JPS6355210B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to improvements in electron beam exposure apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, electron beam exposure apparatuses that use electron beams have been developed to perform microfabrication of samples such as wafers and mask substrates. With this device,
A cassette holding a sample is placed on a table placed in the drawing room, the table is moved and the sample is irradiated with an electron beam to perform drawing exposure of the sample, and after waiting for the completion of exposure, the cassette is removed from the drawing room. I try to take it out. Furthermore, in the electron beam exposure equipment used on the production line,
In order to perform the above series of sequential operations continuously, a preliminary chamber is provided which is mechanically connected to the drawing chamber through a gate valve, etc., and a plurality of cassettes are loaded in advance into a magazine or the like in this preliminary chamber. The system is set up in advance and executed according to commands from a control unit that controls a series of sequential operations.

Incidentally, the reliability of the above-mentioned continuous operation is mainly determined by the reliability of the IC and other individual circuit elements that constitute the control section. however,
Even if circuit elements such as ICs are screened to eliminate early failures, the occurrence of accidental accidents is unavoidable. The above-mentioned sample substrate transfer operation involves moving mechanical parts, so
If the accident mentioned above occurs, it may lead to fatal damage to mechanical parts. For example, when a cassette is transported by a feeder, if a gate valve is closed, a magazine is moved up and down, or a table is moved, the feeder, gate valve, magazine, table, etc. may be damaged. Note that this is generally caused by operational errors, malfunctions due to electrical noise, power outages, and the like. The above-mentioned damage to the mechanical system requires a long time to recover, and is a factor that greatly reduces the movement rate of the device.

The present invention was made in consideration of the above circumstances, and
The purpose is to provide an electron beam exposure apparatus that can prevent various kinds of troubles such as accidental accidents, operational errors, and damage to the mechanical system due to electrical noise.

That is, the present invention provides a position detector that detects the position of the feeder that transports the cassette holding the sample, and uses the detection signal of this detector as an interlock signal for a drive system other than the drive system that drives the feeder. The aim was to achieve the above objective.

Hereinafter, details of the present invention will be explained with reference to illustrated embodiments.

The figure is a schematic configuration diagram schematically showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a surface plate fixed to a pedestal 3 via a vibration isolator 2, and a drawing chamber 4 and a preliminary chamber 5 are placed on the upper surface of this surface plate 1. An X-Y table 6 is arranged in the drawing chamber 4, and the table 6 is moved by a table drive system 7 in the X direction (left-right direction on the page) and Y direction (front and back direction on the page). The moving position of the XY table 6 is detected by a laser interferometer 8 and a laser reflector 9.

The preliminary chamber 5 is connected to the drawing chamber 4 via a gate valve 11 that is opened and closed by a valve drive system 10, and a magazine 13 that is moved up and down by a magazine drive system 12 is installed inside the preliminary chamber 5.
is located. This magazine 13 consists of a plurality of storage sections, for example four, which are divided horizontally, and each storage section accommodates a cassette 14 holding a sample. Then, the cassettes 14 in the magazine 13 are transported one by one into the drawing chamber 4 by a feeder 16 that is driven by a feeder drive system 15 to move in the horizontal direction on the paper, and are placed at a predetermined position on the X-Y table 6 in the same chamber 4. It is intended to be placed on the body part.

Further, a position detector 17 is arranged near the feeder 16 in the preliminary chamber 5. This detector 17 is composed of, for example, a microswitch, and detects whether or not the feeder 16 is at a predetermined position (as shown in the figure, the rightmost position where the cassette 14 is not transported). The detection signal from the position detector 17 is sent to the operation panel 18, and is also sent to each of the drive systems 7, 10, and 12 as an interlock signal via the cassette transfer control section 19. That is, if the detection signal is set to "ON" when the feeder 16 is in a predetermined position, and "OFF" at other times, each drive system 7, 10, 12 can operate only when the detection signal is "ON". There is. Further, when the above signal is "ON", a lamp or the like is lit on the operation panel 18.

Note that the drawing chamber 4 and the preliminary chamber 5 are evacuated by a vacuum pump or the like (not shown). In addition, 20 in the figure is the X-Y table 6
2 shows an electron optical lens barrel that irradiates an electron beam onto a sample in a cassette 14 placed at a predetermined position of the sample to expose the sample. Reference numeral 21 indicates a transparent plate through which laser light is transmitted.

With such a configuration, the interior of the drawing chamber 4 and the preliminary chamber 5 are evacuated by setting the operation panel 18, and then the gate valve 11 is opened and the cassette 14 in the magazine 13 is transferred to the X by the feeder 16.
- It is transported to a predetermined location on the Y table 6 and placed thereon. Then, the sample in the cassette 14 is exposed to the electron beam, and after the exposure is finished, the cassette 14 is exposed.
A series of operations are performed in which the image is taken out of the drawing chamber 4. Here, the cassette 14 is connected to the feeder 1.
6, the feeder 16
Since the position is other than the predetermined position, the detection signal of the position detector 17 becomes "OFF", thereby interlocking the table drive system 7, valve drive system 10, and magazine drive system 12. Therefore, even if an operational error, malfunction due to electrical noise, power outage, etc. occur in this state, opening of the gate valve 11, vertical movement of the magazine 13, movement of the table 6, etc. will not occur. For this reason,
When the cassette 14 is transferred by the feeder 16, damage to the mechanical drive unit due to operational errors or accidents can be prevented, and reliability can be improved. Furthermore, this makes it possible to avoid inconveniences such as having to stop the apparatus for a long time to recover from damage to the mechanical drive unit, leading to the effect that productivity can be improved.

Note that this invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. For example, the position detector may be any device that can detect whether or not the feeder is at a predetermined position, and a light emitting element, a light receiving element, etc. may be used in place of the micro switch. Furthermore, the location where the detector is disposed is not particularly limited. Further, the method of processing the detection signal by the detector may be changed as appropriate depending on the specifications of the control system. In short, the present invention can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the gist thereof.

As described in detail above, the present invention includes a position detector that detects the position of a feeder that transports a cassette holding a sample, and uses the detection signal as an interlock signal for a drive system other than the drive system that drives the feeder. Therefore, it is possible to provide an electron beam exposure apparatus that can prevent various troubles such as damage to the mechanical system due to accidental accidents, operational errors, and malfunctions due to electrical noise.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The figure is a schematic configuration diagram schematically showing an embodiment of the present invention. 1... Surface plate, 2... Vibration isolator, 3... Frame, 4...
... Drawing room, 5 ... Preliminary room, 6 ... X-Y table, 7 ... Table drive system, 10 ... Valve drive system, 11 ... Gate valve, 12 ... Magazine drive system, 14 ... Cassette, 15...Feeder drive system, 16...Feeder, 17...Position detector, 1
8...Operation panel, 19...Cassette transfer control section, 2
0... Electron optical lens barrel.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an electron beam exposure apparatus that transports and places a cassette holding a sample on a table in a drawing chamber by moving a feeder, and exposes the sample by moving the table and deflecting and scanning an electron beam, the position of the feeder is determined. 1. An electron beam exposure apparatus characterized in that a position detector is provided to detect the feeder, and a detection signal from the position detector is used as an interlock signal for a drive system other than the drive system for driving the feeder.