JP2006263638A - Coater of coating liquid and method of coating - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a coater in which a coating liquid does not deteriorate even under a reduced pressure. <P>SOLUTION: The coater 11 has a plate-shaped pedestal 13, and a substrate and a box-shaped box body 15 are installed on the pedestal 13. The box body 15 is constituted of an upper part 17a, a side part 17b and a bottom part 17c, and a groove 19 is formed on the bottom part 17c. A coating liquid feed device 23 is installed on the upper part 17a. An O-ring 21 is installed on the groove 19, and the pedestal 13 and the box body 15 are bonded to each other by the O-ring 21. When coating with a coating liquid 9, the space between the pedestal 13 and the box body 15 is reduced in pressure. Then, the coating liquid 9 is fed from the coating liquid feed device 23 so as to fill the whole space. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a coating liquid coating apparatus and a coating method.

  Substrates such as display devices and semiconductor substrates may deteriorate their characteristics if there are fine defects such as scratches on the surface, so that the surface is coated with a coating solution to fill in the defects and steps. May be smoothed.

Here, when applying the coating liquid, the coating apparatus may be in a reduced pressure state in order to allow the coating liquid to penetrate into fine defects, and the following are known.
(Patent Document 1).
JP-A-6-232038

  However, such a coating apparatus has a problem that a part of the components of the coating solution evaporates under reduced pressure, and the coating solution is altered.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a coating apparatus in which the coating solution does not change even under reduced pressure.

In order to achieve the above-described object, the first invention includes a pedestal on which a substrate is placed, a box provided so as to be in close contact with the pedestal, a decompression device for decompressing the inside of the box, and the box A supply device that supplies the coating liquid to the inside, and the coating liquid is supplied from the supply device to the entire space formed by the box and the pedestal while reducing the pressure inside the box. This is a coating liquid coating apparatus.
A support may be provided between the box and the base material.
The decompression device may be a vacuum pump.
The box may have a seal portion on a contact surface with the pedestal, and the seal portion may be an O-ring.
You may further comprise the rotation means to rotate the said base.

The second invention is a coating liquid coating method characterized in that the coating liquid is supplied from outside the container to the entire inside of the container while decompressing the inside of the sealed container holding the substrate. .
The container is a pedestal on which a substrate is placed;
A box provided in close contact with the pedestal, and the box may include an O-ring.
The decompression may be performed by a vacuum pump.
You may further comprise the process of equalizing a film thickness with the said coating liquid apply | coated on the said base material by spin coat or blade coat.

  In the present invention, a pedestal on which the base material is placed and a box provided so as to be in close contact with the pedestal are provided, and the coating liquid is supplied to the entire space formed by the box and the pedestal during application. .

  According to the present invention, since the coating liquid is supplied to the entire space formed by the box and the pedestal during coating, evaporation of the coating liquid can be prevented even under reduced pressure.

  DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a substrate 1 according to the present embodiment.

A substrate 1 as a base material has a glass substrate 3, and electrodes 5 a, 5 b, 5 c, and 5 d are provided on the glass substrate 3.
A functional layer 7 is provided on the glass substrate 3 and the electrodes 5a, 5b, 5c, and 5d.

  A coating liquid 9 is applied as a smoothing layer on the functional layer 7 to fill the defects 10 on the functional layer 7.

Next, the structure of the coating apparatus 11 that applies the coating liquid 9 will be described.
2 is a perspective view showing the structure of the coating apparatus 11, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 4 is a view in the direction of arrow B of the box 15 in FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the coating device 11 has a plate-like pedestal 13, and a box-like box 15 is provided on the pedestal 13.
The pedestal 13 is rotatable in the direction C in FIG.
The material of the base 13 is, for example, a fluororesin or aluminum.
When aluminum is used, the surface may be anodized, or the surface may be coated with a fluororesin. Or you may perform both an anodizing process and the coating of a fluororesin.

The material of the box 15 is fluororesin, aluminum, stainless steel or the like.
When aluminum is used, the surface may be anodized, or the surface may be coated with a fluororesin. Or you may perform both an anodizing process and the coating of a fluororesin.
When stainless steel is used, the surface may be coated with a fluororesin.

The box 15 includes an upper portion 17a, a side portion 17b, and a bottom portion 17c, and a groove 19 is provided in the bottom portion 17c.
The groove 19 is provided with an O-ring 21 as a seal portion, and the pedestal 13 and the box 15 are in close contact with each other by the O-ring 21.
The material of the O-ring 21 is rubber or the like.

A coating solution supply device 23 is provided on the upper portion 17 a of the box 15, and the coating solution 9 is stored in the coating solution supply device 23.
The coating liquid supply device 23 is provided with a valve 23a.
A vacuum pump 29 is provided on the upper portion 17 a via a tube 27.
The tube 27 is provided with a valve 27a. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, support posts 31a, 31b, 31c, 31d, 31e, 31f, 31g, 31h, and 31i are provided on the back surface of the upper portion 17a. .

The coating liquid supply device 23 supplies the coating liquid to the inside of the base 13 and the box 15.
The valve 23 a adjusts the flow rate when supplying the coating liquid 9.
The vacuum pump 29 depressurizes the inside of the base 13 and the box 15.
The valve 27a adjusts the pressure during decompression.

The struts 31a, 31b, 31c, 31d, 31e, 31f, 31g, 31h, and 31i indicate that when the pressure inside the pedestal 13 and the box 15 is reduced, the box 15 is deformed by the pressure and contacts the substrate 1. prevent.
When no support is provided, the height of the box must be increased in order to prevent the box 15 and the substrate 1 from coming into contact with each other by pressure, and the box 15 becomes large and wastes material. There is a fear.
In particular, when the substrate 1 is large, the amount of deformation of the box 15 also increases, so that it is necessary to provide a support.

  The columns 31a, 31b, 31c, 31d, 31e, 31f, 31g, 31h, and 31i do not affect the performance of the substrate 1 after coating on the substrate 1 when the box 15 is placed on the pedestal 13. Make contact with the position.

As the contact position, for example, if the substrate 1 is a wiring substrate, it is outside the wiring, and if the substrate 1 is a display, it contacts the outside of the pixel.
Moreover, the arrangement | positioning space | interval of support | pillar 31a, 31b, 31c, 31d, 31e, 31f, 31g, 31h, 31i is about 3-5 cm, for example.

Next, a procedure for applying the coating liquid 9 to the substrate 1 using the coating apparatus 11 will be described.
5-10 is a figure which shows the procedure at the time of apply | coating the coating liquid 9 to the board | substrate 1. FIG.

First, the substrate 1 is placed on the pedestal 13 as shown in FIG.
Next, the box 15 is moved in the direction D in FIG. 5 and placed on the base 13 so as to cover the substrate 1.

Next, as shown in FIG. 6, the air in the space between the pedestal 13 and the box 15 is sucked in the direction E of FIG. 6 using the vacuum pump 29 with the valve 27a opened, and the space is decompressed. When the decompression is completed, the valve 27a is closed.
Next, as shown in FIG. 7, the valve 23a of the coating liquid supply device 23 is opened, and the coating liquid 9 is supplied to the space between the base 13 and the box 15 (direction F in FIG. 6).
Thus, by supplying the coating liquid 9 in a reduced pressure state, the coating liquid 9 can penetrate into the inside of the defect 10.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 7, the coating liquid supply device 23 supplies the coating liquid 9 so as to fill the entire space between the base 13 and the box 15.
Thus, when the coating liquid 9 fills the entire space between the pedestal 13 and the box 15, part of the components of the coating liquid 9 can be prevented from evaporating under reduced pressure.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 8, the box 15 is moved in the G direction and separated from the pedestal 23, and the pedestal 23 is rotated in the H direction as shown in FIG.

  By rotating the pedestal 23, the film thickness of the coating liquid 9 on the substrate 1 can be made constant.

  Thus, as shown in FIG. 10, the coating liquid 9 can be provided on the substrate 1 as a smoothing layer.

Thus, according to the present embodiment, the coating apparatus 11 has the base 13 and the box 15, and the coating liquid 9 is applied to the entire space formed by the base 13 and the box 15 at the time of coating. Supply to satisfy.
Therefore, the coating liquid 9 can be prevented from being altered.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described referring an accompanying drawing, the technical scope of this invention is not influenced by embodiment mentioned above. It is obvious for those skilled in the art that various modifications or modifications can be conceived within the scope of the technical idea described in the claims, and these are naturally within the technical scope of the present invention. It is understood that it belongs.

  For example, in this embodiment, the so-called spin coating method is used in which the pedestal 13 is rotated to make the coating solution 9 uniform in thickness, but the coating solution 9 may be made uniform by a blade coating method. .

Sectional view showing substrate 1 The perspective view which shows the structure of the coating device 11 AA sectional view of FIG. B direction arrow view of box 15 in FIG. The figure which shows the procedure at the time of apply | coating the coating liquid 9 to the board | substrate 1. The figure which shows the procedure at the time of apply | coating the coating liquid 9 to the board | substrate 1. The figure which shows the procedure at the time of apply | coating the coating liquid 9 to the board | substrate 1. The figure which shows the procedure at the time of apply | coating the coating liquid 9 to the board | substrate 1. The figure which shows the procedure at the time of apply | coating the coating liquid 9 to the board | substrate 1. The figure which shows the procedure at the time of apply | coating the coating liquid 9 to the board | substrate 1.

Explanation of symbols

1 ………… Substrate 3 ………… Glass substrate 5a ………… Electrode 7 ………… Functional layer 9 ………… Coating liquid 10 ………… Defect 11 ……… Applicator 13 ……… Base 15… ...... Box 19 ............ Groove 21 ............ O-ring 23 ............ Coating liquid supply device 25 ............ Coating liquid 27 ............ Tube 29 ............ Vacuum pump 31 a ...... Post

Claims (11)

A pedestal on which the substrate is placed;
A box provided in close contact with the pedestal;
A decompression device for decompressing the inside of the box;
A supply device for supplying a coating liquid into the box;
Comprising
The coating liquid coating apparatus is characterized in that the coating liquid is supplied from the supply device to the entire space formed by the box and the pedestal while decompressing the inside of the box.   The coating liquid coating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a support is provided on the box.   2. The coating liquid coating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the decompression device is a vacuum pump.   2. The coating liquid coating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the box has a seal portion on a contact surface with the pedestal.   5. The coating liquid coating apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the seal portion is formed of an O-ring.   2. The coating liquid coating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a rotating means for rotating the pedestal.   A coating liquid coating method, wherein the coating liquid is supplied from outside the container to the entire inside of the container while decompressing the inside of the sealed container holding the substrate. The container is
A pedestal on which the substrate is placed;
A box provided in close contact with the pedestal;
The coating solution coating method according to claim 7, comprising:   The coating method for coating liquid according to claim 8, wherein the box has an O-ring.   8. The coating liquid coating method according to claim 7, wherein the pressure reduction is performed by a vacuum pump.   8. The method of coating a coating liquid according to claim 7, further comprising a step of uniforming the film thickness of the coating liquid coated on the substrate by spin coating or blade coating.

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