JP2002026110A - Substrate-carrying arm with destaticizing function - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To each peel off a substrate from a work stage, without causing the peel off of charges during peeling off of the substrate from the work stage. SOLUTION: The substrate-carrying arm comprises a pair of support arms 3 opposed around a substrate 12, a plurality of vacuum chucks 6 disposed on the pair of support arms 3, and an ionizer 11 mounted on the support arms 3 for supplying ionized flow to the backside of the substrate 12.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a substrate transfer arm used in a manufacturing process of a semiconductor, a liquid crystal display, a photomask, a color filter and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, the manufacturing process of a color filter is as follows.
A step of forming chromium on a transparent rectangular substrate such as glass using a vacuum film forming method, applying a photoresist, arranging a photomask, exposing, developing, chromium etching, and stripping the photoresist to form a stripe pattern or lattice. Step of forming a black light-shielding layer composed of a shape pattern, etc., after applying a coloring photosensitive material from above the black light-shielding layer, arranging a photomask and exposing, developing and forming a colored pattern, and forming the colored pattern It comprises a step of forming a plurality of colored layers by repeating the three colors of R, G, and B, and a step of forming a transparent electrode layer by forming indium tin oxide on these colored layers. In this automation line, a substrate is transferred to a work stage in a certain process by a substrate transfer arm, the substrate is mounted on the work stage, the processed substrate is separated from the work stage, and is transferred to the next process. . As a conventional substrate transfer arm, a method is known in which a back surface of a substrate is suctioned and held by a vacuum suction pad and transferred.

[0003]

In recent years, for example, a liquid crystal display device has been required to have a large screen, and accordingly, the size and thickness of the substrate have been increased. There is a problem. For example, in a work stage such as a coating process, a large number of suction holes are provided on the upper surface of the work stage to fix the substrate by vacuum suction. This causes a problem that the substrate is hardly peeled off from the stage, and in the worst case, the substrate is cracked. Therefore, conventionally, a static eliminator is provided above the substrate to perform static elimination.
Since the peeling charge is instantaneously charged to several kV at the time of peeling, the charge cannot be completely removed by removing the charge from above the substrate, and it is a major problem to solve this problem.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a substrate transfer arm with a static elimination function that can easily peel a substrate from a work stage.

[0005]

For this purpose, a substrate transfer arm with a static elimination function according to the present invention is provided with a pair of support arms 3 arranged on the outer periphery of a substrate 12 and on the pair of support arms 3. A plurality of vacuum suction units 6 provided and an ion generator 11 provided on the support arm 3 are provided, and an ionization flow is supplied to the back surface of the substrate 12. Note that the numbers added to the above configuration are compared with the drawings for easy understanding of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1A and 1B show an embodiment of a substrate transfer arm with a static elimination function according to the present invention. FIG. 1A is a plan view, and FIG. 1B is a direction indicated by an arrow along a line BB in FIG. FIG.

In FIG. 1, a substrate transfer arm 1 is provided with an arm main body 2, a pair of left and right support arms 3 formed integrally with the arm main body 2, and opposed to these support arms 3. , Each of which is fixed by a screw 4
It includes a set of substrate support members 5 and a suction pad (vacuum suction unit) 6 provided on each substrate support member 5. The suction pad 6 is made of an elastic member, and the inside of the suction pad 6 is connected to a suction passage 7 formed in the substrate support member 5 and further connected to a suction pipe 9 via a joint 8.
Is connected to a vacuum pump 10 provided on the arm body 2.

An ion generator 11, which is a feature of the present invention, is mounted on the pair of support arms 2 and between the substrate support members 5,5. In addition, 11a is the electrode. As the ion generation system, a pulse DC system or a soft X-ray system is preferable, but a normal DC system or an AC system may be used. In the pulse DC method, a DC high voltage is alternately applied to positive and negative electrode needles at an applied voltage of 3 to 15 kV to generate positive and negative ions in the air by corona discharge to neutralize the charge of the charged object. In the AC method, the output of the commercial frequency is boosted to 7 to 15 kV and applied to the discharge electrode needle,
The soft X-ray method is a method in which a weak X-ray tube is used to ionize molecules in the vicinity of a charged body to remove ions by using a weak X-ray tube. Note that a fan is provided in the ion generator 11 as needed.

In the substrate transfer arm having the above-described structure, the lower surface peripheral portion of the substrate 12 is placed on the suction pad 6, and then the substrate 12 is fixed by applying a vacuum to the vacuum pump 10 to transfer the transfer line. It moves on the work stage 13. The work stage 13 is formed with a step portion 13a that can accommodate the suction pad 6.
Sinks into the step 13a, the substrate 12 is placed on the work stage 13 and the suction pad 6 is released from vacuum.
In the work stage 13, the substrate 12 is fixed by vacuum suction. When the process in the work stage 13 is completed, the suction pad 6 is evacuated again to fix the substrate 12, and the substrate transfer arm 1 is moved upward to move to the next position. Conveyed to the step.
In the present invention, the positive and negative ionization flows are sent toward the space on the back surface of the substrate 12 and on the upper surface of the stage 13 when the substrate is attached to and detached from the stage as well as during the transfer of the substrate. In order to neutralize the electric charge charged on the stage 13, the substrate 12 is moved to the work stage 1.
In the case where the substrate is peeled from 3, the substrate can be easily peeled from the work stage without causing peeling charge.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications can be made. For example, in the above embodiment, the ion generator is mounted on the upper surface of the substrate support member 5, but may be mounted on the lower surface of the substrate support member 5.

[0011]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the ionized air can be supplied to the back surface of the substrate and the upper surface of the work stage before the substrate is attracted to the work stage.
The charge on the substrate and the work stage before adsorption can be reduced to zero potential, and when the substrate is peeled from the work stage, ionized air can be supplied to the back surface of the substrate and the top surface of the work stage. The substrate can be easily separated from the work stage. In addition, since the charge is continuously removed from the substrate during the transfer to the next step, the problem due to the static electricity in the next step can be solved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1A and 1B show an embodiment of a substrate transfer arm with a static elimination function according to the present invention, wherein FIG. 1A is a plan view and FIG.
It is sectional drawing seen in the arrow direction along the BB line of (A).

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 3 ... Support arm 6 ... Vacuum suction part 11 ... Ion generator 12 ... Substrate 13 ... Work stage

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 3F060 AA01 AA07 CA24 GA16 HA03 3F061 AA03 CA01 CB05 CC01 DB04 DB06 DC03 5F031 CA05 FA02 FA07 GA08 GA35 PA18 PA21

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A pair of support arms disposed opposite to an outer periphery of a substrate, a plurality of vacuum suction portions disposed on the pair of support arms, and an ion disposed on the support arm. A substrate transfer arm with a static elimination function, comprising: a generator; and supplying an ionization flow to the back surface of the substrate. 2. The substrate transfer arm with a static elimination function according to claim 1, wherein said ion generator is disposed to face a pair of support arms.