JP3077114B2 - Coating device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LC).
The present invention relates to a coating apparatus used in the manufacturing process D).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a display device replacing a cathode ray tube (CRT), an electrode or an element forming a pixel is formed on the surface.
A liquid crystal display having a structure in which liquid crystal is injected between two glass substrates has attracted attention. As the above-mentioned pixels, an active matrix system driven by an element such as a thin film transistor (TFT) or a metal / insulator / metal junction (MIM) is becoming mainstream because a high-quality screen can be obtained.

The technique of forming the above-mentioned thin film transistor and the like on a glass substrate directly applies a semiconductor manufacturing technique of forming an integrated circuit on a silicon wafer and the like. The application of a resist solution is also one of a series of steps, in which a resist solution is dropped onto a glass substrate set on a vacuum chuck in an inner cup, and then the vacuum chuck and the inner cup are integrated by a spinner. Rotate it,
The resist solution is uniformly applied to the surface of the glass substrate by centrifugal force.

[0004] A part of the dropped coating liquid scatters on the inner wall of the inner cup due to centrifugal force. If this coating solution is left as it is, it is dried and solidified, and becomes small fragments and adheres to the surface of the glass substrate. In order to prevent this, the present applicant first attaches a drain pipe to the outer peripheral wall of the inner cup, and supplies excess coating liquid to a recovery passage provided around the inner cup through the drain pipe and having an inclined bottom surface. A technique has been proposed in which the pipe is drained downward from the lowest part of the recovery passage, and a coating liquid or a cleaning liquid containing the coating liquid is recovered through the pipe.

[0005]

In the prior art described above, in order to effectively collect the coating liquid or the cleaning liquid containing the coating liquid, the inclination angle of the collection passage may be increased, but the inclination angle is increased. Then, the height of the whole apparatus becomes large. Even if the pipe is opened at the bottom of the recovery passage, the coating liquid stays in the pipe by its own weight, so that the coating liquid easily remains in the recovery passage.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an annular coating liquid recovery passage outside an inner cup of a coating apparatus, and a drain pipe protruding from the inner cup in the recovery passage. The recovery pipe extends to the vicinity of the outer wall of the recovery passage, and a recovery pipe having one end opened on the outer wall of the recovery passage is led out along the tangential direction of the recovery passage.

[0007]

[Function] Since the tip of the drain pipe protruding from the inner cup extends to the vicinity of the outer wall of the recovery passage, when the inner cup is rotated by a spinner, the drain pipe runs in the recovery passage and discharges the discharge flow into the recovery passage. Force it to occur.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Here, FIG. 1 is a plan view of a film forming line incorporating the coating apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the coating apparatus in a state in which a lid is raised, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the coating apparatus in a state where a lid is closed.

The coating film forming line has an upstream portion on the left side of FIG. 1, and an input portion 1 for a glass substrate W as a rectangular plate-like workpiece to be processed is provided on the upstream portion. A coating unit 2 according to the present invention is arranged, and a heating unit 5 having a vacuum drying unit 3, a back surface cleaning unit 4 for a glass substrate W, a hot plate 5a... Is transported from the charging section 1 to the heating section 5 while the lower surfaces of the front and rear ends of the glass substrate W are supported by the transport apparatus 6, and the heating section 5 performs a crank motion in a vertical plane. While the lower surface of the glass substrate W is supported by 7, each hot plate 5 a is sequentially transferred, and finally the glass substrate W is transported while the temperature is adjusted by the cooling plate 5 b.

The coating device 2 has an outer cup 23 disposed outside an inner cup 22 attached to a shaft 21 of a spinner device. Inner cup 22 is bottom plate 22
a and a side plate 22b.
Are constituted by a bottom plate 23a, a main body 23b, and a side plate 23c that penetrate through.

The bottom plate 22a of the inner cup 22
Vacuum chuck 2 for holding glass substrate W by suction at the center of
4, a drain pipe 25 is attached to a lower portion of the side plate 22b, while an annular drain recovery passage 27 is formed in the main body 23b. The drain pipe 25 may be a slit or a circular eave-shaped object having a large number of holes.

The recovery passage 27 has a substantially triangular cross section by forming the outer wall 27a obliquely inward, and has a bottom surface 2a.
7b is inclined toward one place, and further forms a narrow portion 27c that opens radially inward. The drain pipe 25 faces the collection passage 27 through the narrow portion 27c, and the drain pipe 25 Is extended to the vicinity of the outer side wall 27a.

A collecting pipe 28 is opened at the lower part of the outer wall at the lowest part of the collecting passage 27. As shown in FIG. 3, the recovery pipe 28 extends outward along a tangential direction of the recovery passage 27 in the same direction as the rotation direction of the drain pipe 25.

On the other hand, above the inner cup 22 and the outer cup 23, as shown in FIG.
Has been arranged. The arms 29 and 30 can be moved linearly, rotationally, vertically, or a combination thereof, so that they do not interfere with each other. A nozzle for dropping a coating liquid such as a resist liquid is attached to the arm 29,
A shaft 31 extending downward is attached to the tip of the arm 30,
The shaft 31 has a nozzle hole 32 formed therein.
Hoses 33 passing through the joint and arm 30
4 are connected to a nitrogen gas supply source and a cleaning liquid supply source.

A boss 37 is rotatably fitted to the shaft 31 via a bearing 35 and a magnetic seal 36. The boss 37 has a disk shape for closing the upper opening of the inner cup 22. Eggplant aluminum lid 38
Is installed. Further, a lid 39 for closing an upper surface opening of the outer cup 23 is fixed to a lower surface of a distal end of the arm 30 above the lid 38.

The lid 39 is vertically slidably held on the outer periphery of a cylindrical body 40 attached to the lower surface of the distal end of the arm 30 via a ring-shaped slide member 41. The inner peripheral edge of the lid 39 is made of Teflon. A bearing 41 is mounted, and a guide post 42 implanted in a cylindrical body 40 is engaged with the bearing 41.

When the arm 30 is raised as shown in FIG. 2, the receiving member 43 fixed to the lid 39 is provided.
Engages with a pin 44 fixed to the lid 38 to position the lid 38, and as shown in FIG. 4, the arm 30 descends so that the lids 38 and 39 are opened in the inner cup 22 and the outer cup 23, respectively. To close the lid,
9 rises along the guide post 42, and the receiving member 43 comes out of the pin 44.

On the other hand, a rectifying plate 46 for preventing turbulent flow in the inner cup 22 is attached to the lower surface of the lid 38 by screws 45. The current plate 46 is slightly larger in size than the glass substrate W and has a similar shape.

At the upper end of the inner peripheral surface of the inner cup 22, a plurality of locking portions 47 are provided, and a block 49 is fixed to these locking portions 47 with screws 48. An anti-scattering ring 50 is attached. The scattering prevention ring 50 is located above the rectifying plate 46 with the lid 38 closed, and forms an opening 51 for preventing interference when the rectifying plate 46 rises.

In the above, in order to uniformly apply the resist solution to the surface of the glass substrate W, the upper surfaces of the inner cup 22 and the outer cup 23 are opened and the arm is attached to the surface of the glass substrate W fixed on the vacuum chuck 24. The resist solution is dropped from a nozzle attached to the nozzle 29, the arm 29 is then retracted, and the arm 30 is rotated on the inner cup 22 and the outer cup 23 as shown in FIG. I do.

Then, as shown in FIG. 4, if the upper surface of the inner cup 22 is closed by the lid 38 by lowering the arm 30 and the upper surface opening of the outer cup 23 is closed by the lid 39, a vacuum is applied by the spinner. The chuck 24 and the inner cup 22 are rotated integrally, and the resist solution is uniformly diffused and applied to the surface of the glass substrate W by centrifugal force.

A part of the resist solution dropped from the nozzle onto the glass substrate W is scattered from the peripheral edge of the glass substrate W to the inner peripheral surface of the inner cup 22 by centrifugal force, and passes through the inner peripheral surface of the inner cup 22 to form a drain pipe. Enter 25,
The water is discharged from the drain pipe 25 into the recovery passage 27. As described above, the tip of the drain pipe 25 extends to the vicinity of the outer wall 27a of the recovery passage 27. Therefore, when the drain pipe 25 rotates together with the inner cup 22 by the spinner, the drain pipe 2
5 functions as a fan in the collection passage 27 and the collection passage 2
A swirling flow is forcibly generated along 7.

Further, as described above, a recovery pipe 28 is opened in the outer wall 27a of the recovery passage 27, and the recovery pipe 28 extends outward along the tangential direction of the recovery passage. The applied coating liquid enters the recovery pipe without resistance by the swirling flow and is recovered.

Next, since the inside of the inner cup 22 is in a reduced pressure state in the above processing, if the glass substrate W is taken out by opening the lid as it is, the air in the inner cup 22 is disturbed and the resist solution is spotted on the glass. Substrate W
It may adhere to the surface. Therefore, in order to take out the glass substrate W coated with the resist solution uniformly, first, nitrogen gas or the like is introduced into the space between the lid 38 and the rectifying plate 46 through the pipe 33 and the nozzle hole 32 connected to the nitrogen gas supply source. And then release the pressure reduction state. At this time, the gas from the nozzle holes 32 is not directly blown onto the resist solution on the surface of the glass substrate W because of the presence of the current plate 46.

Thus, a predetermined number of glass substrates W
After the resist solution is uniformly applied to the inner cup 22, a part of the excess coating solution adheres to the inner peripheral surface of the inner cup 22 or the like. If this is left as it is, it is dried and solidified, scatters in the atmosphere, and adheres to the surface of the glass substrate W, so that cleaning is performed.

Cleaning is performed by closing the inner cup 22 and the outer cup 23 with the lids 38 and 39 with the glass substrate W removed. That is, the pipe 34 connected to the cleaning liquid supply source
The cleaning liquid is supplied to the space between the lid 38 and the current plate 46 via the nozzle hole 32. Then, the cleaning liquid flows on the surface of the current plate 46 by centrifugal force, and is discharged to the outside via the recovery passage 27 in the same manner as described above.

[0027]

According to the present invention as described above,
Since the tip of the drain pipe protruding from the inner cup is extended to the vicinity of the outer wall of the recovery passage, when the inner cup is rotated by a spinner, the drain pipe acts as a fan in the recovery passage and forcibly turns along the recovery passage Form a flow. Then, if a recovery pipe having one end opened to the outside wall of the recovery passage extends outward along the tangential direction of the recovery passage, the coating liquid or the cleaning liquid that has entered the recovery passage without resistance is discharged to the outside. Therefore, the recovery rate of the coating liquid is increased, and the probability that the solidified coating liquid adheres to the glass substrate surface is reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a film forming line incorporating a coating apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the coating apparatus in a state where a lid is raised.

FIG. 3 is a view taken in the direction of arrows AA in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the coating apparatus in a state where a lid is closed.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... Coating device, 22 ... Inner cup, 23 ... Outer cup, 25 ... Drain pipe, 27 ... Recovery passage, 27
a: outside wall of collection passage, 27b: bottom surface of collection passage, 27
c: narrow portion of the recovery passage, 38, 39: lid, 46: rectifying plate.

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Shigemi Fujiyama 6-13-14-201 Motofujisawa, Fujisawa-shi, Kanagawa (56) References JP-A-4-341366 (JP, A) JP-A-1-135565 (JP, A) Japanese Utility Model Showa 55-28423 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B05C 11/08 B05D 1 / 26,1 / 40 G03F 7/16 502 H01L 21/027

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An outer cup is arranged outside an inner cup rotated by a spinner, an annular collecting passage is provided along the outer cup, and a drain pipe projecting from the inner cup faces the annular collecting passage. The tip of the drain pipe extends to near the outer wall of the recovery passage. 2. The coating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a collecting pipe is opened on an outer wall of the collecting passage, and the collecting pipe is led out along a tangential direction of the collecting passage. .