Apparatus for exposing periphery of an object
AssigneeDainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.
InventorsShinji Kiyokawa, Nobutoshi Orgami, Takeshi Takada, Kenji Kamei
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A periphery exposing apparatus for exposing a periphery of a wafer having a curved circumferential peripheral portion and a linear portion comprises a spin chuck for rotatably supporting the wafer, a light source disposed above the spin chuck for exposing the wafer periphery, and a detector for detecting the line or portion. When the linear portion is being exposed, the light source is moved along the linear portion, rather than circularly around the periphery.
Claims18
A periphery exposing apparatus for exposing a periphery of a wafer having a linear portion, wherein resist is located on said wafer, said apparatus comprising:
- supporting means for rotatably supporting said wafer;
- illuminating means for emitting light to expose said periphery, said illuminating means being effective to remove said resist by illuminating said wafer;
- exposure position detecting means for detecting exposure positions of the periphery of said wafer, said exposure position detecting means comprising linear portion detecting means for detecting said linear portion;
- controlling means including exposure width setting means for controlling said supporting means and said illuminating means such that exposure of said periphery is carried out under prescribed exposure conditions, said exposure width setting means being effective to control said illuminating means so that said periphery of said wafer is exposed in accordance with exposure widths corresponding to said exposure positions;
- and
- means for moving said illuminating means such that said illuminating means is movable both in a generally radial direction relative to said wafer and in a generally tangential direction relative to said wafer, said controlling means being effective to control said moving means so that said illuminating means is moved substantially tangentially and relatively along said linear position when said linear portion is exposed.
A method of exposing periphery of a wafer wherein the periphery comprises at least one linear portion and a curved portion, and resist is located on said wafer, said method comprising the steps of:
- supporting said wafer on a rotatable support base;
- providing a light source having a desired light intensity and disposing the same at a prescribed position relative to said support base;
- and
- providing means for moving said light source in both a generally radial and a generally tangential direction relative to said wafer and moving said light source generally along said tangential direction when said linear portion is being exposed.
A detecting apparatus for detecting a linear portion of a wafer having a periphery including at least a linear portion and a curved portion, including:
- supporting means for supporting said wafer;
- rotating means for rotating said supporting means by prescribed angles;
- position detecting means disposed near said supporting means for obtaining signals representative of positional data of the periphery of said wafer relative to a center of rotation of said supporting means at said prescribed angles;
- calculating means for calculating a deviation angle defined relative to a reference line comprising a normal extending from said center of rotation and intersecting said linear portion, based on the maximum value of the positional data derived from said signals, obtained by said position detecting means, and based on positional data derived from said signals of two points sandwiching said maximum value;
- and
- controlling means receiving the deviation angle for stopping the rotating means when the deviation angle equals a predescribed rotation angle.
A method of detecting a linear portion of an object having a periphery comprising at least the linear portion and curved portion, comprising the steps of:
- rotating said object about an axis of rotation of a support;
- rotating said object by a prescribed deviation angle for detecting the position of and thereby obtaining signals representative of positional data defining the location of the periphery of said object relative to said axis of rotation;
- calculating the position of said linear portion by reference to a reference line comprising a normal extending from said axis of rotation and intersecting said linear portion perpendicularly, based on finding a maximum value of said detected positional data derived from said signals for locating the position of said reference line, and based on positional data derived from said signals associated with two points sandwiching said maximum value for calculating the position of said linear portion;
- and
- calculating a reference angle from the linear portion calculation, stopping the object when the reference angle equals the predescribed deviation angle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.