JP2012001283A - Substrate carrier device and vacuum treatment equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a substrate carrier device capable of stably conveying a substrate at a high speed even when conveying the substrate in a vertical direction, and vacuum treatment equipment.SOLUTION: The substrate carrier device includes trays 4a and 4b for holding the substrates 3a and 3b, a carrier 20 moving along a conveying passage 7 via a bearing (guiding member) 6, and a driving means for moving the carrier 20 along the conveying passage 7. The drive of the driving means makes the substrate carried along the conveying passage in the vertical direction with respect to a surface including the conveying passage. In that case, the driving means is provided with a rack gear 16 attached along the conveying passage, and a vibration isolating material 8 is disposed along the conveying passage 7 between the carrier 20 and the rack gear 16, so as to suppress vibrations when the carrier 20 conveys the substrate.

Description

  The present invention relates to a substrate transfer apparatus for transferring a substrate such as a glass substrate and a vacuum processing apparatus using the same.

  An in-line vacuum processing apparatus in which a plurality of processing chambers are connected is used for a film forming process of a large glass substrate used for a liquid crystal display device, a plasma display device, or the like. An apparatus that has a function of transporting a substrate and performs processing such as film formation, etching, heating, and cooling on the substrate is called a processing chamber or a processing apparatus. Or it is called a vacuum processing apparatus.

  In recent years, as the substrate size is increased, the glass substrate is held on a tray, and is sent to each processing chamber in a substantially vertical manner to be subjected to predetermined processing. Here, guide members such as bearings are provided along the conveyance path to prevent the tray from falling over. However, as the glass substrate increases in size, the conveyance distance in the processing chamber increases, and the number of processed sheets per unit time increases. There is a demand for an increase in the conveyance speed so as not to drop the toner.

  However, when the transfer speed is increased, the glass substrate vibration accompanying the transfer increases, and problems such as film defects due to particles generated in the processing chamber have occurred. For example, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 has been proposed as a solution to vibration during substrate conveyance.

Patent Document 1 discloses that vibration is being transferred to a plate-like workpiece placed on a tray by providing a vibration isolating member between a grounding portion placed on the conveyance device and a placement portion on which the plate-like workpiece is placed. Is to suppress the transmission.
JP 2006-179690 A

  In the thing of patent document 1, although it has an anti-vibration suppression effect when conveying a substrate processing surface toward an upper surface, when conveying a substrate standing at an angle close to perpendicularity, a sufficient anti-vibration effect is obtained. I can't.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate transport apparatus and a vacuum processing apparatus capable of stable high-speed transport even when a substrate is transported in the vertical direction.

  The substrate transport apparatus of the present invention includes a tray for holding a substrate, a carrier to which the tray is attached and moving on the transport path via a guide member, and a driving unit for moving the carrier along the transport path. And a substrate transport apparatus that transports the substrate in a vertical direction with respect to a plane including the transport path along the transport path by driving of the driving means. It has a rack gear attached to the carrier along the conveyance path, and a vibration isolating material is arranged along the conveyance path between the carrier and the rack gear.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, even if it is a board | substrate conveyance apparatus which stands and conveys a board | substrate vertically with respect to the plane containing a conveyance path, high speed conveyance can be performed, suppressing a vibration. Therefore, it is possible to cope with an increase in the size of the substrate without reducing the throughput. Further, the vibration of the tray is suppressed, and even if the vibration occurs, it is immediately attenuated, so that the generation of particles is suppressed. As a result, it can be applied to the manufacture of a higher definition display device.

  Next, the best mode for carrying out the invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In particular, the present invention can be suitably used for a substrate transport apparatus that holds a large glass substrate of 1 m or more on a tray and transports it at a high speed in an in-line vacuum processing apparatus having a plurality of vacuum processing chambers.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of a vacuum processing apparatus including a plurality of substrate transfer apparatuses (vacuum processing chambers) according to the present invention.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the inside of the vacuum processing apparatus when the vacuum processing chamber 10 of FIG. 2 is viewed from the transport direction (indicated by an arrow in FIG. 2).

  As the vacuum processing chamber 10 of the present embodiment, for example, a film forming chamber by sputtering is used. The present invention relates to the vacuum processing chamber 10 having a substrate transfer function. The vacuum processing chamber 10 having the substrate transfer function is a substrate transfer apparatus.

  In the example of the vacuum processing apparatus shown in FIG. 2, three direction changing chambers 18 each having a carrier rotation mechanism 22 are connected to each other, and a plurality of vacuum processing chambers 10 are connected around each direction changing chamber 18. Has been.

  In addition, for example, an intermediate chamber 19 as a spare chamber is connected to one of the three direction changing chambers 18, and two load lock chambers 21 are connected to the intermediate chamber 19. Here, the intermediate chamber 19 and the load lock chamber 21 are both substrate transfer chambers having a transfer mechanism.

  Further, between each of the vacuum processing chambers 10 connected to each of the direction change chambers 18, between the direction change chamber 18 connected to the intermediate chamber 19, and between the intermediate chamber 19 and each of the load lock chambers 21. A gate valve 14 is provided. Reference numerals 9a and 9b denote gas supply units.

  Next, the substrate transfer apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the vacuum processing chamber 10 is, for example, a single sputtering chamber 10 connected via a gate valve (not shown), and serves as a guide member for supporting the carrier 20 having two trays 4a and 4b. A bearing 6 is laid along the conveyance path 7. The carrier 20 refers to a carrier that transports a tray that holds a substrate. Substrates (glass substrates or the like) 3a, 3b are held on the trays 4a, 4b. The vacuum processing chamber 10 may be a sputtering chamber, or may be a process only for heating or cooling.

  The trays 4a and 4b may be attached at a predetermined angle with respect to the vertical direction. Here, when one side of the substrates 3a and 3b is about 1 m or more, the angle is preferably set to 0.5 ° or more and 3 ° or less. In other words, the substrate is preferably inclined by 0.5 ° to 3 ° from the vertical direction with respect to the plane including the transport path. As a result, the jumping out of the substrate being transported is prevented, and high-speed transport (for example, 500 to 600 mm / second) can be stably performed.

  In the present invention, the case where the substrate is tilted at a predetermined angle with respect to the vertical direction will be described as being included in the vertical direction. The trays 4a and 4b may be provided with openings (not shown) for heating the substrate from the inside.

An exhaust device 11 is attached to each of the vacuum processing chambers 10. Thereby, the vacuum processing chamber is evacuated to about 2 × 10 Pa to 2 × 10 ⁻⁵ Pa. Further, the targets 1a and 1b are respectively arranged so as to face the substrates 3a and 3b, and the targets 1a and 1b are supported by the backing plates 2a and 2b.

  On the back side of the backing plates 2a and 2b, a magnet unit (not shown) for generating a closed loop magnetic field on the surfaces of the targets 1a and 1b is provided. Reference numeral 12 denotes a shield.

  In a preparation chamber (not shown), the trays 4 a and 4 b are tilted and two substrates 3 a and 3 b are attached to the carrier 20. The trays 4a and 4b for holding the substrates 3a and 3b are shown as being arranged on both sides of the carrier 20 in FIG. 1, but only one side may be used. The substrates 3a and 3b are held on the carrier 20 while being pressed on four sides by, for example, fixing jigs (not shown) attached to the four sides of the trays 4a and 4b.

  The carrier 20 is formed with an engaging portion 5 so as to be engaged with the bearing 6 at the lower portion of each tray 4a, 4b, and the carrier 20 is supported by the bearing 6 via the engaging portion 5. The carrier 20 is supported by a bearing 6 serving as a guide member, and moves on the conveyance path 7 while being guided by the bearing 6. At this time, the weight of the entire carrier 20 reaches, for example, about 200 kg or more, but since it is a self-supporting structure symmetrical to the transport path 7, it is stably supported by the bearing 6.

  A linear gear called a rack gear 16 is arranged along the carrying direction as a carrier carrying mechanism on one or both sides of the lower end of the carrier 20, and a driving gear called a pinion gear 17 that meshes with this is provided in the vacuum processing chamber 10. ing. As will be described in detail later, the rack gear 16 is attached to the carrier 20 via a vibration isolating material 8 that suppresses vibrations when the carrier 20 is conveyed.

  The pinion gear 17 is rotated by driving the pinion driving device 15. The rack gear 16 that meshes with the rotation of the pinion gear 17 is driven in the transport direction, and the carrier 20 is transported from the pretreatment vacuum processing chamber to the vacuum processing chamber 10, for example.

  The carrier 20 having the trays 4a and 4b on which the substrates 3a and 3b are held is stopped at a fixed position in the vacuum processing chamber 10, and is formed by sputtering while being stopped in front of the targets 1a and 1b. The carrier 20 on which the predetermined film formation is completed moves to the next vacuum processing chamber through a gate valve (not shown).

  Here, in this embodiment, the vibration isolator 8 for suppressing the vibration at the time of conveyance of the carrier 20 is attached as mentioned above.

  In the example of FIG. 1, the vibration isolator 8 is attached between the carrier 20 and the rack gear 16. Since this portion is between the rack gear 16 and the carrier 20 that are the sources of vibration, vibration from the rack gear 16 is difficult to be transmitted to the carrier 20, and the vibration-proofing effect is great. Moreover, the stability at the time of conveyance of the carrier 20 is not impaired. Although rubber etc. are employ | adopted as the vibration isolator 8, this invention is not limited to this.

  In the present embodiment, by arranging the vibration isolator 8 between the carrier 20 and the rack gear 16 along the conveyance path in this way, not only the life of the bearing 6 is extended but also the generation of particles from the bearing 6 and the like is prevented. This makes it possible to perform higher quality processing. In addition, high-speed conveyance of a large substrate is possible, and stable high-speed conveyance can be performed without polluting the atmosphere by suppressing tray shaking or dust generation.

  Furthermore, even when the substrate is transported in a vertical direction with respect to a plane including the transport path, high-speed transport can be performed while suppressing vibration. Therefore, it is possible to cope with an increase in the size of the substrate without reducing the throughput. Further, not only the vibration of the tray can be suppressed, but even if the vibration occurs, it is immediately damped by the vibration isolating material 8, which is effective for suppressing particles. As a result, it can be suitably used for manufacturing a higher definition display device or the like.

It is a schematic diagram which shows one Embodiment of the vacuum processing apparatus provided with the substrate conveying apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a mimetic diagram showing one embodiment of a substrate conveyance device concerning the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1a, 1b Target 2a, 2b Backing plate 3a, 3b Substrate 4a, 4b Tray 5 Engagement part 6 Bearing 7 Conveyance path 8 Vibration isolator 9a, 9b Gas supply part 10 Vacuum processing chamber (substrate conveyance apparatus)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Exhaust device 12 Shield 14 Gate valve 15 Pinion drive device 16 Rack gear 17 Pinion gear 18 Direction change chamber 19 Intermediate chamber 20 Carrier 21 Load lock chamber 22 Carrier rotation mechanism

Claims (4)

A tray for holding the substrate;
A carrier to which the tray is attached and moves on a conveyance path via a guide member;
Drive means for moving the carrier along the transport path;
A substrate transport apparatus that transports the substrate in a vertical direction with respect to a plane including the transport path along the transport path by driving the driving means,
The driving means includes a rack gear attached to the carrier along the conveyance path, and a vibration isolating material is disposed along the conveyance path between the carrier and the rack gear. Substrate transfer device.   The substrate transport apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the driving unit includes a pinion gear meshing with the rack gear, and the carrier is moved along the transport path by driving the pinion gear.   The substrate transfer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the substrate is inclined with respect to a vertical direction with respect to a plane including the transfer path.   4. The substrate transport apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the substrate transport apparatus includes an exhaust unit, and the substrate transport apparatus includes at least one substrate transport apparatus having the exhaust unit. Vacuum processing equipment.