JPH042117A - Chemical treatment device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the throughput of chemicals by holding a sample so that the surface to be treated of the sample is directed downward, forming the level of the chemicals brought into contact with the whole surface of the surface to be treated and agitating the chemicals. CONSTITUTION:The top face of a porous member 3 is supplied with a cleaning liquid through the porous member 3 from the supply section 2 of a cleaning- liquid housing section 1, and the cleaning liquid is protruded onto an outer ring section 1a so as to cover the projecting section 4 of the top face of the porous member 3 by the surface tension of the cleaning liquid. A wafer 6 is sucked to a vacuum spin chuck 5 so that the surface to be cleaned of the wafer 6 is directed downward, the vacuum spin chuck 5 is lowered, and the whole surface of the surface to be cleaned is brought into contact with the level of the cleaning liquid protruded onto the outer ring section 1a. The cleaning-liquid housing section 1 is turned, thus agitating the cleaning liquid held by the outer ring section 1a and the wafer 6 by the projecting section 4, then effectively cleaning the surface to be cleaned of the wafer 6.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is applicable to a chemical processing apparatus for thin plate-like samples (semiconductor wafers, glass photomasks, glass substrates for optical disks, ferrite substrates for thin film heads, etc.). In particular, the present invention relates to a chemical treatment apparatus used for surface treatment of a sample (photoresist coating, development, etching, plating, cleaning, etc.).

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention effectively performs chemical treatment by holding a sample with the surface to be treated facing downward, forming a liquid surface of the chemical solution that contacts the entire surface of the surface to be treated, and stirring the chemical solution. This allows the process to be performed uniformly and at low cost.

[Conventional technology]

A chemical processing device that holds a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as a wafer), which is an example of a thin plate-shaped sample, and processes the surface to be processed includes, for example, a developing device that processes the surface of the wafer to be developed with a developer; Wet etching equipment that processes the etched surface of a wafer with an etching solution, cleaning equipment that performs a cleaning process on the surface of a wafer, and the like are generally widely used. As an example of such a chemical liquid processing apparatus, the applicant of the present invention has also proposed a chemical liquid processing apparatus in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1-183120.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Since the above-described conventional chemical processing apparatus can be automated relatively easily, automation of single wafer processing can be realized, and the processing surface of the wafer can be uniformly processed.

However, when using the above-mentioned conventional chemical processing apparatus, in order to further increase the chemical processing ability, (1) use a more powerful (highly reactive, concentrated) chemical.

■Raise the temperature of the chemical solution.

■Applies ultrasonic vibration to the chemical solution.

■ Stir the chemical solution.

Among these four types of methods, method ① which uses a strong chemical solution has a high degree of reactivity, so there is an increased risk of using it by 1°.

2. It is necessary to improve the corrosion resistance of the chemical solution storage means of the processing device, which leads to an increase in the cost of the device.

The method (2) of raising the temperature of the chemical solution requires accurate temperature control of the chemical solution, which requires a temperature control device, which increases the cost and space of the entire device.

Issues such as this live.

Therefore, means ① and ② are considered to be more effective means, and among these two types of means, a method of increasing the chemical liquid processing ability by adding ultrasonic vibration has already been proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. It is proposed as No.-202009.

The method of applying ultrasonic vibration is an effective method for increasing the processing capacity of chemical liquids, but in order to apply ultrasonic vibrations to chemical liquids, an ultrasonic oscillator, ultrasonic vibrator, drive coil, etc. are required, and the equipment is expensive. It is unavoidable that costs will increase to some degree.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a chemical processing device that has a high chemical processing capacity and can perform uniform chemical processing at low cost without using any special equipment.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a chemical liquid processing apparatus that holds a sample so that the surface to be treated faces downward, forms a liquid surface of the chemical liquid in contact with the entire surface of the surface to be treated, and stirs the chemical liquid. Adopt.

[Effect]

The present invention employs a chemical processing device that holds a sample so that the surface to be treated faces downward, forms a liquid surface of the chemical solution that contacts the entire surface of the surface to be treated, and stirs the chemical solution.
Chemical liquid processing capacity can be increased without using special equipment.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the chemical processing apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings, taking a cleaning apparatus for cleaning the surface of a wafer as an example.

FIG. 1 is a partial sectional view of a main part of a cleaning device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a stirring means of the cleaning device of the present invention.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a cleaning liquid storage portion, the diameter of which is made slightly larger than the diameter of the wafer 6 to be cleaned, and an outer ring portion 1a cut obliquely is provided at the upper part of the outer periphery. There is. A supply unit 2 is provided at the center of the lower part of the cleaning liquid storage unit 1, and a cleaning liquid supply unit (not shown), a pure water supply unit (not shown), and a nitrogen gas supply unit (not shown) are connected to the supply unit 2. has been done.

A disk-shaped porous member 3 made of sintered metal (usually stainless steel or molybdenum) and having a diameter approximately equal to the inner diameter of the cleaning liquid storage portion 1 is fitted into the cleaning liquid storage portion 1 . This porous member 3 has a plurality of protrusions 4 radially arranged on the upper part (in the example shown in FIG. 2, there are four protrusions 4, but
If the number of protrusions 4 is three or more, the function as a stirring means can be satisfied. ) is provided and constitutes a stirring means. Then, when the outer ring portion 1 is fitted into the cleaning liquid storage portion 1, the upper surface of the convex portion 4 is provided in the cleaning liquid storage portion l.
It is accommodated in the cleaning liquid storage part 1 so that it is slightly lower than (a).

A vacuum spin chuck 5 for sucking and cleaning the wafer 6 is arranged above the cleaning liquid storage part l.

In order to clean the wafer 6 using the cleaning apparatus of this embodiment having the above-described structure, first, the cleaning liquid is supplied from the supply section 2 of the cleaning liquid storage section 1 to the upper surface of the porous member 3 via the porous member 3. is supplied, and the surface tension of this cleaning liquid causes the cleaning liquid to swell onto the outer ring portion la so as to cover the convex portion 4 on the upper surface of the porous member 3.

Next, the wafer 6 is attracted to the vacuum spin chuck 5 so that the surface to be cleaned faces downward, and the vacuum spin chuck 5 is lowered to bring the entire surface of the wafer 6 into contact with the surface of the cleaning liquid that has risen on the outer ring portion la. let

By rotating the cleaning liquid storage portion 1, the cleaning liquid sandwiched between the outer ring portion 1a and the wafer 6 is stirred by the convex portion 4, and the surface of the wafer 6 to be cleaned is effectively cleaned.

When the cleaning with the cleaning liquid is completed, pure water is supplied to replace the cleaning liquid in the cleaning liquid storage part 1 with pure water, and the cleaning liquid storage part 1 is rotated to stir the pure water, so that the wafer 6 to be cleaned is washed with pure water. Rinse the cleaning solution remaining on the surface.

After rinsing with pure water is completed, the vacuum spin chuck 5
is raised and rotated to scatter pure water and dry the wafer 6.

Further, nitrogen gas is supplied into the cleaning liquid storage part 1, and the pure water in the cleaning liquid storage part 1 is scattered by the pressure of the nitrogen gas, so that the cleaning liquid storage part 1 is also dried. This means that when cleaning the next wafer 6, the concentration of the cleaning liquid stored in the cleaning liquid storage section l will be lower than that of the wafer 6.
This is to prevent fluctuations with each cleaning.

As explained above, in this embodiment, the cleaning liquid stored in the cleaning liquid storage section 1 is stirred by the rotation of the convex part 4 as the cleaning liquid storage section 1 rotates, and the surface to be cleaned of the wafer 6 is cleaned. Ru. Then, the cleaning liquid remaining on the surface of the wafer 6 to be cleaned is rinsed away by supplying pure water. At this time, cleaning and rinsing may be performed by rotating the vacuum spin chuck 5 instead of only rotating the cleaning liquid storage section 1. In this case, it is expected that the cleaning and rinsing effects will be further improved.

Although the embodiments of the chemical processing apparatus of the present invention have been explained by taking a cleaning apparatus as an example, the chemical processing apparatus of the present invention is not limited to early cleaning, but can also be applied to a photoresist coating apparatus, a developing apparatus, a wet etching apparatus, and a plating apparatus. Needless to say, it can be applied effectively.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The present invention employs a chemical processing device that holds a sample so that the surface to be treated faces downward, forms a liquid surface of the chemical solution that contacts the entire surface of the surface to be treated, and stirs the chemical solution. can be performed effectively, uniformly, and at low cost, improving wafer quality and reducing costs.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial sectional view of a main part of a cleaning device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a stirring means of the cleaning device of the present invention. In the figure, 1...Cleaning liquid storage part 1a...Outer ring part 2...Supply part 3...Porous member 4...Convex part 5... - Vacuum spin chuck 6...Wafer.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A sample holding means for holding a sample so that the surface to be treated faces downward; a chemical solution storage means for forming a liquid surface of a chemical solution so as to be in contact with the entire surface of the surface to be processed; A chemical liquid processing apparatus, comprising: a chemical liquid supply means for supplying the chemical liquid to the means; and a stirring means for stirring the chemical liquid accommodated in the chemical liquid storage means.