Tokyo Electron Limited

Tomohiro Iseki

Kousuke Yoshihara

Hirofumi Takeguchi

Yuichi Terashita

Koji Takayanagi

Takayuki Ishii

Yoshiteru Fukuda

Keiichi Tanaka

Hidetami Yaegashi

Yuichi Yoshida

Shinji Nagashima

Masahide Tadokoro

Toyohisa Tsuruda

Kenichi Oyama

Katsunori Ichino

Gousuke Shiraishi

Masaru Tomono

Takeshi Shimoaoki

Hideo Funakoshi

Seiya Totsuka

Hironori Mizoguchi

Masatoshi Yamato

There is provided a method of developing an exposed resist film formed on a surface of a substrate to form a resist pattern, which includes: rotating the substrate about a rotation axis that extends in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the substrate that is horizontally supported; supplying a developing solution through a discharge hole positioned above the substrate onto the resist film such that the developing solution is widely spread on a surface of the resist film; and positioning a wetted part having a surface that faces the surface of the substrate, above a preceding region in the surface of the substrate, the preceding region being a region to which the developing solution is preferentially supplied through the discharge hole.

Developing method, developing apparatus, and computer-readable recording medium

There is provided a substrate processing apparatus, including: a mounting table configured to mount a substrate with a pattern mask formed on the substrate inside a process container; a depressurization mechanism configured to perform a pressure-decreasing process of depressurizing an interior of the process container to have a pressure of 1 Pa or lower; a light irradiation mechanism configured to irradiate the substrate with a vacuum ultraviolet light after the interior of the process container is depressurized so that an internal pressure of the process container reaches a pressure of 1 Pa or lower; and a controller configured to output a control signal such that an average depressurization rate inside the process container performed by the depressurization mechanism becomes 250 Pa/sec or lower while the interior of the process container is depressurized from 10,000 Pa to 1 Pa.

Substrate processing apparatus, substrate processing method, and storage medium

There is provided a semiconductor device manufacturing method, including: a film forming process in which, by supplying a solution for modifying a surface layer of a resist to a target object having a resist pattern and allowing the solution to infiltrate into the resist, a film having elasticity and having no compatibility with the resist is formed in the surface layer of the resist; and a heating process in which the target object having the film formed thereon is heated.

Method for photo-lithographic processing in semiconductor device manufacturing

A developing method for forming a resist film having a high uniformity of CD distribution. After exposure of a resist film on a substrate surface to form a resist pattern, the method includes sequential steps of: (A) supplying a developer to the rotating substrate; (B) reacting the resist film with the developer; and (C) removing the developer from the surface of the resist film to terminate the reaction of the resist film with the developer. In step (A), a liquid-contact nozzle, having an ejection orifice for the developer and a lower surface extending laterally from the ejection orifice and disposed opposite the resist film, is used. In step (C), the boundary between a reaction-terminated area of the surface of the resist film, and an in-progress reaction area of the surface of the resist film, is moved from the center toward the periphery of the resist film.

Developing method, developing apparatus, and computer-readable storage medium

A light irradiation apparatus includes: a rotary holding unit that rotates a substrate around a rotary axis while holding the substrate; a lighting unit positioned to face the rotary holding unit; a light shielding mask positioned between the rotary holding unit and the lighting unit, and widened along a direction orthogonal to the rotary axis; and a driving unit that linearly moves the lighting unit along the direction orthogonal to the rotary axis. The light shielding mask overlaps with the substrate when viewed in the direction of the rotary axis. The light shielding mask has an opening portion. An opening width of the opening portion at a side away from the rotary axis is larger than the opening with near the rotary axis. The lighting unit irradiates light through the opening portion toward the surface of the substrate while being moved above the opening portion by the driving unit.

Light irradiation apparatus

A developing method includes: forming a puddle of a developer on a surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit by a first developer nozzle; subsequently spreading the puddle of the developer over the whole substrate surface, by moving the first developer nozzle discharging the developer from a central or peripheral part to the peripheral or central part of the rotating substrate, with a contacting part of the first developer nozzle contacting with the puddle; supplying the developer from a second developer nozzle onto the rotating substrate, thereby to uniformize, in the substrate plane, distribution of a degree of progress of development by the developer spreading step; and removing the developer between the developer spreading step and the developer supplying step to remove the developer on the substrate.

Developing method, developing apparatus and storage medium

Disclosed is a bubble removing method in which fine bubbles are removed from a filter to improve the performance of the filter. The bubble removing method includes a step of degassing a processing liquid supplied from a supply source to prepare a highly degassed liquid (highly degassed liquid preparation), a step of supplying the prepared highly degassed liquid at a first processing liquid from a pump device to a filter device (temporary liquid permeation), a step of supplying the highly degassed liquid at a second processing liquid flow rate higher than the first processing liquid flow rate from the pump device to the filter device (initial liquid permeation), and a step of causing the highly degassed liquid to flow from the pump device to the filter device for a predetermined length of time (liquid permeation).

Bubble removing method, bubble removing apparatus, degassing apparatus, and computer-readable recording medium

There is provided a substrate processing method including: supplying a developing liquid to a surface of an exposed substrate to form a resist pattern; supplying a cleaning liquid to the surface of the substrate to remove a residue generated in the developing step from the substrate; supplying a replacing liquid to the surface of the substrate to replace the cleaning liquid existing on the substrate with the replacing liquid, the replacing liquid having a surface tension of 50 mN/m or less and containing a percolation inhibitor for restraining the replacing liquid from percolating into a resist wall portion constituting the resist pattern; and forming a dry region by supplying a gas to a central portion of the substrate while rotating the substrate so as to dry the surface of the substrate by expanding the dry region to a peripheral edge portion of the substrate with a centrifugal force.

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

A pretreatment process, carried out prior to a developing process, spouts pure water, namely, a diffusion-assisting liquid for assisting the spread of a developer over the surface of a wafer, through a cleaning liquid spouting nozzle onto a central part of the wafer to form a puddle of pure water. The developer is spouted onto the central part of the wafer for prewetting while the wafer is rotated at a high rotating speed to spread the developer over the surface of the wafer. The developer dissolves the resist film partly and produces a solution. The rotation of the wafer is reversed, for example, within 7 s in which the solution is being produced to reduce the water-repellency of the wafer by spreading the solution over the entire surface of the wafer. Then, the developer is spouted onto the rotating wafer to spread the developer on the surface of the wafer.

Developing apparatus, developing method and storage medium

In a coating step, a substrate is rotated at a high speed, and in that state a resist solution is discharged from a first nozzle to a central portion of the substrate to apply the resist solution over the substrate. Subsequently, in a flattening step, the rotation of the substrate is decelerated and the substrate is rotated at a low speed to flatten the resist solution on the substrate. In this event, the discharge of the resist solution by the first nozzle in the coating step is performed until a middle of the flattening step, and when the discharge of the resist solution is finished in the flattening step, the first nozzle is moved to move a discharge position of the resist solution from the central portion of the substrate. According to the present invention, the resist solution can be applied uniformly within the substrate.

Coating treatment method, coating treatment apparatus, and computer-readable storage medium

Resist coating treatments for application of a resist solution to removal of a resist film on a wafer edge portion. A laser irradiation unit applies a laser light in a resist coating unit. At the time of resist coating treatment, the resist solution is discharged onto a central portion of the rotated wafer from a resist solution supply nozzle to form a resist film on the wafer. Thereafter, the laser irradiation unit moves to an outer peripheral portion of the wafer and applies the laser light onto the resist film on the outer peripheral portion to dry the resist film on the outer peripheral portion. The application of laser light is continued, and the solvent supply nozzle moves to a position above the edge portion and supplies solvent to the resist film on the edge portion. The solvent dissolves and removes the resist film on the edge portion.

Coating treatment method and coating treatment apparatus

A resist coating apparatus supplies a resist solution to substantially the center of a target substrate to be processed while rotating the target substrate at a first rotational speed, then decelerates the rotation of the substrate to a second rotational speed lower than the first rotational speed, or until rotational halt, makes the deceleration smaller in the deceleration step as the rotational speed becomes closer to the second rotational speed or the rotational halt, and accelerates the rotation of the substrate to a third rotational speed higher than the second rotational speed to spin off a residue of the resist solution.

Resist coating apparatus

The present invention supplies a solvent to a front surface of a substrate while rotating the substrate. The substrate is acceleratingly rotated to a first number of rotations, and a resist solution is supplied to a central portion of the substrate during the accelerating rotation and the rotation at a first number of rotations. The substrate is deceleratingly rotated to a second number of rotations, and after the number of rotations of the substrate reaches the second number of rotations, the resist solution is discharged to the substrate. The substrate is then acceleratingly rotated to a third number of rotations higher than the second number of rotations so that the substrate is rotated at the third number of rotations. According to the present invention, consumption of the resist solution can be suppressed and a high in-plane uniformity can be obtained for the film thickness of the resist film.

Growing community of inventors

Koshi, Japan

Tomohiro Iseki