JP2000289979A - Vertical conveyance device and vertical conveyance method and manufacturing device for substrate with thin film and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To securely detect an abnormality irrespective of the number of suspension bands to be cut and loosened and a section to be cut and loosened, to detect an abnormality when a conveyance means overruns, to provide a detection means in a narrow installation space, and to improve maintenance property when cutting and loosening of the suspension bands and overrun of the conveyance means are detected automatically. SOLUTION: In a vertical conveyance device having a substrate holding unit 12 holding a substrate in a chamber and a conveyance means lifting and lowering the substrate holding unit to an arbitrary position in a suspension condition by a suspension band 19, a detector for detecting cutting and loosening of the suspension band is arranged in the vicinity of a suspension band winding part, and a detection means for detecting cutting and loosening of the suspension band capable of detecting cutting and loosening of the suspension band due to the deformation of the suspension band in the suspension band winding part and its contact with the detector when the suspension band is cut and loosened is provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of forming various thin films having functions such as anti-reflection and optical filtering on a flat substrate such as a glass plate, a resin plate and a silicon wafer by means of vacuum deposition, sputtering and the like. The technical field of manufacturing substrates with functional thin films. More specifically, in a transfer device that transports a large number of substrates up and down before and after thin film formation on a substrate, it is automatically detected that a suspension band, which is a transfer means, has been cut and loosened, and furthermore, the overrun of the transfer means is performed. TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a vertical transport device and a vertical transport device provided with a hanging band cut detection device for detecting a stagnation, and a device and a method for manufacturing a substrate with a thin film.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An apparatus for forming a thin film having a certain function on a substrate is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-25083.
For example, there is a vacuum deposition apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-No. The present vapor deposition apparatus is for continuously forming and manufacturing an antireflection film on a flat substrate such as a glass plate or a resin plate in a vacuum, and includes a preheating chamber, a heating chamber inside a vacuum and high temperature atmosphere chamber. , A first stocker chamber, a vapor deposition chamber, a second stocker chamber, and an exit buffer chamber are defined, and a cassette for mounting a substrate between the partitioned chambers is transported by horizontal transport means. Each of the preheating chamber, the heating chamber, the first stocker chamber, the second stocker chamber, and the outlet buffer chamber has a multi-stage cassette storage shelf so that a plurality of cassettes for mounting substrates can be stored in a vertical shelf. So that more substrates can be stored and processed in a smaller floor space,
Something has been devised. Further, a configuration is adopted in which the vertical transport device is intermittently raised or lowered by a pitch corresponding to one stage of the cassette storage shelf to receive the cassette from the horizontal transport unit or to send the cassette to the horizontal transport unit. Further, the vertical transport device is configured to raise and lower a substrate holding unit holding a cassette in a suspended state by a hanging band, as the transport unit capable of preventing contamination of the substrate due to scattering of dust from the lifting / lowering transport unit. Has been adopted.

[0003] In the above prior art, there is no description about a device for detecting the cutting and loosening of the hanging band. However, as a method for detecting the cutting of the hanging band in such a vertical transport device, the presence or absence of the hanging band is detected. And a method of measuring the load fluctuation applied to the suspension band with the rotational torque of the suspension band winding shaft and detecting cutting of the suspension band.

In the former method, as shown in FIG. 10, for example, a photoelectric detector 29 is provided on the inner surface of a chamber to detect the presence or absence of a suspension band. Although this method is simple, even if the suspension band is cut depending on the position of the photoelectric sensor, it is not detected if the cut suspension band is within the detection range of the photoelectric detector. Therefore, it is necessary to dispose a plurality of photoelectric detectors for reliable detection regardless of the cutting position. It is difficult to dispose them without any trouble in the chamber in which the substrate holding unit moves up and down, as in the above-described vertical transfer device. is there. Even if they are arranged, the apparatus becomes complicated and the maintainability is remarkably deteriorated. Further, when trying to detect relaxation and overrun by this method, a malfunction due to the vibration of the suspension band is likely to occur. In addition, when the overrun is not detected, as shown in FIG. 11, the substrate holding unit 12 moves in the ascending direction by the suspension band 19, although the pulley 21 of the transporting means is rotating in the downward direction. And the transport device is damaged.
On the other hand, it is possible to arrange the contact type detector so as to always contact the suspension band instead of the photoelectric detector, and to detect cutting and relaxation, but as a harmful effect of contacting the detector with the suspension band, In addition to the wear of the binding band, not only the life is shortened, but also there is a problem that abrasion powder is generated, adheres to the substrate, and stains the substrate.

[0005] The latter is a method in which a rotational torque detector is attached to each suspension band winding shaft, and a change in load applied to the suspension band is measured to detect cutting and loosening of the suspension band. In this method for detecting rotational torque, the detector can be arranged outside the chamber, so that the apparatus is simple. Further, there is an advantage that overrun detection of the transport means can be easily performed. However, in the vertical transport device, when the substrate holding unit moves up and down, the number of cassettes loaded changes. In other words, since the rotational torque of the suspension band winding shaft fluctuates, when the substrate holding unit is held by a plurality of suspension bands, there are many erroneous operations to detect cutting and loosening of one suspension band. However, there was a problem of lack of reliability.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a vertical apparatus having a transfer means for raising and lowering a substrate holding unit to an arbitrary position under a suspension band in a chamber constituted by a vacuum and a heating atmosphere. In the transfer device, in automatically detecting the cutting and loosening of the suspension band and the overrun of the transfer means, the abnormality is reliably detected regardless of the number of cuts and loosening of the hanging band or the cutting and loosening position, and the transfer is performed. A vertical transport apparatus and a vertical transport method with a hanging band cutting and relaxation detector, which is capable of detecting when the means overruns, has a small installation space for the detection means, and has good maintainability, and a manufacturing apparatus and a manufacturing method of a substrate with a thin film Is to provide.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention employs the following constitution.

That is, a vertical transfer apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention has a substrate holding unit for holding a substrate in a chamber and a transfer means for lifting the substrate holding unit to an arbitrary position in a suspended state by a hanging band. In the apparatus, detecting means for detecting deformation and breakage of the hanging band by contacting the hanging band with a deformation of a winding portion of the hanging band caused when the hanging band is cut and relaxed. Is provided.

The vertical transfer method according to claim 2, wherein the substrate transfer unit holds a substrate in a chamber, and the vertical transfer method moves the substrate hold unit up and down to an arbitrary position in a suspended state by a suspension band. When the lower band is cut and relaxed, the deformation in the winding portion of the suspension band is detected by contacting the suspension band to detect the cutting and relaxation of the suspension band. It is a feature.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the vertical transfer method, when the substrate holding unit is transferred in the descending direction, the deformation of the winding portion of the hanging band caused by the overrun of the transferring means is brought into contact with the hanging band. In this case, the overrun of the lifting band is detected.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for manufacturing a substrate with a thin film, comprising any one of the above-described vertical transport devices as a transport device for the substrate.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the method of manufacturing a substrate with a thin film, any one of the above-described vertical transfer methods is used in the method of transferring a substrate during the manufacturing process.

[0013] According to the vertical transfer apparatus and method according to the first and second aspects, it is possible to detect an abnormality irrespective of the number of cuts and loosening of the suspension band or the location of the cutting and loosening in the chamber constituted by the vacuum and the heating atmosphere. Since it is possible to detect even when the transporting means overruns, damage to the vertical transporting device can be extremely reduced, and maintenance and productivity can be improved.

According to the apparatus and method for manufacturing a substrate with a thin film according to the fourth and fifth aspects, the productivity of the substrate with a thin film can be drastically improved.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the vertical transport device of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an embodiment of an apparatus for manufacturing a substrate with a thin film to which the vertical transfer apparatus of the present invention can be applied, and FIG. 2 is a top view of FIG. FIG. 3 is a front view showing an example of the vertical transport device according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of the vertical transport device according to the present invention. FIGS. 5 and 6 are a front view and a side view showing in detail an example of a suspension band cutting and relaxation detecting device constituting the vertical transport device according to the present invention. FIG. 7 is a front view showing a cut-off state of a hanging band constituting the vertical conveying device according to the present invention, and FIG. 8 is a state in which the conveying means constituting the vertical conveying device according to the present invention overruns and the hanging band is relaxed. It is a front view showing a state. FIG. 9 is a front view showing a state in which the suspension band contacts the detection device when the suspension band constituting the vertical transport device according to the present invention is cut and relaxed.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, a cassette 2 on which a substrate A is placed (see FIG. 4) is conveyed by an entrance conveyor 1 to a preheating chamber 4 in a vacuum and high-temperature atmosphere. The preheating chamber 4 includes a heating chamber 5, a first stocker chamber 6,
The substrate holding unit has the same internal configuration as the second stocker room 8 and the exit buffer room 9, and can store a large number of cassettes 2 on each of which a plurality of substrates A are mounted in a shelf in the vertical direction as shown in FIG. It has a unit 12 and a horizontal transport roller 15 for transporting the cassette 2 horizontally in the next step. Further, the pressure in the room can be freely set by a pressure control means such as a vacuum pump, a blower, or a compressor (not shown) if the gate valve 3 shuts off the atmosphere.

Inside the substrate holding unit 12, a support shelf 28 supporting the end of the cassette 2 and accommodating the cassette 2 in a shelf at a constant pitch, and being close to the cassette 2 corresponding to the number of the cassettes 2 The heaters 13 are provided in the vertical direction, respectively, and can heat the substrate A to a predetermined temperature in a state where the substrate A is stored. Further, the substrate holding unit 12 is engaged with the suspension unit 17 at an upper portion thereof, and is in a state of being suspended by the suspension unit 17.

The suspension unit 17 is the substrate holding unit 1
2, the suspension unit 17 in this embodiment comprises a suspending member 18,
It comprises a hanging band 19, a hanging member 18, a hanging band mounting bracket 23 for fixing one end of the hanging band 19, and a pulley 20. Here, the other end of the suspension band 19 is connected to a pulley 20.
, And the pulley 20 is connected to a drive motor 22 via a drive shaft 21 as shown in FIG. Accordingly, when the drive motor 22 is driven to rotate the pulley 20, the suspension band 19 can be wound up and rewinded, and thereby the substrate holding unit 1 connected to the suspension band 19
2 can be moved up and down. Further, the operation of the motor 22 is controlled so that the cassette 2 stored in the substrate holding unit 12 is controlled.
The substrate holding unit 12 can be raised and lowered intermittently by a length corresponding to the vertical pitch of the substrate holding unit. By combining the vertical movement of this fixed pitch and the operation of the horizontal transport roller 15, the cassette 2 can be freely stored in and removed from the substrate holding unit 12.

FIGS. 7 and 8 show the cutting and loosening state of the hanging band 19 according to the present invention. The detecting device 50 detects the deformation of the hanging band 19 as shown in FIGS. A contact plate 24, an insulator 25 for insulating electricity, a holder 26 for supporting the insulator 25, and an electric lead 27. The cutting and relaxation detecting device 50 is provided with the contact plate 24 close to the lower surface of the pulley 20 on which the suspension band 19 is wound. Further, the holder 26 is fixed to the bearing 16 of the pulley 20. Further, the electricity introduction line 27 is connected to the chamber 1
1 is introduced into the chamber 11 from the outside, and is fixed to the contact plate 24 and the holder 26, respectively.

Here, the material and thickness of the contact plate 24 are conductive, elastic and flexible, and are bent by the deformation of the suspension band 19 wound around the pulley 20 to be in contact with the holder 26. Any contact may be used, but in the present embodiment requiring high temperature resistance, vacuum resistance, and cleanness, a contact plate made of metal, particularly stainless steel, is preferred. In addition, if the suspension band 19 is made of a conductive material, current flows only when the suspension band 19 contacts the contact plate 24, and thus the thickness of the contact plate is not limited. Further, the insulator 25 may be any insulator as long as it has insulating properties and durability. In the present embodiment, a ceramic insulator is preferable. Further, the material of the holder 26 and the bearing 16 may be any material as long as it has conductivity and durability. In this embodiment, a metal member, particularly a stainless steel member, is preferable.

The gap S1 between the contact plate 24 and the pulley 20
The gap S2 between the contact plate 24 and the holder 26 should be as narrow as possible in order to reliably detect the deformation of the suspension band,
It is preferable to adjust the arrangement of the contact plates so that the gap S1 is 1 to 3 mm in a state where the suspension unit 17 is raised to the upper limit in a heating atmosphere in the chamber. The gap S2 is 2
It is preferable to adjust the thickness of the insulator so as to be about 5 mm, but there is no limitation on widening the gap as long as the suspension band 19 is made of a conductive material.

Further, the arrangement of the cutting and loosening detecting device 50 is not limited as long as it is near the pulley 20, and may be on the upper surface or the side surface of the pulley 20, but in order to reliably detect the deformation of the hanging band 19 due to the cutting. , Detecting device 50 with pulley 2
It is preferable that the gap H between the pulley 20 and the upper surface inside the chamber 11 be as narrow as possible.

Further, in order to reliably detect the deformation of the suspension band 19 due to very slight relaxation, the gap between the contact plate 24 and the pulley 20 is made as small as possible, and
Is preferably made of a conductive metal, in particular, a stainless steel belt which is excellent in high temperature resistance, high resistance and cleanliness, and relaxes only when the suspension band 19 contacts the contact plate 24 (see FIG. 9). Can be reliably detected, and FIG.
As shown in (1), when the substrate holding unit 12 is transported in the descending direction, it is possible to detect a case where the transport unit overruns. Furthermore, if the length of the suspension band 19 is set to a length that is wound around the pulley 20 two or three times when the substrate holding unit 12 is at the lowest position, the suspension band 19 is independent of the cutting position. Disconnection can be detected.

According to the embodiment of the apparatus for detecting the cutting and loosening of the hanging band, the number of cutting and relaxing of the hanging band, or
Since abnormality detection and reliability are high irrespective of the cutting and loosening points, the apparatus is simple and the installation space is small, the chamber can be made compact, which is particularly advantageous in a high vacuum chamber. Further, by detecting an abnormality without bringing the detecting device into contact with the hanging band during the ascent / descent, the problem of contamination of the substrate due to scattering of dust from the hanging band and the detecting device does not occur.

Next, FIG. 1 to which the vertical transport device of the present invention is applied.
A method of manufacturing a thin film substrate by the apparatus for manufacturing a substrate with a thin film described above will be described.

First, the cassette 2 on which the substrate A is placed (see FIG. 3) is moved from the entrance conveyor 1 to the horizontal transport roller 1.
5 and transferred into a preheating chamber 4 composed of a vacuum and a heating atmosphere. The preheating chamber 4 is a zone in which the substrate is preheated in advance to evaporate the moisture attached to the substrate A in the next heating chamber 5, and can be set at a vacuum pressure by shutting off the room and the atmosphere by the gate valve 3. ing. On the other hand, the cassette 2 on the horizontal transport roller 15 stops near the center in the preheating chamber 4. Next, the substrate holding unit 1
2 rises by a length corresponding to the cassette storage pitch in the vertical direction (cassette storage pitch), and the substrate holding unit 12
Support shelves 2 corresponding to the cassette storage pitch
At 8, the cassette 2 is picked up and the storing operation is completed. Subsequently, since the next cassette 2 is supplied from the entrance conveyor 1, the same operation is repeated one after another, and a large number of cassettes 2
Are stored in a shelf in the substrate holding unit 12 in multiple stages. For example, if the number of stored sheets is 16 in one film-forming unit, normally, 16 cassettes can be stored.

The removal of the cassette from the substrate holding unit 12 is performed in the following procedure. First, the transport roller 15 is stopped, and then the substrate holding unit 12 is lowered by the cassette storage pitch. By this operation, the cassette 2 supported on the support shelf 28 is replaced by the horizontal transport roller 15, and the horizontal transport roller 15 is driven to send the cassette 2 to the next step. Hereinafter, if this operation is repeated, the cassette can be successively taken out and sent out.

The substrate A, which has been preheated in the preheating chamber 4 for a predetermined time, is moved to the heating chamber 5 by the above-described operation while being placed in the cassette 2, and is stored in a shelf shape. After the evaporation of the moisture attached to the substrate A in the heating chamber 5 is completed, the substrate A is transported to the first stocker chamber 6 while being placed on the cassette 2 and stocked in a shelf shape by the same method.

Next, the cassettes 2 stored in the first stocker chamber 6 are replaced one by one on the horizontal transport roller 15 by the above-mentioned method, and the cassette 2 is moved to the vapor deposition chamber 7 by the horizontal transport roller 15 to form the cassette. By exposing the substrate A to the film particle bundle B, a thin film is formed on the surface of the substrate A. Further, if necessary, the cassettes 2 are sequentially stored in the second stocker room 8,
The cassette 2 on which the substrate A is placed is loaded into the outlet buffer chamber 9 and stored in a shelf shape, and is finally taken out by the outlet conveyor 11.

When a multilayer film having a larger number of layers is to be formed, the cassette 2 on which the substrate A on which the thin film has been formed on the surface in the above-described process is moved to the second stocker chamber 8 and stored in a shelf shape. Then, the cassette is taken out again, and is moved in the opposite direction toward the vapor deposition chamber by the horizontal transport roller 15, and the film is again formed on the substrate. Substrate A after completion of re-deposition
Is transported to the first stocker chamber 6 and stored in a shelf shape. This re-deposition process can be repeated a desired number of times. When the number of times of passage through the vapor deposition chamber may be an even number, the cassette on which the substrate A on which the thin film formation has been completed a predetermined number of times is placed is moved in the opposite direction by the horizontal transport roller 15, and the substrate is deposited on the film-forming particle bundle in each vapor deposition chamber. If the exposure is not performed, the thin film forming substrate can be taken out by the outlet conveyor 10 regardless of the number of times of forming the thin film.

In the present invention, the substrate to be formed may be a glass substrate, a plastic flat plate or a plastic sheet,
Single wafers such as various semiconductors, optical disks, LCDs, and color filters are preferred. When a thin film is formed on such a substrate to be formed and then used as an antireflection material for an optical filter or a display device, a transparent or translucent substrate is preferably used. As a film forming process for forming a thin film on such a target substrate, vacuum deposition, ion-assisted deposition, ion plating, sputtering, ablation, and the like are preferably used.

The vertical transfer device of the present invention is not limited to a device for depositing a thin film on a substrate, but may be any device for vertically transferring a substrate in a vacuum and high-temperature atmosphere.

[0034]

According to the present invention, the following excellent effects can be obtained by the above configuration. That is, according to the vertical transfer device and the transfer method of claims 1 and 2 to 3,
The conventional method is used to automatically detect the cutting and loosening of the suspension band and detect the number of cutting and loosening of the suspension band, the abnormality detection regardless of the position of the cutting and relaxation, and the overrun of the conveyance means. More reliable, while the suspension band is cut and unjustly relaxed,
The damage to the vertical transfer device can be extremely reduced, and the maintainability is good. Further, since the apparatus is simple and the installation space is small, the chamber can be made compact, which is particularly advantageous in a high vacuum chamber.

According to the apparatus and method for manufacturing a substrate with a thin film according to the fourth and fifth aspects, a substrate with a thin film can be manufactured with high productivity.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an embodiment of an apparatus for manufacturing a substrate with a thin film to which a vertical transfer apparatus according to the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 2 is a top view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing an example of a vertical transport device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of a vertical transport device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a front view showing in detail an example of a suspension band cutting and relaxation detecting device constituting the vertical transport device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing in detail an example of a suspension band cutting and relaxation detecting device constituting the vertical transport device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a front view showing a cutting state of a suspension band included in the vertical transport device according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a front view showing a state in which a transport unit constituting the vertical transport device according to the present invention is overrun and the suspension band is relaxed.

FIG. 9 is a front view showing a state where the suspension band contacts the detection device when the suspension band constituting the vertical transport device according to the present invention is cut and relaxed.

FIG. 10 is a front view showing an example of a suspension band disconnection and relaxation detection method according to a conventional embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a front view showing a state where the suspension band cutting and relaxation detecting device according to the conventional embodiment does not detect overrun at descent.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Inlet conveyor 2: Cassette 3: Gate valve 4: Preheating chamber 5: Heating chamber 6: First stocker room 7: Vaporization room 8: Second stocker room 9: Exit buffer room 10: Outlet conveyor 11: Chamber 12 : Substrate holding unit 13: heater 14: preheating chamber 15: horizontal transport roller 16: bearing 17: hanging unit 18: hanging unit 19: hanging band 20: pulley 21: drive shaft 22: drive motor 23: hanging band Mounting bracket 24: Contact plate 25: Insulator 26: Holder 27: Electric lead wire 28: Support shelf 29: Photoelectric detector 50: Cutting / relaxation detection device

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) B66D 1/54 B66D 1/54 C H01L 21/68 H01L 21/68 A F-term (Reference) 3F004 AG09 EA40 LA10 LB01 5F031 DA05 DA09 FA03 FA09 GA37 GA60 JA08 JA45 LA14 MA29 MA30 NA05 PA08

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A vertical transfer apparatus comprising: a substrate holding unit for holding a substrate in a chamber; and transfer means for lifting and lowering the substrate holding unit to an arbitrary position in a suspended state by a hanging band. Deformation in the winding portion of the suspension band, which occurs when the suspension band is cut and relaxed, is provided with a detection unit that detects cutting and relaxation of the suspension band by contacting the suspension band. Vertical transfer device. 2. A substrate holding unit for holding a substrate in a chamber and a vertical transfer method for lifting and lowering the substrate holding unit to an arbitrary position in a suspended state by a hanging band, wherein the hanging band is cut and loosened. A vertical conveyance method characterized by detecting a deformation or a deformation of a wrapping portion of the hanging band caused by contact with the hanging band, thereby detecting cutting or loosening of the hanging band. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transfer unit is caused to overrun when the substrate holding unit is transferred in a downward direction.
A vertical transport method, wherein an overrun of the hanging band is detected by detecting a deformation in a winding portion of the hanging band by contacting the hanging band. 4. An apparatus for manufacturing a substrate with a thin film, comprising the vertical transfer device according to claim 1. 5. A method for producing a substrate with a thin film, comprising producing a vapor-deposited substrate by using the vertical transport method according to claim 2.