JP2016046268A - Liquid discharging method of substrate processing device and substrate processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a liquid discharging method of a substrate processing device, capable of suppressing energy consumption with a simple constitution.SOLUTION: A control section 45 operates an on-off valve 43, supplies pure water through a pure water supply pipe 39 to fill the inside of a liquid discharge pipe 35 with pure water, stops the supply of pure water through the pure water supply pipe 39, and discharges a process liquid from an outer tank 7 to a liquid discharge section 37 by a siphon effect by the liquid discharge pipe 35. Accordingly, the on-off valve 43 can be used in place of a two-fluid nozzle, so that the constitution of a substrate processing device can be simplified. In addition, it is not required that a liquid is continuously flown, but only required that pure water is filled in the liquid discharge pipe 35, so that energy consumption can be suppressed.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer, a liquid crystal display substrate, a plasma display substrate, an organic EL substrate, an FED (Field Emission Display) substrate, an optical display substrate, a magnetic disk substrate, a magneto-optical disk substrate, and a photomask substrate. The present invention relates to a drainage method and a substrate processing apparatus of a substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate and a solar cell substrate (hereinafter simply referred to as a substrate), and more particularly to a technique for discharging a processing liquid from a tank that stores the processing liquid.

  Conventionally, as a method of this type, an inner tank for storing a processing liquid and immersing the substrate to process the substrate, an outer tank for recovering the processing liquid overflowing from the inner tank, an inner tank and an outer tank, A circulation path that circulates the processing liquid, a drainage pipe having one end connected to the inside of the outer tub and the other end connected to a drainage section, and an aspirator provided in the drainage pipe. In addition, there is a method for draining a substrate processing apparatus (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  Specifically, after the processing on the substrate in the inner tank is completed, when discharging the processing liquid stored in the outer tank, first, energy for causing the aspirator to perform the functions of the aspirator, such as water and air, is used. As a result, the processing liquid in the outer tub is sucked up into the drainage pipe, and thereafter, the processing liquid stored in the outer tub is sucked up by the drainage pipe and discharged to the drainage section by the siphon effect.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-21036

However, the conventional example having such a configuration has the following problems.
That is, the conventional method requires an aspirator in order to obtain a sufficient discharging force by the siphon effect, and requires a certain amount of energy to obtain the siphon effect. When the treatment solution is a chemical solution such as sulfuric acid, a stronger discharging force is required depending on the weight and viscosity of the chemical solution, and the discharge becomes difficult. Therefore, there is a problem that the configuration becomes complicated and the apparatus cost increases, and the energy consumption is large.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus draining method and a substrate processing apparatus that can suppress energy and liquid consumption with a simple configuration.

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention has the following configuration.
That is, according to the first aspect of the present invention, in the draining method of the substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate with the processing liquid, one end side is opened at the bottom surface in the processing tank storing the processing liquid, and the other end side is from the one end side. A drainage pipe that opens to a drainage part at a low position, a liquid supply pipe that supplies liquid to the drainage pipe between one end side and the other end side of the drainage pipe, and a liquid in the liquid supply pipe A control valve for controlling the flow of the liquid, a liquid supply step for opening the control valve to supply liquid from the liquid supply pipe and filling the drainage pipe with liquid, and the control valve A discharge step of closing and stopping the supply of the liquid from the liquid supply pipe and discharging the treatment liquid from the treatment tank to the drainage section by a siphon effect in the drainage pipe. To do.

  [Operation / Effect] According to the first aspect of the present invention, the liquid is supplied from the liquid supply pipe by the liquid supply step to fill the drainage pipe with the liquid, and the liquid is supplied from the liquid supply pipe by the discharge step. And the treatment liquid is discharged from the treatment tank to the drainage part by the siphon effect by the drainage pipe. Therefore, since a control valve may be used in place of the aspirator, a simple configuration can be achieved, and a siphon effect can be obtained simply by filling the drainage pipe with liquid. Energy consumption can be reduced.

  Further, in the present invention, the drainage pipe is provided with an opening / closing valve on the drainage part side of the liquid supply location by the liquid supply pipe, and a closing step for closing the opening / closing valve before the liquid supply step is performed. Preferably, the treatment tank is washed with liquid in the liquid supply step, and after the washing is finished, an opening step of opening the on-off valve is preferably performed before the discharge step. ).

  Since the liquid can be supplied to the processing tank by the closing step and the liquid level of the processing tank can be raised, the inner surface of the processing tank can be cleaned with the liquid. Accordingly, cleaning can be performed along with drainage from the treatment tank.

  In the present invention, the processing tank includes an inner tank that accommodates the substrate and an outer tank that collects the processing liquid overflowing from the inner tank, and the drainage pipe is disposed in the outer tank. (Claim 3).

  When the outer tub is made of quartz, it is difficult to perform processing for connecting a drain pipe to the quartz itself. Therefore, the processing liquid is discharged from the upper part of the quartz outer tank through the drainage pipe, so that the liquid can be drained with an easy configuration.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate with a processing liquid, a processing tank for storing the processing liquid and processing the substrate with the processing liquid, and a processing tank for storing the processing liquid. A drainage pipe having one end opened on the bottom surface and the other end opened to the drainage portion at a position lower than the one end, and between the one end and the other end of the drainage pipe. A liquid supply pipe for supplying liquid, a control valve for controlling the flow of liquid in the liquid supply pipe, and the control valve is opened to supply liquid from the liquid supply pipe to fill the drainage pipe with liquid. A control unit that closes the control valve to stop the supply of the liquid from the liquid supply pipe and discharges the processing liquid from the processing tank to the drainage part by a siphon effect in the drainage pipe; It is characterized by having.

  [Operation / Effect] According to the invention described in claim 4, the control unit operates the control valve to supply the liquid from the liquid supply pipe to fill the drainage pipe with the liquid, and the liquid from the liquid supply pipe Is stopped, and the treatment liquid is discharged from the treatment tank to the drainage part by the siphon effect by the drainage pipe. Accordingly, since a control valve may be used instead of the aspirator, a simple configuration can be achieved, and furthermore, since it is only necessary to fill the liquid in the drainage pipe, energy consumption can be suppressed.

  In the present invention, it is preferable that the drainage pipe is provided with an open / close valve on the drainage side of the liquid supply point by the liquid supply pipe.

  The drainage can be controlled by providing an opening / closing valve to control opening / closing.

  Moreover, in this invention, it is preferable that the said on-off valve is installed in the position lower than the lower end of the said one end side of the said drainage pipe (Claim 6).

  Thereby, as long as the liquid in the drainage pipe does not escape, drainage by the siphon effect can be controlled only by the opening / closing operation of the on-off valve.

  In the present invention, it is preferable that the liquid supply pipe is connected to the highest position of the drainage pipe (claim 7).

  Since the liquid can be easily filled up to both ends of the drainage pipe, the siphon effect can be surely generated.

  According to the drainage method of the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention, the liquid is supplied from the liquid supply pipe by the liquid supply step to fill the drainage pipe with the liquid, and the liquid is supplied from the liquid supply pipe by the discharge step. Stop and drain the treatment liquid from the treatment tank to the drainage part by siphon effect by the drainage pipe. Therefore, the same effect can be exhibited with a simple configuration using only the control valve instead of the aspirator, and moreover, it is only necessary to fill the liquid in the drainage pipe, so that energy consumption can be suppressed.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a substrate processing apparatus according to a first embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows the state before implementing discharge processing of a process liquid. It is a schematic diagram which shows the state which supplied the pure water. It is a schematic diagram which shows the state which discharges | emits a process liquid. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a substrate processing apparatus according to a second embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows the state before implementing discharge processing of a process liquid. It is a schematic diagram which shows the state which supplies the pure water and is wash-processed. It is a schematic diagram which shows the state which opened the on-off valve. It is a schematic diagram which shows the state which discharges | emits a process liquid.

  The substrate processing apparatus draining method according to the present invention will be described with reference to the following two examples.

Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of the substrate processing apparatus according to the first embodiment.

  The substrate processing apparatus according to the present embodiment performs processing with the processing liquid on the substrate W. Specific examples of the treatment include a cleaning treatment using a treatment solution obtained by mixing hydrogen peroxide and sulfuric acid as a chemical solution, and an etching treatment using a treatment solution containing hydrofluoric acid as a chemical solution.

  The processing tank 3 for processing the substrate W includes an inner tank 5 and an outer tank 7. The inner tank 5 stores the processing liquid, accommodates the substrate W, and performs the processing by immersing the substrate W in the processing liquid. The inner tank 5 has a depth in the front side of the paper surface in FIG. 1 and a size that can accommodate a plurality of substrates W aligned in the front side. The outer tank 7 collects the processing liquid overflowing from the inner tank 5. The substrate W to be processed is transported by the lifter 9. The lifter 9 aligns and holds a plurality of substrates W in the direction toward the back of the page of FIG. The lifter 9 can be moved up and down between a processing position corresponding to the inside of the inner tank 5 (shown by a solid line in the figure) and a standby position corresponding to the upper part of the inner tank 5 (shown by a two-dot chain line in the figure). It is configured.

  The outer tub 7 is arranged so as to surround the inner tub 5 and has an upper edge higher than the upper edge of the inner tub 5. A through-hole 11 is formed on the bottom surface of the outer tub 7. The inner tank 5 is provided with a jet pipe 13 on both sides of the bottom and a through-hole 15 at the center of the bottom. The ejection pipe 13 ejects the processing liquid and pure water toward the center of the bottom of the inner tank 5.

  The through hole 11 of the outer tub 7 and the injection pipe 13 of the inner tub 5 are connected in communication by a circulation pipe 17. The circulation pipe 17 is provided with an on-off valve 19, a pump 21, and a filter 23 in order from the upstream side where the outer tub 7 is located. The on-off valve 19 controls the flow of the processing liquid in the circulation pipe 17. The pump 21 pumps the processing liquid through the circulation pipe 17. The filter 23 removes foreign matters such as particles contained in the processing liquid.

  A discharge pipe 25 is connected to the through hole 15 of the inner tank 5 in communication. The discharge pipe 25 is provided with an opening / closing valve 27. When the on-off valve 27 is opened, the discharge pipe 25 is used for draining the processing liquid in the inner tank 5 through.

  One end side of the processing liquid supply pipe 29 is arranged in the outer tank 7. A treatment liquid supply source 31 is disposed on the other end side of the treatment liquid supply pipe 29. The processing liquid supply pipe 29 includes a flow rate adjustment valve 33 for adjusting the flow rate of the processing liquid. The processing liquid supply source 31 stores a processing liquid for processing the substrate W.

  Further, a drainage pipe 35 is disposed in the outer tank 7. One end side of the drainage pipe 35 is opened near the bottom surface of the outer tub 7, the other end side is opened to the drainage part 37 at a height position lower than the one end side, and an intermediate part between both ends is from the both ends. In addition, it has a substantially inverted U shape straddling the wall 7a forming the outer tub 7 at a higher position, and communicates from the one end side to the other end side. The drainage unit 37 collects the processing liquid and pure water discharged through the drainage pipe 35. One end side of the pure water supply pipe 39 is connected to the highest position corresponding to the highest position in the intermediate portion of the drainage pipe 35. The other end side of the pure water supply pipe 39 is connected in communication with a pure water supply source 41. The pure water supply source 41 supplies pure water as a liquid for cleaning the substrate W, mixing it with a processing liquid, or using it for tank cleaning. The pure water supply pipe 39 is provided with an on-off valve 43 for operating the supply of pure water.

  For example, when the outer tub 7 is made of quartz, it is difficult to provide the drainage pipe 35 on the bottom surface of the quartz. Therefore, by draining the treatment liquid from the upper part of the quartz outer tank 7 through the drain pipe 35, the liquid can be drained with an easy configuration.

  The pure water supply pipe 39 described above corresponds to the “liquid supply pipe” in the present invention, and the on-off valve 43 corresponds to the “control valve” in the present invention. Pure water corresponds to the “liquid” in the present invention.

  The raising / lowering of the lifter 9, the operation of the pump 21, and the operations of the on-off valves 19, 27, 43 and the flow rate adjusting valve 33 are controlled by the control unit 45. The control unit 45 includes a CPU, a memory, and a timer (not shown).

  In the substrate processing apparatus configured as described above, the pump 21 is operated in a state in which the processing liquid is stored, the processing liquid overflowing from the inner tank 5 is collected in the outer tank 7, and the processing liquid passes through the circulation pipe 17. The substrate W is circulated from the injection tube 13 to the inner tank 5 to process the substrate W with the processing liquid. In the following, a description will be given from a state in which this processing is completed. In the following description, the valve symbol is shown in black when the on-off valve 43 is open, and the valve symbol is shown in white when it is closed.

  When the processing for the substrate W is completed, for example, the control unit 45 raises the lifter 9 to the standby position, stops the pump 21 and closes the on-off valves 19 and the like to stop the circulation of the processing liquid. The state at this time is shown in FIG. It is assumed that the processing liquid in the inner tank 5 is discharged from the discharge pipe 25 by opening the on-off valve 27 and the processing liquid is stored in the outer tank 7. At this time, the one end side (outer tank 7 side) of the drainage pipe 35 is only storing the processing liquid according to the liquid level of the outer tank 7, and the other end side (drainage liquid) of the drainage pipe 35. The part 37 side) is empty.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the control unit 45 opens the on-off valve 43 and supplies pure water from the pure water supply source 41 to the drainage pipe 35. As a result, the entire drainage pipe 35 is filled with the treatment liquid and pure water. The control unit 45 maintains this pure water supply for a predetermined time.

  The above steps correspond to the “liquid supply step” in the present invention.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the controller 45 closes the on-off valve 43 when a predetermined time has elapsed. Thereby, the supply of pure water from the pure water supply pipe 39 to the drain pipe 35 is stopped. Although the supply of pure water is stopped, the processing liquid in the outer tub 7 is continuously discharged by the siphon effect when the pure water in the drain pipe 35 is discharged to the drain part 37.

  The above steps correspond to the “discharge step” in the present invention.

  According to the present embodiment, the control unit 45 operates the on-off valve 43 to supply pure water from the pure water supply pipe 39 to fill the drain pipe 35 with pure water, and to supply pure water from the pure water supply pipe 39. The supply of water is stopped, and the treatment liquid is discharged from the outer tank 7 to the drainage part 37 by the siphon effect by the drainage pipe 35. Therefore, since the on-off valve 43 may be used instead of the aspirator, a simple configuration can be achieved, and it is not necessary to keep the liquid flowing, and it is only necessary to fill the drain pipe 35 with pure water, thereby suppressing energy consumption. .

  In addition, since the liquid supply pipe 39 is connected to the highest position of the drainage pipe 35, pure water can be easily filled up to both ends of the drainage pipe 35, so that the siphon effect can be surely generated. Can do.

Next, Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of the substrate processing apparatus according to the second embodiment.

  In addition, about the structure similar to Example 1 mentioned above, detailed description is abbreviate | omitted by attaching | subjecting a same sign.

  This embodiment apparatus is different from Embodiment 1 described above in that the drainage pipe 35 is provided with an on-off valve 47. The on-off valve 47 is provided in the drainage pipe 35 on the opposite side to the outer tub 7 with the connection portion with the pure water supply pipe 39 interposed therebetween.

  In the state where the processing for the substrate W has been completed, only the processing liquid corresponding to the liquid level of the outer tub 7 is stored at one end side (the outer tub 7 side) of the drain tub 35. The other end side (the drainage part 37 side) is empty.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the control unit 45 opens the open / close valve 43 with the open / close valve 47 closed, and supplies pure water from the pure water supply source 41 to the drain pipe 35. Thereby, the outer tub 7 side of the drainage pipe 35 is filled with pure water, and the pure water is further fed into the outer tub 7, so that the liquid level of the outer tub 7 rises. Thereby, the inner wall of the outer tank 7 can be washed with a mixed liquid of the processing liquid and pure water. The control unit 45 maintains the pure water supply for a predetermined time within a range not exceeding the upper edge of the inner tank 5.

  The step of closing the on-off valve 47 corresponds to the “closing step” in the present invention.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 8, the control unit 45 opens the on-off valve 47. At this time, the on-off valve 43 remains open, and pure water supply to the drainage pipe 35 is continued. As a result, the entire drainage pipe 35 is filled with the treatment liquid and pure water. The control unit 45 maintains this pure water supply until at least the entire drainage pipe 35 is filled with the processing liquid and pure water.

  The above steps correspond to the “liquid supply step” in the present invention.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 9, the controller 45 closes the on-off valve 43 when a predetermined time elapses. Thereby, the supply of pure water from the pure water supply pipe 39 is stopped. Although the supply of pure water is stopped, the processing liquid in the outer tub 7 is continuously discharged by the siphon effect when the pure water in the drain pipe 35 is discharged to the drain part 37.

  The above steps correspond to the “discharge step” in the present invention.

  According to the present embodiment apparatus, pure water can be supplied to the outer tub 7 to raise the liquid level of the outer tub 7, so that the inner surface of the outer tub 7 can be washed with liquid. Therefore, in addition to the effects in the first embodiment described above, there is an effect that cleaning can be performed along with drainage from the outer tub 7.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and can be modified as follows.

  (1) In each of the embodiments described above, the liquid in the present invention has been described as pure water, but the present invention is not limited to pure water. As the liquid, for example, a cleaning liquid or alcohol can be used.

  (2) In each of the above-described embodiments, the configuration in which the processing liquid in the outer tub 7 is discharged by the drainage pipe 35 is exemplified. However, the processing liquid in the inner tub 5 may be discharged.

  (3) In each of the above-described embodiments, the pure water supply pipe 39 is connected to the highest position of the drainage pipe 35. However, if pure water can be distributed throughout the drainage pipe 35, the highest position is provided. It does not have to be.

  (4) In the second embodiment described above, the on-off valve 47 is installed at a position lower than that shown in FIG. 5 and lower than the lower end of one end side (outer tank 7 side) of the drainage pipe 35. Also good. In this case, as long as the liquid in the drainage pipe 35 does not escape, it is preferable that the drainage by the siphon effect can be controlled only by the opening / closing operation of the on-off valve 47.

W ... Substrate 3 ... Processing tank 5 ... Inner tank 7 ... Outer tank 9 ... Lifter 35 ... Drainage pipe 37 ... Drainage part 39 ... Pure water supply pipe 41 ... Pure water supply source 43 ... On-off valve 45 ... Control part 47 ... On-off valve

Claims (7)

In a draining method of a substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate with a processing liquid,
A drainage pipe having one end opened on the bottom surface in the treatment tank storing the treatment liquid and the other end opened to the drainage portion at a position lower than the one end side, and one end side and the other end side of the drainage pipe The substrate processing apparatus includes a liquid supply pipe that supplies liquid to the drain pipe and a control valve that controls the flow of the liquid in the liquid supply pipe.
A liquid supply step of opening the control valve to supply liquid from the liquid supply pipe, and filling the drainage pipe with liquid;
A discharge step of closing the control valve to stop the supply of the liquid from the liquid supply pipe, and discharging the processing liquid from the processing tank to the drainage section by a siphon effect in the drainage pipe;
A method for draining a substrate processing apparatus, comprising: The method for draining a substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1,
The drainage pipe is provided with an on-off valve on the drainage part side of the liquid supply location by the liquid supply pipe,
Prior to the liquid supply step, a closing step of closing the on-off valve is performed,
In the liquid supply step, the treatment tank is washed with liquid,
A substrate processing apparatus discharging method comprising: performing an opening step of opening the on-off valve after the cleaning and before the discharging step. In the drainage method of the substrate processing apparatus of Claim 1 or 2,
The processing tank includes an inner tank that accommodates a substrate and an outer tank that collects a processing liquid overflowing from the inner tank, and the drainage pipe is disposed in the outer tank. Method of draining the device. In a substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate with a processing liquid,
A processing tank for storing the processing liquid and processing the substrate with the processing liquid;
One end side is opened on the bottom surface in the treatment tank storing the treatment liquid, and the other end side is opened to the drainage part at a position lower than the one end side, and
A liquid supply pipe for supplying liquid to the drainage pipe between one end side and the other end side of the drainage pipe;
A control valve for controlling the flow of liquid in the liquid supply pipe;
The control valve is opened, liquid is supplied from the liquid supply pipe to fill the drain pipe with liquid, the control valve is closed to stop supply of liquid from the liquid supply pipe, and the drain A control unit for discharging the processing liquid from the processing tank to the drainage part by a siphon effect in a liquid pipe;
A substrate processing apparatus comprising: The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 4,
The substrate processing apparatus, wherein the drainage pipe is provided with an opening / closing valve on a side of the drainage part with respect to a liquid supply location by the liquid supply pipe. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 5,
The substrate processing apparatus, wherein the on-off valve is installed at a position lower than a lower end on the one end side of the drainage pipe. The substrate processing apparatus according to any one of claims 4 to 6,
The substrate processing apparatus, wherein the liquid supply pipe is connected to the highest position of the drainage pipe.

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