JPS6284517A - Treating apparatus for photosensitizer application - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the generation of contamination and damage of substrates as far as possible and to improve the efficiency of treatment for application of a photosensitizer, by applying preliminary and additional treatments to each vessel in which prescribed numbers of substrates are held in one unit. CONSTITUTION:Prescribed numbers of substrates 3 are held in one unit in a vessel 2a. When preliminary treatment of the substrates is finished in a preliminary treatment chamber 6 of a preliminary treatment box 4, a partition plate 5 lowers, and the vessel is conveyed automatically to a cooling chamber 7. A vessel 2b in which one unit of the substrates having been subjected to the preliminary treatment is held is put on an elevator 9. A takeout device 10 takes the substrates one by one out of the vessel 2b and sets the same on a photosensitizer applying device 11. A device 12 for holding puts sensitizer-coated substrate one after another into a vessel 2c set on an elevator 13. The vessel in which one unit of the sensitizer-coated substrates is held is held in an additional treatment chamber 16 of an additional treatment box 14. When additional treatment is ended, a partition plate 15 lowers, and a vessel 2d being conveyed is cooled in a cooling chamber 17 partitioned by a partition plate having risen. The vessel after cooled is taken out by opening a front door 19.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an apparatus for applying a photosensitive agent (resist) to a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer or a glass mask.

(Prior Art) In order to apply a photosensitizer onto a substrate, pretreatment in an oven or hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) is performed for the purpose of removing the IJiHo group or improving the adhesion of the photosensitizer to the substrate surface. ) Heating using a pretreatment device such as a vapor phase coating device or vapor phase coating of hexamethyldisilazane is required.

After coating the photosensitive agent, heating with a post-processing device such as an oven is required as a post-treatment for the purpose of volatilizing the photosensitive agent solvent component or improving the adhesion of the photosensitive agent to the substrate surface. .

Photosensitive agent coating apparatuses that process a series of steps including such pre-treatment and post-treatment have conventionally been put into practical use, including full-sheet wafer coating apparatuses and semi-automatic coating apparatuses in which only the coating section is automated.

In the former, as shown in FIG. 2, a pre-processing device 4', a coating device 5', and a post-processing device 6' are arranged on a machine frame 1', and a predetermined number of sheets are placed in a container 2' called a carrier. The board 3', which is stored as one unit, is transported by a transport device (not shown).
After the substrates are sent one by one to the pre-processing device 4' for pre-processing, a photosensitive agent is applied to the substrates in the coating device 5'. It is configured to be stored in.

Furthermore, in the latter case, the pre-processing device, the coating device, and the post-processing device are not arranged on the same line, but are arranged independently. Therefore, one unit of substrate is stored in a container and pretreated using a pretreatment device such as an oven, and then sent to the coating device along with the container by hand or using a simple transport device.After coating, the container containing one unit of substrate is transferred to the coating device. The container is then sent to a post-processing device such as an oven manually or by a simple transport device, and the entire container is post-processed.

(Problems of the Prior Art to be Solved by the Invention) In the photosensitive agent coating process, adhesion of foreign matter such as dust to a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer is most disliked.

Furthermore, there is a fear that even a slight scratch may be caused to the expensive substrate.

However, in the former case, the loading and unloading of the substrate into and out of the container, the pre-processing process, and the post-processing process are performed with the substrate exposed in a dust-free atmosphere, so that contamination by dust from each device and the human body is inevitable.

Further, there is a drawback that the frequency of damage to the substrates increases when the substrates are loaded/unloaded and transported one by one.

Furthermore, since each device, especially the pre-processing device and the pre-processing device, are arranged in a horizontal plane, an increase in cost cannot be ignored, especially due to an increase in the floor area occupied by the dust-free chamber due to the recent increase in the size of substrates.

Next, in the latter case, each device is arranged independently, and the loading and unloading of containers into and out of each device must be done manually, resulting in operational errors and increased man-hours.

Furthermore, the increase in floor space occupied by dust-free rooms, including the flow of people, cannot be ignored.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks, reduces the frequency of substrate contamination and damage as much as possible, reduces the floor space occupied by a dust-free chamber of a photosensitive agent coating processing device, and improves processing efficiency by as much automation as possible. The purpose is to improve.

(Means for solving problems) Therefore, the present invention is configured as follows.

That is, there is a pre-processing box that stores containers containing a predetermined number of substrates as one unit and pre-processes each container, a coating device that applies a photosensitizer onto the pre-processed substrates, and a container that has been coated with the photosensitizer. A post-processing box that stores unit substrates and performs post-processing together with the container is placed on the same processing line. In the pretreatment box,
A heating device such as an oven or a pretreatment device such as a hexamethyldisilazane vapor phase coating device is built-in. The post-processing box has a built-in post-processing device such as an oven.

In addition, in order to send the pretreated substrates to the coating device, there is a take-out elevator that stores one unit of pretreated substrates and lifts and lowers the container sent from the preprocessing box. There is a take-out device that sends coated substrates one by one to the coating device, a storage elevator that lifts and lowers containers that store each unit of coated substrates and is sent to a post-processing box, and a container that is placed in the storage elevator that is coated. , and a storage device for feeding cloth-filled substrates one by one.

(effect) A container containing one unit of substrate is placed in a pretreatment box.

Pretreatment is performed in a pretreatment box without exposing the substrate, and then the substrate is sent to an unloading elevator.

The take-out elevator is configured to descend (or rise) one stage at a time, that is, one board at a time, each time the take-out device takes out a board one by one. The take-out device takes out the substrates one by one from the container and sets them in the coating device.

The coating device spins and coats the photosensitive agent onto the substrate. The substrates coated by the coating device are stored one by one in a container placed on a storage elevator by a storage device. This storage elevator is also configured to ascend (or descend) one stage each time one board is stored in a container.

A container containing about one coated substrate is sent to a post-processing box, where post-processing is performed without exposing the substrate.

(Embodiment) In FIG. 1, 1 is a machine frame, and 2a is a container generally called a carrier, in which a predetermined number of substrates 3, about one, is stored.

A pretreatment box 4 is divided into a pretreatment chamber 6 and a cooling chamber 7 by a partition plate 5. Although not shown in the drawings, the pretreatment chamber is equipped with a heating device such as an oven, a hexamethyldisilazane vapor phase coating device, and the like, and the cooling chamber is equipped with a cooling device. The pretreatment chamber 6 is equipped with a front door 8 for putting containers in, and the cooling chamber 7 is equipped with a rear door (not shown) for taking out the cooled containers. The processing box 4 is sealed. Furthermore, when the pretreatment of the substrate is completed, the partition plate 5 is lowered, and the container is automatically sent to the cooling chamber 7 by a transport means (not shown), where it is partitioned by the raised partition plate and cooled. There is.

The container 2b containing about one pretreated substrate, which is taken out by opening the rear door of the preprocessing box 4, is placed on the takeout elevator 9. The take-out elevator 9 is configured to descend one step at a time when a take-out device, which will be described later, takes out substrates one by one from the lowest step.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a take-out device which takes out the substrates one by one from the container 2b on the take-out elevator 9 and places them in a known photosensitive agent coating device 1). In the embodiment, the substrate in the container is scooped out using two rotating arms, but it is also possible to sandwich the substrate and take it out by opening and closing the two arms.

12 is a storage device having the same configuration as the take-out device IO;
The coated substrates are stored one by one in a container 2c placed on a storage elevator 13.

Contrary to the aforementioned take-out elevator 9, the storage elevator 13 rises one step each time the storage device 12 stores a substrate from the top of the container.

14 is a post-processing box, which, like the pre-processing box 4, has a partition plate 15.
It is divided into a post-processing chamber 16 and a cooling chamber 17.

The post-processing chamber 16 is provided with a rear door 18, and the cooling chamber 17 is provided with a front door 19. The container containing about one substrate coated with the photosensitive agent is placed in the post-processing chamber 16 with the rear door opened, and post-processed using a post-processing device such as an oven (not shown). When the post-processing is finished, the partition plate 15 is lowered, and the container 2d sent by the transport device (not shown) is cooled in the cooling chamber 17 partitioned by the raised partition plate. The cooled container is taken out by opening the front door 19. Of course, if you close the front and rear doors, the post-processing chamber will also be sealed.

Note that the pre- and post-treatment chambers may not be divided into two, but heating, hexamethyldisisan vapor phase coating, and cooling may be performed in one chamber. Furthermore, it is optional to raise or lower both the take-out and storage elevators, or to raise and lower them in the opposite manner to the embodiment.

(effect) The effects of this invention are listed below.

(1) Since the pre-treatment and post-treatment that are essential in the photosensitive agent coating process can be performed airtight without exposure to a dust-free room, chances of contamination can be minimized.

(2) Since pre-processing of the substrate, setting it in the coating device, storing it in a container after coating, etc. do not require manual labor, damage to the substrate is reduced.

(3) Since the pre- and post-processing chambers are not developed on a horizontal plane, the floor area occupied by the dust-free chamber can be reduced.

(4) Since pre- and post-processing can be performed for each container containing a predetermined number of substrates, the photosensitive agent coating process can be performed efficiently.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a conventional all-sheet wafer coating apparatus. 2a to 2d...Container 3...Substrate 4...Pre-treatment box 9...Take-out elevator 10...Take-out device 1)...Coating device 12... Storage device 13...Storage elevator 14...Post-processing box

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A pretreatment box that houses a container containing a predetermined number of substrates such as semiconductor wafers and glass masks as one unit, and performs pretreatment such as heating or vapor phase coating of hexamethyldisilazane, and the pretreated substrates. A coating device that applies a photosensitizer to a substrate and a post-processing box that houses a container containing one unit of a substrate coated with a photosensitizer and performs post-processing such as heating are installed on the same processing line, and the equipment is installed on the same processing line. A take-out device sends the substrates one by one from a container containing one unit of pre-processed substrates sent from a pre-processing box to a take-out elevator to a coating device, and a take-out device places the substrates on a storage elevator that goes up and down. ,
A photosensitive agent coating processing apparatus is provided with a storage device that stores substrates coated with a photosensitive agent one by one in a container that is sent to a post-processing box after storing one unit of substrates.