JP2003071363A - Coating liquid supply apparatus and coating equipment using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a coating liquid supply apparatus in which high quality coating is attained without increasing the use quantity of a solvent or a coating liquid. SOLUTION: A standby vessel 71 is box like and a seal member 73 is attached to each upper end of 4 side walls. The seal member 73 is attached after an O-ring having solvent resistance is fitted into grooves 74 formed on the upper ends of the side walls of the standby vessel 71. A solvent 76 of the same kind as a solvent in a resist liquid is injected in a standby space 75 formed inside the standby vessel 71. When the coating of a base plate P by a nozzle 7 is finished and the nozzle 7 moves downward from the upper side of the standby vessel 71, the seal member 73 comes into close contact with a flat surface 7x of the outer peripheral side of the lower surface of the nozzle 7 to seal the standby space 75 inside the standby vessel 71 completely. The inside of the standby space 75 is kept to be filled with the vapor of the solvent to prevent the evaporation and drying of the resist liquid stuck on the tip part 7f of the nozzle 7. As a result, the defects of the coating quality such as the occurrence of particles or the non-uniformity caused by the soiling of the nozzle is sufficiently suppressed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a photoresist solution on the surface of various substrates such as glass substrates used for manufacturing liquid crystal display panels and plasma display panels, semiconductor wafers, and mask substrates for semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The present invention relates to a coating liquid supply device for supplying various liquids such as a color resist liquid, a developing liquid, an etching liquid, a stripping liquid, and pure water as a coating liquid, and a coating device using the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-122553, a substrate is held by a turntable, and a slit nozzle having a slit-shaped discharge port is moved from the discharge port while moving along the surface of the substrate. A coating apparatus is shown which discharges a resist solution and supplies a photoresist solution (hereinafter simply referred to as a resist solution) to a substrate.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the above publication,
When the slit nozzle is not used, it is moved to a standby container provided near the processing unit including the rotating table, etc., and the solvent of the resist solution is stored in the standby container to make the tip of the slit nozzle into a solvent atmosphere. It is placed underneath to prevent its drying.

However, even if the standby container is provided as described above, the coating liquid at the tip of the nozzle dries and the discharge port is clogged, or the solid matter formed by the drying of the coating liquid peels off and the substrate is dropped. In some cases, there is a problem such that the coating material is contaminated and the quality of the coating treatment is deteriorated. It is also possible to wash the tip of the nozzle with a solvent to prevent them, or to increase the frequency of performing an operation called pre-dispensing in which a small amount of the coating liquid is discharged from the nozzle and discarded immediately before coating using the nozzle, These increase the consumption of the solvent and the coating liquid, which leads to a high environmental load including waste liquid treatment and an increase in running cost.

The present invention does not have such problems, does not increase the consumption of the solvent or the coating liquid, does not clog the discharge port or contaminates the substrate, and enables high-quality coating processing. The present invention provides a simple coating liquid supply device and a coating device.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a tip portion is exposed to the surface of an object to be processed, and a coating liquid is discharged from a discharge port formed at the tip portion to the surface of the object to be processed. In a coating liquid supply device comprising a nozzle for supplying a coating liquid and a standby container for making the tip of the nozzle stand by in a solvent atmosphere when the nozzle is not used, a standby of the tip by the nozzle and the standby container A space is formed, and an airtight means for maintaining airtightness of the standby space is provided at a connecting portion between the nozzle and the standby container.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the airtight means is provided with a seal member for sealing between the nozzle and the standby container.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the airtight means is a sealing member that closes the opening of the standby container and has an opening into which at least the vicinity of the discharge port of the nozzle can be inserted. It is characterized in that the opening of the standby container is closed.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the airtight means may be provided in each of the nozzle and the standby container to form a labyrinth seal for closing the standby space in a non-contact state. It is characterized by comprising a transparent seal member.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to fourth aspects, the nozzle is formed such that the discharge port is formed in a slit shape or a set of a plurality of small discharge ports. And

The invention of claim 6 is a holding part for holding an object to be processed, and a holding part held by the holding part supplies the coating liquid to the holding part. And a coating liquid supply device.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the sixth aspect, a moving mechanism for relatively moving the nozzle and the object to be processed held by the holding section, and a driving means for rotationally driving the holding section are provided. It is further characterized by being equipped.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A resist coating apparatus which is a processing apparatus using a coating liquid supply apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. This resist coating apparatus includes a processing unit 1,
The resist pressure feeding unit 2, the motor mechanism 26, and the standby unit 70 are mainly provided. In this resist coating apparatus, a rectangular glass substrate P as shown in FIG. 3 is coated with a resist liquid which is a coating liquid, and a coating process is performed.

The processing unit 1 includes a substrate holding unit 4 capable of sucking the substrate P by a vacuum suction port and holding it horizontally, and a resist supply unit 5 for supplying resist to the substrate P held by the substrate holding unit 4. Is equipped with. The substrate holding unit 4 is rotatable and can be horizontally rotated by the motor mechanism 26. A cup 6 is disposed around the substrate holder 4 to prevent the resist from scattering during rotation.

The resist supply unit 5 is, as shown in FIG.
The nozzle 7 extends along the upper surface of the substrate P in the short side direction of the substrate P (depth direction in FIG. 2). The nozzle 7 is an elongated opening that is long in the direction along the short side of the substrate and has an extremely short width, and is provided with a slit 20 that is a liquid discharge port having a length slightly shorter than the length of the short side of the substrate. It is attached to the lower end of the support arm 8. The upper end of the nozzle support arm 8 is supported by the moving frame 9 so as to be vertically movable. The moving frame 9 is movably supported by the moving guide 10. The movement guide 10 extends along the longitudinal direction of the substrate P (the left-right direction in FIG. 2), and the movement frame 9
Is movable in the horizontal direction along the movement guide 10. With the moving mechanism composed of these, the nozzle 7 is
The front end portion 7f is exposed along the longitudinal direction of the substrate P so that the substrate P
Of the substrate P, the resist solution is discharged from the slits 20 formed in the tip portion 7f of the substrate P, and almost all the surface of the substrate P, that is, a small region along the edge of the substrate P as shown in FIG. The resist can be supplied to the remaining predetermined area.

As shown in FIG. 2, the resist pressure feeding unit 2 is
It has a pressure tank 11 that contains a tank 12 that stores the resist solution and that is hermetically sealed inside. A pressure pipe 13 to which pressurized nitrogen gas is supplied from a nitrogen gas source (not shown) is opened at the upper part of the pressure tank 11. A supply / discharge three-way valve 14 and a regulator 15 are arranged in this order from the pressurizing tank 11 side in the middle of the pressurizing pipe 13. The three-way valve 14 can select whether to supply nitrogen gas to the pressure tank 11 or to exhaust it to another.
The resist solution supply pipe 16 whose one end reaches the vicinity of the bottom surface of the tank 12 has the other end connected to the nozzle 7. A flow meter 17 and a resist solution supply valve 18 are arranged in this order from the tank 12 side in the middle of the resist solution supply pipe 16.

The standby unit 70 includes a standby container 71, and a solvent supply means (not shown) for supplying a liquid, specifically a solvent of the same kind as the solvent contained in the resist solution, into the standby container 71. And an overflow pipe (not shown) for preventing the solvent in the standby container 70 from exceeding a predetermined amount. This standby unit 70 is provided when the nozzle 7 is not used.
The tip portion 7f is made to stand by in the atmosphere of the coating liquid, that is, the solvent of the resist liquid, and the standby container 71 and the nozzle 7 constitute a coating liquid supply device.

The operation of each part of the resist coating apparatus is controlled by a so-called microcomputer.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a nozzle 7 and a standby container 70 which are the coating liquid supply device according to the present invention. The nozzle 7
A spacer 7c is sandwiched between the nozzle bodies 7a and 7b and is tightened by a tightening means such as a bolt (not shown) to form a hollow shape. On the lower surfaces of the nozzle bodies 7a and 7b, downwardly projecting portions 7d and 7e are formed so that the outer peripheral side is flat on the flat surface 7x and the thickness becomes thinner toward the tip. These protrusions 7d and 7e are combined to form a tip portion 7f that is tapered downward in the lower portion of the nozzle 7. Protrusion 7
A slit 20 having the same thickness as the spacer 7c is formed between d and 7e and opens at the lower end surface 7g of the tip portion 7f. Inside the nozzle 7, a liquid reservoir 31 that is hollow and has a larger volume than the slit 20 is formed so as to communicate with the slit 20. The liquid reservoir 31 is for uniformly diffusing the resist liquid supplied from the resist supply pipe 16 (described later) in the longitudinal direction of the nozzle 7 (depth direction in FIG. 3).

On the other hand, the standby container 71 has a box shape with an upper surface opening having a length (depth direction in FIG. 2) and a width (horizontal direction in FIG. 2) approximately equal to the nozzle 7, and its inner bottom portion has a bottom. A guide member 72 is provided upright. The guide member 72 is provided at a substantially central portion in the width direction of the standby container 71, at a position immediately below and close to the slit 20 when the nozzle is in standby, and the standby container 71 is provided.
Extending over the entire longitudinal direction. The cross-sectional shape of the guide member 72 is a mountain shape that narrows toward the upper end, the upper end position is lower than the upper end of the standby container 71, and the lower part of the guide member 72 is stored in the standby container 71. It is soaked in a solvent. Sealing members 73 are attached to the upper ends of the four side walls of the standby container 71. The seal member 73 has an O-ring having solvent resistance fitted in a groove 74 formed at the upper end of the side wall of the standby container 71. In addition, a solvent 76 of the same type as the solvent of the resist liquid is injected into the standby space 75 formed inside the standby container 71. Then, the substrate P by the nozzle 7
When the nozzle 7 is retracted above the standby container 71 and then descends from the standby container 71 after the application to the seal member 73,
Adheres to the outer peripheral flat surface 7x of the lower surface of the nozzle 7 to completely seal the standby space 75 inside the standby container 71 in an airtight state, and fills the standby space 75 with the vapor of the solvent which is the solvent of the resist solution. In this state, the resist liquid adhering to the tip 7f of the nozzle 7 is prevented from evaporating and drying.

Now, a method of performing coating processing using the above resist coating apparatus will be described below. Initially, the nozzle 7 stands by with its tip portion 7f placed in the standby container 71 of the standby unit 70 (the state of FIG. 1). When the substrate P to be coated is transferred to the substrate holding unit 4 of the processing unit 1 and held by vacuum suction, the nozzle support arm 8 moves up to separate the nozzle 7 from the standby container 71. Next, the moving frame 9 moves in the horizontal direction to move the slit 20 of the nozzle 7 slightly inside the short side of the substrate P. Next, the nozzle support arm 8 is lowered to lower the nozzle 7, and the slit 20 is brought into a state of being very close to the surface of the substrate P. Then, the resist solution supply valve 18 is opened to start the discharge of the resist solution and the moving frame 9 is moved to supply the resist solution to the surface of the substrate P.

When the nozzle 7 moves slightly inside the other short side of the substrate and the resist solution is supplied to almost the entire surface of the substrate, the nozzle support arm 8 rises to separate the nozzle 7 from the surface of the substrate P. Let And then the moving frame 9
Moves in the horizontal direction to move the nozzle 7 to above the standby container 71. Then, the nozzle support arm 8 is lowered to lower the nozzle 7, and the tip portion 7f is returned to the state of being put in the standby container 71 of the standby portion 70, that is, the state of FIG. At this time, the nozzle 7 is pressed against the upper portion of the standby container 71 by the lowering of the nozzle support arm 8,
The seal member 73 provided on the upper portion of the standby container 71 comes into close contact with the outer peripheral flat surface 7x of the lower surface of the nozzle 7, and the two are joined together. Therefore, the standby space 75 inside the standby container 71 is completely hermetically sealed by the nozzle 7. A predetermined amount of a solvent 76 of the same type as the solvent of the resist solution is injected into the standby container 71 in advance, and the standby space 75 is in a state where the vapor of the solvent is generated, but the nozzle 7 descends as described above. By doing so, the inside of the standby space 75 is sealed and filled with the vapor of the solvent 76 which is the solvent of the resist liquid, and the state is maintained. Therefore, evaporation of the solvent of the resist liquid adhering to the tip portion 7f of the nozzle 7 is significantly suppressed, and the resist liquid is hardly dried.

In this resist coating apparatus, when the resist solution is supplied to the surface of the substrate P which is the object to be processed in this way, the motor mechanism 26 rotates the substrate holding section 4 to apply the resist solution to the entire surface of the substrate. And the excess coating liquid is shaken off and removed so that the thickness of the applied coating film becomes a desired value.

At the end of the coating process, some resist liquid may be attached to the tip portion 7f of the nozzle 7. However, in the standby container 71, a position immediately below the slit 20 of the nozzle 7 and close to it. Is provided with a guide member 72, and most of the adhered resist liquid adheres to the guide member 72 at the lower position by coming into contact with the guide member 72,
It is guided by the guide member 72 and gradually flows downward to be removed. Since the resist liquid is not dried, the residual adhered resist liquid can be smoothly removed by the guide member 72.

In this embodiment, the O-ring, which is the sealing member 73 for achieving the airtightness of the standby container 71, is preferably made of a solvent-resistant and flexible material such as perfluororubber. If the sealing member 73 is made of a hard material, the nozzle 7 is moved downward and coupled to the standby container 71, the mounting state of the nozzle 7 on the nozzle support arm 8 is disturbed, and the nozzle 7 of the nozzle 7 at the time of coating processing is deformed. There is a possibility that the distance between the tip portion 7f and the surface of the substrate P is changed, and good coating cannot be performed. The perfluoro rubber is a suitable material also in this respect.

Further, in this embodiment, the installation positions (heights) of the substrate holding part 4 and the standby part 70 are fixed, and the nozzle 7 moves up and down with respect to them to perform the coating operation. For example, on the nozzle 7 side, only the horizontal movement operation is performed by the moving frame 9 and the like, and the vertical movement function is omitted. Alternatively, the application and the standby operation of the nozzle 7 may be configured to be substantially the same as described above.

FIG. 5 shows a nozzle 7 and a standby container 81 which are coating liquid supply devices of a resist coating device according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. In the second embodiment, the structure of the nozzle 7 shown in FIG. 5 and the structure and operation of the resist coating device (not shown) are basically the same as those in FIGS. 2 to 4 of the first embodiment described above. A detailed description of common parts will be omitted.

In the standby unit 80 of FIG. 5, a standby container 81
Has a box shape with an upper surface opening having a length (depth direction in FIG. 2) and a width (horizontal direction in FIG. 2) approximately equal to the nozzle 7, and a guide member 82 is provided upright on the inner bottom portion thereof. ing. The guide member 82 extends over the entire longitudinal direction of the standby container 81 at a position substantially in the widthwise center of the standby container 81, immediately below the slit 20 when the nozzle is on standby, and close to the slit 20. The cross-sectional shape of the guide member 82 is a mountain shape that narrows toward the upper end, the upper end position is lower than the upper end of the standby container 81, and the lower portion of the guide member 82 is stored in the standby container 81. It is soaked in a solvent. The seal member 8 is provided around the entire upper edge of the side wall of the standby container 81.
3 is attached. The seal member 83 has a flexible and solvent-resistant sheet material fixed to the upper end of the side wall of the standby container 81. In the approximate center of the seal member 83 in the width direction,
An opening 84 into which the tip 7f of the nozzle 7 is fitted is formed. The opening 84 of the seal member 83 is in the state shown by the broken line in FIG. 5 when the nozzle 7 is not in the standby position, and the length (depth direction in FIG. 5) is almost the same as the length of the tip portion 7f of the nozzle 7. Equal, width direction (left and right direction in FIG. 5)
Is Y in length. Y is larger than the width X of the tip of the tip 7f of the nozzle 7 and smaller than the base Z of the tip 7f. A predetermined amount of a solvent 86 of the same kind as the solvent of the resist solution is injected into the standby container 81 in advance.

When the nozzle 7 is on standby, the nozzle 7 is lowered from directly above the standby container 81 to the state shown in FIG. At this time, the nozzle 7 is in the middle of its descending with respect to the opening 84 at the center of the seal member 83 and the tip portion 7
The opening 84 of the sealing member 83 is expanded by contacting with the middle of f, and the sealing member 83 is brought into close contact with the distal end portion 7f by its elasticity and the periphery of the opening 84 is airtight in the standby space 85. To realize.

As the nozzle 7 descends as described above, the inside of the standby space 85 is sealed and filled with the vapor of the solvent 86 which is the solvent of the resist liquid, and the state is maintained. Therefore, the tip portion 7f of the nozzle 7
Evaporation of the solvent of the resist solution adhering to is remarkably suppressed, and the resist solution is hardly dried.

In this embodiment, the sheet material, which is the sealing member 83 for realizing the airtightness of the standby container 81, is preferably a solvent resistant and flexible material, for example, a thin fluorocarbon resin sheet is used. be able to. Since the central opening 84 contacts the inclined portion of the nozzle 7, the sealing member 83 is preferably soft, thin, and easy to bend in order to prevent damage to the nozzle 7. The fluororesin sheet is also a suitable material in this respect.

FIG. 6 shows a nozzle 7 and a standby container 91 which are coating liquid supply devices of the resist coating apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. In the third embodiment, the structure of the nozzle 7 shown in FIG. 6 and the structure and operation of the resist coating device (not shown) are basically the same as those of the above-described first embodiment shown in FIGS. A detailed description of common parts will be omitted.

In the standby unit 90 of FIG. 6, a standby container 91
Has a box shape with an upper surface opening having a length (depth direction in FIG. 6) and a width (horizontal direction in FIG. 6) substantially the same as the nozzle 7, and a guide member 92 is provided upright on the inner bottom portion thereof. ing. The guide member 92 extends over the entire longitudinal direction of the standby container 91 at a position substantially directly in the widthwise center of the standby container 91, immediately below and adjacent to the slit 20 when the nozzle is on standby. The cross-sectional shape of the guide member 92 is a mountain shape that narrows toward the upper end, the upper end position is lower than the upper end of the standby container 91, and the lower portion of the guide member 92 is stored in the standby container 91. It is soaked in a solvent. A seal mechanism 93 is provided between the entire upper end of the side wall of the standby container 91 and the flat surface 7x of the lower surface of the nozzle 7. The sealing mechanism 93 includes a sealing member 94 attached to the entire upper end of the side wall of the standby container 91 and a sealing member 95 attached to the entire flat surface 7x of the lower surface of the nozzle 7.
It has and. The seal member 94 includes two wall bodies 94a and 94b when viewed from the inside of the standby container 91, and the seal member 95 includes two wall bodies 95a and 95b when viewed from the slit 20 side of the nozzle 7, and the seal members 94 and 95. Are brought into a non-contact state and in a close state, so that a so-called labyrinth seal in which the wall bodies are engaged with each other in a non-contact state with a minute gap is formed. A predetermined amount of a solvent 96 of the same type as the solvent of the resist solution is previously injected into the standby container 91.

When the nozzle 7 is on standby, the nozzle 7 is lowered from directly above the standby container 91 to the state shown in FIG. At this time, the labyrinth seal of the seal mechanism 93 is completed, and the standby space 97 is airtight.

In the third embodiment, as the nozzle 7 descends as described above, the upper portion of the standby container 91 and the lower portion of the nozzle 7 are closed by the labyrinth seal. According to this labyrinth seal, the standby space 9
Although the inside of 7 is not completely shut off from the outside air, the passage between the waiting space 97 and the outside air is very thin and long, so the inside of the waiting space 97 is almost sealed unless a special pressure difference occurs. The state of being filled with the vapor of the solvent 96, which is the solvent of the resist solution, is maintained.
As described above, in the present invention, even if the airtight means does not necessarily realize the complete airtight state, it is sufficient that the airtightness is substantially maintained so that the vapor of the solvent in the standby space 97 does not dissipate. Therefore, evaporation of the solvent of the resist liquid adhering to the tip portion 7f of the nozzle 7 is significantly suppressed, and the resist liquid is hardly dried.

According to the coating liquid supply device of the present invention and the coating device provided with the coating liquid supply device, the consumption amount of the solvent and the coating liquid does not increase and the discharge port is clogged. The present invention provides a coating liquid supply device and a coating device capable of performing high-quality coating processing without contaminating a substrate.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of essential parts showing a first embodiment of a coating liquid supply apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a resist coating apparatus using the coating liquid supply apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a processing state of a resist coating apparatus using the coating liquid supply apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a processing state of the coating liquid supply apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a second embodiment of the coating liquid supply apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing a third embodiment of the coating liquid supply apparatus according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

P ... substrate 7 ... Nozzle 7f ... Tip 7h, 7i ... side 7j, 7k ... Water repellent material layer 20 ... slit 70, 80, 90 ... Standby unit 71, 81, 91 ... Standby container 73, 83, 94, 95 ... Sealing member 93 ... Sealing mechanism

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Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A nozzle which exposes a front end to the surface of an object to be processed, discharges the coating liquid from a discharge port formed at the front end to supply the coating liquid to the surface of the target, and a nozzle of the nozzle. In a coating liquid supply device comprising a standby container that makes the tip of the nozzle stand by in a solvent atmosphere when not in use, a standby space for the tip is formed by the nozzle and the standby container, and the nozzle and the standby are provided. An application liquid supply device, characterized in that an airtight means for maintaining airtightness of the standby space is provided at a connecting portion of the container. 2. The coating liquid supply apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the airtight means includes a seal member that seals between the nozzle and the standby container. 3. The airtight means closes the opening of the standby container, and closes the opening of the standby container with a seal member having an opening into which at least the discharge port of the nozzle can be inserted. The coating liquid supply device according to claim 1. 4. The airtight means comprises a seal member which is provided in each of the nozzle and the standby container, and which can constitute a labyrinth seal for closing the standby space in a non-contact state. The coating liquid supply device according to claim 1. 5. The coating liquid according to claim 1, wherein the nozzle has the discharge port formed in a slit shape or a group of a plurality of small discharge ports. Supply device. 6. The holding unit for holding an object to be processed, and the coating liquid supply apparatus according to claim 1, which supplies the coating liquid to the holding unit held by the holding unit. And a coating device. 7. A moving mechanism that relatively moves the nozzle and the object to be processed held by the holding unit, and a driving unit that rotationally drives the holding unit. 6. The coating apparatus according to 6.