Semiconductor Engineer December 22, 2024 09:48 Beijing
Glue coating development equipment (also known as Track) is glue coating, baking and developing equipment used in lithography processes with lithography machines, including glue coating machines, glue sprayers and developers. This type of equipment generally works online with lithography equipment (In line), forming a supporting wafer processing and lithography production line, and cooperating with a lithography machine to complete the fine lithography process flow.
The specific relationship between glue coating and TRACK: In TRACK equipment, glue coating and development are continuous processes. First, the device will evenly coat the photoresist on the wafer and then pre-bake. Then, the wafer will be sent to the exposure machine for pattern exposure, and then sent back to TRACK for development, completing the chemical fixation of the pattern. The precise control capability of TRACK equipment is crucial to optimize the glue-coating development process. For example, by precisely controlling the temperature and pressure during the coating process, the uneven distribution of the photoresist can be effectively avoided, thereby improving the fineness and consistency of the pattern.
TRACK equipment technology highlights: Modern TRACK equipment is equipped with highly advanced control systems and software, supporting a variety of lithography processes, including lithography technologies of different wavelengths such as i-line, KrF and ArF. These equipment are designed to allow for strict environmental controls, such as temperature control within an accuracy of ±0.1°C, which helps to increase the overall production line capacity and reduce defect rates.
At present, most advanced packaging links in the later road only use equipment; in the front road wafer processing link, equipment and equipment are used in combination, and the corresponding process process will be different, and the equipment configuration will also be different.
The three main parts of TRACK are: glue coating machine subsystem, hot and cold plate baking system, and shadow development subsystem. Other parts include: Wafer's transmission and temporary storage system, liquid supply/discharge subsystem and communication subsystem.
The gluing subsystem is mainly composed of a rotating motor, a vacuum adsorption silicon wafer table, a photoresist/anti-reflective layer nozzle, an edge degluing nozzle, a silicon wafer back degluing nozzle, and an exhaust and suction system, as shown in the figure below.
The hot plate is to send the coated photoresist wafer directly above by the robot. At the same time, the three pins are raised to carry the wafer. After the robot arm is withdrawn, the pins are lowered and the baking begins. After the baking is finished, the pins are raised and the washers are taken away. There are generally 3 steps of baking: before exposure or after glue baking (Bake, PAB), after exposure baking (Post Bake, PEB) and post-development baking (Post Bake, PB). The last step of baking is also called Hard Bake.
Development is performed in a developing unit of TRACK. The developing unit contains a turntable for carrying the wafer, and several nozzles are used for spraying wine developer, deionized water (DI water) and surfactant (). The robot placed the wafer on the rotary table, and the nozzle sprayed the developer on the wafer surface, and the development began. After the specified development time is over, the wafer is rinsed with deionized water. Finally, the turntable rotates at high speed and dries the wafer.
The quality of the development is directly related to the quality of the lithography process. The main indicators for measuring development quality are line width uniformity and defects. The temperature control of the developer is also very important. Generally, there is a special cold water system that maintains the temperature of the developer through cold water circulation. The most important impact on development is the nozzle () design of the developer.
From lithography technology and lithography machine, author Jingwan Hua Anyi
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