Performances of Novel Nozzle-Scan Coating Method

A novel dispenser-nozzle-scan coating (NS-coating) method was developed. NS-coating is very useful for reducing the coated volume and its cost. This method has two stages. The first stage is to form a fluid film on the substrate. The second stage is the vacuum drying process to evaporate the solvent with agitation to improve the thickness uniformity. In the first stage, one of the most important parameters of NS-coating is the relationship of the contact angle of the fluid film on the substrate surface to the scan pitch of the dispenser nozzle. The start and end positions of dispensation are also important in terms of avoiding projection. With selecting the solvent of a resist solution on the anti-reflection-layer (ARL) surface and optimizing the start and end positions of dispensation, the thickness uniformity of less than 2% was obtained in the solid state.