JP2565625Y2 - Substrate processing equipment - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

The present invention relates to a method of carrying a substrate such as a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display device or a semiconductor wafer in a processing chamber in order to perform a process such as cleaning or etching. The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus provided with a substrate transfer device that performs processing and a nozzle that supplies a processing fluid to a substrate transferred by the substrate transfer device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a substrate processing apparatus as described above, when a processing fluid such as a cleaning liquid, an etching liquid, or a vapor is supplied to a substrate, the vapor itself or a vapor component obtained by volatilizing the processing fluid is removed from a ceiling surface of a processing chamber or the like. When the upper part of the substrate transfer device is covered with a lid, such as the downward facing inner peripheral surface of the lid,
The vapor or vapor component adheres to the downward surface of the cover member that covers the upper part of the substrate transfer device and condenses to form water droplets, which drop onto the substrate being processed, contaminating the substrate and the processing fluid, resulting in quality deterioration. There was a problem of the decrease.

Therefore, conventionally, there have been the following methods for preventing the above-mentioned problem from occurring.

A. First Conventional Example (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3-284386) As shown in a cross-sectional view of FIG. 3, a substrate transfer device 02 for transferring a substrate W in a horizontal direction into a processing tank 01, and a processing liquid is ejected to the substrate W. The shower nozzles 03 to supply are provided. The upper surface of the processing tank 01 is opened, and one side of the opening edge is inclined so as to be lower. Further, along the opening edge, a groove 01a is formed over the entire circumference, and the groove 01a is formed. In addition, a flange 04a bent and formed on the outer peripheral edge of the lid body 04 is fitted. The lid body 04 is formed of a flat plate and has a flange 04a.
Is fitted in the concave groove 01a, the downward surface thereof is inclined with respect to the surface of the substrate W, and the water droplets attached to the downward surface of the lid 04 flow downward along the inclination, and the lid 04 The liquid transport plate 04b provided at the bottom of the
2 to prevent water drops from falling onto the substrate W.

B. Second Conventional Example (Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Sho 57-43892) As shown in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 4, a window plate 012 that covers the upper part of a substrate transfer device 011 that transfers a substrate W in a horizontal direction is formed in an arc shape. With the window plate 012 closed, the inner surface of the window plate 012 above the substrate transfer device 011 has a circular shape inclined downward, so that water droplets attached to the inner surface of the window plate 012 can flow downward along the inclination. Has become. 01
Reference numeral 3 denotes a nozzle for supplying a corrosive liquid.

[0006]

However, any of the above-mentioned prior arts has the following disadvantages.

A. Disadvantages of the first conventional example In order to cause water droplets attached to the downward surface of the lid body 04 to flow down along the slope, a certain degree of inclination with respect to the horizontal plane is required. Although it is desirable to make the inclination large, there is a disadvantage that one side wall of the processing tank 01 must be high at one end in the horizontal direction orthogonal to the substrate transport direction, and the processing tank 01 as a whole becomes large. .

B. Disadvantages of the second conventional example Although the apparatus can be miniaturized, the highest inner surface at the center in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the direction of transport of the substrate W becomes a nearly horizontal surface, and water droplets adhering to the central portion are formed by the substrate W There is a drawback that the water drops do not flow in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the transport direction and do not sufficiently prevent water drops from falling.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and the substrate processing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention prevents water droplets on the transfer substrate while avoiding the entire apparatus from being enlarged. The object of the present invention is to make it possible to favorably prevent falling, and the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention according to claim 4 aims to prevent water drops from falling onto a transfer substrate more appropriately. Another object of the present invention is to prevent water droplets falling from the lower end of the cover member from scattering and thereby to better prevent contamination of the substrate.

[0010]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
In order to achieve the object as described above, a substrate transfer device that transfers a substrate in a horizontal direction is provided in the processing chamber,
In a substrate processing apparatus provided with a nozzle for supplying a processing fluid to a substrate transported by the substrate transport apparatus, a downward surface of a cover member that covers an upper part of the substrate transport apparatus is disposed in a horizontal direction orthogonal to a transport direction of the substrate. Is located at the top and is perpendicular to the substrate transfer direction from the top.
Inclined downward toward both ends in the horizontal direction , and the uppermost portion is at least one in the transport direction of the substrate.
It is configured to be inclined to one side .

The inclination angle of the downward surface of the cover member with respect to the horizontal plane in the horizontal direction orthogonal to the substrate transfer direction is as follows.
Set to 20-60 °. If it is less than 20 °, there is no effect of preventing the drop of water droplets, while if it is more than 60 °, the whole apparatus becomes large (claim 2).

The inclination angle of the uppermost portion of the downward surface of the cover member with respect to the horizontal plane in the transport direction of the substrate is 10 to
Set to 30 °. If the angle is less than 10 °, there is no effect of preventing the drop of water droplets, while if it exceeds 30 °, the entire apparatus becomes large (claim 3).

Further, in the substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention, the downward surface of the cover member is formed of a hydrophilic material in order to achieve the above object. As the hydrophilic material, a hydrophilic resin such as a polyamide resin or an acrylic resin or hydrophilic glass, or an antifogging film made of acetyl cellulose or the like, which can be attached to a substrate, can be used.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus according to the fifth aspect of the present invention, wherein a lower surface of a cover member is provided at a lower portion of each of both ends in a horizontal direction orthogonal to a substrate transport direction. It is configured by providing the trough of order receiving <br/> the liquid flows down along the downward surface.

[0015]

According to the structure of the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention, even if vapor or vapor components adhere to the downward surface of the cover member and condense into water droplets, the substrate is transported from the top in the substrate transport direction. While flowing down along a surface inclined downward toward both ends in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the horizontal direction, and the uppermost water droplet flowing downward along the surface inclined toward the substrate transfer direction in the inclination direction downward. In the middle of the flow, the water can flow down along a surface inclined downward toward both ends in the horizontal direction orthogonal to the substrate transport direction, and the water droplet can flow down to a position deviated from above the substrate.

Further, according to the structure of the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention, as the vapor or the vapor component adheres to the downward surface of the cover member, the vapor is diffused in the direction of the surface to make it difficult to become water droplets. Can be.

Further, according to the configuration of the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention, water drops flowing toward both ends in the horizontal direction orthogonal to the substrate transport direction on the downward surface of the cover member are collected by the gutter. However, it is possible to avoid that water droplets dropped on both sides of the substrate and rebounded are scattered and attached to the lower surface of the substrate or the like.

[0018]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an overall vertical cross-sectional view thereof. The substrate for horizontally transferring a substrate W into a processing chamber 1 is shown. A transfer device 2 is provided, and nozzles 3 for supplying a cleaning liquid as a processing fluid are provided above and below the substrate transfer device 2, respectively, so that both upper and lower surfaces of a substrate W transferred by the substrate transfer device 2 are cleaned. It is configured.

The substrate transfer apparatus 2 has rollers 5 provided with flanges 4 for placing and supporting both ends in the width direction of the substrate W at both ends in the longitudinal direction so as to be driven and rotatable at predetermined intervals. The lower nozzles 3 are provided so as to be located substantially at the center between the adjacent rollers 5.

The substrate transfer apparatus cover member 6 Yamagata covering over the 2 transport direction upstream side of the board W (left in FIG. 2
Side), the lower surface of the cover member 6 is located at the center in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the direction of transport of the substrate W, and the substrate W is transported from the uppermost portion.
It is inclined downward toward both ends in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the transport direction , and the top is one side in the transport direction of the substrate W,
In the present embodiment, it is inclined so that it becomes lower toward the left side in FIG.

The cover member 6 is formed by attaching an anti-fog film as a hydrophilic material to a downward surface of the substrate.
Water attached to the downward surface is diffused in the surface direction, so that water droplets are hardly generated. As a configuration for imparting hydrophilicity to the downward surface, the cover member 6 itself may be made of a hydrophilic resin or hydrophilic glass.

Gutters 7 are provided at the lower portions of both ends of the lower surface of the cover member 6 in the horizontal direction orthogonal to the direction of transport of the substrate W in an inclined state, and receive water flowing down the lower surface to receive the water flowing down. It is configured to be able to flow down to a predetermined location that has no influence.

[0024] In the above embodiment, a special cover member 6 is provided, but is inclined to its lower surface, for example, it may be inclined to the ceiling surface of the processing chamber 1 without a cover member 6, The exclusive cover member 6 and the ceiling forming member of the processing chamber are collectively referred to as a cover member.

The present invention can be applied not only to the substrate processing apparatus for performing the cleaning processing as in the above-described embodiment but also to the substrate processing apparatus for performing the etching processing. Collectively referred to as processing fluid.

[0026]

As described above, according to the substrate processing apparatus of the first aspect of the present invention, water droplets adhered to the lower surface of the cover member and generated by the condensation are transferred along the lower surface of the cover member to the substrate. Not only does it flow downward from the central portion in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the transport direction to both ends in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the transport direction of the substrate, but the top water droplet also flows down to the substrate transport direction side, Since the water droplets flow down to a position deviated from above the substrate, the water droplets flow onto the transfer substrate without enlarging the entire apparatus as in the conventional example in which only one side in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the substrate transfer direction is inclined. The drop of water droplets can be prevented well, and contamination of the substrate and the whole process by water droplets can be avoided to improve the processing quality.

According to the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention, since the amount of water droplets generated on the downward surface of the cover member is reduced, it is possible to prevent the water droplets from dropping onto the transfer substrate. Thus, the processing quality can be further improved.

According to the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention, since the water droplets flowing down the downward surface of the cover member are collected by the gutter, contamination of the substrate due to the rebound of the falling water droplets is also avoided. The processing quality can be further improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall vertical sectional view.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a first conventional example.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a second conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Processing chamber 2 ... Substrate transfer apparatus 3 ... Nozzle 6 ... Cover member 7 ... Gutter W ... Substrate

────────────────────────────────────────────────── (5) Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Agency reference number FI Technical indication location H05K 3/26 7511-4E H05K 3/26 (56) References JP-A-55-139260 (JP, A) JP-A-3-284386 (JP, A) JP-A-2-241582 (JP, A) JP-A-1-292892 (JP, A) JP-A-2-45180 (JP, U) JP-A-2,180 -133485 (JP, U) Actually open 1-76758 (JP, U) Actually open 63-107656 (JP, U) Actually open 62-199945 (JP, U) Actually open 57-43892 (JP, U Japanese Utility Model Application Hei 1-79457 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Application Sho 60-80761 (JP, U) Japanese Patent Publication No. 56-27597 (JP, B2) Japanese Utility Model Application Hei 1-12004 (JP, Y2)

Claims (5)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] 1. A substrate processing apparatus, comprising: a substrate transfer device that transfers a substrate in a horizontal direction in a processing chamber; and a nozzle that supplies a processing fluid to the substrate transferred by the substrate transfer device. The downward surface of the cover member that covers the upper part of the apparatus is arranged such that the central portion in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the transport direction of the substrate becomes the uppermost portion and the substrate is
Inclined downward toward both ends in the horizontal direction orthogonal to the transport direction , and the uppermost portion in the transport direction of the substrate .
A substrate processing apparatus, wherein the substrate processing apparatus is inclined to at least one side . 2. A substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the inclination angle of the downward surface of the cover member with respect to a horizontal plane in a horizontal direction orthogonal to the substrate transport direction is 20 to 60 °. 3. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein an inclination angle of a downward surface of the cover member with respect to a horizontal plane in a transport direction of the uppermost substrate is 10 to 30 °. 4. A substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the downward surface of the cover member according to claim 1 is formed of a hydrophilic material. 5. A liquid flowing down the lower surface of the cover member according to any one of claims 1 to 4 through the lower surface at a lower portion of each of both ends in a horizontal direction orthogonal to the substrate transport direction. the substrate processing apparatus is provided with a trough for.