A support member for improving substrate deformation

Abstract

This invention belongs to the field of precision manufacturing equipment technology, specifically relating to a support member for improving substrate deformation. It is used to support the substrate during precision etching processes. The support member is a ring-shaped support member, used to support the substrate from its outer edge. An adsorption portion is provided at the contact portion with the substrate; the adsorption portion is used to eliminate edge warping that occurs when the substrate is placed on the support member. This invention improves the deformation of thin substrates caused by gravity by applying adsorption force or pressure to the substrate edge to compensate for the effects of gravity on the effective area of ​​the substrate, preventing deformation in the edge region, ensuring structural resolution and uniformity, and improving processing efficiency.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention belongs to the field of precision manufacturing equipment technology, and specifically relates to a support component for improving substrate deformation. Background Technology

[0002] During precision etching, wafers or substrates are typically placed on a flat support stage, and the substrate is uniformly adsorbed onto the support stage using vacuum adsorption. If the active area of ​​the substrate already has a sensing structure or has not yet been treated, the substrate may be damaged or contaminated by impurity particles in the active area during the vacuum adsorption process.

[0003] To overcome the aforementioned problems and avoid damage or contamination to the active areas of the substrate, a current approach involves supporting the passive areas (outer edges) of the substrate. In this case, since the substrate is only supported in a narrow area at the edges, its active areas are essentially suspended. The substrate may then bend downwards to varying degrees under gravity, depending on its thickness, size, and stiffness. During etching, this substrate deformation can cause differences in the distance between the photomask and the substrate in different areas, potentially leading to low structural resolution and non-uniformity, resulting in reduced yield.

[0004] Existing substrate support methods mostly employ edge-area support to avoid damage and contamination of the substrate during vacuum adsorption. However, edge support causes deformation of the substrate center under gravity, altering the distance between the photomask and the substrate. This results in low structural resolution and non-uniformity, impacting yield and efficiency. This deformation is particularly pronounced for thinner substrates. Summary of the Invention

[0005] In view of this, the present invention proposes a support member to improve substrate deformation, which improves the deformation of thin substrate caused by gravity. By applying adsorption force or pressure to the edge of the substrate, the effective area of ​​the substrate is compensated for the influence of gravity, preventing deformation in the edge area of ​​the substrate, ensuring its structural resolution and uniformity, and improving processing efficiency.

[0006] To achieve the above-mentioned technical objectives, the specific technical solution adopted by the present invention is as follows:

[0007] A support member for improving substrate deformation is provided for supporting the substrate during a precision etching process. The support member is an annular support member for supporting the substrate from its outer peripheral edge. An adsorption portion is provided at the contact portion with the substrate. The adsorption portion is used to eliminate edge warping of the substrate after it is placed on the support member.

[0008] Furthermore, the adsorption section is a negative pressure adsorption tank.

[0009] Furthermore, the adsorption force of the negative pressure adsorption groove on the substrate increases regularly from the diffusion direction of the center of gravity of the substrate.

[0010] Furthermore, the negative pressure adsorption tank is in multiple sets; the adsorption unit generates negative pressure at the negative pressure adsorption tank based on the negative pressure device and the gas guide pipe; the negative pressure device is used to generate gas negative pressure and is connected to each of the negative pressure adsorption tanks based on each of the gas guide pipes.

[0011] Furthermore, the adsorption force of the negative pressure adsorption groove on the substrate increases from the diffusion direction of the center of gravity of the substrate.

[0012] Furthermore, the negative pressure device is based on multiple air guide pipes that are respectively connected to each of the negative pressure adsorption tanks.

[0013] Furthermore, each of the negative pressure adsorption grooves is arranged in a ring on the support.

[0014] Furthermore, the width of the negative pressure adsorption tank is 0.5-1.5 mm.

[0015] Furthermore, the adsorption force of each negative pressure adsorption tank can be adjusted according to the surface shape of the substrate.

[0016] Furthermore, the support also includes a plurality of fastening screw holes, each of which is used to fix the support to the photolithography equipment.

[0017] By adopting the above technical solution, the present invention can bring the following beneficial effects:

[0018] 1) This invention does not introduce additional supports, thus avoiding unnecessary damage and contamination of the substrate;

[0019] 2) The process adjustment of this invention is relatively simple and can effectively improve processing efficiency;

[0020] 3) The present invention can compensate for the deformation of the effective area of ​​the substrate by changing the adsorption pressure, which can effectively improve the processing yield. Attached Figure Description

[0021] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings used in the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0022] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the state structure of a support member for improving substrate deformation in a specific embodiment of the present invention.

[0023] Figure 2This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a support member for improving substrate deformation in a specific embodiment of the present invention, in the state where the substrate is not supported.

[0024] Figure 3 This is a partially enlarged structural diagram of the negative pressure adsorption tank in a specific embodiment of the present invention;

[0025] Figure 4 This is a comparison diagram of the deformation state of the quartz substrate under 1 bar suction force and 0 suction force in each negative pressure adsorption tank in a specific embodiment of the present invention.

[0026] Figure 5 This illustrates the relationship between different adsorption forces and the maximum deformation of the quartz substrate in a specific embodiment of the present invention.

[0027] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram showing the connection between each negative pressure adsorption tank and the negative pressure device in a specific embodiment of the present invention;

[0028] The components include: 1. substrate; 2. support; 3. fastening screw holes; 4. negative pressure adsorption tank; 5. air guide pipe; and 6. negative pressure device. Detailed Implementation

[0029] The embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0030] The following specific examples illustrate the implementation of the present invention. Those skilled in the art can easily understand other advantages and effects of the present invention from the content disclosed in this specification. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of them. The present invention can also be implemented or applied through other different specific embodiments, and the details in this specification can also be modified or changed based on different viewpoints and applications without departing from the spirit of the present invention. It should be noted that, in the absence of conflict, the following embodiments and features in the embodiments can be combined with each other. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without creative effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0031] It should be noted that various aspects of embodiments within the scope of the appended claims are described below. It will be apparent that the aspects described herein can be embodied in a wide variety of forms, and any particular structure and / or function described herein is merely illustrative. Based on this invention, those skilled in the art will understand that one aspect described herein can be implemented independently of any other aspect, and two or more of these aspects can be combined in various ways. For example, any number of aspects set forth herein can be used to implement the device and / or practice the method. Additionally, this device and / or method can be implemented using other structures and / or functionalities besides one or more of the aspects set forth herein.

[0032] It should also be noted that the illustrations provided in the following embodiments are only schematic representations of the basic concept of the present invention. The drawings only show the components related to the present invention and are not drawn according to the actual number, shape and size of the components in the actual implementation. In the actual implementation, the form, quantity and proportion of each component can be arbitrarily changed, and the layout of the components may also be more complex.

[0033] Furthermore, specific details are provided in the following description to facilitate a thorough understanding of the examples. However, those skilled in the art will understand that the described aspects can be practiced without these specific details.

[0034] In one embodiment of the present invention, a support member for improving substrate deformation is provided for supporting substrate 1 during precision etching processes, such as... Figure 1 , 2 As shown, the support member 2 is an annular support member 2, which is used to support the substrate 1 from the outer edge of the substrate 1, and an adsorption part is provided at the contact part with the substrate 1; the adsorption part is used to eliminate the edge warping that occurs after the substrate 1 is placed on the support member 2.

[0035] In this embodiment, the substrate 1 is a wafer-level glass or the like used for precision etching, and the support member 2 is provided with a support portion that matches the shape of the outer edge of the non-reflective area of ​​the substrate 1. The support portion is different from the multi-point contact support method in the narrower area in that it adopts surface contact support or line contact support.

[0036] Due to the high precision requirements of the precision etching process, the substrate 1 needs to be precisely positioned before and during the etching process. Therefore, it is not advisable to use glue for adsorption in this embodiment. Furthermore, since the edge warping of the substrate 1 is slightly warped, the substrate 1 will undergo strain deformation in the fixing method such as mechanical fixation. Mechanical fixation of the edge of the substrate 1 will aggravate the offset and deformation of the substrate 1. Therefore, the adsorption part in this embodiment is flexible adsorption. The specific method of flexible adsorption is not limited in this embodiment.

[0037] In one embodiment, the adsorption part is a negative pressure adsorption groove 4. In this embodiment, the negative pressure adsorption groove 4 is formed in the support portion of the support member 2, generating a continuous adsorption force after the substrate 1 is positioned. The adsorption force must be uniform to ensure that the edges of the substrate 1 do not warp, which would be detrimental to precise photolithography positioning. Simultaneously, the vector of the adsorption force must remain constant so as not to affect the center of gravity of the substrate 1 when adsorbing it. In this embodiment, the adsorption surface of the negative pressure adsorption groove 4 is either annularly distributed or segmented; its shape can be polygonal, circular, or other geometric shapes. This embodiment does not limit the specific shape of the adsorption surface.

[0038] In one embodiment, the adsorption force of the negative pressure adsorption groove 4 increases regularly in the diffusion direction from the center of gravity of the substrate 1. Since the edge warping of the substrate 1 is caused by its own gravity, the warping is more severe in areas further away from the center of gravity of the substrate 1 when the substrate 1 is placed on the support 2. In this embodiment, the adsorption force of the negative pressure adsorption groove 4 is set according to the specific center of gravity of the substrate 1 and the specific shape of the substrate 1, so as to ensure that the edge warping of the substrate 1 is eliminated.

[0039] In one embodiment, there are multiple sets of negative pressure adsorption tanks 4; the adsorption unit generates negative pressure at the negative pressure adsorption tank 4 based on the negative pressure device 6 and the gas guide pipe 5; the negative pressure device 6 is used to generate gas negative pressure, and each negative pressure adsorption tank 4 is connected based on each gas guide pipe 5. In this embodiment, each negative pressure adsorption tank 4 is set as multiple sets based on the functions completed according to the above embodiments, and each set of negative pressure is transmitted by each gas guide pipe 5 individually or in groups, so as to complete the "regular increase of adsorption force of negative pressure adsorption tank 4" in the above embodiments.

[0040] In one embodiment, the adsorption force of each negative pressure adsorption groove 4 increases progressively outward from the center region of the substrate 1. The specific distribution of the shape of the negative pressure adsorption groove 4 in this embodiment is as follows: Figure 2 , 3 The diagram shows multiple strip-shaped adsorption grooves. Multiple sets of parallel or extending adsorption grooves are arranged on the overall adsorption surface of one edge of the substrate 1 to ensure that this edge adsorption surface is fully covered. It should be noted that when the shape of one edge of the substrate 1 is not a straight line, the arrangement of the adsorption grooves is determined according to the specific shape of this edge, ensuring that the edge adsorption surface is fully covered. In this embodiment, the negative pressure adsorption grooves 4, extending from the center of the substrate 1 at progressively increasing distances, increase the adsorption force.

[0041] In one embodiment, such as Figure 6 As shown, the negative pressure device 6 is connected to each negative pressure adsorption tank 4 via multiple air guide pipes 5. In this embodiment, to reduce manufacturing and control costs, a single negative pressure device 6 is used to connect to all negative pressure adsorption tanks 4.

[0042] In one embodiment, the negative pressure adsorption grooves 4 are arranged in a ring on the support member 2. In one embodiment, the substrate is a quartz substrate, and the support member 2 has two key structures: fastening screw holes 3 and negative pressure adsorption grooves 4. Figure 1 and Figure 2 As shown, where Figure 3 This is an enlarged view of the negative pressure adsorption tank 4. The fastening screw hole 3 is used to fix the support 2 onto the worktable of the lithography machine; however, the worktable is not shown in the illustration as its role is minor in this embodiment. The negative pressure adsorption tank 4 is used for vacuum adsorption when the quartz substrate 1 is placed on the support 2. The vacuum adsorption effect of the negative pressure adsorption tank 4 can effectively improve the deformation of the thin quartz substrate caused by gravity.

[0043] To more intuitively demonstrate that the vacuum adsorption effect of the negative pressure adsorption groove 4 can significantly improve the deformation of the thin quartz substrate, this embodiment analyzes the deformation of the quartz substrate 1 using finite element simulation. In this embodiment, the dimensions of the quartz substrate 1 are 240mm*240mm*6mm, with an effective area of ​​210mm*210mm. The effective area overlaps with the support member 2, and there are seven 1mm wide negative pressure adsorption grooves 4 at the edge of the support.

[0044] Under gravity, the maximum deformation of the effective area of ​​a 6mm quartz substrate 1 without vacuum adsorption force is 731.6nm. When a vacuum adsorption force of 1 bar is applied to the quartz substrate 1 through the negative pressure adsorption tank 4, the maximum deformation of the effective area of ​​the quartz substrate 1 is 287.3nm, a reduction of 60.7%. Figure 4 As shown.

[0045] This embodiment shows the relationship between different adsorption forces and the maximum deformation of the quartz substrate 1, such as Figure 5 As shown. The relationship between the maximum deformation y mm of the quartz substrate 1 and the adsorption force x bar is: y = -0.0034x + 0.2933. It can be estimated that when the adsorption force is approximately 86 bar, the deformation of the quartz substrate 1 in the effective area due to gravity approaches zero. At the same time, the adsorption force of each negative pressure adsorption tank in this embodiment can be adjusted according to the surface shape of the substrate.

[0046] In this way, the process of substrates with different thicknesses can be predicted in advance, preventing deformation of the substrate supported in the edge area, ensuring its structural resolution and uniformity, and improving processing efficiency.

[0047] The above description is merely a specific embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited thereto. Any variations or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in the present invention should be included within the scope of protection of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention should be determined by the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A support member for improving substrate deformation, used to support the substrate during a precision etching process, characterized in that, The support is a ring-shaped support, which is provided with a support part matching the edge shape of the passive area of the substrate, for supporting the substrate from the peripheral edge part of the substrate and making the active area in the middle part of the substrate in a suspended state, and a suction part is arranged on the contact part of the support part with the substrate; the suction part is used to eliminate the edge warping caused by placing the substrate on the support; The suction part is a negative pressure suction groove, and a plurality of negative pressure suction grooves are arranged in parallel with each other; the negative pressure suction groove generates negative pressure based on a negative pressure device and a gas guide pipe; the negative pressure device is used to generate gas negative pressure, and each negative pressure suction groove is connected to each negative pressure device based on the gas guide pipe, and the suction force of the negative pressure suction groove on the substrate increases from the diffusion direction of the center of gravity of the substrate.

2. The support for improving deformation of a substrate according to claim 1, wherein: The negative pressure device is connected to each negative pressure suction groove based on a plurality of gas guide pipes.

3. The support for improving deformation of a substrate as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that: Each negative pressure suction groove is distributed in a ring shape on the support.

4. The support for improving deformation of a substrate according to claim 3, wherein: The width of the negative pressure suction groove is 0.5-1.5 mm.

5. The support for improving deformation of a substrate as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that: The suction force of each negative pressure suction groove can be adjusted according to the surface type of the substrate.

6. A support for improving the deformation of a substrate according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that: The support further comprises a plurality of fastening screw holes, and each fastening screw hole is used to fix the support to a precision manufacturing equipment.

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