Chemical liquid treatment apparatus and chemical liquid treatment method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10157756-B2
Application number	US-201414466391-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 22, 2014
Priority date	Jan 16, 2014
Publication date	Dec 18, 2018
Grant date	Dec 18, 2018

Abstract

A chemical liquid treatment apparatus includes processing chambers; a chemical liquid feeding unit configured to cyclically feed a chemical liquid into the processing chambers; and a modifying unit. The modifying unit, when using a chemical liquid in which an effect thereof varies with a chemical liquid discharge time, is configured to calculate a variation of the effect of the chemical liquid based on the chemical liquid discharge time and is configured to modify the chemical liquid discharge time for each of the processing chambers based on the calculated variation of the effect of the chemical liquid and a cumulative time of the chemical liquid discharge time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of chemical liquid treatment in which a chemical liquid is cyclically fed into processing chambers by a chemical liquid feeding unit, comprising:
calculating, when using a chemical liquid in which an effect thereof varies with a chemical liquid discharge time, a variation of the effect of the chemical liquid based on the chemical liquid discharge time by a modifying unit;
modifying a time of chemical liquid discharge for each of the processing chambers based on the calculated variation of the effect of the chemical liquid and a cumulative time of the chemical liquid discharge time by the modifying unit, the cumulative time of the chemical liquid discharge time being a sum of the time of chemical liquid discharge for each of the processing chambers obtained by measuring the time of chemical liquid discharge in each of the processing chambers; and
calculating a chemical liquid treatment time based on an etch amount of a workpiece and a function representing a relation between the cumulative time of the chemical liquid discharge time and an etch rate by the modifying unit,
wherein the function representing the relation between the cumulative time of the chemical liquid discharge time and the etch rate is obtained and stored in advance by the modifying unit, and
wherein an amount of chemical liquid corresponding to modified chemical liquid treatment time is fed to the workpiece in the processing chambers by the chemical liquid feeding unit,
said method further comprising;
processing the workpiece by feeding the chemical liquid to the workpiece:
measuring the processed workpiece; and
modifying subsequent chemical liquid feed amount based on a measurement value of the workpiece;
wherein the processing forms a pattern by etching,
wherein the measuring measures a pattern dimension of the workpiece and calculates the etch amount by the measured pattern dimension,
wherein the modifying modifies subsequent chemical liquid feed time based on a correlation between the measured etch amount and a function representing a relation between the chemical liquid discharge time and the etch rate obtained in advance,
wherein information on the chemical liquid feeding unit and a total chemical liquid discharge time are acquired and stored in advance and the chemical liquid treatment is executed by determining a target etch amount by parallelly executing acquisition of the total chemical liquid discharge time and acquisition of a function of etch rate and by determining a chemical liquid treatment time based on the target etch amount, a cumulative time of chemical liquid discharge time, and the function of etch rate,
wherein either of buffered fluoric acid. ammonia hydrogen peroxide, hydrochloric hydrogen peroxide, choline hydrogen peroxide, hydrochloric ozone water, and sulfuric hydrogen peroxide is fed as the chemical liquid,
wherein processing, the workpiece includes slimming a pattern of silicon oxide film by etching to form lines having a width narrower than a width of lines before the processing and to form spaces between the lines haying a width wider than a width of spaces before the processing, and
wherein a line and space pattern is formed of a silicon oxide film which is more easily etched by the chemical liquid compared to a lower layer film comprising a deposited silicon film.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the chemical liquid comprises one chemical liquid or a mixture of two or more chemical liquids.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the variation in the effect of the chemical liquid is a linear function of the chemical liquid discharge time.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the variation in the effect of the chemical liquid is a polynomial function of the chemical liquid discharge time.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the chemical liquid comprises a buffered fluoric acid.

6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising replenishing the chemical liquid with a replenishing chemical liquid by a chemical liquid replenishing unit for recovering the effect of the chemical liquid,
wherein the variation in the effect of the chemical liquid is kept within a predetermined variation range by replenishing the chemical liquid with the replenishing chemical liquid.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the chemical liquid is replenished by the replenishing chemical liquid of a predetermined amount when the effect of the chemical liquid has reached an upper limit.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the chemical liquid comprises a buffered fluoric acid and the replenishing chemical liquid comprises an aqueous ammonia.

9. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the chemical liquid comprises one chemical liquid or a mixture of two or more chemical liquids.

Assignees

• Toshiba Memory Corp

Inventors

• Yamada Hiroaki
• Ogawa Yoshihiro
• Hizawa Takeshi

Classifications

• H10P74/20

  characterised by the properties tested or measured, e.g. structural or electrical properties · CPC title

• H10P50/283

  by chemical means · CPC title

• H10P72/0426 Primary

  with the semiconductor substrates being dipped in baths or vessels · CPC title

• H01L21/67086 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• B81C2201/0138

  Monitoring physical parameters in the etching chamber, e.g. pressure, temperature or gas composition · CPC title