JP2594127Y2 - Substrate heat treatment equipment - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

The present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate for a photomask, a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display,
A heating plate provided with at least one of a heating means and a cooling means for heating or cooling a substrate such as a substrate for an optical disk, and a heating plate provided in a through hole formed in the heating plate and located above the heating plate. A substrate support pin for mounting the substrate with
The present invention relates to a substrate heat treatment apparatus including a pin elevating means for elevating and lowering the substrate support pins to positions above and below the upper surface of a hot plate.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as this type of substrate heat treatment apparatus, one disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 63-193833 is known. According to this conventional example, a ceramic sphere (ball) is provided on a hot plate having a heating means or a cooling means so as to project from the plate surface by a very small height, and a so-called proximity gap is formed on the hot plate. By supporting the substrate while maintaining a so-called minute gap, the substrate can be uniformly heated or cooled.

[0003] With this configuration, when the substrate is carried on the hot plate, the substrate is moved onto the hot plate by the substrate transfer arm on which the outer peripheral edge of the substrate is placed and supported, and the substrate support pins are raised in that state. The substrate is placed and supported on the substrate support pins, the substrate transfer arm is moved to another position, and then the substrate support pins are lowered to support the substrate on a sphere.

[0004]

In this type of substrate heat treatment apparatus, the upper surface of the hot plate is precisely controlled so as to uniformly heat or cool the substrate to a desired temperature. In order to obtain a desired uniform processing result, it is necessary to support the substrate at a predetermined position on the hot plate.

By the way, in the case of the conventional example, in order to support the substrate delivered from the substrate transfer arm on the hot plate, when the substrate supporting pins are lowered, the substrate comes into contact with the sphere and passes through the sphere. There was a drawback in that the slide occurred in the horizontal direction immediately before being supported by the hot plate, and it was not possible to correctly descend to a predetermined position.

In order to prevent such a problem, it is necessary to adjust the position of the substrate placed on the substrate support pins and the position of the hot plate so as to increase the horizontality thereof. There is a drawback that the position adjustment requires time and effort.

Such a problem occurs mainly when the posture of the substrate supported on the substrate support pins or the upper surface of the hot plate is not horizontal, and particularly remarkable when the descending speed of the substrate support pins is high. Was. Therefore, in the past, it was necessary to adjust the assembly of the substrate support pins and the hot plate with high precision to keep the posture of the substrate and the upper surface of the hot plate strictly horizontal, and to lower the substrate support pins at a low speed. Then, the frequency of occurrence of this problem is reduced.

However, such a method has the drawbacks that it takes time and effort to adjust the assembly of the substrate support pins and the hot plate, and that it takes a long time to elevate and lower the substrate, resulting in low processing efficiency. With such measures, it has not been possible to completely prevent the occurrence of the problem that the substrate slides in the lateral direction immediately before being supported by the sphere.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and by adding a simple configuration, it is possible to prevent the substrate from sliding in the horizontal direction when the substrate is lowered and supported on a hot plate. An object is to improve processing efficiency.

[0010]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a hot plate provided with at least one of a heating means and a cooling means and a through hole formed in the hot plate are provided. A substrate heat treatment apparatus comprising: a substrate support pin provided for mounting a substrate at a position above a hot plate; and pin elevating means for raising and lowering the substrate support pin to positions above and below the upper surface of the hot plate. In, between the lower surface of the hot plate and the pin mounting member provided with the substrate support pins, provided with an expandable member that forms a closed space connected to the through hole, connected to the closed space,
An exhaust valve that allows only exhaust from the inside of the closed space to the outside is provided.

[0011]

According to the configuration of the substrate heat treatment apparatus of the present invention, when the substrate support pins in a state where the substrate is placed and supported are lowered,
The volume in the closed space increases with the lowering of the pin mounting member,
Accordingly, the inside of the closed space becomes negative pressure, and the air on the hot plate is sucked through the through holes. The suction of the air on the hot plate works very effectively to eliminate the problem of the substrate sliding in the lateral direction.

That is, as a result of investigating the cause of such a defect, immediately before the substrate is lowered and supported by the hot plate,
The air between the substrate and the hot plate is in a state in which it is sandwiched vertically and supports the difficult-to-escape substrate.The substrate cannot float down in synchronization with the substrate support pins and temporarily floats in the air. It was found that the board was slid in the horizontal direction due to the trivial effect of the slightest deficiency in the assembly adjustment of the heat plate and the like. For this reason, as described above, in the present invention, since the air on the hot plate is sucked, the phenomenon that the substrate floats itself is eliminated, and the disadvantage that the substrate slides in the horizontal direction is eliminated. On the other hand, when raising the substrate support pins, the volume in the closed space is reduced and the internal pressure is increased, but the exhaust valve is opened to evacuate, and the substrate is removed from the through hole without applying exhaust pressure to the substrate side. Can rise.

[0013]

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

FIG. 1 is an overall longitudinal sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which a substrate cooling device 3 as a substrate heat treatment device is provided below a housing 2 and a substrate heating device as a substrate heat treatment device is provided above it. A device 4 is provided.

The substrate cooling device 3 includes a cooling plate 6 as a heating plate in the processing chamber 5, and a substrate supporting pin 8 provided so as to be able to move up and down through a through hole 7 formed in the cooling plate 6. An air cylinder 10 as a pin elevating means is interlockedly connected to a pin mounting member 9 integrally attached with the substrate supporting pins 8. The substrate supporting pins 8 are raised and lowered by the expansion and contraction of the air cylinder 10, and the substrate supporting pins 8 are raised. In this state, the substrate W is loaded / unloaded by a substrate transfer robot (not shown), and the substrate W is supported on the cooling plate 6 by lowering the substrate support pins 8.

The cooling plate 6 includes an aluminum heat transfer plate 11 for supporting the substrate W, an aluminum water-cooled water cooling plate 12, and a quenching plate interposed between the heat transfer plate 11 and the water cooling plate 12. Peltier elements 13... The water cooling plate 12 and the Peltier element 13 correspond to a cooling means as defined in the claims of the present invention.

The substrate heating device 4 is provided with a heating plate 15 as a heating plate provided with a heating means such as a plate heater in a processing chamber 14. The board support pins 8 are provided so as to be able to move up and down through the through holes 7 formed in the base member 15, and an air cylinder 10 as a pin elevating means is interlockingly connected to a pin mounting member 9 integrally mounted with the board support pins 8. The substrate W is loaded and unloaded by the lifting and lowering of the support pins 8 and a transfer robot (not shown), and the loaded substrate W can be supported by the heating plate 15.

Each of the heat transfer plate 11 and the heating plate 15 constituting the cooling plate 6 has a structure shown in FIG.
As shown in the perspective view of the main part of (a heating plate 15 here), three recesses are formed in a positional relationship of the vertices of an equilateral triangle, and each of the recesses has a ball 16.
Is placed. Each of the balls 16 is made of, for example, a low heat transfer member such as alumina or matateite, and the upper side of the balls 16 is protruded from the upper surface of the heating plate 15 by a minute amount. The substrate W is placed and supported on the balls 16 in a state where there is a gap, so that the substrate W can be uniformly heated or cooled.

The lower surface of the heating plate 15 and the pin mounting member 9
Is provided with an elastic member (bellows) 17 so as to form a closed space S connected to the through-holes 7, and the pin mounting member 9 is provided in the closed space S so as to be connected to the closed space S. Is opened when the pressure in the closed space S becomes higher than the external pressure, while a check valve 18 is provided as an exhaust valve which closes when the pressure in the closed space S becomes lower than the external pressure. It is configured to allow only the exhaust of the air. The same configuration is employed between the water cooling plate 12 and the pin mounting member 9 that constitute the cooling plate 6.

With the above configuration, when the substrate supporting pins 8 with the substrate W placed and supported thereon are lowered, FIG.
As shown in the sectional view for explaining the lowering operation of the check valve 18,
The expansion and contraction member 17 extends while the closed state is maintained, and the inside of the closed space S becomes negative pressure, thereby sucking air on the heating plate 15 (or the cooling plate 6) through the through holes 7. The substrate W can be prevented from floating, and the substrate W can be lowered in the vertical direction without causing side slip. On the other hand, when the substrate support pins 8 are raised, the volume in the closed space S decreases and the internal pressure increases as shown in the cross-sectional view illustrating the raising operation of FIG. Accordingly, the check valve 18 is opened and exhausted, and the substrate W can be lifted without applying exhaust pressure from the through holes 7 to the substrate W side.

If an air cylinder is used as the pin lifting and lowering means and its operation is performed at a low speed, it is unavoidable that the operation speed of the air cylinder lacks stability as a characteristic of the air cylinder. In the present invention,
Even if the lowering speed of the substrate support pins 8 is increased, the substrate does not slide in the horizontal direction, so that the air cylinder can be used at a high speed. Therefore, even when the air cylinder is used as the pin elevating means, the elevating operation is unstable. Can be avoided, which is convenient.

In the above embodiment, when the pressure in the closed space S formed by the elastic member 17 becomes higher than the external pressure as the substrate support pins 8 are raised, the closed space S is moved out of the closed space S. The check valve 18 is provided for exhausting the gas. However, in the present invention, for example, an electromagnetic opening / closing valve as an exhaust valve is provided instead of the check valve 18, while the raising operation of the substrate support pins 8. In addition to providing a sensor for detection, the sensor and the electromagnetic on / off valve may be linked to each other so that the electromagnetic on / off valve is automatically opened only when the substrate support pin 8 is raised.

Further, when raising and lowering the substrate support pins 8,...
Although the air cylinder 10 is used in the above embodiment, for example, a rod is protruded from the pin mounting member 9 and a screw is formed on the rod, while an internal screw member formed with an internal screw meshing with the screw is used. Various pin lifting / lowering means such as a so-called ball screw configuration configured to rotate with an electric motor can be applied.

According to the present invention, the ball 16 as in the above embodiment is used.
.. Are not provided, and the cooling plate 6 or the heating plate 15 is not provided.
It can also be applied to a substrate heat treatment apparatus of a type in which a substrate W is placed in close contact with a substrate.

[0025]

As described above, according to the substrate heat treatment apparatus of the present invention, when the substrate is placed and the substrate support pins are lowered, the air between the substrate and the hot plate is suctioned and removed. Even if the lowering speed of the substrate is increased, it is possible to prevent the substrate from floating from the substrate support pins and to prevent the substrate from slipping in the horizontal direction when the substrate is replaced on the hot plate side. Therefore, the processing efficiency of the substrate can be improved.

In addition, when the substrate support pins are lifted, the exhaust gas is exhausted by the exhaust valve, so that an exhaust pressure is not applied to the upper side of the hot plate, and an air current is generated from below the through hole upward. I won't let you. Therefore, air mixed with dust from below is not sent to the hot plate, and the substrate is not contaminated.

Further, as described above, forcibly removing the air between the substrate and the hot plate, there is no need to use a forced suction means such as a vacuum pump. With the addition of a simple configuration in which the formed elastic member and the exhaust valve are provided, the substrate can be accurately lowered and supported at a predetermined position on the hot plate without side-sliding, and favorable processing can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall vertical sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a main part for describing an operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 6 Cooling plate as hot plate 7 Through hole 8 Board support pin 9 Pin mounting member 10 Air cylinder as pin elevating means 15 Heating plate as hot plate 17 Telescopic member 18 Reversed as exhaust valve Stop valve S: closed space W: board

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-4-158511 (JP, A) JP-A-4-56146 (JP, A) JP-A-4-142027 (JP, A) JP-A-2- 238616 (JP, A) JP-A-2-196416 (JP, A) JP-A-2-187015 (JP, A) JP-A-6-244095 (JP, A) JP-A-6-77231 (JP, U) (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) H01L 21/027 G11B 7/26 H01L 21/324 H01L 21/68

Claims (1)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] A heating plate provided with at least one of a heating unit and a cooling unit; and a substrate support pin provided in a through hole formed in the heating plate and mounting the substrate at a position above the heating plate. A substrate heat treatment apparatus comprising: a pin elevating means for elevating and lowering the substrate support pins to a position above and below the upper surface of the hot plate; a pin mounting provided with the lower surface of the heat plate and the substrate support pins. A member is provided with a telescopic member that forms a closed space connected to the through hole, and an exhaust valve connected to the closed space and allowing only exhaust from the inside of the closed space to the outside is provided. Substrate heat treatment apparatus.