JPH0499018A - Semiconductor processing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve processing precision, by changing the set temperature or a temperature controlling means according to the surrounding temperature detected by a temperature detecting means, reading processing conditions accord ing to the surrounding temperature from a storing means, and changing the processing conditions of the processing means into the processing conditions according to said surrounding temperature. CONSTITUTION:The temperature of a wafer 1 is set at a surrounding atmo spheric temperature. Spreading conditions for each atmospheric temperature are stored in a data storing equipment 16. A main control equipment 14 reads spreading conditions of the temperature from the data storing equipment 16, according to the atmospheric temperature measured by a temperature sensor 15, and changes set temperatures of, a chuck temperature controlling equipment 6, a resist temperature controlling equipment 10 and a plate temperature control ling equipment 11, and the setting of a rotation control equipment 4 which controls spreading process. Hence the spreading process can be performed under suitable spreading conditions, thereby improving the precision of absolute thick ness of a resist film and uniformity in a surface.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Purpose of the invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to semiconductor processing equipment.

(Prior Art) In general, the manufacturing process of semiconductor devices involves a mixture of processes in which the object to be processed, such as a semiconductor wafer, is heated to a high temperature, for example, several hundred degrees to hundreds of degrees, and a process in which it is processed at room temperature. There is. For this reason, many semiconductor processing apparatuses that perform processing at room temperature are equipped with temperature control means for controlling the temperature of semiconductor wafers and the like to a set temperature near room temperature.

For example, a resist coating device that drops a predetermined amount of photoresist onto the surface of a semiconductor wafer and then rotates the semiconductor wafer at high speed using a spin chuck to form a resist film with a uniform thickness over the entire surface of the semiconductor wafer coats the resist at room temperature. Although the processing is carried out, the temperature of the semiconductor wafer and the temperature of the photoresist may affect the absolute film thickness of the resist film formed,
This has a large effect on the in-plane uniformity of film thickness.

For this reason, even if the pre-process is a heating process, the semiconductor wafer can be cooled (or heated) in advance and set to a predetermined temperature. Some devices are equipped with a temperature control mechanism that sets the temperature at a predetermined temperature.

In such a temperature control mechanism, the semiconductor wafer is heated and cooled so that the temperature of the semiconductor wafer becomes a preset temperature, but this set temperature is usually preset to the temperature in a clean room, for example, 23°C. Ru.

The semiconductor wafer, which has been set at the set temperature by the temperature control mechanism, is then transported onto a spin chuck by the transport mechanism, and a coating process is performed.

By the way, in order to control the resist film thickness with high precision,
In addition to the above-mentioned semiconductor wafer temperature, for example, the photoresist temperature, rotation speed, etc. have an influence, so it is necessary to control these with high precision in addition to controlling the semiconductor wafer temperature.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in recent years, semiconductor devices have tended to be highly integrated, and their circuit patterns have tended to become increasingly finer.

Therefore, even in the conventional semiconductor processing equipment mentioned above,
There is a demand for even more highly accurate processing. For example, in a resist coating apparatus, it is required to improve the accuracy of the absolute film thickness of a resist film, and to improve the in-plane uniformity of the film thickness.

The present invention has been made in response to such conventional circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor processing apparatus that can improve processing accuracy compared to the conventional method.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) That is, the present invention provides a temperature control means for controlling a workpiece to a set temperature near normal temperature, and a temperature control means for controlling the workpiece to be temperature-controlled by the temperature control means. A semiconductor processing apparatus comprising a processing means for performing a predetermined process, a storage means for storing a relationship between the temperature of the object to be processed and a processing condition by the processing means, a temperature detection means for detecting an ambient temperature, and the Processing conditions in which the set temperature of the temperature control means is changed according to the ambient temperature detected by the temperature detection means, and processing conditions corresponding to the ambient temperature are read from the storage means to read the processing conditions of the processing means. The invention is characterized in that it is provided with a control means for changing.

(Function) Upon detailed investigation by the present inventors, it was found that conventional semiconductor processing equipment, such as resist coating equipment, has the following problems.

That is, as mentioned above, in conventional semiconductor processing equipment, such as resist coating equipment, the set temperature of the temperature control mechanism is set in advance to the normal temperature in a clean room, for example, 23°C, and the temperature of the semiconductor wafer is controlled to this set temperature. Then, the semiconductor wafer whose temperature has been controlled to this set temperature is transferred onto a spin chuck and a coating process is performed.

However, although the temperature inside a clean room is usually controlled, the room temperature has a temperature error of, for example, ±1 to 2° C. due to the influence of the external environment.

For this reason, even if the temperature of a semiconductor wafer is controlled to, for example, 23 degrees Celsius with high precision, the temperature in the clean room will be, for example, 23 degrees Celsius.
If the temperature is 1°C, the semiconductor wafer will be cooled during transportation and the temperature of the semiconductor wafer will deviate from the set temperature.
It has been found that this is a contributing factor to the deterioration of processing accuracy, such as deterioration of the accuracy of the absolute film thickness of the resist film and deterioration of the in-plane uniformity of the film thickness.

Therefore, in the semiconductor processing apparatus of the present invention, the set temperature of the temperature control means is changed according to the ambient temperature detected by the temperature detection means, and the processing conditions of the processing means are adjusted to the processing conditions according to the ambient temperature. By changing
Improve processing accuracy.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example in which the present invention is applied to a resist coating apparatus will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the resist coating apparatus is provided with a spin chuck 3 configured to hold a semiconductor wafer 1 with a vacuum chuck, for example, and to rotate the semiconductor wafer 1 at high speed with a motor 2. . The rotation speed of this motor 2 is controlled by a rotation control device 4 according to a predetermined program.

Further, this spin chuck 3 is provided with a structure that prevents the heat of the motor 2 from being transmitted to the semiconductor wafer 1.
A chuck temperature adjustment mechanism 5 is provided for setting the temperature of the upper semiconductor wafer 1 to a predetermined temperature. The chuck temperature control mechanism 5 is composed of, for example, a mechanism (double tube structure) for circulating constant temperature water around the motor 2, and its temperature is controlled by a chuck temperature control device 6.

Furthermore, a resist supply nozzle 7 is provided above the center of the spin chuck 3 . This resist supply nozzle 7 is connected to a resist storage container 8 containing a photoresist solution, and a valve mechanism, a filter mechanism, a bubble removal mechanism, etc. (not shown) are provided between these.

Then, the photoresist solution in the resist storage container 8 is fed under pressure using a gas such as high pressure nitrogen, and the semiconductor wafer 1 held on the spin chuck 3 is fed from the resist supply nozzle 7.
It is configured to supply a predetermined amount at a time.

In addition, the resist storage container 8 and the resist supply nozzle 7
A resist temperature adjustment mechanism 9 consisting of, for example, a mechanism for circulating constant-temperature water is provided in the piping connecting the resist storage container 8 and the resist temperature adjustment mechanism 9, and the resist temperature adjustment mechanism 9 is controlled by a resist temperature control device 10. It is configured so that

On the side of the coating mechanism described above, a plate temperature control device 1 is installed.
A temperature control plate 12 and a transport mechanism 13 whose temperature is controlled by 1 are provided.

Before applying the photoresist solution, the semiconductor wafer 1 is placed on the temperature control plate 12 in advance, and after setting the temperature to a predetermined temperature, the semiconductor wafer 1 is transported to the spin chuck 3 by the transport mechanism 13. has been done.

Further, the rotation control device 4, the chuck temperature control device 6,
Resist temperature control device 10. Plate temperature control device 11
is connected to the main controller 14.

Furthermore, the main controller 14 is configured to receive a temperature detection signal from a temperature sensor 15 for detecting the ambient atmospheric temperature, and depending on the ambient ambient temperature measured by the temperature sensor 15, It is configured to change the set temperatures of the chuck temperature control device 6, the resist temperature control device 10, and the plate temperature control device 11. That is, for example, if the ambient temperature measured by the temperature sensor 15 is 23°C, the chuck temperature control device 6,
Resist temperature control device 10, plate temperature control device 11
If the ambient temperature measured by the temperature sensor 15 is 21°C, the set temperatures of the chuck temperature control device 6, resist temperature control device 10, and plate temperature control device 11 are set to 21°C. configured to set. That is, the wafer temperature is set to the ambient atmosphere temperature.

Further, a data storage device 16 is connected to the main control device 14, and this data storage device 16 stores coating conditions for each ambient temperature (in this case, conditions regarding the rotation speed of the spin chuck 3). . Then, according to the ambient temperature measured by the temperature sensor 15, the main controller 14 reads the coating conditions for that temperature from the data storage device 16, and controls the control device (rotation control device 4) that controls the coating process. It is configured to change the settings to the read coating conditions.

The resist coating apparatus of this embodiment having the above configuration is normally placed in a clean room. Then, the coating process is performed as follows.

That is, the semiconductor wafer 1 to be subjected to the coating process is first placed on the temperature control plate 12 and the semiconductor wafer 1 is set to a predetermined temperature in advance.

The semiconductor wafer 1 is then transported by the transport mechanism 13 and placed on the spin chuck 3 whose temperature has been adjusted in advance.

Thereafter, a predetermined amount of photoresist liquid is dropped from the resist supply nozzle 7 onto the semiconductor wafer 1 on the spin chuck 3, and the semiconductor wafer 1 is rotated by the motor 2 at a predetermined rotation speed for a predetermined time, for example, at a rotation speed of 200° rpm for 30 minutes. The photoresist solution is uniformly spread and applied over the entire surface of the semiconductor wafer 1 by centrifugal force.

At this time, the temperature in the clean room in which the resist coating device is placed varies, for example, within a range of ±1 to 2 degrees Celsius depending on various conditions. A chuck temperature control device that measures the ambient temperature and responds to changes in the ambient ambient temperature! ! 6, resist temperature control device 10,
The set temperature of the plate temperature control device 11 and the settings of the control device (rotation control device 4) that controls the coating process are changed.

Therefore, for example, the temperature of the semiconductor wafer 1 whose temperature has been adjusted by the temperature control plate 12 will not change due to the influence of downflow in the clean room during transportation by the transportation mechanism 13, and the coating can be applied under appropriate coating conditions. Since the processing can be carried out, the accuracy of the absolute film thickness of the resist film and the in-plane uniformity of the film thickness can be improved.

In the above embodiment, an example in which the present invention was applied to a resist coating apparatus was explained, but the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment, and the process may be performed by controlling the temperature of the object to be processed to around room temperature. The present invention can be similarly applied to any device that performs the above process, such as a developer coating device, a hydrophobization treatment liquid coating device, etc.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the semiconductor processing apparatus of the present invention, processing accuracy can be improved compared to the conventional method.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a resist coating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1...Semiconductor wafer, 2...Motor, 3...Spin chuck, 4...
Rotation control device, 5...Chuck temperature adjustment mechanism,
6...Chuck temperature control device, 7...
Resist supply nozzle, 8... Resist storage container, 9... Resist temperature adjustment mechanism, 10...
...Resist temperature control device, 11...Plate temperature control device, 12...Temperature adjustment plate, 1
3... Transport mechanism, 14... Main controller, 15... Temperature sensor, 16... Data storage device. Applicant Tokyo Electron Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A semiconductor processing apparatus comprising a temperature control means for controlling a workpiece to a set temperature near normal temperature, and a processing means for performing a predetermined process on the workpiece whose temperature has been controlled by the temperature control means, storage means for storing the relationship between the temperature of the object to be treated and processing conditions by the processing means; temperature detection means for detecting ambient temperature; Semiconductor processing, characterized in that it is provided with a control means for changing the processing conditions according to the ambient temperature, and for reading the processing conditions according to the ambient temperature from the storage means and changing the processing conditions of the processing means to the read processing conditions. Device.