Inkjet printing is introduced into the photoresist coating
process
for uniform photoresist film formation on silicon wafers with the
in-house inkjet experimental prototype. The optimization of a dual
negative voltage waveform is proposed to achieve stable droplet jetting
for the ultralow viscosity (0.71 mPa·s) photoresist with a 1:10
dilution ratio employed in the semiconductor packaging processes.
Moreover, the maximum droplet jetting velocity can reach 9.51 m/s,
and the droplet volume is controlled at ∼6.5 pL with excellent
droplet concentration. The uniform film of the AZ P4620 photoresist
is coated on silicon wafers by quantitatively exploring and optimizing
the printhead driving frequency and movement velocity utilizing the
droplet deposition model and experimental analysis. Results show that
the optimal inkjet parameters with 5 kHz in jetting frequency and
6 mm/s in motion velocity can obtain a film evenness index of 4.81%
with the thickness of 0.945 μm, which exhibits a more uniform
photoresist film than the spray coating method. The study not only
expands the application of the inkjet printing technique but also
offers an alternative for photoresist coating in the photolithography
process.