JP2013027815A - Coater - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a coater capable of appropriately applying a processing liquid exclusively to the back surface of a substrate even when the substrate is carried in an inclined state.SOLUTION: A treating liquid discharging pipe 30 discharges a processing liquid toward the surface of an application roller 20 from the lower side of the substrate 100 and the upstream side in the direction in which a carrying roller 10 carries the substrate 100 before the substrate 100 to be carried by the carrying roller 10 reaches the application roller 20, and the discharge of the processing liquid from the treating liquid discharging pipe 30 is stopped before the back end of the substrate 100 being carried by the carrying roller 10 reaches the application roller 20.

Description

  The present invention relates to a treatment liquid on the back surface of a substrate having a rectangular shape such as a glass substrate for an organic EL display device, a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display device, a panel substrate for a solar cell, a glass substrate for a PDP, or a mask substrate for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. The present invention relates to a coating apparatus that coats.

  In the substrate processing apparatus for cleaning the rectangular substrate described above, in general, the substrate is transported in a state where the main surface of the substrate is inclined with respect to the horizontal direction in order to quickly wash away contaminants and enhance the cleaning effect. However, the cleaning liquid is supplied to the front surface or the back surface of the substrate to perform the cleaning process (see Patent Document 1).

  By the way, after the cleaning process, it may be necessary to apply a treatment liquid for a specific purpose only to the back surface of the substrate. For example, it may be necessary to apply a treatment liquid for protecting the substrate only to the back surface of the substrate.

  In the substrate processing apparatus described in Patent Document 1, the processing liquid is applied to the back surface of the substrate by ejecting the processing liquid to the back surface of the substrate using a spray nozzle disposed on the back surface side of the substrate.

JP 2004-25144 A

  When the configuration in which the processing liquid is ejected from the spray nozzle as in the substrate processing apparatus described in Patent Document 1, the processing liquid ejected from the spray nozzle goes around the surface of the substrate and adheres thereto. Problems arise. Further, even if the processing liquid ejection time is controlled to prevent the processing liquid from flowing around, the mist-like processing liquid floating in the processing chamber may adhere to the surface of the substrate.

  For this reason, for example, the substrate is transported at a height position near the surface of the processing liquid stored in the storage tank, and only the back surface of the substrate is brought into contact with the processing liquid in the storage tank. Although it is conceivable to apply it, in this case, the control of the liquid level becomes extremely difficult, which is not practical. In addition, such a processing method cannot be applied when the substrate is transported in an inclined state in conjunction with the previous and subsequent steps.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and provides a coating apparatus capable of appropriately applying a treatment liquid only to the back surface of a substrate even when the substrate is transported while being inclined. Objective.

  The invention according to claim 1 is a coating device that applies a treatment liquid to a back surface of a substrate having a rectangular shape, and a transport mechanism that transports the main surface of the substrate in a state inclined with respect to a horizontal direction; A coating roller rotating in contact with the entire back surface of the substrate transported by the transport mechanism, a direction in which the longitudinal direction intersects the transport direction of the substrate by the transport mechanism, and the back surface of the substrate transported by the transport mechanism And a substrate having a treatment liquid reservoir therein and a plurality of treatment liquid ejection openings arranged in a longitudinal direction in communication with the reservoir, and conveyed by the conveyance mechanism And a processing liquid discharge pipe for discharging the processing liquid toward the surface of the coating roller from the upstream side in the substrate transport direction by the transport mechanism, and supplying the processing liquid to the processing liquid discharge pipe processing Characterized in that a supply mechanism.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the storage portion of the processing liquid in the processing liquid discharge pipe is divided into a plurality of portions in the longitudinal direction of the processing liquid discharge pipe. The liquid supply mechanism supplies a processing liquid to each of the plurality of storage units divided.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, the substrate position recognizing means for recognizing the position of the front end and the position of the rear end of the substrate conveyed by the conveyance mechanism, and the substrate position recognizing means The processing liquid discharge operation from the processing liquid discharge pipe to the surface of the coating roller based on the position of the front end and the rear end of the substrate recognized by Application control means that starts before reaching the application roller and stops before the rear end of the substrate conveyed by the substrate conveyance mechanism reaches the application roller.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the processing liquid is discharged toward the surface of the coating roller from the lower side of the substrate and the upstream side in the substrate transport direction using the processing liquid discharge pipe. Therefore, even when the substrate is transported while being inclined, the processing liquid can be appropriately applied only to the back surface of the substrate.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, even when the processing liquid discharge pipe is disposed to be inclined with respect to the horizontal direction so as to be parallel to the back surface of the substrate transported by the transport mechanism, The amount of the processing liquid discharged can be made substantially uniform with respect to the entire longitudinal direction of the processing liquid discharge pipe. For this reason, it becomes possible to make uniform the quantity of the process liquid apply | coated to the back surface of a board | substrate over the whole region of a board | substrate.

  According to the invention described in claim 3, since the discharge operation of the processing liquid is started before the front end of the substrate reaches the application roller, and stopped before the rear end of the substrate reaches the application roller. It is possible to prevent the treatment liquid from entering the surface side of the substrate.

It is a schematic diagram of the coating device concerning this invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a state in which a substrate 100 is transported by a transport roller 10. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an arrangement of a substrate 100 and a coating roller 20 that are transported by a transport roller 10. 3 is a schematic diagram of a processing liquid discharge pipe 30. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing the application roller 20 and the treatment liquid discharge pipe 30 together with the substrate 100 conveyed by the conveyance roller 10. FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the control system of the coating device which concerns on this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a coating apparatus according to the present invention.

  This coating apparatus is disposed between a cleaning device 61 that cleans a substrate 100 having a rectangular shape with pure water and a drying device 62 that dries the substrate 100. It has a coating chamber 53 in which a carry-in port 54 and a carry-out port 55 are formed. In the chamber 53, a plurality of transport rollers 10 are disposed for transporting the substrate 100 in a state where the main surface is inclined with respect to the horizontal direction. Further, the coating apparatus includes a coating roller 20 that rotates in contact with the entire back surface of the substrate 100 transported by a plurality of transport rollers 10.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a state in which the substrate 100 is transported by the transport roller 10.

  The transport roller 10 includes a guide roller 11 having a flange that contacts the inclined lower edge of the substrate 100, a plurality of support rollers 12 that contact the lower surface of the substrate 100 and support the substrate 100, and the guide rollers 11 A connecting shaft 13 that connects the support roller 12 is provided. The substrate 100 is transported by the transport roller 10 having such a configuration with its main surface inclined with respect to the horizontal direction. The application roller 20 rotates in synchronization with the moving speed of the substrate 100 in a state where the application roller 20 is in contact with the entire lower surface of the substrate 100 conveyed by the conveyance roller 10.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the arrangement of the substrate 100 and the application roller 20 that are transported by the transport roller 10.

  The application roller 20 is disposed in a direction in which the longitudinal direction intersects the conveyance direction of the substrate 100 by the conveyance roller 10 and parallel to the back surface of the substrate 100 conveyed by the conveyance roller 10. As a result, the application roller 20 applies the processing liquid to the back surface of the substrate 100 by rotating in contact with the entire back surface of the substrate 100 conveyed by the conveyance roller 10 as will be described later.

  Referring again to FIG. 1, the coating apparatus includes a processing liquid discharge pipe 30 for discharging the processing liquid toward the surface of the coating roller 20 and a process liquid for supplying the processing liquid to the processing liquid discharge pipe 30. A processing liquid supply mechanism is provided. The processing liquid supply mechanism includes a processing liquid tank 41 for storing the processing liquid, a pump 42 disposed in a pipe 46 for pumping the processing liquid in the processing liquid tank 41, and a processing liquid discharging pipe. The electromagnetic valve 43 disposed in the pipe 48 for feeding the liquid 30, the electromagnetic valve 44 disposed in the pipe 47 for circulating the processing liquid, and the processing liquid dropped from the coating roller 20 are collected. And a conduit 49 for feeding the processing liquid recovered by the recovery pad 45 to the processing liquid tank 41.

  In addition, this coating apparatus is used for cleaning the substrate 100 in the preceding cleaning apparatus 61, and the substrate is transported by the air discharge nozzle 51 for removing pure water adhering to the back surface of the substrate 100 and the transport roller 10. And a sensor 52 composed of a microswitch or the like for recognizing the front end and the rear end of 100.

  FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the processing liquid discharge pipe 30.

  The treatment liquid discharge pipe 30 is parallel to the application roller 20, that is, the direction in which the longitudinal direction intersects the transport direction of the substrate 100 by the transport roller 10 and the back surface of the substrate 100 transported by the transport roller 10. They are arranged in parallel. The treatment liquid discharge pipe 30 has a cylindrical shape with both ends closed, and a treatment liquid reservoir is formed therein.

  The storage portion of the processing liquid is divided into four regions with respect to the longitudinal direction by three partition plates 33 that partition the inside of the cylindrical processing liquid discharge pipe 30. A treatment liquid supply port 32 is disposed in each region. The processing liquid supplied from the conduit 48 shown in FIG. 1 is supplied from each supply port 32 into the divided four processing liquid storage units.

  The treatment liquid discharge pipe 30 has a plurality of treatment liquid discharge ports 31 arranged in a row along the longitudinal direction. The processing liquid supplied into the four processing liquid storage portions divided from the supply ports 32 is discharged from the processing liquid discharge port 31.

  FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing the application roller 20 and the treatment liquid discharge pipe 30 together with the substrate 100 conveyed by the conveyance roller 10.

  As shown in FIG. 5A, the processing liquid discharge pipe 30 is on the lower side of the substrate 100 transported by the transport roller 10 and on the upstream side in the transport direction of the substrate 100 by the transport roller 10 (left side in FIG. 5). ), The processing liquid is discharged toward the surface of the application roller 20.

  FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a control system of the coating apparatus according to the present invention.

  The coating apparatus includes a control unit 70 including a ROM 71 that stores an operation program necessary for controlling the apparatus, a RAM 72 that temporarily stores data and the like during control, and a CPU 73 that executes a logical operation. The control unit 70 is connected to a motor 59 for rotationally driving each transport roller 10 via an interface 74. The control unit 70 is connected to the above-described sensor 52, pump 42, and electromagnetic valves 43 and 44 through an interface 74. As will be described later, the control unit 70 performs the operation of discharging the processing liquid from the processing liquid discharge pipe 30 onto the surface of the coating roller 20, and the tip of the substrate 100 transported by the transport roller 10 reaches the coating roller 20. It starts as a coating control unit that stops before the trailing edge of the substrate 100 transported by the transporting roller 10 reaches the coating roller 20.

  When applying the processing liquid to the substrate 100 in the coating apparatus having the above configuration, the motor 59 is driven by the control of the control unit 70 shown in FIG. The sensor 52 detects the tip of the substrate 100 immediately before the substrate 100 passes through the cleaning device 61 and enters the carry-in port 54 of the coating chamber 53. If the sensor 52 detects the position of the front end of the substrate 100, then the control unit 70 monitors the position of the front end of the substrate 100 from the detection signal of the front end of the substrate 100 by the sensor 52 and the rotation speed of the motor 59.

  At this time, in the processing liquid supply mechanism for supplying the processing liquid to the processing liquid discharge pipe 30, the electromagnetic valve 43 is closed and the electromagnetic valve 44 is opened. For this reason, the processing liquid in the processing liquid tank 41 is circulated in the circulation path including the pipe 46, the pump 42, the pipe 47 and the electromagnetic valve 44 by driving the pump 42.

  If the substrate 100 transported by the transport roller 10 is transported into the coating chamber 53, the action of the compressed air discharged from the air discharge nozzle 51 causes the pure water attached to the lower surface of the substrate 100 during the cleaning process by the cleaning device 61. Is removed. Thereby, the pure water remaining on the back surface of the substrate 100 is prevented from obstructing the application of the treatment liquid to the back surface of the substrate 100.

  And before the front-end | tip of the board | substrate 100 conveyed by the conveyance roller 10 arrives at the application roller 20, the solenoid valve 43 is open | released by control of the control part 70, and the solenoid valve 44 is closed. Thereby, the processing liquid in the processing liquid tank 41 is sent to the processing liquid discharge pipe 30 through the pipe 46, the pump 42, the electromagnetic valve 43, and the pipe 48 by driving the pump 42. Then, the processing liquid is temporarily stored in the four storage portions from the supply ports 32 of the processing liquid discharge pipe 30 and then discharged from the discharge ports 31 toward the surface of the application roller 20. The treatment liquid that is discharged and dropped onto the surface of the application roller 20 is collected by the collection pad 45 and returned to the treatment liquid tank 41 via the conduit 49.

  At this time, the processing liquid reservoir in the processing liquid discharge pipe 30 is divided into four regions with respect to the longitudinal direction by the three partition plates 33. The processing liquid supplied from the pipeline 48 is discharged from the processing liquid discharge port 31 after being stored in each of the four storage liquid storage portions from the supply ports 32. For this reason, even when the processing liquid discharge pipe 30 is inclined, the discharge amount of the processing liquid discharged from each discharge port 31 can be maintained substantially uniformly.

  In this state, if the tip of the substrate 100 is conveyed to a position where it contacts the application roller 20, the processing liquid is applied to the back surface of the substrate 100 by the action of the application roller 20 that contacts the entire back surface of the substrate 100. At this time, as shown in FIG. 5A, the processing liquid discharge pipe 30 is below the substrate 100 conveyed by the conveyance roller 10 and from the upstream side in the conveyance direction of the substrate 100 by the conveyance roller 10. Since the processing liquid is discharged toward the surface of the application roller 20, it is possible to effectively prevent the processing liquid from entering the surface of the substrate 100.

  By continuously transporting the substrate 100 in this state, the processing liquid is applied to the entire lower surface of the substrate 100. Then, the rear end of the substrate 100 conveyed by the conveyance roller 10 is detected by the sensor 52. If the sensor 52 detects the position of the rear end of the substrate 100, then the control unit 70 monitors the position of the rear end of the substrate 100 from the detection signal of the rear end of the substrate 100 by the sensor 52 and the rotation speed of the motor 59. .

  Then, before the rear end of the substrate 100 transported by the transport roller 10 reaches the application roller 20, the electromagnetic valve 43 is closed and the electromagnetic valve 44 is opened by a command from the control unit 70. As a result, the discharge of the processing liquid from the processing liquid discharge pipe 30 is stopped, and the processing liquid in the processing liquid tank 41 circulates in a circulation path including the pipe 46, the pump 42, the pipe 47 and the electromagnetic valve 44. . As described above, since the discharge of the processing liquid from the processing liquid discharge pipe 30 is stopped before the rear end of the substrate 100 reaches the transfer roller 10, the processing liquid discharged from the processing liquid discharge pipe 30 is transferred. Supplying to the upper surface of the substrate 100 conveyed by the roller 10 can be effectively prevented.

  As described above, according to the coating apparatus according to this embodiment, the processing liquid discharge pipe 30 is on the lower side of the substrate 100 transported by the transport roller 10 and upstream in the transport direction of the substrate 100 by the transport roller 10. From the side, the processing liquid is discharged toward the surface of the coating roller 20, and before the rear end of the substrate 100 transported by the transporting roller 10 reaches the coating roller 20, the processing liquid is discharged from the processing liquid discharge pipe 30. Since the discharge of the processing liquid is stopped, the processing liquid can be accurately applied only to the back surface of the substrate 100 without flowing into the surface of the substrate 100.

  Further, the processing liquid storage part in the processing liquid discharge pipe 30 is divided into four regions with respect to the longitudinal direction by the three partition plates 33, and the four processing liquids divided into the processing liquids are divided. Since the liquid is discharged from the treatment liquid discharge port 31 after being stored in the storage portion, the discharge of the treatment liquid discharged from each discharge port 31 even when the treatment liquid discharge pipe 30 is inclined. The amount can be kept substantially uniform.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Conveyance roller 11 Guide roller 12 Support roller 13 Connecting shaft 20 Application | coating roller 30 Process liquid discharge pipe 31 Discharge port 32 Supply port 33 Partition plate 41 Process liquid tank 42 Pump 43 Electromagnetic valve 44 Electromagnetic valve 45 Recovery pad 51 Air discharge nozzle 52 Sensor 53 Coating chamber 59 Motor 61 Cleaning device 62 Drying device 70 Control unit 100 Substrate

Claims (3)

In a coating apparatus for applying a treatment liquid to the back surface of a substrate having a rectangular shape,
A transport mechanism for transporting the main surface of the substrate in a state inclined with respect to the horizontal direction;
A coating roller that rotates in contact with the entire back surface of the substrate transported by the transport mechanism;
The longitudinal direction is a direction intersecting with the substrate transport direction by the transport mechanism and parallel to the back surface of the substrate transported by the transport mechanism, and has a treatment liquid reservoir therein, and the longitudinal direction. A plurality of processing liquid discharge ports communicating with the storage unit along the lower side of the substrate transported by the transport mechanism and from the upstream side of the transport direction of the substrate by the transport mechanism, A processing liquid discharge pipe for discharging the processing liquid toward the surface of the coating roller;
A treatment liquid supply mechanism for supplying a treatment liquid to the treatment liquid discharge pipe;
A coating apparatus comprising: The coating apparatus according to claim 1,
The storage portion of the processing liquid in the processing liquid discharge pipe is divided into a plurality in the longitudinal direction of the processing liquid discharge pipe,
The treatment liquid supply mechanism is a coating apparatus that supplies a treatment liquid to each of the plurality of storage parts divided. The coating apparatus according to claim 2,
Substrate position recognition means for recognizing the position of the front end and the position of the rear end of the substrate transported by the transport mechanism;
Based on the position of the front end and the rear end of the substrate recognized by the substrate position recognizing means, the discharge operation of the processing liquid from the processing liquid discharge pipe to the surface of the coating roller is transferred by the transfer mechanism. An application control unit that starts before the front end of the substrate reaches the application roller, and stops before the rear end of the substrate conveyed by the substrate conveyance mechanism reaches the application roller;
A coating apparatus comprising

Images