JPH03208331A - Equipment for processing resist film - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a small-sized and low-cost processing system as a whole by providing respective heating means and cooling means in respective processing units and providing a common temperature controlling means for the respective cooling means to centralize the temperature controlling devices of the processing units. CONSTITUTION:Processing units 1A-1C are a adhesion unit, a hot plate and a cooling plate respectively, and are provided with a heating means 2 and a cooling means 3 respectively. Preferably, a heat generating body 21 of a thin film resistor on which an insulating layer 22 such as a ceramics is provided is used as the hot plate in the heating means 2. The cooling means 3 is the one in which a passage 22 of a cooling medium is provided in a plate-like body 31 comprising the material of excellent thermal conductivity. The respective passages 32 in the respectively processing units 1A-1C are connected via a common external pipeline 33 with a device 6 for feeding the cooling medium, which is a common temperature controlling means, and the respective cooling means are subjected to a centralized control. Further, the respective units are set at respective desired processing temperatures, using jointly with the respective heating means 2. Thereby, the size of the equipment, its production cost and its maintenance cost can be reduced as a whole.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] The present invention relates to a resist film processing apparatus.

[Prior Art] In semiconductor manufacturing processes, particularly resist coating, exposure, and development processes, a series of processes from resist coating to cleaning are performed continuously using processing equipment equipped with various processing units such as coaters, developers, and heaters. There is.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, such a processing apparatus has a plurality of coating units 10 for resist coating or adhesion processing, a plurality of processing units 11 for heating plates, cooling plates, etc., and further includes a coating between these units. A transport device 13 is arranged for transporting a wafer as a processing object, and each heating unit and each cooling unit are equipped with respective heating means and/or cooling means to preheat the wafer to a predetermined temperature before resist coating. , the wafer after coating is cooled to a predetermined temperature, or the wafer after cleaning is heated.

In general, a heating plate consists of a heating plate with a built-in electric heating means such as a heater, and a wafer is placed on this heating plate either directly or via a ceramic or quartz ball embedded in the heating plate, and the wafer is placed on the heating plate and connected to the heater. By controlling the current, the set temperature of the hot plate, that is, the heating temperature of the wafer is controlled.

Similarly to a hot plate, a cooling plate is made up of a cooling plate with embedded balls and a refrigerant flow path for cooling the cooling plate. Controls cooling temperature.

Furthermore, some coating units are equipped with an electric heating plate and cooling means as described above, and such units are configured so that the processing temperature can be strictly controlled by controlling the supply of refrigerant or the heater. has been done. These are described in, for example, JP-A-61-23321 and JP-A-61-67224 and are well known.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, in such a conventional resist film processing apparatus, each processing unit has a different set temperature depending on the type of processing, so it is necessary to set the temperature for each processing unit individually. configured to control. In this case, the electric heater can be controlled only by controlling the electric power, so it can be done using a common control system, but in the case of cooling, it is necessary to set the temperature of the refrigerant, so a predetermined temperature adjustment means is required for each unit. A refrigerant supply source with a refrigerant and piping for supplying the refrigerant to the cooling unit had to be provided. Therefore, in a processing device combining such cooling units, the overall size is very large, and since centralized control is not possible, the burden of maintenance, operation, etc. is large.

[Object of the Invention] It is an object of the present invention to solve these conventional problems and provide a resist film processing apparatus that can collectively control the temperature of a plurality of processing units. Furthermore, the present invention aims at downsizing the resist film processing apparatus as a whole and reducing manufacturing and maintenance costs.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The resist film processing apparatus of the present invention that achieves the above object can perform at least adhesion processing, hot plate processing,
In the apparatus equipped with a cooling plate, each of the processing units has a heating means and a cooling means, and each cooling means of the units has a common temperature control means.

[Operation] Each cooling means of a plurality of resist film processing units is controlled by a common temperature control means, and each unit is set to a desired processing temperature by using each heating means in combination.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example in which the resist film processing apparatus of the present invention is applied to a resist coating apparatus will be described with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, processing units LA, IB, and IC are adhesion units, hot plates, and cooling plates, respectively, and are installed in one resist coating device (not shown), and heating means 2 and cooling means 3. As shown in FIG. 2, the heating means 2 of these processing units preferably use a thin film resistance heating element 21 as a hot plate, and an insulating layer 22 of ceramic or the like is provided on the thin film resistance heating element 21. is used. Since the entire heating element 21 of such a heating plate 2 is heated by energizing it, the heat distribution is extremely uniform, and there is no need for a diffusion plate with a large heat capacity, and the overall thickness can be reduced, so when combined with the cooling means 2, Good thermal (cooling) response. Furthermore, the temperature can be easily controlled by simply controlling the amount of current applied to the thin film resistance heating element 21.

Furthermore, the heating plate 2 has three recesses 22a of about φ4 in the insulating layer 22.
is provided, and an insulating ball 4 made of ceramic or the like is embedded in this recess.

The wafer 5, which is the object to be processed, is passed through the ball 4 to the hot plate 2.
It is placed on top and heated or cooled to a predetermined temperature.

Next, the cooling means 3 includes a plate-shaped body 31 made of a material with excellent thermal conductivity, and a coolant flow path 32 provided therein.

Each flow path 32 of each of the processing units IA to IC is connected to a refrigerant supply device 6, which is a common temperature control means, via a pipe 33 outside the unit. The refrigerant supply device 6 includes a pump for circulating the refrigerant at a constant flow rate and a temperature control device for maintaining the refrigerant at a constant temperature.

As the temperature control device, a conventional device can be used, for example, one that vaporizes the refrigerant returned from each unit by reducing pressure to lower the temperature and then liquefies it. Note that, as the refrigerant, known fluids such as water and Fluorinert (trade name) are used.

In the above configuration, a control method in this embodiment will be explained.

Processing units IA, IB, and IC each have different set temperatures,
For example, assume that wafers placed at 25°C, 30°C, and 23°C are processed. In this case, the refrigerant supply device 6 supplies refrigerant adjusted to a constant temperature, for example, 23° C., to the cooling means 3 of each processing unit using a pump. Therefore, each cooling means 3
is uniformly maintained at about 23°C. Here, the set temperature of the cooling plate IC is 23°C, but in the other processing units IA and IB, there is a gap between the temperature maintained by the cooling means 3 (23°C) and the set temperature, so this temperature gap exists. The thin film resistance heating elements 21 of the hot plates 2 of each processing unit IA and IB are energized so as to eliminate the By varying the amount of energization depending on each temperature gap, each can be set to a desired set temperature.

In this embodiment, a processing unit is used as a unit of a resist film processing apparatus, but the present invention can be applied to any unit having a cooling means. For example, if the conveying means has a cooling means, When the refrigerant is used, the refrigerant can be supplied to such a conveying means by a common refrigerant supply means.

Further, in this embodiment, the processing unit in one resist coating apparatus has been described, but it goes without saying that the resist film processing apparatus of the present invention can be applied to each processing unit of a plurality of resist coating apparatuses installed together. do not have.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, according to the resist film processing apparatus of the present invention, the temperature control devices of the plurality of processing units are integrated, so that the entire apparatus can be made smaller and lower in cost. can be achieved. Further, according to the resist film processing apparatus of the present invention, fine temperature control in processing apparatuses having different set temperatures can be performed extremely easily by combining electric heating means and cooling means.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a resist coating apparatus to which a resist film processing apparatus of the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a processing unit according to the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a resist coating device. Fig. 1 1A, IB, IC... Processing unit 2...
...Hot plate (heating means) 3 ...Cooling means 5 ...Substrate (wafer)

Claims (1)

[Claims] A resist apparatus comprising at least an adhesion treatment, a hot plate, and a cooling plate, wherein each of the processing units has a heating means and a cooling means, and each cooling means of the units has a common temperature control means. Membrane processing equipment.