JP2010051901A - Apparatus and method of treating substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a treatment apparatus of a substrate, which prevents a substrate conveying state from becoming unstable due to the pressure of fluid when treating a conveyed substrate with the fluid. <P>SOLUTION: The treatment apparatus of the substrate for treating the substrate with the fluid while conveying it includes: a chamber 3; a support roller 14 and a drive roller 17 provided inside the chamber for conveying the substrate in a prescribed direction; a nozzle body 62 for jetting and supplying the fluid to the plate surface of the substrate conveyed by the support roller 14 and the drive roller 17; and an attenuation control member 65 disposed on the tilt to the jetting direction of the fluid jetted from the nozzle body across the conveyed substrate, for reflecting a part of the fluid jetted from the nozzle body corresponding to the inclination angle before the distal end of the substrate reaches the flow path of the fluid, transmitting the rest and executing attenuation. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus and a processing method for processing with a fluid such as a processing liquid or a gas while transporting the substrate.

  A circuit pattern is formed on a glass substrate used in the liquid crystal display device. A lithographic process is employed to form a circuit pattern on the substrate. As is well known, in the lithography process, a resist is applied to the substrate, and light is irradiated through a mask having a circuit pattern formed on the resist.

  Next, the portion of the resist not irradiated with light or the portion irradiated with light is removed, and the portion of the substrate where the resist is removed is etched. A circuit pattern is formed on the substrate by repeating a series of steps of removing the resist after etching a plurality of times.

  In such a lithography process, the substrate is treated with a developing solution, an etching solution or a stripping solution for removing the resist after etching, a step of washing with a rinsing solution, and a rinsing solution remaining on the substrate after washing. The drying process which removes by gas is required.

  Conventionally, when the above-described series of processing is performed on a substrate, the substrate is sequentially transported to processing chambers in which the processing is performed in a substantially horizontal state by transport rollers arranged with the axis line horizontal, and in each processing chamber. The substrate is processed with a processing liquid, or after the processing, a compressed gas is injected to dry the substrate.

  Recently, glass substrates used in liquid crystal display devices tend to be larger and thinner. For this reason, when the substrate is horizontally transported, the bending of the substrate between the transport rollers becomes large, so that processing in each processing chamber cannot be performed uniformly over the entire plate surface of the substrate.

  Furthermore, when the substrate is enlarged, the transport shaft provided with the transport roller for transporting the substrate becomes longer. In addition, since the substrate is increased in size, the processing liquid supplied onto the substrate is increased, and the load applied to the transport shaft is increased according to the amount of the processing liquid on the substrate. Deflection increases. Therefore, the substrate may be bent even when the transport shaft is bent, and uniform processing may not be performed.

  Therefore, when the substrate is processed with the processing liquid, the substrate is transported at a predetermined inclination angle, for example, an angle of 75 degrees inclined by 15 degrees from the vertical state in order to prevent the substrate from being bent by the weight of the processing liquid. Then, the processing liquid is sprayed onto the front surface located on the upper side in the tilt direction to process the front surface of the substrate, and then a drying process is performed in which gas is sprayed onto the plate surface with an air knife to remove the processing liquid.

  If the substrate is transported at an incline and the processing liquid is sprayed and supplied to the front surface of the substrate, the processing liquid does not stay on the plate surface of the substrate, but smoothly flows from the upper side to the lower side. It is possible to prevent the substrate from being bent by the weight of the liquid.

  In the case of a processing apparatus in which a substrate is tilted at a predetermined angle and is transported through the chamber and processed with a processing liquid or gas, as shown in Patent Document 1, a back surface that is lower in the tilt direction of the substrate is supported in the chamber. And a driving roller for supporting the lower end. The drive roller is attached to a drive shaft, and the drive shaft is rotationally driven by a drive source.

In the processing apparatus, a plurality of the supporting rollers and the driving roller are arranged in the chamber at a predetermined interval with respect to the transport direction of the substrate. As a result, the lower surface of the substrate is driven by the driving roller while being supported on the back surface by the support roller, and is conveyed in a predetermined direction.
JP 2004-210511 A

  By the way, in order to enhance the effect depending on the type of the processing liquid, it is performed that the processing liquid is sprayed from the nozzle body to the front surface of the substrate to be transported at a high pressure of about 0.7 MPa, for example. In this case, the gas supply pressure is increased so that the processing can be performed reliably and in a short time.

  On the other hand, a plurality of substrates are sequentially transferred into the chamber at predetermined intervals. In other words, there is a gap between the rear end of the substrate that is transported in the chamber on the downstream side in the transport direction and the front end of the substrate that is positioned on the upstream side. Gas is continuously injected.

  Therefore, the injected processing liquid and gas are not only injected to the front surface of the substrate, but also to the inner surface of the rear wall of the chamber through the gap between the front and rear ends of the pair of substrates positioned in the front-rear direction. It will collide.

  The processing liquid or gas that collides with the inner surface of the rear wall of the chamber hits the back surface of the substrate that is reflected and conveyed by the inner surface. For this reason, the substrate that is transported with the back surface supported by the support roller is lifted from the support roller by the action of the processing liquid that strikes the back surface.

  If the substrate is lifted from the support roller, the substrate transfer state becomes unstable, or if the substrate is lifted significantly, the substrate does not smoothly pass through the slit for passing the substrate formed on the end wall of the chamber. There is a risk of damage or inability to transport.

  The present invention is directed to a substrate processing that prevents a fluid that has passed through the front end side of the substrate from being sprayed toward the substrate from being reflected by the inner surface of the chamber and hitting the back surface of the substrate being conveyed. To provide an apparatus and a processing method.

The present invention is a substrate processing apparatus for processing with a fluid while transporting the substrate,
A chamber;
A transfer means provided in the chamber for transferring the substrate in a predetermined direction;
Fluid supply means for injecting and supplying the fluid to the plate surface of the substrate conveyed by the conveyance means;
A fluid that is disposed with an inclination with respect to the ejection direction of the fluid ejected from the fluid supply means across the transport means, and is ejected from the fluid supply means before the tip of the substrate reaches the fluid flow path. A substrate processing apparatus comprising: an attenuation control member configured to reflect a part of the substrate according to the inclination angle and transmit the rest to attenuate.

  It is preferable that the attenuation control member is formed of a porous member in which a large number of through holes that pass through a part of the fluid ejected from the fluid supply means are formed.

  The fluid supply means is preferably a nozzle body for supplying a processing liquid to the substrate and processing the substrate.

  The fluid supply means is preferably an air knife for supplying compressed air to the substrate and drying the substrate.

  It is preferable that a pair of fluid supply means for supplying fluid to both the upper surface and the lower surface of the substrate to be conveyed is provided, and the attenuation control member is disposed in the ejection direction of the fluid ejected from each fluid supply means. .

  It is preferable that the substrate is transported while being inclined at a predetermined angle.

  The attenuation control member is formed in a V shape by a pair of side walls, one side wall is inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the substrate transport direction, and the other side wall is relative to the substrate W transport direction. It is preferable that they are arranged almost vertically.

The present invention is a substrate processing method for processing with a fluid while transporting the substrate,
Transporting the substrate along a predetermined direction;
Injecting and supplying the fluid to the plate surface of the substrate to be conveyed;
Reflecting a part of the fluid jetted and supplied before the tip of the substrate reaches the fluid flow path in a direction inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the jetting direction, and attenuating the rest. The substrate processing method is characterized by the above.

  According to the present invention, since the tip of the substrate is jetted and supplied before reaching the fluid flow path, the front end side of the substrate and a portion of the fluid that has passed through are inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the jetting direction. The reflection was made in the direction and the rest was attenuated.

  Therefore, it is possible to prevent the fluid that has not hit the substrate from being reflected by the inner surface of the chamber and hitting the back surface of the substrate to be transported. it can.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
1 to 3 show a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a processing apparatus according to the present invention. The processing apparatus has an apparatus main body 1. This apparatus main body 1 is formed by connecting a plurality of divided processing units, in this embodiment, first to fifth processing units 1A to 1E in a row so as to be disassembled.

  Each processing unit 1 </ b> A to 1 </ b> E has a gantry 2. A box-shaped chamber 3 is held on the front surface of the gantry 2 at a predetermined angle. An upper transfer unit 4 is provided on the upper surface of the gantry 2 and the chamber 3. A pair of plate-like legs 5 (only one is shown) are provided at both ends in the width direction of the lower end of the gantry 2 so as to be disassembled.

  The chamber 3 is held at a predetermined angle with respect to the gantry 2, for example, 15 degrees from a vertical state and inclined at an angle of 75 degrees with respect to a horizontal plane, and 75 degrees on both side surfaces in the width direction. The slit 13 (only one place is shown in FIG. 1) through which the substrate W transported with an inclination of 1 passes is formed.

  Inside the chamber 3, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a plurality of conveying shafts 15 constituting a conveying means are provided at predetermined intervals in the width direction of the chamber 3. A plurality of support rollers 14 are provided on the transport shaft 15 so as to be rotatable at predetermined intervals in the axial direction. The transport shaft 15 is supported at its upper and lower ends by brackets 15 a so that the axis is inclined at the same angle as the slit 13.

  A substrate W is transferred from the slit 13 into the chamber 3 by being converted from a horizontal state to an angle of 75 degrees by a first posture changing unit 16 indicated by a chain line in FIG. That is, the unprocessed substrate W is transported from the fifth processing unit 1E side to the first processing unit 1A side by the upper transport unit 4, and is moved from the horizontal state to the 75 degree angle by the first attitude conversion unit 16. It is inclined and carried into the first processing unit 1A.

  The back surface, which is a non-device surface, is supported on the substrate W carried into the chamber 3 of the first processing unit 1 </ b> A by the support roller 14 provided on the transport shaft 15. The lower end of the substrate W is supported by the outer peripheral surface of the drive roller 17 (shown in FIG. 2).

  The drive roller 17 is provided on the rotary shaft 19 of the drive unit 18. When the rotary shaft 19 is rotationally driven, the substrate W, the lower end of which is supported by the drive roller 17 and the back surface of which is supported by the support roller 14, is conveyed in the rotational direction of the drive roller 17. Yes.

  The substrate W is cleaned with the removing liquid as the processing liquid in the first to third processing units 1A to 1C upstream in the transport direction, and then cleaned with the cleaning liquid as the processing liquid in the fourth processing unit 1D. Processing is performed. In the fifth processing unit 1E, the drying process is performed with a gas that is a fluid such as hot air.

  The substrate W processed by sequentially passing through each of the processing units 1A to 1E is unloaded from the fifth processing unit 1E while being inclined at an angle of 75 degrees. The substrate W carried out of the fifth processing unit 1E is changed in posture from the inclined state to the horizontal state by the second posture converting unit 23 shown by a chain line in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the drive unit 18 has a plate-like lower base member 24 that is long along the width direction of the chamber 3 (the transport direction of the substrate W). On the upper surface of the lower base member 24, a channel-shaped upper base member 25 having the same length as the lower base member 24 is provided with both lower ends fixed.

  One end and the other end in the width direction of a flat mounting member 26 having substantially the same size as the lower base member 24 are connected to the upper base member 25 so that the inclination of the upper base member 25 can be adjusted. Is provided. That is, the attachment member 26 can adjust the tilt angle in the front-rear direction of the chamber 3.

  A plurality of brackets 31 are provided at one end and the other end in the width direction of the mounting member 26 at predetermined intervals with respect to the longitudinal direction of the mounting member 26 and at positions corresponding to the width direction. A pair of brackets 31 corresponding to each other in the width direction are rotatably supported in the axial direction of the rotary shaft 19 via a bearing (not shown). The driving roller 17 is attached to the tip of the rotating shaft 19, and the first gear 33 is fitted to the rear end.

  When the chamber 3 is installed on the gantry 2, the lower end surfaces of the four rod-shaped reference members 35 are attached and fixed to the upper surface of the support portion 41 provided on the gantry 2 with screws 42.

  The rear end portions of the plurality of rotating shafts 19 supported by the drive unit 18 protrude into the drive chamber 45 from a lead-out hole 44 opened in the front wall 12 b of the chamber 3. Then, after the drive unit 18 is assembled in the chamber 3, the first gear 33 is fitted to the rear end of the rotary shaft 19.

  A drive source 51 is provided in the drive chamber 45. A drive pulley 53 is fitted on the output shaft of the drive source 51. A belt 55 is stretched between the driving pulley 53 and the driven pulley 54. The driven pulley 54 is provided with a second gear (not shown) coaxially. The second gear meshes with the first gear 33.

  As a result, when the drive source 51 is activated, the rotary shaft 19 is rotationally driven, so that the drive roller 17 provided at the tip of the rotary shaft 19 is also rotationally driven. If the driving roller 17 is rotationally driven, the substrate W having the lower end supported by the driving roller 17 is transported in the rotational direction of the driving roller 17. The transport direction of the substrate W is indicated by an arrow X in FIG.

  In the first to fourth processing units 1A to 1D, which remove the resist by spraying a stripping solution on the front surface of the substrate W, the upper surface in the tilt direction of the substrate W conveyed in an inclined manner, that is, a circuit pattern. A plurality of liquid supply pipes 61 that are spaced apart and face each other in parallel with the front surface on which are formed are arranged at a predetermined interval in the transport direction of the substrate W.

  Each liquid supply pipe 61 is provided with a plurality of nozzle bodies 62 at a predetermined interval with respect to an axial direction intersecting the transport direction of the substrate W. The liquid supply pipe 61 and the nozzle body 62 form a processing liquid supply means.

  The stripping liquid is supplied to the liquid supply pipes 61 of the first to third processing units 1A to 1C at a high pressure of about 0.7 MPa, and the cleaning liquid is supplied to the third processing unit 1D at a predetermined pressure. As a result, a treatment liquid such as the stripping liquid or the cleaning liquid is ejected from the nozzle body 62 provided in the liquid supply pipe 61 to the front surface of the substrate W.

  The substrate W is transported at predetermined intervals in the chambers 3 of the processing units 1A to 1D. That is, there is a gap G shown in FIG. 3 between the rear end of the substrate W located on the downstream side in the transport direction and the front end of the substrate W located on the upstream side. Therefore, a part of the processing liquid sprayed from the nozzle body 62 toward the front surface of the substrate W passes through the gap G.

  The processing liquid that has passed through the gap G between the rear end and the front end of the substrate W collides with the attenuation control member 65 formed in a V shape by the pair of wall portions 65a and 65b. In other words, the attenuation control member 65 is disposed at a position facing the liquid supply pipe 61 provided with the nozzle body 62 with the substrate W supported and transported by the support roller 14 interposed therebetween.

  The attenuation control member 65 is formed of a porous member in which a large number of through-holes 66 are formed, for example, punching metal, and one side wall 65a of the attenuation control member 65 with respect to the transport direction of the substrate W at a predetermined angle, for example, 60 degrees. It is arranged so as to be inclined at an angle, and the other side wall 65b is arranged almost vertically.

  A liquid return preventing member 67 whose tip is bent like a bowl is located upstream of the damping member 65 in the transport direction of the substrate W, and the tip of the liquid return preventing member 67 is inclined to the tip of one inclined side wall 65a of the damping member 65. It is arranged to face each other.

  The area occupied by the through-hole 66 of the attenuation control member 65, that is, the aperture ratio of the attenuation control member 65 is set to about 40 to 60%, and the ratio of the treatment liquid reflected by the attenuation control member 65 to the treatment liquid transmitted therethrough is almost equal. It is set to be the same.

  When the processing liquid ejected from the nozzle body 62 passes through the gap G on the front end side of the substrate W located rearward in the transport direction, a part of the attenuation control member 65 disposed facing the gap G is used. It collides with one inclined side wall 65a, and the remaining part permeates through the through hole 66 of the side wall 65a.

  A part of the processing liquid colliding with one side wall 65a of the attenuation control member 65 is reflected obliquely downward to the other side wall 65b arranged vertically of the attenuation control member 65 and collides with the side wall 65b. It is attenuated by repeating the collision with one side wall 65a.

  The remaining part of the processing liquid reflected from one side wall 65a passes through the other side wall 65b as indicated by an arrow L1 in FIG. 3, and proceeds while gradually decelerating (attenuating) toward the rear wall 12c of the chamber 3. Eventually, it collides with the rear wall 12c and the momentum disappears.

  The treatment liquid that has passed through the through-hole 66 of the one side wall 65a collides with the rear wall 12c of the chamber 3 almost perpendicularly, is reflected there, and is repeatedly attenuated by colliding with the back surface of the one side wall 65a.

  Therefore, since the processing liquid that has been ejected from the nozzle body 62 and passed through the gap G is reliably attenuated by the attenuation control member 65 as described above, the processing state of the substrate W is unstable due to the back surface of the substrate W being transferred. Is prevented.

  Part of the processing liquid that has passed through the gap G or part of the processing liquid reflected by the rear wall 12c of the chamber 3 flows upstream of the gap G in the transport direction of the substrate W and collides with the back surface of the substrate W. There is a possibility that the transport state of the substrate W may become unstable.

  However, the liquid return preventing member 7 is provided on the upstream side of the attenuation control member 65 in the transport direction of the substrate W. Therefore, the processing liquid is reliably prevented from flowing to the upstream side in the transport direction of the substrate W with respect to the attenuation control member 65 and colliding with the lower surface of the transported substrate W. It is possible to prevent the conveyance state from becoming unstable due to floating.

  In the fifth processing unit 1E, as shown in FIG. 4, an air knife 68 is disposed as a fluid supply means so as to face the entire length of the front surface of the substrate W to be conveyed in the vertical direction. The air knife 68 is disposed at an angle of, for example, 45 degrees so as to inject compressed gas toward the rear in the transport direction of the substrate W indicated by an arrow X in the drawing.

  In the gas injection direction of the air knife 68, the attenuation control member 65 is inclined at an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the gas injection direction, as in the first to fourth processing units 1A to 1D. It is arrange | positioned by the length which opposes over the full length.

  As a result, when the gas jetted from the air knife 68 passes through the gap G between the pair of front and rear substrates W transported at a predetermined interval, a part of the gas is shown on the plate surface of the attenuation control member 65 as indicated by an arrow G1. Therefore, the light is reflected and attenuated gradually in a direction parallel to the transport direction of the substrate W, so that the transport state of the substrate W does not become unstable by hitting the back surface of the transported substrate W.

  The gas that has passed through the attenuation control member 65 indicated by the arrow G2 in FIG. 4 is attenuated by the resistance when passing, and further collides with the inner surface of the rear wall 12c of the chamber 3 and is attenuated. For this reason, even if a part of the gas is reflected by the rear wall 12c, it is greatly decelerated, so that it does not hit the back surface of the substrate W being transported and make the transport state of the substrate W unstable.

  That is, even in the fifth processing unit 1E that injects a high-pressure gas onto the plate surface of the substrate W to dry the substrate W, the transport state of the substrate W becomes unstable due to the gas injected from the air knife 68. Can be prevented.

  FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, gas is jetted and supplied to the front surface and the back surface of the substrate W to be transported by the air knife 68. In this case, Attenuation control members 65 are respectively provided at a predetermined angle with respect to the gas injection direction in the gas injection direction of the pair of air knives 68.

  As a result, the gas ejected from the pair of air knives 68 can be attenuated by the attenuation control member 65 disposed opposite to each air knife 68, so that the transport state of the substrate W becomes unstable. Can be prevented.

  In each of the above-described embodiments, the example in which the attenuation control member is formed by punching metal that is a porous member has been described. However, the porous member is not limited to punching metal, and may be another member such as a mesh.

In addition, when the first to fourth processing units are provided with a plurality of liquid supply pipes having nozzle bodies with respect to the substrate transport direction at predetermined intervals, attenuation control is performed facing the nozzle bodies of the respective liquid supply pipes. A member may be provided.
Furthermore, although the case where the substrate is transported at a predetermined angle is described as an example, the present invention can be applied to a case where the substrate is transported horizontally.

The perspective view which shows schematic structure of the processing apparatus of one embodiment of this invention. The longitudinal cross-sectional view of the 1st thru | or 4th chamber of the said processing apparatus. The longitudinal cross-sectional view of the chamber which shows the arrangement | positioning relationship between a liquid supply pipe and an attenuation | damping control member. The longitudinal cross-sectional view of the 5th processing chamber in which the air knife was arrange | positioned. The longitudinal cross-sectional view of the 5th process chamber which shows the arrangement | positioning relationship of a pair of air knife and attenuation | damping control member which shows other embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 3 ... Chamber, 14 ... Support roller, 17 ... Drive roller, 19 ... Rotating shaft, 61 ... Liquid supply pipe, 62 ... Nozzle body, 65 ... Damping control member, 66 ... Through-hole, 68 ... Air knife.

Claims (8)

A substrate processing apparatus for processing with a fluid while transporting a substrate,
A chamber;
A transfer means provided in the chamber for transferring the substrate in a predetermined direction;
Fluid supply means for injecting and supplying the fluid to the plate surface of the substrate conveyed by the conveyance means;
A fluid that is disposed with an inclination with respect to the ejection direction of the fluid ejected from the fluid supply means across the transport means, and is ejected from the fluid supply means before the tip of the substrate reaches the fluid flow path. A substrate processing apparatus, comprising: an attenuation control member that reflects a part of the substrate according to the inclination angle and transmits the rest to attenuate.   2. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the attenuation control member comprises a porous member having a plurality of through holes that pass through a part of the fluid ejected from the fluid supply means.   2. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the fluid supply means is an air knife for supplying compressed air to the substrate and drying the substrate.   2. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the fluid supply means is a nozzle body for supplying a processing liquid to the substrate and processing the substrate.   A pair of fluid supply means for supplying fluid to both the upper surface and the lower surface of the substrate to be conveyed is provided, and the attenuation control member is disposed in the ejection direction of the fluid ejected from each fluid supply means. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1.   6. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the substrate is conveyed while being inclined at a predetermined angle.   The attenuation control member is formed in a V-shape by a pair of side walls, one side wall is inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the substrate transport direction, and the other side wall is relative to the substrate W transport direction. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the substrate processing apparatus is arranged substantially vertically. A substrate processing method for processing with a fluid while transporting a substrate,
Transporting the substrate along a predetermined direction;
Injecting and supplying the fluid to the plate surface of the substrate to be conveyed;
Reflecting a part of the fluid jetted and supplied before the tip of the substrate reaches the fluid flow path in a direction inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the jetting direction, and attenuating the rest. And a substrate processing method.

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