JP2606150B2 - Wet processing equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wet processing apparatus, and more particularly, to a wet processing apparatus for a large glass substrate used for manufacturing a thin film semiconductor device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIGS. 3A and 3B are views for explaining a conventional wet processing tank, wherein FIG. 3A is a view showing the entire structure, FIG. 3B is a perspective view of a cassette portion, and FIG. It is an enlarged view of a circle part.

As shown in FIG. 3 (A), a conventional wet processing tank is provided with a processing tank (inner tank) 2 inside a processing tank (outer tank) 1 and a processing tank (inner tank) 2. And a cassette 4 for holding a substrate to be processed. In addition, processing liquid (chemical liquid 3)
Form a circulating system, overflow from the processing tank (inner tank) 2 and are collected in the processing tank (outer tank) 1, and the processing tank (outer tank)
The liquid circulation pump 12 absorbs liquid from near the bottom of the liquid 1 (at this time, the chemical liquid 3 is filtered by the filter 11), and flows out to the processing tank (inner tank) 2.

When a glass substrate used for manufacturing a thin film semiconductor device is cleaned, a conventional method uses a wet processing tank shown in FIG. That is, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3 (C), a plurality of glass substrates 8 are placed in the cassette 4 in the vertical direction, and placed in the processing tank (inner tank) 2 shown in FIG. The glass substrate 8 is cleaned while circulating. It should be noted that in FIGS.
Denotes a cassette side plate, and 9a denotes a substrate support rod.

[0005]

By the way, the glass substrate forming the thin film transistor array for the color liquid crystal display has been increasing in the display area, and has been increasing in size in order to improve the production efficiency. In.

If particles having a size of several μm or more adhere to the glass substrate, pattern defects are formed, resulting in a display failure. To remove the particles, the glass substrate is subjected to processing such as cleaning. Need to be applied. In particular, as the display area and the substrate size increase, the adhesion of the particles becomes more severe, and a processing process such as cleaning with higher precision is required. When the size of the substrate is increased, the capacity of the processing tank is increased, so that it takes a long time to circulate the liquid, and there is a problem that a sufficient cleaning effect does not appear. Further, it was difficult to clean evenly even by using ultrasonic cleaning.

In the conventional wet processing tank, when wet processing a glass substrate for a thin film semiconductor device, the cassette 4 for holding the substrate during the wet processing and the substrate support rod 9a [ FIG. 3 (B),
(C), a shadowed portion is generated due to the shape and the like. Therefore, the chemical solution or pure water flowing on the surface of the glass substrate becomes non-uniform, and the uniformity of etching and the uniformity of particle removal are reduced. There was a problem.

As a means for solving this problem, there has been proposed a wet etching apparatus provided with a chemical solution ejection section at the bottom.
(See Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-162723). However, in this apparatus, since the chemical solution jetting portion is disposed at the bottom of the tank, the ability to agitate the chemical solution at the bottom of the tank is weak, and in particular, it is in close contact with the bottom of the glass substrate in the cassette disposed in the tank. The ability to agitate portions of the solution is weak, and problems remain.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems and the like, and has the following objects. First, a wet processing apparatus capable of performing a processing process such as high-precision cleaning is provided. Second, to provide a wet processing apparatus with improved uniformity such as cleaning or etching processing. Third, to a particularly large glass substrate for a thin film semiconductor device. It is an object of the present invention to provide a wet processing apparatus suitable for cleaning and the like.

[0010]

According to the present invention, there is provided a wet processing apparatus comprising: a pipe for entering a liquid at the bottom of an inner processing tank as a substrate support rod for supporting a substrate to be processed in the inner processing tank; The point of use, that is, the point that the pipe and the substrate support rod are used. The point that the bottom of the cassette holding the substrate to be processed (the bottom of the substrate to be processed) is fitted to the pipe and the substrate support rod. The present invention is characterized in that a processing liquid ejection hole is provided at a desired position of a substrate support rod, thereby providing the above-described target wet processing apparatus.

That is, the present invention provides a wet processing apparatus comprising an outer processing tank and an inner processing tank, wherein a cassette holding a substrate to be processed is disposed in the inner processing tank. A wet processing apparatus having a liquid circulation system for draining a processing liquid overflowed from above from the bottom of the outer processing tank and entering the liquid at the bottom of the inner processing tank; A processing liquid ejection hole is provided on a pipe / substrate support rod that enters the bottom of the tank (claim 1). Also, the pipe / substrate support rod that enters the bottom of the inner processing tank is provided. The bottom of the cassette holding the substrate to be processed (the bottom of the substrate to be processed) is fitted, and a processing liquid ejection hole is provided in the pipe / substrate support rod portion that contacts the bottom of the substrate to be processed at the bottom of the cassette. (Claim 2) The processing liquid jetting hole is constituted by a hole from which the processing liquid is jetted to the bottom of the substrate to be processed, and a hole formed by obliquely piercing the hole from which the processing liquid is jetted to the front and back surfaces of the substrate. Features (claim 3).

[0012]

In the wet processing apparatus according to the present invention, as described above, the processing liquid is ejected from the inside of the rod (pipe / substrate support rod) of the support at the bottom of the cassette against which the substrate to be processed is pressed. Therefore, the portion where the processing liquid is most stagnant is forcibly disturbed, and as a result, an effect that the uniformity of the processing liquid can be achieved very quickly is produced.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a second embodiment of the present invention.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an example (embodiment 1) in which a wet processing apparatus according to the present invention is applied to cleaning of a large-sized glass substrate. It is a figure which shows the whole structure of a wet processing apparatus, (B)
FIG. 3A is a partially enlarged detailed view of the vicinity of a cassette support portion, a chemical solution introduction portion, and a pipe / substrate support rod in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1A, the wet processing apparatus according to the first embodiment has a processing tank (outer tank) 1 inside a processing tank.
(Inner tank) 2 is provided, and a cassette 4 is placed in this processing tank (Inner tank) 2.
It has a structure provided with. On the other hand, the processing liquid (chemical liquid 3) is configured to be circulated and used. That is, the chemical 3 overflows from the processing tank (inner tank) 2 and is collected in the processing tank (outer tank) 1, and the chemical 3 is circulated from near the bottom of the processing tank (outer tank) 1. After the liquid is absorbed by the pump 12 and filtered by the filter 11, the liquid is discharged from the chemical solution introduction section 5 of the cassette 4.

The wet processing apparatus shown in FIG. 1A is the same as the conventional apparatus, but the first embodiment is an example in which this apparatus is applied to cleaning of a large glass substrate. The cassette 4 holding the glass substrate 8 of FIG.
As shown in the figure, while being supported on the cassette support portion 6,
As a substrate support rod for supporting the large glass substrate 8 in the inner processing tank, a pipe itself that enters the bottom of the inner processing tank is used, and this is used as a pipe / substrate support rod 9.
Then, the bottom of the large glass substrate 8 is fitted to the pipe / substrate support rod 9, and the processing liquid blow-out hole is provided in the pipe / substrate support rod 9 at a position in contact with the bottom of the glass substrate 8.
A wet processing apparatus provided with 10 is used.

That is, first, a plurality of large glass substrates 8 are held in the cassette 4 in the vertical direction, and the cassette 4 is placed on the cassette supporting portion 6 shown in FIG. At this time,
As shown in FIG. 1 (B), the bottom of the large glass substrate 8
It is arranged so as to fit into the pipe / substrate support rod 9 on the cassette support 6. Next, the treatment tank is filled with a chemical solution 3 as a cleaning liquid.
(Inner tank) Fill 2 and overflow chemical 3
After being filtered by a filter 11, it is introduced into the pipe / substrate support rod 9 from the chemical solution introduction part 5 of the cassette support part 6 as shown in FIG. Spout from 10

By ejecting the gas from the blowing holes 10, the chemical solution 3 circulates not only at the bottom of the glass substrate 8 but also over the entire surface of the substrate 8, and the in-plane uniformity of the cleaning is improved. For example, a glass substrate 8 of about 400 × 500 mm □
When the number of particles removed is 1 μm or more,
An improvement of 5-10% was observed.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 2 is a view for explaining Embodiment 2 of the present invention, and is a partially enlarged view of a blowout hole. In the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, a wet processing apparatus having holes through which the chemical solution 3 is ejected is used on all surfaces (ie, the bottom surface, the front surface, the back surface, and the side surfaces) of the large glass substrate 8. is there.

That is, in the second embodiment, the structure of the cleaning tank is the same as that of the first embodiment (see FIG. 1A). As shown in FIG. 2, the blowout hole 10 is formed by a hole which blows out to the side surface of the glass substrate 8 and a hole which is blown obliquely and blows out to the front and back surfaces of the substrate 8.
By ejecting the chemical solution 3 from such an ejection hole 10,
The entire surface to be cleaned of the glass substrate 8 is cleaned with higher precision,
The cleaning effect is further improved.

As an embodiment of the present invention, an example in which the present invention is applied to cleaning of a large glass substrate has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and is applicable to other substrates and other processing means. It is. Also, the design of the wet processing apparatus can be appropriately changed as long as the gist of the present invention is not changed, and all of them are included in the present invention.

[0022]

As described above in detail, the wet processing apparatus according to the present invention eliminates a portion where circulation of a chemical solution on the surface of a substrate to be processed is difficult during the wet processing of the substrate. For example, when the wet processing apparatus of the present invention is applied to an apparatus for cleaning a large glass substrate, the number of particles removed by 1 μm or more is improved by about 5 to 10%.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view for explaining an example (Example 1) in which a wet processing apparatus according to the present invention is applied to cleaning of a large-sized glass substrate, wherein (A) is a view showing the entire structure of the wet processing apparatus; (B) is a partially enlarged detailed view of the vicinity of the cassette support portion, the chemical solution introduction portion, and the pipe / substrate support rod of (A).

FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged view of the vicinity of a pipe / substrate support rod showing another example (Example 2) of the wet processing apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a conventional wet processing tank,
(A) is a diagram showing the entire structure, (B) is a perspective view of a cassette portion, and (C) is an enlarged view of a circular portion of (B).

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Processing tank (outer tank) 2 Processing tank (inner tank) 3 Chemical liquid 4 Cassette 5 Chemical liquid introduction part 6 Cassette support part 7 Cassette side plate 8 Glass substrate 9 Pipe / substrate support rod 9a Substrate support rod 10 Outlet hole 11 Filter 12 Liquid circulation pump

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A wet processing apparatus comprising an outer processing tank and an inner processing tank, wherein a cassette holding a substrate to be processed is disposed in the inner processing tank. In a wet processing apparatus having a liquid circulation system for draining the overflowed processing liquid from the bottom of the outer processing tank and entering the bottom of the inner processing tank, the processing liquid enters the bottom of the inner processing tank. A wet processing apparatus characterized in that a processing liquid ejection hole is provided in a pipe / substrate supporting rod for liquid. 2. A pipe / substrate support rod portion in which the bottom of the substrate to be processed is fitted to a pipe / substrate support rod that enters the bottom of the inner processing tank and abuts against the bottom of the substrate to be processed. 2. A processing liquid jetting hole is provided in the nozzle.
The wet processing apparatus according to the above. 3. The processing liquid ejection hole according to claim 1 or 2,
2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: a hole from which a processing liquid is ejected to a bottom portion of the substrate to be processed; and a hole formed by obliquely drilling a hole from which a processing liquid is ejected on the front and back surfaces of the substrate. 3. The wet processing apparatus according to 2. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the substrate to be processed is a large-sized glass substrate for a thin film semiconductor device.
The wet processing apparatus according to the above.