CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2018-0128103, filed on Oct. 25, 2018 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for processing a substrate, which are capable of drying efficiently a substrate after cleaning.

Description of the Related Art

A number of dry methods have been proposed to remove a rinse liquid adhering to a substrate surface after chemical liquid processing by a chemical liquid and rinse processing by a rinse liquid such as purified water (de-ionized water, DIW) are performed.

As one of the methods, a dry method using a low surface tension liquid is known. The low surface tension liquid contains an organic solvent component such as isopropyl alcohol (IPA) having a lower surface tension than purified water (DIW).

For example, patent document 1 discloses a method of discharging IPA on a center area of a substrate after maintaining a DIW liquid film on a substrate rotated at relatively low rotational speed when DIW is replaced with IPA.

However, in this method, an IPA replacement area does not evenly extend in a direction toward an outer diameter of the substrate from the center area thereof where IPA is discharged, and an area in which DIW is partially replaced with IPA, for example, an empty space (finger) is generated. In this state, when the substrate is dried, there is concern about particles may be generated in the above-described area.

DOCUMENTS OF RELATED ART

(Patent Document 1) Korean Patent No. 10-0935977

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the related art, and the present invention is intended to propose an apparatus and a method for processing a substrate, which are capable of effectively replacing de-ionized water (DIW) with isopropyl alcohol (IPA).

The objective of the present invention is not limited to the foregoing, and other objectives and advantages of the present invention which are not mentioned may be understood by the following description.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a substrate processing method including: forming a high surface tension liquid film by supplying high surface tension liquid on a substrate surface; replacing the high surface tension liquid film with low surface tension liquid by supplying the low surface tension liquid to a center area of the substrate so that the low surface tension liquid impinges on the high surface tension liquid film formed on the center area of the substrate; further supplying high surface tension liquid for a predetermined period of time during the supplying the low surface tension liquid.

A substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention may include: a chamber; a spin chuck rotatably provided in the chamber and configured to support a substrate; a DIW nozzle arm provided at one side of the spin chuck and having a DIW injection nozzle injecting DIW on a substrate surface; and an IPA nozzle arm provided at one side of the spin chuck and having an IPA injection nozzle injecting IPA on the substrate surface.

In addition, a substrate processing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention may include: a chamber; a spin chuck rotatably provided in the chamber and configured to support a substrate; and a nozzle arm provided at a first side of the spin chuck and having a DIW injection nozzle injecting DIW on a substrate surface and an IPA injection nozzle injecting IPA on the substrate surface, wherein the DIW injection nozzle may have a first DIW nozzle injecting DIW on a center area of the substrate and a second DIW nozzle injecting DIW on a middle area of the substrate.

According to the embodiments of the present invention, the low surface tension liquid (IPA) is supplied to the substrate surface where the high surface tension liquid film (DIW film) is formed so that DIW is replaced with IPA, and then DIW is further injected from the DIW injection nozzle on the area outside the area where DIW is replaced with IPA. Accordingly, when IPA is injected on the center of the substrate to replace DIW, the IPA replacement area of the substrate extends evenly in a radius direction from the center area of the substrate, so that a drying process can be effectively performed.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described effect, and should be understood to include all effects inferred from the detailed description of the present invention and the configuration of the present invention described in the accompanying claims.

