DEVELOPMENT APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DEVELOPING PHOTORESIST LAYER ON WAFER USING THE SAME

1 . A development apparatus, comprising:

a rotatable table for mounting a wafer; and

a shower nozzle positioned directly above the rotatable table, wherein said shower nozzle comprises a housing having a liquid inlet and a nozzle plate, wherein said nozzle plate has a plurality of apertures distributed on a major surface of said nozzle plate.

2 . The development apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said liquid inlet of said housing is in fluid communication with said apertures to provide a plurality of liquid outlets.

3 . The development apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein solvent or water is uniformly dispensed onto said wafer through the apertures.

4 . The development apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein said solvent comprises a developer.

5 . The development apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein said developer comprises tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH).

6 . The development apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein said water comprises deionized water.

7 . The development apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said apertures are evenly distributed across entire said major surface of said nozzle plate.

8 . The development apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said apertures have the same diameter.

9 . The development apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said apertures have different diameters.

10 . A method for developing a photoresist layer on a wafer, comprising:

providing a wafer having an imaged photoresist layer;

mounting said wafer on a rotatable table of a development apparatus, wherein the development apparatus is equipped with a shower nozzle positioned directly above the rotatable table and the wafer, wherein said shower nozzle comprises a housing having a liquid inlet and a nozzle plate, wherein said nozzle plate has a plurality of apertures distributed on a major surface of said nozzle plate;

dispensing a puddle of developer onto a top surface of said photoresist layer through said plurality of apertures;

developing the imaged photoresist layer;

spinning off said puddle of developer;

spin rinsing said wafer with deionized (DI) water through said plurality of apertures; and

spin drying said wafer.

11 . The method for developing a photoresist layer on a wafer according to claim 10 , wherein after dispensing said puddle of developer onto said top surface of said photoresist layer through said plurality of apertures, the method further comprises:

rotating said wafer at a spin rate for a time period.

12 . The method for developing a photoresist layer on a wafer according to claim 10 , wherein before dispensing said puddle of developer onto said top surface of said photoresist layer through said plurality of apertures, the method further comprises:

pre-wetting said photoresist layer by dispensing DI water onto said photoresist layer through said plurality of apertures; and

spin drying said photoresist layer.

13 . The method for developing a photoresist layer on a wafer according to claim 10 , wherein after spin drying said wafer, the method further comprises:

dismounting said wafer.

14 . The method for developing a photoresist layer on a wafer according to claim 10 , wherein said liquid inlet of said housing is in fluid communication with said apertures to provide a plurality of liquid outlets.

15 . The method for developing a photoresist layer on a wafer according to claim 10 , wherein said puddle of developer is uniformly dispensed onto said wafer through the apertures.

16 . The method for developing a photoresist layer on a wafer according to claim 10 , wherein said puddle of developer comprises tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH).