JP2002045732A - Rotation-type substrate treatment apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To carry out a substrate treatment uniformly in the whole range of radial direction of the rotation circle of a substrate in a substrate treatment wherein a chemical is supplied to the surface of a substrate while rotating the substrate. SOLUTION: From a plurality of nozzles 36d arranged along the radial direction of a rotation circle of a substrate 10, a chemical is supplied to the surface of the substrate 10 by delivering the chemical so that the amount of it delivered increases from the inner periphery side toward the outer periphery side. The chemical supplied to the surface of the substrate 10 is successively discharged from the surface by the centrifugal force due to the rotation of the substrate 10.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a rotary substrate processing apparatus used for wet processing of substrates such as glass substrates for liquid crystals.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the production of a glass substrate for a liquid crystal, processes such as application of a resist, etching, and peeling of a resist are repeated on the surface of a glass substrate as a material. One of the substrate processing apparatuses used for processing such a glass substrate is a rotary type.

A rotary substrate processing apparatus supplies a chemical such as an etching liquid or a stripping liquid as a processing liquid to a surface of the substrate by a spray unit while supporting and rotating the substrate on a rotor in a processing tank. After the treatment with the chemical solution, pure water for rinsing is supplied as a treatment liquid to the surface of the substrate by another spray unit. After the rinsing process with the pure water is completed, the substrate is rotated at a high speed to perform a drying process.

Since this rotary substrate processing apparatus is a single wafer processing apparatus, it is expected as a processing apparatus for large substrates. In the case of processing a large-sized substrate, since the surface area is large, various devices for improving the processing efficiency and the use efficiency of a chemical solution have been considered. One of them is a multi-step process in resist stripping.

[0005] In the multi-step processing for resist stripping, a small amount of stripping liquid is held on the surface of the substrate by surface tension before the main processing of the substrate surface with stripping liquid, and the substrate is rotated at a low speed in this state. When the rough stripping is completed, the stripping solution used for the rough stripping is removed from the surface of the substrate, and the main stripping is performed.

In this stripping, a stripper is continuously supplied to the surface of the substrate. The stripping solution supplied on the surface of the substrate flows on the surface of the substrate to the outer peripheral side by centrifugal force caused by the rotation of the substrate, and is sequentially discharged from the surface. For the rough stripping and the main stripping, the stripping solution after use is reused. The stripping solution used for the rough stripping is discarded, and the stripping solution used for the main stripping is collected for reuse.

[0007] When the main stripping is completed, a finishing process is performed with a new stripper. The stripping solution used for the finishing treatment is collected for reuse.

[0008]

By such a multi-step process, a large substrate is peeled off at a high rate. Further, effective use of the stripping liquid is achieved, and the liquid cost is reduced. However, the main peeling has the following problems.

In the main stripping of the resist, the spray unit discharges a stripping liquid from a plurality of nozzles arranged along the radial direction of the rotating circle of the substrate toward the surface of the substrate. At this time, the substrate is rotating. Therefore, the stripping liquid is supplied to the entire area in the radial direction and the entire area in the circumferential direction of the rotating circle of the substrate, that is, to the entire surface of the substrate. It flows and is sequentially discharged from its surface.

Here, the stripping solution supplied to the inner peripheral portion of the rotating circle of the substrate moves to the outer peripheral portion due to centrifugal force accompanying the rotation. For this reason, there is also a mode in which the chemical solution is discharged only to the central portion of the rotating circle of the substrate, and if the stripping liquid is discharged in the entire radial direction of the rotating circle, the processing rate of the outer peripheral portion is lower than the processing rate of the central portion. Was never thought to be.

However, it has been found that when the size of the substrate is increased, the processing rate of the outer peripheral portion is significantly lower than the processing rate of the central portion even when the stripping liquid is discharged in the entire radial direction of the rotating circle. It is considered that the reason is that, in addition to the peripheral speed and the peripheral length becoming longer at the outer peripheral portion, the temperature of the stripping solution is lowered.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a rotary substrate processing apparatus capable of performing uniform processing over the entire area in the radial direction of a rotating circle even for a large substrate.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, a rotary substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention supplies a processing liquid from above to a surface of a substrate by a spray unit while rotating the substrate on a rotor. In the rotary substrate processing apparatus, the spray unit discharges the processing liquid from a plurality of nozzles arranged along the radial direction of the substrate rotation circle such that the discharge amount is larger on the outer peripheral side than on the inner peripheral side. It is what it was.

This configuration is effective for a chemical treatment using a chemical as a treatment liquid. Among them, like the main peeling of the resist, the treatment liquid supplied to the surface of the substrate is subjected to centrifugal force caused by the rotation of the substrate. This is particularly effective for a fluid treatment that is sequentially removed from the surface by the method.

This configuration can be easily realized by using nozzles arranged at a higher density on the outer peripheral side than on the inner peripheral side.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an elevation view of a main part of a rotary substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a configuration of a head unit of a spray unit used in the rotary substrate processing apparatus. FIG. 3 is a side view of three heads constituting the head unit, as shown by arrows AA in FIG.

The rotary substrate processing apparatus according to the present embodiment is an apparatus used for removing a resist from a liquid crystal glass substrate.
As shown in FIG. 1, the apparatus includes a rotor 20 that horizontally supports and rotates a substrate 10 to be processed, a first spray unit 30 that supplies a stripping liquid to the surface of the substrate 10 on the rotor 20, A second spray unit (not shown) for supplying pure water for rinsing to the surface of the substrate 10 on the rotor 20 and a liquid recovery mechanism 40 for recovering the stripping liquid and pure water supplied to the surface of the substrate 10 are provided. I have.

The rotor 20 is a circular horizontal plate disposed in the center of the processing tank, and supports the substrate 10 above the substrate by a plurality of pins 21. The rotor 20 is rotated at an arbitrary speed by a lower drive mechanism (not shown) to rotate the substrate 10 at a predetermined speed.

The liquid recovery mechanism 40 has an outer cup 41 and an inner cup 42 arranged in a processing tank so as to surround the rotor 20 and the drive mechanism. Outer cup 41
Collects the stripping solution supplied to the surface of the substrate 10 for reuse. The opening edge of the outer cup 41 is located above the rotor 20. The inner cup 42 concentrically assembled inside the outer cup 41 collects the stripping liquid and the pure water supplied to the surface of the substrate 10 as a waste liquid. For this separation and collection, the upper edge of the inner cup 42 has an opening edge at the rotor 20.
Is driven to move up and down.

The first spray unit 30 has a horizontal head portion 31 and a support mechanism 32 for supporting the same. The support mechanism 32 drives the head unit 31 to move up and down and swing, and by these drives, moves the head unit 31 between a use position inside the cup and a retracted position outside the cup. The substrate 10 is opposed to the surface of the substrate 10 on the substrate 20.

The head part 3 of the first spray unit 30
1, a first head 33a, a second head 33b, and a third head 33, which are superposed in the thickness direction, as shown in FIG.
d. These heads are attached to the lower surface of the support part 34, and are parallel to the radius line of the rotating circle of the substrate 10 when the head part 31 is moved to the use position.

The first head 33a is a head for rough peeling. As shown in FIG. 3A, the head has a plurality of nozzles 36a attached to the lower surface of the head main body 35a. The plurality of nozzles 36a are connected to the head main body 35a.
Are independently connected to a supply source of a stripping liquid (reusable liquid) through a plurality of joint members 37a attached to the upper surface of the liquid crystal panel. Thus, the discharge of the stripping liquid (reusable liquid) from the plurality of nozzles 36a is turned on / off independently for each nozzle.

The second head 33b is a main peeling head. As shown in FIG. 3B, this head has a plurality of nozzles 36b attached to the lower surface of the head body 35b. The plurality of nozzles 36b are connected to the head body 35b.
Member 3 attached to the upper surface of the head body 35b via a horizontal header tube 38b provided therein.
7b, they are collectively connected to a supply source of a stripping liquid (reuse liquid). Thus, the discharge of the stripping liquid (reusable liquid) from the plurality of nozzles 36b is turned on / off collectively.

The third head 33d is the same main-peeling head as the second head 33b. This head is shown in FIG.
As shown in (c), it has a plurality of nozzles 36d attached to the lower surface of the head body 35d. The plurality of nozzles 36d are separated via a horizontal header pipe 38d provided in the head main body 35d, and further through a joint member 37d (see FIGS. 1 and 2) attached to the upper surface of the head main body 35d. Are connected collectively to the supply source of the working liquid). Thereby, the discharge of the stripping liquid (reusable liquid) from the plurality of nozzles 36d is turned on / off collectively.

The plurality of nozzles in these heads are
In any case, with the head part 31 moved to the use position in the cup, the head part 31 is aligned in parallel with the radius line of the rotating circle of the substrate 10,
The stripper is discharged in the form of a film inclined downward in the rotation direction of the substrate 10.

A second spray unit (not shown) for supplying pure water for rinsing to the surface of the substrate 10 on the rotor 20 has a use position inside the cup and a retreat position outside the cup similarly to the first spray unit 30. And a horizontal head that moves between The head unit is equipped with a plurality of nozzles arranged in parallel with the radius line of the rotating circle of the substrate 10 at the use position, and discharges pure water for rinsing from the nozzles onto the surface of the rotating substrate 10.

Next, the operation of the rotary substrate processing apparatus of the present embodiment will be described.

When the substrate 10 is set on the rotor 20, the head 31 of the first spray unit 30 moves from the retracted position to the use position. Since the substrate 10 is rotated at a low speed, the stripping liquid (reusable liquid) is discharged from all the nozzles 36a of the first head 33a. By continuing this discharge while the substrate 10 rotates approximately once, a stripping liquid (reusable liquid) is placed on the surface of the substrate 10. The discharge of the stripping liquid (reusable liquid) is stopped, and the substrate 10 is kept rotating at a low speed while the stripping liquid (reusable liquid) is held on the surface of the substrate 10.

The rough peeling is performed in this manner. Predetermined time,
After continuing the rough stripping, the rotation speed of the substrate 10 is increased, and the stripping liquid (reusable liquid) is discharged from the surface of the substrate 10. At this time, the upper portion of the inner cup 42 has been raised to an upper position where the opening edge is higher than the rotor 20. As a result, the stripping liquid (reusable liquid) that is used for the rough stripping and is contaminated is discharged as waste liquid into the inner cup 42.

When the rough peeling is completed, all the nozzles 36b of the second head 33b and all the nozzles 36b of the third head 33d are rotated while rotating the substrate 10 at a predetermined speed.
d, a stripping liquid (reusable liquid) is discharged, and a part of the nozzles 36a of the first head 33a, more specifically, the substrate 1
The stripping liquid (reusable liquid) is discharged from the nozzle 36a located at the outer peripheral portion in the radial direction of the 0 rotation circle. Thereby, the substrate 1
The discharge amount distribution of the stripper in the radial direction of the 0 rotation circle is:
The number is larger at the outer periphery than at the inner periphery.

The stripping solution (reusable solution) supplied on the surface of the substrate 10 is subjected to centrifugal force caused by the rotation of the substrate 10 so that the substrate 1
0 flows to the outer peripheral side on the surface and is discharged from the surface. The outer peripheral portion of the substrate 10 has a larger perimeter and a higher peripheral speed than the inner peripheral portion, the amount of contact liquid per unit area / time decreases, and the liquid temperature tends to decrease. Is discharged from the outer peripheral portion, so that even when the substrate 10 is large, a uniform processing rate is secured in the radial direction.

The discharge amount distribution of the stripping liquid in this stripping is basically based on a pattern in which the discharge amount increases in proportion to the distance from the center of the rotating circle, and is stepwise (two steps in this embodiment) along this basic pattern. The distribution in which the discharge amount increases in ()) is preferable.

Since the stripping liquid (reusable liquid) discharged from the surface of the substrate 10 in this main stripping is after the rough stripping, the stripping liquid is less contaminated and is collected in the outer cup 41 for reuse. For this recovery, the upper portion of the inner cup 42 is lowered to a lower position where the opening edge is lower than the rotor 20.

As described above, in the rotary substrate processing apparatus of the present embodiment, the resist adhering to the surface of the substrate 10 is efficiently removed by the multi-stage processing combining the rough peeling and the main peeling. In particular, in the main peeling, since a larger amount is discharged to the outer peripheral portion than the inner peripheral portion, a uniform processing rate is secured in the radial direction even when the substrate 10 is large.

Further, in the main stripping, since the nozzle for coarse stripping is used to increase the amount at the outer peripheral portion, the number of nozzles is reduced and the apparatus configuration is simple.

Further, by separating and collecting the reused liquid, the use efficiency of the stripping liquid is improved while maintaining high processing efficiency, and the liquid cost is reduced.

In the above-described embodiment, the nozzle for coarse separation is used in order to increase the discharge amount at the outer periphery in the main separation. However, it is also possible to add a nozzle to the outer periphery of the main separation head. . Further, it is also possible to increase the discharge capability of the nozzles instead of or together with the additional nozzles. Further, the discharge amount can be changed in a plurality of stages.

[0038]

As described above, in the rotary substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention, the discharge amount from the plurality of nozzles arranged along the radial direction of the substrate rotation circle is larger on the outer peripheral side than on the inner peripheral side. By discharging the processing liquid as described above, even in the case of a large substrate, uniform processing can be performed over the entire area in the radial direction of the rotating circle.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a main part of a rotary substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a configuration of a head unit of a spray unit used in the rotary type substrate processing apparatus, and is a view taken along line AA of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3A to 3C are side views of three heads constituting the head unit. FIGS.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Substrate 20 Rotor 30 Spray unit 31 Head part 33a First head 33b Second head 33d Third head 36a, 36b, 36d Nozzle 40 Liquid recovery mechanism 41 Outer cup 42 Inner cup

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 4F033 AA14 DA05 EA01 LA13 NA01 4F041 AA06 AB01 BA05 BA13 BA34 BA56 4F042 AA07 BA08 BA12 CB07 CB10 EB17 EB28 EB29

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A rotary substrate processing apparatus for supplying a processing liquid from above to a surface of a substrate by a spray unit while rotating the substrate on a rotor, wherein the spray unit extends along a radial direction of a substrate rotation circle. A rotary substrate processing apparatus, wherein a processing liquid is discharged from a plurality of arranged nozzles such that a discharge amount is larger on an outer peripheral side than on an inner peripheral side. 2. The rotary substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the spray unit discharges a chemical as a processing liquid. 3. The spray unit according to claim 1, wherein the spray unit discharges the processing liquid in a state where the processing liquid supplied to the surface of the substrate is sequentially removed from the surface by centrifugal force caused by rotation of the substrate. Rotary substrate processing equipment. 4. The processing unit according to claim 1, wherein the spray unit discharges the processing liquid from a plurality of nozzles arranged at a higher density on an outer peripheral side than on an inner peripheral side so that a discharge amount is larger on an outer peripheral side than on an inner peripheral side. 3. The rotary substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1.