Substrate Drying Apparatus for Liquid Immersion Exposure
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional substrate processing systems face issues with contamination and processing defects due to liquid adhesion and particle adherence during liquid immersion exposure methods, leading to operational troubles and defective patterns.
Innovation Solution
A substrate drying and cleaning apparatus is introduced, featuring a drying processing unit with a substrate holding device, rotation-drive device, cleaning liquid supplier, and inert gas supplier to effectively remove liquid and particles from the substrate, preventing contamination and ensuring reliable drying.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If liquid immersion method is used for exposure processing, then finer exposure patterns can be achieved, but liquid adheres to the substrate and causes contamination and operational troubles
Solution Approach 1:
The substrate processing system is divided into separate functional blocks: a liquid immersion exposure device, a substrate drying apparatus with inert gas atmosphere, and a substrate processing apparatus. This segmentation isolates the liquid adhesion problem to the exposure device while protecting downstream processes through the drying apparatus that removes liquid before substrates enter the processing apparatus.
Solution Approach 2:
A drying apparatus acts as an intermediary between the liquid immersion exposure device and the substrate processing apparatus. This intermediate device uses inert gas to remove liquid from substrates after exposure, preventing liquid adhesion and particle contamination from affecting the substrate processing apparatus while maintaining the benefits of liquid immersion exposure.
2Productivity
If substrate with liquid is transported between exposure device and processing apparatus, then exposure processing can be performed, but liquid drops in processing apparatus causing operational abnormalities
Solution Approach 1:
The drying apparatus performs preliminary drying of substrates using inert gas before they are transported to the substrate processing apparatus. This preliminary action removes liquid from substrates in advance, preventing liquid drops from causing operational abnormalities in the processing apparatus while maintaining continuous substrate transport efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The drying apparatus creates an inert gas atmosphere (using gases like nitrogen or rare gases) to prevent liquid evaporation and contamination during the drying process. This inert environment allows substrates to be dried effectively without introducing new contaminants, ensuring reliable operation of the substrate processing apparatus.
3Productivity
If particles adhere to substrate before exposure, then exposure processing can proceed, but particles mix into liquid and contaminate lens and cause defective patterns
Solution Approach 1:
The drying apparatus extracts and removes particles from substrates using inert gas flow before substrates are transported back to the substrate processing apparatus. This extraction action prevents particles from mixing into the liquid during subsequent processing, thereby preventing lens contamination and defective exposure patterns while maintaining processing continuity.
Solution Approach 2:
The inert gas atmosphere in the drying apparatus prevents particle-liquid interaction by creating a controlled environment where particles can be removed from substrates without contaminating the liquid immersion medium, thus protecting the exposure device lens and ensuring pattern quality.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The apparatus prevents liquid from dropping into the substrate processing apparatus, reduces particle adherence, and maintains clean conditions, thereby avoiding operational troubles and ensuring precise substrate processing.
Implementation Method 1
a drying processing unit that applies drying processing to the substrate after exposure processing by the exposure device
Implementation Method 2
a substrate holding device that holds the substrate substantially horizontally, a rotation-drive device that rotates the substrate held by the substrate holding device around an axis perpendicular to the substrate
Data Source
AI summary
A substrate processing system includes a substrate processing apparatus and a cleaning/drying apparatus. The substrate processing apparatus includes an indexer block, an anti-reflection film processing block, a resist film processing block, a development processing block, a resist cover film processing block, a resist cover film removal block and a first interface block. The cleaning/drying apparatus includes a cleaning/drying processing block and a second interface block. An exposure device is arranged adjacent to the second interface block. In the cleaning/drying processing block, cleaning processing is applied to a substrate before exposure processing and drying processing is applied to the substrate after the exposure processing.