Hot plate with in situ surface temperature adjustment
First Claim
1. An arrangement for controlling the temperature of a hotplate used for spatially adjusting and controlling the temperature of at least an upper surface of a wafer for the fabrication of semiconductor structures;
- said arrangement, comprising;
(a) means for supplying energy to said hotplate for heating said hot plate;
(b) controller means for modulating the supply of energy to said hotplate so as to regulate the temperature of the hotplate surface supporting said wafer;
(c) means for sensing the temperature of said wafer, said sensing means including a thermal detection array arranged above the upper surface of said wafer for scrutinizing the temperatures across a plurality of zones across the surface of said wafer; and
(d) means for processing temperature information received from said energy supply responsive to temperature deviations sensed from said wafer so as to correctively adjust the temperature of said hotplate and resultingly of said wafer to a specified uniform surface wafer temperature profile.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An arrangement and method for controlling individual zones of a hot plate which is employed in a post exposure bake step of wafers in the fabrication of semi-conductor devices incorporating photolithographic processes using chemically amplified resist systems. Provided is an in situ temperature-controllable hot plate which includes temperature-controllable surface zones for supporting a standard single wafer, and having loading means which orient the wafer on the hot plate. The hot plate may be segmented into an array of individually controllable heating zones, while mounted above the hot plate is a thermal detection array, such as an infrared(IR) camera or pyroelectric or pyrometric detector which functions to detect and scrutinize the wafer surface temperature with regard to specific locations dispersed across the hot plate surface. This particular data is mapped into the hot plate zones, and the mapped data transmitted into a servo for zonal hot plate adjustment and temperature control.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. An arrangement for controlling the temperature of a hotplate used for spatially adjusting and controlling the temperature of at least an upper surface of a wafer for the fabrication of semiconductor structures;
- said arrangement, comprising;
(a) means for supplying energy to said hotplate for heating said hot plate; (b) controller means for modulating the supply of energy to said hotplate so as to regulate the temperature of the hotplate surface supporting said wafer; (c) means for sensing the temperature of said wafer, said sensing means including a thermal detection array arranged above the upper surface of said wafer for scrutinizing the temperatures across a plurality of zones across the surface of said wafer; and (d) means for processing temperature information received from said energy supply responsive to temperature deviations sensed from said wafer so as to correctively adjust the temperature of said hotplate and resultingly of said wafer to a specified uniform surface wafer temperature profile. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
- said arrangement, comprising;
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10. A method for controlling the temperature of a hotplate used for spatially adjusting and controlling the temperature of at least an upper surface of a wafer for the fabrication of semiconductor structures;
- said method comprising;
(a) supplying energy to said hotplate for heating said hotplate; (b) modulating the supply of energy to said hotplate so as to regulate the temperature of the hotplate surface supporting said wafer; (c) sensing the temperature of said wafer, said sensing including utilizing a thermal detection array arranged above the upper surface of said wafer for scrutinizing the temperature across a plurality of zones across the surface of said wafer and; (d) processing temperature information received from said energy supply responsive to temperature deviation sensed from said wafer so as to correctively adjust the temperature of said hotplate and resultingly of said wafer to a specified uniform surface wafer temperature profile. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
- said method comprising;
Specification