Photolithographic apparatus composed of coater/developer and a plurality of steppers in parallel connected thereto
First Claim
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1. A photolithographic process for manufacturing semiconductor devices, comprising:
- providing a single coater for coating a photoresist film on semiconductor wafers, a single developer and a plurality of steppers, the plurality of steppers parallel-connected to said single coater and said single developer;
coating a plurality of uncoated semiconductor wafers in said single coater;
transmitting said plurality of coated semiconductor wafers to said plurality of steppers;
parallel-exposing said plurality of coated semiconductor wafers in at least two of said plurality of steppers parallel-connected to said single coater and said single developer to a photolithographic pattern; and
developing said predetermined photolithographic pattern in said single developer thereby increasing the speed of said photolithographic processing of the semiconductor wafers.
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Abstract
A photolithographic apparatus for rapidly processing semiconductor wafers. In the photolithographic apparatus, a plurality of steppers are in parallel connected to one coater/developer. The steppers are in parallel connected to one coater/developers, where the steppers process the semiconductor wafer at a low speed and the coater/developers process the semiconductor wafer at a high speed, to thereby remove a bottleneck phenomenon. Therefore, the photolithographic apparatus according to the present invention may rapidly perform a photolithography process.
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Citations
11 Claims
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1. A photolithographic process for manufacturing semiconductor devices, comprising:
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providing a single coater for coating a photoresist film on semiconductor wafers, a single developer and a plurality of steppers, the plurality of steppers parallel-connected to said single coater and said single developer;
coating a plurality of uncoated semiconductor wafers in said single coater;
transmitting said plurality of coated semiconductor wafers to said plurality of steppers;
parallel-exposing said plurality of coated semiconductor wafers in at least two of said plurality of steppers parallel-connected to said single coater and said single developer to a photolithographic pattern; and
developing said predetermined photolithographic pattern in said single developer thereby increasing the speed of said photolithographic processing of the semiconductor wafers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A photolithographic process for manufacturing semiconductor devices, comprising:
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coating with a photoresist material a plurality of uncoated semiconductor wafers in a single coater;
transmitting said plurality of coated semiconductor wafers to a plurality of steppers;
exposing said plurality of coated semiconductor wafers to a photolithographic pattern in said plurality of steppers adapted to process the wafers at substantially the same time;
introducing said coated semiconductor wafers having a photolithographic pattern printed therein to a single developer; and
developing said photolithographic pattern in said coated semiconductor wafers in said single developer thereby increasing the speed of said photolithographic processing of the semiconductor wafers. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
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Specification