JPH07283104A - Chemical application device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable manual dropping of chemical like automatic application thereof by connecting a chemical manual supply means to a nozzle and a chemical container for dropping chemical to a semiconductor wafer and by moving the nozzle to a central part of a semiconductor wafer by a nozzle movement mechanism. CONSTITUTION:A nozzle 9d is arranged together with nozzles 9a, 9b, 9c. An injector type manual chemical supplier 33 is connected to a chemical container 1d wherein appreciation chemical 2d is put through a check valve 4d and is connected to the nozzle 3d through a check valve 5d. At first, the nozzle 9d is selected by a nozzle movement device 18 and is moved to a central part of a semiconductor wafer 16 inside an application cup 14 whose temperature and humidity are controlled as specified. Then, a piston 35 of the manual chemical supplier 33 is manually pulled in a direction as indicated with an arrow A and the appreciation chemical 2d is sucked into a cylinder 34. Then, the piston 35 is pushed in a direction as indicated with an arrow C, and the appreciation chemical 2d inside the cylinder 34 is supplied to the nozzle 9d and is dropped on a central part of the semiconductor wafer 16.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a chemical liquid coating device for coating a semiconductor wafer with a chemical liquid such as a resist.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a conventional chemical liquid coating apparatus. In the figure, 1a, 1b and 1c are chemical liquid containers 3a and 3b containing chemical liquids 2a, 2b and 2c such as different resists. 3c is a pump drive device (not shown)
Driven by bellows pumps 4a, 4b, 4
c is the suction port 3a ₁ of the bellows pump 3a, 3b, 3c,
Check valves 5a, 5 connected to 3b ₁ and 3c ₁ , respectively
b and 5c are discharge ports 3 of the bellows pumps 3a, 3b and 3c.
check valves connected to a ₂ , 3b ₂ and 3c ₂ respectively, 6
a, 6b, 6c are filters for removing foreign matters contained in the chemical liquid 2 discharged from the bellows pumps 3a, 3b, 3c, and 7a, 7b, 7c are pneumatic valves (AIROPER).
ATED VALVE), 8a, 8b and 8c are suck back valves, and 9a, 9b and 9c are coating cups 14 described later.
As shown in FIG. 5, the substrate 11 includes a substrate 11, a nozzle body 12 fixed to the substrate 11 and connected to a connecting pipe 10 such as a Teflon tube, and a cut portion 13a. It is composed of an engaging element 13 fixed to 11.

The nozzle 9a is connected to the chemical liquid container 1a by a connecting pipe 10a through a suck valve 8a, a pneumatic valve 7a, a filter 6a, a check valve 10a, a bellows pump 3a and a check valve 5, and a pneumatic valve 7a. Nozzle 9
The amount of the chemical solution 2 dropped from a is controlled, and the nozzle 9a
After a predetermined amount of the chemical liquid 2a is dropped from the suck back valve 8 so that the chemical liquid 2a does not hang down from the nozzle 9a.
The liquid medicine 2 is sucked by a. In addition, the nozzles 9b and 9
Similarly for c, suck back valves 8b and 8c, pneumatic valves 7b and 7c, filters 6b and 6c, and check valves 5b and 5c.
Via the bellows pumps 3b and 3c and the check valves 4b and 4c and the connecting pipes 10b and 10c, the chemical liquid containers 1b and 1c.
Connected to. Reference numeral 30 denotes a container constituted by an outer frame 31 of the coating cup and a coating cup cover 32, and 14 denotes a coating cup arranged in the container 30. The coating cup 14 has a predetermined temperature controlled by a temperature and humidity controller (not shown). It is controlled by temperature and humidity.

Reference numeral 15 denotes a chuck which is disposed in the coating cup 14 and is rotationally driven by a driving motor 17 via a motor shaft 17a, and 16 is a semiconductor wafer which is fixed to the chuck 15 and rotationally driven together with the chuck 15 by the driving motor 17. , 18 are arranged in the container 11 and have nozzles 9a, 9
This is a nozzle moving device that selects one of b and 9c and moves it to the center of the semiconductor wafer 16 by the arm 25. As shown in FIG. A drive motor 20 including a stepping motor and the like fixed inside; a rail 21 arranged on the inner surface of the case 19 so as to extend in the X-axis direction;
Endless belts 22a and 22b and pulleys 23a and 2
3b, and a power transmission mechanism 24
And an arm 25 that is driven by a drive motor 20 via a rail and slides on a rail 21 and moves in the X-axis direction.

The arm 25 includes an arm body 26 and an air cylinder 27 for vertically driving the arm body 26.
Then, as shown in FIG. 4, a lever 28 that rotates about a pivot 27 as a fulcrum and engages with a notch 13a of the engaging element 13 of the nozzle 9 inserted into a recess 26a formed at the tip of the arm body 26. And an air cylinder 29 that drives the lever 28.

Next, the operation will be described. First, a case where the semiconductor wafer 16 is coated with the chemical liquid 2a in the chemical liquid bottle 1a will be described. Arm 2 by air cylinder 27
When the drive motor 20 is driven so that its motor shaft rotates clockwise, the belt 22b also rotates clockwise and the arm 25 moves on the rail 21 along the x-axis.
When the concave portion 26a of the arm 25 comes over the engaging element 13 of the nozzle 9a, the drive motor 20 stops. Then, the arm 25 is driven by the air cylinder 27 and descends, and the engaging element 13 of the nozzle 9a is inserted into the recess 26a as shown in FIG. When the engaging element 13 of the nozzle 9a is inserted into the recess 26, the air cylinder 29
As a result, the lever 28 is driven counterclockwise about the pivot 27, the tip of the lever 28 enters the notch 13a of the engaging element 13, the lever 28 engages with the engaging element 13, and the nozzle 9a is held by the arm 25. It

When the nozzle 9a is held by the arm 25, the arm 25 is driven again by the air cylinder 27 and moves up. Then, the drive motor 2 is driven through the power transmission mechanism 24.
Driven by the arm 0 and the arm 25 moves along the x-axis to the rail 21.
When the nozzle 9a moves to the left in FIG. 3 and the nozzle 9a reaches the center of the semiconductor wafer 16, the drive motor 20 stops. When the nozzle 9a comes to the center of the semiconductor wafer 16, the arm 25 is driven by the air cylinder 27 and moves down until the distance between the semiconductor wafer 16 and the nozzle 9a becomes a predetermined distance. When the nozzle 9a is positioned at the above-mentioned predetermined interval position on the central portion of the semiconductor wafer 16, the semiconductor wafer 16 fixed to the chuck 15 is rotationally driven together with the chuck 15 by the drive motor 17 at a predetermined rotational speed. The bellows pump 3a is a pump drive device (not shown).
And is supplied with the chemical liquid 2a in the chemical liquid bottle 1a to the nozzle 9a through the check valves 4a, 5a, the filter 6a, the pneumatic valve 7a and the suck back valve 8a.
A predetermined amount of the chemical liquid 2a is dropped on the semiconductor wafer 16 from the nozzle 9a. Chemical liquid 2 dropped on the semiconductor wafer 16
Since the semiconductor wafer 16 is rotated at a predetermined number of revolutions by the drive motor 17 in a, the centrifugal force spreads around the semiconductor wafer 16 and a film is formed on the semiconductor wafer 16. As a result, the chemical liquid 2a on the semiconductor wafer 16
Coating is completed.

Next, the case where the chemical liquid 2b in the chemical liquid bottle 1b is applied to the semiconductor wafer 16 will be described. Arm 2
When 5 is moved rightward in FIG. 3 along the X axis,
The nozzle 9b is provided with a nozzle driving device (not shown) so that the concave portion 26a of the arm 25 is on the engaging element 13 of the nozzle 9b.
To move in the Y-axis direction. Then, similarly to the above, when the nozzle 9b is selected by the nozzle moving device 18 and moved to the central portion of the semiconductor wafer 16, the bellows pump 3
b and the drive motor 17 are driven, and the chemical liquid 2b is dropped on the semiconductor wafer 16 rotating at a predetermined rotation speed,
A film of the chemical liquid 2b is formed on the semiconductor wafer 16. This completes the coating of the chemical liquid 2b on the semiconductor wafer 16. It should be noted that the semiconductor wafer 16 is placed on the chemical solution 2 in the chemical solution bottle 1c.
The case of applying c is performed in the same manner as described above, and therefore its description is omitted.

Next, a case where a new chemical liquid is connected to the above-mentioned chemical liquid coating device for automatically coating the semiconductor wafer with the chemical liquid will be described. In this case, first, the drug solution is evaluated, but the drug solution bottle for evaluation contains only a small amount (about 200 ml to 500 ml) of the sample drug solution,
On the other hand, a large amount (about 1 to 2 liters) of the chemical liquid is required to connect the new chemical liquid to the chemical liquid coating device, and a lot of time is required to connect the new chemical liquid. Therefore, at the stage of connecting the chemical liquid bottle for evaluation to the above-mentioned chemical liquid coating device, the chemical liquid is exhausted and the evaluation cannot be performed. Therefore, in order to evaluate the chemical solution, as shown in FIG. 6, a syringe-type manual chemical solution supply including a cylinder 34 having a chemical solution intake / discharge port 34a and a piston 35 manually reciprocating in the cylinder 34. The instrument 33 is used.

Next, the operation will be described. First, when the chemical liquid inlet 34a is inserted into the chemical liquid bottle (not shown) for evaluation and the piston 35 is pulled by hand to make the inside of the cylinder 34 negative pressure, the chemical liquid 2d for evaluation of the sample in the chemical liquid container is transferred to the cylinder. Inhaled into 34. Next, the application cup cover 32 is opened. In this state, the chuck 15 is rotationally driven by the drive motor 17, and the semiconductor wafer 16 fixed to the chuck 15 is rotationally driven together with the chuck 15 at a predetermined rotational speed. Next, when the manual chemical liquid supply instrument 33 in which the evaluation chemical liquid 2d is sucked into the cylinder 34 is manually moved to aim at the central portion of the semiconductor wafer 16 and the piston 35 is manually pushed to make the inside of the cylinder 34 a positive pressure, The chemical liquid 2d therein is dropped on the semiconductor wafer 16.
Since the semiconductor wafer 16 is rotating, the dropped chemical liquid 2a spreads to the periphery of the semiconductor wafer 16 due to its centrifugal force and spreads to the upper surface of the semiconductor wafer 16.
A film is formed on top. This completes the application of the chemical solution.

[0011]

Since the conventional chemical liquid coating device is constructed as described above, the coating cup cover must be opened when the chemical liquid is manually coated on the semiconductor wafer, and therefore, the inside of the coating cup must be opened. It is not possible to control the temperature and humidity at a constant level, and the chemical solution is dropped onto the semiconductor wafer by hand holding the manual chemical solution supply device, so the chemical solution cannot be successfully dropped onto the central part of the semiconductor wafer. The application conditions differ each time due to camera shake. Therefore, the uniformity of the coating film thickness on the surface of the semiconductor wafer becomes poor, and the film thickness uniformity is different from the case where the chemical liquid is automatically applied by the above-mentioned chemical liquid coating device, and an accurate evaluation cannot be performed. In addition, since the amount of chemical liquid that can be inhaled by the manual chemical liquid supplying device is small, there is a problem that a large number of semiconductor wafers cannot be processed at one time.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and like the case of automatically applying a chemical solution to a semiconductor wafer, the application cup cover is closed and the chemical solution is applied. It is an object of the present invention to provide a chemical liquid coating device that can be manually dropped onto the center portion of a semiconductor wafer and is capable of continuous coating processing.

[0013]

In a chemical solution coating apparatus according to the present invention, a chemical solution manual supply means is connected to a nozzle for dropping a chemical solution onto a semiconductor wafer and a chemical solution container, and the nozzle is moved to the center of the semiconductor wafer by a nozzle moving mechanism. It was designed to be moved to the club.

Further, the cylinder of the manual chemical liquid supply means composed of a cylinder and a piston for manually reciprocating the inside of the cylinder to make the inside of the cylinder a negative pressure or a positive pressure is connected to the chemical liquid container via the first valve. The second valve is connected to the nozzle via the second valve so that the first valve is opened when the negative pressure is applied and the second valve is opened when the positive pressure is applied. It is designed to move to the center.

[0015]

The chemical liquid coating device according to the present invention has a predetermined temperature,
In the coating cup controlled to the humidity, to the central portion of the semiconductor wafer rotating at a predetermined number of rotations, the chemical liquid is supplied to the nozzle moved by the nozzle moving means by the manual chemical liquid supplying means, and the nozzle of the semiconductor wafer is supplied from the nozzle. The chemical solution film is dropped on the central portion and is formed on the semiconductor wafer by centrifugal force.

Further, when the chemical liquid is sucked from the chemical liquid container by the manual chemical liquid supply means through the first valve, the second valve inserted between the manual chemical liquid supply means and the nozzle is closed, and the nozzle of the sucked chemical liquid is the nozzle. The first valve is closed at the time of supply to.

[0017]

【Example】

Example 1. 1 is a block diagram showing a chemical liquid coating apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the difference from FIG. 2 is a substrate 11 and a substrate 1 as shown in FIG.
Nozzle drive device (not shown) is provided in the same manner as the nozzles 9a, 9b, 9c. The nozzle 9d includes a nozzle body 12 fixed to the nozzle 1 and an engaging element 13 having a notch 13a and fixed to the substrate 11. 3 are arranged side by side with the nozzles 9a, 9b, 9c so as to be driven in the Y-axis direction in FIG. 3 and moved in the X-axis direction by the arm 25, and the cylinder 34 and the cylinder 34 having the chemical liquid inlet / outlet port 34a.
A syringe-type manual chemical liquid supply device 33, which is composed of a piston 35 that reciprocates in the inside by hand and is arranged in the vicinity of the container 30, is evaluated by a connecting pipe 10d such as a Teflon tube via a check valve 4d. The point is that it is connected to a drug solution container 1d containing a drug solution 2d and is connected to a nozzle 9d by a connecting pipe 10d via a check valve 5d. The cylinder 34 is made of a transparent material and has a memory (not shown) on its surface so that the amount of sucking and discharging the chemical liquid can be controlled.
Is attached.

Next, the operation will be described. Chemicals 2a, 2
Since the coating of b and 2c is the same as the above, the description thereof will be omitted and the coating of the evaluation chemical liquid 2d will be described. First, when the arm 25 moves rightward in FIG. 3 along the X-axis, the concave portion 26a of the arm 25 causes the nozzle 9 to move.
The nozzle 9b is driven in the Y-axis direction by a nozzle driving device (not shown) so as to come on the engagement element 13 of b. Then, the nozzle 9d is selected by the nozzle moving device 18 in the same manner as described above, and the nozzle 9d is selected on the central portion of the semiconductor wafer 16 in the coating cup 14 which is controlled to a predetermined temperature and humidity by a temperature / humidity control device (not shown). Be moved. Next, when the piston 35 of the manual chemicals supply device 33 is manually pulled in the direction of the arrow A to make the inside of the cylinder 34 a negative pressure, the check valve 4d is opened and the evaluation chemical 2d is released from the chemical container 1d through the check valve 4d. Flow B is drawn into the cylinder 34. At this time, since the check valve 5d is closed, there is no backflow of the chemical liquid from the nozzle 9d. Next, when the piston 35 is manually pushed in the direction of arrow C to make the inside of the cylinder 34 at a positive pressure, the check valve 4d is closed and the check valve 5d is opened, so that the evaluation chemical liquid 2 in the cylinder 34 is opened.
d flows in the direction of arrow D, is supplied to the nozzle 9d through the check valve 5d, and drops on the central portion of the semiconductor wafer 16. The semiconductor wafer 16 is moved to the chuck 1 by the drive motor 17.
Since it rotates at a predetermined number of revolutions together with 5, the dropped evaluation chemical liquid 2d is applied to the semiconductor wafer 1 by the centrifugal force.
A film is formed on the upper surface of the semiconductor wafer 16 so as to spread around the periphery of the semiconductor wafer 6. Thereby, the chemical liquid 2b on the semiconductor wafer 16
Coating is completed.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, since the manual chemicals supply device 33 is arranged in the vicinity of the container 30, the total length of the connecting pipe 10d from the chemicals container 1d to the nozzle 9d is shortened, and the connection is made. The amount of chemical liquid required for the connection is small, and the connection pipe 10d and the inside of the manual chemical liquid supply device 33 can be easily cleaned at the time of connection, and the connection work can be performed in a short time, and the piston 35 can be manually operated. Nozzle moved by the nozzle moving means to the central portion of the semiconductor wafer which rotates the evaluation chemical liquid 2d at a predetermined number of revolutions in the application cup controlled to a predetermined temperature and humidity only by reciprocating the inside of the cylinder 34 by 9d, and the film of the chemical liquid is formed by being dropped on the central part of the semiconductor wafer, so that the film thickness uniformity equivalent to that when the film is automatically formed on the semiconductor wafer is obtained. And, chemical coating treatment to a large number of semiconductor wafers can be performed in a short time.

Example 2. Although the check valve 4d is provided between the manual chemical liquid supply device 33 and the chemical liquid container 1d in the first embodiment, the check valve 5d is provided between the manual chemical liquid supply device 33 and the nozzle 9d. Not limited to this, the check valve 4
Solenoid valves 4d and 5d are used instead of d and 5d, and the solenoid valve 4d is opened when the chemical liquid is sucked from the chemical liquid container 1d.
The solenoid valve 4d may be closed and the solenoid valve 5d may be controlled to be opened when the inhaled chemical liquid is supplied to the nozzle 9d, and the same effect as in the first embodiment is obtained.

Example 3. Further, in the first embodiment described above, the syringe-type manual chemical liquid supply instrument 33 including the cylinder 34 and the piston 35 is used as the manual chemical liquid supply means, but the invention is not limited to this, and the chemical liquid is manually sucked from the chemical liquid container. As long as it is capable of discharging the sucked liquid medicine,
For example, a spoid may be used, and the same effect as that of the first embodiment can be obtained.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, the chemical liquid is manually applied to the central portion of the semiconductor wafer while the inside of the coating cup in which the semiconductor wafer is disposed is controlled to a predetermined temperature and humidity. Since it is configured to be dropped, the same film thickness uniformity as in the case of automatically applying the chemical solution to the semiconductor wafer is performed, and with a small amount of the chemical solution, highly reliable evaluation of the chemical solution can be performed. It has an effect that it can be easily performed.

Further, a manual chemical liquid supplying device composed of a cylinder and a piston which reciprocates in the cylinder is connected to the chemical liquid container through the first valve and is moved to the center of the semiconductor wafer by the nozzle moving mechanism. Nozzle 2nd
By connecting through the valve, the piston can be reciprocated to continuously apply the chemical solution to a large number of semiconductor wafers.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a chemical liquid coating device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a conventional chemical liquid coating device.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing details of a nozzle moving mechanism shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation of the arm shown in FIG.

5 is a configuration diagram of the nozzle shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a manual chemical liquid coating operation in a conventional chemical liquid coating device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a-1d Chemical liquid container 3a-3c Bellows pump 4a-4d Check valve 5a-5d Check valve 9a-9d Nozzle 10a-10d Connection pipe 14 Coating cup 15 Chuck 17 Drive motor 18 Nozzle moving mechanism 30 Container 31 Outside coating cup Frame 32 Application cup cover 33 Manual chemical liquid supply instrument 34 Cylinder 35 Piston

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A first nozzle for dropping a chemical solution onto a semiconductor wafer which is fixed to a chuck provided in an application cup whose temperature and humidity are controlled to be constant and which is rotationally driven together with the chuck is provided with a first nozzle which is almost the same as the semiconductor wafer. In a chemical liquid coating apparatus including a nozzle moving mechanism that moves to a central portion and an automatic chemical liquid supplying unit that sucks the chemical liquid from a first chemical liquid container and supplies the chemical liquid to the nozzle, a second chemical liquid dropping device is used to drop the chemical liquid on the semiconductor wafer. A nozzle, a second chemical solution container accommodating the chemical solution to be supplied to the second nozzle, and a chemical solution that is connected to the second nozzle and sucks the chemical solution from the second chemical solution container and supplies the chemical solution to the second nozzle. And a manual chemical solution supplying means for moving the second nozzle to substantially the center of the semiconductor wafer by the nozzle moving mechanism. 2. A first nozzle for dropping a chemical solution onto a semiconductor wafer which is fixed to a chuck provided in an application cup whose temperature and humidity are controlled to be constant and which is driven to rotate together with the chuck, is provided with a first nozzle which is substantially disposed on the semiconductor wafer. In a chemical liquid coating device including a nozzle moving mechanism that moves to a central portion and an automatic chemical liquid supplying means that sucks the chemical liquid from a first chemical liquid container and supplies the chemical liquid to the nozzle, the nozzle moving mechanism substantially centers the semiconductor wafer. Second nozzle that is moved to a portion where the chemical liquid is dropped onto the semiconductor wafer, and a first chemical liquid container that is connected to a second chemical liquid container that stores the chemical liquid supplied to the second nozzle.
Valve, a second valve connected to the second nozzle, a cylinder communicating with the first and second valves, and manually reciprocating in the cylinder to cause negative pressure or positive pressure in the cylinder. A manual chemical liquid supply device configured by a piston for applying a pressure is provided, and the first valve is opened when the negative pressure is applied, and the second valve is opened when the positive pressure is applied. .