JP2003338450A - Apparatus and system for processing substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a substrate processing apparatus, together with a substrate processing system comprising the same, capable of applying a prescribed substrate rotation process with a substrate with high productivity. <P>SOLUTION: In the substrate processing apparatus, two substrates W1 and W2 before cleaning are held by spin chucks 31 and 33 while arranged upper and lower in the same process chamber 1. A washing liquid is supplied to the substrates W1 and W2 from the tips of horizontal nozzle arms 82 and 83 while both substrates are simultaneously rotated, for simultaneous cleaning of the substrates W1 and W2. Thus, the productivity is improved compared with a single substrate process in which a single substrate is cleaned at a time. Since the substrates W1 and W2 are overlapped when viewed from above, the plan size of the apparatus is reduced to reduce the footprint of the apparatus. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer,
Various substrates such as glass substrates for photomasks, glass substrates for liquid crystal displays, glass substrates for plasma displays, and substrates for optical disks (hereinafter simply referred to as "substrates") are treated with resist solution, developing solution, cleaning solution, etching solution, etc. The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus that supplies a liquid and rotates the substrate to perform a predetermined rotating substrate processing, and a substrate processing system including the apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as this type of substrate processing apparatus, an apparatus for performing, for example, a cleaning process and a drying process on a substrate is known. This substrate processing apparatus is provided with a substrate holding mechanism that holds the substrate in a horizontal posture, and a rotation driving mechanism that integrally rotates the substrate holding mechanism and the substrate supported by the substrate holding mechanism. More specifically, in the substrate holding mechanism, a plurality of support pins are erected on the upper surface of a circular substrate support plate in plan view, and one substrate is supported by these support pins. Further, the rotation shaft of the motor that constitutes the rotation drive mechanism is fixed to the central portion of the lower surface of the substrate support plate, and by driving the motor, the substrate support plate rotates about the rotation shaft, and the rotation of the substrate support plate Accordingly, the rotational force is transmitted to the substrate via the support pin, and the substrate rotates together with the substrate support plate.

Then, for example, a cleaning liquid is supplied to the substrate supported by the substrate holding mechanism, and the substrate is rotated in a horizontal plane to perform a cleaning process as a rotating substrate process, and then the supply of the cleaning liquid is stopped. The substrate is dried by rotating the substrate in the horizontal plane in this state.

[0004]

As described above, the conventional substrate processing apparatus is a so-called single-wafer type apparatus in which one substrate is supported by the substrate holding mechanism and is rotated and processed. Therefore, there is a problem that the productivity is low and it is not possible to achieve high throughput.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a substrate processing apparatus capable of performing a predetermined rotary substrate processing on a substrate with excellent productivity, and a substrate processing system including the apparatus. With the goal.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention processes a plurality of substrates up and down in a processing chamber while processing each of the plurality of substrates. The liquid is supplied and the substrate is rotated to perform a predetermined rotating substrate treatment.

In the invention thus constructed, a plurality of substrates are arranged in one processing chamber, and each substrate is subjected to a predetermined rotary substrate processing, so that productivity is improved and high productivity is achieved. The throughput can be increased.

Here, the timing of rotating each substrate is arbitrary, but it is desirable to simultaneously perform the rotating substrate processing by simultaneously rotating a plurality of substrates in order to improve productivity.

Further, in order to rotate the plurality of substrates in the processing chamber, for example, a plurality of substrate holding mechanisms that are rotatable about a predetermined rotation axis while holding the substrates,
A rotation driving mechanism that rotationally drives the plurality of substrate holding mechanisms may be provided, and the plurality of substrate holding mechanisms may be stacked and arranged in the processing chamber. By stacking a plurality of substrate holding mechanisms in the processing chamber in this manner, the planar size of the apparatus is reduced and the footprint of the apparatus is reduced. When a plurality of substrate holding mechanisms are stacked in the processing chamber as described above, it is desirable that the rotation axes of the plurality of substrate holding mechanisms be coaxially arranged.

The types of processing liquids to be supplied to each of the plurality of substrates can be the same, for example.

Further, by providing the downflow to each of the plurality of substrates, the inside of the processing chamber can be adjusted to an atmosphere suitable for the processing of the rotating substrate.

Further, in order to achieve the above object, the substrate processing system according to the present invention arranges a plurality of processing units having the same structure as the above-mentioned substrate processing apparatus, and transfers the substrate to each processing unit by the transfer unit. It is configured to be transported.

In the invention thus constructed, when the transport unit transports a plurality of substrates to each processing unit, the plurality of substrates transported in each processing unit are held vertically in the processing chamber while For each of the substrates, the processing liquid is supplied to the substrate and the substrate is rotated to perform a predetermined rotating substrate processing. Therefore, the productivity of each processing unit is improved and high throughput can be achieved. Further, in the substrate processing system configured as described above, while the substrate is being transferred to one of the plurality of processing units, the rotating substrate processing can be performed by another processing unit. Therefore, efficient substrate processing becomes possible.

Here, as the arrangement mode of the plurality of processing units, for example, they may be arranged in parallel in the system or may be arranged in layers. In the latter case, the substrate processing is carried out by the arrangement of the processing units. The system footprint is reduced.

[0015]

1 and 2 are vertical sectional views showing an embodiment of a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention.
Shows the cleaning process (rotating substrate process), while FIG. 2 shows the substrate transfer. FIG. 3 is a partial external view of the substrate processing apparatus. This substrate processing apparatus is a semiconductor wafer W
This is an apparatus for performing a spin drying process after performing a cleaning process corresponding to the “rotating substrate process” of the present invention on (hereinafter, simply referred to as “substrate W”). As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, Two substrates W can be vertically held in the processing chamber 1. That is, in the processing chamber 1,
Horizontal internal space SP1 to SP4 divided into four vertically
And a base member 2 having one vertical internal space SP5
Is arranged, the substrate W1 is rotatably held at the center of the upper surface of the base member 2, and the horizontal internal space S
The substrate W2 can be rotatably held at P3.

A spin chuck 31 is arranged as the "substrate holding mechanism" of the present invention at the center of the upper surface of the base member 2, and the spin chuck 31 sucks and holds the substrate W1. Thus, the upper surface of the base member 2 functions as a spin base, and the lower surface of the spin chuck 31 extends from the lower surface of the rotation shaft 32 so as to penetrate the spin base.
Is extended in the horizontal internal space SP1 and is rotatably supported by the bearing with respect to the spin base (base member 2). The rotary shaft 32 rotates when it receives a rotary drive force from a rotary drive mechanism described later,
As a result, the substrate W1 held on the spin chuck 31 is configured to rotate about its rotation axis 32.

Further, in order to rotatably hold the other substrate W2 with respect to the base member 2 similarly to the substrate W1, the spin chuck 33 is provided on the lower surface side of the horizontal internal space SP3.
Are arranged as the “substrate holding mechanism” of the present invention. Here, a horizontal portion that partitions the horizontal internal space SP3 and the horizontal internal space SP4 functions as a spin base, and the rotary shaft 34 is coaxial with the rotary shaft 32 from the lower surface of the spin chuck 33 so as to penetrate the spin base. The spin base (base member 2) is rotatably supported by bearings while extending in the horizontal internal space SP4 so as to be on the upper side. The rotary shaft 34 is configured to rotate when it receives a rotary drive force from the rotary drive mechanism similarly to the rotary shaft 32, and the substrate W2 held on the spin chuck 33 is rotated at the same time when the substrate W1 is rotated. It rotates around the rotary shaft 34.

In order to rotationally drive the substrates W1 and W2 as described above, in this embodiment, the rotational drive mechanism 4 is provided by utilizing the horizontal internal spaces SP1 and SP4 and the vertical internal space SP5. The rotation drive mechanism 4 includes a substrate rotation motor 41 which is a rotation drive source, and a rotation shaft 42 of the substrate rotation motor 41 is vertically arranged in the vertical internal space SP5. Then, by passing a belt between the pulley attached to the upper end of the rotary shaft 42 and the pulley attached to the lower end of the rotary shaft 32, the rotational driving force of the motor 41 is transmitted to the rotary shaft 32. The substrate W1 is rotated 32
It can be driven to rotate around. In addition, a horizontal internal space SP4 is provided in the middle of the rotation shaft 42 of the substrate rotation motor 41.
The pulley is mounted so as to face the belt, and a belt is stretched between the pulley and a pulley mounted on the lower end of the rotary shaft 34 to transmit the rotational driving force of the motor 41 to the rotary shaft 34, W2 can be rotationally driven around the rotary shaft 34. Therefore, when the substrate rotation motor 41 is operated, the substrates W1 and W2 rotate coaxially and synchronously. Thus, in this embodiment, the rotary drive mechanism 4 corresponds to the “rotary drive mechanism” of the present invention.

A shielding plate 51 is arranged above the substrate W1 so as to face the upper surface of the substrate W1, and a gas component such as air or nitrogen gas is blown onto the upper surface of the substrate W1 to form a downflow. A gas nozzle 52 is installed so as to be vertically movable. Then, the shielding plate 51 and the gas nozzle 52 can be integrally moved up and down by an elevating mechanism 53. Therefore, when performing the cleaning process and the spin drying process as will be described later, the shielding plate 51 and the gas nozzle 52 are positioned close to the substrate W1 by the elevating mechanism 53 as shown in FIG. 1, while the drawing is performed when the substrate W1 is loaded or unloaded. As shown in FIG. 2, the shield mechanism 51 and the gas nozzle 52 are retracted upward from the substrate W1 by the elevating mechanism 53 so that the substrate W1 can be transported by the transport unit.

A rotating mechanism 54 is provided inside the elevating mechanism 53 to rotate the shielding plate 51 and the gas nozzle 52 integrally. That is, the gas nozzle 5
A shield plate 51 is attached to the lower end of the gas nozzle 2, and a substantially central portion of the gas nozzle 52 is rotatably supported by a main body of the elevating mechanism 53 via a bearing. Further, since the belt is stretched between the pulley attached to the upper end of the gas nozzle 52 and the pulley attached to the rotation shaft of the motor 54M, when the motor 54M is operated, the rotation of the motor 54M is driven. The force is transmitted to the gas nozzle 52 and the shield plate 51 and the gas nozzle 52 rotate integrally.

Regarding one of the substrates W2, like the substrate W1, a shielding plate 55 and a gas nozzle 56 are rotatably provided above the substrate W2. That is, the rotating shaft 3
4, the gas nozzle 56 is coaxial with the horizontal inner space SP2, S
It is arranged so as to penetrate a horizontal portion that partitions P3, and is rotatably supported by the base member 2 via a bearing. A shielding plate 55 is attached to the lower end of the gas nozzle 56, and the horizontal internal space S
In P3, the upper surface of the substrate W2 is covered from above, and is rotatable integrally with the gas nozzle 56.

Then, the shielding plate 55 and the gas nozzle 56.
In this embodiment, another rotary drive mechanism 6 is used to rotate the horizontal internal space SP2 and the vertical internal space SP5.
It is provided by using. The rotary drive mechanism 6 includes a shield plate motor 61 that is a rotary drive source.
The rotary shaft 62 of the rotary shaft 42 in the vertical internal space SP5.
It is arranged in parallel with. Then, the belt is stretched between the pulley attached to the upper end of the rotary shaft 62 and the pulley attached to the upper end of the gas nozzle 56, thereby transmitting the rotational driving force of the motor 61 to the gas nozzle 56, and the shield plate. 55 and the gas nozzle 56 can be rotationally driven coaxially with the rotating shaft 34.

Further, in this embodiment, in order to form a downflow by spraying a gas component such as air or nitrogen gas from the gas nozzle 56 toward the upper surface of the substrate W2, a horizontal internal space SP2 and a vertical internal space SP5 are formed. And the vertical inner space SP5 is communicated with the outside of the processing chamber 1 through a communication tube 71 such as a bellows. Then, a gas component such as air or nitrogen gas is supplied from an inlet 11 provided at the bottom of the processing chamber 1. As a result, the inlet 11-communication tube 71-vertical internal space SP5-horizontal internal space SP2-gas nozzle 56
The gas component (downflow) is supplied to the upper surface of the substrate W2 through the path.

A treatment liquid supply mechanism 8 is provided to the substrates W1 and W2 in order to supply a cleaning liquid as the "treatment liquid" of the present invention in addition to the downflow as described above. The processing liquid supply mechanism 8 includes a nozzle body 81 extending vertically, a horizontal nozzle arm 82 attached to the tip of the nozzle body 81, a horizontal nozzle arm 83 attached to an intermediate portion of the nozzle body 81, The nozzle body 81 includes a rotating portion 84 for rotating the nozzle body 81 around a vertical axis, and an elevating portion 85 for integrally moving up and down the nozzle body 81 and the rotating portion 84. A cleaning liquid supply source (not shown) is connected to the rear end of the nozzle body 81.
As shown in FIG. 1, with the tip portions of the horizontal nozzle arms 82 and 83 positioned above the central portions of the upper surfaces of the substrates W2 and W1, respectively, the cleaning liquid from the cleaning liquid supply source is fed from the tip portions of the horizontal nozzle arms 82 and 83. It can be supplied to the substrates W2 and W1 respectively. Further, when carrying the substrate as described later, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the rotating unit 84 and the elevating unit 85 are actuated to move the horizontal nozzle arms 82, 83 to the substrate W1, Retract to a position that does not interfere with W2. In FIG. 2, the retracted horizontal nozzle arms 82 and 83 are not shown.

When the cleaning liquid or downflow (gas component) is supplied to the substrates W1 and W2 as described above, the cleaning liquid and the like are finally collected in the inner bottom portion of the processing chamber 1 and the exhaust / drain pipe 12 is provided. Is collected in the exhaust gas recovery unit and the waste liquid recovery unit, which are not shown in the figure.

Further, in this embodiment, a part of the outer peripheral portion of the processing chamber 1 is made a movable part 13 which can be moved up and down, and the movable part 13 is moved up and down by an elevating mechanism 9. When performing the cleaning process and the spin drying process, the movable part 13 is raised so that the upper end of the movable part 13 is aligned with the upper end of the fixed part 14 of the processing chamber 1 in the height direction as shown in FIGS. On the other hand, when the substrate is transported, the movable portion 13 is lowered as shown in FIG. 2, and the opening 13a provided on the side surface of the movable portion 13 is moved horizontally for cleaning and spin drying the substrate W2. The height of the inner space SP3 is made to match. By doing so, the upper position of the movable portion 13 is opened to allow the loading / unloading of the substrate W1 to / from the spin chuck 31 and the loading / unloading of the substrate W2 to / from the spin chuck 33 via the opening 13a. There is. In this embodiment, the motor 91 is used as a drive source for moving the movable unit 13 up and down in the lifting mechanism 9, but it goes without saying that other actuators may be used.

Next, the operation of the substrate processing apparatus configured as described above will be described. Spin chuck 31, 33
In order to carry the substrates W1 and W2 before cleaning, respectively, as shown in FIG. 2, the motor 9 of the elevating mechanism 9 is responsive to a control command from a controller (not shown) that controls the entire apparatus.
1 operates to lower the movable part 13 to position the opening 13a at the same height as the horizontal internal space SP3. afterwards,
A transport unit such as a main transport robot, which will be described later, carries out the substrate W1 that has been cleaned and dried from the spin chuck 31, and then carries the substrate W1 before the cleaning process into the empty spin chuck 31. As for the spin chuck 33, like the spin chuck 31 on the upper side, the spin chuck 33 is emptied after the carrier unit carries out the cleaned and dried substrate W2 from the spin chuck 33.
The substrate W2 before the cleaning process is carried in.

When the holding of the substrates W1 and W2 before the cleaning process by the spin chucks 31 and 33 is completed in this way, as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, the motor 91 of the elevating mechanism 9 reversely rotates in response to a control command from the control unit to raise the movable unit 13 so that the upper end of the movable unit 13 becomes the upper end of the fixed unit 14 of the processing chamber 1. Match in the height direction. Further, the shield plate 51 is lowered so as to be close to the substrate W1. Subsequently, the control unit operates each unit of the apparatus according to a preset program to perform the cleaning process and the spin drying process.

Here, in the substrate processing apparatus according to this embodiment, the cleaning processing and the spin drying processing are the same as those of the conventional apparatus, but as described above, the two substrates W1,
W2 is arranged vertically in the same processing chamber 1, and cleaning and spin-drying processes are performed simultaneously on each of the substrates W1 and W2, so that one substrate is always cleaned. The productivity can be improved and the throughput can be improved as compared with the substrate processing apparatus.

Further, the spin chucks 31 and 33 are vertically stacked in the processing chamber 1, and the rotary shafts 32 and
Since 34 is arranged coaxially, the substrates W1 and W2 overlap each other in a plan view, so that the planar size of the device can be reduced and the footprint of the device can be reduced.

When the cleaning and spin-drying processes for the substrates W1 and W2 are completed as described above, the movable part 13 is lowered again and the shield plate 51 is raised to carry in / out the substrates as described above. , Repeat a series of operations.

Next, a case of constructing a substrate processing system by combining the substrate processing apparatus configured as described above with another substrate processing apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the substrate processing system according to the present invention. This substrate processing system
The substrate processing unit 100 and the indexer unit 200 coupled to the substrate processing unit 100 are provided.

The substrate processing section 100 is provided with a plurality of (five in this embodiment) processing units 101 to 105. Of these processing units, processing unit 1
Reference numerals 01 and 102 denote cleaning processing units having the same configuration as the substrate processing apparatus described above. In this embodiment, the processing units 101 and 102 are vertically stacked. In addition, the remaining processing units 103 to 105 are substrate processing apparatuses that perform pretreatment performed prior to the cleaning treatment.

Further, these processing units 101 to 10
A main transfer robot CR, which functions as the “transfer unit” of the present invention, is arranged in the center of the substrate processing section 100 so as to be surrounded by 5. The main transport robot CR is configured to be able to transfer the substrate W to and from the indexer unit 200, and to carry in / out the substrate W from / to the processing units 101 to 105. .

The indexer unit 200 is a substrate station 201 on which a substrate W is placed in a state where it is accommodated in a pod P which is a rectangular parallelepiped container having a lid, and a substrate station 201.
The indexer robot IR is capable of loading / unloading the substrate W to / from the pod P placed on the pod P and is capable of transferring the substrate W to / from the main transport robot CR. In the substrate station 201, a plurality of (three in this embodiment) pods P can be placed along the X direction, and a plurality of substrates W are stacked and housed in each pod P. A cassette (not shown) that can be used is stored. In addition, a detachable lid is provided on the front surface of the outer surface of the pod P that faces the indexer robot IR, and the lid is automatically attached and detached by a detaching mechanism (not shown). There is.

The indexer robot IR is capable of traveling along the arranging direction of the pods P placed on the substrate station 201, that is, the X direction, and can move to the front of any pod P or the main transfer. It moves to the front of the transfer unit 300 for transferring the substrate W to and from the robot CR.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged plan view showing how the substrate W is transferred between the indexer robot IR and the main transfer robot CR. The main transfer robot CR has a pair of hands 121 and 122 for holding the substrate W, and an advancing / retreating drive mechanism 131 for advancing / retreating the pair of hands 121, 122 independently of each other with respect to the base section 140. 1
32, a rotary drive mechanism (not shown) for rotationally driving the base part 140 around a vertical axis (an axis perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 5), and a lifting drive for vertically moving the base part 140. And a mechanism (not shown). The advancing / retreating drive mechanisms 131, 132 are of a multi-joint arm type, and move the hands 121, 122 in the horizontal direction while maintaining the postures thereof. One hand 121 moves forward and backward above the other hand 122,
In the initial state in which both hands 121 and 122 are retracted above the base unit 140, these hands 121 and 1
22 is vertically overlapped.

On the other hand, the indexer robot IR uses the substrate W
A pair of hands 211 and 212 for holding the same, and an advance / retreat drive mechanism 251, for advancing / retreating the pair of hands 211 and 212 with respect to the base 260 independently of each other.
252, a rotation drive mechanism (not shown) for rotating the base 260 around the vertical axis, a lift drive mechanism (not shown) for raising and lowering the base 260, and the entire indexer robot IR in the X direction. (See FIG. 4). The advancing / retreating drive mechanisms 251 and 252 are multi-joint arm type drive mechanisms, and move the hands 211 and 212 forward and backward along the horizontal direction while maintaining their postures. One hand 211 is located above the other hand 212,
In the initial state in which the hands 211 and 212 are retracted above the base 260, the hands 211 and 212 are vertically stacked.

The hand 211 of the indexer robot IR,
212 and hands 121 and 12 of the main transfer robot CR
2 is formed in a fork shape. The hands 211 and 212 of the indexer robot have almost the same shape, and the hands 121 and 122 of the main transfer robot CR are also provided.
Have almost the same shape. Hands 211 and 212 of the indexer robot IR and hands 121 of the main transfer robot CR,
122 has a shape that substantially meshes with each other in plan view, and is between the hands 211, 121 or the hands 212, 1
The substrate W can be directly transferred between 22. That is, in the delivery unit 300, the indexer robot I
The R hand 211 is the hand 12 of the main transfer robot CR.
It is possible to directly receive the substrate W from 1. Similarly, the hand 212 of the indexer robot IR has the delivery unit 3
00, to the hand 122 of the main transfer robot CR,
The substrate W can be directly delivered.

Then, the indexer robot IR holding the unprocessed substrate W in one hand is transferred to the transfer unit 300.
After moving to the front of the hand, by rotating the base 260, the hand 2
11, 12 and 12 are made to face the delivery position WT. In this state, the transfer of the substrate W from the one hand to the one hand of the main transfer robot CR and the main transfer robot CR
Substrate W is transferred from the other hand to the other hand of the indexer robot IR before and after.

When the main transfer robot CR receives the unprocessed substrate W in one of the hands, for example, the hand 122, it hands 121, 122 to one of the processing units 103 to 105 for performing the preprocessing that has undergone the preprocessing. The base part 140 is rotated so that Then, the substrate W for which the pretreatment has been completed is carried out from the processing unit by the hand 121, and then the hand 12 is transferred to the processing unit.
In step 2, the unprocessed substrate W is loaded into the processing unit.

Subsequently, the main transfer robot CR that has received the substrate W from the processing unit is processed by the processing unit 10.
The base part 140 is rotated so that the hands 121 and 122 are directed to the first and second parts 102 and 102, respectively. And the processing unit 10
Among the processing units 1, 102, the processed substrate W is unloaded from the processing unit that has already completed the cleaning process / drying process and is waiting for the unprocessed substrate W to be unloaded. Hand to unit 121
The preprocessed substrate W is carried into the processing unit by. In the processing unit, two preprocessed substrates W are prepared, that is, the substrate W (W1 in FIGS. 1 and 2) is held on the spin chuck 31 and the substrate W (FIG. 1) is held on the spin chuck 33. And W2) in FIG. 2 are held, and the cleaning process and the spin drying process are executed.

When the pre-processed substrate W is completely loaded into the processing unit, the main transport robot CR makes the hands 121 and 122 face the transfer unit 300 and the substrate W with the indexer robot IR. Wait until delivery time.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications other than those described above can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, in the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the two substrates W1 and W2 are arranged vertically in the processing chamber 1, but the substrates W arranged in the processing chamber 1
The number of substrates is not limited to “2”, and three or more substrates W may be arranged vertically in the processing chamber 1.

Further, the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 supplies the cleaning liquid as the “processing liquid” to supply the substrate W (W
1, W2) is a device for performing a cleaning process (rotating substrate process), but the application of the present invention is not limited to the device (so-called substrate cleaning device). Supply the processing liquid such as the liquid and the substrate W
The present invention can be applied to all substrate processing apparatuses that rotate a substrate to perform rotating substrate processing such as etching processing and developing processing.

Further, the substrate holding mechanism in the substrate processing apparatus is not limited to the structure for sucking the substrate, and may be a mechanical chuck system for chucking the peripheral edge of the substrate.

In addition, in the substrate processing system of FIG.
Although the processing units 101 and 102 having the same configuration as the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. 3 are vertically stacked, one or a plurality of processing units may be stacked and arranged. Instead of stacking a plurality of processing units having the same structure as the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. 3 as described above, the processing units 103 to 105 may be arranged in parallel.

Further, in the above embodiment, the substrates W to be subjected to the cleaning process are carried into the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 and the processing units 101 and 102 of FIG. 4 one by one. Spin chucks 31 and 33 onto the substrates, respectively.
To the same time, spin chucks 31, 33
The substrate W may be unloaded at the same time.

Further, in the substrate processing system shown in FIG. 4, three processing units for performing pretreatment before performing cleaning treatment which is a rotating substrate treatment and two processing units for performing cleaning treatment are provided. Needless to say, the number of each processing unit is not limited to this and is arbitrary, and the arrangement position of each processing unit is also arbitrary.

[0050]

As described above, according to the present invention, a predetermined rotating substrate process is performed on each substrate while a plurality of substrates are held vertically in one process chamber. Therefore, a plurality of substrates can be processed in one processing chamber, and productivity can be improved and throughput can be improved as compared with a single-wafer type substrate processing system.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view showing an embodiment (during rotary substrate processing) of a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing an embodiment (during a cleaning process) of the substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an external view of a substrate processing apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a substrate processing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged plan view showing how the substrate is transferred between the indexer robot and the main transfer robot.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Processing chamber 4 ... Rotation drive mechanism 31, 33 ... Spin chuck (substrate holding mechanism) 101, 102 ... Processing unit CR ... Main transfer robot (transfer unit) W, W1, W2 ... Substrate

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) H01L 21/304 651 H01L 21/30 569C 564C 562 F term (reference) 3B116 AA02 AA03 AB23 AB34 AB42 BB22 CC03 CD11 3B201 AA02 AA03 AB23 AB34 AB42 BB22 BB92 CC12 CC13 5F046 CD01 CD04 JA02 JA05 JA07 JA10 JA11 JA22 LA04 LA05 LA06 LA07

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. While holding a plurality of substrates up and down in a processing chamber, supplying a processing liquid to each of the plurality of substrates and rotating the substrates to perform a predetermined rotating substrate processing. A characteristic substrate processing apparatus. 2. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rotating substrate processing is simultaneously performed by simultaneously rotating the plurality of substrates. 3. A plurality of substrate holding mechanisms that are rotatable about a predetermined rotation axis while holding the substrates, and a rotation drive mechanism that rotationally drives the plurality of substrate holding mechanisms. 3. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the holding mechanism is arranged in a stack in the processing chamber. 4. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein rotation axes of the plurality of substrate holding mechanisms are coaxially arranged. 5. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the same type of processing liquid is supplied to each of the plurality of substrates. 6. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein downflow is supplied to each of the plurality of substrates. 7. A plurality of processing units each having the same configuration as the substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, and a transfer unit for transferring a substrate to each processing unit. Substrate processing system. 8. The substrate processing system according to claim 7, wherein the plurality of processing units are arranged in parallel. 9. The substrate processing system according to claim 7, wherein the plurality of processing units are stacked.