JPH065505A - Equipment for treatment before application of photoresist - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a change in the adhesion of a resist due to changes in the concentration and the pressure of the atmosphere of chemicals in a closed type chamber of equipment for treatment before application of the resist. CONSTITUTION:A wafer 1 before application of a resist is held in a closed type chamber 3 and the atmosphere of chemicals is sent by piping 5 for the atmosphere of chemicals. The concentration of the atmosphere of chemicals in the chamber is measured by a concentration sensor 12 provided at the upper part of the chamber, and a mass flow controller 14 controlling the flow rate of joining nitrogen is controlled by a concentration control circuit 11. Besides, the pressure in the closed type chamber is measured by a pressure sensor 17, while a variable flow control valve 15 provided in the middle of an exhaust piping 4 is controlled by a pressure control circuit 16.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a photoresist application pretreatment device for performing adhesion enhancement treatment which is a photoresist application pretreatment on a semiconductor substrate (hereinafter referred to as a wafer) in a semiconductor manufacturing process.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the semiconductor manufacturing process, a prior art apparatus for treating a wafer surface to make it hydrophobic in a chemical atmosphere in order to improve the adhesiveness of a resist will be described with reference to FIG.

A wafer 1 before resist coating is housed in a hermetically sealed chamber 3 and heated by a heater 2 while a chemical atmosphere pipe 5 is provided.
The chemical atmosphere is sent from the top of the closed chamber by
The gas is exhausted through the exhaust pipe 4 while processing in the closed chamber for a certain period of time.

The chemical atmosphere is a bubbler 10 in which the nitrogen supplied from the automatic nitrogen supply device 6 is contained in the chemical in the chemical container 9.
A chemical atmosphere is generated by bubbling.

When the chemical liquid atmosphere is fed from the chemical liquid container, the chemical liquid surface is gradually lowered by evaporation of the chemical liquid. Therefore, the lower limit point is determined and the chemical liquid is supplied from the chemical liquid automatic supply device 7 to the upper limit.

[0006]

In the conventional photoresist coating pretreatment apparatus described above, the chemical solution in the chemical solution container gradually evaporates due to the evaporation of the chemical solution during the processing, and sufficient bubbling cannot be performed, resulting in a chemical solution atmosphere. Concentration decreases. Therefore, the conventional technique has a drawback that the concentration of the chemical liquid atmosphere changes with the change of the chemical liquid surface in the chemical liquid container.

Due to this defect, the adhesiveness of the resist is changed, and defects such as skirting (abnormal shape) of the resist during resist pattern formation and resist peeling during the etching process are likely to occur. was there.

Further, these problems are revealed after the processing in the next step, which leads to a decrease in yield.

[0009]

A photoresist coating pretreatment apparatus according to the present invention comprises a closed chamber for accommodating a semiconductor substrate, and a chemical liquid container having a bubbling function for generating an atmosphere of a chemical liquid for photoresist pretreatment. The system has a mechanism for measuring the concentration of the chemical atmosphere in the processing chamber and performing feedback control so that the concentration is appropriate, and a mechanism for controlling the pressure inside the closed chamber to a proper pressure.

[0010]

The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention. The wafer 1 before resist coating is housed in the hermetically sealed chamber 3, and the chemical atmosphere is fed through the chemical atmosphere pipe 5 while being heated by the heater 2. This chemical liquid atmosphere is generated by the bubbler 10 by supplying the chemical liquid from the chemical liquid automatic supply device 7 to the chemical liquid container 9 and introducing the nitrogen gas from the nitrogen automatic supply device 6 into the chemical liquid container 9.

On the other hand, the concentration sensor 12 installed at the upper part of the closed chamber 3 measures the concentration of the chemical atmosphere in the close contact type chamber, and the concentration control circuit 11 measures the flow rate of nitrogen from the nitrogen supply device 13 which joins the chemical atmosphere pipe. Is controlled by the mass flow controller 14, the concentration of the chemical liquid atmosphere in the closed chamber can be kept constant.

At this time, in order to prevent the pressure in the closed chamber from becoming unstable due to the influence of exhaust fluctuation, the pressure in the closed chamber is measured by the pressure sensor 17, and the pressure control circuit 16 is used to measure the pressure in the exhaust pipe 4. By controlling the variable flow rate control valve 15 provided on the way, the pressure in the closed chamber can be kept constant.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

In the second embodiment, a relief valve 18 is installed in the middle of the exhaust pipe 4 so that the pressure inside the closed chamber can be kept constant.

When the present apparatus is used in an environment where there is almost no fluctuation in exhaust gas, it is possible to use the pressure control method of the second embodiment.

As a result, there is an effect that the cost of the device can be reduced as compared with the first embodiment.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, by performing the concentration control and the pressure control of the chemical atmosphere in the processing chamber, the single-wafer processing environment becomes constant, and the resist coating pretreatment due to the change of the state of the chemical atmosphere. The non-uniformity can be eliminated and the product yield can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a resist coating pretreatment apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a resist coating pretreatment apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a resist coating pretreatment device of a conventional technique.

[Explanation of Codes] 1 Wafer 2 Heater 3 Closed chamber 4 Exhaust pipe 5 Chemical atmosphere pipe 6 Automatic nitrogen feeder 7 Automatic chemical feeder 8 Nitrogen gas 9 Chemical container 10 Bubbler 11 Concentration control circuit 12 Concentration sensor 13 Nitrogen feeder 14 Mass flow controller 15 Variable flow control valve 16 Pressure control circuit 17 Pressure sensor 18 Relief valve

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A sealed chamber for accommodating a semiconductor substrate, a mechanism for generating an atmosphere of a chemical solution for photoresist coating pretreatment by a chemical solution container having a bubbling function, and supplying the air into the sealed chamber, and this air supply. A photoresist coating pretreatment apparatus comprising a mechanism for controlling the concentration of a chemical atmosphere and a mechanism for controlling the pressure in a closed chamber.