Tokyo Electron Limited

Kunie Ogata

Shinichi Shinozuka

Hiroshi Tomita

Masahide Tadokoro

Michio Tanaka

Ryouichi Uemura

Yoshio Kimura

Koki Nishimuko

Megumi Jyousaka

Yuji Fukuda

Ryoichi Uemura

Tsuyoshi Shibata

Yoichi Deguchi

Kazutoshi Yoshioka

Masanori Tateyama

Yoshitaka Konishi

Yuji Yoshimoto

Yoshihiro Kondo

Akira Miyata

Takuya Mori

Yoshitaka Hara

Masatoshi Shiraishi

Kenichirou Matsuyama

Izumi Hasegawa

Heiko Weichert

Yukio Kiba

Takashi Aiuchi

Norikatsu Sato

Shin Inoue

Tomohiro Nakashima

Seiji Nakashima

Hidehiko Kamiya

Yoshiyuki Nakajima

Provided is a substrate processing apparatus in which after a module is disabled, a substrate is provided to a carry-in module capable of placing the wafers most rapidly in the plurality of unit blocks and the substrates are sequentially transported to the module group by the transportation means to be delivered to the carry-out module according to a providing sequence of the substrate to the carry-in module in each of the plurality of unit blocks. In particular, the substrates are extracted from the carry-out module according to a providing sequence of the substrate to the carry-in module and transported to a rear module or a substrate placing part. Thereafter, the substrates are transported to the rear module from the carry-out module or the substrate placing part according to a predetermined sequence in which the substrate is provided to the carry-in module in a normal state.

Substrate processing method

The present invention is a substrate treatment apparatus for performing solution treatment on a substrate, performing post-treatment in a treatment module subsequent to the solution treatment, including: a solution treatment section including a plurality of nozzles prepared for respective kinds of treatment solutions corresponding to lots of substrates; a transfer mechanism for transferring the substrate; a monitoring section monitoring whether there is a failure in discharge of the treatment solution in the nozzle; and a control unit outputting a control signal to prohibit the solution treatment in the solution treatment section for a substrate scheduled to be treated using a nozzle determined to have a failure by the monitoring section and to perform the solution treatment in the solution treatment section for a substrate scheduled to be treated using a nozzle other than the nozzle determined to have a failure.

Substrate treatment apparatus, substrate treatment method and non-transitory storage medium

The substrate processing system includes a measuring apparatus that measures any of film thickness, a refractive index, an absorption coefficient, and warpage. The system includes an apparatus for performing photolithography on the substrate to form a resist pattern and an etching apparatus that etches a processing film. A control unit includes a first relation between an initial condition and a dimension of the pattern of the processing film and a second relation between a processing condition of the predetermined processing and the dimension of the pattern of the processing film. The control unit estimates a dimension of the pattern of the processing film after the etching treatment from the first relation based on a measurement result and corrects the processing condition of the predetermined processing in the photolithography or the etching from the second relation based on an estimation result of the dimension of the pattern.

Substrate processing method, computer-readable storage medium, and substrate processing system

A processing temperature of thermal processing is corrected based on measurement of a first dimension of a resist pattern on a substrate from a previously obtained relation between a dimension of a resist pattern and a temperature of thermal processing, a second dimension of the resist pattern after thermal processing is performed at the corrected processing temperature is measured, a distribution within the substrate of the second dimension is classified into a linear component expressed by an approximated curved surface and a nonlinear component, a processing condition of exposure processing is corrected based on the linear component from a previously obtained relation between a dimension of a resist pattern and a processing condition of exposure processing, and thermal processing at the processing temperature corrected in a temperature correcting step and exposure processing under the processing condition corrected in an exposure condition correcting step are performed to form a predetermined pattern.

Substrate processing method, computer-readable storage medium and substrate processing system

A resist pattern forming method using a coating and developing apparatus and an aligner being connected thereto which are controlled to form a resist film on a surface of a substrate with a base film and a base pattern formed thereon, followed by inspecting at least one of a plurality of measurement items selected from: reflection ratio and film thickness of the base film and the resist film, line width after a development, an accuracy that the base pattern matches with a resist pattern, a defect on the surface after the development, etc. A parameter subject to amendment is selected based on corresponding data of each measurement item, such as the film thickness of the resist and the line width after the development, and amendment of the parameter is performed. This results in a reduced workload of an operator, and the appropriate amendment can be performed.

Substrate processing method and apparatus

A temperature setting method of the present invention includes the steps of: measuring states of an etching pattern within the substrate for a substrate for which a series of photolithography processing including thermal processing and an etching treatment thereafter have been finished; calculating temperature correction values for regions of a thermal processing plate from measurement result of the states of the etching pattern within the substrate using a function between correction amounts for the states of the etching pattern and the temperature correction values for the thermal processing plate; and setting the temperature for each of the regions of the thermal processing plate by each of the calculated temperature correction values.

Temperature setting method and apparatus for a thermal processing plate

In the present invention, for measurement of line widths, for example, at 36 locations within a substrate processed in a coating and developing treatment system, the 36 measurement points are divided and, for example, six substrates are used to measure the line widths at all of measurement points. In this event, the line widths at six measurement points are measured in each of the substrate, which exist in substrate regions different for each substrate. Then, the measurement results of the line widths at the measurement points of the substrates are combined, so that the line widths at 36 measurement points are finally detected. According to the present invention, the measurements of product substrates can be performed without decreasing the throughput of processing of the product substrates.

Substrate measuring method, computer-readable recording medium recording program thereon, and substrate measuring system

The present invention has: a first step of measuring, as an initial condition of a substrate, any of a film thickness of a processing film on the substrate, a refractive index of the processing film, an absorption coefficient of the processing film, and a warpage amount of the substrate; a second step of estimating a dimension of a pattern of the processing film after predetermined processing from a previously obtained first relation between the initial condition and the dimension of the pattern of the processing film based on a measurement result of the initial condition; a third step of obtaining a correction value for a processing condition of the predetermined processing from a previously obtained second relation between the processing condition of the predetermined processing and the dimension of the pattern of the processing film based on an estimation result of the dimension of the pattern; a fourth step of correcting the processing condition of the predetermined processing based on the correction value; and a fifth step of performing predetermined processing on the substrate under the corrected processing condition to form the predetermined pattern in the processing film on the substrate.

A thermal plate of a heating unit is divided into a plurality of thermal plate regions, and a temperature can be set for each of the thermal plate regions. A temperature correction value for adjusting a temperature within the thermal plate can be set for each of the thermal plate regions of the thermal plate. The line widths within the substrate which has been subjected to a photolithography process are measured, and an in-plane tendency of the measured line widths is decomposed into a plurality of in-plane tendency components using a Zernike polynomial. From the calculated plurality of in-plane tendency components, in-plane tendency components improvable by changing the temperature correction values are extracted and added together to calculate an improvable in-plane tendency of the measured line widths within the substrate. The change of setting of the temperature correction value for each of the thermal plate regions of the thermal plate is performed only when the magnitude of the improvable in-plane tendency exceeds a threshold value set in advance.

Temperature setting method of thermal processing plate, computer-readable recording medium recording program thereon, and temperature setting apparatus for thermal processing plate

In the present invention, the line widths within a substrate of an etching pattern are measured for a substrate for which photolithography processing and an etching treatment thereafter have been finished. The line width measurement results are converted into the line widths of a resist pattern using relational expressions which have been obtained in advance. From the converted line widths of the resist pattern, coefficients of a polynomial function indicating variations within the substrate are calculated. Next, a function between line width correction amounts for the resist pattern and temperature correction values is used to calculate temperature correction values for the regions of the thermal plate to bring the coefficients of the polynomial function close to zero. Based on each of the calculated temperature correction values, the temperature for each of the regions is set.

Temperature setting method for thermal processing plate, temperature setting apparatus for thermal processing plate, and computer-readable storage medium

In the present invention, a thermal plate of a heating unit is divided into a plurality of thermal plate regions, and a temperature can be set for each of the thermal plate regions. A temperature correction value for adjusting a temperature within the thermal plate can be set for each of the thermal plate regions of the thermal plate. The line widths within the substrate which has been subjected to a photolithography process are measured, and, from an in-plane tendency of the measured line widths, an in-plane tendency improvable by temperature correction and an unimprovable in-plane tendency are calculated using a Zernike polynomial. An average remaining tendency of the improvable in-plane tendency after improvement obtained in advance is added to the unimprovable in-plane tendency to estimate an in-plane tendency of the line widths within the substrate after change of temperature setting.

In a pattern measuring unit installed in a coating and developing treatment system, the height of a pattern formed on a substrate is measured using the Scatterometry method. Based on the measured height of the pattern, an appropriate number of rotations of the substrate during application of a coating solution is calculated, so that the rotation of the substrate during the application is controlled by the calculated number of rotations of the substrate. Since the number of rotations of the substrate when the coating solution is applied to the substrate is controlled, it is unnecessary to stop the system which performs photolithography processing on the substrate, resulting in improved productivity of the substrate.

Substrate processing method, program, computer-readable storage medium, and substrate processing system

A pattern forming systemincludes a checking apparatusand a control section. The checking apparatusis configured to measure and check a sidewall angle SWA of a resist pattern formed on a substrate W after a developing process. The control sectionis configured to use a difference between a target value of the sidewall angle SWA of the resist pattern after the developing process and a check result of the sidewall angle SWA obtained by the checking apparatus, to set a process condition for a first heat processtoor a second heat processtoso as to cause the sidewall angle SWA to approximate the target value thereof after the developing process.

Substrate-processing apparatus, substrate-processing method, substrate-processing program, and computer-readable recording medium recorded with such program

A pattern forming systemincludes a checking apparatus, a storage device, and a control section. The checking apparatusis configured to measure and check a state of a resist pattern formed on a substrate W after a developing process and output a first check result thus obtained, and to measure and check a state of a pattern formed on the substrate after an etching process and output a second check result thus obtained. The storage devicestores a correlation formula obtained from the first check result and the second check result. The control sectionis configured to use the correlation formula to obtain a target value of the state of the pattern after the developing process from a target value of the state of the pattern after the etching process, and to use a difference between the target value of the state of the pattern after the developing process and the first check result to set a condition for the first heat process and/or the second heat process.

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Koshi, Japan

Kunie Ogata