JPH04243119A - Resist heating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a resist heating apparatus which facilitates reduction of a resist heating time, reduction of a substrate conveying route owing to the reduction of the heating time and reduction of the size owing to the simplification of the construction and has improved reliability. CONSTITUTION:A shaft 14 which has rollers 15a and 15b at the positions corresponding to a substrate 17 to be conveyed is attached to side plates 13a and 13b with bearings 16a and 16b therebetween so as to rotate freely. The substrate 17 on the rollers 15a and 15b is heated from upper and lower sides by infrared radiation apparatuses 12a and 12b and, further, conveyed between the infrared radiation apparatuses 12a and 12b by the rotation of the rollers 15a and 15b, companying the rotation of the shaft 14.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a resist heating apparatus for heating a resist used for forming electrodes on a substrate.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 is a front view of a conventional resist heating apparatus 1. Rollers 5a, 5b are installed at the tips of the side plates 3a, 3b.
The shafts 4a, 4b with the bearings 6a, 6b
Multiple units are installed rotatably through the side plate 3a,
3b, the rollers 5a and 5b are installed with an interval that allows the substrate 7 to be transported. The substrate 7 placed on the rollers 5a and 5b is sandwiched between hot plates 2a and 2b having heating wires built therein from the top and bottom in FIG. 4.

The substrate 7 is made of, for example, ITO for a liquid crystal display element.
This is a state in the middle of the (indium tin oxide) electrode formation process, and an ITO film is formed on a transparent substrate, and a resist is applied onto it.

The substrate 7 is rotated by the hot plates 2a and 5b by the rotation of the rollers 5a and 5b in conjunction with the rotation of the shafts 4a and 4b.
2b. At this time, the substrate 7 is heated by the hot plates 2a and 2b to harden the resist on the substrate 7.

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] When using the resist heating device 1, since the hot plates 2a, 2b and the substrate 7 are not in contact with each other, the hot plates 2a, 2b must first be connected to the hot plates 2a, 2b and the substrate 7. heats the air between the After the air is heated, the heated air is heated to the substrate 7.
There is a problem in that it takes time for the temperature of the substrate 7 to rise because of the heating. Moreover, this also causes problems in that the resist heating time becomes longer, the transport path of the substrate 7 becomes longer, and the resist heating device 1 becomes larger.

Furthermore, for the same reason as mentioned above, if the distance between the hot plates 2a, 2b and the substrate 7 is wider than 5 mm, the substrate 7 will not be heated sufficiently, so the rollers 5a, 5b are attached to one shaft. I can't. Therefore, the rollers 5a, 5b are connected to separate shafts 4a, 4, respectively.
It must be attached to b. When the board 7 is placed on the rollers 5a, 5b, the weight of the board 7 causes the ends of the shafts 4a, 4b, to which the rollers 5a, 5b are attached, to tilt downward.

For this reason, the shafts 4a and 4b cannot be rotated well, resulting in a decrease in rotational speed and
There is a problem in that it is difficult to synchronize a and 4b. Further, unreasonable force is applied to the shafts 4a, 4b and the bearings 6a, 6b, and the shafts 4a, 4b and the bearings 6a, 6b are damaged, resulting in low reliability of the resist heating device 1.

Another conventional example is a heating device that brings the substrate 7 into contact with a hot plate. In this case, since the hot plate directly heats the substrate 7, the temperature of the substrate 7 is quickly raised. However, since the transport mechanism for transporting the substrate 7 is of a so-called walking type, the structure of the heating device becomes complicated and large. Further, there is a problem that the reliability of the device is low because the device is complicated. Furthermore, there is a problem that the process of transporting the substrate 7, such as placing the substrate 7 on the hot plate and transferring it from the hot plate, takes time, resulting in a long cycle time of the apparatus.

[0009] An object of the present invention is to provide a resist heating device that reduces heating time, achieves miniaturization by shortening the substrate transport path and simplifying the configuration due to the shortened heating time, and improves reliability. That's true.

0010

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention provides a resist heating device for heating a resist coated on a substrate, which heats the resist by irradiating the substrate and the resist with infrared rays. It is a device.

[0011]

[Operation] In the resist heating device according to the present invention, the substrate and the resist are irradiated with infrared rays. The infrared rays are converted into thermal energy on the substrate and resist, heating the substrate and resist, and hardening the resist. For example, when forming an electrode from a conductive material formed on the substrate using a resist applied on a substrate, the applied resist is heated by a resist heating device to harden the resist. Since the resist is directly heated by infrared thermal energy, thermal efficiency is improved and heating time can be shortened.

0012

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a front view of a resist heating device 11 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the section line II--II shown in FIG. A pair of side plates 13
A plurality of shafts 14 are rotatably installed through bearings 16a and 16b across a and 13b. A pair of rollers 15a and 15b are attached to the shaft 14 at positions corresponding to the width of the substrate 17 to be transported. A substrate 17 is placed on the rollers 15a, 15b, and infrared irradiation devices 12a, 12b are installed above and below the substrate 17. As the rollers 15a, 15b rotate with the rotation of the plurality of shafts 14, the infrared irradiation device 12a,
12b.

The substrate 17 is, for example, an IT device for a liquid crystal display element.
This is a state in the middle of the process of forming an O (indium tin oxide) electrode, and an ITO film is formed on a transparent substrate, and a resist is applied thereon.

The infrared rays emitted from the infrared irradiation devices 12a and 12b collide with the substrate 17 and are converted into thermal energy. Therefore, the temperature of the substrate 17 rises more quickly than heating using a hot plate as described in the conventional example.

Conventional substrate 7 and hot plate 2a,
resist heating device 1 with a distance of 5 mm from resist heating device 2b;
When the substrate 17 was heated using the resist heating apparatus 1 of this embodiment, it took 90 seconds to reach 100°C.
1, the substrate 17 and the infrared irradiation devices 12a, 12
The temperature of the substrate 17 reached 100° C. in 40 seconds even though the distance from the substrate 17 was 50 mm.

The adhesion strength, which indicates the resistance to peeling between the ITO film and the resist, can be evaluated by measuring the amount of side etching of the electrode formed in the electrode forming step described below.

[0017] An ITO film with a thickness of 1100 Å was made of 47% HB.
r (hydrogen bromide) solution at a pressure of 0.5 k against the substrate 17.
gf/cm2 using a shower at 45℃, 1
When etching for 20 seconds, the resist on the ITO film was heated for 3 minutes using the conventional resist heating device 1, and the resist heated for 2 minutes using the resist heating device 11 of this embodiment was the same. It was confirmed that the film had adhesion strength.

As described above, the infrared irradiation devices 12a, 1
2b, the heating time can be shortened. Furthermore, since the heating time can be shortened, the transport path for the substrate 17 can be shortened, so the resist heating device 11 can be downsized.

As described above, since the distance between the substrate 17 and the infrared ray irradiation devices 12a and 12b can be as wide as 50 mm, the shaft 14 can be attached to the side plate 13 as shown in FIG.
a, 13b. Therefore, the shaft will not be tilted due to the board 17 being mounted on the rollers 15a, 15b, and thus a decrease in rotational speed can be prevented. In addition, the shaft 14 is connected to the side plate 13a,
Since the rollers 15a and 15b are installed over 13b, the rollers 15a and 15b rotate simultaneously, there is no need for synchronization, and the number of rotation drive means can be halved.

FIG. 3 is a process diagram illustrating the process of forming electrodes used in a liquid crystal display element. In step a1, an ITO film is formed on a transparent substrate, and in step a2, a resist is applied onto the ITO film. In step a3, the resist is hardened by the resist heating device 11 described above, and the hardened resist is exposed to light in accordance with the electrodes formed in step a4, and developed in step a5. In step a6, the ITO film is etched on the electrode, in step a7 the resist on the electrode is peeled off, and in step a8 is cleaned to complete the electrode.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the substrate 17
Since infrared irradiation devices 12a and 12b are used for heating,
Heating time can be shortened. Further, by shortening the heating time, the transport path for the substrate 17 can be shortened, so the resist heating device 11 can be downsized. Further, since the rollers 15a and 15b are mounted on one shaft 14, there is no need to synchronize the rollers 15a and 15b, and the number of rotational drive means for the shaft 14 can be reduced by half compared to the conventional example. In addition, since the shaft 14 is installed across the side plates 13a and 13b, the rollers 15a
, 15b, the shaft 14 does not tilt and the rotational speed can be prevented from decreasing.

[0022] Therefore, the heating time is shortened, and by shortening the heating time, the substrate transport path is shortened, and the transport mechanism is simplified, thereby making it possible to downsize the apparatus.
The reliability of the resist heating device is improved.

[0023]

According to the present invention, the substrate and resist are heated by irradiating them with infrared rays. For this reason,
Heating can be completed in a short time, and the distance between the infrared ray irradiation position and the substrate and resist can be widened. Therefore, heating time can be shortened.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1: A resist heating device 11 which is an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along section line II-II shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a process diagram illustrating the process of forming electrodes used in a liquid crystal display element.

FIG. 4 is a front view of a conventional resist heating device 1.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 Resist heating device 12a, 12b Infrared irradiation device 17 Board

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A resist heating device for heating a resist coated on a substrate, the resist heating device heating the resist by irradiating the substrate and the resist with infrared rays.