Thin film forming apparatus and thin film forming method

Abstract

Apparatus for forming a thin film pattern on the surface of a substrate. This apparatus is provided with: a transfer member having a thin film carrying surface which carries a thin film pattern; and a thin film transfer mechanism for joining the transfer member to a substrate for transferring, to the substrate, the thin film pattern on the thin film carrying surface. The thin film pattern may be a wiring film pattern. A gelatinous film may previously be formed on the substrate, and the thin film pattern may be transferred as embedded in the gelatinous film.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to thin film forming apparatus for and thin film forming method of forming a thin film pattern or a plurality of thin films on a surface of any of a variety of substrates such as a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate for a liquid-crystal-display-panel, a glass substrate for a plasma-display-panel, a photo mask substrate, a print-circuit board and the like. [0003] 2. Description of Related Art [0004] A damascene method is known as an example of the method of forming a metallic wiring such as a copper wiring or the like on a surface of a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter simply referred to as wafer). FIGS. 11A to 11D show a wiring forming process according to the damascene method. [0005] Formed on the wafer 1 is an insulating film 2, on which there are pattern-formed resists 3 having openings 3a corresponding to a metallic wiring pattern to be formed (FIG. 11A). With the use of the resi...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This approach significantly reduces the number of transfer processes required, simplifies the thin film forming process, and lowers production costs by eliminating the need for complex processing steps like CMP, while maintaining the quality of thin film patterns on substrates such as semiconductor wafers and display panels.

Problems solved by technology

This makes the process complicated, disadvantageously increasing the wiring pattern forming cost.

In a recent semiconductor integrated circuit having a complicated arrangement, however, a number of thin films are formed on the surface of the substrate as typically seen in the case where multi-layer wirings are formed on a semiconductor substrate.

In such a case, when there is used the prior art above-mentioned in which only one-type thin film is transferred, at one time, from the sheet to the semiconductor wafer, it is required to execute the transferring processing many times. This complicates the production process, thus disadvantageously increasing the semiconductor production cost.

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