JP2023032391A - Substrate processing device and substrate processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a transport control mode suitable for a substrate processing device with a lift mechanism provided in a processing unit for lifting a substrate from a processing location where the substrate is processed and a substrate processing method.SOLUTION: The substrate processing device includes a processing unit for processes a substrate, a lift mechanism for moving a substrate processed at a processing position in the processing unit to an upper position above the processing position, a conveyance mechanism for carrying out the substrate located at the upper portion from the processing unit, and a control unit for controlling the conveyance mechanism. The conveyance mechanism is capable of moving between a plurality of positions including a position for conveying a substrate out of the processing unit. The control unit determines when to start moving the conveyance mechanism to the position for carrying out on the basis of when the substrate being moved by the lift mechanism reaches the upper position and the position of the conveyance mechanism.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus and a substrate processing method for processing a substrate in a processing section and unloading the processed substrate from the processing section.

For example, as described in Patent Document 1, there is an apparatus for forming a film such as a resist film on the surface of various substrates such as a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display device (hereinafter referred to as a substrate). Are known. This substrate processing apparatus is provided with a coating section, a reduced pressure drying section, and a pre-baking section in order to form a good resist film on the surface of the substrate before exposure processing. The coating section forms a coating film of the resist liquid by discharging the resist liquid as the processing liquid toward the surface of the substrate from the discharge port provided at the tip of the nozzle. Then, the reduced-pressure drying section evaporates the solvent of the resist liquid applied on the surface of the substrate by reducing the pressure, and dries the substrate. Further, the pre-baking section heats the substrate by a hot plate unit to solidify the resist component on the surface of the substrate. After heating, the substrate is cooled by a cool plate unit.

In this type of substrate processing apparatus, in order to process a large number of substrates in parallel, it is common to provide a plurality of processing units specialized for various types of substrate processing such as coating processing, heating processing, and cooling processing. is. In such a case, since the time required for processing in each processing section is not always the same, it is necessary to devise ways to prevent substrates from stagnation when transferring substrates between processing sections. For example, in the apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, in order to keep the heat treatment time for the substrate constant, the processing in the hot plate unit and the cool plate unit and the substrate transfer between them are performed in a predetermined tact time. A processing sequence is configured in

JP 2020-047895 A

Although Patent Document 1 does not mention the details of the processing in each processing section and the substrate transfer between units, in view of the above purpose, it is necessary to unload the substrate without delay after the heating processing is completed. For this reason, it is considered that the transport mechanism that transports the substrate between the processing units is on standby in a state in which the substrate can be unloaded when the heat treatment is completed. On the other hand, in order to efficiently transport substrates between a plurality of processing units, it is necessary to minimize the time during which the transport mechanism is occupied for one substrate transport.

In this way, it is desirable to establish a control system for the transport mechanism that can shorten the time that the transport mechanism is occupied as much as possible and that can position the transport mechanism at a predetermined position at a reliable timing. . However, it is difficult to establish a universal control method because there are various configurations and combinations of processing units. For this reason, it is considered effective, for example, to construct a control method suitable for the configuration of the processing unit.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a transfer control mode suitable for a substrate processing apparatus and a substrate processing method in which a lift mechanism for lifting a substrate from a processing position where the substrate is processed is provided in a processing section. for the purpose.

One aspect of a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention is a processing section for processing a substrate; a lift mechanism for moving the substrate processed at a processing position in the processing section to an upper position above the processing position; A transport mechanism for unloading the substrate at the upper position from the processing unit, and a control unit for controlling the transport mechanism are provided. Here, the transport mechanism is movable between a plurality of positions including an unloading position for unloading the substrate from the processing unit, and the control unit controls the position of the substrate moved by the lift mechanism. A movement start timing of the transport mechanism to the unloading position is determined based on the time when the transport mechanism reaches the upper position and the position of the transport mechanism.

Further, one aspect of the substrate processing method according to the present invention includes a step of processing a substrate at a processing position in a processing section, and a step of moving the processed substrate to an upper position above the processing position by a lift mechanism. and carrying out the substrate at the upper position from the processing section. Here, the substrate is carried out by positioning a transport mechanism capable of moving between a plurality of positions including a carry-out position for carrying out the substrate from the processing section to the carry-out position. The timing at which the transport mechanism starts to move to the unloading position is determined based on the time when the substrate moved by the lift mechanism reaches the upper position and the position of the transport mechanism.

In a configuration in which the substrate is processed at the processing position in the processing section and then moved to the upper position by the lift mechanism before being unloaded, the substrate is lifted at a relatively slow speed in order to prevent damage to the substrate. done. Therefore, it takes a long time to move the substrate from the processing position to the upper position. On the other hand, in a transport mechanism that can move between a plurality of positions, the time required from the start of movement to the unloading position until reaching the unloading position varies depending on the position of the transport mechanism at the start of movement.

Therefore, if the movement start timing of the transport mechanism is fixed, even in the case where the movement time is the longest, the movement of the transport mechanism will be started early so that the substrate can be unloaded in time. . As a result, the transport mechanism may wait at the unloading position for a long time, and the transport mechanism cannot be used to transport other substrates during this time.

Therefore, in the present invention, the movement start timing of the transport mechanism to the unloading position is based on the relationship between the time when the substrate after processing that is moved by the lift mechanism in the processing section reaches the upper position and the position of the transport mechanism. is determined. Therefore, for example, when the transport mechanism is at a position where it takes a long time to reach the unloading position, the movement start timing can be advanced, and conversely, when the movement time can be short, the movement start timing can be delayed. As a result, while minimizing the period during which the transport mechanism is occupied, the sheet can be moved to the unloading position without delay at the required timing.

As described above, according to the present invention, the movement start timing of the transport mechanism is determined based on the relationship between the time when the processed substrate reaches the upper position and the position of the transport mechanism. Therefore, in the substrate processing apparatus and the substrate processing method in which the processing section is provided with a lift mechanism for lifting the substrate from the processing position where the substrate is processed, it is possible to realize optimum transfer control.

1 is a top view showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention; FIG. It is a figure which shows roughly the structure of a pre-baking part. FIG. 4 is a side cross-sectional view showing the internal configuration of the hot plate unit; It is a figure explaining the raising-lowering operation|movement of a board|substrate by a lift mechanism. 9 is a flowchart showing a specific example of movement start timing determination processing; 4 is a timing chart showing the operation of each part in heat treatment;

FIG. 1 is a top view showing a schematic configuration of one embodiment of a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention. The substrate processing apparatus 1 is an apparatus that applies a resist solution (coating process), a drying process under reduced pressure, and a pre-baking process to a flat substrate such as a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display device. The substrate processing apparatus 1 may be configured as a dedicated apparatus for performing the above three processes, or may be configured in combination with an apparatus for performing appropriate pre-processing and/or post-processing. An XYZ orthogonal coordinate system is set as shown in FIG. 1 in order to uniformly show the directions in the following figures. The XY plane represents the horizontal plane, and the Z direction represents the vertical direction. More specifically, the (-Z) direction is the vertically downward direction.

The substrate processing apparatus 1 includes a coating section 10 that performs a coating process, a reduced pressure drying section 20 that performs a reduced pressure drying process, a prebaking section 30 that performs a prebaking process, and these three processing sections (the coating section 10, the reduced pressure drying section 20, and the and a transport robot TR arranged so as to be surrounded by the pre-baking section 30). The transport robot TR is configured to be able to access the coating unit 10, the reduced-pressure drying unit 20, and the pre-baking unit 30 arranged around it, and transports substrates therebetween. More specifically, the transport robot TR is controlled by a control unit 40 that controls the entire apparatus, and transports the next substrate.

That is, when the transfer robot TR receives a clean substrate from which fine particles, organic contamination, metal contamination, grease, natural oxide film, etc. have been removed by a substrate cleaning unit (not shown), the substrate is transferred to the coating unit 10 . transport to Further, the transport robot TR receives a substrate having a resist liquid (processing liquid) coating film formed on the surface thereof by the coating unit 10 and transports the substrate to the reduced pressure drying unit 20 . Further, the transport robot TR receives the substrate dried under reduced pressure by the reduced pressure drying section 20, transports it to the pre-baking section 30, and discharges the substrate. In this embodiment, the transport robot TR transports the clean substrate to the coating unit 10. However, the substrate may be transported to the coating unit 10 by transport means different from the transport robot TR. good.

As shown in FIG. 1, the control unit 40 is composed of a general computer device in which, for example, a CPU 41, a ROM 42, a RAM 43, a storage device 44, etc. are interconnected via a bus line 45. FIG. The ROM 42 stores basic programs and the like, and the RAM 43 serves as a working area when the CPU 41 performs predetermined processing. The storage device 44 is composed of a flash memory or a non-volatile storage device such as a hard disk device.

In the control unit 40 , an input unit 46 , a display unit 47 and a communication unit 48 are also connected to the bus line 45 . The input unit 46 includes various switches, a touch panel, and the like, and receives various input setting instructions such as processing recipes from an operator. The display unit 47 is composed of a liquid crystal display device, a lamp, etc., and displays various information under the control of the CPU 41 . The communication unit 48 has a data communication function via LAN or the like.

A processing program for processing substrates by the substrate processing apparatus 1 is stored in advance in the storage device 44 of the control unit 40 . Then, the CPU 41 reads the processing program from the storage device 44 and executes the processing program. As a result, the substrate that has undergone the coating process by the coating section 10 and the reduced pressure drying process by the reduced pressure drying section 20 is taken out from the reduced pressure drying section 20 by the transport robot TR, delivered to the pre-baking section 30, and subjected to the heat treatment and the cooling process. .

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing the configuration of the prebake section. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2(a), the pre-bake section 30 includes a first laminate 31, a second laminate 32, and a third laminate 33 in which processing units are laminated in multiple stages, and a and a transport mechanism 35 for transporting substrates. The first stacked body 31 is provided at a position adjacent to the (+Y) side of the transport robot TR, and the loading-side transfer part IP that receives and temporarily stores the substrates transported by the transport robot TR is stacked in multiple stages. It has a structured structure.

A transport mechanism 35 is provided on the (+Y) side of the first stacked body 31, that is, on the side opposite to the transport robot TR with the first stacked body 31 interposed therebetween. The transport mechanism 35 transfers the substrates among the first to third laminates 31 to 33 with a structure described later. A second laminate 32 is provided on the (−X) side of the transport mechanism 35 . In the second laminate 32, hot plate units HP for heat-treating substrates are stacked in multiple stages.

A third laminate 33 is provided on the (+Y) side of the transport mechanism 35 . The third laminate 33 has a structure in which a cool plate unit CP for cooling the substrate after heat treatment and an unloading-side transfer part OP for receiving and temporarily storing the substrate after the cooling treatment are stacked in multiple layers. are doing.

As shown in FIG. 2(b), the transport mechanism 35 has a pedestal 351 installed at a position surrounded by the first to third laminates 31 to 33, that is, at a position indicated by a dotted line in FIG. 2(a). , a support 352 provided rotatably around a vertical axis with respect to a pedestal 351, and a pair of hands 353 and 354 provided up and down in the extending direction of the support 352, that is, in the Z direction. . The hands 353 and 354 can be integrally raised and lowered by a lifting mechanism (not shown), while each of them can be individually extended and retracted in the horizontal direction. Each of the hands 353 and 354 has a comb-teeth shape, and can support the substrate S in a horizontal posture on the top thereof. That is, the transport mechanism 35 can hold a maximum of two substrates S at the same time.

By a combination of the rotation of the column 352 and the elevating and contracting of the hands 353 and 354, the transport mechanism 35 moves each processing unit constituting the pre-bake section 30, specifically, the loading-side receiver provided in the first laminate 31. Each of the crossover IPs, each of the hot plate units HP provided in the second laminate 32, each of the cool plate units CP provided in the third laminate 33, and the unloading side provided in the third laminate 33 Each of the delivery units OP can be selectively accessed. In this manner, the transport mechanism 35 can access each processing unit constituting the prebaking section 30 to load the substrate S into the processing unit or unload the substrate S from the processing unit.

The operation in the pre-bake section 30 is outlined below. That is, the transport mechanism 35 takes out the substrates before the heat treatment that have been taken out from the pretreatment process and stored in one of the loading-side transfer units IP, and carries them into one of the hot plate units HP. The hot plate unit HP heats the substrate to pre-bake the resist film formed on the substrate (heat treatment). After the heat treatment, the transport mechanism 35 takes out the substrate from the hot plate unit HP and transports it to the cool plate unit CP. The cool plate unit CP cools the substrate to stop the heat treatment (cooling process). The substrate after the cooling process is transferred to the unloading-side transfer section OP by the transfer mechanism 35 and is temporarily stored. In this way, the substrate after heat treatment is transferred to a post-process (not shown).

Here, the first to third stacks 31 to 33 are arranged so as to surround the conveying mechanism 35 from three sides. is provided with a three-stage hot plate unit HP, and the third laminate 33 is provided with a three-stage cool plate unit CP and a four-stage unloading-side transfer section OP. However, the number and arrangement of the processing units are not limited to this and are arbitrary. For example, a unit arrangement similar to that described in Patent Document 1 can be adopted.

A plurality of these processing units (loading-side and unloading-side transfer units IP, OP, hot plate unit HP, cool plate unit CP) are provided in the pre-baking unit 30, respectively. Therefore, the series of processes for one substrate described above can be executed in parallel for a plurality of substrates. In order to make this possible, it is necessary to smoothly transfer substrates between processing units. Many proposals have already been made for the substrate transfer control sequence for this purpose, as described in Patent Document 1, for example. Therefore, detailed description is omitted here.

However, no specific proposal has been made so far to optimize the transport control by going into the configuration and operation of each processing unit. In the following, an example of transport control constructed in consideration of the configuration and operation of the hot plate unit HP will be described.

FIG. 3 is a side sectional view showing the internal structure of the hot plate unit. As described above, the hot plate unit HP is for performing heat treatment for heating a resist film formed by applying a resist solution to the upper surface of the substrate and drying the resist film, thereby solidifying the resist film. .

As shown in FIG. 3, the hotplate unit HP includes a chamber 50 for receiving the substrate S. As shown in FIG. By performing the processing in the chamber 50, the gas component volatilized by the heat processing is prevented from scattering to the surroundings, and by covering the substrate S to be heated, the heat dissipation is suppressed and the energy efficiency is improved. can be done. For these purposes, the chamber 50 has a structure in which a top plate 51, a side plate 52, a bottom plate 53 and a shutter 54 are combined to form a box.

The shutter 54 is attached to an opening 55 provided on one side surface of the chamber 50 so as to be able to open and close, and closes the opening 55 by being pressed against the side surface of the chamber 50 via a packing (not shown) in the closed state. . On the other hand, in the open state of the shutter 54 indicated by the dotted line in FIG. 3, the substrate S can be exchanged with the outside through the opened opening 55 . That is, the unprocessed substrate S held by the transport mechanism 35 is carried into the chamber 50 through the opening 55 . Also, the processed substrate S in the chamber 50 is carried out to the outside by the transport mechanism 35 .

A hot plate 56 is provided at the bottom of the chamber 50 . The upper surface of the hot plate 56 is substantially horizontal, and contacts and supports the lower surface of the substrate S in a horizontal posture. Protrusions, ie, proximity pins, may be arranged on the upper surface of the hot plate 56 to form a minute gap with the substrate S. FIG.

A heater 57 is built inside the hot plate 56 . The heater 57 is operated by supplying electric power to the heater 57 from the control unit 40 that controls the entire apparatus. Thereby, the substrate S is uniformly heated by conductive heat and radiant heat from the upper surface of the hot plate 56 .

The hot plate unit HP is provided with a lift mechanism 6 for smoothly transferring the substrate S between the hot plate 56 and the transport mechanism 35 . Specifically, a plurality of through holes 57 extending vertically through the bottom plate 53 and the hot plate 56 of the chamber 50 are provided, and the lift pins 61 of the lift mechanism 6 are inserted through the respective through holes 57 .

Lower ends of these lift pins 61 are fixed to lifting members 63 . The elevating member 63 is supported by a lift pin driving portion 64 so as to be vertically movable. The lift pin drive unit 64 operates in response to a lift command from the control unit 40 to lift the lift member 63 . As a result, the plurality of lift pins 61 are integrally raised and lowered, and the substrate S can be raised and lowered in the vertical direction.

More specifically, the lift pins 61 are, as indicated by solid lines in FIG. As indicated by the dotted line, the substrate S is raised and lowered between an upper position where the substrate S is supported while being spaced apart from the upper surface of the hot plate 56 by a predetermined distance.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the lifting operation of the substrate by the lift mechanism. As shown in FIG. 4A, the hand 353 (354) of the transport mechanism 35 transports the substrate S in a horizontal posture while the lift pins 61 protrude greatly upward from the upper surface of the hot plate 56 . The shape of the comb teeth of the hand 353 (354) and the arrangement of the lift pins 61 are determined so that mutual interference does not occur at this time.

By lowering the hand 353 (354) from this state, the substrate S is transferred from the hand 353 (354) to the lift pins 61 as shown in FIG. 4B. The position of the substrate S at this time is the "upper position".

After the hand 353 (354) is retracted, the lift pins 61 are integrally lowered as shown in FIG. 4(c). As a result, the substrate S descends while maintaining its horizontal posture, and finally comes into contact with the upper surface of the hot plate 56 as shown in FIG. 4(d). Thereby, the support of the substrate S is transferred from the lift pins 61 to the hot plate 56 . The position of the substrate S at this time is the "processing position". If the hot plate 56 is provided with proximity pins, the substrate position when the substrate S faces the upper surface of the hot plate 56 with a small gap corresponding to the height of the proximity pins. is the "processing position".

Carrying out of the substrate S is realized by a movement opposite to that described above. 4(d), the substrate S is lifted from the hot plate 56 by the lift pins 61 as shown in FIG. 4(c). 61. After the substrate S reaches the upper position, the hand 353 (354) enters the gap between the hot plate 56 and the substrate S to receive the substrate S as shown in FIG. 4(b). Then, as shown in FIG. 4A, the hand 353 (354) carries out the substrate S to the outside. The hot plate 56 from which the heat-treated substrate S has been unloaded can receive a new untreated substrate.

The lifting and lowering of the substrate S by the lift pins 61 is performed at a relatively slow speed in order to prevent the substrate S from being damaged. In particular, when the large-sized substrate S is pulled away from the hot plate 56, the lifting operation must be performed at a low speed in order to suppress the bending of the substrate S due to the negative pressure generated between the hot plate 56 and the substrate S. For example, the time taken to move several centimeters can be set to about 10 seconds.

In order to stabilize the result of the heat treatment of the substrate S, the thermal energy given to the substrate S must be constant. For this purpose, it is necessary not only to keep the temperature and time when heating the substrate S constant, but also to keep the time from the end of heating to cooling constant. Therefore, it is also necessary to make the time from when the substrate S is unloaded from the hot plate unit HP to when it is loaded into the cool plate unit CP after being heated for a predetermined time in the hot plate unit HP.

When parallel processing is performed on a plurality of substrates by a plurality of processing units, and a common transport mechanism is used to transport the substrates between the processing units, it is necessary to unload the substrate S from one processing unit. It is possible that the transport mechanism is being used to transport another substrate at the timing of occurrence. In such a case, the unloading of the processed substrate S is postponed until the transport is completed, but as described above, such a delay in unloading is not preferable for the substrate S after the heat treatment.

For this reason, when heat treatment is completed in one hot plate unit HP, it is necessary to unload the substrate S from the unit without delay. Therefore, the transport mechanism 35 must be in a state capable of unloading the substrate S from the hot plate unit HP at a certain timing after the heat treatment in one hot plate unit HP is finished. In reality, the transport mechanism 35 waits without performing other transport for a predetermined period before the time when the heat treatment is completed and the substrate S can be unloaded. During this waiting period, substrates cannot be transferred between other processing units, which may cause a reduction in overall processing throughput, so it is desirable that the waiting period be as short as possible.

The transport mechanism 35 can be moved by rotating the column 352 and raising and lowering the hands 353 and 354 . By stopping the transport mechanism 35 at each of a plurality of stop positions preset corresponding to each processing unit, access to the processing unit at the corresponding position, specifically, loading and unloading of the substrate is performed. do. Although the moving speed of the transport mechanism 35 at this time is restricted by mechanical conditions, generally, it is possible to move in a shorter time than the lifting operation of the substrate S by the lift pins 61 described above.

On the other hand, the time required for the transport mechanism 35 (more specifically, the hands 353 and 354) to reach the unloading position, which is the position for unloading the substrate S from the hot plate unit HP that has undergone heat treatment, is , depending on the position of the transport mechanism 35 before the start of movement. That is, if the hands 353 and 354 are already at a position close to the carry-out position, they can reach the carry-out position in a short time.

As described above, while the movement time required for the transport mechanism 35 to reach the unloading position varies depending on the initial position, the time at which the transport mechanism 35 should reach the unloading position is specified from the relationship with the time when the heat treatment is completed. . In other words, the movement start timing of the transport mechanism 35 required to reach the unloading position at a specific time can be varied depending on the position of the transport mechanism 35 at the start of movement. By doing so, it is possible to minimize the period during which the transport mechanism 35 is occupied for preparing to carry out the substrate S from the hot plate unit HP.

That is, if the time at which the heat treatment is completed and the substrate S can be unloaded and the current position of the transport mechanism 35 are known, the timing for starting the movement of the transport mechanism 35 from that position can be determined. More specifically, the time required for the transport mechanism 35 to move from the current position to the carry-out position is estimated, and the time obtained by going back from the time at which the transport mechanism 35 should reach the carry-out position by this required travel time is calculated as the transport mechanism. 35 should be the start of movement.

A plurality of stop positions at which the transport mechanism 35 should stop for loading and unloading substrates from each processing unit are set in advance by teaching work or the like, for example. It is also possible to pre-estimate the movement time for moving between those stop positions from the relationship between their positional relationship and the mechanical operating speed of the transport mechanism 35 . Such information about the required travel time can be stored in the storage device 44 of the control unit 40 .

The position of the transport mechanism 35 may be detected at any time by, for example, a position sensor, or, for example, past movement history may be recorded and the current position may be determined from the record. In this manner, the movement start timing of the transport mechanism 35 can be determined from the position of the transport mechanism 35 and the time required for movement from that position to the unloading position.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a specific example of movement start timing determination processing. This processing is realized by the CPU 41 of the control unit 40 executing a processing program prepared in advance. During execution of a series of processing sequences, it is determined whether or not heat treatment has been completed in one hot plate unit HP (step S101).

In the hot plate unit HP, the substrate S is heated by being positioned at the processing position, and after a certain period of time, the substrate S is moved from the processing position to the upper position, thereby completing heat treatment in an active sense. . However, since the substrate S is in a warmed state, the processing proceeds to some extent until the cooling processing is performed. Therefore, there are several possible ways of thinking about when the heat treatment should be completed. can be done.

When it is determined that the heat treatment has ended (YES in step S101), the position of transport mechanism 35 at that time is acquired (step S102). When the transport mechanism 35 is moving to transport the substrate, for example, the position at which the transport mechanism 35 is when the movement ends can be regarded as the current position.

Then, from the positional relationship between the current position and the unloading position, the time required for the transport mechanism 35 to move to the unloading position is derived (step S103). Based on the result and the time when the substrate S can be unloaded from the hot plate unit HP, the movement start timing of the transport mechanism 35 is set (step S104). The time when the substrate S can be unloaded from the hot plate unit HP can be, for example, the time when the substrate S is lifted to the upper position by the operation of the lift pins 61 .

Therefore, the movement start time of the transport mechanism 35 can be set to the time before the time required for the movement of the transport mechanism 35 from the time when the substrate S is estimated to reach the upper position. Then, when the set time arrives (step S105), the controller 40 outputs a call instruction to the transport mechanism 35 to start moving to the unloading position (step S106). As a result, the transport mechanism 35 starts to move toward the unloading position.

At the time when the substrate S reaches the upper position, the transport mechanism 35 also reaches the unloading position. Therefore, the substrate S after heat treatment can be unloaded without delay by the transport mechanism 35 and transferred to the cool plate unit CP. Therefore, the heat treatment of the substrate S can be stopped after a predetermined time, and the quality of the formed resist film can be stabilized.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart showing the operation of each part in heat treatment. More specifically, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing operations of the lift pins 61, the shutter 54, and the transport mechanism 35 when heat-treating one substrate S. As shown in FIG. In the drawing, "closed" of the shutter 54 indicates a state in which the shutter 54 is completely closed. The state in which the shutter 54 is partially opened during the transition from the closed state to the open state is also included.

At time t0 before the substrate is loaded, the lift pins 61 are raised to a position corresponding to the upper position, and the shutter 54 is open. Further, the transport mechanism 35 is positioned at a carry-out position near the hot plate unit HP, which is the subject of processing, while holding the substrate S to be processed by the hand 353 (354). The hot plate 56 is previously controlled to be heated to a predetermined temperature. From this state, the hand 353 ( 354 ) of the transport mechanism 35 enters the chamber 50 to load the substrate S and transfer it to the lift pins 61 .

After that, at time t1, the lift pin 61 starts to descend, and around this time, the shutter 54 is closed. The position of the transport mechanism 35 after transferring the substrate S is not particularly limited, and may be moved for substrate transport between other processing units, for example. At time t2 earlier than time t3 when the substrate S is lowered to the processing position, the lowering of the lift pins 61 is temporarily stopped. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4(c), the substrate S is held slightly upward from the hot plate 56. As shown in FIG.

As a result, the substrate S is preliminarily warmed by the radiant heat from the hot plate 56, so that the substrate S can be prevented from being placed directly on the hot plate 56 and causing a rapid temperature change. In this sense, in FIG. 6, this treatment is called "preheating", and the position of the substrate S at this time is called "preheating position". Note that such preheating is not essential.

By placing the substrate S on the hot plate 56 at time t3, the substrate S is heated and heat-treated. After this state continues for a predetermined time, the lift pins 61 rise at time t4 to separate the substrate S from the hot plate 56, thereby stopping the heating from the hot plate 56. FIG. At time t5 when the substrate S reaches the upper position, the shutter 54 is opened, and the substrate S after processing can be unloaded.

The movement start timing is set so that the transport mechanism 35 reaches the unloading position at this time t5. FIG. 6 shows a case where there are three stop positions Pa, Pb, and Pc as the stop positions of the transport mechanism 35 in addition to the unloading start position. The movement start timing is set according to the time required for movement from each stop position to the unloading position, and movement of the transport mechanism 35 is started at the timing corresponding to it.

For example, when the transport mechanism 35 is at the stop position Pa, the transport mechanism 35 starts to move at time ta, and as a result, the transport mechanism 35 reaches the unloading position at time t5. Similarly, when the transport mechanism 35 is at the stop position Pb and the stop position Pc, the movement of the transport mechanism 35 is started at times tb and tc, respectively, so that the transport mechanism 35 reaches the unloading position at time t5. can be achieved. As described above, the movement start timing differs depending on the position of the transport mechanism 35, but in any case, the transport mechanism 35 can finally be positioned at the unloading position at time t5.

Therefore, the time from the time t4, which can be regarded as the end of the heat treatment, until the substrate S is unloaded is constant regardless of the position of the transport mechanism 35 in advance. Thereby, the result of the heat treatment can be stabilized. In addition, since the period during which the transport mechanism 35 is occupied in order to achieve this can be minimized, it is possible to avoid unnecessarily restricting the transport of other substrates.

The hot plate unit HP from which the substrate S after the heat treatment has been unloaded is in the same state as at time t0 before the start of the treatment. Therefore, it is possible to immediately receive a new substrate and perform heat treatment.

If the transport mechanism 35 is controlled to start moving toward the unloading position at the time when the heat treatment is finished (time t4), the transport mechanism 35 is sufficiently controlled before the time t5 at which the substrate S can be unloaded. The unloading position can be reached. Therefore, the substrate S can be carried out without delay. On the other hand, the transport mechanism 35 is kept waiting at the unloading position until the substrate S, which is slowly lifted by the lift pins 61, reaches the upper position. During this time, the transport mechanism 35 cannot be used to transport other substrates. Moreover, since the transport mechanism 35 must be in a movable state at time t4, the transport mechanism 35 is substantially restrained from a stage before time t4.

Therefore, the operation sequence of the transport mechanism is restricted even when viewed as a whole apparatus. Specifically, the waiting time during which the transport mechanism is not used for transporting substrates increases, and this lengthens the time from the start of processing to the end of all processing per substrate. That is, the throughput of processing decreases.

In the above embodiment, the period during which the transport mechanism 35 is occupied is minimized in order to unload the substrate S from the hot plate unit HP without delay. Therefore, it is possible to suppress a decrease in throughput due to such transportation.

As described above, in the substrate processing apparatus of this embodiment, the movement start timing to the unloading position, which is the position of the transport mechanism 35 for unloading the substrate S from the hot plate unit HP, is the position of the transport mechanism 35. set based on More specifically, the movement start timing of the transport mechanism 35 is set based on the time when the heat treatment is finished and the substrate can be unloaded and the current position of the transport mechanism 35 . Therefore, there is no need to put the transport mechanism 35 on standby in advance, and the period during which the transport mechanism 35 is occupied for unloading the substrate can be minimized. On the other hand, the carry-out mechanism 35 can be made to reach the carry-out position when the substrate can be carried out. It is possible to prevent deterioration of quality.

In particular, when the operation of the lift mechanism that moves the substrate up and down within the processing unit takes longer than the movement of the transport mechanism, the transport method of the above embodiment contributes to an improvement in throughput when processing a plurality of substrates in parallel. It is valid at the point

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications other than those described above can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the present invention is applied to the hot plate unit HP, in which the processing quality is greatly affected by the delay in unloading the substrate after the processing is completed, as the "processing unit". However, the control of the transport mechanism according to the present invention is similarly applicable even when a processing unit other than the hot plate unit is defined as the "processing section" of the present invention.

For example, although not described above, the cool plate CP, like the hot plate unit HP, includes a cool plate, which is a plate member that horizontally supports the substrate, and a lift mechanism that moves the substrate up and down with respect to the cool plate. is provided. Therefore, it is possible to suitably apply the above-described control mode also to unloading of the substrate from the cool plate unit. Even in this case, the period during which the cool plate unit occupies the transport mechanism for transporting substrates can be minimized, and other substrates can be transported during this time, thereby contributing to the improvement of processing throughput. is.

In the above embodiment, the movement start timing of the transport mechanism 35 is set so that the time when the substrate S rises to the upper position on the hot plate 56 and the time when the transport mechanism 35 reaches the unloading position coincide. It is However, from the viewpoint that the transport mechanism reaches the unloading position at the latest when the substrate can be unloaded, the time at which the transport mechanism reaches the unloading position is slightly earlier than the time at which the substrate can be unloaded. You may do so.

Further, in the above embodiment, the time required for movement of the transport mechanism 35 between a plurality of stop positions is estimated in advance, and the information is stored in the storage device 44 . This information is read and used when setting the movement start timing of the transport mechanism 35 . In this sense, the storage device 44 corresponds to the "storage section" of the present invention. However, the mode of information stored in the storage unit is not limited to this. For example, the movement of the transport mechanism may be considered as a combination of a plurality of basic motions such as vertical movement and rotation of a certain amount, and the motion time for each basic motion may be obtained and stored in the storage unit. When considering the movement from a certain stop position to the unloading position, it is possible to obtain the overall movement time by accumulating the operation times of the basic movements that should be combined to realize the movement.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the substrate subjected to the coating process is subjected to the reduced pressure drying process, and then the heat treatment and cooling process are performed in the pre-bake section. , is not limited to such a processing mode. That is, some of the processing units of the substrate processing apparatus 1 described above may be omitted, or another processing unit may be added.

Furthermore, the substrate is not limited to the glass substrate for the liquid crystal display device described above, and a glass substrate for an organic EL display device, a substrate for FPD such as a glass substrate for PDP, a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate for a photomask, a glass substrate for a color filter. The "substrate" of the present invention includes substrates, substrates for recording disks, substrates for solar cells, substrates for precision electronic devices such as substrates for electronic paper, and the like.

As described above by exemplifying specific embodiments, in the substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention, the processing section can perform heat treatment on the substrate, for example. The control mode of the transport mechanism according to the present invention is effective regardless of the processing contents of the processing section. However, especially in the case of heat treatment, the delay in unloading the substrate after the end of the treatment greatly affects the processing quality. Therefore, the present invention can avoid the unloading delay, thereby stabilizing the processing quality. Become.

Further, for example, the control unit may be configured to start the movement of the transport mechanism at the timing when the transport mechanism reaches the unloading position and the substrate reaches the upper position. According to such a configuration, when the substrate reaches the upper position and can be unloaded, the transport mechanism also reaches the unloading position, so the processed substrate can be unloaded without delay. Then, the transport mechanism after the unloading is completed can be immediately used for transporting another substrate.

Further, for example, the control unit may be configured to determine the movement start timing based on the position of the transport mechanism when the lift mechanism starts moving the substrate. According to such a configuration, even if it takes a relatively long time to move the substrate by the lift mechanism, it is possible to prevent the transport mechanism from being occupied more than necessary.

Further, for example, the substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention may include a storage unit that stores information about the time required to move the transport mechanism between a plurality of stop positions of the transport mechanism including the unloading position. The unit can read information corresponding to the position of the transport mechanism from the storage unit and determine the movement start timing. The time required to move the transport mechanism between a plurality of stop positions can be estimated in advance from the mechanical specifications of the transport mechanism. By storing such information, it is possible to determine the time required for the transport mechanism to move from the starting position to the unloading position.

Further, for example, the lift mechanism may have a plurality of lift pins that move up and down while contacting the lower surface of the substrate in a horizontal posture. When the lift pins support the substrate, the substrate tends to bend because the lift pins contact the substrate only locally. For this reason, it is difficult to increase the lifting speed of the substrate. Even in such a case, according to the present invention, it is not necessary to keep the transport mechanism on standby until the substrate movement by the lift pins is completed, so the occupied period of the transport mechanism can be shortened.

Further, for example, the processing section may have a plate member that supports the substrate in a horizontal posture on its upper surface. This is especially the case when the plate member is a hot plate. When the substrate supported by the plate member is lifted by the lift mechanism, the pressure between the substrate and the plate member temporarily becomes negative, which may cause damage to the substrate. In order to avoid this, the lifting speed is limited, but as described above, in the present invention, this does not cause the length of the occupied period of the transport mechanism.

The present invention can be applied to various types of substrate processing apparatuses, and the content of the processing is not limited. In particular, the substrate processed in the processing section is moved from the processing position to the upper position by the lift mechanism and then lifted by the transfer mechanism. It is suitable for a device configured to be carried out.

Reference Signs List 1 substrate processing apparatus 6 lift mechanism 30 pre-bake section 35 transport mechanism 40 control section 44 storage device (storage section)
56 hot plate (plate member)
61 lift pin 353, 354 hand HP hot plate unit (processing section)
S substrate

Claims (9)

a processing unit that processes the substrate;
a lift mechanism for moving the substrate processed at a processing position in the processing section to an upper position above the processing position;
a transport mechanism for transporting the substrate at the upper position out of the processing unit;
A control unit that controls the transport mechanism,
The transport mechanism is movable between a plurality of positions including an unloading position for unloading the substrate from the processing unit,
The control unit determines a movement start timing of the transport mechanism to the carry-out position based on when the substrate moved by the lift mechanism reaches the upper position and the position of the transport mechanism. Substrate processing equipment. 2. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said processing section heats said substrate. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the control unit causes the transport mechanism to start moving at a timing when the transport mechanism reaches the carry-out position and the substrate reaches the upper position. A substrate processing apparatus as described. 4. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control unit determines said movement start timing based on a position of said transport mechanism when said lift mechanism starts movement of said substrate. a storage unit that stores information about the time required to move the transport mechanism between a plurality of stop positions of the transport mechanism including the unloading position;
5. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control unit reads out said information corresponding to the position of said transport mechanism from said storage unit and determines said movement start timing. 6. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said lift mechanism has a plurality of lift pins that move up and down while contacting the lower surface of said substrate in a horizontal posture. 7. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said processing section has a plate member on its upper surface for supporting said substrate in a horizontal posture. 8. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said plate member is a hot plate. processing the substrate at a processing position within the processing section;
moving the processed substrate to an upper position above the processing position by a lift mechanism;
and carrying out the substrate at the upper position from the processing unit,
unloading of the substrate is performed by positioning a transport mechanism capable of moving between a plurality of positions including an unloading position for unloading the substrate from the processing unit at the unloading position;
A substrate processing method according to claim 1, wherein a timing for starting movement of the transport mechanism to the unloading position is determined based on a time when the substrate moved by the lift mechanism reaches the upper position and a position of the transport mechanism.

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