JP2007042962A - Rotating member for substrate processing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a rotating member for a substrate processing apparatus whose weight is reduced without causing the weight of the rotating member itself, whose deformation by bending is minimized by forming it of a high-elasticity material to ensure the flatness of a substrate and to improve precision of resist liquid application, for example. <P>SOLUTION: A member body for holding the substrate of the rotating member for the substrate processing apparatus is of a hollow structure and is formed of a carbon composite plastic material. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention provides a substrate used in a rotator for performing predetermined processing and processing on a semiconductor wafer, a mask, a glass substrate for a flat panel display, etc. in the field of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, a liquid crystal manufacturing apparatus, etc. The present invention relates to a processing apparatus rotating member.

  In recent years, due to the increase in size of liquid crystal displays, glass substrates for liquid crystal displays having a size exceeding 2 m square have become mainstream. In the manufacturing process of such a liquid crystal display, a glass substrate or the like is accommodated and fixed in a rotator (rotary cup) provided in the liquid crystal manufacturing apparatus, and the rotator and the rotating member are rotated together with the substrate at high speed. By holding a glass substrate or the like on a rotating member that is a substrate holding plate (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as “rotating plate”), for example, by applying a resist to the substrate surface, the glass substrate or the like There is an operation of uniformly forming a resist film on the surface of the substrate. Conventionally, in order to reduce the weight, such a rotating member is mainly made of aluminum and an aluminum alloy, and the glass substrate or the like is vacuum-sucked on the vacuum suction surface of the rotating member and held (fixed). Structures are widely adopted.

  However, as the conventional rotating member becomes larger in size, such as a glass substrate to be held, a large amount of bending occurs due to the weight of the substrate, and the substrate held by suction on the rotating member where the bending occurs also bends. As a result, there is a problem that it is difficult to uniformly form the film thickness of the resist applied on the substrate over the entire plate surface.

In order to solve such a problem, a technique is generally employed in which a reinforcing metal fitting is inserted in an intermediate portion between the vacuum suction surface side and the back surface of the rotating plate to prevent the occurrence of bending. Further, Patent Document 1 proposes a technique for preventing the occurrence of bending by supporting the vicinity of the outer periphery of the rotating plate with a support member from the back surface side. However, since all of these techniques use a rotating body made of aluminum and an aluminum alloy, a large amount of bending occurs due to the weight of the substrate, and there is a limitation in terms of adsorption accuracy.
JP 2005-5623 A

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and achieves weight reduction without causing an increase in weight of the rotating member itself, and further to a highly elastic material. By configuring the rotating member for a substrate processing apparatus, the bending deformation of the rotating member is minimized and the flatness of the substrate is ensured. For this reason, for example, the rotating member for a substrate processing apparatus can be effectively used to improve resist solution application accuracy. Is to provide.

  Another object of the present invention is to contribute to the improvement of substrate processing efficiency by holding various substrates on the rotating member instantly and accurately and facilitating the release of the substrate from the suction surface after the substrate processing. An object of the present invention is to provide a rotating member for a substrate processing apparatus.

  As an effective means for realizing the above object, the present invention provides a substrate processing apparatus characterized in that a member main body for holding a substrate has a hollow structure and is made of a carbon fiber composite plastic material. A rotating member is proposed.

  In the present invention, the member main body has a hollow structure formed by spacers or ribs disposed between the front and back double-sided plates, or a honeycomb structure, and the member main body has a vacuum exhaust flow inside the hollow. In addition to providing a passage, a number of vacuum suction holes are formed on the vacuum suction surface side of the evacuation passage, and the member main body has at least a vacuum suction surface side of ceramic, cermet, metal, It is formed by coating one or more spray coatings selected from alloys, the spray coating has a surface roughness (Ra) of 0.5 to 3.0 μm, and the carbon fiber composite plastic material is carbon fiber. Made of a composite material of a thermosetting resin and / or a thermoplastic resin, and attached to a substrate rotator of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus or a liquid crystal manufacturing apparatus Door is preferable.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the weight by making the rotating member have a hollow structure, and it is possible to reduce the bending due to the weight of the rotating member itself by using a highly rigid carbon fiber composite plastic as the material. In addition, the rotary member has a hollow structure, and an evacuation flow path is provided inside the vacuum member, and the vacuum suction holes are uniformly disposed on the entire vacuum suction surface, thereby increasing the vacuum suction accuracy of the substrate. As a result, the working efficiency is improved, and it contributes effectively to the production of a glass substrate or a wafer having a good quality. Furthermore, since the rotating member of the present invention can be accelerated to a predetermined number of rotations in a short time by the moment of inertia, it is excellent in productivity of glass substrates and the like and contributes to the manufacture of highly accurate products. Can do.

  Typical conditions required for the rotating member targeted by the present invention are: (1) the member main body is lightweight and has high rigidity, and (2) the member main body has high flatness. The flatness of the substrate to be mounted is guaranteed, (3) the substrate to be processed can be vacuum-sucked in a short time, and (4) the vacuum suction surface, that is, the vacuum suction surface of the substrate has wear resistance and a long life. (5) It is easy to release the substrate after processing.

  Therefore, in order to satisfy the above requirements (1) to (5), the present invention uses a plate-like rotating member that holds the substrate as a hollow structure, and uses a carbon fiber composite plastic material as the material. . That is, first, in order to reduce the weight, a carbon fiber composite plastic is used as a material in order to give the member body a hollow structure while providing a certain rigidity. By adopting such a configuration, the weight of the rotating member can be reduced, which can prevent the rotating member from being bent due to its own weight, and the rotating member and the rotator (cup) can be stabilized at high speed. The substrate can be rotated in a state, and as a result, a stable high-speed rotation state of the substrate to be processed is brought about, which helps to produce a high-quality product.

  As the carbon fiber composite plastic, for example, a composite material of pan-based carbon fiber or pitch-based carbon fiber and a thermosetting resin such as epoxy resin or vinyl ester resin, or a thermoplastic resin such as nylon or polycarbonate is used. The type of carbon fiber and resin, and the blending ratio can be selected in consideration of the size of the rotating member and the amount of deflection.

  Further, in the present invention, it is effective to make the rotating member body made of carbon fiber composite plastic a hollow structure body provided with a plurality of vacuum exhaust passages communicating with each other inside. This hollow structure is a hollow structure using spacers or ribs between a substrate suction surface side plate and a vacuum exhaust side plate corresponding to the back surface side, or a honeycomb structure composed of cells and cell walls. It is preferable that By making the rotating member main body have such a hollow structure, the weight can be reduced and stable rotation can be ensured corresponding to the increase in the size of the substrate. In addition, the hollow structure of the member main body also has an effect of giving a uniform adsorption ability to the entire vacuum adsorption surface of the vacuum exhaust passage.

  In the present invention, a vacuum exhaust passage made of, for example, a metal square pipe is provided inside the hollow portion of the member body. Then, vacuum suction holes that function to suck and hold the substrate to the member at regular intervals along the vacuum exhaust flow path are uniformly distributed on the vacuum suction surface of the member main body, and are disposed. To achieve stable suction (fixation) holding of the substrate. The metal square pipe can be made of stainless steel, aluminum-based material, etc., or ceramics or cermet can be used. The number and size of the evacuation channels, the number of vacuum suction holes, and the like are appropriately determined according to the size of the substrate to be sucked and held. The carbon fiber composite plastic material of the rotating member and the metal square pipe are preferably joined with a resin adhesive such as an epoxy resin.

  In addition, the vacuum suction surface that sucks and holds the substrate of the rotating member is a portion where wear due to contact with the glass substrate or the like as the material to be processed occurs, and contamination of the glass substrate or the like due to particles generated by this contact is prevented. In order to prevent this, these films are formed on the substrate adsorption holding surface by spraying ceramic, cermet, or metal (including alloy) materials. For this purpose, a material excellent in wear resistance is preferable. For example, ceramics include oxides such as alumina and chromia, carbides such as silicon carbide, borides such as boron nitride, and composite ceramics thereof. As the cermet, carbide type, boride type and the like are preferably used, and as the metal / alloy, Al, its alloy, Cu, its alloy, stainless steel, etc. are preferably used, but it is not particularly limited to these metals.

  Further, as a means for thermally spraying the above-mentioned material, a plasma spraying method is particularly preferable, and high-speed gas flame spraying, gas welding type spraying, or the like can be selected and coated depending on other spraying materials.

  The thermal spray coating desirably has a surface roughness of about 0.5 to 3.0 μm in average roughness Ra. The reason is that the glass substrate on the rotating member can be easily removed after the substrate processing by imparting an appropriate roughness to the sprayed coating. That is, when the surface roughness Ra is less than 0.5 μm, the surface of the rotating member is close to a mirror surface, and it takes time to introduce the atmosphere into the rotating member after the vacuum exhaust is stopped after the surface treatment, and the substrate is released. Delays productivity. On the other hand, when Ra is more than 3.0 μm, it takes a long time to vacuum-suck the substrate, and reliable and sufficient suction is not performed, and the substrate holding property at high-speed rotation is deteriorated. The surface roughness of the sprayed coating is adjusted to Ra: about 0.5 to 3.0 μm by blasting, pickling, glider polishing, emery polishing, etc. Among them, Ra: 1.0 to 2.0 μm is preferable.

  The film thickness of the sprayed coating is preferably 0.05 to 0.5 mm. This is because if the film thickness is too small (less than 0.05 mm), the effect of coating the sprayed coating becomes insufficient, and it is also inconvenient for adjusting the flatness and surface roughness by surface grinding of the sprayed coating. On the other hand, the upper limit of film thickness (above 0.5 mm) is not particularly problematic in terms of technology and quality, but the thicker the film, the more constrained it is from the economical aspect.

  The number and position of the vacuum suction holes to be opened on the surface of the rotating member on the substrate suction surface side are determined by the size and thickness of the substrate, the position and number of the vacuum exhaust passages provided in the rotating member, and the opening shape is A circular shape is preferred. In addition, the formation method is that a metal channel disposed inside the rotating member before the surface of the rotating member is coated with the thermal spray material and a substrate adsorbing surface side plate (carbon fiber composite plastic) directly above the channel are subjected to drilling. Or by drilling simultaneously on the vacuum exhaust passage, the substrate adsorption surface immediately above the passage, and the thermal spray coating after the coating is formed.

Details of the structure of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
1 and 2 are plan views of the evacuation side and the substrate adsorption side of the rotating member for a substrate processing apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view of the rotating member (cross section AA in FIG. 1). FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view of the exhaust head portion provided on the vacuum exhaust side.

  FIG. 1 is a plan view of a rotating member viewed from the evacuation side (back surface), and a evacuation head 2 that collects the evacuation channels arranged in parallel is attached to the central portion of the member body 1. ing. The exhaust head 2 is made of carbon fiber composite plastic or metal, and is secured to the member body 1 by a desired means, for example, a screw 6 as shown in FIG. One exhaust hole 7 is provided in the center of the exhaust head 2, and vacuum exhaust is performed from the exhaust hole 7.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the member main body 1 has, for example, an interval between a pair of substrate adsorption side plates 1a and vacuum exhaust side plates 1b made of carbon fiber composite plastic made of pitch-based carbon fibers, epoxy resin and polycarbonate. It is held constant by the spacers 3 disposed on the outer peripheral edge portion to form a hollow structure. Both of these plates 1a and 1b and the spacer 3 (or ribs if necessary) are made of the carbon fiber composite plastic. In addition to this illustration, the hollow structure formed between the plates 1a and 1b may be a honeycomb structure including a large number of cells and cell walls. In addition, it is preferable to use the resin adhesive used at the time of carbon fiber composite plastic shaping | molding for joining of both plates 1a and 1b and the spacer 3 fundamentally.

  FIG. 2 is a view of the member main body 1 as viewed from the substrate vacuum suction surface side. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, a vacuum-pump indicated by a broken line is provided by disposing a metal pipe having a square cross section in the hollow structure. A flow path 4 is provided, and a number of vacuum suction holes 5 are opened in the substrate suction side plate 1 a facing the substrate to be processed along the vacuum exhaust flow path 4. The number and position of the vacuum suction holes 5 are determined by the shape, size, suction time, and the like of the target substrate. In this case, in order to speed up vacuum suction and make the flatness of the substrate more uniform, devise such as providing a relatively large number of openings in the center and decreasing the number of openings toward the outer periphery. Is effective.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the vacuum exhaust passage 4 is regularly arranged on the entire surface of the rotating member, and is formed of a square pipe made of metal such as stainless steel or aluminum-based material. In this way, by arranging the evacuation passages 4 regularly, the substrate to be processed can be uniformly sucked to the substrate suction surface plate 1a of the rotating member. The evacuation flow path 4 is bonded to both the substrate suction side plate 1a and the evacuation side plate 1b with a resin adhesive.

  The substrate adsorption side plate 1a of the rotating member is coated with a sprayed coating 8 on the entire surface excluding the vacuum suction hole 5 by a plasma spraying method or the like. The surface of the sprayed coating 8 is adjusted so that the surface roughness is Ra: 0.5 to 3.0 μm by blasting, pickling, glider polishing, emery polishing, or the like.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the evacuation head 2 is fixed to the member body 1 with screws 6, for example. When the vacuum exhaust head 2 is screwed to the member main body 1, the member main body 1 and the member main body 1 are connected to prevent the vacuum exhaust leakage from occurring in the gap between the member main body 1 and the vacuum exhaust head 2. It is preferable to apply an adhesive resin or the like to the contact surface of the evacuation head 2 for adhesion.

Example 1
First, as the substrate adsorption side plate 1a and the vacuum exhaust side plate 1b of the member main body 1, a carbon fiber composite plastic material made of a composite material of pitch-based carbon fiber and epoxy resin is formed into a laminate having a thickness of about 2.5 mm by a prepreg method. Then, it was baked and cured in an autoclave to obtain a composite material (FRP) having a Young's modulus of 24 GPa. A spacer 3 having a thickness of about 2.5 mm was used as the spacer 3 for forming the hollow portion by the same manufacturing method as that for the member main body 1. Further, a vacuum exhaust channel 4 was formed in advance in the member body 1 using a SUS304 square pipe having a thickness of 0.5 mm.

  Each plate 1a, 1b, spacer 3 and vacuum exhaust flow path 4 produced in this way is assembled at a predetermined position, and an epoxy resin adhesive is applied and bonded, cured, and a member main body. 1 was produced (Invention 1-1). As a comparative example, when an aluminum alloy is used as the material of the member body 1 (Comparative Example 1-1), and FRP is used as the material of the member body 1, the substrate adsorption side plate 1a and the vacuum exhaust side plate 1b In the case where a hollow structure is not formed between the layers (Comparative Example 1-2), a sample was prepared.

  After that, the exhaust head 2 was attached to the surface of the vacuum exhaust side plate 1b, while 118 vacuum suction holes 5 were formed in the surface of the substrate suction side plate 1a by drilling. At this time, the exhaust passage 4 of the square pipe made of SUS304 disposed inside was simultaneously opened.

As a result of measuring the flatness of the surface of the substrate suction side plate 1a of the member main body 1 formed in this way with a three-dimensional shape measuring instrument, the flatness of the invention 1-1 has a maximum deflection of 0.08 mm. Occurred. However, in Comparative Example 1-1, the flatness caused a deflection of about 3 mm at the maximum due to its own weight, and in Comparative Example 1-2, the deflection of a maximum of about 1.5 mm occurred.
The flatness is a value measured according to JIS B0021 (1998).

(Example 2)
Next, the surface of the substrate adsorption side plate 1a of the member main body 1 produced as described above is adjusted by surface grinding so that the flatness becomes 0.1 mm or less, and then chromium oxide is formed by a plasma spraying method with a film thickness of about Thermal spray coating was performed at 0.5 mm. Thereafter, the flatness of the surface of the substrate adsorption side plate 1a was adjusted, and the surface roughness was adjusted to Ra: 1.2 to 1.5 μm (Invention 2-1).
In addition, the size of the prototype member body 1 was finally 650 mm × 850 mm × 6 mm thick.

  In addition, as a comparative example, the case where an aluminum alloy is used as the material of the member body 1 (Comparative Example 2-1), and FRP is used as the material of the member body 1, the substrate adsorption side plate 1a and the vacuum exhaust side plate 1b are used. When a hollow structure is not formed between them (Comparative Example 2-2), when a thermal spray coating is not formed on the surface of the substrate adsorption side plate 1a (Comparative Example 2-3), and the surface roughness of the substrate adsorption side plate 1a Ras with 0.4 μm or 3.1 μm (Comparative Examples 2-4 and 2-5) were prepared.

Table 1 shows the results of measuring the flatness and durability of each member body 1 produced in this way. The durability represents the wear of the surface of the substrate adsorption side plate 1a after the substrate processing due to contact with the substrate by increasing the surface roughness (Ra).
As a result, in the present invention 2-1, accuracy within 0.05 mm at the maximum was ensured, and no wear due to contact with the substrate was observed.

  On the other hand, in Comparative Example 2-1, the maximum flatness was as large as 3.0 mm. Further, in Comparative Example 2-2, the final flatness was as large as 0.15 mm, so that the vacuum suction capability was reduced, and the productivity was lowered with a long time to rise. Furthermore, in Comparative Example 2-3, since the thermal spray coating was not formed on the surface of the substrate adsorption side plate 1a, the plate surface was worn by contact with the substrate.

In addition, when the surface roughness of the thermal spray coating was 0.4 μm (Comparative Example 2-4), no abrasion due to contact with the substrate was observed, but the substrate was in close contact with the surface of the vacuum suction surface side plate. Therefore, it took time to release the substrate from the plate after the vacuum suction was stopped. On the other hand, when the surface roughness is 3.1 μm (Comparative Example 2-5), it takes a long time for the substrate to be adsorbed to the member body 1 and sufficient adsorption cannot be performed. I missed it.

  The rotating member for a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention is lightweight and highly rigid, and has excellent durability, and can be applied in the fields of semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses, flat panel display manufacturing apparatuses, and the like. .

It is a top view which shows the rotating member (vacuum exhaust side) concerning this invention. It is a top view which shows the rotating member (board | substrate adsorption | suction side) concerning this invention. It is a fragmentary sectional view of a rotation member. It is a fragmentary sectional view of the head part for exhaust provided in the vacuum exhaust side.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Member main body 1a Substrate adsorption | suction side plate 1b Vacuum exhaust side plate 2 Vacuum exhaust head 3 Spacer 4 Vacuum exhaust flow path 5 Vacuum suction hole 6 Screw 7 Exhaust hole 8 Thermal spray coating 9 Rotator 10 Substrate

Claims (7)

  A rotating member for a substrate processing apparatus, wherein a member main body for holding a substrate has a hollow structure and is made of a carbon fiber composite plastic material.   2. The rotating member for a substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the member main body has a hollow structure formed by spacers or ribs disposed between the front and back double-sided plates, or by a honeycomb structure.   2. The member body according to claim 1, wherein a vacuum exhaust passage is provided in the hollow interior, and a number of vacuum suction holes are formed on the vacuum suction surface side of the vacuum exhaust passage. 3. A rotating member for a substrate processing apparatus according to 2.   The said member main body coat | covers at least the 1 type or more sprayed coating chosen from ceramics, a cermet, and a metal and an alloy on the vacuum suction surface side at least. 2. A rotating member for a substrate processing apparatus according to item 1.   5. The rotating member for a substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the thermal spray coating has a surface roughness (Ra) of 0.5 to 3.0 μm.   The substrate processing apparatus rotation according to claim 1, wherein the carbon fiber composite plastic material is made of a composite material of carbon fiber and a thermosetting resin and / or a thermoplastic resin. Element. The rotating member for a substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rotating member is used by being attached to a substrate rotator of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus or a liquid crystal manufacturing apparatus.

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