JP2818104B2 - Substrate arrangement pitch converter - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a substrate arrangement pitch conversion apparatus for narrowing or widening the arrangement pitch of substrates.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A substrate processing apparatus is used to perform a surface treatment on a thin substrate to be processed (hereinafter, simply referred to as a substrate) such as a semiconductor substrate. The substrate processing apparatus is provided with a transport robot that transports a carrier containing a plurality of substrates, a processing tank that performs surface treatment of the plurality of substrates with a processing liquid, a drying furnace that dries the processed substrate surface, and the like. . When a substrate is immersed in a processing tank, a carrier batch method in which a carrier is immersed in a processing tank and a carrierless method in which a plurality of substrates taken out of the carrier are held by a chuck and transported to the processing tank are used.

Here, in order to be able to process a large number of substrates at once in the processing tank, a substrate arrangement pitch for holding substrates on the substrate holder of the processing tank at a pitch smaller than the substrate arrangement pitch in the transfer robot. Conversion devices have been proposed in the past. For example, in the apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2-303140, a pair of left and right wafer holding claws are driven by a cam shaft, and the pitch of a held group of substrates is adjusted by controlling the amount of rotation of the cam shaft. ing. Further, in the apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-273662, pitch conversion grooves that are vertically inclined are formed on a pair of plate surfaces, and the substrate is moved along the pitch conversion grooves to arrange the substrates. Converting pitch.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned conventional pitch converter, the former device has a very complicated mechanism for performing pitch conversion, and the entire device becomes expensive. Further, it is necessary to rotate the pair of left and right cam shafts in synchronization with each other, and if the rotation angle is out of order, the substrate is twisted and the substrate is damaged. Further, in the latter device, it is necessary to form grooves inclined in the vertical direction with high precision, and to arrange the grooves of a pair of opposed plates with high precision. In this device, if there is a misalignment between the two plates, the substrate will be twisted in the same manner as described above, resulting in breakage of the substrate. As described above, in the conventional pitch conversion device, the structure is complicated, and it is necessary to perform machining, assembly, and operation with high accuracy. As a result, the device becomes expensive, and if the accuracy is incorrect, the substrate may be damaged. is there.

An object of the present invention is to make it possible to easily perform pitch conversion of a substrate arrangement with a simple structure.

[0006]

A substrate arrangement pitch conversion apparatus according to the present invention is an apparatus for converting an arrangement pitch of substrates, and includes a substrate holder and substrate moving means.
The substrate holder has a plurality of holding grooves formed parallel to each other at a predetermined pitch and capable of holding the respective substrates, and at least two groups of substrates can be arranged in parallel in a direction along the holding grooves. The substrate moving means moves the group of substrates held in the plurality of holding grooves along each groove.

[0007] For example, the substrate holder may include a plurality of first holding grooves formed from one end to the other end, and a second holding groove formed only on the other end between adjacent first holding grooves. And In this case, the substrate moving means includes a plurality of first
The substrate held in the holding groove is moved between one end and the other end of the substrate holder. The substrate holder may include, for example, a plurality of first holding grooves formed from one end to the center and a plurality of second holding grooves formed between adjacent first holding grooves from the other end to the center. And a groove. In this case, the substrate moving means moves the plurality of substrates arranged in each groove between the end and the center of the substrate holder.

[0008]

In the substrate arrangement pitch conversion apparatus according to the present invention, for example, every other substrate group having the standard pitch arrangement is placed on one end side of the holding groove of the substrate holder. Similarly, every other substrate group having the standard pitch arrangement is placed on the other end side of the holding groove. Here, the substrate group placed on one end side and the substrate group placed on the other end side are displaced from each other by one pitch of the holding groove. Then, for example, the substrate group placed on one end of the holding groove is moved to the other end by the substrate moving means. Thereby, the moved substrates are inserted between the adjacent substrates of the group of substrates mounted at the standard pitch on the other end side, and the other end side has a half pitch smaller than the standard pitch, for example, half the standard pitch. Thus, the substrates are arranged.

Further, for example, a holding groove is formed from one end to the center and a second holding groove is formed from the other end to the center and between adjacent first holding grooves.
In the case of the holding grooves, for example, a substrate group having a standard pitch arrangement is placed on one end of the first holding groove and the other end of the second holding groove. Then, by moving the substrate groups at both ends to the center by the substrate moving means, for example, a half-pitch substrate group is arranged in the center.

[0010] In these apparatuses, the holding grooves formed in the substrate holder are straight, and processing is easy. In addition, since it is not necessary to provide the substrate holders facing each other and the arrangement pitch can be changed by one substrate holder, control and adjustment for synchronization as in the conventional apparatus are not required.

[0011]

FIG. 1 shows a substrate processing apparatus employing a substrate arrangement pitch conversion apparatus according to the present invention. The substrate processing apparatus 1 includes a substrate transfer unit 4 that takes out a substrate W from the transport carrier 2 and transfers the substrate W to the surface processing carrier 3;
It has a surface treatment section 5 for the substrate W, a substrate drying section 6, a carrier cleaning section 7 for cleaning the carrier 2 for transport, and a maintenance work area 8.

The substrate processing apparatus 1 includes a carrier transfer robot 11 provided along a carrier loading / unloading section 10, a substrate chuck 12 provided along a substrate transfer section 4, a substrate transfer section 4 and a carrier transport robot 13 provided from the substrate surface treatment section 5 to the substrate drying section 6 are provided so as to be movable. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the carrier loading / unloading section 10 includes the above-described carrier transfer robot 11, a stage 15 on which the plurality of transported carriers 2 are placed, and a stage 1.
5 has an orientation flat alignment roller 16 provided below the openings 15a and 15b. The carrier transfer robot 11 is provided so as to move, rotate, and move up and down along the stage 15. In the carrier loading / unloading section 10, the orientation flat of the substrate W in the transport carrier 2 transported to one end of the stage 15 is aligned by the alignment roller 16.
The carrier 2 is transferred onto the turntable 17 of the substrate transfer section 4 by the carrier transfer robot 11. The transfer carrier 2 containing the processed substrate W is transferred to the other end of the stage 15 by the carrier transfer robot 11, and the transferred transfer carrier 2 is unloaded to a subsequent processing step. Is done.

As shown in FIG. 2, the substrate transfer section 4 includes the substrate chuck 12 and the carrier mounting table 20.
And a first device disposed below the carrier mounting table 20.
Substrate delivery device 21 and substrate arrangement pitch conversion device 22
And a second substrate transfer device 23. The substrate chuck 12 is provided on one side of the carrier mounting table 20 and is movable along the carrier mounting table 20. In the substrate transfer section 4, a plurality of substrates W arranged at a standard pitch are taken out from the two transport carriers 2 transported by the carrier transfer robot 11, and the array pitch is set to two minutes of the standard pitch. And is transferred to another surface treatment carrier 3.

FIG. 3 shows an outline of the first substrate transfer device 21. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the first substrate transfer device 21 includes a drive motor 30 for horizontally rotating a pair of turntables 17 provided on the carrier mounting table 20, A board transfer tool 31 disposed below and raised and lowered through the central opening of the turntable 17, and each of the board transfer tools 3 via a lifting base frame 32.
1 and a link driving means 34 for moving the substrate transfer members 31 toward and away from each other. The turntable 17 rotates the direction of the transfer carrier 2 transferred onto the turntable 17 by the carrier transfer robot 11 by 90 ° so that the accommodation direction of the substrate W can correspond to various subsequent devices. And is not necessarily required by the arrangement of subsequent devices.

In the substrate transfer apparatus 21, each of the substrate transfer tools 31 is raised, and the plurality of substrates W are held by the substrate holding portions 31a in an upright and aligned state. That is, each of the base delivery tools 31 receives the plurality of substrates W from each of the transport carriers 2 in a standing posture while being separated from each other. Therefore, at this stage, the substrates for the two carriers held by the two substrate transfer tools 31 are separated into the front group substrate W1 and the rear group substrate W2, respectively, as shown by the solid lines in FIG. ing.

In such a state, the substrate delivery tools 31 are made to approach each other in the substrate alignment direction. As a result, as shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 3, the substrates separated into the front group W1 and the rear group W2 are aligned at substantially the same pitch P, and are aligned with the substrate holding grooves of the chuck hand 35 of the substrate chuck 12. Align the position. Therefore, the substrates can be collectively held by the substrate delivery tool 31. Thereafter, these substrates W are collectively held and transported by the substrate chuck 12, and are transferred to the array pitch converter 22.
Transfer to

As shown in FIG. 4, the substrate arrangement pitch converting device 22 supports a substrate holder 40 for holding a plurality of substrates W arranged in a line in an upright state, and rotatably supports the substrate holder 40. And a rotation mechanism 42 for rotating the substrate holder 40. The substrate holder 40 is formed of a substantially flat plate member. The first holder 43 is provided at one end and can hold a group of substrates arranged at a standard pitch P. The first holder 43 is provided at the other end and has a standard pitch. Second holding unit 4 capable of holding a group of substrates at P and half pitch P / 2
And 4. As shown in FIG. 5, a holding groove 45 for holding each substrate of a group of substrates arranged at a standard pitch is formed in the first holding portion 43, and the holding groove 45 is formed in the second holding portion. 44. On the other hand, in the second holding portion 44, intermediate holding grooves 46 are formed at a standard pitch P between holding grooves 45 formed to extend from the first holding portion 43. The holding groove 45 and the intermediate holding groove 46 are shifted by a half pitch P / 2). Also, the intermediate holding groove 4
Numeral 6 has a width that allows a group of substrates arranged at a standard pitch to be placed on the second holding unit 44 and does not extend to the first holding unit 43 side. Thus, the second holding unit 44 includes:
The holding groove 45 and the intermediate holding groove 46 are formed, and it is possible to hold a group of substrates arranged at a half pitch. Stoppers 40 are provided at both ends of the substrate holder 40, respectively.
a and 40b are formed to protrude upward to prevent the substrates held by the holding portions 43 and 44 from dropping from above the substrate holder 40. On the lower surface of the substrate holder 40,
A pair of support portions 47 are formed to protrude downward, and a rotation shaft 48 is provided to protrude outward from each support portion 47.

The support frame 41 has a main body 41a extending in the direction in which the substrates are arranged, and a front support 41b and a rear support 41c extending upward from both ends in the front-rear direction of the main body 41a. The rotation shaft 48 of the substrate holder 40 is
The first supporting portions 41b and 41c are rotatably supported respectively. The rotation mechanism 42 includes a worm wheel 50 fixed to a rotation shaft 48 on the front side of the substrate holder 40, a worm shaft 51 that meshes with the worm wheel 50,
A drive motor 52 connected to the worm shaft 51. The drive motor 52 is connected to the main body 4 of the support frame 41.
1a. The worm wheel 50 is rotated by such a rotation mechanism 42 so that the substrate holder 4
0 can be rotated clockwise or counterclockwise about the rotation shaft 48.

The supporting frame 41 is a lifting drive means 53 composed of a ball shaft, a ball nut, a motor and the like.
(See FIG. 2). As shown in FIG. 2, the second substrate transfer device 23 has one substrate transfer device 55 and elevating means 56 for moving the substrate transfer device 55 up and down. Here, the substrate delivery device 55 is raised by the elevating means 56, and the substrate delivery device 55
The substrate group in the half pitch arrangement is collectively received from the substrate chuck 12 in the standing and aligned state by the substrate holding portion 55a, and is accommodated in the surface treatment carrier 3.

The surface treatment carrier 3 is formed with a substrate accommodation groove having a half pitch of the substrate accommodation groove of the transport carrier 2. Thereby, the surface treatment carrier 3
The number of substrates to be accommodated is increased, and the processing capacity is improved.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the substrate surface treatment unit 5 includes a treatment tank 60 a for performing acid cleaning or the like without overflowing.
And an overflow-type pure water cleaning tank 60b. Then, the surface treatment carrier 3 is sequentially immersed in each of the treatment tanks 60a and 60b by the carrier transport robot 13 to perform the planar treatment of the substrate W. In addition, each processing tank 60a, 6
0b, the processing liquid recovery unit 61a and the processing liquid supply unit 6
1b.

The substrate drying unit 6 is a centrifugal dehydration drier 6 that accommodates the surface treatment carrier 3 and drains and dries by centrifugal force.
Five. Instead of the centrifugal dehydrating / drying machine 65, a device that promotes drying by using a solvent or a device that promotes drying by a reduced pressure method can be used. The carrier cleaning unit 7 is for cleaning the transport carrier 2 that has been taken out and emptied while the surface processing of the substrate W is being performed. In the substrate transfer section 4, the surface treatment carrier 3
From the transfer carrier 2 which has been washed.

Next, the operation of the board arrangement pitch converter 22 will be described. When transferring an unprocessed substrate that has not been subjected to surface treatment to the carrier 3 for surface treatment, the group of substrates arranged at the standard pitch P is changed to a half pitch P /
Change to 2. That is, first, a group of substrates arranged at a standard pitch in the holding groove 45 of the first holding portion 43 on the substrate holder 40 is placed by the substrate chuck 12. Next, after the substrate holder 40 is moved in the horizontal direction by the half pitch P / 2, the substrates arranged at the standard pitch in the intermediate holding grooves 46 formed in the second holding portion 44 on the substrate holder 40. Place the group. This state is shown in FIG.

Next, the drive motor 52 is driven to rotate the worm shaft 51, and the worm wheel 50 is moved to the position shown in FIG.
Rotate clockwise at. Then, the substrate holder 4
0 changes from the position indicated by the dashed line in FIG. 6 to the position indicated by the solid line. As a result, the substrate group held in the holding groove 45 of the first holding portion 43 is moved along the holding groove 45 into the second holding portion 4.
The substrate is moved to the fourth side, and each substrate is inserted between adjacent substrates in a group of substrates arranged in the intermediate holding groove 46 at a standard pitch. In this state, the substrates are arranged in the second holding unit 44 at a half pitch.

Next, the substrate group arranged at these half pitches is chucked by the substrate chuck 12 and transferred to the second substrate transfer device 23 side. On the other hand, since the processed substrates are arranged at a half pitch, when the processed substrates are transferred to the transporting carrier 2 side, the operation reverse to the above-described operation is performed. That is, from the second delivery device 23 side, the substrate group arranged at half pitch by the substrate chuck 12 is transferred to the holding grooves 45 and 46 of the second holding portion 44 on the substrate holder 40.
Place on top. Next, the drive motor 52 is driven to rotate the substrate holder 40 counterclockwise in FIG. 4 via the worm shaft 51 and the worm wheel 50. Thereby, the substrate held in the holding groove 45 of the half-pitch substrate group arranged on the second holding unit 44 is moved to the first holding unit 43 side along the holding groove 45. Then, the substrate moved to the first holding portion 43 side is stopped by the stopper 40a. Also, the intermediate holding groove 46
The substrate held in the first holding portion 43 has an intermediate holding groove 46.
Since it is not formed to extend to the side, it is held at the same position. In this way, the half-pitch substrate group placed on the second holding portion 44 of the substrate holding device 40 is divided into the first holding portion 43 and the second holding portion 44, each of which is arranged at a standard pitch. It becomes a group of substrates.

Thereafter, the substrate group arranged at the standard pitch is transferred by the substrate chuck 12 to the transport carrier 2 waiting at the first substrate transfer device 21 side. In such an embodiment, a substrate group arranged at a standard pitch can be changed to a substrate group arranged at a half pitch simply by tilting the substrate holder 40. Further, since the holding grooves 45 and 46 need only be formed in a straight line in the substrate holder 40, the processing is easy.

[Other Embodiments] (a) In the above-described embodiment, the rotating mechanism 42 is provided to move the substrate on the substrate holder 40. However, a pushing means such as the back surface of the substrate chuck 12 is used. Then, the group of substrates of the first holding unit 43 may be moved to the second holding unit 44 side. In this case, when taking out the standard pitch substrate group from the half pitch substrate group arranged in the second holding unit 44, it is necessary to extract the standard pitch substrate by using a standard pitch comb-shaped member. There is. (B) The pattern of the holding groove formed on the surface of the substrate holder is not limited to the above embodiment.

For example, as shown in FIG. 7, holding grooves 71 and 72 extending in the center direction from the left and right ends of the substrate holder 70 may be formed at a standard pitch. These grooves 71 and 72 extend from both left and right ends toward the center, and have such a length that the substrates held in the holding grooves 71 and 72 are aligned when the substrates are moved to the ends in the center. It has become. The left and right holding grooves 71 and 72 are formed so as to be displaced by a half pitch (P / 2).

In this case, the first holding portions 73 and 74 are formed at both left and right end portions of the substrate holder 70, respectively, and the second holding portion 75 is formed at the center portion. (C) FIG. 8 shows still another embodiment of the substrate holder. In the substrate holder 80, the formation pattern of the holding grooves 81 and 82 is the same as that of the embodiment shown in FIG. The substrate holder 80 includes two plate members 83 and 84, and both plate members 83 and 84 are rotatable around a support shaft 85 provided at the center. Further, stoppers 83a and 84a are formed at the ends of the plate members 83 and 84, respectively.

In this embodiment, the plate members 83 and 84 are rotated by driving means (not shown) in the direction in which the respective ends are located upward as shown in FIG. Then, the group of substrates held in each of the holding grooves 81 and 82 moves to the second holding portion on the center side, and becomes a group of substrates having a half pitch arrangement. On the other hand, in the half pitch array substrate group arranged in the center portion, the respective plate members 83 and 84 are rotated in the opposite direction, so that the substrates at the standard pitch are respectively arranged along the holding grooves 81 and 82. It is possible to move to each end and extract a substrate group having a standard pitch arrangement at each end. (D) The present invention is also applicable to a carrierless type substrate processing apparatus. (E) In the above-described embodiment, the first substrate transfer device 21
The substrate group W formed by aligning the two substrate groups W1 and W2 at the same pitch according to the above is further combined into two to form a half-pitch array substrate group. However, the first substrate transfer device 21 is omitted, and the two substrate groups are omitted. A half pitch arrangement may be used by using groups.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, the arrangement pitch of the substrates can be changed only by moving the substrate along the holding grooves of the substrate holder, and the holding grooves of the substrate holder can be formed in a straight line. Grooves can be formed, and the arrangement pitch of the substrates can be changed with a simple configuration and without damaging the substrates.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a substrate processing apparatus employing a substrate arrangement pitch conversion apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a vertical cross section of the substrate processing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a schematic vertical cross-sectional configuration diagram of a first substrate delivery device of the substrate processing apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a substrate arrangement pitch conversion device.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a substrate holder of the substrate arrangement pitch conversion device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the operation of substrate arrangement pitch conversion.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a substrate holder according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a partial plan view of a substrate holder according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a view for explaining the operation of the substrate holder shown in FIG. 8;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 12 Substrate chuck 22 Substrate arrangement pitch converter 40 Substrate holder 42 Rotating mechanism 43 First holding part 44 Second holding part 45 Holding groove 46 Intermediate holding groove

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A substrate arrangement pitch conversion device for converting an arrangement pitch of substrates, comprising: a plurality of holding grooves formed in parallel with each other at a predetermined pitch and capable of holding substrates, at least two substrates. A substrate holder that can arrange the groups in parallel in the direction along the holding grooves; and a substrate moving unit that moves the group of substrates held in the plurality of holding grooves along each groove. apparatus. 2. The substrate holding device according to claim 1, wherein the substrate holding member includes a plurality of first holding grooves formed from one end to the other end, and a second holding groove formed only on the other end between adjacent first holding grooves. 2. The substrate moving unit according to claim 1, wherein the substrate moving unit moves the substrate held in the plurality of first holding grooves between one end and the other end of the substrate holder. 3. Substrate array pitch converter. 3. The substrate holder has a plurality of first holding grooves formed from one end to the center and a plurality of first holding grooves formed between the other end and the center from the other end. A second holding groove, wherein the substrate moving means moves the plurality of substrates arranged in each of the grooves between an end and a center of the substrate holder. 2. The substrate arrangement pitch conversion device according to 1.