JP2018064029A - Etching device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an etching device arranged to perform an etching process while conveying a substrate to be processed, such as a glass substrate, which can suitably convey a thin substrate.SOLUTION: An etching device 10 is arranged so as to spray an etchant toward a glass substrate 24 being conveyed in a predetermined direction. The etching device 10 comprises: conveyance rollers 30; and auxiliary conveyance rollers 34. The conveyance rollers 30 are disposed at fixed intervals along a conveyance direction of the glass substrate 24. The auxiliary conveyance rollers 34 are disposed along a lengthwise direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction between the conveyance rollers 30 so as to support the glass substrate 24 from downside. Of the auxiliary conveyance rollers 34, the auxiliary conveyance rollers 341 disposed at both ends are wider, in width, than the auxiliary conveyance rollers 34 disposed in a center portion.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to an etching apparatus for a substrate to be processed such as a glass substrate, and more particularly to an etching apparatus capable of suitably transporting a thin substrate to be processed.

  In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for thinning of flat panel displays such as liquid crystal displays. In the manufacturing process of a flat panel display, it is manufactured by sealing functional layers necessary for image display such as a liquid crystal layer with two glass substrates. In order to provide a thin display, it is effective to thin the glass substrate by an etching process.

  As the etching process, a wet etching process in which a glass substrate is brought into contact with an etching solution is generally employed. The wet etching process is roughly classified into single-wafer etching and immersion etching. Single wafer etching is a method in which an etching solution is sprayed onto a glass substrate being transported using a spray or the like. Immersion etching is processed by immersing a jig holding a plurality of glass substrates in an etching bath containing an etching solution. In particular, single-wafer etching is more advantageous for etching a large glass substrate than immersion etching, and the demand for single-wafer etching has increased in recent years.

  However, as the thickness of the glass substrate has been reduced by such an etching process, it has become difficult to handle the glass substrate in the manufacturing process. In particular, when the thickness of the glass substrate is less than 0.3 mm, the strength of the glass substrate is lowered, and the glass substrate may be damaged in the display manufacturing process.

  Therefore, there has been a transport mechanism configured to dispose a ring-shaped member having a large diameter on the outer peripheral surface of the transport roller (see, for example, Patent Document 1). According to this technique, the contact area between the glass substrate and the transport roller can be reduced by the ring-shaped member, so that the glass substrate can be prevented from being damaged or broken. For this reason, it has been said that the glass substrate can be stably conveyed during the etching process or in other manufacturing processes.

JP 2010-083596 A

  However, it may be difficult to prevent a conveyance failure in the etching apparatus with only the conveyance mechanism as described above. When a glass substrate is processed with a single-wafer etching apparatus, the glass substrate may be bent during transportation due to its own weight. If the glass substrate bends during the etching process, the glass substrate may be damaged by being pinched or dropped between the transport rollers. In addition, the transfer mechanism of the etching apparatus is also affected, and the apparatus may have to be stopped.

  Further, in the single wafer etching apparatus, in order to uniformly inject the etching solution onto the glass substrate, the etching solution may be injected using a swing mechanism or a slide mechanism. For this reason, since etching liquid is sprayed on a glass substrate also from a horizontal direction, a glass substrate may shift to the right and left with respect to a conveyance direction, and conveyance failure may generate | occur | produce. As described above, when processing a thin glass substrate, there is a possibility that a problem inherent in the single-wafer etching apparatus may occur. Therefore, an etching apparatus having a stable transfer mechanism has been demanded.

  The objective of this invention is providing the etching apparatus which can convey the to-be-processed substrate with thin board | plate thickness suitably.

  The etching apparatus according to the present invention is an etching apparatus configured to inject an etching solution onto a substrate to be processed such as a glass substrate being conveyed in a predetermined direction. This etching apparatus includes at least a conveyance roller and an auxiliary roller. The transport rollers are arranged at regular intervals along the transport direction of the substrate to be processed. A plurality of auxiliary rollers are arranged along the length direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the substrate to be processed between the conveyance rollers so as to support the substrate to be processed from below. Further, among the auxiliary rollers, the auxiliary rollers arranged at both ends are wider than the auxiliary roller arranged at the center.

  In the present invention, the auxiliary roller is disposed between the transport rollers for transporting the glass substrate, thereby preventing the glass substrate being transported from being bent. In addition, since the plurality of auxiliary rollers are arranged at intervals, the etching solution and the glass substrate can easily come into contact with each other even when the interval between the transport roller and the auxiliary roller is narrowed. Furthermore, by widening the auxiliary rollers at both ends, the glass substrate can be suitably supported even if the glass substrate is shifted to the left or right during conveyance by the flow of the etching solution.

  Further, the etching apparatus preferably has a plurality of processing chambers, and the auxiliary roller is preferably disposed at a connection portion of the processing chambers. A single-wafer etching apparatus may employ a configuration in which a plurality of processing chambers having the same configuration are connected in order to suppress a load on a pipe or the like. The arrangement interval becomes wide. For this reason, it can prevent that a glass substrate bends in a connection part by arrange | positioning an auxiliary roller to a connection part.

  In addition, it is preferable that auxiliary rollers disposed at both ends support the edge of the substrate to be processed and extend from the edge of the substrate to be processed. Since the substrate to be processed may move depending on the etching liquid injection direction as described above, the substrate to be processed can be stably provided by arranging a wide auxiliary roller extending from the edge of the substrate to be processed. It becomes possible to convey to.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it becomes possible to provide the etching apparatus which can convey the to-be-processed substrate with thin board | plate thickness suitably.

1 is a schematic side view of an etching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the slide mechanism of a spray unit. It is a figure shown about a conveyance auxiliary | assistant roller. It is a figure shown about conveyance of the glass substrate in case there is no conveyance auxiliary roller. It is a figure shown about conveyance of a glass substrate.

  From here, one Embodiment of this invention is described using drawing. FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of an etching apparatus 10 according to this embodiment. The etching apparatus 10 includes a carry-in unit 12, a pre-rinsing chamber 14, a first etching chamber 161 to a fourth etching chamber 164, a post-rinsing chamber 18, a drying chamber 20, and a carry-out unit 22.

  The carry-in unit 12 is configured to introduce the glass substrate 24 into the etching apparatus 10 by placing the glass substrate 24 as a substrate to be processed on the transport roller 30. The glass substrate 24 is etched by passing through each chamber while being transported in the horizontal direction by the transport roller 30. The glass substrate 24 is sequentially put into the etching apparatus 10 with a predetermined interval.

  The conveyance roller 30 is arrange | positioned at fixed intervals along the conveyance direction of the glass substrate 24, and is comprised so that it may convey by supporting the glass substrate 24 from the downward direction. The conveyance roller 30 is rotated in the conveyance direction of the glass substrate 24 by power from a driving unit (not shown). Note that the driving unit is disposed in a region isolated from each processing chamber so as not to be contaminated by the acid atmosphere of the etching solution.

  The pre-rinsing chamber 14 is disposed at the rear stage of the carry-in unit 12. The pre-rinsing chamber 14 is configured to inject cleaning liquid from the spray units 32 disposed above and below the transport roller 30 onto the glass substrate 24 transported by the transport roller 30. If the etching solution is brought into contact with the dried glass substrate, the glass substrate may become cloudy. For this reason, the etching apparatus 10 is configured to inject the cleaning liquid at the front stage of the etching chamber. In this embodiment, city water is used as the cleaning liquid.

  The first etching chamber 161, the second etching chamber 162, the third etching chamber 163, and the fourth etching chamber 164 have substantially the same configuration and inject an etching solution onto the glass substrate 24 being conveyed. Configured to do. In each etching chamber, spray units 32 are arranged above and below the transport roller 30, and an etching solution is sprayed from the spray units 32. The spray unit 32 has a plurality of spray nozzles 322 disposed in the liquid supply pipe 321, and is configured so that the etching liquid is sprayed uniformly onto the glass substrate 24. In addition, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the spray unit 32 is supported so as to be slidable in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction. By reciprocating the spray unit 32, it is possible to spray the etching solution uniformly on the glass substrate 24 and prevent the etching solution from staying on the upper surface of the glass substrate 24. The arrangement of the spray units 32 and the number of spray nozzles 322 can be changed as appropriate according to the size of the substrate to be processed and the etching amount.

  Note that the etching solution in the present embodiment contains at least hydrofluoric acid, and may contain an inorganic acid such as hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid, or a surfactant. The composition and temperature of the etching solution can be appropriately changed according to the etching amount and the substrate to be processed. The etching apparatus 10 has four etching chambers, but the number of etching chambers can be changed in consideration of a substrate to be processed, an installation location, and the like.

  The post-water washing chamber 18 is disposed at the rear stage of the fourth etching chamber 164. The post-water washing chamber 18 has substantially the same configuration as the pre-water washing chamber 14 and is configured to wash away the etching liquid by spraying the cleaning liquid onto the glass substrate 24 from above and below. As the cleaning liquid, city water is used in the same manner as in the pre-wash chamber 14.

  The drying chamber 20 is configured to blow air onto the main surface of the glass substrate 24 by the air knife 201 to dry the glass substrate 24. In addition to the air knife 201, the squeezing roller can be pressed against the main surface of the glass substrate 24 to perform a drying process. The glass substrate 24 subjected to the drying process is carried out by the carry-out unit 22. The glass substrate 24 subjected to the etching process is appropriately processed in a subsequent process.

  As shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of auxiliary conveyance rollers 34 are arranged at regular intervals along a direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the glass substrate 24 at the connection portion of each processing chamber. Configured to support. The conveyance auxiliary roller 34 is configured to have a smaller diameter than the conveyance roller 30, and the diameter thereof is preferably less than half the diameter of the conveyance roller 30. The conveyance auxiliary roller 34 is rotatably supported at the tip of the support column 36 and is configured to rotate in accordance with the conveyance of the glass substrate 24. The column 36 is fixed to the bottom of the etching apparatus 10 and is erected in the vertical direction. The height of the column 36 is adjusted so that the conveyance auxiliary roller 34 has the same height as the conveyance roller 30. The conveyance auxiliary roller 34 and the support column 36 are formed of a resin having hydrofluoric acid resistance, such as polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, and polycarbonate.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the connection part of each processing chamber is separated by a partition, and a slit 40 through which the glass substrate 24 passes is provided. In the present invention, the connecting portion refers to a region between the transport rollers disposed at both ends in the transport direction and the partition wall provided with the slits 40 in the transport rollers disposed in the processing chamber. Show. Since it is difficult for the connecting portion to dispose the transport rollers 30 at intervals necessary for transporting the glass substrate 24, the glass substrate 24 is supported from below by a driven and small-diameter transport auxiliary roller 34.

  The conveyance auxiliary roller 34 can be prevented from being bent during conveyance by being arranged at the connecting portion of each chamber. The reason why the conveyance auxiliary roller 34 is disposed in the connecting portion of each chamber is that there is a restriction in the connecting portion of each chamber such as the arrangement of the driving unit and ensuring the watertightness and airtightness of the etching apparatus 10. This is because it is difficult to arrange the transport rollers 30 at intervals necessary for transport. Although the interval between the conveying rollers in the processing chamber can be set as appropriate, the arrangement interval of the conveying rollers 30 in the connecting portion is larger than that in the processing chamber for the reasons described above. Therefore, when processing the glass substrate thinned to less than 0.2 mm, the glass substrate 24 may be bent as shown in FIG. 4 and may collide with the partition wall. Since the conveyance auxiliary roller 34 has a configuration that does not require power from the drive unit, the conveyance auxiliary roller 34 can also be appropriately disposed in the connection unit. In the present embodiment, the connecting portion between the pre-rinsing chamber 14 and the first etching chamber 161, the connecting portion between the etching chambers, the connecting portion between the fourth etching chamber 164 and the post-rinsing chamber 18, and the post-rinsing chamber 18 and the drying chamber 20 A conveyance auxiliary roller 34 is disposed at the connecting portion.

  Although it is possible to use an etching apparatus having no connecting portion by configuring the etching apparatus 10 with one long processing chamber, it is not realistic. The reason is that if one processing chamber becomes too long, the liquid supply pipe or the like may be bent due to the weight of the etching liquid. Further, the etching solution is temperature-controlled so that the solution temperature becomes 35 ° C. or higher in order to improve the etching rate, and the division of the processing chamber has an effect of suppressing the influence on the liquid supply piping due to thermal expansion. For the above reasons, the etching apparatus 10 is divided into the etching chamber and the water washing chamber, and it is necessary to arrange the conveyance auxiliary roller 34 at the connecting portion.

  The conveyance auxiliary roller 34 is configured so that the etching liquid sprayed from below easily hits the glass substrate 24 by being arranged at a predetermined interval. For this reason, it is preferable that the width | variety of the conveyance auxiliary roller 34 is 3-10 mm. Moreover, when processing the glass substrate 24 whose plate | board thickness is less than 0.2 mm, it is preferable that the space | interval of the conveyance roller 30 and the conveyance auxiliary roller 34 shall be 30-70 mm. When the distance between the rollers is less than 30 mm, it becomes difficult to supply the etching solution to the lower surface of the glass substrate 24 even if the conveyance auxiliary roller 34 is disposed with a distance between them, so that the etching efficiency is lowered. Moreover, since the glass substrate 24 may bend when the space | interval of a roller becomes larger than 70 mm, it is unpreferable.

  Further, the conveyance auxiliary rollers 341 arranged at both ends are wider than the conveyance auxiliary rollers 34 arranged at the center. This is because the glass substrate 24 may be displaced in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction during the etching process. As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the etching apparatus 10 is configured to spray the etching solution uniformly by configuring the spray unit 32 to be slidable. For this reason, etching liquid may be sprayed from the horizontal direction of the glass substrate 24, and the glass substrate 24 may shift | deviate from the position currently mounted in the carrying-in part 12. FIG. In particular, when the plate thickness is 0.2 mm or less, the weight of the glass substrate 24 is reduced, so that the glass substrate 24 is easily affected by the etching solution and may be shifted to the left and right. According to the applicant's experiment, it has been confirmed that the liquid crystal display substrate may be shifted to the left or right by about 70 mm during the etching process. For this reason, it is preferable that the width | variety of the conveyance auxiliary roller 341 arrange | positioned at both ends is 80-150 mm. In particular, since the corner portion at the tip in the transport direction of the glass substrate 24 is easily bent, the bent corner portion may collide with the support column 36 in the transport roller 34 disposed in the center portion. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 5, stable conveyance can be performed by arrange | positioning the wide conveyance auxiliary roller 341 which straddles the edge part of the glass substrate 24 currently conveyed to both ends.

  In addition, the conveyance auxiliary roller 34 is not limited only to the connecting portion, and can be arranged at an arbitrary position in the processing chamber. Since the conveyance auxiliary roller 34 can be attached and detached relatively easily than the conveyance roller 30, the interval between the rollers can be adjusted according to the thickness of the substrate to be processed.

  The above description of the embodiment is to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is shown not by the above embodiments but by the claims. Furthermore, the scope of the present invention is intended to include all modifications within the meaning and scope equivalent to the scope of the claims.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10-Etching apparatus 12-Carry-in part 14-Pre-wash chamber 161-1st etching chamber 18-Post-wash chamber 20-Drying chamber 22-Carry-out part 24-Glass substrate 30-Transport roller 32-Spray unit 34-Transport auxiliary roller 40-slit

Claims (3)

An etching apparatus configured to inject an etching liquid onto a substrate to be processed such as a glass substrate being conveyed in a predetermined direction,
A transport roller disposed at regular intervals along the transport direction of the substrate to be processed;
A plurality of auxiliary rollers disposed along the length direction perpendicular to the transport direction between the transport rollers so as to support the substrate to be processed from below;
At least,
An etching apparatus characterized in that among the auxiliary rollers, the auxiliary rollers arranged at both ends are wider than the auxiliary rollers arranged at the center.   The etching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the etching apparatus includes a plurality of processing chambers, and the auxiliary roller is disposed at a connection portion of the processing chambers.   3. The auxiliary roller arranged at both ends supports the edge of the substrate to be processed and is arranged so as to extend from the edge of the substrate to be processed. Etching equipment.

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