JPH0391232A - Developing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make development uniform by a method wherein a developing tank containing a developer liquid rises so as to bring the whole surface of the resist film of a wafer held by a chuck mechanism into contact with the developer liquid at one time and also this developer is in contact with the resist film during the developing time through vibration of the developer by means of an vibrating plate. CONSTITUTION:A cylinder for reversal 33 is actuated to turn a chuck mechanism 25 up and a wafer 24 having a positive resist film 23 is put on the chuck mechanism 25 and is fixed there by suction. Next, the reversal cylinder 33 is actuated in opposite direction to rotate the whole body of a holding mechanism 21 by 180 deg. regarding the axis X and to reverse the wafer 24, which is held horizontally with the plane 26 of the resist film 23 facing downward. Next, a tank driving cylinder 30 is actuated to raise a developing tank 27 and accordingly to bring a developing liquid 29 in contact with the whole surface of the resist film 23 at one time. During this developing treatment, an vibrating plate is vibrated to stir the developer. Next, while continuing the vibration, a valve lock 36 is actuated to supply a rinsing liquid from the center at the bottom of the recess in the tank 27, so that the developer overflows the tank 27 and the rinsing liquid 40 substitutes for the developer inside the recess 28, thereby stopping the developing. Thus, the developing in the wafer surface can be made uniform.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] Regarding a developing device used when forming a resist pattern etc. on a semiconductor wafer, it is possible to form a resist pattern with high precision by improving the development distribution within the wafer surface. The purpose is to provide a developing device for developing a resist film applied to a wafer and exposed to light, the device comprising a chuck mechanism for holding the wafer with the surface of the resist film facing downward, and a developing solution. and a developing tank that stores a processing liquid such as a rinsing liquid, a tank driving mechanism that moves the developing tank up and down and immerses the wafer in the processing liquid, and a diaphragm installed in the developing tank that vibrates the processing liquid. The configuration has the following.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a developing device used when forming a resist pattern or the like on a semiconductor wafer.

In order to improve the yield of ICs, it is important to uniformly develop the entire surface of the wafer, and it is desired that a developing device for this purpose be developed.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional developing device, in which (a) shows a state during development, and (b) shows a state when development is stopped. This developing device develops a wafer using a method called a paddle developing method, and includes a chuck 3 on which the wafer 1 is placed and fixed, and a drive shaft 3 that rotates the chuck 3.
1, a nozzle 4 for dropping a developing solution onto the wafer 1, a nozzle 7 for dropping a rinsing solution, and a cup 8 that covers the periphery and underside of the wafer 1 and collects the solution. Using this apparatus, wafer development is performed as follows.

The wafer 1 is fixed on a chuck 3 with the exposed resist film 2 facing upward, and a developer is dropped from a nozzle 4 above the wafer 1 to form a developer film 5 on the resist film 2 due to surface tension. do. This starts development.

After several tens of seconds have passed, the rinsing liquid for the development stopper is dropped from the nozzle 7, and as shown in FIG. Development is complete.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the conventional developing device described above, the wafer 1 is moved to the driving shaft 3 so that the developing solution and the rinsing solution can quickly spread over the entire surface of the wafer.
1, the nozzle 4 is rotated at a very low speed and the nozzle 4 is oscillated, but there are inevitably places where the liquid moves slowly. For this reason, in the case of a developer, there is a time difference in the start of the development reaction at each location on the wafer. Further, in the case of a rinsing liquid, a delay in replacement with the rinsing liquid causes a time difference in stopping the development reaction.

Due to these time differences, the development distribution varies within the wafer surface, making it impossible to form a highly accurate resist pattern.

The present invention was created in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a developing device that can form a resist pattern with high precision by improving the development distribution within the wafer surface.

[Means to solve the problem]

The above-mentioned problem is an apparatus for developing a resist film applied to a wafer and exposed to light, which requires a chuck mechanism to hold the wafer with the resist film facing downward, a developing solution, a rinsing solution, etc. A developing tank for storing a processing solution, a tank driving mechanism for moving the developing tank up and down to immerse the wafer in the processing solution, and a vibration plate installed in the developing tank for vibrating the processing solution. This problem is solved by the developing device according to the present invention.

[Effect]

The developer tank containing the developer is raised by the tank vertical drive mechanism, and the resist film of the wafer held by the chuck mechanism comes into contact with the developer over the entire surface of the wafer at the same time, so that development starts simultaneously over the entire surface of the wafer without any time difference. becomes possible. During the development time, the developer is vibrated by a vibration plate in the developer tank, and the developer of uniform concentration comes into contact with the resist film, so that a uniform development reaction is performed without being affected by the density of the resist pattern. After the development is completed, when a rinsing liquid is supplied from the processing liquid supplying means, the developing liquid in the developing tank is quickly replaced with the rinsing liquid, and development is stopped almost simultaneously over the entire surface of the wafer.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the main parts of the developing device of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 to 4 are schematic diagrams showing the operating state of the device in the developing process.

In FIG. 1, the developing device of the present invention includes a holding mechanism 21 that holds and rotates a wafer and flips the resist film surface of the wafer from upward to downward, and a container mechanism 22 that stores developer and rinse solution. Become.

In the holding mechanism 21, a chuck mechanism 25 that vacuum-chucks the wafer 24 is fixed to one end of a spindle 32 that is rotationally driven by a motor 31.The spindle 32 is driven by a reversing cylinder 33 and is reversed vertically as shown by arrow B. The wafer 24 is held horizontally downward.

The container mechanism 22 consists of a dish-shaped developing tank 27 having a shallow recess 28 corresponding to the size of the wafer on its upper surface, and a piezoelectric thin disc installed at the bottom of the recess 28 to apply vibrations to the processing liquid. A diaphragm 37, a processing liquid supply/discharge pipe 28a opening at the center of the recess 28, and a valve for supplying or discharging processing liquids such as the developer 29 and rinsing liquid to/from the developer tank 27 via the supply/discharge pipe 28a. Block 36 and developer tank 27
It consists of a seed part moving cylinder 30 that drives the cylinder up and down. The operation of the developing device in a drive type (not shown) using the diaphragm 37 will be explained.

First, as shown in FIG. 2, the reversing cylinder 33 is operated to direct the chuck mechanism 25 upward, and the wafer 24 having the exposed positive resist film 23 is transported as shown by arrow A. Then, place it on the chuck mechanism 25. Then, the wafer 24 is suctioned and fixed by the chuck mechanism 25. Next, the reversing cylinder 33 is operated in the opposite direction to rotate the entire holding mechanism 21 by 180 degrees around the axis X, thereby reversing the wafer 24. Then, the state shown in FIG. 1 described above is reached, and the wafer 24 is held horizontally with the surface 26 of the resist film 23 facing downward. Next, the seed part moving cylinder 30
is activated, and the developer tank 27 in which the developer 29 is stored rises to a predetermined level, resulting in the state shown in FIG. As a result, the developer 29 comes into contact with the entire surface of the resist film 23 on the wafer 24 at the same time. When viewed from the wafer 24 side, the entire surface of the resist film 23 is immersed in the developer 29 at the same time. As a result, development of the resist film 23 is simultaneously started over the entire surface of the wafer. Development is performed for 30 to 60 seconds.

During this development process, the amount of developer consumed varies depending on the density of the exposure pattern on the wafer, so the concentration of the developer may locally decrease and uneven development may occur. Therefore, in order to make the development reaction proceed uniformly over the entire surface of the wafer, in the apparatus of the present invention, a diaphragm is provided in the developer tank, and a drive source (not shown) moves this diaphragm at a frequency of 20
Hz vibrations are generated to agitate the developer and prevent differences in concentration from occurring depending on location.

After 30 to 60 seconds have elapsed from the start of development, the valve block 36 is operated as shown in FIG. 4 while the vibration is continued, and the rinsing liquid is poured into the recess 28 of the tank 27 as shown by arrow C.
Supply from the center of the bottom.

By supplying the rinsing liquid, the developing liquid overflows from the developing tank 27 as shown by the moxibustion cloth 39, the inside of the recess 28 is replaced with the rinsing liquid 40, and the resist film 23 of the wafer 24 is filled with the rinsing liquid 4.
0 comes into contact and development stops.

Here, the volume of the four parts 28 is small, about 100 cc, and the rinse liquid 40 has a flow rate of several 100 cc per minute, and is supplied from the center of the bottom of the recess 28, so the replacement of the developer with the rinse liquid is instantaneous. It will be done.

As a result, the entire surface of the resist film 23 of the wafer 24 comes into contact with the rinsing liquid 40 substantially simultaneously, and development is stopped substantially simultaneously over the entire surface of the wafer, forming a resist pattern. In this way, development starts and stops almost simultaneously over the entire surface of the wafer, and during the contact period, the developer is stirred over the entire surface of the wafer by a vibrating plate installed in the developer tank, so that variations in development within the surface of the wafer can be avoided. The resist pattern becomes extremely small, a resist pattern with good precision is formed, and the yield of ICs is improved.

After the development is stopped, the seed moving cylinder 3o is operated to lower the developer tank 27 to separate the wafer 34 from the rinsing liquid 4o, and the rinsing liquid 4 is removed via the valve block 36.
Drain 0.

Subsequently, the spindle is rotated at a high speed of about 300 rpm by the motor 31 to dry the wafer 24. After that, the chuck mechanism 25 is rotated 180 degrees again, and the wafer 2
4 to the transport position shown in FIG.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the developing device of the present invention, development is started over the entire surface of the wafer at the same time, development is stopped over the entire surface of the wafer at approximately the same time, and furthermore, during the development time, the developer is uniformly stirred by the diaphragm. Since the concentration is maintained at a certain level, it is possible to suppress variations in development within the wafer surface compared to conventional methods and achieve uniform development, and improve IC yield through highly accurate resist development. can.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the main parts of the developing device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the state during the wafer adsorption process, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the state when the container is raised (during development reaction), FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the state when rinsing liquid is supplied (development is stopped), and FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional developing device. In the figure, 21--holding mechanism, 22- container mechanism, 23-
exposed resist film, 24- wafer, 25- chuck 27
-Developer tank, 28-Shallow recess, 29-.-Developer, 30-.Seed portion moving cylinder, 31-
motor, 37-diaphragm, 36-valve block, 40-rinsing liquid, 1. 2 Diagram showing the state during the wafer adsorption process Diagram showing the state when the container is raised (during development reaction) Diagram showing the state when rinsing liquid is supplied (during development stop i) Estimated diagram <a> Shows the conventional developing device Mock garden diagram

Claims (1)

[Claims] An apparatus for developing a resist film (23) coated on a wafer (24) and exposed to light, the wafer (24) being placed with the surface of the resist film (23) facing downward. A holding mechanism (21) for holding the wafer, a developing tank (27) for storing processing liquids such as a developing solution and a rinsing liquid, and a tank driving mechanism (for moving the developing tank (27) up and down to immerse the wafer in the processing liquid. 30); and a diaphragm (37) installed in the developer tank (27) to vibrate the processing liquid.