JPH07254545A - Heat treatment method for semiconductor substrate and device therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a heat treatment method for a semiconductor substrate and a device thereof which can perform temperature control with high accuracy in the case of heating or cooling a semiconductor substrate (semiconductor wafer). CONSTITUTION:In a heat treatment method for heating and cooling a semiconductor substrate, the heating or cooling temperature of a semiconductor wafer 12 can be controlled by placing the semiconductor wafer 12 in a long semiconductor substrate supporting pin 13a and lifting and descending the semiconductor substrate supporting pin 13a to bring it close to or apart from the heating or cooling part and adjusting the lifting and descending speed of the semiconductor substrate supporting pin 13a.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a heat treatment method for a semiconductor substrate (semiconductor wafer) and an apparatus therefor, and in particular,
The present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer heating / cooling method in semiconductor manufacturing and an apparatus therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a device widely used for manufacturing a semiconductor device, there is a heat treatment device for a semiconductor wafer after resist coating. An outline of a commonly used semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a heating plate portion of a conventional semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a semiconductor wafer heat treatment system including a heating plate, a cooling plate and a transfer system of a conventional semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus. It is a schematic projection view from above. In these figures, 1 is a heater, 2 is a semiconductor wafer heating plate, 3 and 10 are semiconductor wafer supporting pins, 4 is a cylinder for vertically moving the semiconductor wafer supporting pins, 5 is a heat retaining cover, and 6 is an inert gas inlet. , 7 is an exhaust port, and 8 is a semiconductor wafer transfer system. Further, 9 is a semiconductor wafer cooling plate which is kept at a low temperature by a medium such as cooling water.

A current is passed through the heater 1 to heat the heating plate 2 to obtain a heating plate having a desired temperature. By bringing the semiconductor wafer into contact with the heating plate 2, a semiconductor wafer is obtained. Can be heated to the desired temperature. Further, as in the case of heating, the semiconductor wafer can be cooled by bringing the semiconductor wafer into contact with the semiconductor wafer cooling plate 9.

When the semiconductor wafer is heated and then cooled, the semiconductor wafer is first conveyed to the heating plate 2 by the semiconductor wafer transfer system 8.
Is placed on the semiconductor wafer support pin 3 which is a place for delivering the semiconductor wafer, and then the semiconductor wafer support pin 3 is lowered by the vertical movement cylinder 4 of the semiconductor wafer support pin, whereby the semiconductor wafer is lowered, By contacting the heating plate 2, the back surface is heated. After being heated for a set desired time, the semiconductor wafer support pins 3 are again raised by the vertical movement cylinder 4 of the semiconductor wafer support pins, so that the semiconductor wafer is separated from the heating plate 2 and the heating is completed. Become.

Thereafter, the semiconductor wafer is transferred to the semiconductor wafer cooling plate 9 outside the heating plate 2 by the semiconductor wafer transfer system 8, and thereafter, the semiconductor wafer is brought into contact with the cooling plate 9 as in the case of heating. It will be cooled. The semiconductor wafer support pins 3 and 10 serving as the semiconductor wafer transfer place work to raise the semiconductor wafer by about 1 cm from the heating plate or the cooling plate when the semiconductor wafer moves in and out of the heat treatment plate portion and the cooling plate portion. Therefore, the semiconductor wafer transfer system 8 facilitates the support / loading / unloading of the semiconductor wafer.

The heating plate 2 and the cooling plate 9 have a heat insulating cover 5 on the plate in order to improve the temperature holding efficiency of the heating unit and the cooling unit, and the semiconductor wafer heating plate unit and the cooling plate unit are kept in an inert atmosphere. In order to turn the gas into an inert gas, an inert gas such as nitrogen is introduced from the inert gas introduction port 6 to constantly replace the inert gas, and the outflow gas is discharged from the exhaust port 7.

[0008]

However, in the above-described conventional method for heating and cooling a semiconductor wafer, (1) when the semiconductor wafer is transferred to the heating portion while heating the semiconductor wafer, At the same time that the semiconductor wafer is supported, the semiconductor wafer is heated under the influence of the heating plate, and the heating rate and heating time of the semiconductor wafer cannot be controlled accurately.

(2) The semiconductor wafer placed on the semiconductor wafer support pins is brought into contact with the heating plate abruptly as the cylinder rapidly descends, and is abruptly heated to the set temperature of the heating plate. As a result, the atmosphere of the heating portion is abruptly deteriorated by the thermal stress and the gas generated by the heating. (3) Since the semiconductor wafer support pins pass through the heating plate to support the semiconductor wafer from below, the semiconductor wafer support pins themselves are likely to reach a high temperature and come into contact with the semiconductor wafer in an attempt to support the semiconductor wafer. At this time, since the contact portion between the semiconductor wafer and the semiconductor wafer support pin is locally heated and heated, it is difficult to control the temperature with high accuracy.

(4) Since the temperature uniformity of the heat treatment in the plane of the semiconductor wafer is mainly determined by the temperature uniformity of the heat treatment plate, the heat treatment accuracy higher than that of the heat treatment plate cannot be obtained. (5) Since it is difficult to actually measure the temperature at which the semiconductor wafer is heated, it is difficult to control the heat treatment temperature of the semiconductor wafer with high accuracy.

(6) In the case where the semiconductor wafer is continuously cooled after being heated, the semiconductor wafer must be transferred to another semiconductor wafer cooling plate section by the semiconductor wafer transfer system to be cooled. The semiconductor wafer heated in the transfer process heats the transfer system,
The semiconductor wafer transfer system itself and subsequent semiconductor wafers are adversely affected, and the semiconductor wafer is naturally cooled in the course of being transferred, so that the cooling rate of the semiconductor wafer cannot be accurately controlled.

There are problems such as The present invention eliminates the above problems, and provides a semiconductor substrate heat treatment method and a device therefor capable of highly accurately controlling the temperature when heating or cooling a semiconductor substrate (semiconductor wafer). To aim.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a heat treatment method for heating or cooling a semiconductor substrate, which comprises placing the semiconductor substrate on a long semiconductor substrate support pin, This semiconductor substrate support pin is moved up and down to approach or separate from the heating or cooling plate portion, and the heating or cooling temperature of the semiconductor substrate can be controlled by adjusting the lifting speed of the semiconductor substrate support pin. It is a thing.

Further, in a heat treatment apparatus for heating or cooling a semiconductor substrate, a long-sized semiconductor substrate supporting pin for mounting the semiconductor substrate, an elevating device for elevating the semiconductor substrate supporting pin, and a drive for driving the elevating device. A motor and a control device for controlling the drive motor are provided. Furthermore,
In a heat treatment apparatus for heating or cooling a semiconductor substrate,
An elongated semiconductor substrate support pin for mounting the semiconductor substrate,
A heating plate and a cooling plate arranged above and below with the semiconductor substrate sandwiched therebetween; an elevating device for elevating the semiconductor substrate support pins; and a drive motor for driving the elevating device.
A control device for controlling the drive motor is provided, and heating and cooling are continuously performed by raising and lowering the semiconductor substrate.

[0015]

According to the present invention, as described above, (1) the semiconductor wafer and the heating plate or the cooling plate are used when the semiconductor wafer is transferred to and from the semiconductor wafer transfer system by using the elongated semiconductor wafer support pins. The interval of
The semiconductor wafer support pins are moved up and down by an elevating device, and the elevating device is driven by a drive motor (for example, a pulse motor). motor)
Done in. The drive motor can be precisely controlled by the motor control device, and the vertical speed of the semiconductor wafer can be set arbitrarily. Here, the heat treatment apparatus for a semiconductor wafer refers to an apparatus for heating or cooling the semiconductor wafer.
That is, the heat treatment includes not only heating but also cooling.

(2) Since the semiconductor wafer support pins are moved up and down by the drive motor so that the vertical movement speed of the semiconductor wafer can be adjusted with high accuracy, the semiconductor wafer is set at appropriate intervals with respect to the heating plate or the cooling plate. It becomes possible to hold and heat-treat, and various heat treatments can be performed with a small number of heat-treatment plates. Further, the same heat treatment plate can be used to perform heat treatment at different temperatures for each semiconductor wafer.

(3) Transfer of the semiconductor wafer to and from the transfer system is performed by a semiconductor wafer support pin that is kept at a desired temperature, and the semiconductor wafer support pin is raised to raise the semiconductor wafer support pin or the cooling plate facing each other. Since the semiconductor wafer is heated or cooled by bringing the semiconductor wafer close to or in contact with the semiconductor wafer, the semiconductor wafer support pin is not locally heated or cooled, and the semiconductor wafer support pin contacts the semiconductor wafer. It is possible to prevent local heating / cooling of the semiconductor wafer due to the above.

Furthermore, since the heating plate or the cooling plate is installed downward so as to face the surface of the semiconductor wafer, it is possible to avoid the adverse effect of dust and the like falling on the heating plate, and to heat the semiconductor wafer. Cooling can be done in a clean atmosphere. (4) Since the semiconductor wafer support pins are provided separately from the heat treatment plate, and the rotating device (rotating mechanism) is attached to the semiconductor wafer support pins, it is possible to perform the heat treatment while rotating the semiconductor wafer, and thus the large diameter semiconductor Even for the wafer, it is possible to perform uniform heat treatment within the surface of the semiconductor wafer without being affected by the in-plane temperature uniformity of the heat treatment plate.

(5) Since the tip of the semiconductor wafer support pin is provided with a thermocouple for measuring the semiconductor wafer temperature, changes in the semiconductor wafer temperature during movement of the semiconductor wafer by the semiconductor wafer support pin and during holding and heating are It is possible to directly perform measurement with high accuracy, and it is possible to perform heat treatment on a semiconductor wafer with high accuracy. (6) Since the two heat treatment plates are provided so as to face each other and the movement between the heat treatment plates is performed only by moving the semiconductor wafer support pins up and down, such as semiconductor wafer heating and semiconductor wafer cooling. Two different types of heat treatments can be continuously processed with high accuracy.

Therefore, the natural temperature rise or natural cooling of the semiconductor wafer due to the movement of the semiconductor wafer by the semiconductor wafer transfer system is eliminated, and the temperature rising rate and the cooling rate of the semiconductor wafer can be controlled with high accuracy. It is possible to improve processing speed and reliability.

[0021]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus showing a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 11 is a heating plate for heating a semiconductor wafer, 12 is a semiconductor wafer (semiconductor substrate), 13 is an elevating device having a semiconductor wafer support pin 13a for penetrating the heating plate 11 and lifting the semiconductor wafer 12, 1
4 is a drive motor of this lifting device, 15 is a drive motor control device, 16 is a heat insulating cover, 17 is an inert gas inlet, 1
8 is an exhaust port.

The semiconductor wafer support pins 13a are long ones and are driven by an elevating device, for example, a mechanism including a pinion gear (fixed to the drive motor side) and a rack (fixed to the semiconductor wafer support pin side). The rotation of the motor 14 is converted into the vertical movement of the semiconductor wafer support pin 13a. Here, the semiconductor wafer 12 is supported by, for example, three semiconductor wafer support pins as shown in FIG. 3, but the invention is not limited to this, and a larger number of semiconductor wafer support pins are used. May be. However, it is desirable to reduce the number of pins for supporting the semiconductor wafer as much as possible in consideration of the influence (disturbance, stain) on the semiconductor wafer.

Therefore, when the semiconductor wafer 12 is heated, the surface of the semiconductor wafer 12 is turned upward by a semiconductor wafer transfer system (not shown),
By placing the semiconductor wafer support pins 13a on the semiconductor wafer support pins 13a and operating the drive motor 14 for driving the elevator device 13 having the semiconductor wafer support pins 13a, the elevator device 13 is operated to lower the semiconductor wafer support pins 13a. By bringing the wafer 12 close to the heating plate 11, the semiconductor wafer 12 can be heated from the back surface.

Here, the semiconductor wafer support pins 13a are
When the semiconductor wafer 12 is received from the semiconductor wafer transfer system, the semiconductor wafer support pins 13a are sufficient to remove the semiconductor wafer 12 from the heating plate 11 so that the heating plate 11 does not have a thermal effect on the semiconductor wafer 12. It is necessary to keep the distance apart, and the distance to be separated also depends on the set temperature of the heating plate 11, etc., but if the temperature is set to about 200 ° C., an interval of about 10 cm is sufficient.

The lowering of the semiconductor wafer support pins 13a is driven by the drive motor 14 of the elevating device 13, and the heating plate 11 is set and held at a desired temperature.
The approach speed of the semiconductor wafer 12 to the can be set arbitrarily with high accuracy, and the heating rate of the semiconductor wafer 12 accompanying the approach can be set arbitrarily. For example, the semiconductor wafer 12 at room temperature after applying the resist is heated by the heating plate 11
When the distance between the and is lowered from a position of 10 cm, the temperature of the heating plate 11 is 200 ° C., and the lowering speed of the semiconductor wafer support pin 13a is a constant speed of about 1 cm / min,
The rate of temperature rise of the semiconductor wafer 12 is determined by the radiative heat transfer coefficient from the heating plate 11, the heat transfer coefficient by convection, the temperature gradient between the semiconductor wafer 12 and the heating plate 11, etc., and increases as the temperature approaches the heating plate 11.

At a position where the distance from the heating plate 11 is 1 cm 9 minutes after the descent is started, the semiconductor wafer 12 is
Is heated to about 80 ° C. The case where the semiconductor wafer 12 approaches the heating plate 11 at 200 ° C. at a constant approach speed has been described. However, a desired wafer heating rate can be obtained by arbitrarily setting the approach speed and the set temperature of the heating plate 11. it can.

In this embodiment, the case of heating the semiconductor wafer has been described, but the same applies to the case of cooling the semiconductor wafer by disposing a cooling plate (not shown) and bringing the semiconductor wafer close to this cooling plate. It is obvious that it can be applied to. Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus showing a second embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, 21 is a heating plate, 22 is a semiconductor wafer, and 2 is a semiconductor wafer.
3 is an elevating device having semiconductor wafer support pins 23a for penetrating the heating plate to lift the semiconductor wafer 22;
Reference numeral 4 is a drive motor for the lifting device 23, 25 is a control device for the drive motor 24, 26 is a heat insulating cover, 27 is an inert gas inlet, and 28 is an exhaust port.

When a plurality of semiconductor wafers are heat-treated on the same heating plate 21 at different temperatures for each semiconductor wafer, the semiconductor wafers 22 are transferred by the semiconductor wafer transfer system.
The surface of the semiconductor wafer 22 is faced upward and placed on the semiconductor wafer support pin 23a, and the drive motor 24 for driving the elevating device 23 is operated to lower the semiconductor wafer support pin 23a, so that the semiconductor wafer 22 is moved to the position shown in FIG. The semiconductor wafer 22 can be heated from the back surface to a temperature corresponding to the distance a between the position A and the heating plate 21 by lowering to the position.

Here, the semiconductor wafer support pins 23a are lowered by being driven by the drive motor 24 of the elevating device 23 so that the semiconductor wafer 22 can be held at an arbitrary position A and the semiconductor wafer 22 can be moved to the position A. Semiconductor wafer 2
The approaching speed of 2 can be set arbitrarily with high precision, and the heating rate of the semiconductor wafer 22 accompanying the approaching can be set arbitrarily.

After that, when heat-treating another semiconductor wafer 22 at a different temperature, the semiconductor wafer 22 is held at a position B different from the position A and at a temperature corresponding to the distance b between the position B and the heating plate 21. By heat treatment,
The heat treatment can be performed at a temperature different from the heat treatment performed at the position A. Further, when the same semiconductor wafer is heat-treated in two steps at different temperatures, the distance between the semiconductor wafer 22 and the heating plate 21 when the first-step heat treatment is performed is
Depending on the desired heat treatment temperature of the first step, first, the holding heat treatment is performed at a desired position A for a desired time, and then the semiconductor wafer 22 is further moved by the semiconductor wafer support pins 23a.
Is moved, held at a desired position B and subjected to heat treatment, so that the heat treatment can be performed at a temperature different from the heat treatment temperature performed at the position A.

As described above, by applying the method of the present invention, various heat treatment sequences of semiconductor wafers can be carried out with a small number of heating plates. Further, although the case where the semiconductor wafer is heated has been described in the present embodiment, it is obvious that the same can be applied to the case where the semiconductor wafer is cooled. Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of a semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus showing a third embodiment of the present invention. As shown in this figure, 31 is a semiconductor wafer and 32 is a semiconductor wafer 31.
An elevating device having a semiconductor wafer supporting pin 32a for lifting the device, 33 is a heating plate installed facing downwards facing the semiconductor wafer supporting pin 32a, 34 is a drive motor for driving the elevating device 32, 35 is a drive motor control device, 36
Is a heat insulating cover, 37 is an inert gas inlet, and 38 is an exhaust port. Further, 39 is a semiconductor wafer support pin temperature adjusting device, which can maintain the semiconductor wafer support pin 32a at a desired temperature. For example, the semiconductor wafer support pins 32a are maintained at a desired temperature by an air conditioner.

Therefore, when the semiconductor wafer 31 is heated, the semiconductor wafer 31 is placed on the semiconductor wafer support pins 32a with the surface of the semiconductor wafer 31 facing upward by the drive motor control device 35, and then the drive motor control is performed. The elevating device is driven by the drive of the drive motor 34 controlled by the device 35, and the semiconductor wafer 31 is elevated by the elevation of the semiconductor wafer support pin 32a.
As the heating plate 33 approaches as the temperature rises, it is heated from the surface.

Here, the raising operation of the semiconductor wafer support pins 32a is driven by the drive motor 34, and the approach speed of the semiconductor wafer 31 to the heating plate 33 which is set and maintained at a desired temperature is arbitrarily set. Therefore, the heating rate of the semiconductor wafer 31 associated with the approach can be set arbitrarily. For example, the semiconductor wafer 31 at room temperature after application of the resist is raised from a position where the distance between the heating plate 33 and the heating plate 33 is 10 cm, the temperature of the heating plate 33 is 200 ° C., and the rising speed of the semiconductor wafer support pins 32 a is 1 cm / mi.
When the constant rate is about n, the rate of temperature rise of the semiconductor wafer 31 is determined by the radiative heat transfer coefficient from the heating plate 33, the heat transfer coefficient by convection, the semiconductor wafer 31 and the heating plate 3.
It becomes larger as it approaches the heating plate 33 depending on the temperature gradient with the heating plate 33, etc., but when the distance from the heating plate 33 after 9 minutes is 1 cm, the semiconductor wafer 31 has about 8 cm.
It is heated to about 0 ° C., and the solvent of the applied resist is removed, for example.

The case where the semiconductor wafer 31 approaches the heating plate 33 at 200 ° C. at a constant approach speed has been described. However, by setting the approach speed and the set temperature of the heating plate 33 arbitrarily, the desired semiconductor wafer heating rate can be obtained. Can be obtained. By setting the speed arbitrarily,
A desired semiconductor wafer heating rate can be obtained, and thermal stress and deterioration of atmosphere due to heating can be suppressed to the minimum. The semiconductor wafer support pins 32a are attached to the heating plate 33.
It is provided separately from the heating plate 33 so as not to be thermally affected by the semiconductor wafer supporting pin temperature adjusting device 39 and kept at a desired temperature. Therefore, the semiconductor wafer 31 does not come into contact with the heated semiconductor wafer support pins 32a, and the local temperature rise of the semiconductor wafer 31 can be prevented.

As described above, the semiconductor wafer 31 is transferred to and from the transfer system by the semiconductor wafer support pin 32a that is kept at a desired temperature, and the semiconductor wafer support pin 32a is raised to heat the semiconductor wafer 31 in opposition. Plate 33 or cooling plate and semiconductor wafer 31
Are brought close to or in contact with each other to heat and cool the semiconductor wafer 31, so that the semiconductor wafer support pins 32a
However, it is possible to prevent local heating / cooling of the semiconductor wafer 31 due to contact of the semiconductor wafer support pin 32a with the semiconductor wafer 31 without being locally heated / cooled.

Further, since the heating plate 33 is provided facing downward to the semiconductor wafer support pins 32a,
The heating plate 33 can be prevented from being contaminated by the semiconductor wafer transfer system and the like, and the heat treatment can be performed in a clean atmosphere. In this embodiment, the case of heating the semiconductor wafer has been described, but it is obvious that the same can be applied to the case of cooling.

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram of a semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG.
41 is a semiconductor wafer, 42 is an elevating device having a semiconductor wafer supporting pin 42a for elevating the semiconductor wafer, 43 is a heating plate installed downward facing the semiconductor wafer supporting pin 42a, 44 is a drive motor for the elevating device 42,
Reference numeral 45 is a drive motor control device, 46 is a heat insulating cover, 47 is an inert gas inlet, and 48 is an exhaust port.

In this embodiment, a rotating device (rotating mechanism) 49 for the semiconductor wafer support pin 42a is further provided, and the semiconductor wafer support pin 42a is connected to the semiconductor wafer 41.
It is configured so that it can rotate around the center point of. That is, when the semiconductor wafer support pins 42a are moved up and down, the clutch 4 is driven by the drive motor 44.
The lifting device 42 is driven by connecting 4a. In this case, the clutch 44b is released.

On the other hand, when the semiconductor wafer support pin 42a rotates, the clutch 44a is opened, and the drive motor 44 is driven to connect the clutch 44b and drive the rotating device (rotating mechanism) 49. This rotating device (rotating mechanism) 4
For example, a mechanism for rotating the common shaft of the semiconductor wafer support pin 42a by a worm gear or a pulley can be used as the device 9.

Therefore, by driving the rotating device (rotating mechanism) 49, the semiconductor wafer support pins 42a are rotated, and the semiconductor wafer 41 can be rotated at a desired rotation speed. When heating the semiconductor wafer 41, the semiconductor wafer 4
1 is placed on the semiconductor wafer support pins 42a with the surface of the semiconductor wafer 41 facing upward by a semiconductor wafer transfer system (not shown), and then a drive motor controller 45
The drive of the drive motor 44 controlled by the semiconductor wafer support pins 42a of the elevating device 42 raises the semiconductor wafer 41, and the semiconductor wafer 41 also rises. Will be done.

Here, the raising operation of the semiconductor wafer support pin 42a is a motor drive, and the approach speed of the semiconductor wafer 41 to the heating plate 43 which is set and maintained at a desired temperature can be set arbitrarily. The heating rate of the semiconductor wafer 41 accompanying the approach can be set arbitrarily. For example, the temperature of the semiconductor wafer 41 at room temperature after resist application is raised from the position where the distance from the heating plate 43 is 10 cm, the temperature of the heating plate 43 is 200 ° C., and the rising speed of the semiconductor wafer support pins 42 a is about 1 cm / min. When the heating speed is constant, the heating rate of the semiconductor wafer 41 is determined by the radiative heat transfer coefficient from the heating plate 43, the heat transfer coefficient due to convection, the temperature gradient between the semiconductor wafer 41 and the heating plate 43, and the like. The closer it gets, the larger it becomes, but after 9 minutes, the distance from the heating plate 43 is 1c.
At the position m, the semiconductor wafer is heated to about 80 ° C.

Here, the case where the semiconductor wafer 41 approaches the heating plate 43 at 200 ° C. at a constant approaching speed has been described. However, by setting the approaching speed and the set temperature of the heating plate 43 arbitrarily, a desired semiconductor is obtained. The heating rate of the wafer 41 can be obtained. Here, while the semiconductor wafer support pins 42a are raised and the semiconductor wafer 41 is approaching the heating plate 43, or while holding the semiconductor wafer 41 at a desired position, the semiconductor wafer 41 is rotated by a rotation device 49. To be made. The rotation speed is determined by the heat treatment conditions, the in-plane temperature uniformity of the heating plate 43, and the like, but about 20 to 30 rpm is sufficient, and the semiconductor wafer 41 is heated within the plane of the heating plate 43 by heat treatment while rotating. The heat treatment is uniformly performed within the surface of the semiconductor wafer 41 without being adversely affected by the temperature uniformity. With the increase in the diameter of the semiconductor wafer 41, it has become difficult to manufacture a large-scale heating plate with high accuracy. However, according to the present invention, it is possible to perform high-precision heat treatment even on a large-diameter wafer. .

As described above, the semiconductor wafer support pins are provided separately from the heat treatment plate, and the rotating device (rotating mechanism) is attached to the semiconductor wafer support pins.
It is possible to perform heat treatment while rotating the semiconductor wafer, and even for large-diameter semiconductor wafers, it is possible to perform heat treatment uniformly within the surface of the semiconductor wafer without being affected by the in-plane temperature uniformity of the heat treatment plate. Become.

In this embodiment, the case of heating the semiconductor wafer has been described, but it is obvious that the same can be applied to the case of cooling. Next, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 7 is a schematic configuration diagram of a semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus showing a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 7, 51 is a semiconductor wafer,
52 is an elevating device having a semiconductor wafer support pin 52a for lifting a semiconductor wafer, 53 is a heating plate installed facing downwards facing the semiconductor wafer supporting pin, 54 is a drive motor for the elevating device 52, 55 is a drive motor control device,
56 is a heat insulating cover, 57 is an inert gas inlet, 58 is an exhaust port, and 59 is a thermocouple. The thermocouple 59 can measure the temperature of the semiconductor wafer 51.

Therefore, when heating the semiconductor wafer 51, the semiconductor wafer 51 is placed on the semiconductor wafer support pins 52a with the surface of the semiconductor wafer 51 facing upward by a semiconductor wafer transfer system (not shown), and thereafter.
The semiconductor wafer 51 is lifted by the semiconductor wafer support pins 52a of the elevating device 52 driven by the drive motor 54 controlled by the drive motor controller 55, and the semiconductor wafer 51 approaches the heating plate 53 with this rise, thereby heating from the surface. Will be done. Here, the raising operation of the semiconductor wafer support pin 52a is a motor drive, and the approach speed of the semiconductor wafer 51 to the heating plate 53 which is set and held at a desired temperature can be arbitrarily set, and the semiconductor accompanying the approach can be set. The heating rate of the wafer 51 can be set arbitrarily.

For example, the room temperature semiconductor wafer 51 after resist coating is raised from the position where the distance from the heating plate 53 is 10 cm, the temperature of the heating plate 53 is 200 ° C., and the raising speed of the semiconductor wafer support pin 52a is 1 cm / min.
When the rate of temperature rise of the semiconductor wafer 51 is constant, the radiative heat transfer coefficient from the heating plate 53, the heat transfer coefficient due to convection, and the semiconductor wafer 51 and the heating plate 53.
It becomes larger as it approaches the heating plate 53 depending on the temperature gradient and the like, but the semiconductor wafer 51 is about 80 cm at a position of 1 cm after 9 minutes from the heating plate 53.
It is heated to about ℃.

Here, the case where the semiconductor wafer 51 approaches the heating plate 53 of 200 ° C. at a constant approach speed has been described, but a desired semiconductor can be obtained by arbitrarily setting the approach speed and the set temperature of the heat plate 53. The wafer heating rate can be obtained. Here, the semiconductor wafer 5
1 is held by the semiconductor wafer support pins 52a, that is, while the semiconductor wafer support pins 52a are raised and the semiconductor wafer 51 is approaching the heating plate 53, or the semiconductor wafer 51 is held at a desired position. During this, the thermocouple 59 attached to the tip of the semiconductor wafer support pin 52a comes into contact with the back surface of the semiconductor wafer 51, and the temperature change of the semiconductor wafer 51 can be measured from the back surface. Semiconductor wafer support pin 5
As the thermocouple 59 attached to the tip of the 2a, an inexpensive and sensitive copper constantan thermocouple is suitable, and when the semiconductor wafer 51 is heat-treated, the temperature of the semiconductor wafer 51 can be directly measured. Is possible.
Further, a plurality of semiconductor wafer support pins 52a are provided, and thermocouples 59 are provided on all of them, and the in-plane temperature distribution of the semiconductor wafer 51 is measured to monitor the in-plane uniformity of the heat treatment of the semiconductor wafer 51. It is also possible.

As described above, since the tip of the semiconductor wafer support pin is provided with the thermocouple for measuring the temperature of the semiconductor wafer, the semiconductor wafer temperature changes during the movement of the semiconductor wafer and the holding and heating of the semiconductor wafer by the support pin of the semiconductor wafer. Therefore, it becomes possible to directly perform measurement with high precision, and it becomes possible to perform heat treatment of the semiconductor wafer with high precision. In this embodiment, the case of heating the semiconductor wafer has been described, but it is obvious that the same applies to the case of cooling.

Next, a sixth embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 8 is a schematic configuration diagram of a semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus showing a sixth embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG.
Reference numeral 61 is a heating plate for heating a semiconductor wafer, 62 is a semiconductor wafer, 63 is an elevating device having a wafer support pin 63a that penetrates the heating plate 61 and elevates the semiconductor wafer 62, 64 is a drive motor for the elevating device 63, and 65 is a drive motor.
Is a drive motor control device, 66 is a cooling plate installed facing the heating plate 61, 67 is a heat insulating cover,
68 is an inert gas inlet, and 69 is an exhaust port.

Therefore, when the semiconductor wafer 62 is heated and then continuously cooled, the semiconductor wafer 62 is placed on the semiconductor wafer support pins 63a by a semiconductor wafer transfer system (not shown), and the semiconductor wafer support pins 63a are fixed. By operating the drive motor 64 that drives the lifting device 63, the semiconductor wafer 62 is lowered by lowering the semiconductor wafer support pins 63a, and the semiconductor wafer 62 is brought closer to the heating plate 61, so that the semiconductor wafer 62 is backed. Can be heated from.

Here, the lowering of the semiconductor wafer support pins 63a is driven by a motor, and the approaching speed of the semiconductor wafer 62 to the heating plate 61 which is set and maintained at a desired temperature can be set arbitrarily, and the approaching speed can be set. Accompanying semiconductor wafer 6
The heating rate of 2 can be set arbitrarily. After heating by the heating plate 61, the semiconductor wafer support pins 63a
Rises at a desired speed, the semiconductor wafer 62 is separated from the heating plate 61, and heating is completed.

Thereafter, the semiconductor wafer support pins 63a are
By lifting the semiconductor wafer 62 as it is,
By bringing the semiconductor wafer 62 close to the cooling plate 66 at a desired speed, the semiconductor wafer 62 can be cooled from the surface at a desired speed. Cooling plate 66
After cooling for a desired time with, the semiconductor wafer support pins 63a are
The semiconductor wafer 62 is moved to a semiconductor wafer loading / unloading position which is an intermediate position between the heating plate 61 and the cooling plate 66, and then the semiconductor wafer transfer system carries out the semiconductor wafer 62. Since the heating plate 61 and the cooling plate 66 are installed so as to face each other, continuous heating and cooling processes can be performed with high accuracy without going through the semiconductor wafer transfer system.

For example, before applying the resist to the surface of the semiconductor wafer 62, the semiconductor wafer 62 is heated at 200 to 250 ° C. for several minutes by the above-mentioned heating plate 61 to remove moisture and the like on the surface of the semiconductor wafer 62. . After that, the semiconductor wafer 62 can be cooled to a room temperature by the cooling plate 66, and can be used when the resist is applied.

As described above, since the two heat treatment plates, that is, the heating plate and the cooling plate, are provided so as to face each other and the semiconductor wafer support pins are moved only by the ascending and descending movements, the semiconductor heat treatment plates are moved. Two different types of heat treatments such as wafer heating and semiconductor wafer cooling can be continuously processed with high accuracy. Therefore, the spontaneous heating or cooling of the semiconductor wafer due to the movement of the semiconductor wafer by the semiconductor wafer transfer system is eliminated, and the heating rate and cooling rate of the semiconductor wafer can be controlled with high accuracy, and the processing speed of the semiconductor wafer can be improved. It is possible to improve the reliability and the reliability.

In this embodiment, the case where the heating plate and the cooling plate face each other has been described, but the same applies to the case where the heating plates face each other and the case where the cooling plates face each other. It's obvious. The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and various modifications can be made based on the spirit of the present invention, and these modifications are not excluded from the scope of the present invention.

[0059]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be achieved. Since the semiconductor wafer support pins are made long and the elevation of the semiconductor wafer support pins can be controlled with high precision by the drive motor, the semiconductor wafer is moved closer to or farther from the heating plate or cooling plate to heat or cool. In this case, the heating plate or the cooling plate can be moved toward or away from the heating plate or the cooling plate at any desired lifting speed, and the semiconductor wafer can be heated or cooled at any desired heating / cooling speed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a heating plate portion of a conventional semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a schematic projection view from above of a semiconductor wafer heat treatment system including a heating plate, a cooling plate and a transfer system of a conventional semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of a semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram of a semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic configuration diagram of a semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus showing a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic configuration diagram of a semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus showing a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

11, 21, 33, 43, 53, 61 Heating plate 12, 22, 31, 41, 51, 62 Semiconductor wafer (semiconductor substrate) 13, 23, 32, 42, 52, 63 Lifting device 13a, 23a, 32a, 42a , 52a, 63a
Semiconductor wafer support pins 14, 24, 34, 44, 54, 64 Drive motors 15, 25, 35, 45, 55, 65 Drive motor control device 16, 26, 36, 46, 56, 67 Insulation cover 17, 27, 37 , 47, 57, 68 Inert gas introduction port 18, 28, 38, 48, 58, 69 Exhaust port 39 Semiconductor wafer support pin temperature adjusting device 44a, 44b Clutch 49 Rotating device 59 Thermocouple 66 Cooling plate

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. In a heat treatment method for heating or cooling a semiconductor substrate, (a) placing the semiconductor substrate on a long semiconductor substrate support pin, and (b) heating the semiconductor substrate support pin by moving it up and down. Alternatively, the method of heat treating a semiconductor substrate is characterized in that the heating or cooling temperature of the semiconductor substrate can be controlled by bringing the cooling plate portion closer to or away from the cooling plate portion and adjusting the ascending / descending speed of the semiconductor substrate support pin. 2. The heating or cooling plate portion is provided with the semiconductor substrate support pins capable of vertical drive control, and the semiconductor substrate support pins are moved up and down to hold the semiconductor substrate at desired different positions. The heat treatment method for a semiconductor substrate according to claim 1, wherein the semiconductor substrate is heated or cooled at different desired temperatures. 3. The heat treatment method for a semiconductor substrate according to claim 1, wherein the temperature of the semiconductor substrate support pins is adjusted. 4. The heat treatment method for a semiconductor substrate according to claim 1, wherein the semiconductor substrate support pin is rotatable about a center point of the semiconductor substrate. 5. A thermocouple is provided at the tip of the semiconductor substrate support pin to enable temperature measurement of the semiconductor substrate during movement of the semiconductor substrate support pin and during heat treatment on the heating or cooling plate. Claim 1 characterized by
A method for heat-treating a semiconductor substrate according to claim 1. 6. The heating and cooling of the semiconductor substrate by arranging the heating plate and the cooling plate so as to face each other, providing the semiconductor substrate support pin between the plates, and moving the semiconductor substrate support pin up and down. A method for heat treating a semiconductor substrate, wherein the heat treatment is performed continuously. 7. A heat treatment apparatus for heating or cooling a semiconductor substrate, comprising: (a) an elongated semiconductor substrate support pin on which the semiconductor substrate is mounted; and (b) an elevating device for elevating the semiconductor substrate support pin. c) A heat treatment apparatus for a semiconductor substrate, comprising: a drive motor for driving the lifting device; and (d) a control device for controlling the drive motor. 8. The heat treatment apparatus for a semiconductor substrate according to claim 7, further comprising a temperature adjusting device for adjusting the temperature of the semiconductor substrate support pin. 9. The heat treatment apparatus for a semiconductor substrate according to claim 7, further comprising a rotating device that rotates the semiconductor substrate support pin about a center point of the semiconductor substrate. 10. The heat treatment apparatus for a semiconductor substrate according to claim 7, further comprising a thermocouple at a tip of the semiconductor substrate support pin. 11. A heat treatment apparatus for heating or cooling a semiconductor substrate, comprising: (a) a long semiconductor substrate supporting pin on which the semiconductor substrate is mounted; and (b) a heating plate arranged vertically above and below the semiconductor substrate. And a cooling plate, (c)
A lifting device for lifting the semiconductor substrate support pins,
(D) A semiconductor comprising: a drive motor for driving the elevating device; and (e) a control device for controlling the drive motor. (F) Heating and cooling are continuously performed by elevating the semiconductor substrate. Substrate heat treatment equipment.