JP3158829B2 - Heat treatment apparatus and heat treatment method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a heat treatment apparatus and a heat treatment method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a process of manufacturing a semiconductor device or an LCD, a photoresist is applied to a silicon substrate or an LCD substrate (glass substrate), and a circuit pattern or the like is reduced and transferred to the photoresist using a photolithography technique. Then, a series of processing for developing this is performed.

[0003] The processing apparatus in the above manufacturing process is installed and used in a clean room in which the air cleaned from above is down-flowed. Therefore, the inside of the loading / unloading mechanism and the processing mechanism unit constituting this processing apparatus are compared. Low humidity atmosphere, and LC
Since the D substrate (hereinafter simply referred to as “substrate”) is glass from the viewpoint of electrical conductivity, the substrate is in a state of being easily charged during processing.

[0004]

However, when the substrate is charged and static electricity is generated, fine dust adheres to the surface of the substrate, which not only lowers the product yield, but also reduces the product yield.
There is a problem that substrate contamination occurs. In addition, there has been a problem that a discharge is generated during the transport of the substrate due to static electricity charged on the substrate, and the discharge destroys elements formed on the substrate surface and malfunctions of precision devices such as sensors. Furthermore, the substrate may be attracted to a mounting table or the like by static electricity, and the position of the substrate may be shifted, broken, or dropped when the substrate is delivered,
There is also a problem that the continuous processing of the substrate is hindered.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to reduce the area of contact between a mounting table on which a substrate is mounted and the substrate and to cause a peeling and charging phenomenon when the substrate is transported from the mounting table. And transfer of dust by adsorption
In addition to preventing the attachment of fine dust, preventing the destruction of elements due to discharge, etc., it is possible to improve the product yield,
An object of the present invention is to provide a heat treatment apparatus and a heat treatment method that can prevent breakage and dropping and perform uniform heat treatment.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, an LC
In the heat treatment apparatus for mounting the D substrate and controlling the temperature of the LCD substrate, the mounting surface on which the LCD substrate is mounted is :
A mounting table configured with a rough surface so as to suppress separation charging of the LCD substrate, a heating element that supplies heat to the LCD substrate via the mounting table, and a heating unit that is provided to penetrate the mounting table. a support pin that is freely relative vertical movement with respect to base, provided on the mounting surface of the mounting table, the LCD
At the periphery of the substrate, the LCD substrate is
And a spacer for avoiding contact .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the heat treatment according to the first aspect.
In the device, the mounting surface of the mounting table is concentric
Or multiple grooves that are approximately parallel to each other.
It is characterized by having a rough surface .

[0008] The invention of claim 3 is claim 1 or claim 2.
In the heat treatment apparatus described above, a nitrogen gas is supplied to the LCD substrate through a through-hole of the mounting table provided with the support pins, so that separation charging of the LCD substrate can be suppressed.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heat treatment apparatus comprising: a mounting table on which an LCD substrate is mounted; and a heating element for supplying heat to the LCD substrate via the mounting table.
When heat-treating the LCD substrate, the mounting surface of the mounting table is roughened, and the LCD is mounted on the mounting surface of the mounting table.
At the periphery of the substrate, the LCD substrate is
A spacer is provided to avoid contact, and the mounting table and the
The present invention is characterized in that the contact area with the LCD substrate is reduced to suppress the separation charging of the LCD substrate. The invention according to claim 5 is the heat treatment method according to claim 4, further comprising:
By supplying nitrogen gas to the LCD substrate which comprises suppressing the peeling electrification of the LCD substrate.

[0010]

According to the present invention, the surface of the mounting table is constituted by a rough surface, or is subjected to a tuffram treatment, or is provided with a groove,
By reducing the contact area between the object to be processed and the mounting table, generation of static electricity due to peeling charging can be prevented.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. When performing such processing, the processing system shown in FIG. 1 is used. The system includes a loader unit 40 for loading and unloading a substrate G as a processing object,
A brush cleaning device 42 for brush cleaning the substrate G;
Water washing device 44 for washing water with high pressure jet water
An adhesion processing device 46 for hydrophobizing the surface of the substrate G; a cooling device 48 for cooling the substrate G to a predetermined temperature; a resist coating device 50 for coating a resist liquid on the surface of the substrate G; Heating apparatus 5 for pre-baking or post-baking by heating substrate G before and after
The resist removing device 54 for removing the resist on the peripheral portion of the substrate 2 and the substrate G, the developing device 55, and the like are integrated to improve the working efficiency.

Further, each processing apparatus is stacked in multiple stages, and, for example, the resist processing apparatus 50 is arranged in two upper and lower stages (not shown) so as to reduce the installation area and effectively use the space in the clean room. A filter is provided at the top of the processing system to prevent particles from adhering to each processing device and the substrate G in the processing system.

A substrate transport path 56 is provided along the longitudinal direction at the center of the processing system configured as described above, and the substrate transport path 56 is connected to the central extension section 5.
It is divided by seven. The extension unit 57 is detachable, and has an effect of facilitating maintenance of the processing system. Each of the devices 40 to 54 is disposed facing the front of the substrate transfer path 56, and a substrate transfer mechanism 58 for transferring the substrate G to and from each of the devices 40 to 54 is provided movably along the substrate transfer path 56. Have been. This substrate transport mechanism 58
Has an arm 59 for holding the substrate G by vacuum suction or the like. For example, two arms 59 are provided on the upper and lower sides, and a support base is provided in a U-shaped double structure, and can be independently moved to a substrate mounting position of each device 40 to 54 by a moving mechanism. I have.

The resist coating and developing apparatus takes out the substrates G one by one from a cassette (not shown) containing the unprocessed substrates provided in the loader section 40, and sequentially takes the brush cleaning device 42 and the jet water, for example. The cleaning device 44, the adhesion processing device 46, the cooling processing device 48, the resist coating device 50, the resist removing device 54, the heating processing device 52 for performing pre-baking, the exposure device and the developing device 55 not shown, and the heating processing device 52 for performing post-baking The substrate G thus processed is stored in a cassette (not shown) provided in the loader unit 40.

In the above resist coating and developing apparatus,
Adjacent brush cleaning device 42 and jet water cleaning device 4
4, resist coating device 50 and resist removing device 54
The transfer of the substrate G between the adjacent processing apparatuses has an individual transfer mechanism irrespective of the substrate transfer mechanism 58 moving on the substrate transfer path 56, so that the throughput is increased and the work efficiency is improved. Substrate G being transported by 58
This also has a remarkable effect on preventing breakage of the substrate and contamination of the substrate transfer path 56 and the like.

Next, a case where the processing apparatus of the present invention is applied to a heat processing apparatus used in a resist coating and developing apparatus for an LCD substrate shown in FIG. 1 will be described. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a heat treatment apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 3 and 4 are cross-sectional views of the heat treatment apparatus of FIG. 2, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of the heat treatment apparatus of FIG. Have been.

The heat treatment device 52 is provided as a single block in which a plurality of heat treatment devices 52 having openings 52A facing the substrate transfer path 56 are stacked in multiple stages.
In addition, a plurality of blocks are arranged side by side.

Each of the heat treatment apparatuses 52 includes, as shown in FIGS. 2, 3, and 4, a mounting table 60 on which the substrate G is mounted, and supplies heat to the substrate G via the mounting table 60. A heating element 62 having a built-in heater, a cover member 66 arranged to form a processing space 64 above the substrate G and exhausting gas generated during the heating processing, and a mounting table 60 and the heating element 62 are formed. A main part is constituted by the plurality of through-holes 68 and the support pins 70 for passing the substrate G above the mounting table 60 by passing the substrate G upward and downward.

In this case, the mounting table 60 is formed of a rectangular aluminum alloy plate having good thermal conductivity.
The surface of the mounting table 60 is roughened by performing a tuffram process using an aluminum oxide film and providing the groove 71. On the other hand, the heating element 62 is configured by embedding a heater inside an aluminum alloy plate having substantially the same plane dimensions as the mounting table 60.

In the heat treatment apparatus 52 shown in FIG.
With the support pin 70 side fixed, the mounting table 60 and the heating element 62 can be moved by the piston 74 of the elevating cylinder 72,
The support pins 70 are made to protrude and retract from the mounting table 60. On the other hand, in the heat treatment apparatus 52 shown in FIG. 4, the mounting table 60 and the heating element 62 are fixed, and the support pins 70 are connected to the piston 78 of the cylinder 76 so as to be able to protrude and retract on the mounting table 60. In FIG. 4, a cylindrical shutter 80 is arranged on the outer peripheral portion of the mounting table 60 so as to be able to move up and down.
Connected to the piston 84 so that the volume of the processing space 64 can be adjusted by vertical movement.

As shown in FIG. 6, a spacer 85 is provided on the upper surface of the mounting table 60 to avoid contact between the substrate G and the mounting table 60 along the peripheral edge of the mounting position of the substrate G. . The spacer 85 is formed of a flat, small-sized ceramic plate. A mounting screw 86 is inserted into a through hole formed at one end of the spacer 85, and is screwed into a screw hole 87 formed on the upper surface of the mounting table 60. Is mounted on the mounting table 60. FIG. 6 shows an example in which the grooves 71 are provided concentrically as a second embodiment.

Next, the operation of the heat treatment apparatus 52 configured as described above will be described. First, as shown in FIG. 2, the mounting table 60 is moved by the transfer arm 59 of the transfer mechanism 58.
The substrate G conveyed above is transferred to the support pins 70 which have been raised, and is mounted on the spacers 85 on the upper surface of the mounting table 60 by the lowering of the support pins 70. Next, a shutter (not shown) is driven to partition the processing unit from the outside. In the processing unit, heat from the heating element 62 is transmitted to the mounting table 60,
The light is transmitted from the upper surface of the mounting table 60 to the substrate G. In this case, the heat transfer from the heating element 62 to the mounting table 60 is achieved by heat conduction by direct contact between the aluminum alloys having good heat conductivity, so that the heat transfer efficiency is extremely high. Since it is formed through the entire contact surface between the lower surface and the upper surface of the heating element 62, the entire mounting table 60 is uniformly heated. Therefore, the temperature distribution of the heat transmitted from the heating element 62 to the substrate G via the mounting table 60 becomes uniform, and the substrate G is uniformly heated. When the mounting table 60 is mounted, a good heat conductor such as silicon grease may be applied to the lower surface of the mounting table 60 so that a good heat conductor is interposed between the mounting table 60 and the heating element 62.

The substrate G, which has been subjected to the heat treatment, is
Is lifted from the mounting table 60. At this time, the substrate G made of glass, which is easily charged if the surface of the mounting table 60 is smooth, receives static electricity due to separation charging from the surface of the mounting table 60, and tends to be attracted to the surface of the mounting table 60. As a result, the substrate G may be displaced, damaged, or dropped. However, by providing the groove 71 on the surface of the mounting table 60 within a range where temperature uniformity is maintained, the substrate G is supported by the support pins 7.
The mounting table 60 is free from static electricity by the rise of
Can be more separated.

The groove 71 is not limited to the parallel line shape and the concentric shape shown in the first embodiment and the second embodiment, but may be a spiral shape as long as the temperature of the surface of the mounting table 60 is maintained within a uniform temperature range. Such a form may be used. In addition, since the purpose is to configure the surface as a rough surface, the surface may be provided with a hole or a protrusion may be provided as long as the temperature of the mounting table 60 is within a range where temperature uniformity is maintained. May also have other shapes.

Supplying, for example, N 2 gas from a gas supply source (not shown) through the gap between the through hole 68 and the support pin 70 is also effective in preventing the generation of static electricity due to peeling charging. Further, an ion supply source is provided in the heat treatment device 52, and ions are supported on the mounting table 60 by the support pins 70 from the electrodes protruding from the lower surface of the emitter bar (not shown) provided in the cover member 66. May be irradiated. In particular, in the case of such a heat treatment device 52, it becomes easy to be charged, and after the heat treatment, the mounting table 6
When the substrate G is lifted while being supported by the support pins 70 from 0, the substrate G is tilted or discharged when the substrate G is sucked by the mounting table 60. Removing static electricity charged before and after the processing of G is also effective in preventing generation of static electricity.

In the above embodiment, the case where the object to be processed is an LCD substrate has been described. However, the object to be processed is not necessarily limited to the LCD substrate. It is.

In the above embodiment, the case where the processing apparatus is applied to a resist coating and developing apparatus has been described. However, it is needless to say that the present invention can also be applied to an apparatus for performing an etching liquid coating processing or a magnetic liquid coating processing. is there.

[0028]

According to the present invention, the surface of the mounting table is constituted by a rough surface, or is subjected to a tuffram treatment, or a groove is provided to reduce the contact area between the object to be processed and the mounting table. The heat treatment can be uniformly performed without causing breakage or destruction of the processing object caused by the peeling and charging phenomenon when transferring the processing object mounted on the mounting table. Further, particles can be prevented from adhering to the object to be processed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a processing system to which a processing apparatus of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of one embodiment of the processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the heat treatment apparatus of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the heat treatment apparatus of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a main part of the processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a main part plan view showing another embodiment of the processing apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 G substrate 52 heat treatment device 59 arm 60 mounting table 62 heating element 66 cover member 68 through hole 70 support pin 71 groove 85 spacer

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Kimio Motoda 2655 Tsukure, Kikuyo-cho, Kikuchi-gun, Kumamoto Prefecture Tokyo Electron Kyushu Co., Ltd. Kumamoto Office (56) References JP-A-2-290013 (JP, A) JP-A Heisei 4-125917 (JP, A) Japanese Utility Model 2-29520 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model 2-216817 (JP, U)

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A The LCD substrate is placed a heat treatment apparatus for controlling the temperature of the LCD substrate, mounting surface of the LCD substrate is mounted, the LCD board
A mounting table having a rough surface so as to suppress peeling and electrification of the heating table, and a heating element for supplying heat to the LCD substrate through the mounting table; and a heating element provided so as to penetrate the mounting table. avoid a support pin that is freely relatively vertically movable, is provided on the mounting surface of the mounting table, the contact between the LCD substrate and the mounting table at the periphery of the LCD substrate Te
Heat treatment apparatus is characterized in that comprising the order of the spacer. 2. The heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the mounting surface of the mounting table is provided with a plurality of concentric grooves or a plurality of grooves substantially parallel to each other to form a rough surface. A heat treatment apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned. 3. The heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a nitrogen gas is supplied to the LCD substrate through a through hole of the mounting table provided with the support pins, thereby suppressing separation charging of the LCD substrate. A heat treatment apparatus characterized by being made possible. A mounting table 4. The LCD board is mounted, by a heat treatment apparatus including a heating element for supplying heat to the LCD substrate via the mounting table, upon annealing the LCD substrate, before described the mounting surface of the table with a rough surface, the LCD at the periphery of the LCD substrate on the mounting surface of the mounting table
A heat treatment method, comprising: providing a spacer for avoiding contact between the substrate and the mounting table; and reducing a contact area between the mounting table and the LCD substrate to suppress separation charging of the LCD substrate. 5. The heat treatment method according to claim 4, further comprising: supplying a nitrogen gas to the LCD substrate to perform the LC process.
A heat treatment method characterized by suppressing separation charging of the D substrate.