Deep ultraviolet (DUV) flood exposure system
AssigneeRCA Corporation
InventorFausto Caprari
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Apparatus for flood exposing deep ultraviolet (DUV) photoresist material from a xenon lamp source providing pulsed radiation in the DUV range formed into an annular beam by a paraboloid reflector. The radiation beam is substantially collimated with a preferred divergence of 4.degree. for mask (imaging) development. Wafers having single-layer or multi-layer photoresist material sensitive to UV radiation are flood exposed to achieve, with high resolution, imaging, even if the photoresist layers are thin. The apparatus is also used to cure DUV-sensitive photoresist material with the radiation beam having the same or preferably greater divergence. The photoresist material is flood exposed for either imaging or curing that is both rapid and uniform.
Claims9
An apparatus for flood exposing to deep ultraviolet (DUV) radiation a plurality of substrates arranged in an annular pattern, each substrate having a layer of photoresist material, comprising:
- (a) a paraboloidal reflector having an optical axis and a focus;
- (b) means for providing a pulse of radiation including a tubular xenon lamp having a geometric center;
- (c) said lamp being positioned within said reflector so that the reflector focus is near or at the geometric center of the lamp to provide a reflected annular beam of radiation that is substantially collimated and parallel to said optical axis and having a predetermined divergence;
- and
- (d) means for positioning a plurality of said substrates in an annular planar pattern perpendicular to the path of said annular beam.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.