the second-half facing region. Therefore, in a range of increasing an overlapping distance by which an ejection port and the substrate overlap each other in the longitudinal direction in plan view from above, spread of processing liquid in the longitudinal direction of the ejection port is enhanced, and the processing liquid is evenly applied to the surface of the substrate.

Description

Slit nozzle and substrate processing device

The present invention relates to glass substrates for FPDs such as liquid crystal display devices and organic EL display devices, semiconductor wafers, glass substrates for photomasks, substrates for color filters, substrates for recording discs, substrates for solar cells, and substrates for electronic paper. A slit nozzle for supplying a processing liquid to the surface of a substrate for precision electronic devices and a substrate for semiconductor packaging (hereinafter referred to as "substrate"), and a substrate processing technology for supplying a processing liquid to a substrate using the slit nozzle for processing.

The specification, drawing and disclosure content of the claimed scope of the Japanese application shown below are all incorporated by reference in this specification: Japanese Patent Application No. 2021-151737 (applied on September 17, 2021).

There is known a substrate processing apparatus in which the slit-shaped discharge port provided on the slit nozzle is separated from the surface of the substrate by a distance above, and the slit nozzle is aligned with the substrate in the longitudinal direction of the discharge port. The substrate is relatively moved in the orthogonal horizontal direction, and the processing liquid is applied to the substrate by discharging the processing liquid from the slit nozzle during the relative movement. However, the object to be coated is not limited to a rectangular substrate, and a substrate processing apparatus that can apply a processing liquid also to a circular semiconductor wafer, for example, has been proposed. As a representative thereof, a substrate processing apparatus of a capillary system is known (see Japanese Patent No. 6272138).

When using the above-mentioned conventional apparatus to apply a processing liquid to, for example, a semiconductor wafer, the following problems will occur. In these devices, the liquid-contacting range of the processing liquid supplied from the discharge port (corresponding to the "overlapping range" in the embodiments described later) changes continuously in accordance with the position of the slit nozzle moving along the surface of the substrate. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 5 or FIG. 7 described later, the liquid-contacting range gradually expands from the beginning of coating, and reaches the maximum when it reaches the center of the substrate. When passing through the central part, the liquid contact range gradually narrows again. Then, on the moving direction of the slit nozzle (equivalent to an example of the "horizontal direction" of the present invention), the coating process is completed when the slit nozzle passes above the terminal area of the semiconductor wafer, and the slit nozzle away from the substrate.

In the first half of the coating process, that is, the period when the slit nozzle moves from the coating start position (symbol P1 in Fig. 4 described later) to the position above the center of the substrate (symbol P2 in Fig. 4 described later) , the overlapping distance between the discharge port and the substrate in the longitudinal direction when viewed from above increases. However, in the prior art, when the liquid contact range (repetition range) rapidly expands in the longitudinal direction, that is, the above-mentioned repetition distance increases, as will be described in detail using FIG. The movement of the upper slit nozzle. As a result, failures such as liquid interruption may occur in the front semicircular portion (symbol PT2 in FIG. 4 ) of the surface peripheral portion of the substrate.

The present invention has been accomplished in view of the above-mentioned problems, and its object is to provide a slit nozzle and a substrate processing apparatus, which promote the processing liquid in the range where the overlapping distance between the discharge port and the substrate increases in the direction of the long side when viewed from above. Expanding in the longitudinal direction of the discharge port, the treatment liquid can be evenly coated on the surface of the substrate.

One aspect of the present invention is a slit nozzle that discharges the processing liquid from above toward the surface of the substrate from a slit-shaped discharge port provided on the front end surface of the main body, while A slit nozzle that relatively moves the substrate in the horizontal direction to perform a supply operation of supplying the processing liquid to the surface of the substrate; wherein, the supply operation includes the repetition of overlapping the discharge port and the substrate in the long side direction when viewed from above The distance increases with the relative movement of the slit nozzle to the substrate, and when the repeated increasing action of the supply of the processing liquid is performed at the same time; the front end surface of the main body has: the first half of the facing area, which is the half before the repeated increasing action. The area that overlaps with the substrate in the direction of the long side when viewed from above; and the second half of the facing area, which is extended from the front half of the facing area in the direction of the long side, and half of the long side is viewed from above after repeated enlargement. The area coincides with the substrate in the direction; and the surface roughness of the front half facing area is greater than the surface roughness of the second half facing area, so it is characterized.

Further, another aspect of the present invention is a substrate processing apparatus for supplying a processing liquid to a surface of a substrate, comprising: the above-mentioned slit nozzle; and a moving unit for relatively moving the slit nozzle relative to the substrate in a horizontal direction.

In the conventional slit nozzle, the front end has a uniform surface roughness. Therefore, during the period when the above-mentioned repeat distance increases with the relative movement of the slit nozzle to the substrate (hereinafter referred to as "repetition increase period"), as will be described later using FIGS. 4 to 6 , liquid interruption may occur. Therefore, the present invention divides the front end face of the slit nozzle into: ‧The front-half facing area is the area that overlaps with the substrate in the direction of the long side when viewed from above in the first half of the repeated increase operation of the supply of the processing liquid during the above-mentioned repeated increase period; and ‧The second half facing area, which is extended from the front half facing area in the long side direction, and half overlaps with the substrate in the long side direction when viewed from above after repeated enlargement actions. Moreover, in the front end face of the slit nozzle, the surface roughness of the front half of the facing area is greater than that of the rear half of the facing area, so that the capillary phenomenon in the front half of the facing area can play a large role. Therefore, in the first half of repeating the increasing operation, the treatment liquid supplied from the discharge port can be efficiently spread in the longitudinal direction along the front half of the facing area having a surface roughness greater than that of the second half of the facing area. Therefore, the expansion of the treatment liquid can keep up with the movement of the slit nozzle to suppress the occurrence of liquid interruption.

As described above, according to the present invention, the treatment liquid is promoted to expand in the longitudinal direction of the discharge port in the range where the overlapping distance between the discharge port and the substrate in the longitudinal direction increases when viewed from above. As a result, the treatment liquid can be uniformly applied to the surface of the substrate.

Not all of the plurality of constituent requirements of the above-mentioned aspects of the present invention are essential, and in order to solve part or all of the above-mentioned problems, or to achieve part or all of the effects described in this specification, the above-mentioned plurality may be appropriately adjusted. Change, delete, or replace a part of a constituent element with another novel constituent element, or delete a part of a limited content. In addition, in order to solve part or all of the above-mentioned problems, or to achieve part or all of the effects described in this specification, part or all of the technical features contained in the above-mentioned one aspect of the present invention may be combined with the above-mentioned other aspects of the present invention. A part or all of the included technical features are combined to form an independent form of the present invention.

Fig. 1A is a block diagram showing a substrate processing apparatus equipped with a slit nozzle according to a first embodiment of the present invention. 1B is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. 1A. This substrate processing apparatus 100 applies a processing liquid to the surface Wf of a substantially disk-shaped substrate W such as a semiconductor wafer by a so-called capillary method. In addition, in FIG. 1A , in order to clarify the directional relationship of each part of the coating unit, an XYZ orthogonal coordinate system has been appropriately added, and the Z direction is the up-down direction, and the XY plane is the horizontal plane. In addition, for easy understanding, the size and number of each part are exaggerated or simplified as necessary.

The substrate processing apparatus 100 is a so-called slit coater that applies a processing liquid to the surface Wf of the substrate W using the slit nozzle 2 . As the processing liquid, it includes, for example, photoresist liquid, color filter liquid, polyimide, silicon, nano metal ink, paste containing conductive material, and the like. This substrate processing apparatus 100 is equipped with: a stage 1 capable of absorbing and holding a substrate W in a horizontal posture; a slit nozzle 2 for discharging a processing liquid to the substrate W held on the stage 1 ; and a processing liquid for supplying the processing liquid to the slit nozzle 2 The supply part 3; the nozzle moving mechanism 4 which moves the slit nozzle 2 with respect to the board|substrate W; and the control part 5 which controls the whole apparatus.

The platform 1 is made of stone such as granite having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, and has a holding surface 11 for holding the substrate W on the (+X) side of its surface (+Z side) processed into a substantially horizontal flat surface. A plurality of vacuum suction ports not shown are dispersedly formed on the holding surface 11 . The substrate W is sucked by these vacuum suction ports, and the substrate W is held substantially horizontally at a predetermined position during the coating process. In addition, the state of holding the substrate W is not limited thereto, and for example, the substrate W may be mechanically held.

Fig. 2A is a perspective view showing the appearance of the first embodiment of the slit nozzle of the present invention. 2B is a diagram showing the surface roughness distribution of the front end surface of the slit nozzle shown in FIG. 2A. The slit nozzle 2 has a structure in which the first body part 21 , the second body part 22 and the shim 23 are connected to each other by a plurality of fixing screws (not shown). More specifically, the slit nozzle 2 is constituted by combining the first body part 21 and the second body part 22 with the shim 23 interposed therebetween and facing each other in the X direction.

The first body part 21 and the second body part 22 are cut from a metal block such as stainless steel or aluminum, for example. Also, the shim 23 is a thin plate-shaped member formed of the same metal material.

The main surface of the first main body 21 and the second main body 22 facing each other, that is, the main surface on the (+X) side, is finished to a first flat surface parallel to the YZ plane. Also, the lower part of the first body part 21 protrudes downward to form a first lip part 21c. In the central portion of the first flat surface in the Z direction, a groove (not shown) having a substantially semicylindrical shape with the Y direction as the longitudinal direction and the X direction as the depth direction is provided. This groove functions as a manifold in the flow path of the coating liquid, and is connected to the processing liquid supply unit 3 through the coating liquid supply port (25 in FIG. 3 ).

On the other hand, the main surface of the second main body 22 facing the first main body 21 , that is, the main surface on the (-X) side, is a second flat surface parallel to the YZ plane. Moreover, the lower part of the second body part 22 protrudes downward to form a second lip part 22c. The above-mentioned first flat surface and the second flat surface are separated and opposed to each other, and the first main body part 21 and the second main body part 22 are connected through the shim 23 .

In the state where the first main body portion 21 and the second main body portion 22 are connected, the first flat surface and the second flat surface face each other in parallel with a small gap corresponding to the thickness of the shim 23 . The gap between the facing surfaces (the first flat surface and the second flat surface) facing each other serves as the coating liquid flow path from the manifold, and its lower end opens downward toward the surface Wf of the substrate W as a nozzle. Exit 24 functions. The discharge port 24 has a long-side direction in the Y direction, and has a small size in the X direction.

The shim 23 is formed in a reverse U-shape opening downward. The gap between the first body part 21 and the second body part 22 is squeezed in by the shim 23, and in the gap space, the upper end part above the groove and the two side ends in the Y direction are Thin gasket 23 is occluded. Thereby, the space not closed by the shim 23 in the gap space is defined as the coating liquid flow path connecting the groove serving as a manifold and the discharge port 24 . In other words, the shim 23 is formed in such a shape that a portion serving as the coating liquid flow path is cut away to surround the periphery of the coating liquid flow path other than the discharge port.

In the slit nozzle 2 thus constituted, the lower surface 21d of the first lip 21c and the lower surface 22d of the second lip 22c correspond to the "front end surface of the main body" of the present invention. In this specification, these lower surfaces 21d and 22d are collectively referred to as "front end surface 26". This front end surface 26 is opposed to the surface Wf of the substrate W at a fixed interval only during the coating process, and beads of the processing liquid (liquid accumulation) formed between the front end surface 26 and the surface Wf of the substrate W are formed. , to perform coating processing. In this first embodiment, the surface Wf of the substrate W has a substantially circular shape, and since the front end surface 26 of the slit nozzle 2 first comes into contact with the processing liquid and faces the substrate W, it is the central position in the longitudinal direction Y. Therefore, the central position and its adjacent surroundings are defined as the front half facing area 27, and the area extending from the front half facing area 27 toward the (+Y) direction side and the (−Y) direction side is set as the rear half facing area 28 . The front half facing area 27 and the back half facing area 28 correspond to the situation that the coating process includes repeated enlargement actions. As shown in FIG. 2B, the surface roughness R27 of the front half facing area 27 is greater than that of the back half facing area. Surface treatment is performed on the front end surface 26 in such a manner that the surface roughness R28 of the region 28 is the same as the surface roughness of the front end surface of the conventional slit nozzle 2 . Further, the detailed description of the repeat increasing operation will be described later, and the technical significance of the above-mentioned surface treatment in connection with the repeat increasing operation will be further described in detail. In addition, in FIG. 2A , in order to clearly distinguish and show the front-half facing region 27 and the rear-half facing region 28 , the front-half facing region 27 is dotted. In addition, the "surface roughness" in this specification means the arithmetic mean roughness (Ra), the maximum height (Ry) or the ten-point roughness which is a parameter representing the surface roughness in each part randomly sampled in the front face 26. Average roughness (Rz), etc.

Fig. 3 is a configuration diagram showing a processing liquid supply unit. As shown in FIG. 3 , the processing liquid supply unit 3 uses a pump 31 that feeds the processing liquid by volume change as a feed source for feeding the processing liquid to the slit nozzle 2 . As the pump 31, for example, a bellows type pump described in JP-A-10-61558 can be used. The pump 31 has a flexible tube 311 that can elastically expand and contract freely in the radial direction. One end of the flexible tube 311 is connected to the processing liquid replenishment unit 33 through a pipe 32 , and the other end is connected to the coating liquid supply port 25 of the slit nozzle 2 through a pipe 34 .

On the outside of the flexible tube 311, a corrugated tube 312 that is freely elastically deformable in the axial direction is arranged. The bellows 312 has a small bellows portion 313 and a large bellows portion 314 , and a non-compressible medium is enclosed in a pump chamber 315 between the flexible tube 311 and the bellows 312 . Furthermore, an actuator plate portion 316 is provided between the small bellows portion 313 and the large bellows portion 314 . The driving part 317 is connected to the actuating plate part 316 . The drive unit 317 is operated according to the command from the control unit 5 , and the actuation disk unit 316 is displaced to one side in the axial direction, for example, to change the volume inside the bellows 312 . Thereby, the flexible tube 311 expands and contracts in the radial direction to perform a pumping operation, so that the processing liquid properly replenished from the processing liquid replenishment unit 33 is sent to the slit nozzle 2 . Conversely, when the actuating disk portion 316 is displaced to the other side in the axial direction to change the volume inside the bellows 312 , the processing liquid in the slit nozzle 2 is sucked toward the processing liquid replenishing unit 33 .

The treatment liquid replenishment unit 33 has a storage tank 331 for storing the treatment liquid. This storage tank 331 is connected to the pump 31 through the pipe 32 . In addition, an on-off valve 333 is inserted into the piping 32 . The on-off valve 333 is opened according to the replenishment command from the control unit 5 , and it can replenish the processing liquid in the storage tank 331 to the flexible tube 311 of the pump 31 . Conversely, it is closed according to a replenishment stop command from the control unit 5 to limit the replenishment of the treatment liquid from the storage tank 331 to the flexible tube 311 of the pump 31 .

A pipe 34 connected to the output side of the pump 31 (left side in FIG. 3 ) is inserted with an on-off valve 35 that is opened and closed according to an on-off command from the control unit 5 . Thereby, it is possible to switch between feeding the processing liquid to the slit nozzle 2 , suctioning the processing liquid from the slit nozzle 2 , stopping the liquid feeding, and stopping the suction. Also, a pressure gauge 36 is attached to the pipe 34 to detect the pressure of the processing liquid sent to the slit nozzle 2 and output the detection result (pressure value) to the control unit 5 .

The processing liquid supply part 3 thus constituted is located above the end of the slit nozzle 2 on the (-X) direction side of the substrate W ("coating start position P1" in FIG. 4 described later), so that the discharge port When 24 approaches the surface Wf of the substrate W and makes the processing liquid adhere to the surface Wf, it operates as follows. That is, the on-off valve 333 is closed and the on-off valve 35 is opened according to the switch command from the control unit 5 , and the pump 31 is activated according to the liquid delivery command from the control unit 5 . Thereby, the processing liquid is fed toward the slit nozzle 2 by the pump 31, and beads of the processing liquid are formed between the discharge port 24 and the surface Wf of the substrate W (liquid accumulation).

In addition, in this embodiment, since the surface Wf of the substrate W is a substantially circular semiconductor wafer, the application of the processing liquid is performed by the capillary method similarly to the device described in Japanese Patent No. 6272138. That is, the on-off valve 333 is opened according to the switch command from the control unit 5 , and at the same time, the operation of the pump 31 is stopped according to the liquid supply stop command from the control unit 5 . Then, the nozzle moving mechanism 4 moves the slit nozzle 2 relative to the substrate W from the side in the (−X) direction to the side in the (+X) direction while bringing the discharge port 24 close to the surface Wf of the substrate W. During this movement, it discharges the processing liquid from the discharge port 24 by the surface tension of the processing liquid (beads of the processing liquid) generated between the discharge port 24 and the substrate W. Therefore, the discharge port 24 extending in the Y direction discharges the processing liquid at a portion facing the substrate W, and does not discharge the processing liquid at a portion where the substrate W is not present. Such a change in the discharge state occurs when the slit nozzle 2 is moved in the X direction relative to the substrate W by the nozzle moving mechanism 4 . In this way, when the coating of the processing liquid toward the substrate W is completed, the slit nozzle 2 leaves the substrate W above and then returns from the (+X) direction side to the (−X) direction side.

Return to FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B to continue explaining its configuration. The nozzle moving mechanism 4 has: a nozzle support 41 having a bridge structure supporting the slit nozzles 2 across the platform 1 in the Y direction; and a nozzle moving unit 42 that moves the nozzle support 41 horizontally in the X direction. Therefore, it is possible to horizontally move the slit nozzle 2 supported by the nozzle support body 41 in the X direction by the nozzle moving part 42 . Thus, in this embodiment, the nozzle moving part 42 corresponds to an example of the "moving part" of this invention.

The nozzle support body 41 has: the fixing member 41a which fixes the slit nozzle 2; and the two elevating mechanisms 41b which support and raise the fixing member 41a. The fixing member 41a is a rod-shaped member having a rectangular cross-section with the Y direction as its longitudinal direction, and is made of carbon fiber reinforced resin or the like. The two elevating mechanisms 41b are connected to both ends in the longitudinal direction of the fixing member 41a, and each has an AC servo motor, a ball screw, and the like. With these elevating mechanisms 41b, the fixed member 41a and the slit nozzle 2 can be moved up and down in the vertical direction (Z direction) integrally, and the distance between the discharge port 24 of the slit nozzle 2 and the surface Wf of the substrate W can be adjusted, and the That is, there is a distance between the discharge port 24 and the surface Wf of the substrate W (hereinafter referred to as "coating gap"). In addition, the position of the slit nozzle 2 in the Z direction can be detected by a linear encoder (not shown).

The nozzle moving part 42 is equipped with: two guide rails 43 that guide the movement of the slit nozzle 2 in the X direction; two linear motors 44 that are driving sources; and two linear codes for detecting the position of the discharge port of the slit nozzle 2 device 45.

The two guide rails 43 are arranged at both ends of the table 1 in the Y direction so as to pinch the substrate W loading range from the Y direction, and extend in the X direction so as to cover the substrate W loading range. Then, by guiding the lower ends of the two elevating mechanisms 41 b along the two guide rails 43 , the slit nozzle 2 is moved in the X direction above the substrate W held on the stage 1 .

The two linear motors 44 are AC coreless linear motors each having a stator 44a and a rotor 44b. The stator 44a is arranged along the X direction on both sides of the platform 1 in the Y direction. On the other hand, the rotor 44b is fixedly arranged outside the lifting mechanism 41b. The linear motor 44 functions as a drive source of the nozzle moving mechanism 4 by the magnetic force generated between the stator 44a and the rotor 44b.

Moreover, the two linear encoders 45 each have a scale part 45a and a detection part 45b. The scale part 45a is arranged along the X direction at the lower part of the stator 44a of the linear motor 44 fixedly arranged on the platform 1 . On the other hand, the detection part 45b is fixedly arranged on the outer side of the rotor 44b of the linear motor 44, and is arranged opposite to the scale part 45a. The rotor 44b of the linear motor 44 is fixedly arranged on the lifting mechanism 41b. The linear encoder 45 detects the discharge port position of the slit nozzle 2 in the X direction (corresponding to the nozzle moving direction or relative moving direction) based on the relative positional relationship between the scale part 45a and the detecting part 45b.

The control part 5 for controlling the substrate processing apparatus 100 of the above-mentioned structure is shown in FIG. The unit 52 (for example, ROM or RAM) is connected to a general computer system with a bus line. The bus line is further connected to a fixed disk 53 (for example, a hard disk drive, etc.) that memorizes coating programs and the like. In addition, the above-mentioned processing liquid supply unit 3, nozzle moving mechanism 4, and input display unit 6 are connected via an interface (I/F) as appropriate. The input display unit 6 displays various information and accepts input from an operator, and is constituted by, for example, a touch panel. Of course, instead of the input display unit 6, a display for displaying various information, a keyboard or a mouse for receiving input from an operator, etc. may be used.

In the control part 5, the coating program stored in the fixed disk 53 is copied to the memory part 52 (for example, RAM, etc.), and the calculation part 51 performs calculation processing according to the coating program of the memory part 52. Thereby, by the control of the processing liquid supply part 3, it discharges the processing liquid from the discharge port 24 of the slit nozzle 2 at an appropriate timing, and by the control of the nozzle moving mechanism 4, executes the X of the slit nozzle 2 at a fixed speed. direction scan. As a result, the treatment liquid is applied to the surface Wf of the substrate W with a desired film thickness. In this way, the calculation unit 51 of the control unit 5 functions as the nozzle scanning unit 512 .

Next, in order to explain the technical significance of surface-treating the front end face 26 of the slit nozzle 2 as shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. The case where the coating process is performed on the slit nozzles 2 processed with the same surface roughness as a whole will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6 . Herein, the reason why the film thickness defect occurs in the semicircular portion (symbol PT2 in FIG. 4 ) in the prior art of the substrate W is studied, and specific means for solving the film thickness defect are described. Next, specific operations of the substrate processing apparatus 100 will be described.

4 is a schematic diagram showing the relative movement of the slit nozzle to the substrate in the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. In FIG. situation. Here, a case where a semiconductor wafer having a diameter of 300 mm is used as the substrate W and the slit nozzle 2 scans the substrate W in the X direction is exemplified. That is, in the substrate processing apparatus 100, the substrate W is scanned by the slit nozzle 2 so that, in the horizontal direction X, the coating start position P1 is positioned above one end of the substrate W (the end on the −X direction side) from the discharge port 24 state, the discharge port 24 reaches the other end of the substrate W (the end on the +X direction side) via a wide position P2 of the radius r of the substrate W (in this embodiment, r=150 mm) from the coating start position P1. Up to the end of coating position P3.

Also, in this specification, for the convenience of description, as shown in the lower part of FIG. Wide part PT3", "rear semicircle part PT4" and "coating end part PT5". That is, among the surface peripheral regions of the substrate W, when the slit nozzle 2 is located at the coating start position P1, the peripheral supply region receiving the supply of the processing liquid is the coating start portion PT1. Also, while the slit nozzle 2 is moving from the coating start position P1 to the wide position P2, the part receiving the supply of the processing liquid is the front semicircle part PT2. Also, when the slit nozzle 2 is located at the wide position P2, the part receiving the supply of the processing liquid is the wide part PT3. In addition, while the slit nozzle 2 is moving from the wide position P2 to the coating end position P3, the position receiving the supply of the processing liquid is the rear semicircle position PT4. Furthermore, when the slit nozzle 2 is located at the coating end position P3, the peripheral supply area receiving the supply of the processing liquid is the coating end portion PT5.

In addition, "0", "150", and "300" in FIG. 4 represent the moving distance of the slit nozzle 2 from the coating start position P1. Also, symbols G(0), G(150), and G(300) represent coating gaps when the slit nozzle 2 is located at the coating start position P1, the wide position P2, and the coating end position P3, respectively.

FIG. 5 is a view showing the coating state when the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B is used for coating processing using a slit nozzle that processes the entire front end surface with the same surface roughness as in the prior art. Columns (A) to (C) in FIG. 5 schematically show when the slit nozzle 2 is located at six positions SLa to SLf different from each other, viewing the slit from above, in the (-Y) direction and (+X) direction A diagram of the slit nozzle 2, the substrate W, and the processing liquid. Among them, at the position SLa, the slit nozzle 2 is located in the (-X) direction relative to the coating start position P1, and is separated from the substrate W in the (-X) direction. At the position SLb, the slit nozzle 2 is located at the coating start position P1. On the other hand, the position SLf represents the position above the other end of the substrate W moved 300 mm or more from the position SLb (coating start position P1) in the horizontal direction (+X), and the positions SLc~SLe represent 3 positions between the positions SLb and SLf. In the first moving position, especially at the position SLd, the slit nozzle 2 is located at the wide position P2. In addition, in these drawings, the area to which the processing liquid was applied is schematically shown by hatching. In addition, about these, it is the same also in FIG. 8 demonstrated later.

Next, in the substrate processing apparatus 100, when a conventional coating operation is performed, that is, coating processing is performed while moving the slit nozzle 2 having the entire front end surface 26 processed with the same surface roughness at a fixed scanning speed. , the following problems may occur. When the substrate W is transferred to the substrate processing apparatus 100 by a transfer robot (not shown), ejector pins (not shown) rise from the center of the stage 1 to support the back surface of the substrate W. Next, the transfer robot exits from the substrate processing apparatus 100 . Thereby, the substrate W is delivered to the ejector pin. Thereafter, the ejector pins are lowered to the inside of the platform 1 and the substrate W is placed on the holding surface 11 of the platform 1 and held on the holding surface 11 of the platform 1 by a suction mechanism (not shown).

In the substrate processing apparatus 100, the slit nozzle 2 is moved from the position Sla, which is away from the substrate W held on the holding surface 11 in the (-X) direction, to a position suitable for the coating process, as shown in the "SLb" column of FIG. 5 As shown, the slit nozzle 2 is positioned at the coating start position P1. Beads of the processing liquid are formed between the discharge port 24 and the surface Wf of the substrate W at the coating start position P1 and with the coating gap G adjusted to a predetermined value. Then, the coating gap G is kept constant, and the processing liquid LD supplied from the processing liquid supply part 3 is discharged from the discharge port 24 while the slit nozzle 2 is moved in the (+X) direction. That is, by the surface tension of the processing liquid LD (beads of the processing liquid) generated between the discharge port 24 and the substrate W, the processing liquid LD is discharged from the discharge port 24 . Thereby, the processing liquid LD is applied to the surface Wf of the substrate W. As shown in FIG. Then, the slit nozzle 2 is continuously maintained at a constant scanning speed and moves toward the (+X) direction. With the movement of the slit nozzle 2, the overlapping distance L between the discharge port 24 and the substrate W, that is, the discharge of the processing liquid LD The width (wetted range) gradually expands. Then, it becomes the maximum when the slit nozzle 2 reaches the position SLd (that is, the wide position P2).

When the slit nozzle 2 passes through the central part of the substrate W and moves further toward the (+X) direction, the repetition distance L (the discharge width of the treatment liquid) gradually becomes narrower, and is positioned above the end of the substrate W on the (+X) direction side. , that is, when the coating end position P3 is reached, the final coating of the treatment liquid LD is performed. When the slit nozzle 2 moves further in the (+X) direction from the application end position P3 to the position SLf, the movement of the slit nozzle 2 is stopped.

The coating process is carried out in this way, especially when the slit nozzle 2 moves from the position SLb (coating start position P1) to the position SLd (wide position P2), the repetition distance L increases with the movement of the slit nozzle 2 . That is, this period is the above-mentioned repeated increase period. During this period of increasing repetition, as the repetition distance L, that is, the discharge width (liquid contact range) of the treatment liquid LD gradually increases, the treatment liquid LD will expand in the longitudinal direction Y of the discharge port 24 . In the first half stage of the repetition increase period, because the repetition distance L changes rapidly, the expansion of the processing liquid LD cannot keep up with the change of the repetition distance L. For example, as shown in FIG. The meniscus formed by liquid LD is shifted to the inner meniscus compared with the ideal meniscus M0 (single-dot chain line in Figure 6) originally used for coating according to the predetermined film thickness. Surface M1 (solid line in Fig. 6). As a result, the expansion of the processing liquid LD cannot keep up with the scanning movement of the slit nozzle 2, and finally, as shown in the "SLf" column of FIG.

Therefore, the present inventors have reached the conclusion that the above-mentioned problem can be solved by the following scheme: in the front end surface 26 of the slit nozzle 2, the region corresponding to the range in which the repetition distance L changes rapidly during the repetition increase period (FIG. 2A and shown in FIG. 2B, the surface roughness of the semi-opposite region 27) is set to be larger, and the capillary phenomenon is improved. The analysis content of the change of the repeat distance L during the repeat increase period will be described below with reference to FIG. 7 , and then the coating operation of the substrate processing apparatus 100 based on the analysis results will be described with reference to FIG. 8 .

Fig. 7 is a graph showing the repetition distance and the change speed of the repetition distance with respect to the scanning distance. Here, the "scanning distance" means the distance from the (-X) direction end of the substrate W in the horizontal direction X, that is, the movement distance of the slit nozzle 2 from the position SLb (coating start position P1). By differentiating the function represented by the graph shown in the upper row of FIG. 7 (the graph showing the change of the repetition distance L with respect to the scanning distance), the change speed of the repetition distance L shown in the lower row of FIG. 7 is obtained. It can be clarified from Fig. 7 that during the repetition increase period, especially in the first half stage, the change speed of the FH repetition distance L is high, and it is important to make the expansion speed of the treatment liquid correspond to this situation. Therefore, by processing the region of the front end surface 26 of the slit nozzle 2 facing the surface Wf of the substrate W in the first half stage FH into the first half facing region 27, the flow of the treatment liquid LD due to the capillary phenomenon can be increased toward the long side. Expansion in direction Y. As a result, in the front semicircular portion PT2, it can effectively prevent the occurrence of liquid interruption NG. Therefore, in this embodiment, the coating process is performed using the slit nozzle 2 shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B.

Fig. 8 is a diagram showing a substrate coating method using the first embodiment of the slit nozzle of the present invention. The difference between this first embodiment and the prior art is that, as mentioned above, the surface-treated slit nozzle 2 is used: the surface roughness R27 of the front half facing region 27 is greater than the surface roughness R28 of the rear half facing region 28 ; Other formations are identical with the prior art. In the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 8, when the slit nozzle 2 starts scanning from the coating start position P1, although the change in the repeat distance L becomes sharp immediately thereafter, the first half of the facing area 27 The surface roughness R27 is relatively large, so that the processing liquid LD moves in the longitudinal direction Y at a corresponding spreading speed. That is, the treatment liquid LD spreads in the longitudinal direction Y of the discharge port 24 following the change of the repetition distance L. Then, as the coating process progresses, the rate of increase of the repeat distance L becomes gentle, and correspondingly, the surface roughness R28 of the rear half facing region 28 is equal to that of the conventional technology.

Thus, according to the present embodiment, in the first half of repeating the increasing operation, the processing liquid LD supplied from the discharge port 24 moves along the longitudinal direction along the first half of the facing region 27 having a surface roughness R27 larger than that of the second half of the facing region 28 . Y scales efficiently. Therefore, the expansion of the processing liquid LD follows the X-direction movement of the slit nozzle 2, and the occurrence of liquid interruption can be suppressed. As a result, the treatment liquid LD can be uniformly applied to the surface Wf of the substrate W.

Fig. 9A is an external perspective view showing a second embodiment of the slit nozzle of the present invention. Also, FIG. 9B is a graph showing the surface roughness distribution on the front end surface of the slit nozzle shown in FIG. 9A. The difference between this slit nozzle 2 and the first embodiment lies in the configuration of the front half facing region 27 . That is, in the first embodiment, the front-half facing region 27 is constituted by a single facing portion having a surface roughness R27. On the other hand, in the second embodiment, the front-half facing region 27 is composed of two types of facing portions 271 and 272 having different surface roughnesses.

The first opposing portion 271 is at the point when the slit nozzle 2 positioned at the coating start position P1 starts scanning movement (the starting point of the repeated enlargement operation), and is aligned with the substrate W in the longitudinal direction Y in a plan view from above. Partially overlap. On the other hand, the second opposing portion 272 is extended from the first opposing portion 271 in the longitudinal direction Y, and overlaps the substrate W in the longitudinal direction Y in plan view from above before repeating the enlarging operation. In this embodiment, the processing liquid is supplied to the central portion of the substrate W and the discharge port 24 in the longitudinal direction Y, and spreads in the (+Y) and (−Y) directions as the coating operation progresses. Therefore, the second opposing portion 272 is composed of a portion adjacent to the (+Y) direction side of the first opposing portion 271 and a portion adjacent to the (−Y) direction side of the first opposing portion 271 .

Furthermore, the front end surface 26 of the slit nozzle 2 is surface-treated so that the surface roughness R271, R272, and R28 of the first facing portion 271, the second facing portion 272, and the rear half facing region 28 satisfy the following relationship. ; R271>R272>R28. That is, the surface roughness R271 of the first facing portion 271 is greater than the surface roughness R272 of the second facing portion 272, and the surface roughness R272 of the second facing portion 272 is greater than the surface roughness R28 of the second half facing region 28 . In this way, the front end surface 26 of the slit nozzle 2 is processed so that the surface becomes rough as it extends in the longitudinal direction Y from the first facing portion 271 that faces the surface Wf of the substrate W at the starting point of the repetitive enlargement operation. decrease gradually. Therefore, the capillary phenomenon generated between the substrate W and the discharge port 24 during the repetitive increasing operation is also the strongest at the starting point of the repetitive increasing operation, and becomes weaker as the repetitive increasing operation proceeds, which is approximately equal to the distance L of the repeated increasing operation. Variety. Therefore, the expansion of the processing liquid LD is similar to the movement of the slit nozzle 2 in the X direction, and the occurrence of liquid interruption can be suppressed more effectively.

In the above-mentioned second embodiment, the second facing portion 272 is processed to have a uniform surface roughness R272, but the surface treatment of the second facing portion 272 is not limited thereto. For example, as shown in FIG. 10A , it is also possible to continuously reduce the surface roughness R271 to the surface roughness R272 from the first facing part 271 side as it extends toward the rear half facing region 28 side. 272 performs surface treatment (third embodiment). In addition, instead of continuous reduction, the surface treatment may be performed on the second facing portion 272 in a stepwise reduction manner.

Also, in the above-mentioned first to third embodiments, the rear half facing region 28 is made to have a uniform surface roughness R28, but as shown in FIG. 10B, for example, as shown in FIG. Surface treatment is performed on the rear-half facing region 28 so that the surface roughness R272 decreases continuously to the surface roughness R28 (fourth embodiment). In addition, instead of continuous reduction, the surface treatment of the rear half facing region 28 may be carried out in a stepwise reduction manner.

However, in the above-mentioned embodiment, when the repetition distance L is increased, the surface roughness R27 of the front half-facing region 27 is set to be larger than the surface roughness R28 of the rear half-facing region 28 (hereinafter referred to as "Surface roughness adjustment") to solve the problem that the expansion of the treatment liquid cannot keep up with the movement of the slit nozzle 2. Here, when it is desired to further improve the film thickness uniformity of the processing liquid, other means (substrate processing apparatuses 100A, 100B) may be combined.

Fig. 11 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of another example of the substrate processing apparatus equipped with the slit nozzle of the present invention. The difference between the substrate processing apparatus 100A in FIG. 11 and the substrate processing apparatus 100 in FIGS. 1A and 1B is that the calculation unit 51 of the control unit 5 controls the nozzle moving mechanism 4 to adjust the coating gap G. That is, in the substrate processing apparatus 100A of FIG. 11 , the calculation unit 51 of the control unit 5 controls the lifting mechanism 41b to adjust the coating gap (gap distance) corresponding to the change of the repetition distance L during the repetition increase period. , so that it functions as the gap adjustment unit 511 . By adjusting the coating gap in this way, the film thickness uniformity of the treatment liquid LD can be further improved.

Here, the reason why the coating gap adjustment contributes to the film thickness uniformity of the treatment liquid will be described. When the processing liquid LD is supplied between the surface Wf of the substrate W and the discharge port 24 of the slit nozzle 2 with the coating gap G provided, a meniscus is formed as shown in FIG. 6 . As described in the first to fourth embodiments above, by setting the surface roughness R27 of the front half facing region 27 to be greater than the surface roughness R28 of the second half facing region 28, the meniscus of the processing liquid LD can be made The surface is close to the ideal meniscus M0 (single-dot chain line in Figure 6) that is coated according to the originally predetermined film thickness. However, if only the above-mentioned surface roughness adjustment is performed, the meniscus of the treatment liquid LD may not coincide with the ideal meniscus M0. In such a case, it is effective to reduce the coating gap G. This is because, for example, the narrowing of the coating gap G has, for example, as shown in FIG. The effect of M3 (solid line in Fig. 12). That is, by adjusting the coating gap G, the treatment liquid LD can spread in the longitudinal direction Y. Therefore, when only the adjustment of the above-mentioned surface roughness is performed, as shown in FIG. 6, the meniscus liquid formed by the treatment liquid LD is shifted to a more ideal meniscus M0 (the chain line of single dots in FIG. 6 ). For the inner side, by adding coating gap adjustment, the meniscus of the treatment liquid LD can be made close to the ideal meniscus M0, or consistent. As a result, the film thickness uniformity of the processing liquid LD can be further improved.

In addition, in the fifth embodiment, since the surface Wf of the substrate W is substantially circular, as shown in FIG. 7 , the change speed of the repeat distance L during the repeat increase period is not constant. Therefore, it is preferable to adjust the coating gap according to the change of the repetition distance L during the repetition increase period. During the repetition increasing period, especially in the initial stage when the repetition distance L increases rapidly, it is preferable to make the coating gap G smaller in order to make the treatment liquid LD expand in the longitudinal direction Y of the discharge port 24 following this change. . Conversely, at the stage where the increase rate of the repetition distance L becomes moderate, that is, at the stage when the slit nozzle 2 approaches the wide position P2, the coating gap G is returned to the same value as that in the first to fourth embodiments, or It is preferable to make the coating gap G large so as to prevent excessive supply of the processing liquid LD. That is, during the repetition increase period, it is preferable to change the coating gap G corresponding to the change of the repetition distance L, that is, the control unit 5 according to the following function representing the change of the repetition distance L during the repetition increase period Control the lifting mechanism 41b: Here, x is the scanning distance by which the slit nozzle 2 relatively moves the substrate W from the coating start position P1 toward the wide position P2 .

More specifically, when the change in the repetition distance L is partially extracted during the repetition increase period, as shown in FIG. When the position is at a distance of xn, the variation ΔL of the repeated distance L becomes: Wherein, Ln is the repetition distance when the slit nozzle 2 is at the scanning distance xn; Ln-1 is the repetition distance when the slit nozzle 2 is at the scanning distance xn-1. Therefore, the control unit 5 controls the lifting mechanism 41b in such a way that the coating gap G(x) when the slit nozzle 2 is located at the scanning distance xn satisfies the following formula: Wherein, a and b are respectively constants; this is preferable. Thereby, between the substrate W and the discharge port 24 , the spread of the treatment liquid LD in the longitudinal direction Y by the so-called capillary phenomenon is optimized. As a result, the liquid interruption NG can be effectively prevented from occurring in the front semicircular portion PT2. In the fifth embodiment, as shown in FIG. 13 , the coating process is performed by controlling the coating gap G(x) so as to satisfy the above formula (1) during the repeated increasing period.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a substrate coating method executed by the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. 11 . The difference between this substrate processing apparatus 100A and the substrate processing apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B is that, as shown by the solid line in the upper diagram of FIG. The coating gap G; other configurations are the same as those of the substrate processing apparatus 100 . In the substrate processing apparatus 100A, as shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 14 , the coating gap G(0) of the slit nozzle 2 positioned at the coating start position P1 is adjusted so that the slit nozzle 2 moves from the wide position P2 The gap value b of the coating gaps G(150) to G(300) when scanning to the coating end position P3 is a small value. Next, when the scanning movement of the slit nozzle 2 starts, the control part 5 increases the coating gap G according to formula (1). Therefore, although the repetition distance L changes rapidly immediately after the start of coating, the coating gap G can be suppressed to be small accordingly. Therefore, by adjusting the surface roughness and the coating gap, the treatment liquid LD can be effectively spread in the longitudinal direction Y of the discharge port 24 following the change of the repetition distance L, and the liquid interruption can be reliably prevented. Furthermore, as the coating process continues, the rate of increase of the repetition distance L becomes moderate, and the coating gap G can be increased accordingly. Thereby, excessive supply of the processing liquid LD can be prevented.

Fig. 15 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of another example of a substrate processing apparatus equipped with a slit nozzle according to the present invention. FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a substrate coating method performed by the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. 15 . The difference between the substrate processing apparatus 100B in FIG. 15 and the substrate processing apparatus 100 in FIGS. 1A and 1B is that the calculation unit 51 of the control unit 5 controls the nozzle moving mechanism 4 to supply the processing liquid to the slit nozzle 2. Adjustment. That is, in the substrate processing apparatus 100B of FIG. 15 , the calculation unit 51 of the control unit 5 also functions as the supply adjustment unit 513 . The supply adjustment unit 513 controls the treatment liquid supply unit 3 so that the amount of the treatment liquid supplied to the slit nozzle 2 is set to be the largest at the point when the coating starts, and then corresponding to the change of the repeating distance L, as the slit nozzle 2 Scanning in the X direction is reduced. By adjusting the supply of the processing liquid, the film thickness uniformity of the processing liquid LD can be further improved.

Here, there are roughly two reasons why the adjustment of the supply of the treatment liquid contributes to the uniformity of the film thickness of the treatment liquid. In the substrate processing apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B , the capillary phenomenon in the front-half facing region 27 is made to function greatly by the adjustment of the surface roughness described above. However, since the supply amount of the treatment liquid to the slit nozzle 2 per unit time is fixed, there is a certain limit to the effect of the above-mentioned surface roughness adjustment, and there is a possibility that the treatment liquid may be generated halfway after the coating process. Oversupply causes the unfavorable situation that the film thickness becomes thicker.

Therefore, in the substrate processing apparatus 100B of FIG. 15, as shown in the upper diagram of FIG. 16, by adjusting the supply reduction speed of the processing liquid during the coating operation, the liquid interruption in the first half of coating and the excess in the second half of coating can be solved. Film thickness. For these reasons, the film thickness uniformity can be improved. Furthermore, the above-mentioned "supply reduction speed" means that part of the processing liquid flowing through the pipe 32 due to the operation of the pump 31 is drawn back to the storage tank 331 side to reduce the supply amount of the processing liquid to the slit nozzle 2 side, by The amount of processing liquid that is reduced per unit time by this supply reduction operation. In other words, increasing the supply reduction speed means reducing the supply amount of the treatment liquid to the slit nozzle 2 per unit time; The supply amount of the slot nozzle 2 increases.

Hereinafter, the cause of excess film thickness in the substrate processing apparatus 100 and the setting of the supply reduction speed shown in FIG. 16 will be described. In the substrate processing apparatus 100, the coating process is performed at a constant scanning speed while maintaining the coating gap G constant. That is, the slit nozzle 2 is moved at a constant scanning speed while the pump 31 is stopped and the on-off valves 35 and 333 are opened, and the processing liquid LD supplied from the processing liquid supply part 3 is discharged from the discharge port 24 . When the coating process is performed in this way, especially during the movement of the slit nozzle 2 from the wide position P2 (position SLd) to the coating end position P3, the repetition distance L decreases with the movement of the slit nozzle 2 . That is, this period becomes the repetition reduction period. During this repetition reduction period, in order to correspond to the situation where the repetition distance L, that is, the discharge width (liquid contact range) of the treatment liquid LD is gradually reduced, the treatment liquid LD should be discharged in the longitudinal direction Y while maintaining a predetermined meniscus. The central portion side of the exit 24 is narrowed. However, its narrowing action cannot be followed. For example, as shown in FIG. The liquid level is shifted to the more outer meniscus. That is, with respect to the scanning movement of the slit nozzle 2, the processing liquid LD is excessively spread in the longitudinal direction Y, and there is an excess of the processing liquid LD as indicated by dot hatching in FIG. 12 .

Moreover, since the surface Wf of the substrate W is substantially circular, as shown in FIG. The amount of processing liquid supplied to the slit nozzle 2 through the pipe 32 is not controlled. As a result, the film thickness at the position corresponding to the rear semicircular portion PT4 is thicker than the set value, that is, an excess film thickness may occur. Therefore, in the repetition reduction period, especially the final stage of the rapid reduction of the repetition distance L, in order to follow this situation and prevent the excess processing liquid LD (the place where the dotted hatching is added in Figure 12) from occurring, the processing is made in the longitudinal direction Y It is preferable to reduce the supply amount of the processing liquid LD supplied to the slit nozzle 2 through the pipe 32 by narrowing the liquid LD toward the center of the discharge port 24 . That is, during the repetition reduction period, it is preferable to change the coating gap corresponding to the change of the repetition distance L, that is, the control unit 5 controls the pump 31 according to the following function representing the change of the repetition distance L during the repetition reduction period; Here, x is the scanning distance by which the slit nozzle 2 relatively moves the substrate W from the coating start position P1 toward the wide position P2 .

More specifically, if the change in the repetition distance L during the repetition reduction period is partially extracted, as shown in the upper part of FIG. When the position is at a distance of xn, the variation ΔL of the repeated distance L becomes: Wherein, Ln is the repetition distance when the slit nozzle 2 is at the scanning distance xn; Ln-1 is the repetition distance when the slit nozzle 2 is at the scanning distance xn-1. Therefore, the pump 31 is controlled by the controller 5 so that the supply reduction speed SR(x) when the slit nozzle 2 is located at the scanning distance xn satisfies the following expression: Wherein, a and b are respectively constants; this is preferable. This suppresses the occurrence of excess treatment liquid LD (points hatched in FIG. 12 ) during the repeated reduction period. As a result, an excessive film thickness can be effectively prevented from occurring in the rear semicircular portion PT4.

On the other hand, during the repetition increase period, contrary to the repetition decrease period, the closer to the start of coating, the smaller the supply reduction speed SR(x), so that the supply reduction amount The pump 31 is controlled by the controller 5 so that the processing liquid is supplied to the slit nozzle 2 at the maximum with zero. In this way, the supply amount of the treatment liquid per unit time at the start of coating can be maximized, and a sufficient amount of the treatment liquid can be supplied to the first-half opposing region 27 where the capillary phenomenon largely acts. With such a combination of processing liquid supply adjustment and surface roughness adjustment, it is possible to effectively prevent liquid interruption.

In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, Without deviating from the summary, it can make various changes other than the above. For example, in the above-mentioned embodiments, the present invention is applied to the substrate coating technology for coating the processing liquid LD on the substrate W whose surface Wf is a substantially circular semiconductor wafer, but the type of the substrate W is not limited thereto. The present invention can also be applied to a substrate coating technique for coating a processing liquid LD on a substrate W whose surface Wf is processed into a rhombus, a regular pentagon, or a regular hexagon, for example. The point is that the present invention can be applied to the following occasions: by relatively moving the slit nozzle 2 to the substrate W in the horizontal direction X, the processing liquid LD is discharged from the discharge port 24 of the slit nozzle 2 to the surface Wf of the substrate W. In the substrate coating technique for coating, the overlapping distance L where the discharge port 24 overlaps the substrate W in the longitudinal direction Y changes with the relative movement of the slit nozzle 2 to the substrate W when viewed from above.

Also, in the above-mentioned embodiment, since the surface Wf is substantially circular, the central region of the front end surface 26 of the slit nozzle 2 in the longitudinal direction Y corresponds to the front half facing region 27, but the front half facing region in the longitudinal direction Y The position of 27 depends on the shape of the surface Wf. Also, the position and number of the rear-half facing regions 28 also depend on the shape of the surface Wf. For example, as shown in FIG. 18 , in the case where the surface Wf of the substrate W is a so-called trapezoidal shape, the (-Y) direction side area of the front end face 26 of the slit nozzle 2 in the longitudinal direction Y corresponds to the front half facing area 27, and the front end face 26 The region extending from the front half facing region 27 toward the (+Y) direction side is equivalent to the single rear half facing region 28 .

In addition, in the substrate processing apparatus 100B shown in FIG. 15, the supply reduction speed is controlled by the pump 31, but it may be controlled by other means. For example, an electromagnetic needle valve may be inserted into the piping 32, and the control unit 5 may adjust the valve opening of the electromagnetic needle valve to control the supply reduction speed. In addition, the supply reduction rate can also be controlled by adjusting the pressure in the storage tank 331 .

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, as an example of the "supply operation" of the present invention, the substrate W is fixed, and the coating of the processing liquid LD is performed while moving the slit nozzle 2 in the horizontal direction X, but the supply operation does not limited to this. For example, the substrate W may be moved while the slit nozzle 2 is fixed. In addition, both the slit nozzle 2 and the substrate W may be moved to apply the processing liquid LD. In addition, although the slit nozzle 2 is used in the substrate processing apparatuses 100, 100A, and 100B, the application target of the slit nozzle 2 is not limited to the processing apparatus, and it can also be applied to substrates while changing the repetition distance L. The surface Wf of W is supplied to a substrate processing apparatus for processing liquid. The point is that the present invention is applicable to all substrate processing techniques that perform a supply operation of supplying a processing liquid to the substrate surface while moving the slit nozzle 2 relative to the substrate W.

As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated based on the specific Example, this description should not be interpreted in a limited sense. With reference to the description of the present invention, other embodiments of the present invention and various modification examples of the disclosed embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, as long as it does not deviate from the true scope of the present invention, the scope of patent application of the present invention also includes these modified examples or embodiments.

The present invention is applicable to a slit nozzle for supplying a processing liquid to the surface of a substrate, and a substrate processing technique for performing a supply operation of the processing liquid to a substrate using the slit nozzle.

1: Platform 2: Slit nozzle 3: Treatment liquid supply part 4: Nozzle moving mechanism 5: Control Department 6: Input display part 11: keep the surface 21: The first body part 21c: 1st lip 21d: Lower surface (of the lip) 22: The second body part 22c: 2nd lip 22d: Lower surface (of the lip) 23: thin gasket 24: spit out 25: Coating solution supply port 26: Front end (of slit nozzle) 27: The first half facing area 28: The second half facing area 31: pump 32,34: Piping 33: Treatment liquid replenishment unit 35: switch valve 36: pressure gauge 41: Nozzle support body 41a: Fixing member 41b: Lifting mechanism 42: Nozzle moving part 43: guide rail 44: Linear motor 44a: Stator 44b: rotor 45: Linear encoder 45a: scale part 45b: Detection Department 51: Calculation Department 52: memory department 53: Fixed Disk 100, 100A, 100B: substrate processing device 271: 1st opposite part (opposite part) 272: The second opposite part (opposite part) 311: flexible tube 312: Bellows 313: Small bellows department 314:Large bellows department 315: pump room 316: Actuating plate 317: drive department 331: storage tank 333: switch valve 511: Clearance adjustment part 512:Nozzle Scanning Department 513:Supply Adjustment Department FH: first half L: repeat distance LD: treatment liquid M0, M1, M2, M3: meniscus P1: Coating start position P2: wide position P3: Coating end position PT1: Coating start site PT2: Front semicircle PT3: wide area PT4: Rear semicircle PT5: Finishing part of coating R27, R28, R271, R272: surface roughness SLa~SLf: (of the slit nozzle) position W: Substrate Wf: surface (of the substrate) X: horizontal direction Y: Long side direction

Fig. 1A is a block diagram showing a substrate processing apparatus equipped with a slit nozzle according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1B is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. 1A. Fig. 2A is a perspective view showing the appearance of the first embodiment of the slit nozzle of the present invention. Fig. 2B is a graph showing the surface roughness distribution of the front end surface of the slit nozzle shown in Fig. 2A. Fig. 3 is a configuration diagram showing a processing liquid supply unit. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing the relative movement of the slit nozzle to the substrate in the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B . FIG. 5 is a view showing the coating state when the coating process is performed using a slit nozzle in which the entire front end surface is processed with the same surface roughness as in the conventional technique in the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B . Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the meniscus formed between the substrate and the discharge port and the coating gap. Fig. 7 is a graph showing the repetition distance and the change speed of the repetition distance with respect to the scanning distance. Fig. 8 is a view showing a substrate coating method using the first embodiment of the slit nozzle of the present invention. Fig. 9A is an external perspective view showing a second embodiment of the slit nozzle of the present invention. Fig. 9B is a graph showing the surface roughness distribution of the front end surface of the slit nozzle shown in Fig. 9A. Fig. 10A is a diagram showing the surface roughness distribution of the front end surface of the slit nozzle in the third embodiment of the slit nozzle of the present invention. Fig. 10B is a diagram showing the surface roughness distribution of the front end surface of the slit nozzle in the fourth embodiment of the slit nozzle of the present invention. Fig. 11 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of another example of a substrate processing apparatus equipped with a slit nozzle according to the present invention. Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the meniscus formed between the substrate and the discharge port and the coating gap. Fig. 13 is a graph showing the repetition distance and the change speed of the repetition distance with respect to the scanning distance. FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a substrate coating method performed by the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. 11 . Fig. 15 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of another example of a substrate processing apparatus equipped with a slit nozzle according to the present invention. FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a substrate coating method performed by the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. 15 . Fig. 17 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the meniscus formed between the substrate and the discharge port and the coating gap. Fig. 18 is a configuration diagram showing another example of a substrate processing apparatus equipped with the slit nozzle of the present invention.

2: Slit nozzle

21: The first body part

21c: 1st lip

21d, 22d: the lower surface (of the lip)

22: The second body part

22c: 2nd lip

23: thin gasket

24: spit out

26: Front end (of slit nozzle)

27: The first half facing area

28: The second half facing area

Claims (6)

A slit nozzle that discharges a processing liquid from a slit-shaped discharge port provided on the front end surface of a main body toward the surface of a substrate from above, and directs the substrate toward the substrate in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the long-side direction of the discharge port. A slit nozzle that moves relatively to thereby perform a supply operation of supplying the above-mentioned processing liquid to the surface of the above-mentioned substrate; it is characterized in that, The above-mentioned supplying operation includes, in a plan view from above, the overlapping distance between the above-mentioned discharge port and the above-mentioned substrate in the long-side direction increases as the relative movement of the above-mentioned slit nozzle to the above-mentioned substrate is increased, and at the same time, the supply of the above-mentioned processing liquid is performed. When repeating the action of increasing; The front end surface of the above-mentioned body part has: The first half of the facing area is the area that overlaps with the above-mentioned substrate part in the long-side direction viewed from above before the above-mentioned repeated enlarging action; and The second half of the facing area is extended from the first half of the facing area in the direction of the above-mentioned long side, and after the above-mentioned repeated enlargement action, half of the area that overlaps with the above-mentioned substrate in the direction of the long side when viewed from above; The surface roughness of the above-mentioned front half facing area is larger than the surface roughness of the above-mentioned second half facing area. The slit nozzle according to claim 1, wherein the surface roughness of the above-mentioned front half facing area is constant. The slit nozzle according to claim 1, wherein the above-mentioned first half facing area has: The first opposing part is the starting point of the above-mentioned repeated enlarging action, and the part overlaps with the part of the above-mentioned substrate in the direction of the long side when viewed from above; and The second facing part is extended from the first facing part in the above-mentioned long-side direction, and in the first half of the above-mentioned repeated enlargement operation, it overlaps with the above-mentioned substrate in the above-mentioned long-side direction when viewed from above; The surface roughness of the first opposing portion is greater than that of the second opposing portion, and the surface roughness of the second opposing portion is greater than that of the second half of the opposing area. The slit nozzle according to claim 3, wherein the surface roughness of the second facing portion increases continuously or stepwise from the second half facing region toward the first facing portion. The slit nozzle according to claim 4, wherein the surface roughness of the second half of the facing region increases continuously or stepwise toward the second facing portion. A substrate processing device for supplying a processing liquid to the surface of a substrate, comprising: The slit nozzle according to any one of claims 1 to 5; and A moving part that relatively moves the slit nozzle relative to the substrate in the horizontal direction.