JP2564922B2 - Semiconductor device manufacturing equipment - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus for removing photoresist with hot sulfuric acid.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, this type of semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus is configured as shown in FIG. That is, in FIG.
1 is a resist removing tank, 2 is sulfuric acid introduced into the resist removing tank 1, 3 is a heater enclosed in a quartz tube, 4 is a thermocouple enclosed in the quartz tube, 5 is a temperature controller, and 6 is nitric acid. Tank, 7 is a nitric acid introduction pipe, 8 is a nitric acid introduction valve, 9 is a quartz tube crack prevention plate, 10 is a wafer, and 11 is a basket for holding the wafer 10.

 Next, the operation will be described.

Sulfuric acid 2 is introduced into the resist removing tank 1 by an appropriate means. The sulfuric acid 2 is heated by the heater 3 enclosed in the quartz tube, while the temperature is monitored by the thermocouple 4 also enclosed in the quartz tube. When the liquid temperature reaches a predetermined set value by the temperature controller 5, the heater 3 is turned off, and when the liquid temperature falls below the predetermined set value, the heater 3 is turned on to stabilize the liquid temperature at the predetermined set value. By opening the nitric acid introducing valve 8 of the nitric acid introducing pipe 7 from the nitric acid tank 6, a predetermined amount of nitric acid is introduced and the nitric acid introducing valve 8 is closed. By placing the basket 11 containing the wafer 10 having the resist to be removed on the quartz tube and the crack prevention plate 9 that protects the heater 3 in the quartz tube,
The photoresist hydrocarburized by sulfuric acid 2 is removed by the oxidizing action of nitric acid.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

Since the conventional semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus is configured as described above, it is necessary to drop an appropriate amount of nitric acid in order to stabilize the oxidizing action of nitric acid, and the mixing uniformity in the resist removing tank 1 However, there is a problem in that the photoresist cannot be removed stably because the oxidizing power changes due to temperature changes or changes over time.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and the oxidation action is spatially controlled in the resist removing tank.
Another object of the present invention is to obtain a semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus having a time-stabilizing function.

[Means for solving the problem]

The semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention, a nitrous acid smoke generator that generates nitrous acid smoke using oxygen gas as a carrier gas, and sulfuric acid filled inside, while accommodating and holding a wafer coated with photoresist, The resist removing tank is configured to introduce nitrite smoke from the nitrite smoke generator.

[Action]

In this invention, the nitrite smoke using oxygen as a carrier gas is stably supplied into sulfuric acid to stabilize the oxidizing action, and the photoresist is stably removed.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a resist removing tank, 2 is sulfuric acid introduced into the resist removing tank 1, 3 is a heater enclosed in a quartz tube, 4 is a thermocouple enclosed in the quartz tube, and 5 is temperature control. The container 9 is a crack prevention plate, and holes (not shown) are uniformly formed on the upper surface. 10 is a wafer, 11 is this wafer 10
This basket 11 is placed on the crack prevention plate 9 in the resist removing tank 1. Further, 12 is a pressure regulator for oxygen as a carrier gas, 13 is a solenoid valve, 14 is a flow rate controller, 15 is a gas filter, and 16 is an oxygen supply pipe. Reference numeral 17 is a nitrite smoke generator in which nitric acid 18 is housed, 19 is a heater for heating the nitric acid 18, 20 is a temperature controller for controlling the heater 19, and stabilizes the nitric acid 18 at a constant temperature. Reference numeral 21 is a carrier gas introduction pipe for introducing the nitrite smoke and oxygen generated in the nitrite smoke generator 17 into the resist removing tank 1.

 Next, the operation will be described.

The sulfuric acid 2 is put into the resist removing tank 1 by an appropriate means.
The heater 3 enclosed in the quartz tube heats the sulfuric acid 2 while the thermocouple 4 enclosed in the quartz tube monitors the temperature. When the liquid temperature reaches a predetermined set value by the temperature controller 5, the heater 3 is turned off, and when the liquid temperature falls below the predetermined set value, the heater 3 is turned on to stabilize the liquid temperature at the predetermined set value.

The pressure of the oxygen is stabilized by the pressure regulator 12, the solenoid valve (air driven valve) 13 can be turned on and off, the flow rate controller 14 controls a constant flow rate, and the gas filter 15 is used to control the pressure as shown in FIG. Oxygen is supplied to the nitrite smoke generator 17 containing the nitric acid 18.

Further, the nitric acid 18 is heated by the heater 19, and the temperature controller 20 controls the temperature to be a constant temperature.

Nitrite smoke using oxygen gas generated by the supply of oxygen as a carrier gas is introduced into the resist removing tank 1 through a carrier gas introducing pipe 21. The carrier gas introduced into the resist removing tank 1 is jetted from a small hole provided at the tip of the carrier gas introducing pipe 21, that is, the lower portion of the crack prevention plate 9,
It is ejected to the wafer 10 side.

When the wafer 10 having the photoresist adhered thereto is placed in the basket 11 and dipped in the basket 11 in this manner, the photoresist decomposed into hydrocarbons by the sulfuric acid 2 is removed by the oxidization action of nitrite smoke. You can

Although the nitric acid 18 is appropriately replaced in the above embodiment, a new solution of nitric acid 18 may be automatically dropped and an old solution may be automatically drained.

〔The invention's effect〕

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY As described above, the present invention is a nitrite smoke generator that generates nitrite smoke by using oxygen gas as a carrier gas, and stores and holds a wafer coated with sulfuric acid and coated with photoresist. Since it is composed of a resist removing tank for introducing nitrous acid smoke from the smoke generator, there is an advantage that the resist can be stably removed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a part of a semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention in section, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a part of a conventional semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus in section. is there. In the figure, 1 is a resist removing tank, 2 is sulfuric acid, 3 is a heater enclosed in a quartz tube, 4 is a thermocouple enclosed in a quartz tube, 5 is a temperature controller, 9 is a crack prevention plate, 10 is a wafer, 11
Is a basket, 12 is a pressure regulator, 13 is a solenoid valve, 14 is a flow controller, 15 is a gas filter, 16 is an oxygen supply pipe, 17 is a nitrite smoke generator, 18 is nitric acid, 19 is a heater, and 20 is a temperature. Controller,
Reference numeral 21 is a carrier gas introduction pipe. The same reference numerals in each drawing indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A nitrous acid smoke generator for generating nitrous acid smoke using oxygen gas as a carrier gas, and a wafer filled with sulfuric acid and coated with a photoresist for containing and holding the nitrite smoke generator. And a resist removing tank for introducing nitrous acid smoke from the semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus.