Thickening phase for spin coating process

A system for controlling thickness of a photoresist during wafer processing, comprising:

• an air flow device configured to:
• supply down flow air, according to a dispense phase air setting, substantially towards a top portion of a wafer during a dispense phase of a photoresist onto the wafer;
• and
• supply the down flow air, according to a first thickening phase air setting specifying at least one of an increased air temperature or an increased flow speed, substantially towards the top portion of the wafer during a heating portion of a thickening phase after the dispense phase and before a main wafer spin phase;
• and
• a heat device configured to:
• supply heat, according to a dispense phase heat setting, substantially towards a bottom portion of the wafer during the dispense phase;
• and
• supply the heat, according to a first thickening phase heat setting specifying an increased heat temperature, substantially towards the bottom portion of the wafer during the heating portion of the thickening phase after the dispense phase and before the main wafer spin phase.

A method for performing a spin coating process associated with a wafer, comprising:

• performing a material dispense phase to dispense a material onto a surface of a wafer, the performing a material dispense phase comprising spinning the wafer;
• supplying down flow air substantially towards a top portion of the wafer during at least one of an RRC phase of a first solvent, a dispense phase of a photoresist onto the wafer, a main wafer spin phase that rotates the wafer according to a uniform thickness metric, or an EBR phase of a second solvent to wash out at least a portion of the photoresist along a wafer edge of the wafer;
• performing a thickening phase comprising increasing at least one of an air temperature or a flow speed of the down flow air according to a first thickening phase air setting during a heating portion of the thickening phase;
• performing the main wafer spin phase to rotate the wafer according to the uniform thickness metric;
• and
• performing the EBR phase to dispense the second solvent onto the wafer to remove the portion of the photoresist from the wafer.