JP2012069833A - Substrate holding device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a substrate holding device, capable of sucking and holding a substrate with secured flatness of a surface of the substrate even if a circuit pattern is present on a rear surface of the substrate.SOLUTION: The substrate holding device includes: a stage having a substrate holding plane; and a block unit disposed on the substrate holding plane of the stage for holding the substrate and having a circuit pattern on the rear surface. The block unit includes one or more block portions provided at prescribed positions on the substrate holding plane in a disposition changeable manner. On at least one of the block portions, a suction mechanism is provided in a part in contact with the substrate for sucking the rear surface of the substrate. In the state where the rear surface of the substrate is mounted on the substrate contact part of the block portion disposed on the substrate holding plane of the stage in a manner to avoid the substrate circuit pattern, the substrate is sucked and held on the stage by the rear surface of the substrate being sucked by the suction mechanism of the substrate contact part.

Description

  The present invention relates to a substrate holding device that holds a substrate when a coating solution is applied onto the substrate by a coating device.

  For flat panel displays such as liquid crystal displays and plasma displays, glass substrates coated with a resist solution (hereinafter referred to as coated substrates) are used. And this application | coating board | substrate is produced using the coating device which apply | coats a resist liquid uniformly on a glass substrate.

  As such a coating device, as shown in FIG. 7, the substrate holding device 71 for holding the substrate and the substrate 1 held by the substrate holding device 71 are disposed above, and the resist solution flows out from the nozzle at the lower end. An application head (application unit) 72 and a relative moving means 73 for moving the application head 72 relatively horizontally with respect to the substrate holding device 71 are provided, and the application head 72 is relatively horizontal with respect to the substrate holding device 71. The resist solution flows out from the coating head 72 while being moved to apply the resist solution to the substrate 1 on the substrate holding device 71, and is disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 1 below.

  Here, since there is usually only a slight gap of several tens to hundreds of microns between the upper surface of the substrate and the nozzle of the coating head, if the substrate surface is uneven, the nozzle of the coating head collides with the substrate. This may damage the nozzle and the substrate. Therefore, in general, the substrate contact surface of the substrate holding device is a flat surface with good flatness, and the substrate is placed thereon so that the substrate surface is held so as not to be uneven.

  However, when holding a substrate with a circuit pattern on the back side, if the substrate contact surface of the substrate holding device is a mere plane, the circuit pattern and the substrate contact surface come into contact with each other, and the substrate surface rises there. The coating head and the substrate collide with each other, and the nozzle and the substrate are damaged.

  As a substrate holding method corresponding to such a substrate, as shown in FIG. 8, the substrate 81 having the circuit pattern 3 on the back surface is provided with a holder 81 for storing the substrate and a substrate holding plate 82 on which the holder 81 is placed. In this case, the substrate 1 is placed in a holder 81 having a groove 83 in a portion facing the circuit pattern 3 so as to avoid contact with the circuit pattern 3, and the circuit pattern does not exist on the back surface of the substrate 1. A method of securing the flatness of the surface of the substrate 1 by supporting only a certain back substrate surface 2 with a holder 81 and placing the holder 81 together with the substrate holding plate 82 can be considered.

Japanese Patent No. 36553688

  However, the above substrate holding method has a problem that the operation is very laborious and costly. For example, if the type of the substrate changes and the shape of the circuit pattern on the substrate differs, it is necessary to manufacture a new holder for each. In particular, when manufacturing substrates with a small variety and variety, each time a new holder is created, labor and cost are required, so the load is very large. Also, as the substrate size becomes larger, it is necessary to increase the size of the holder. However, as described above, since only a slight gap is allowed between the substrate surface and the nozzle of the coating head, the size of the holder is increased. Indeed, extremely high precision and difficult processing is required to increase the flatness of the holder, and more labor and cost are required for manufacturing.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and even when a substrate having a back surface circuit pattern is held on the substrate, the substrate holding capable of ensuring the flatness of the substrate surface without labor and cost. The object is to provide a device.

  In order to solve the above problems, a substrate holding apparatus of the present invention includes a stage having a substrate holding surface, and a block unit disposed on the substrate holding surface of the stage and supporting a substrate having a circuit pattern on the back surface. It is a holding device, and the block unit has one or more block portions that can be repositioned at predetermined positions on the substrate holding surface, and the block portions are in contact with the back surface of the substrate. And a position fixing portion fixed to the substrate holding surface, and the substrate contact portion and the position fixing portion are provided apart from each other by a dimension equal to or higher than the height dimension of the circuit pattern. At least one is provided with an adsorption mechanism for adsorbing the back surface of the substrate to the substrate abutting portion, and the block arranged to avoid the circuit pattern of the substrate on the substrate holding surface of the stage. In the state where the back surface of the substrate is placed on the substrate contact portion of the rack portion, the back surface of the substrate is sucked by the suction mechanism of the substrate contact portion, so that the substrate is sucked and held on the stage. It is a feature.

  According to the above substrate holding device, it is possible to avoid and hold the circuit pattern on the back surface of the substrate, and the flatness of the substrate surface can be obtained without raising the substrate surface at the location where the circuit pattern exists on the back surface. Can be secured and held below the dimension formed by the coating head and the substrate surface during coating.

  The support pin further supports the substrate, the support pin has a smaller width than the block portion, and the support pin is in contact with the back surface of the substrate by being assembled to the substrate holding surface of the stage. Thus, the substrate can be supported.

  According to this configuration, it is possible to support the substrate from the back side by arranging the support pins even in places where the block units are narrow and difficult to support, such as between circuit patterns. Furthermore, it can assist to ensure the flatness of the substrate surface.

  The circuit pattern support member further includes a circuit pattern support member that supports the substrate, the circuit pattern support member having a contact portion that contacts the circuit pattern of the substrate, and the contact portion is formed of an elastic material. The pattern support member may be configured to be attached to the substrate holding surface of the stage so as to contact the circuit pattern and support the substrate from the back surface.

  According to this configuration, since the circuit pattern support member can hold the circuit board in contact with the circuit pattern on the back surface of the substrate, only the block unit and the support pin are provided particularly on the substrate having many back surface circuit patterns. Compared with the case of using, it can assist so that the flatness of the substrate surface can be secured.

  The stage has an assembly mechanism for assembling the block unit to the substrate holding surface of the stage, and the assembly mechanism is common when the support pins and the circuit pattern support member are assembled to the substrate holding surface. It can be set as the structure which can be used in.

  With this configuration, any supporting member can be assembled to one assembling mechanism, so that the assembling patterns of the supporting member are diversified, and it is possible to cope with holding circuit boards having various circuit patterns.

  Further, the stage is divided into a plurality of divided stages in the vertical and horizontal directions, and a plurality of substages in which the block unit, the support pins, and the circuit pattern support member are assembled in a specific pattern on the divided stages. The arrangement pattern of the block unit, the support pin, and the circuit pattern support member on the substrate holding surface can be changed by replacing these substages.

  According to this configuration, the arrangement pattern of the block unit, the support pins, and the circuit pattern support member on the substrate holding surface in units of sub-stages can be switched, so that the back surface is different from the case where the support members are rearranged one by one. It is possible to carry out the stage change of the stage, which is performed when holding the substrates having different circuit pattern arrangement positions, without trouble.

  According to the substrate holding device of the present invention, even if a back surface circuit pattern exists on the substrate, it is possible to perform suction holding while ensuring the flatness of the substrate surface without labor and cost.

It is a top view of the substrate holding device in one embodiment of the present invention. It is a side view of a substrate holding device in the state where a substrate is held. It is a perspective view of a substrate holding device. It is a perspective view which shows an example of a substage. It is a perspective view of the detail of a substage. It is a top view which shows the example of an assembly | attachment of a substage. It is a perspective view of a coating device. It is a perspective view which shows an example of the method of hold | maintaining a board | substrate.

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

  FIG. 1 is a top view of a substrate holding device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view of the substrate holding device. 1 and 2, the substrate holding device includes a flat stage 10 having a substrate holding surface 4 on the upper surface, a block unit 5 that is held on the substrate holding surface 4 and supports the substrate 1 from the back surface, support pins 22, and And a circuit pattern support member 23. By rearranging the block unit 5, the support pins 22, and the circuit pattern support member 23, the back surfaces of various substrates 1 having circuit patterns on the back surface can be held in a state where the flatness of the surface is ensured.

  FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the substrate holding device. Here, the block unit 5 is formed of one or more block portions 21, and the block portion 21 is a suction block 21 a having a suction mechanism or a block 21 b having no suction mechanism, and also holds the substrate of the present invention. The apparatus necessarily has at least one suction block 21a.

  The stage 10 is divided into a plurality of divided stages 10a in the vertical and horizontal directions, and a block portion 21, a support pin 22, and a circuit pattern support member 23 (hereinafter referred to as each support member) are provided in each divided stage 10a. By assembling, the substage 11 as shown in FIG. 4 is formed. These substages 11 are arranged in the vertical and horizontal directions without any gap between adjacent ones, and assembled on the surface plate 13 to form a substrate holding device. Further, by changing these substages 11, the arrangement pattern of each support member on the substrate holding surface 4 can be changed. Here, the split stages 10a may have different shapes, but the same shape is desirable. In the present embodiment, each of the split stages 10a is a flat plate having the same shape and a square surface. If the shape of each divided stage 10a is different, the method of assembling to form the stage 10 by combining them is limited. However, by forming the same shape, the stage 10 can be formed no matter how the divided stages 10a are assembled. Therefore, it is possible to have a large number of replacement patterns for the sub-stage 11 in the replacement of the substrate holding device performed when the shape of the circuit pattern of the substrate to be held changes.

  Further, in the present embodiment, nine divided stages 10a are arranged three by three in the vertical and horizontal directions to configure the stage 10, but this is not necessarily limited, and depending on the size of the substrate 1 and the size of the divided stage 10a, Any number of sheets may be arranged, and the number of sheets in the vertical and horizontal directions may not be equal. In addition, each division stage 10a can be finely adjusted in the assembly height and the assembly angle by inserting a spacer such as a shim on the assembly surface with the surface plate 13, and the attachment of each division stage 10a. By performing fine angle adjustment, the flatness of the entire stage 10 can be adjusted.

  FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an example of the sub-stage, and FIG. 5 is a detailed perspective view of the sub-stage, in which each component of FIG. 4 is disassembled. The division stage 10a has a divided substrate holding surface 4a, which is a divided substrate holding surface, on the upper surface, and an assembly mechanism 12 is provided there. Then, the substage shown in FIG. 4 is formed by assembling the block portion 21, the support pins 22, and the circuit pattern support member 23 to the divided stage 10 a using the assembly mechanism 12. Here, in this embodiment, the assembly mechanism 12 is a screw hole, and each support member is fixed to the screw hole by screwing. Moreover, the diameter of the screw used when screwing each supporting member is unified, and by doing this, only one type of diameter of the screw hole of the assembling mechanism 12 is prepared, and further, the arrangement of the assembling mechanism 12 is arranged. The assembly mechanism 12 can be used in common for each support member by setting the intervals to be equal in length and breadth and providing the screw fixing portion on each support member in accordance with the arrangement interval. Further, the number of each supporting member to be assembled to the split stage 10a may be assembled as long as it is assembled using the assembling mechanism 12, and there may be a supporting member that is not assembled. The assembly mechanism 12 is not only the shape of the screw hole but also an upwardly convex male screw, and is a mechanism for fixing each support member using a nut or the like, or a positioning pin or a pin hole instead of a screw. It may be a mechanism such as fixing each support member by fitting using.

  In this embodiment, the block portion 21 is the suction block 21a provided with the suction mechanism as described above or the block 21b without the suction mechanism. Both the suction block 21a and the block 21b have a rectangular parallelepiped shape, a position fixing portion 14a fixed to the divided substrate holding surface 4a on the lower surface, and a substrate contact portion 14b that contacts the back substrate surface 2 of the substrate 1 on the upper surface. And through holes 27 penetrating from the four corners of the upper surface to the four corners of the lower surface. The position fixing portion 14a is brought into contact with the divided substrate holding surface 4a of the divided stage 10a, and the block 24 is assembled to the divided stage 10a by passing the bolts 24 through the through holes 27 and screwed to the assembling mechanism 12. Here, with respect to the through hole 27, when the block portion 21 is screwed to the split stage 10a using the bolt 24, the screw head of the bolt 24 does not protrude upward from the substrate contact portion 14b. A countersink is provided at the top of the. By doing so, the flatness of the substrate contact portion 14b can be ensured when the block portion 21 is assembled to the split stage 10a. Further, by inserting a spacer such as a shim between the position fixing portion 14a and the divided substrate holding surface 4a, the assembly height and the assembly angle can be finely adjusted.

  Here, the suction block 21a is different from the block 21b in that the substrate abutting portion 14b includes the porous metal 25 and the suction block 21a includes the suction portion 26 on one side surface. The intake portion 26 and the porous metal 25 are connected to each other. A pipe is connected to the intake portion 26 from the outside of the adsorption block 21a, and an intake source such as a vacuum pump (not shown) is connected to the other end of the pipe. Inhalation is performed from the porous metal 25 by performing the intake from. Here, since the porous metal 25 adsorbs the substrate 1, the adsorption block 21 a can adsorb and hold the substrate 1. In this embodiment, the surface plate 13 is provided with an intake port connected to a vacuum source by piping, and by connecting the intake port and the suction portion 26 of each suction block 21a by piping, the substrate 1 is connected to each suction block 21a. Can be adsorbed and held.

  Here, the height h of the block portion 21 (the distance between the substrate contact portion 14b and the position fixing portion 14a) is higher than the height t of the circuit pattern 3 on the substrate 1, as shown in FIG. . This prevents the circuit pattern 3 from coming into contact with the divided substrate holding surface 4a of each divided stage 10a when the substrate 1 is mounted on the substrate holding device, and causes the substrate 1 to float with respect to the divided substrate holding surface 4a. In this state, the substrate 1 is supported.

  Like the block portion 21, the support pin 22 has a position fixing portion 14 a fixed to the divided substrate holding surface 4 a on the lower surface, and a substrate contact portion 14 b that contacts the back substrate surface 2 of the substrate 1 on the upper surface. Yes. In the present embodiment, a cylindrical shape having a width smaller than the width of the block portion 21 is formed, and a pointed shape is formed in the vicinity of the substrate contact portion 14b. By taking this shape, the area of the substrate contact portion 14b is reduced. For example, between the circuit patterns 3 and the like, even in a portion where the width of the back substrate surface 2 is narrow and difficult to support by the block portion 21, etc. By assembling the support pins 22 to the split stage 10a, the substrate 1 can be supported, and the flatness of the substrate 1 is ensured.

  The support pin 22 has a screw 24 a in the position fixing portion 14 a, and this screw diameter is the same as the screw hole of the assembly mechanism 12. By screwing the male screw 24a into the assembly mechanism 12, the support pin 12 is assembled to the split stage 10a. Here, this assembly height is h, as is the height of the block portion 21. Further, by inserting a spacer such as a shim between the position fixing portion 14a and the divided substrate holding surface 4a, the assembly height can be finely adjusted.

  The circuit pattern support member 23 has a rectangular parallelepiped shape, and a position fixing portion 14a fixed to the divided substrate holding surface 4a as well as the block portion 21 and the support pin 22 on the lower surface and the circuit pattern 3 on the upper surface. And a through hole 27 and a counterbore 28 penetrating from the upper surface to the lower surface at both ends thereof. In the present embodiment, the assembly height of the circuit pattern support member 23 is slightly higher than (h−t) obtained by subtracting the height t of the circuit pattern 3 from the height h of the block portion 21 or the support pin 22. The circuit pattern abutting portion 14c is made of an elastic material that is easily deformable such as urethane, and when abutted against the circuit pattern 3, the abutted portion is pushed by the circuit pattern 3 to be elastically deformed. . Thus, even if there is a variation in the height t of the circuit pattern 3 due to the elastic deformation of the circuit pattern abutting portion 14c, the variation is absorbed, and the circuit pattern 3 that abuts is loaded without applying a load. 1 can be supported at the same height as that supported by the block portion 21 and the support pins 22. Then, by assembling the circuit pattern support member 23 to the split stage 10a in the portion where the circuit pattern 3 on the back surface of the substrate 1 exists, the circuit pattern 3 can be supported and the flatness of the substrate 1 can be assisted. . In particular, when there are many circuit patterns and the flatness cannot be ensured simply by supporting the block portion 21 or the support pins 22, it is useful to support the circuit pattern 3 by the circuit pattern support member 23. Here, the circuit pattern contact portion 14c is formed of an elastic material, but the entire circuit pattern support member 23 does not have to be an elastic material, and the lower portion of the circuit pattern support member 23 is formed of a material other than an elastic material such as metal. May be.

  Similarly to the block portion 21, the circuit pattern support member 23 is assembled with the split stage 10a by passing the bolt 24 through the through hole 27 and screwed to the assembly mechanism 12. At this time, the screw head of the bolt 24 is The height is set so as not to interfere with the circuit pattern 3 even when the circuit pattern abutting portion is elastically deformed. Further, by inserting a spacer such as a shim between the position fixing portion 14a and the divided substrate holding surface 4a, the assembly height and the assembly angle can be finely adjusted.

  Next, as for the arrangement of the assembly mechanism 12 on the division stage 10a, the assembly mechanisms 12 are arranged at equal intervals in the vertical and horizontal directions as described above, and they are arranged on the entire divided substrate holding surface 4a. A portion for fixing the screw in each support member is provided in accordance with the arrangement interval of the assembly mechanism 12 so that each support member can be assembled to the split stage 10a using the assembly mechanism in common. By doing so, as shown in FIG. 6 (a) and FIG. 6 (b), the arrangement of the support members can be changed on one split stage 10a, and various arrangement patterns of the support members can be obtained. Can be formed. Therefore, the sub-stage 11 formed by assembling each supporting member to the divided stage 10a can take various shapes, and the substrate holding device formed by arranging these sub-stages 11 in combination is as follows. Furthermore, various arrangement patterns of various support members can be taken, and it is possible to support and hold substrates having circuit patterns of various shapes. Further, as shown in FIG. 6 (a), there is no problem even if the assembling mechanism 12 that is not used for assembling the support member remains.

  The substrate 1 can be held as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 by assembling the support member as described above on the stage to form the substrate holding device. First, the block unit 5 is brought into contact with the back substrate portion 2 to hold the substrate 1 in a state of being floated from the substrate holding surface 4. Further, the support pins 22 are disposed in a narrow place where the block unit 5 cannot be disposed, and are brought into contact with the back substrate portion 2, thereby assisting the support of the substrate 1 and ensuring the flatness of the surface of the substrate 1. it can. Further, by further bringing the circuit pattern support member 23 into contact with the circuit pattern 3 shown by hatching in FIG. 1, the support of the substrate 1 can be assisted and the flatness of the surface of the substrate 1 can be ensured.

  Therefore, according to the substrate holding apparatus as described above, even if a back surface circuit pattern exists on the substrate, it is possible to perform suction holding while ensuring the flatness of the substrate surface.

  In the above description, an embodiment has been described in which an assembly mechanism is provided on the substrate holding surface and each support member is fixed using the assembly mechanism. However, other configurations in which the arrangement of each support member is variable, for example, assembly. There may be a configuration in which each support member is provided with a magnet in the position fixing portion and a stage made of a magnetic material such as iron, and each support member is fixed to the stage using magnetic force without having a mechanism. .

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Substrate 2 Back substrate surface 3 Circuit pattern 4 Substrate holding surface 4a Divided substrate holding surface 5 Block unit 10 Stage 10a Divided stage 11 Substage 12 Assembly mechanism 13 Surface plate 14a Position fixing portion 14b Substrate contact portion 14c Circuit pattern contact portion 21 Block part 21a Adsorption block 21b Block 22 Support pin 23 Circuit pattern support member 24 Bolt 24a Male thread 25 Porous metal 26 Air intake part 27 Through hole 71 Substrate holding device 72 Coating head 73 Relative moving means 81 Holder 82 Substrate holding plate 83 Groove

Claims (5)

A stage having a substrate holding surface;
A block unit disposed on the substrate holding surface of the stage and supporting a substrate having a circuit pattern on the back surface;
A substrate holding device comprising:
The block unit has one or more block portions provided to be repositionable at predetermined positions on the substrate holding surface,
The block portion has a substrate contact portion that contacts the back surface of the substrate and a position fixing portion that is fixed to the substrate holding surface, and the substrate contact portion and the position fixing portion are arranged at the height of the circuit pattern. It is provided apart from the dimension,
At least one of the block portions is provided with a suction mechanism for sucking the back surface of the substrate to the substrate contact portion,
In the state where the back surface of the substrate is placed on the substrate contact portion of the block portion arranged so as to avoid the circuit pattern of the substrate on the substrate holding surface of the stage, the back surface of the substrate is moved by the suction mechanism of the substrate contact portion. A substrate holding apparatus, wherein the substrate is sucked and held on the stage by being sucked.   The support pin further supports the substrate, the support pin has a width dimension smaller than that of the block portion, and the support pin is brought into contact with the back surface of the substrate by being assembled to the substrate holding surface of the stage. The substrate holding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the substrate holding device supports a substrate.   The circuit pattern support member further includes a circuit pattern support member that supports the substrate, the circuit pattern support member having a contact portion that contacts the circuit pattern of the substrate, and the contact portion is formed of an elastic material. The substrate holding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the member is attached to the substrate holding surface of the stage so as to contact the circuit pattern and support the substrate from the back surface.   The stage has an assembly mechanism for assembling the block unit to the substrate holding surface of the stage, and the assembly mechanism is commonly used when assembling the support pin and the circuit pattern support member to the substrate holding surface. The substrate holding device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the substrate holding device can be made.   The stage is divided into a plurality of divided stages in the vertical and horizontal directions, and a plurality of substages in which the block unit, the support pins, and the circuit pattern support member are assembled in a specific pattern are formed on the divided stage. The arrangement pattern of the block unit, the support pins, and the circuit pattern support member on the substrate holding surface can be changed by replacing these substages. 5. The substrate holding device according to any one of 4 above.

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