JP2854213B2 - Cleaning 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 cleaning apparatus used in a process of cleaning a rectangular substrate made of glass or the like in a process of manufacturing a liquid crystal display or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, a TFT color liquid crystal panel has a thin film transistor (TFT) for each pixel on a glass substrate.
In the photolithography process in the manufacturing process, fine processing of a 3 μm to 10 μm pattern is performed. Therefore, foreign substances such as dust adhering to the glass substrate greatly affect the yield. For this reason, for example, before applying a resist in a photolithography process, the glass substrate is washed to remove the dust and the like as much as possible.

In such a cleaning apparatus, as shown in FIG. 6, a spin chuck (support table) 11 for fixing a central portion of a glass substrate 13 by vacuum suction is provided at a substantially central position of a main body 10 and a pure chuck is provided. It has a configuration in which a substrate cleaning liquid jet nozzle 15 for jetting water and a cleaning brush 21 for brush cleaning the glass substrate 13 adsorbed and fixed on the spin chuck 11 are provided.

[0004] While rotating the glass substrate 13 adsorbed and fixed on the spin chuck 11, pure water is jetted from the substrate cleaning liquid jet nozzle 15, and the glass substrate 13 is cleaned with a cleaning brush 21 as necessary. It is supposed to do.

[0005]

However, when the glass substrate 13 is cleaned by the cleaning apparatus having the above structure, the water jetted from the substrate cleaning liquid jet nozzle 15 is splashed and scattered, and this water is dispersed in the peripheral portion. There is a problem of contamination. That is, since the glass substrate 13 has a rectangular shape,
The distance from the center of rotation to the edge of the board varies depending on the location,
If the long side of the substrate side, that is, the side surfaces of the four corners, hits the water jetted from the substrate cleaning liquid jet nozzle 15, the hit water is splashed and scattered, causing the above-described problem. Become.

Since the distance from the center of rotation to the edge of the substrate varies depending on the region, the end of the cleaning brush 21 is repeatedly brought into contact with the edge of the glass substrate 13, and at this time, the tip of the brush is cut off and the cleaning is performed. There is also a problem that the brush 21 gets old in a short time. At the same time, there is also a problem that the glass substrate 13 is again contaminated by hair fragments generated at this time, and the cleaning effect is reduced.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the cleaning apparatus of the present invention is provided with a support for supporting and rotating the substrate to be cleaned, and applying the cleaning liquid to the surface of the substrate while rotating the substrate to be cleaned. In the cleaning apparatus for supplying and cleaning the substrate to be cleaned, a circular plate is provided which is fitted to the outer periphery of the substrate to be cleaned, has an upper surface flush with the upper surface of the substrate to be cleaned, and rotates integrally with the substrate to be cleaned. It is characterized by being.

[0008]

According to the above arrangement, there is provided a circular plate which is fitted to the outer periphery of the substrate to be cleaned, has an upper surface flush with the upper surface of the substrate to be cleaned, and rotates integrally with the substrate to be cleaned. Therefore, at the time of cleaning, the substrate to be cleaned is cleaned while being fitted on the surface of the circular plate. Therefore, at the time of cleaning, the side surface of the substrate to be cleaned is not exposed, and in the conventional apparatus, the rotating body, which has been square in the related art, becomes circular, and the outer periphery during rotation always becomes the end of a circular plate that passes through the same track. As a result, the cleaning liquid (for example, water)
Does not occur, and the surrounding portion can be prevented from being contaminated.

Further, for example, as described above, when a cleaning brush is used at the time of cleaning, the bristle of the cleaning brush does not repeatedly come into contact with the bristle of the cleaning brush, so that cutting of the bristle is suppressed. As a result, it is possible to suppress a reduction in the cleaning effect due to hair fragments, and to extend the life of the cleaning brush.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

In the step of photolithography in the production of a TFT (thin film transistor) color liquid crystal panel,
A resist coating apparatus 1 as shown in FIG. 4 is used. On one end side of the apparatus, a loader unit 2 is provided, on which a delivery-side cassette for accommodating a plurality of glass substrates is mounted.
On the other end side, there is provided an unloader section 3 for sequentially storing glass substrates sent one by one from the loader section 2 in a receiving-side cassette.

Between the loader section 2 and the unloader section 3, from the loader section 2 side, a cleaning section 4 for performing brush cleaning while applying pure water to the surface of the glass substrate, and drying the glass substrate after cleaning. A dehydration bake section 5, an HMDS processing section 6 for applying HMDS (hexamethylene disilazane), a resist coating section 7 for applying a resist, and a pre-bake section 8 for heating and drying the resist are sequentially provided. The glass substrates sent one by one from the loader unit 2 toward the unloader unit 3 pass through the processing units 4 to 8 described above,
The cleaning process and the resist coating process are sequentially performed.

The cleaning unit 4 incorporates a cleaning device constructed by applying the present invention, and as shown in FIG.
A disk-shaped rotatable spin chuck (support table) 11 is provided substantially at the center of the main body 10 of the cleaning apparatus. A plurality of suction holes (not shown) are formed in the upper surface of the spin chuck 11, and these suction holes are connected to a vacuum pump (not shown) through a rotation shaft 12 extending downward from the center of the back surface of the spin chuck 11. It is supposed to be. Thereby, when the glass substrate 13 (substrate to be cleaned) is placed on the spin chuck 11, the vacuum suction force acting through the suction hole causes the glass substrate 13 to be cleaned.
Is fixed to the spin chuck 11 by suction. The rotating shaft 1
A rotary drive source (not shown) is connected to 2, and the spin chuck 11 can be rotated by the driving force of the rotary drive source.

Further, a circular plate (circular plate) 9 having a diameter at least equal to the length of a diagonal line of the glass substrate 13 is fitted around the outer periphery of the spin chuck 11 of this embodiment. On the upper surface of the circular plate 9, a concave portion 9a corresponding to the outer peripheral shape of the glass substrate 13 is provided. The concave portion 9a is fitted so that the glass substrate 13 fixed by suction to the spin chuck 11 is fitted. Has become. The depth of the recess 9a is such that the glass substrate 13
When the is fitted, the upper surface of the glass substrate 13 and the upper surface of the circular plate 9 are set to be on the same plane.

On the other hand, an upper portion of the main body 10 is formed as a spin cup 14 having a shape surrounding substantially the entire side of the spin chuck 11. Then, at positions facing left and right in the figure with the spin chuck 11 interposed therebetween,
Substrate cleaning liquid injection nozzle 15 and brush cleaning liquid injection nozzle 1
6 are provided along the upper edge of the spin cup 14. The substrate cleaning liquid injection nozzle 15 is provided at an injection angle at which pure water as a cleaning liquid is injected toward the upper surface of the spin chuck 11, that is, the substrate cleaning position. On the other hand, a region facing the mounting position of the substrate cleaning liquid injection nozzle 15 is formed as a brush standby station 18 partitioned from the substrate cleaning position by the intermediate partition wall 17, and the brush cleaning liquid injection nozzle 16 It is provided so that pure water is sprayed toward the cleaning brush 21 located at the station 18.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cleaning brush 21 is moved in the direction in which the glass substrate 13 is fed (in the vertical direction in the figure).
It is arranged in parallel to. Shaft 2 of this cleaning brush 21
The arm 2 is rotatably supported at both ends by arm portions 25, 25, and the arm portions 25, 25 are connected to a moving mechanism (not shown). From the standby position located in the brush standby station 18, the spin chuck 1
1 to a substrate cleaning position.
Further, the cleaning brush 21 is passed through the arm portions 25.
The shaft 22 is also connected to a rotation drive mechanism (not shown).

Since the cleaning brush 21 has a columnar shape as described above, the brush cleaning liquid injection nozzle 16 has a straight pure water supply pipe 16 as shown in FIG.
a is disposed in parallel with the cleaning brush 21 and a plurality of nozzle pipes 16 are arranged at predetermined intervals in the pure water supply pipe 16a.
b, so that the cleaning brush 21
Is sprayed over almost the entire length of pure water.

As shown in FIG. 1, the brush standby station 18 is provided with a dust remover 26 below the cleaning brush 21 located at the standby position. Then, the brush bristles are removed to remove dust adhering near the root of the bristles.

Next, the operation of the resist coating apparatus having the above configuration will be described. The glass substrate 13 sent from the loader unit 2 in the direction of the unloader unit 3 first
It is sent to the cleaning unit 4 and fitted into the recess 9 a of the circular plate 9 fitted on the outer periphery of the spin chuck 11. Thereafter, the suction holes of the spin chuck 11 are connected to the vacuum pump, and the glass substrate 13 is suction-fixed on the spin chuck 11. Next, the spin chuck 11 is driven to rotate, and the injection of pure water from the substrate cleaning liquid injection nozzle 15 is started. At the same time, the cleaning brush 21 is moved up to a position above the intermediate partition 17 at the brush standby station 18 and then moved onto the spin chuck 11. Then, upon reaching the spin chuck 11, as shown in FIG. 3, it is lowered until it comes into contact with the surfaces of the circular plate 9 and the glass substrate 13 rotating together with the spin chuck 11. The cleaning brush 21 is, for example, 100 rpm
The glass substrate 13 is rotationally driven at a rotation speed of 200 rpm, whereby the glass substrate 13 is brush-cleaned.

After the brush cleaning has been performed for a predetermined time, the cleaning brush 21 is returned to the brush standby station 18 in the reverse operation, and the injection of pure water from the substrate cleaning liquid injection nozzle 15 is stopped. With the spin chuck 1
The rotation of 1 is also stopped. Then, the communication state of the suction holes in the spin chuck 11 with the vacuum pump is cut off, and the air is introduced into the suction holes to release the glass substrate 13 from being fixed by suction. Thereafter, the glass substrate 13 that has been cleaned as described above is taken out of the cleaning unit 4 and the glass substrate 13 is sent to the next dehydration bake unit 5, while the glass substrate 13 is newly loaded from the loader unit 2. Then, the same operation as described above is repeated for the new glass substrate 13 in the cleaning unit 4.

While the glass substrate 13 having been cleaned as described above is taken out of the cleaning section 4 and a new glass substrate 13 is sucked and fixed on the spin chuck 11, the cleaning brush 21 is kept at the standby position of the brush standby station 18. The cleaning is performed by jetting pure water through the brush cleaning liquid jet nozzle 16 while holding the cleaning brush 21 while rotating the cleaning brush 21.

In the resist coating apparatus, the glass substrate 13 brush-cleaned by the cleaning unit 4 is
In the dehydration bake section 5, heating and drying are performed to evaporate the water adhered to the glass substrate by the above washing.
After that, it is sent to the HMDS processing unit 6 and the HMDS
(Hexamethylene disilazane) is applied. Then
In the resist application section 7, application of a resist is performed. The HMDS has a hydrophilic group and a hydrophobic group at both ends, and on the glass substrate 13, the hydrophilic group side is bonded to the adsorbed moisture of the substrate, which causes deterioration of the adhesion of the resist. As a result, the hydrophobic resist is coated. The hydrophobic group is located on the surface side to be formed, and the adhesiveness of the resist is enhanced.

The glass substrate 13 coated with the resist in the resist coating section 7 is then evaporated in a pre-baking section 8 so that the solvent in the resist is volatilized to accelerate the curing of the resist and increase the adhesion to the glass substrate 13. Heat treatment is performed. Thereafter, the glass substrate 13 is sent to the unloader unit 3 and is sequentially stored in the receiving cassette.

As described above, in the above embodiment, the glass substrate 13 is fitted around the outer periphery of the disk-shaped rotatable spin chuck 11 so as to rotate together with the spin chuck 11 and to form the same plane on the upper surface. A circular plate 9 having a concave portion 9a is fitted, and the glass substrate 13 is rotated while being fitted to the circular plate 9 during cleaning. Therefore, the outer circumference during rotation is the circular plate 9
The water supplied to the substrate cleaning position does not splash off on the side surface of the glass substrate 13 as in the case where the cleaning is performed by using the conventional apparatus. Contamination can be suppressed.

At the same time, the edge of the glass substrate 13 does not repeatedly come into contact with the bristles of the cleaning brush 21, so that the cutting of the bristles by the edge is suppressed, and the life of the cleaning brush 21 is extended. Since the reduction in the cleaning effect of the glass substrate 13 due to the fragments of the 21 is suppressed, the production yield of the TFT color liquid crystal panel is improved.

In the above embodiment, the cleaning device provided with the roll-shaped cleaning brush 21 having a length equal to or longer than the diagonal length of the glass substrate 13 has been exemplified. For example, as shown in FIG. The present invention can also be applied to a cleaning device having a small cleaning brush 27 configured to be movable to the 13 substrate ends, or a cleaning device not using a brush.

In the above embodiment, the cleaning apparatus incorporated in the resist coating apparatus has been described as an example. However, if the substrate to be cleaned is a square substrate, it is used in a process other than the photolithography process, for example. Cleaning equipment,
Further, the present invention can be applied to an apparatus for cleaning a substrate to be cleaned other than the TFT color liquid crystal panel.

[0028]

As described above, the cleaning apparatus of the present invention is fitted to the outer periphery of the substrate to be cleaned, the upper surface thereof is flush with the upper surface of the substrate to be cleaned, and is integrated with the substrate to be cleaned. Is provided with a rotating circular plate.

As a result, at the time of cleaning, the side surface of the substrate to be cleaned is not exposed, and in the conventional apparatus, the rotating body, which has been square in the conventional apparatus, becomes circular, and the outer periphery during rotation becomes the end of a circular plate that always passes through the same track. . As a result, the cleaning liquid (for example, water) does not splash off on the side surface of the substrate as in the related art, and the peripheral portion can be prevented from being contaminated.

Further, for example, as described above, when a cleaning brush is used at the time of cleaning, the hair of the cleaning brush does not come into contact with the edge of the glass substrate repeatedly, so that the cutting of the hair is suppressed. As a result, it is possible to suppress a reduction in the cleaning effect due to hair fragments, and to extend the life of the cleaning brush.

As a result, by adopting the present cleaning apparatus in, for example, a liquid crystal display manufacturing process, there is an effect that the manufacturing yield is improved and the cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a configuration of a main part of a cleaning apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the cleaning device.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a cleaning operation of the glass substrate in the cleaning apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a resist coating apparatus in which the cleaning device is incorporated.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a main part of a cleaning apparatus to which the present invention can be applied, in addition to the above-described cleaning apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a cleaning operation of a glass substrate in a conventional cleaning apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 9 circular plate (circular plate) 9a concave portion 11 spin chuck (support table) 13 glass substrate (substrate to be cleaned) 15 substrate cleaning liquid spray nozzle 21 cleaning brush

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A cleaning device for supporting and rotating a substrate to be cleaned and rotating the substrate to be cleaned and supplying a cleaning liquid to the surface of the substrate while rotating the substrate, the cleaning device being fitted to the outer periphery of the substrate to be cleaned. And a circular plate whose upper surface is flush with the upper surface of the substrate to be cleaned, and which is provided with a circular plate that rotates integrally with the substrate to be cleaned.