JP2000075497A - Aligner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an aligner capable of realizing consecutive exposure. SOLUTION: A cylindrical photomask 1 is rotated, and a work W is carried in synchronization with the rotation of the photomask 1 and exposed at an exposing position E by an exposing light source 2 provided in the photomask 1. The pattern pitch of a film mask 10 is previously measured and the rotation of a cylindrical body 11 is controlled in according with the pattern pitch.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to an exposure apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When manufacturing a printed circuit board or the like,
2. Description of the Related Art A method of printing a circuit pattern on a work side using a photomask on which a circuit pattern or the like is drawn to form a circuit board has been widely used, and various exposure apparatuses have been used.

[0003]

In the above-described conventional exposure apparatus, when a continuous pattern is formed on a long continuous work such as a hoop material, a fixed pattern drawn on a photomask is required. The entire exposure is performed while repeating the exposure and the work transfer for each area. However, in the case of the exposure by the above-described method, a problem occurs in the accuracy of the pattern at the boundary between adjacent exposure areas. That is, exposure may be performed in a state where the exposure areas are slightly overlapped or a gap is generated, and this is a problem that appears as a dimensional defect of the pattern. It is impossible with a conventional apparatus to perform exposure so that adjacent exposure areas do not overlap or a gap does not occur, and improvement of this point has been desired. The present invention aims to remedy the disadvantages of the prior art.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, an exposure apparatus according to the present invention comprises a cylindrical photomask, a unit for conveying an object to be exposed in a predetermined direction, and a cylindrical photomask. Means for rotating in synchronization with the transport of the exposure object, and control means for controlling one or both of the rotation of the photomask and the transport of the exposure object, corresponding to the pattern pitch of the photomask, And a light source for irradiating the exposure object with light through the cylindrical photomask. The cylindrical photomask may be in various forms such as a photomask itself having a cylindrical shape, or a cylinder formed of a material that transmits the exposure wavelength, and a film-shaped mask attached to the cylinder. . The photomask and the object to be exposed may be in contact with each other,
Alternatively, non-contact may be used. The light source is preferably provided in a cylinder, and a light-shielding cover and an optical system are provided, and light is emitted along a line parallel to the cylinder length direction toward the inside of the side peripheral surface of the cylindrical photomask. It is desirable to configure as follows. An error occurs in the pattern pitch of the photomask for various reasons, and it is very difficult to control the error to a desired dimensional accuracy. Therefore, in the present invention, the rotation of the photomask or the conveyance of the object to be exposed is controlled in accordance with the pattern pitch, and the control is performed to compensate for errors in the pattern pitch. As a specific example, for example, when the photomask has a cylindrical body and a film mask mounted thereon, the rotation of the photomask is controlled at the joint based on the pattern pitch at the joint of the film mask. .

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2, the cylindrical photomask 1 is rotatable in the direction of an arrow, and a predetermined mask pattern is drawn on the surface. A film mask may be attached to a cylindrical exposure wavelength transmitting material. The work W is transported in the direction of the arrow below the cylindrical photomask 1. A photosensitive resist is applied to the surface of the work W, and is exposed according to the mask pattern of the cylindrical photomask 1. The cylindrical photomask 1 and the workpiece W may be in contact with each other or may be non-contact. The cylindrical photomask 1 and the workpiece W are configured to be synchronously driven with high accuracy by a servo drive mechanism including a control device 20 and drive devices 21 and 22.

An exposure light source 2 is provided inside a cylindrical photomask 1 so as to irradiate light of an exposure frequency. The exposure light source 2 is provided over substantially the entire length of the cylindrical photomask 1 on a radial line passing through the rotation axis of the cylindrical photomask 1. The exposure light source 2 is provided with a reflection plate 3 so that light is reflected to a lens 6 provided below the exposure light source 2 (on the side of the work W) to become parallel light. The lens 6 is provided in the middle of the optical path of the exposure light source 2, and is provided over substantially the entire length of the cylindrical photomask 1 in the cylindrical length direction, and irradiates linear light having a predetermined area in the cylindrical length direction. It has become. The lens 6 is provided from the lower side of the exposure light source 2 so as to reach a position on the inner wall side of the cylindrical photomask 1 where the cylindrical photomask 1 and the workpiece W are in contact with or closest to each other. Light from the light source. This position is the exposure position E
In this exposure position E, a linear exposure portion corresponding to the cylindrical length of the cylindrical photomask 1 is formed. The lens 6 is configured to approach the inner wall of the cylindrical photomask 1 in a non-contact manner. The light-shielding cover 4 covers the exposure light source 2 and the reflection plate 3, and the light-shielding cover 5 covers the lens 6, so that exposure is prevented from leaking to positions other than the exposure position E. The light-shielding cover 5 is arranged so as to be as close as possible to the inner wall of the cylindrical photomask 1 so as to be in non-contact, so as to prevent intrusion of noise light and not to hinder the rotation of the cylindrical photomask 1.

A dust removing roller 7 contacts the cylindrical photomask 1 and a dust removing roller 8 contacts the work W to remove dust.

In the above configuration, the work W is transported in the direction of the arrow, and the cylindrical photomask 1 rotates in the direction of the arrow in synchronization with the transfer. Then, at the exposure position E, the light from the exposure light source 2 is used to expose the line. Since the next rotation is performed continuously even after the cylindrical photomask 1 makes one rotation, it is possible to continuously print the mask pattern drawn on the cylindrical photomask 1 on the work W,
There is no gap or overlap at the joint between the patterns, and continuous pattern formation with high precision is possible.

Although the apparatus for exposing only one side of the work W has been described above, it is also possible to provide the same structure on the front and back of the work W and to simultaneously expose the front and back of the work W. is there.

A pattern pitch input device 19 is connected to the control device 20 so that the pattern pitch of the cylindrical photomask 1 can be appropriately input. The pattern pitch may be a value measured in advance, or the pitch may be automatically measured and input.

The error in the pattern pitch will be described with reference to FIGS. As described above, the cylindrical photomask 1 is obtained by directly drawing a pattern on the outer periphery of a cylinder using an exposure wavelength transmitting material, or a film mask on which the pattern is drawn is closely adhered to the outer periphery of the exposure wavelength transmitting cylinder. Can be used. Here, the cylindrical photomask 1 has a film mask 10 and a cylindrical body 11.
The case where the film mask 10 is mounted thereon will be described. As shown in the drawing, when the film mask 10 is mounted, a seam occurs between the ends. At this time,
It is very difficult to adjust the pitch of both the pattern near the start point and the pattern near the end point to the desired dimensional accuracy.
If this pitch is not made accurately, the exposure pattern on the exposure object will be inaccurate. 3 indicate the center position of each pattern drawn on the film mask 10. Here, the cylindrical body 11 is divided into eight in the radial direction, and a joint 12 is generated between the cylindrical body 11 and the cylindrical body 11. The seam 12 cannot be superposed on the structure, and usually forms a gap. In the above example, the angle of the radius passing through each center position is from θ1 to θ.
It is desirable that the angle be equal to 8. Since the accuracy between θ1 and θ7 is substantially determined by the image forming accuracy of the film mask 10, it is easy to secure a desired pitch as shown in FIG. However, θ8 is set to θ1 to θ
It is very difficult to make it equal to 7. This is because errors such as accumulative accuracy of 〜, accuracy of fixing the film mask 10 to the cylindrical body 11 or accuracy of the outer peripheral length of the cylindrical body 11 are accumulated. Therefore, when the cylinder 11 and the work W are simply operated in synchronization with each other, a phenomenon occurs in which the pitch P8 is different from other pitches P.

In this embodiment, a pattern pitch input device 19 is provided so that the pitch can be measured with the film mask 10 mounted on the cylindrical body 11 in advance, and the pitch can be input. The pitch measurement and the input may be automatically performed. In FIG. 4, only the pitch P8 is different from the others, so only this pitch is input and the driving device 21
Is controlled so as to rotate only by θ8. Work W
Is transported as usual. Thus, the film mask 10
By measuring the pattern pitch in advance and controlling the rotation of the cylindrical body 11 in accordance with the pitch, exposure of the workpiece W at a precise pitch can be performed. Therefore, when mounting the film mask 10 on the cylindrical body 11, it is not necessary to worry about the accuracy, and the operability is improved.

In the above description, only the rotation control of the cylindrical body 11 is performed, but the transfer control of the work W may be performed. Further, both the rotation control and the transport control may be performed. Further, the pitch measured in advance is input from the pattern pitch input device 19, but it is also possible to measure the pitch error of the completed exposure product during the continuation of the exposure and feed it back to the control device 20.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of the above operation. Steps S4 and S5 in the figure relate to the measurement of the pitch error of the exposed product, and need not necessarily be performed.

[0015]

As described above, according to the exposure apparatus of the present invention, continuous exposure of a pattern can be performed, and exposure and transfer of a work W are not performed intermittently as in the prior art. There is no gap or overlap between the patterns. As a result, continuous exposure with high precision becomes possible. Also, even when using a film mask,
Since the mounting is easy and the mounting precision is not required, there are effects such as good operability.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic front view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a film mask 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of a state of attachment to the cylindrical body 11 of FIG.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a pattern pitch in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: cylindrical photomask, 2: exposure light source, 3: reflection plate,
4: light shielding cover, 5: light shielding cover, 6: lens, 7: dust removal roller, 8: dust removal roller, 10: film mask, 11: cylindrical body, 12: joint, 19: pattern pitch input device, 20: Control device, 21: drive device, 2
2: Drive device.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A cylindrical photomask, means for conveying an object to be exposed in a predetermined direction, means for rotating the cylindrical photomask in synchronization with conveyance of the object to be exposed, Control means for controlling one or both of the rotation of the photomask and the transport of the exposure target in accordance with the pattern pitch; and irradiating the exposure target with light through the cylindrical photomask. An exposure apparatus comprising: a light source. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the cylindrical photomask has a cylindrical body and a film mask mounted thereon, and controls rotation of the photomask at the joint based on a pattern pitch at a joint of the film mask. The exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: