JP2002274642A - Substrate processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a substrate processor capable of surely eliminating static electricity of a substrate at a low cost. SOLUTION: This substrate processor is provided with a transport means 1 for supporting a substrate W on rollers R, r and transporting the same. The transport means 1 is so constructed that at least a part of the rollers R, r contacting the substrate W is formed by a soft member having conductivity, and the conductive flexible material is grounded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a glass substrate such as a liquid crystal display and a photomask, a printed wiring board, and a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer, which are conveyed while being supported horizontally or slightly inclined on rollers. The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus provided with a transfer unit, and more particularly to a substrate processing apparatus capable of performing charge removal on a charged substrate and not charging a transferred substrate.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a substrate processing apparatus for performing processing by supplying a processing liquid such as a chemical solution or a cleaning liquid to a substrate, a predetermined processing liquid is supplied to the surface of the substrate, and then the substrate is supplied with a predetermined processing liquid. A step of removing the substrate from the substrate and drying the substrate is required, and the wet processing and the dry processing are repeatedly performed on one substrate. Therefore, a transfer means such as a robot or a roller is appropriately provided in each processing tank and between the processing tanks so that those steps are automatically and smoothly performed. Also, between wet processing and dry processing,
An air knife that blows dry air toward the substrate is provided.

[0003] The substrate is made of an insulating material such as glass or silicon, and has a structure in which the surface is easily charged by friction with dry air blown from an air knife. In addition, the roller that transports the substrate is usually formed of a material having elasticity (flexibility) such as rubber so that the substrate does not damage the substrate due to contact. Static electricity is also generated on the substrate surface due to friction with the material.

When static electricity is generated on the substrate surface, the substrate is displaced from the transfer line during the transfer of the substrate, the insulation of elements formed on the substrate is destroyed, the element characteristics are deteriorated, There is a problem that dust and dirt (so-called particles) are sucked and adhere to the substrate surface.

Therefore, conventionally, measures have been taken such that the grounded pins are brought into contact with the substrate being conveyed, and the substrate is neutralized, or ions are sprayed on the substrate using an ionizer to eliminate the static electricity.

However, in the static elimination by the ground pin,
Since the pin may damage the contact portion, the pin can be brought into contact with only a limited portion such as the edge of the substrate, and there is a problem that a target portion cannot be sufficiently discharged. For this reason, it is considered that a static eliminator such as an ionizer that can eliminate static electricity in a non-contact manner is effective. However, there is a demerit that the size of the apparatus is increased due to the attachment thereof, and the cost increases. In the case of a substrate having a two-layer structure in which the front and rear surfaces of the substrate are formed of different insulating materials, an ionizer must be provided above and below the substrate transport path for static elimination on the front surface and static elimination on the rear surface, respectively. The problem of large size and high cost of the device becomes even more serious.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a substrate processing apparatus capable of inexpensively and reliably removing electricity from a substrate.

[0008]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus provided with a transfer means for supporting and transferring a substrate on rollers. In addition, at least a portion of the roller that comes into contact with the substrate is formed of a conductive and flexible material, and the conductive flexible material is grounded.

The charge can be removed while transporting the flexible material without damaging the substrate. Further, static electricity is not generated by friction with the substrate. Also, in most cases, the shafts and brackets that support the rollers are formed of a conductive material, so that they are grounded by these, so that it can be configured only by changing the material of the contact portions of the rollers with a conventional device, There is no need to add another device, and the size of the device can be suppressed at low cost.

It is preferable that the conductive flexible material is a conductive resin as in the second aspect of the present invention.

Examples of the conductive resin include ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene, polytetrafluoroethylene, polyetherimide, M
C nylon and the like can be mentioned. Since they have flexibility, they do not damage the substrate to be in contact with, and are easy to mold and inexpensive.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a charge removing means for removing charges charged on the upper surface of the substrate without contacting the substrate. Things.

In a substrate having a two-layer structure, both upper and lower surfaces may be charged. For example, when the thin film formed on the glass substrate is a two-layer structure substrate, when it is dried with an air knife, for example, the back glass substrate is charged to about −1000 volts, and the front polysilicon layer becomes about +1000 volts. The volts are charged (+ and-can be reversed). In this case, with the above-described roller neutralization, only the lower surface of the substrate may be neutralized, and the upper surface of the substrate may not be neutralized. In view of this, in the invention described in claim 3, a non-contact type static elimination means is separately provided so as to eliminate charges charged on the upper surface of the substrate.

[0014] As such a charge removing means, a corona discharge type ionizer which neutralizes the charge charged on the substrate by spraying an ion stream of a charge opposite to the charge generated on the substrate,
In addition to various ionizers, such as a soft X-ray ionizer that irradiates soft X-rays and repels electrons from stable atoms to generate positive ions, a non-contact type static eliminator used in the related art can be used. In addition, as for the mode of spraying the ion stream, various modes such as a shower-like mode and a mode in which a curtain-like ion stream is blown from a slit like an air knife can be exemplified.

Further, such a static eliminator is mounted at a location where the charged substrate is to be carried in, such as near an air knife which easily generates static electricity due to blowing of dry air, or in a dry processing tank thereafter. Preferably.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, specific embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing a schematic configuration of a substrate processing apparatus according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view thereof, FIGS.
FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a roller.

In FIG. 1, the substrate processing apparatus transports a substrate W from a wet processing section WET to a dry processing section DRY in a direction indicated by an arrow 10 by a transport means 1, and includes a wet processing section WET and a dry processing section DRY. Between them, air knives 6 and 8 are provided. The wet processing unit WET on the upstream side of the transport path is provided with a liquid supply unit 3 that supplies liquid to the upper surface and / or lower surface of the substrate W. The liquid supply unit 3 includes a liquid supply source 30 and a liquid supply source 30. Connecting pipe 3
1 and a shower nozzle 32. Dry processing part D
The substrate W that has been subjected to the drying process by the air knives 6 and 8 is carried into the RY by the transport unit 1.

The air knives 6 and 8 are provided with slit-shaped outlets facing the substrate W, are inclined with respect to the substrate transport direction 10, and have a long casing provided so as to cover the entire width of the substrate W. Become. The air knives 6 and 8 are connected via a filter to a dry gas supply mechanism including dry gas supply sources 60 and 80 for supplying compressed dry air and an on-off valve capable of adjusting the flow rate. Also, below the air knives 6 and 8 opposed to each other across the substrate W,
Lower air knives for blowing dry air to the back surface of the substrate are arranged in parallel with these, and the liquid adhering to the substrate W is removed and dried by sandwiching the upper and lower surfaces of the substrate W with dry gas blown from above and below. .

The transport means 1 includes a transport roller R having a large diameter and an auxiliary roller r having a smaller diameter than the transport roller R.
The transport roller R is driven to rotate by a driving device 12, and the auxiliary roller R is rotatably supported by a bracket 13 so as to contact the back surface of the substrate W.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the inside of the substrate processing apparatus. The substrate W moves in the thickness direction of the paper. As shown in FIG. 2, the transport roller R is
A plurality of shafts 11 provided between the shafts 11 are provided at appropriate intervals, and both ends of the shaft 11 are rotatably supported by bearings, and a driving device 12 provided outside one side wall 14 is provided. It is connected to. Further, the auxiliary roller r is provided with the bracket 13 erected on the bottom plate 16 or
It is rotatably supported by a bracket or the like appropriately provided on the side wall. Shaft 11 and bracket 13
Are formed from a conductive material, and the side walls 14, 15 and the bottom plate 16 are appropriately grounded. Therefore, the conveying roller R and the auxiliary roller r are supported by the shaft 11, the bracket 13, the side walls 14, 15, the bottom plate 16
Grounded via such as.

The transport roller R and the auxiliary roller r are both formed of a material having flexibility so as not to damage the substrate. Further, in this embodiment, at least one of the transport roller R and the auxiliary roller r is formed of a conductive material. Therefore, without damaging the substrate
During the transfer, the charge can be reliably removed.
Examples of such a material include conductive polymers such as ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene, polytetrafluoroethylene, polyetherimide, and MC nylon.

The transport roller R and the auxiliary roller r are shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 4, the contact portion with the substrate W is formed of a flexible conductive material. Especially, it is preferable to be formed from a conductive resin. Thereby, static elimination can be performed without damaging the substrate. Further, no static electricity is generated on the substrate during the transfer.

The ionizer 2 includes, as shown in FIG.
It is arranged above the substrate W. The ionizer 2 blows an ion stream onto the surface of the substrate W to remove the charge on the substrate surface. The charging of the back surface of the substrate is performed by the transfer roller R as described above.
And / or by an auxiliary roller r.

The ionizer 2 has a substantially cylindrical outer electrode,
While applying an AC electrode between the inner electrode provided at the center thereof, so as to generate ions by flowing into the outer electrode from a gas supply source for example by supplying N ₂ gas. The generated ions are sprayed on the substrate.
The charge of the substrate is removed by the ion flow.

The ionizer 2 may be provided separately or integrally with the air knives 6 and 8. In the case of separate members, the ionizer 2 is attached to the long member forming the air knife 2 on the downstream side in the substrate transfer direction so as to form the same curtain airflow as the air knives 6 and 8 and spray ions. By doing so, static electricity can be effectively removed, and the device can be simplified. When the ionizer 2 is provided integrally with the air knives 6 and 8, the dry air of the air knives 6 and 8 may include an ion stream.

As described in detail above, in the substrate processing apparatus of the present embodiment, the charge on the rear surface of the substrate W is removed by the transport roller R and / or the auxiliary roller r formed of a flexible material. Therefore, the charge can be effectively removed while being transported without damaging the substrate W. Further, static electricity is not generated due to friction with the substrate W. Furthermore, effective charge elimination can be performed at low cost.

For example, when the thin film formed on the glass substrate is a substrate W having a two-layer structure, static electricity may be charged on both upper and lower surfaces thereof. In this example, since the ionizer is provided, the electric charge on the upper surface of the substrate W can be effectively removed without damaging the upper surface.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing a schematic configuration of a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the transport roller shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the auxiliary roller shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Transport means 2 Ionizer R Transport roller r Auxiliary roller W Substrate

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Shunji Matsumoto 1-10 Fuso-cho, Amagasaki-shi, Hyogo F-term in Sumitomo Precision Industries, Ltd. (reference) 3F033 GA06 GB08 GC04 HA01 5F031 CA02 CA05 CA20 GA32 GA35 GA53 PA21

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A substrate processing apparatus provided with a transport unit that transports a substrate by supporting the substrate on a roller, wherein at least a portion of the roller that contacts the substrate is formed of a conductive and flexible material. And a substrate processing apparatus characterized in that the conductive flexible material is grounded. 2. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the conductive flexible material is a conductive resin. 3. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a static eliminator configured to neutralize the charge on the upper surface of the substrate without contacting the substrate.