JPH02129912A - Resist coater - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a resist coating apparatus suitable for use in semiconductor manufacturing processes.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, this type of resist coating apparatus has been equipped with a vacuum chuck that is rotatably provided in a cup and that sucks a semiconductor wafer.

Resist coating using the resist coating apparatus configured as described above is performed by dropping a photoresist liquid onto the center of the semiconductor wafer, on which a convex portion for an alignment mark is provided in advance.

In this way, a photoresist film is formed over the entire surface of the semiconductor wafer.

Note that the semiconductor wafer is rotated at high speed by a vacuum chuck during resist coating.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

By the way, a photoresist film obtained by a conventional resist coating apparatus is produced by dropping a photoresist solution 2 onto the center of a semiconductor wafer 1 rotating in the direction shown by the arrow in FIG. ('b) and (C).
As shown in FIG. 2, the cross-sectional shape after resist application differs greatly depending on the position of the alignment mark convex portion 3. That is, since the centrifugal force acting on the photoresist liquid 2 at the center of the wafer is small, the cross-sectional shape of the photoresist film 4 is approximately symmetrical as shown in FIG. 2B.

Since the centrifugal force acting on the photoresist liquid 2 at the periphery of the wafer was large, the cross-sectional shape of the photoresist film 4 was asymmetrical, as shown in FIG. As a result, when alignment processing is performed using a stepper after resist coating, the alignment error distribution spreads radially from the center of the wafer toward the periphery, and the alignment error increases along the direction shown by the arrow in FIG.
There is a problem in that scaling errors occur and mask overlay accuracy decreases.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a resist coating apparatus that can suppress the occurrence of scaling errors and thereby improve mask overlay accuracy.

[Means to solve the problem]

A resist coating apparatus according to the present invention includes a chuck that attracts and holds a semiconductor wafer to which a resist solution is applied, and a driver that is connected to the chuck and applies a vibration force radially to each mass point of the resist solution on the semiconductor wafer. It is equipped with the following.

[For production]

In the present invention, a resist film having a uniform thickness can be obtained by the vibration force acting on each mass point of the resist liquid dropped onto the wafer during resist coating.

〔Example〕

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, the structure etc. of this invention will be explained in detail by the Example shown in the figure.

1(a) and 1(b) are a plan view and a sectional view showing a resist coating apparatus according to the present invention, and in the following figures, the same members as in FIGS. 6 (al to d) are designated by the same reference numerals. A detailed explanation will be omitted. In the figure, what is indicated by the symbol "it" is a rotating disk that is rotated at high speed by a drive motor 12, and a vacuum chuck on the periphery that attracts the semiconductor wafer 1 to which the photoresist solution 2 is applied. 13 is held so as to freely rotate.This rotating disk 11 has an outer diameter of about 3 mm.
The dimension is set to 0 cm, and the rotation speed during resist application is set to 3000 to 7000 rpm. 14 is a connecting rod that constitutes the driving body A together with the rotating disk 11, and is connected to the vacuum chuck 13;
It is configured to rotate and move forward and backward within the plane of the semiconductor wafer 1.

As a result of the rotation and forward/backward movement of the connecting rod 14, the semiconductor wafer 1 on the vacuum chuck 13 rotates at high speed while facing to one side as shown in FIG. Further, the photoresist liquid 2 on the semiconductor wafer 1 is moved by the driver A.
A vibration force is applied radially to each mass point. Reference numeral 15 denotes a sliding joint having a slider 16 that rotatably holds the connecting rod 13, and is provided in the outer diameter direction of the rotary disk 11.

Further, 17 is a weight having the same weight as the semiconductor wafer 1,
It is provided at a position spaced apart from the wafer suction position by 180@ in the circumferential direction, and is held on the rotating disk 11.

In the resist coating apparatus configured as described above, when the photoresist liquid 2 is dropped onto the center of the semiconductor wafer 1 which is rotated at high speed by the rotating disk 11, the photoresist liquid 2 is dropped onto the central part of the semiconductor wafer 1 as shown in FIG.
), a uniform vibration force is applied radially to each mass point of the photoresist liquid 2 applied on the convex portion 3 of the semiconductor wafer 1. At this time, vibration force is applied to each mass point of the photoresist liquid 2 applied on the semiconductor wafer 1 other than the convex portion 3 in the same manner as described above.

Therefore, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. A photoresist film 4 can be obtained.

This can be understood from the alignment map with no scaling error shown in Figure TC).

Here, the arrows in the figure indicate the acting force applied to each mass point of the photoresist liquid 2 on the semiconductor wafer 1 during resist application.

In addition, in this embodiment, an example was shown in which the rotational force of the rotating disk 11 is obtained by the drive motor 12, but the present invention is not limited to this, and as shown in FIG. Even if it is obtained by No. 21, the same effect as in the example is achieved. In this case, piston 2
A connecting rod 13 is rotatably connected to 2. Here, 23 is air supplied to the cylinder 21.

In addition, in this embodiment, the connecting line I3 is used as the driving body A.
Although an example consisting of a rotating disk 11 has been shown, the present invention can produce the same effects as in the embodiment even with an apparatus consisting of a spin shaft 31 and an assembled rotating body 32 as shown in FIG. In this case, the rotating assembly 32 includes a cam 33a connected to the spin shaft 31.
It consists of a first rotating body 33 that is movable in the plane direction of the semiconductor wafer 1 and a second rotating body 34 that has a cam 34a connected to this rotating body 33. The semiconductor wafer 1 on the vacuum chuck 14 is moved forward and backward in the directions shown by arrows X and Y in the figure.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the chuck includes a chuck that holds a semiconductor wafer by suction, and a drive body that is connected to the chuck and applies a vibration force radially to each mass point of the resist solution on the semiconductor wafer. Therefore, a resist film having a uniform thickness can be obtained by the vibration force acting on each mass point of the resist solution during resist coating. Therefore, since the occurrence of scaling errors can be suppressed, mask overlay accuracy can be improved.
It is extremely effective when applied to the production of LSIs of half micron level or less.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

18) and (b) are a plan view and a sectional view showing a resist coating apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the orientation of a semiconductor wafer during resist coating according to the present invention, and FIG. a) to (C) also show the resist application state in the present invention, and each shows the acting force applied to the photoresist liquid on the alignment mark after resist application, and a cross section showing the photoresist coverage on the alignment mark. 4 and 5 are plan views showing other embodiments. FIGS. A diagram showing the application state and the acting force applied to the photoresist solution during resist application, a cross-sectional diagram showing the photoresist coverage on the alignment mark at the center of the wafer, and a diagram showing the photoresist coverage on the alignment mark at the periphery of the wafer. 1 is a cross-sectional view for explaining the alignment accuracy after photoresist coating. 1... Semiconductor wafer, 11... Rotating disk,
12... Drive motor, 13... Vacuum chuck,
14...Connecting rod, 15...Joint, A...Driver. Figure 2 Agent Masuo Oiwa Figure 3 (G) (b) (C) Figure 6 (G) (b) (C) (d)

Claims (1)

[Claims] A resist coating system comprising: a chuck that attracts and holds a semiconductor wafer to which a resist solution is applied; and a driver connected to the chuck that applies vibrational force radially to each mass point of the resist solution on the semiconductor wafer. Device.