CN101447444A

CN101447444A - Processing apparatus and positioning method

Info

Publication number: CN101447444A
Application number: CNA2008101866824A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 志村昭彦
Original assignee: Tokyo Electron Ltd
Current assignee: Tokyo Electron Ltd
Priority date: 2005-05-18
Filing date: 2006-05-16
Publication date: 2009-06-03
Anticipated expiration: 2026-05-16
Also published as: TW200709327A; TWI390657B; CN101447444B; CN100511633C; KR20060119815A; CN1866493A; KR100809125B1; JP2006324366A; JP4849825B2

Abstract

The invention provides a processing apparatus and positioning method, which can make alignment for accurate control of position of a substrate in a process chamber even if a plurality of process chambers are provided. In a load lock chamber 30, positioners 33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d are arranged for aligning a substrate S placed on buffers 31 and 32. A rectangular substrate S is pressed at four points by the abutment block 36 of the positioners 33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d, in the load lock chamber 30 for alignment in X-Y direction. The position is set for each process chamber, corresponding to processing position in each process chamber.

Description

Processing apparatus and alignment method

The application is filed as2006, 5 months and 16 daysApplication No. is200610080294.9The invention is named asProcessing apparatus and alignment methodDivisional application of the patent application.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a processing apparatus and an alignment method, and more particularly, to a processing apparatus and an alignment method used for processing an object to be processed such as a glass substrate in a manufacturing process of a Flat Panel Display (FPD) or the like.

Background

As a vacuum processing apparatus for performing a process such as etching, polishing, film formation, or the like on a substrate as a target object in a vacuum state in a manufacturing process of an FPD, a so-called multi-chamber vacuum processing apparatus having a plurality of vacuum processing chambers for performing the process is used. In such a vacuum processing apparatus, a load lock chamber as a preliminary vacuum chamber is provided via a gate valve which can be opened and closed, so that it is not necessary to return the inside of the vacuum processing chamber to normal pressure every time a substrate is loaded/unloaded into/from the vacuum processing chamber. The substrate as the object to be processed is once carried into the load lock chamber before being transferred into the vacuum processing chamber, and is transferred into the vacuum processing chamber after the load lock chamber is brought into a vacuum state similar to that of the vacuum processing chamber.

In the processing apparatus described above, an alignment mechanism is provided in the load lock chamber so that the substrate can be placed at a correct processing position when the substrate is transferred to the vacuum processing chamber by the transfer mechanism, and therefore, a method of transferring the substrate to the vacuum processing chamber by the transfer mechanism after the substrate is aligned at a predetermined position has been proposed (for example, patent document 1).

In addition, although the present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer processing apparatus, information such as a position where a wafer is transferred and received on a movement path of a transfer arm of a transfer mechanism is stored in a computer as position coordinates in order to prevent positional displacement of the wafer. A method of teaching (for example, patent document 2) has been proposed.

[ patent document 1 ] Japanese patent application laid-open No. 2002-57205 (claims, etc.)

[ patent document 2 ] Japanese patent laid-open No. 2000-127069 (claims, etc.)

The aligning mechanism of patent document 1 is positioned at one position in the load lock chamber, and therefore has the following problems.

First, in a processing apparatus including a plurality of vacuum processing chambers, it is difficult to align the relative positions of the transfer chamber having the transfer mechanism and each of the vacuum processing chambers exactly in the same manner, and the vacuum processing chambers may be slightly positionally dislocated with respect to the transfer chamber. This 'positional misalignment' is caused by an installation error when installing the vacuum processing chamber. However, since the substrate is fixedly positioned at one position in the load lock chamber as described above, even if the substrate is positioned in the load lock chamber, the substrate cannot be placed at the correct processing position in the vacuum processing chamber in a state where the substrate is transferred to each of the vacuum processing chambers having a slight positional deviation from the installation position. As a result, the relative positions of the vacuum processing chambers and the substrate vary from one vacuum processing chamber to another, which hinders the precision processing. Therefore, when a process (e.g., etching) having the same content is performed in a plurality of vacuum processing chambers, the process accuracy is lowered even when a process (e.g., etching, polishing, etc.) having a different content is performed in the plurality of vacuum processing chambers, in addition to the difference in the process content such as the etching accuracy or the yield due to the vacuum processing chambers.

Therefore, in addition to positioning the substrate in the load lock chamber, as in patent document 2, it is necessary to perform precise teaching on the transfer mechanism so that the processing position in the vacuum processing chamber does not vary. In the teaching, the operation of the transfer arm of the transfer mechanism is adjusted so as to be changed for each vacuum processing chamber, thereby achieving a certain degree of accuracy averaged over a plurality of vacuum processing chambers. However, in this case, since the teaching of the one-to-many correspondence relationship for adjusting one position in the load lock chamber by the number of vacuum processing chambers is performed, a large amount of work is required for the adjustment, and the control of the transfer mechanism is also very complicated.

Further, the variation in the processing position in the vacuum processing chamber becomes a more serious problem as the size of the substrate increases. For example, as shown in fig. 9, in the case of a rectangular substrate S having a long side of 2200mm, even if the angle between the vacuum processing chamber 100 and the substrate S is deviated, the deviation is 0.025 ° on the side of the transfer port G of the substrate S, and the deviation of 1mm at the maximum occurs on the side of the depth of the vacuum processing chamber 100, and therefore, there is a concern about the influence on the processing accuracy. Further, the larger the displacement of the processing position in each vacuum processing chamber, the more difficult the teaching of the transfer mechanism is to be made.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a processing apparatus and an alignment method that can accurately control a processing position in a processing chamber even when a plurality of processing chambers are provided.

In order to solve the above problem, a first aspect of the present invention provides a processing apparatus comprising: a plurality of processing chambers for processing the object to be processed; a transfer mechanism for transferring the object to be processed to the processing chamber; a positioning mechanism for positioning the object to be processed outside the processing chamber before the object to be processed is transferred to the processing chamber by the transfer mechanism; a storage means for storing a position of the alignment means for each of the plurality of processing chambers in accordance with a processing position of the object to be processed in the processing chamber; and a control means for controlling the positioning means based on the position stored in the storage means.

In the processing apparatus according to claim 1, since the processing apparatus includes the storage means for storing the position obtained by the alignment means in correspondence with the processing position of the object to be processed in the processing chamber, and the control means for controlling the alignment means based on the position stored in the storage means, the processing chamber can be aligned with each other by storing the position corresponding to the predetermined processing chamber for transferring the object to be processed in the storage means in advance. Therefore, when the aligned object to be processed is transferred to the processing chamber, the aligned object to be processed can be transferred to the normal processing position regardless of the setting displacement of the processing chamber.

In the aspect 1, the positioning mechanism may include a plurality of contact portions that are positioned by contacting the object to be processed from two directions orthogonal to each other. By contacting the object to be processed from two orthogonal directions, for example, in the case where the object to be processed is a rectangular substrate, the alignment can be reliably performed. In this case, it is preferable that the plurality of contact portions are displaced independently of each other to be brought into contact with the object to be processed. This makes it possible to perform alignment with high accuracy, and even if the misalignment of the processing chamber is small, the misalignment can be reflected in the alignment.

Preferably, the processing chamber is a vacuum processing chamber for processing the object to be processed in a vacuum state. In this case, the vacuum processing apparatus may include a transfer chamber connected to the vacuum processing chamber and having the transfer mechanism, and a preliminary vacuum chamber connected to the transfer chamber and having the alignment mechanism.

At least one of the vacuum processing chambers may be a processing chamber for dry etching an object to be processed.

The object to be processed may be a rectangular glass substrate.

In addition, the processing apparatus can also be used in the manufacture of flat panel displays.

A 2 nd aspect of the present invention provides a positioning method for positioning an object to be processed in a processing apparatus including a plurality of processing chambers for processing the object to be processed; a transfer mechanism for transferring the object to be processed to the processing chamber; a positioning mechanism for positioning the object to be processed in a positioning chamber outside the processing chamber before the object to be processed is transferred to the processing chamber by the transfer mechanism; a storage means for storing the position specified by the positioning means in the plurality of processing chambers in accordance with the processing position of the object to be processed in the processing chamber; and a control means for controlling the positioning means based on the position stored in the storage means, wherein the position corresponding to the processing chamber to be processed is read from the storage means, and the positioning determined by the positioning means is performed.

In the viewpoint of fig. 2, the position of the alignment means is determined by reading the position corresponding to the predetermined process chamber to be processed from the storage means, and the positioning in consideration of the setting error of the process chamber and the like becomes possible. Therefore, it is possible to accurately control the processing position of the object to be processed transferred into the processing chamber, and it is possible to improve the processing accuracy of etching or the like, and to realize the uniformity of processing when the same content of processing is performed in a plurality of processing chambers.

In the 2 nd aspect, the step of storing the position in the storage unit may include:

a step of carrying the object to be processed into any one of the processing chambers and placing the object to be processed at a processing position,

transferring the aligned object to be processed from the processing chamber into the positioning chamber by the transfer mechanism while maintaining a corresponding relationship with the processing position in the processing chamber, and

setting the positioning means based on the position of the object to be processed transferred into the positioning chamber, and storing the position in the storage means as a position corresponding to the processing chamber.

In this way, the position corresponding to the processing chamber can be easily determined by the one-to-one correspondence of the processing chamber and the positioning chamber, and the determined position can accurately reflect the positional misalignment of the processing chamber. Therefore, by positioning the processing chamber at the specified position in this manner, the position of the object to be processed can be reliably controlled when the processing chamber is transferred. Further, since highly accurate teaching of the transfer arm is not required as in the conventional art, the work load and time required for teaching can be reduced.

The positioning chamber is preferably a preliminary vacuum chamber.

According to the 3 rd aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control program which operates on a computer and controls the processing device so as to perform the alignment method according to the 2 nd aspect when executed.

According to the 4 th aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer storage medium storing a control program operating on a computer, the control program controlling the processing device so as to perform the alignment method according to the 2 nd aspect when executed.

According to the present invention, by performing alignment in each of the processing chambers, when the object to be processed, which has been aligned outside the processing chambers, is transferred to the processing chambers, the object to be processed can be placed at a proper position regardless of a positional deviation of the processing chambers. Further, since highly accurate teaching to the transfer arm is not required as in the conventional art, the work load and time required for teaching can be reduced.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an outline of a plasma processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view of the plasma processing apparatus of fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of the control unit.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing an internal configuration of the load lock chamber.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing the alignment procedure of the positioner.

Fig. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in the load lock chamber at the time of alignment.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart showing a procedure of substrate processing.

Fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating the positioning position.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram for explaining the dislocation of the substrate position in the processing chamber.

Description of reference numerals: 1a plasma processing apparatus; 10a, 10b, 10c process chambers; 20 a transfer chamber; 30a load lock chamber; 31. 32 buffers; 33a, 33b, 33c, 33d positioners; 34 an actuator portion; 35 rods; 36 contact block; 50 a transfer mechanism; 60 a control unit; 61 a process controller; 62 a user interface; 63 a storage section.

Detailed Description

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Here, a multi-chamber plasma processing apparatus for etching a glass substrate (hereinafter, simply referred to as a "substrate") S for an FPD will be described by way of example. Examples of FPDs include Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), Light Emitting Diode (LED) displays, Electro Luminescence (EL) displays, Vacuum Fluorescent Displays (VFDs), and Plasma Displays (PDPs).

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an overview of a plasma processing apparatus, and fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view showing the inside thereof. In fig. 1 and 2, detailed parts are not shown.

The plasma processing apparatus 1 is provided with a transfer chamber 20 and a load lock chamber 30 connected at the center portion thereof. Three

processing chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c are disposed around the transfer chamber 20. In this way, since the plasma processing apparatus 1 has three

processing chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c, for example, two of the processing chambers may be configured as etching processing chambers and the remaining one may be configured as polishing processing chambers, or all of the three processing chambers may be configured as etching processing chambers or polishing processing chambers for performing the same process. The number of the processing chambers is not limited to three, and for example, eight processing chambers may be disposed around the transfer chamber 20.

Gate valves 22, which are configured to be openable and closable, are respectively interposed between the transfer chamber 20 and the load lock chamber 30, between the transfer chamber 20 and the

respective processing chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c, and between the load lock chamber 30 and an opening portion communicating with the outside atmosphere, and hermetically seal the opening portions.

Two cassette indexers 41 are provided outside the load lock chamber 30, and cassettes 40 for storing substrates S are placed on the cassette indexers. One of the cassettes 40 can accommodate, for example, unprocessed substrates, and the other can accommodate processed substrates. These cartridges 40 can be lifted and lowered by a lifting mechanism 42.

Between the two cassettes 40, a substrate transfer mechanism 43 is provided on a support table 44, and the transfer mechanism 43 includes

arms

45 and 46 provided in two stages, i.e., upper and lower stages, and a base 47 for supporting them, which enables the arms to integrally advance, retreat, and rotate.

Four projections 48 for supporting the substrate S are formed on the

arms

45, 46. The protrusions 48 are made of an elastomer made of synthetic rubber having a high friction coefficient, and can prevent the substrate S from being dislocated or dropped in the substrate support.

The internal spaces of the

processing chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c may be maintained in a predetermined reduced pressure atmosphere, and an etching process, for example, may be performed inside the chambers. The basic configurations of the

process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c are substantially the same.

The transfer chamber 20 can maintain a predetermined reduced pressure atmosphere as in the vacuum processing chamber, and a transfer mechanism 50 is disposed therein as shown in fig. 2. Then, the substrate S is transferred between the load lock chamber 30 and the three

process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c by the transfer mechanism 50.

The transfer mechanism 50 has a 1 st arm 52 provided at one end of a base 51 and rotatably provided on the base 51; a 2 nd arm 53 rotatably provided at a tip end portion of the 1 st arm 52; and a fork-shaped substrate support plate 54 rotatably provided on the 2 nd arm 53 and supporting the substrate S, wherein the substrate S can be transferred by driving the 1 st arm 52, the 2 nd arm 53, and the substrate support plate 54 by a drive mechanism incorporated in the base 51. The base 51 is vertically movable and rotatable.

The load lock chamber 30 is maintained in a predetermined reduced pressure atmosphere similarly to the respective processing chambers 10 and the transfer chamber 20, and includes a pair of

buffers

31 and 32 for supporting the substrate S. In the load lock chamber 30,

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d for performing positioning are disposed near opposing corners of the substrate S having a rectangular shape.

Each component of the plasma processing apparatus 1 is connected to and controlled by the control unit 60 (not shown in fig. 1). Fig. 3 schematically shows the control unit 60. The control section 60 is provided with a process controller 61 having a CPU, and a user interface 62 including a keyboard for inputting a command from a process manager to manage the plasma processing apparatus 1, a display for visually displaying the operation status of the plasma processing apparatus 1, and the like is connected to the process controller 61.

The plasma processing apparatus 1 is connected to a storage unit 63 that stores a control program (software) for realizing various processes performed in the plasma processing apparatus 1 under the control of the process controller 61, a recipe in which process condition data is recorded, and the like.

An arbitrary recipe is called from the storage unit 63 by an instruction from the user interface 62 or the like as necessary, and executed by the process controller 61, and the process required by the plasma processing apparatus 1 is performed under the control of the process controller 61. Further, for example, the positional information corresponding to each of the

process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c is stored in the storage unit 63 in advance, and at the stage of specifying the process chamber in which the substrate S is processed, the positional information corresponding to the process chamber is read from the storage unit 63, and the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d can perform the positioning.

The recipe such as the control program or the processing condition data may be used in a state stored in a computer-readable storage medium such as a CD-ROM, a hard disk, a flexible disk, a flash memory, or may be used online from another device, for example, by being transmitted from any time via a dedicated line.

Next, the aligning mechanism and the aligning method according to the present invention will be described with reference to fig. 4 to 8. Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing the internal configuration of the load lock chamber 30. In fig. 4, the unprocessed substrate S is carried into the load lock chamber 30 from the atmosphere-side opening 30a, and carried out to the transfer chamber 20 from the vacuum-side opening 30b as indicated by a thick arrow.

The load lock chamber 30 is provided with a buffer mechanism for temporarily placing the substrates S therein and holding them. Specifically, the damper mechanism is constituted by

dampers

31 and 32 disposed to face each other. The buffer 31 has a shelf-like placing portion 31a protruding toward the buffer 32, and similarly, the buffer 32 has a shelf-like placing portion 32a protruding toward the buffer 31. These

placement portions

31a and 32a are configured to support the edge portion of the rear surface of the substrate S. Further, the placing

portions

31a and 32a of the

buffers

31 and 32 may be formed in a plurality of stages, for example, two stages, so that a plurality of substrates S can be placed.

In the load lock chamber 30,

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d for performing positioning of the substrate S placed on the

buffers

31 and 32 are disposed. The

positioners

33a and 33b and the

positioners

33c and 33d are arranged at substantially symmetrical positions with respect to each other across the substrate mounting region so as to contact the vicinities of two opposing corners of the substrate S and position the substrate S from four points.

The basic configuration of each of the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c and 33d is the same. That is, each of the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, 33d is composed of an actuator unit 34 in which, for example, a stepping motor, not shown, is incorporated, a rod 35 which advances and retreats in the linear direction by the power of the actuator unit 34, and a contact block 36 which is provided at the tip of the rod 35 and which comes into contact with the end of the substrate S to lightly press the substrate S. The

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d may be positioned in contact with the substrate S, and are not limited to the configuration of the present embodiment.

The

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d in the non-operating state may be positioned at the retracted positions in the vertical direction by, for example, a lift mechanism not shown so as not to become an obstacle when the substrate S is carried into the load lock chamber 30. The

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d may be fixedly disposed at positions shifted from the transfer path of the substrate S. For example, the case of fig. 4 will be described, in which the positioner 33b is arranged in parallel beside the positioner 33a, the positioner 33d is arranged in parallel beside the positioner 33c, and a known direction changing mechanism for changing the pressing direction of the lever 35 to the orthogonal direction (from the X direction to the Y direction) is provided at the tip of the

positioners

33b and 33 d.

The actuator unit 34 is connected to a power supply, not shown, and converts electric energy into mechanical energy by the built-in stepping motor, so that the rod 35 is displaced by a predetermined displacement amount in the directions indicated by arrows at both ends in fig. 4. The actuator unit 34 has a multipoint positioning function capable of positioning as long as it stops the displacement of the rod 35 at an arbitrary position, and for example, an electromagnet motor, an electromagnet, a piezoelectric element, a cylinder, or the like can be used regardless of the operation principle or type.

The contact block 36 is attached to the tip of the rod 35, and is made of a material that does not scratch or break the substrate S when contacting the substrate S, and does not easily generate particles when contacting the substrate S. For example, a material having a certain elasticity such as a synthetic resin can be used, and a fluorine-based resin such as polytetrafluoroethylene is preferably used. From the viewpoint of improving the accuracy of alignment, the contact block 36 is preferably in point contact with the end of the substrate S in the horizontal direction, and preferably has a shape in which the tip protrudes in an arc shape as shown in the drawing, for example.

A rectangular substrate S is formed, and in the load lock chamber 30, the contact blocks 36 of the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, 33d are brought into contact at four points to perform positioning in the X-Y direction. As described later, the positions of the substrates S aligned at this time may be individually set for the

respective process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c according to the process positions in the

respective process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10 c. The contact positions of the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, 33d for aligning the substrate S at positions corresponding to the processing positions of the

processing chambers

10a, 10b, 10c may be stored in the storage unit 63 as position information based on the displacement amount of each contact block 36. In addition to the contact position, the storage unit 63 may store, for example, position information corresponding to a carry-out position at which the substrate S is carried out from the load lock chamber 30 to the atmosphere by the transfer mechanism 43 and position information corresponding to a non-operating position (OFF position) at which the contact block 36 is not in contact with the substrate S as position information of the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33 d.

In this way, the positions of the substrates S (mainly, the XY-direction angles of the substrates S) adjusted in the load lock chamber 30 and corresponding to the

processing chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c are stored and transferred as they are when the substrates S are transferred to the fork-shaped substrate support plate 54 of the transfer mechanism 50, and are reflected in the processing positions of the substrates S when the substrates S are disposed in the

processing chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c by the substrate support plate 54.

In the embodiment, all of the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c and 33d are provided with the movable rod 35 and the contact block 36 for easy fine adjustment, and are configured to be aligned by pushing in the substrate S while lightly pressing in the XY direction at 4 contact points, but any one of the

positioners

33a, 33b or 33c and 33d may be fixed at a fixed position instead of being movable. For example, the

positioners

33a and 33b may be fixed, and the positioning may be performed by pressing the

positioners

33c and 33 d.

Since the

process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c tend to be large-sized due to recent large-sized substrates S, even if the errors in installing the

process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c are small, the positional displacement of the substrate S tends to be large. Since alignment is performed at one position in the load lock chamber 30, slight errors in the installation positions of the

process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c are reflected in the arrangement of the substrates S facing each other in the process chambers, and may affect the process. Therefore, the arrangement position is finely adjusted by teaching the operation of the transfer mechanism 50 to each of the

process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10 c. However, in order to precisely teach the operation of the transfer mechanism 50 so as to correspond to the minute positional displacement of the

process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c, a large amount of work is required. That is, in the positioning performed in the load lock chamber 30, even if the transfer positions to the transfer mechanism 50 (the 1 st arm 52, the 2 nd arm 53, and the substrate support plate 54) can be uniform, the positions of the substrates S in the

processing chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c are deviated.

In the present invention, the positioning is performed not only in the load lock chamber 30 for delivering the transfer mechanism 50 and the substrate support plate 54, but also in a plurality of positions in the load lock chamber 30 in consideration of the difference in the set positions inherent in the

respective process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c, so that the relative positional relationship between the chambers and the substrate S can be controlled to be the same in any of the

process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c in the state where the substrate S is carried into the

respective process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10 c. Since it is sufficient to make the correct process position in each

process chamber

10a, 10b, 10c correspond to the contact position 1:1 of the

positioner

33a, 33b, 33c, 33d using such control of the

positioner

33a, 33b, 33c, 33d, it can be implemented extremely simply and easily. Therefore, compared to the teaching to the transfer mechanism 50 in the related art, the arrangement positions in the

respective processing chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c can be particularly easily and reliably defined.

Next, the alignment method in the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to fig. 5 and 6. Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing an alignment sequence in the case of the exemplary processing chamber 10 a. Fig. 6 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing the states of the processing chamber 10a and the load lock chamber 30 at the time of alignment.

As shown in fig. 6(a), first, after the substrate S is transferred from the substrate support plate 54 and carried into the processing chamber 10a, the substrate S is set to be located at the correct processing position in consideration of the relative position with respect to the processing chamber 10a (step S10). In addition, since the purpose is to perform accurate alignment in the processing chamber 10a, the substrate support plate 54 is not necessarily used when the substrate S is carried into the processing chamber 10a, and may be manually performed by another means, for example.

Next, as shown in fig. 6(b), the substrate S set in the processing chamber 10a is taken out by the substrate support plate 54, transferred to the load lock chamber 30, and placed on the buffers 31 and 32 (step S11). At this time, the position where the substrate S is placed reflects the correct processing position in the processing chamber 10 a. In this state, the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d are operated to extend the rod 35, and the contact block 36 is brought close so as not to move the substrate S, and brought into contact with the substrate S as shown in fig. 6 c (step S12). In this way, the position of the substrate S within the load lock chamber 30 corresponding to the process chamber 10a is determined. This position is sent to the control section 60 as position information corresponding to the process chamber 10a based on the displacement amount (the advancing amount of the rod 35) of each contact piece 36 in the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, 33d, and stored in the memory 63 (step S13).

As described above, by the sequence of steps S10 to S13 shown in fig. 5, the contact positions of the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, 33d corresponding to the process chamber 10a can be determined and stored as position information. By repeating this sequence in accordance with the number of process chambers (in the present embodiment, three process chambers, 10a, 10b, and 10c), the contact positions of the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d can be determined and stored for each process chamber.

Fig. 6(d) shows a state in which the unprocessed substrate S is aligned in the load lock chamber 30 based on the position corresponding to the processing chamber 10a stored in the storage unit 63. An example of a substrate handling sequence including this stage is shown in the flowchart of fig. 7. First, according to a normal process flow, the substrate S is carried into the load lock chamber 30 by the substrate transfer mechanism 43 and placed on the buffers 31 and 32 (step S20). Next, a chamber to be transferred is determined from among the

process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c (step S21). Here, the process controller 61 determines the transfer destination chamber based on the state of each of the

process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10c, for example, whether it is usable, whether it is a chamber for processing, the progress of processing of the previous substrate S, and the like. Then, in step S22, the position information of the processing chamber corresponding to the determined transfer destination (for example, the processing chamber 10a) is read from the storage unit 63 of the control unit 60. This process is performed by the process controller 61.

Next, in step S23, based on the read positional information, the process controller 61 operates the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d to position the substrate S so as to be, for example, a unique position in the process chamber 10 a. Specifically, as shown in fig. 8, the substrate S is positioned at a position specific to the position (carrying-in position) carried in by the substrate transfer mechanism 43 on the atmospheric side in the processing chamber 10a at the transfer destination, for example, to be the position a. For example, the position B is selected when the transfer destination is the process chamber 10B, and the position C is selected when the transfer destination is the process chamber 10C. In fig. 8, for the sake of convenience of explanation, only a part of the substrate S and the

positioners

33a and 33b are illustrated, and the position (angle, etc.) of the substrate S in each position is emphasized more than actually.

After the positioning is completed, the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d are retracted, and the substrate S is carried out of the load-lock chamber 30 by the substrate support plate 54 and transferred to the selected process chamber (for example, the process chamber 10a) (step S24). Then, a process such as a plasma etching process is performed in the process chamber 10a (step S25). At this time, since the substrate S is placed at a regular processing position in the processing chamber 10a, highly accurate processing without occurrence of processing unevenness can be realized.

After a predetermined process is performed on the substrate S, the substrate S is carried out of the process chamber 10a by the substrate support plate 54 and is carried into the load lock chamber 30 again. At this time, it is preferable to operate the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d again to position the substrate S pair at the carry-out position. The carry-out position is the same as the carry-in position (see fig. 8) as the initial position when the substrate S is first carried into the load lock chamber 30 from the atmosphere side, and the position information may be stored in the storage unit 63 in advance. In this way, by returning the processed substrate S to the carry-out position, which is the home position, in the load lock chamber 30, it is possible to smoothly carry out the transfer when the substrate S is taken out and stored in the cassette 40 by the substrate transfer mechanism 43 on the atmospheric side, for example.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications are possible. For example, the object to be processed is not limited to a glass substrate for an FPD, and may be a semiconductor wafer.

Further, although the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d are provided in the load lock chamber 30 in the above embodiment, the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d may be provided in the transfer chamber 20, for example, and in this case, the same effects as those described above may be obtained by performing the positioning corresponding to the

process chambers

10a, 10b, and 10 c. Further, a dedicated chamber (for example, a positioning chamber) for positioning may be provided, and the

positioners

33a, 33b, 33c, and 33d may be provided therein to perform positioning.

Claims

1. A positioning method for positioning in a processing apparatus before processing an object to be processed,

the processing device is provided with:

a processing chamber for processing the object to be processed;

a transfer mechanism for transferring the object to be processed to the processing chamber;

a positioning mechanism that positions the object to be processed in a positioning chamber outside the processing chamber before the object to be processed is transferred to the processing chamber by the transfer mechanism;

a storage unit that stores the position obtained by the positioning unit in association with a processing position of the object to be processed in the processing chamber; and

a control mechanism that controls the alignment mechanism based on the position stored in the storage mechanism,

the step of causing the position to be stored in the storage means includes:

a step of carrying the object to be processed into the processing chamber and placing the object to be processed at a processing position;

transferring the aligned object to be processed from the processing chamber into the positioning chamber while maintaining a corresponding relationship with the processing position in the processing chamber by the transfer mechanism; and

and adjusting the positioning means based on the position of the object to be processed transferred into the positioning chamber, and storing the position in the storage means as a position corresponding to the processing chamber.

2. The bit alignment method of claim 1,

the positioning means positions the object to be processed based on a position corresponding to a predetermined processing chamber to be processed among a plurality of positions corresponding to processing positions of the object to be processed stored in the storage means.

3. The method of alignment according to claim 1 or 2,

the positioning chamber is a preliminary vacuum chamber.

4. The method of alignment according to claim 1 or 2,

the positioning chamber is a transfer chamber provided with the transfer mechanism.

5. A processing apparatus, characterized in that,

the disclosed device is provided with:

a processing chamber for processing the object to be processed;

an alignment mechanism that aligns the object to be processed outside the processing chamber before the object to be processed is transferred to the processing chamber by the transfer mechanism;

a storage unit that stores a position to be aligned corresponding to a processing position of the object to be processed in the processing chamber as position information; and

a control means for controlling the alignment means based on the position information stored in the storage means,

wherein,

the positioning mechanism has a plurality of contact parts for positioning by contacting with the object to be processed,

the position information is obtained by bringing the contact portion into contact with the object to be processed which has been aligned in the processing chamber in advance.

6. The processing apparatus of claim 5,

the positioning means positions the object to be processed based on positional information corresponding to a predetermined processing chamber to be processed, among a plurality of positions corresponding to processing positions of the object to be processed stored in the storage means.

7. The processing apparatus according to claim 5 or 6,

the positioning mechanism positions the contact portion by bringing the contact portion into contact with the object to be processed from two directions orthogonal to each other.

8. The processing apparatus of claim 7,

the plurality of contact portions are displaced independently of each other to come into contact with the object to be processed.