JP2000077507A - Substrate support device - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate supporting apparatus capable of easily preventing static electricity from being charged on a substrate. SOLUTION: An elevating pin 57 is composed of a support main body 58 made of ceramics and a conductive part 59 made of SiC and directly supporting the wafer W. Since the wafer W can be conducted through the conductive portion 59, the charge on the wafer W can be easily removed. By forming the conductive portion 59 by sputtering, the thickness of the conductive portion can be made uniform, and the thickness of the conductive portion 59 can be easily controlled. The amount of current flowing through the conductive portion 59 can be easily controlled, and the charge amount of the wafer W can be easily controlled. As a result, it is possible to more easily and reliably prevent static electricity from being charged on the wafer as compared with the related art.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a substrate supporting apparatus provided with a supporting member for supporting a substrate.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a semiconductor device manufacturing process, a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as a "wafer") or an L
A photolithography process of forming a pattern after applying a resist solution on the surface of a CD substrate is employed. In the photolithography process, besides the resist coating process,
Various processing steps such as a development processing step, a heating processing step, and a cooling processing step are included, and a coating and developing apparatus is used in performing a series of these processing steps.

[0003] The coating and developing apparatus is provided with various processing apparatuses such as a resist coating apparatus, an adhesion apparatus, and a baking apparatus, and the transfer of a wafer to these various processing apparatuses is performed by a transfer apparatus. And
For example, when heating a wafer with a baking device, the wafer is first transferred to a baking device by a transfer device, and the wafer is transferred from the transfer device to elevating pins that can move up and down inside the baking device. Next, by lowering the wafer supported by the elevating pins, the wafer is transferred to the proximity pins provided on the heating mounting table, and the wafer supported by the proximity pins is heated by the heat generated from the heating mounting table. . Then, the wafer after the heat treatment is lifted while being supported by the elevating pins, the wafer is transferred from the elevating pins to the transfer device, and the wafer is transferred to the next processing device by the transfer device.

In some cases, static electricity is generated in a clean room due to the transfer of a wafer in the baking device, the rotation of a cup provided in a resist coating device, or the like. If such static electricity is charged on the wafer, the static electricity may adversely affect the formation and development of the resist film, and may cause a reduction in yield.

Therefore, conventionally, the charge of the wafer has been removed by forming the support pins of a metal such as stainless steel. Then, by connecting a resistor having a predetermined resistance value to the support pin, the resistance value of the support member is controlled, and the charge amount of the wafer is controlled to be constant.

In addition, there have been cases where a support pin formed by mixing a conductive material such as carbon with a PEEK (polyetheretherketone) material or the like is used. In this case, the resistance value of the support member can be controlled according to the amount of the conductive substance mixed therein, and the amount of charge stored on the wafer can be controlled to be constant, as in the case where the support pins are formed of metal. Thus, it was possible to prevent static electricity from being charged on the wafer.

[0007]

However, when the support pins are formed of metal, the surface of the wafer may be contaminated by metal dust generated by mutual contact between the wafer and the support pins. In addition, there is a possibility that the resistance value of the support pin varies due to the connection between the support pin and the resistor, and that the charge amount of the wafer also varies with the variation.

When a support pin made of a conductive PEEK material or the like is used, contamination of the surface of the wafer by the metal dust can be prevented, but it is difficult to control the amount of the conductive substance to be constant. In some cases, the amount of charge on the wafer cannot be suitably controlled. Also, if the conductive material is P
In some cases, the EEK material is mixed non-uniformly, making it difficult to control the resistance value of the support pin to a constant value.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a substrate supporting device capable of easily preventing electrostatic charging of the substrate.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for supporting a substrate having a support member for supporting the substrate, the support member comprising an insulator. An apparatus for supporting a substrate, comprising: a main body; and a conductive portion formed on a surface of the support main body is provided.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, in order to form a conductive portion through which a current flows on the surface of the supporting body which is in direct contact with the substrate, the substrate is charged through the conductive portion. can do. Since the amount of current flowing through the conductive portion can be controlled by changing the thickness and the like of the conductive portion, the amount of charge stored on the substrate can be easily controlled.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the device for supporting a substrate according to the first aspect, the conductive portion is made of SiC (silicon carbide).

In the substrate supporting apparatus according to the second aspect, by forming the conductive portion in contact with the substrate with SiC which is harder than a metal, the conductive portion can be formed as compared with the conventional case where the conductive portion is formed of a metal. Dust from the conductive portion can be prevented. Therefore, contamination on the surface of the substrate can be more effectively prevented.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the device for supporting a substrate according to the first or second aspect, the insulator is made of ceramics.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, when the conductive portion is formed of SiC, the conductive portion and the support body are not connected to each other because the support body is formed of ceramics having a high affinity for SiC. Adhesion is improved. Therefore, it is possible to more effectively prevent dust from being generated from the conductive portion that is in direct contact with the substrate.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the substrate supporting apparatus of the second or third aspect, the conductive portion is formed by sputtering or vapor deposition.

In the apparatus for supporting a substrate according to the fourth aspect, since the conductive portion is formed by sputtering or vapor deposition, processing of the conductive portion is facilitated. Further, since the thickness of the conductive portion can be easily changed, it is easy to control the amount of current flowing through the conductive portion and, consequently, the amount of charge stored in the substrate.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. 1 to 3 show the appearance of the coating and developing apparatus. FIG. 1 is a plan view of the coating and developing apparatus, and FIG.
3 shows a front view, and FIG. 3 shows a rear view.

As shown in FIG.
For example, a cassette station 2 for loading and unloading 25 wafers W from the outside to the coating and developing processing apparatus 1 in a cassette unit, and loading and unloading wafers W to and from the cassette C, and a predetermined process for the wafer W A processing station 3 in which various single-wafer processing apparatuses are arranged;
It has a configuration in which an interface unit 4 for receiving and transferring a wafer W between the processing station 3 and an exposure apparatus (not shown) is integrally connected.

In the cassette station 2, a plurality of cassettes C move the entrance and exit of the wafer W at the position of the positioning protrusion 5a on the cassette mounting table 5 serving as a mounting portion.
It can be placed in a line in the X direction (vertical direction in FIG. 1) toward the side. Then, the cassette arrangement direction (X direction) and the wafer arrangement direction (Z
(A vertical direction), the wafer carrier 6 is movable along the carrier path 6a so that each cassette C can be selectively accessed.

The wafer carrier 6 is also rotatable in the θ direction, and has access to an alignment unit 32 and an extension unit 33 belonging to a multi-stage unit of a _third processing unit group G3 on the processing station 3 side to be described later. It is configured to be able to.

In the processing station 3, a main transfer device 13 having three tweezers 10, 11, and 12 for holding a wafer W at the upper, middle, and lower portions at the center thereof is disposed. The processing apparatuses constitute a processing apparatus group in which the processing apparatuses are stacked in multiple stages and are arranged in an integrated manner. In this coating and developing processing apparatus 1, five processing apparatus groups G
₁ , G ₂ , G ₃ , G ₄ , G ₅ can be arranged.
The first and second processing unit groups G ₁ and G ₂ are arranged on the front side of the coating and developing processing unit 1, the third processing unit group G ₃ is arranged on the cassette station 2 side, processing unit group G ₄ of the are arranged in the interface unit 4 side, the fifth processing unit group G ₅ shown by a broken line is disposed on the back side of the coating and developing apparatus 1.

As shown in FIG. 2 in the first processing unit group G _1, 2 single spinner type processing apparatus for performing predetermined processing by placing the wafer W on a spin chuck in a cup CP, for example, a resist coating unit 15 and The development processing devices 16 are stacked in two stages from the bottom. And also in the second processing unit group G ₂ similarly to the first processing unit group G _1, resist coating units 25 and developing device 26 are two-tiered from the bottom in order.

As shown in FIG. 3, the third processing unit group G _3, a cooling unit 30 for cooling the oven-type processing units for performing predetermined processing put on the mounting table the wafer W, for example, the wafer W, and the wafer An adhesion device 31 for improving the adhesion to the resist, an alignment device 32 for positioning the wafer W, an extension device 33 for holding the wafer W on standby, pre-baking devices 34 and 35 for heating the wafer W after applying the resist liquid, A post-baking device 36 for heating the wafer W after the development process,
37 are stacked in order from the bottom, for example, in seven stages.
In the fourth processing unit group G _4, a cooling unit 40, an extension cooling unit 41 for cooling the stand was the wafer W, an extension unit 42, a cooling unit 4
3. Post-exposure baking devices 44 and 45 and post-baking devices 46 and 47 for heating the wafer W after the exposure process are stacked in order from the bottom, for example, in seven stages.

A wafer carrier 50 is provided at the center of the interface section 4. The wafer carrier 50 is configured to freely move in the X and Z directions (vertical direction) and rotate in the θ direction. The fourth processing unit group G ₄
Extension cooling device 41, extension device 42, peripheral exposure device 51 for removing a resist film around wafer W, and exposure device (not shown)
It is also configured to be accessible.

The coating and developing apparatus 1 is configured as described above. Next, the pre-baking devices 34 and 35 having the lifting pins according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described. Since the pre-baking devices 34 and 35 have basically the same configuration, the lower pre-baking device 34 will be described here.

As shown in FIG. 4, the pre-baking device 34 is provided with a disk-shaped heating table 51 for heating the wafer W at a lower portion in the main body 50. Heating table 51
Has a built-in heater 52, for example, and the heater 52 generates heat by electric power supplied from a power supply 53 provided outside the main body 50. Proximity pins 55 capable of supporting the wafer W are provided on the upper surface of the heating mounting table 51.
The proximity pins 55 are provided with pin holes 56 penetrating through the heating table 51. The lifting pins 57 according to the embodiment of the present invention are configured to be able to protrude upward from the upper surface of the heating mounting table 51 from the respective pin holes 56 by the operation of a lifting mechanism (not shown). .

As shown in FIG. 5, in this embodiment, the elevating pin 57 comprises a support body 58 having a curved upper surface and a conductive portion 59 formed so as to cover the surface of the support body 58. I have. The support body 58 is made of, for example, an insulator such as ceramics, and the conductive part 59 is made of, for example, SiC. The conductive portion 59 is formed on the supporting body 5 by sputtering.
8 is formed so as to cover the entire surface, and the thickness of the conductive portion 59 is formed so as to be entirely uniform.

Around the heating table 51, a main body 5 is provided.
A gap 60 is formed between the main body 50 and the inner wall of the main body 50.
An exhaust port 61 connected to an appropriate exhaust means (not shown) is provided at the center of the upper part. Further, a pipe 63 through which a gas such as N ₂ supplied from a gas supply source 62 flows is provided below the main body 50. With this configuration, the air supplied from the gas supply source 62 flows through the inside of the main body 50 through the pipe 63 and the gap 60, and then the exhaust pipe 6.
It is designed to be exhausted from 1.

The pre-baking devices 34 and 35 are configured as described above. Next, the operation and effect of the lifting pin 57 according to the present embodiment will be described.

In the cassette station 2, the wafer carrier 6 accesses the cassette C on the cassette mounting table 5 for accommodating the unprocessed wafers W, and takes out one wafer W from the cassette C. Thereafter, the wafer W by the wafer transfer body 6 is transferred to the alignment unit 32 included in the third processing unit group G _3.

The finished wafer W alignment in the alignment device 32 is conveyed to the adhesion unit 31 included in the third processing unit group G ₃ in a state held by the tweezers 11 of the main transport apparatus 13. Finished wafer W adhesion process is held in tweezers 11 again, is carried into the resist coating unit 15 belonging to the first processing unit group G _1, the resist coating process is performed. Then, finished wafers W in the resist coating process is held by the tweezers 10, it is transported to the pre-baking unit 34 included in the third processing unit group G _3.

As shown by the solid line in FIG. 6, the wafer W transferred to the pre-baking device 34 is loaded into the main body 50 of the pre-baking device 34 while being held by the tweezers 10, and then, as shown in FIG. As shown by the dashed line, it is transferred to the elevating pin 57 which is waiting in a state of being raised in advance. Thereafter, the wafer W supported by the elevating pins 57 is lowered from the position indicated by the one-dot chain line to the position indicated by the two-dot chain line as the elevating pins 57 are lowered, and is supported on the proximity pins 55. The wafer W is subjected to a heat treatment after the application of the resist by the radiant heat generated from the heating mounting table 51.

Next, the wafer W having undergone the predetermined heat treatment
Rises from the position indicated by the solid line in FIG. 7 to the position indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIG. Thereafter, the wafer W is held by the tweezers 11 of the main transfer device 13 that has entered the inside of the main body 50, and is unloaded from the inside of the main body 50. Thereafter, the wafer W is carried to the extension cooling unit 41 of the fourth processing unit group G _4. And
The wafer is taken out of the extension cooling device 41 by the wafer carrier 50, transported to the exposure device (not shown) via the peripheral exposure device 51, and subjected to a predetermined exposure process.

Elevating pin 57 according to the embodiment of the present invention
In this embodiment, a conductive portion 59 for directly supporting the wafer W is formed on the surface of the support main body 58. In order to form the conductive portion 59 from, for example, SiC, the charging of the wafer W supported by the elevating pins 57 is performed through the conductive portion 59. Can be removed. By controlling the thickness of the conductive portion 59, the conductive portion 5 is formed.
By adjusting the amount of current flowing through 9, the amount of charge stored on the wafer W supported by the elevating pins 57 can be made constant. As a result, for example, it is possible to prevent the wafer W from being charged with static electricity generated when the wafer W is received and transferred between the tweezers 10 and the lifting pins 57 and between the lifting pins 57 and the proximity pins 55. Can be.

In this case, the conductive portion 59 directly supporting the wafer W is formed of SiC which is harder than metal, so that the conductive portion 5
9 can be more reliably prevented from being worn or chipped off. Therefore, dust generation from the conductive portion 59 can be effectively prevented. Further, by forming the support body 58 from ceramics, the adhesion between the support body 58 and the conductive portion 59 is further improved. Therefore, the conductive part 5
9 can be more reliably prevented from being generated.

Further, by forming the conductive portion 59 by sputtering, it becomes easier to process the conductive portion 59 to a uniform thickness and to control the thickness of the conductive portion 59. Therefore, it is easy to control the amount of current flowing from the wafer W supported by the elevating pins 57 through the conductive portion 59, and it is more reliable to keep the amount of charge stored on the wafer W constant. Therefore, it is possible to more reliably prevent the static electricity generated between the tweezers 10 and the elevating pins 57 and between the elevating pins 57 and the proximity pins 55 from being charged to the wafer W as described above. .

In the above embodiment, the case where the conductive portion 59 is formed by sputtering has been described. Alternatively, the conductive portion may be formed by vapor deposition. In addition, the lifting pin 57 has been described as an example.
For example, the present invention can be similarly embodied in other supporting members such as the proximity pins 55 for supporting the wafer W. Further, the substrate used in the present invention is not limited to the wafer W, but can be applied to other substrates such as a CD substrate and an LCD substrate.

[0039]

According to the first to fourth aspects of the present invention, a conductive portion which is in direct contact with the substrate is provided, the substrate can be made conductive through the conductive portion, and the charge on the substrate can be easily removed. Then, the amount of current flowing through the supporting member is controlled by changing the thickness of the conductive portion and the like, so that the charge amount of the substrate can be controlled. As a result, it is possible to more easily and surely prevent the substrate from being charged with static electricity as compared with the related art.

In particular, according to the second aspect of the invention, since the conductive portion is formed of SiC which is harder than metal, dust generation due to contact between the substrate and the conductive portion can be effectively suppressed, and contamination of the substrate surface can be achieved. Can be prevented.

In particular, according to the third aspect of the present invention, the support main body is formed of ceramics having a high affinity for SiC. Therefore, dust generation due to contact between the substrate and the conductive portion can be more effectively prevented than in the case of the second aspect.

In particular, according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since the conductive portion is formed by sputtering or vapor deposition, the processing of the conductive portion can be more uniform than before, and the thickness and the like of the conductive portion can be easily changed. Become. Therefore, it is easy to control the amount of current flowing through the conductive portion, and hence the amount of charge stored in the substrate, and it is possible to more reliably prevent the substrate from being charged with static electricity.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the appearance of a coating and developing apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the coating and developing apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a rear view of the coating and developing apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a pre-baking device having elevating pins according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a lifting pin according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which the elevating pins of FIG. 5 lower the wafer and mount the wafer on a heating mounting table.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing a state in which the elevating pins in FIG. 5 elevate the wafer after the heat treatment and stand by;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Coating / developing apparatus 13 Main transport apparatus 34, 35 Prebaking apparatus 55 Proximity pin 57 Elevating pin 58 Support main body 59 Conductive part C Cassette W Wafer

Continuation of the front page F term (reference) 5F031 BB01 CC01 CC04 CC12 EE01 EE12 FF03 KK03 MM06 5F046 CD01 CD05 JA04 JA22 KA04 KA07 KA07 LA01 LA18

Claims (4)

[Claims] An apparatus for supporting a substrate, comprising: a support member for supporting the substrate, wherein the support member includes a support main body made of an insulator and a conductive portion formed on a surface of the support main body. A substrate support device, characterized in that: 2. The substrate supporting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the conductive part is made of SiC. 3. The substrate supporting device according to claim 1, wherein the insulator is a ceramic. 4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the conductive part is formed by sputtering or vapor deposition.