JP2010165825A - Substrate treating device and substrate treating method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a substrate treating device and a substrate treating method instantaneously heating a gas-saturated liquid in treatment of a substrate to induce desorption and destruction of minute air bubbles, thereby attaining sure treatment of the substrate by effectively utilizing the minute air bubbles even by a simple structure. <P>SOLUTION: The substrate treating device 1 for treating the substrate W by supplying a liquid L containing the minute air bubbles to the substrate W includes a minute air bubble generating part 10 for generating the liquid containing the minute air bubbles from a gas and a liquid, a nozzle 15 for discharging the liquid L containing the minute air bubbles to the substrate and a heating means 50 for heating the liquid L containing the minute air bubbles which is discharged from the nozzle 15. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus and a substrate processing method, and in particular, a substrate processing capable of effectively using microbubbles such as nanobubbles in a liquid during cleaning or surface activation processing of, for example, a liquid crystal panel substrate or a semiconductor substrate. The present invention relates to an apparatus and a substrate processing method.

  As an example, the substrate processing apparatus performs processing by supplying liquid such as pure water or a chemical solution to the liquid crystal panel or the semiconductor substrate in the manufacturing process of the liquid crystal panel or the semiconductor substrate. In this type of substrate processing apparatus, it is necessary to remove particles adhering to the substrate.

  In order to remove particles on the substrate of the substrate processing apparatus, in Patent Document 1, a microbubble generating unit is connected to the substrate processing apparatus, and pure water containing microbubbles is supplied from the microbubble generating unit to the substrate in the processing tank. Has been proposed to supply.

  The structure of this micro bubble generating part is described in FIG. 9 of Patent Document 1, and the micro bubble generating part has a structure in which a water supply pipe and an air supply path surrounding the water supply pipe are formed in the casing. ing. The air supply path is connected to a nitrogen gas supply unit and a vacuum pump, and the pressure of nitrogen gas flowing through the air supply path can be adjusted by operating the vacuum pump to increase or decrease the pressure in the casing. Thereby, when the inside of a casing is pressure-reduced, excess gas precipitates from the pure water which flows through a water pipe, becomes supersaturated, and the gas flows out to an air supply path through a hollow piece separation membrane.

JP 2006-179765 A

  By the way, in the structure of the microbubble generating part described in Patent Document 1, the inside of the air supply path needs to be connected to a vacuum pump, and the pressure of nitrogen gas flowing through the air supply path must be adjusted. In addition, a pressure regulator is required on each of the nitrogen gas supply side and the nitrogen gas discharge side. For this reason, the structure of the microbubble generator is complicated. If the pressure is not accurately adjusted by the vacuum pump, pure water containing microbubbles may not be reliably supplied.

  On the other hand, the present inventor has been conducting research on nanobubbles, which are examples of microbubbles, and it has been found that gas dissolves in a liquid to a saturated concentration in the process of nanobubble generation. The inventor believes that nanobubbles are desorbed from the liquid as time elapses in the bubble generation process.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a simple structure by instantaneously heating a liquid in a gas-saturated state when processing a substrate to desorb and destroy microbubbles. However, the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus and a substrate processing method capable of reliably processing a substrate by effectively using microbubbles.

  A substrate processing apparatus of the present invention is a substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate by supplying a liquid containing microbubbles to the substrate, and a microbubble generating unit that generates a liquid containing the microbubbles from a gas and a liquid; And a nozzle for discharging the liquid containing the microbubbles onto the substrate, and a heating means for raising the temperature of the liquid containing the microbubbles discharged from the nozzle.

  The substrate processing method of the present invention is a substrate processing method for processing a substrate by supplying a liquid containing microbubbles to the substrate, wherein the microbubble generating unit generates the liquid containing the microbubbles from the gas and the liquid. When the liquid containing the microbubbles is discharged from the nozzle onto the substrate, the heating unit raises the temperature of the liquid containing the microbubbles.

  According to the present invention, the liquid in which the gas is saturated is instantaneously heated during the processing of the substrate to desorb and destroy the microbubbles, thereby effectively utilizing the microbubbles with a simple configuration. It is possible to provide a substrate processing apparatus and a substrate processing method capable of reliably performing the above process.

It is a figure which shows preferable embodiment of the substrate processing apparatus of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the process unit of the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. It is a figure which expands and shows the heating means shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows another embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows another embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example from which the solubility of gas changes with temperature.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a preferred embodiment of the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention.

  A substrate processing apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes a cassette station 2, a robot 3, and a plurality of processing units 4 and 4.

  The substrate processing apparatus 1 is an apparatus that performs single-wafer processing, and the cassette station 2 has a plurality of cassettes 5 and 5, and each cassette 5 accommodates a plurality of substrates W. An example of the substrate is a semiconductor wafer substrate.

  The robot 3 is disposed between the cassette station 2 and the plurality of processing units 4 and 4. The robot 3 transports the substrate W accommodated in each cassette 5 to the processing unit 4 side. Further, the robot 3 transports the processed substrate W on the processing unit 4 side to another cassette 5 and returns it. Each processing unit 4 holds and rotates the substrate W and supplies a liquid containing microbubbles, for example, to clean the surface of the substrate W.

  FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of the processing unit 4 of the substrate processing apparatus 1 shown in FIG.

  A single-wafer processing unit 4 shown in FIG. 2 includes a micro-bubble generating unit 10, a substrate holding unit 11, a nozzle operation unit 12, a fan 13 with a filter for downflow, a cup 14, a nozzle 15, A processing chamber 16 and a control unit 20 are included.

  The substrate holding unit 11 shown in FIG. 2 includes a disk base member 17, a rotating shaft 18, and a motor 19, and the substrate W is detachably fixed on the base member 17. A cup 14, a nozzle 15, a base member 17, and a rotating shaft 18 of a motor 19 are accommodated in the processing chamber 16. A base member 17 is fixed to the tip of the rotating shaft 18. The base member 17 can be continuously rotated in the R direction by the motor 19 operating according to a command from the control unit 20.

  The nozzle 15 shown in FIG. 2 is arranged on the upper part of the substrate W, and when the operation unit 12 is operated according to a command from the control unit 20, the nozzle 15 is moved in the Z direction (vertical direction) and the X direction (radial direction of the substrate W). It moves and can discharge the liquid L containing microbubbles to the substrate W.

  The microbubble generating unit 10 shown in FIG. 2 has a microbubble generating unit 30, a gas supply unit 32, and a liquid supply unit 34. The microbubble generation unit 30 is connected to the gas supply unit 32 via a pipe 31 </ b> B and a valve 31. The microbubble generation unit 30 is connected to the liquid supply unit 34 via a pipe 33 </ b> B and a valve 33. Further, the microbubble generating unit 30 is connected to the nozzle 15 via a pipe 41 and a valve 43. The gas supply part 32 supplies nitrogen gas which is an example of gas. The liquid supply unit 34 supplies pure water which is an example of a liquid. The opening / closing amounts of the valves 31, 33, and 43 are controlled by commands from the control unit 20.

  The micro-bubble generating unit 30 shown in FIG. 2 generates a large number of micro-bubbles by passing the nitrogen gas supplied from the gas supply unit 32 through, for example, a porous filter, and supplies the pure water supplied from the liquid supply unit 34 to the pure water. By passing through, a large number of generated microbubbles are included in pure water. The large number of microbubbles are preferably nanobubbles NB, and the liquid L containing microbubbles is a liquid containing nanobubbles NB and is also referred to as nanobubble water. The liquid L containing microbubbles is a liquid in which gas is dissolved to a saturated state when the nanobubbles NB are included.

  Thereby, the microbubble generation unit 30 generates a liquid L containing a large number of microbubbles and supplies the liquid L to the nozzle 15 side via the pipe 41, and the nozzle 15 supplies the liquid L containing microbubbles to the surface of the substrate W. Can be discharged.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the processing unit 4 further includes a heating unit 50. The heating unit 50 includes a heating medium discharge nozzle 51, a heating medium storage unit 52, a pipe 53, and a valve 54. The valve 54 is controlled to be opened and closed by a command from the control unit 20.

  FIG. 3 shows the heating means 50 in an enlarged manner.

  In the heating means 50 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the heating medium discharge nozzle 51 and the heating medium storage unit 52 are connected via a pipe 53 and a valve 54. In the heating medium storage unit 52, as a heating medium, for example, Superheated steam or warm water 55 is stored. As shown in FIG. 3, the heating medium discharge nozzle 51 is disposed obliquely at an angle θ with respect to the surface of the substrate W. The nozzle 15 is arranged perpendicular to the substrate W.

  Thereby, by opening the valve 54, the superheated steam or hot water 55 is jetted toward the lower part of the liquid L containing microbubbles discharged from the nozzle 15 through the heating medium discharge nozzle 51. For this reason, when the liquid L containing microbubbles from the nozzle 15 reaches the substrate W, the heating medium discharge nozzle 51 mixes superheated steam or hot water 55 with the pure water L containing microbubbles from the nozzle 15. Thus, the temperature of the liquid L containing microbubbles that are nanobubbles NB can be raised. Accordingly, the superheated steam or warm water 55 positively warms the liquid L containing microbubbles that are nanobubbles NB, thereby desorbing the bubbles from the saturated dissolved gas in the liquid L containing microbubbles that are nanobubbles NB. It can be destroyed.

  Next, an example of a substrate processing method for cleaning the substrate W will be described with reference to FIGS.

  When the control unit 20 shown in FIG. 2 opens the valves 31 and 33, a gas such as nitrogen gas is supplied from the gas supply unit 32 into the microbubble generating unit 30, and a liquid such as pure water is supplied to the liquid. From the unit 34 into the microbubble generating unit 30. In the microbubble generating unit 30, a liquid L containing microbubbles having a predetermined microbubble density is generated.

  The liquid L containing microbubbles is supplied to the nozzle 15 via the pipe 41. Thereby, the liquid L containing microbubbles can be discharged to the substrate W through the nozzle 15. By discharging the liquid L containing microbubbles, which are nanobubbles NB, onto the surface of the substrate W, the negative potential of the nanobubbles NB encloses contaminants such as positively charged particles. At the same time, it can be removed from the surface of the substrate W.

  By the way, when the liquid L containing microbubbles from the nozzle 15 reaches the substrate W, the heating medium discharge nozzle 51 mixes superheated steam or hot water 55 with the pure water L containing microbubbles from the nozzle 15. Thus, the temperature of the liquid L containing the microbubbles that are the nanobubbles NB can be raised and the substrate W can be heated.

  Therefore, when the superheated steam or warm water 55 positively warms the liquid L containing microbubbles that are nanobubbles NB, the bubbles are desorbed and destroyed from the saturated dissolved gas in the liquid L containing microbubbles that are nanobubbles NB. Can be made.

  In this way, by using the fact that the solubility of the gas in the liquid L containing microbubbles varies depending on the liquid temperature, the liquid L containing microbubbles in a saturated dissolution state is heated from the nozzle 15 at the time of discharge, Not only the nanobubbles NB already present in the liquid L are used, but also the dissolved gas is released as bubbles of nanobubbles to be bubbled. When the nanobubbles newly bubbled by heating in this way and the nanobubbles NB already present in the liquid L are crushed, a cleaning effect is produced by the impact force generated by the crushed. For this reason, not only can the nanobubbles NB already present in the liquid L be utilized, but nanobubbles newly bubbled by heating can be effectively utilized.

  Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  In another embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 4, unlike the embodiment shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the heating medium discharge nozzle 51 of the heating means 50B will be supplied from the nozzle 15 to the substrate W. For example, the substrate W is arranged in a direction parallel to the liquid L containing the microbubbles. Accordingly, by opening the valve 54, the heating medium discharge nozzle 51 injects superheated steam or hot water 55 toward the liquid L containing microbubbles immediately after being discharged from the nozzle 15. For this reason, before the liquid L containing microbubbles from the nozzle 15 reaches the substrate W, superheated steam or hot water 55 is mixed with the liquid L containing microbubbles from the nozzle 15 to form the microbubbles NB. The temperature of the liquid L containing bubbles can be raised.

  Further, in another embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 5, another heating means 50C is arranged instead of the heating means 50 shown in FIG. The heating unit 50C is a heater that is electrically connected to the control unit 20, and the control unit 20 can heat the substrate W by energizing the heating unit 50C. Heat can be transmitted to the liquid L containing microbubbles discharged onto the substrate W to increase the temperature of the liquid L containing microbubbles. The heater heats the substrate, so that the temperature of the substrate can increase the temperature of the liquid containing microbubbles, and it is only necessary to provide a heater, so that the structure of the heating means is simplified.

  FIG. 6 shows a reference example in which the gas solubility varies with temperature.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the solubility of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen chloride, and ammonia is the volume of the gas (ml) dissolved in 1 ml of solvent when the gas of 1 atm is in contact with the medium. Often converted to The solubility of a gas generally decreases as the temperature increases. This is because when the temperature is high, the thermal movement of solvent molecules and dissolved gas molecules is intense, and therefore gas molecules are likely to jump out of the solution into the space.

  In the embodiment of the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention, while the present inventor has been diligently researching nanobubbles, it has been found that in the nanobubble generation process, the gas dissolves to a saturated concentration in the liquid. Further, it is considered that nano-sized bubbles are desorbed from the liquid as time passes after the bubbles are generated. Nanobubbles dissolve and exist as dissolved gas, change the physical properties of the liquid, and exhibit effects such as surface modification of the object to be processed such as a substrate, but the cleaning effect is the impact generated by the bursting of nanobubbles The dirt can be removed by force.

  Therefore, when cleaning the surface of the substrate W, the liquid L containing microbubbles in a gas-saturated state is heated when cleaning the substrate W, and bubbles (nanobubbles) are further generated from the liquid L containing microbubbles. Detach and destroy. Each embodiment utilizes the fact that the gas solubility in the liquid L containing microbubbles varies depending on the temperature.

  A substrate processing apparatus of the present invention is a substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate by supplying a liquid containing microbubbles to the substrate, a microbubble generating unit that generates a liquid containing microbubbles from a gas and a liquid, A nozzle that discharges liquid containing microbubbles to the substrate; and heating means that raises the temperature of the liquid containing microbubbles discharged from the nozzle. As a result, for example, a liquid in which gas is saturated is instantaneously heated at the time of substrate processing to desorb microbubbles, so that the processing of the substrate can be ensured by effectively using the microbubbles with a simple configuration. Can be done.

  In the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention, the heating means supplies superheated steam or warm water to the liquid containing microbubbles discharged from the nozzle. Thereby, the temperature of the liquid containing microbubbles can be directly raised by mixing superheated steam or warm water.

  In the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention, the heating means is a heater that raises the temperature of the liquid containing microbubbles discharged from the nozzle to the substrate by heating the substrate. Thus, the heater can heat the substrate, so that the temperature of the substrate can raise the temperature of the liquid containing microbubbles, and only the heater needs to be provided, so that the structure of the heating means is simplified.

  In the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention, the liquid containing microbubbles contains nanobubbles and is dissolved in gas until saturation. Thereby, in addition to the nanobubbles already existing in the liquid, more nanobubbles can be generated from the gas that is saturated by heating and can be used effectively.

  The substrate processing method of the present invention is a substrate processing method for processing a substrate by supplying a liquid containing microbubbles to the substrate, wherein the microbubble generating unit generates a liquid containing microbubbles from the gas and the liquid. The heating means raises the temperature of the liquid containing microbubbles when discharging the liquid containing microbubbles from the nozzle to the substrate. As a result, the liquid in which the gas is saturated is instantaneously heated during the processing of the substrate, and the microbubbles are desorbed. It can be carried out.

  By the way, in the present invention, microbubbles are also called microbubbles or micro / nano bubbles, and are a concept including micro bubbles (MB), micro nano bubbles (MNB), and nano bubbles (NB). Microbubbles (MB) refer to microbubbles with a bubble diameter of about 1 μm to 10 μm at the time of generation, and micronanobubbles (MNB) are bubbles with a diameter of about 10 μm to about a dozen μm at the time of generation. It refers to minute bubbles. Furthermore, nanobubbles (NB) refer to minute bubbles of several hundred nm or less.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. The substrate processing apparatus of the present invention is used, for example, for cleaning the surface of the substrate W, but is not limited to this, and can also be used for modification processing such as activation of the surface of the substrate. Nanobubbles are dissolved and exist as dissolved gas, change the physical properties of the liquid, and exhibit effects such as surface modification of a processing target such as a substrate. However, in order to obtain the substrate cleaning effect, it is desirable that the dirt can be removed by the impact force generated by the bursting of the nanobubbles.

  As gas, ozone gas or air can be used instead of nitrogen gas. As the liquid, in addition to pure water, an acidic liquid or an alkaline liquid can be used.

  Furthermore, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention. For example, you may delete some components from all the components shown by embodiment of this invention. Furthermore, you may combine the component covering different embodiment suitably.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Substrate processing apparatus 4 Processing unit 10 Microbubble production | generation part 11 Substrate holding | maintenance part 15 Nozzle 32 Gas supply part 34 Liquid supply part 50 Heating means 51 Heating medium discharge nozzle 52 Heating medium storage part 53 Piping 54 Valve 55 Superheated steam or warm water L Minute Liquid containing bubbles NB Nanobubble W substrate

Claims (5)

A substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate by supplying a liquid containing microbubbles to the substrate,
A microbubble generating unit that generates a liquid containing the microbubbles from a gas and a liquid;
A nozzle that discharges the liquid containing the microbubbles to the substrate;
Heating means for raising the temperature of the liquid containing the microbubbles discharged from the nozzle;
A substrate processing apparatus comprising:   The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating unit supplies superheated steam or warm water to the liquid containing the microbubbles discharged from the nozzle.   The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating unit is a heater that raises the temperature of the liquid containing the microbubbles discharged from the nozzle to the substrate by heating the substrate.   4. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the liquid containing microbubbles contains nanobubbles and is dissolved in a gas up to a saturated state. 5. A substrate processing method for processing a substrate by supplying a liquid containing microbubbles to the substrate,
The microbubble generator generates a liquid containing the microbubbles from a gas and a liquid,
A substrate processing method, wherein when the liquid containing the microbubbles is discharged from the nozzle onto the substrate, the heating means increases the temperature of the liquid containing the microbubbles.

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