JP3479771B2 - Heat treatment equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat treatment apparatus that heats and processes an object such as a substrate. 2. Description of the Related Art In general, a liquid crystal display (LC)
D) In a device manufacturing process, for example, ITO (Indium Tin Oxi) is formed on an LCD substrate (glass substrate).
de) In order to form a thin film, an electrode pattern and the like, a circuit pattern and the like are reduced and transferred to a photoresist by using a photolithography technique similar to that used in a semiconductor manufacturing process, and a series of development processes are performed. Processing is performed. For example, a rectangular LCD substrate to be processed is cleaned by a cleaning device, the LCD substrate is subjected to a hydrophobic treatment by an adhesion processing device, cooled by a cooling processing device, and then coated with a resist. A photoresist film, that is, a photosensitive film is applied and formed by an apparatus. Then, the photoresist film is heated by a heat treatment device to perform a baking process (pre-bake), and then a predetermined pattern is exposed by an exposure device, and a developing solution is applied to the exposed LCD substrate by a developing device. After a predetermined pattern is formed, a baking treatment (post-bake) is performed to enhance the thermal denaturation for polymerizing and the adhesion between the LCD substrate and the pattern. In performing the above-described processing, in a heat treatment apparatus for heating an LCD substrate, a mounting table called a hot plate or the like in which a resistance heater or the like is embedded is used. An LCD substrate is placed on a hot plate which can be set at a predetermined temperature such as 200 ° C., either directly or with a proximity gap provided, to perform heat treatment. However, in a conventional heat treatment apparatus of this type, an LCD is placed on a hot plate.
When the substrate is placed directly, the LCD substrate and the hot plate adhere to each other due to the action of static electricity, etc., and the LCD substrate is damaged by warpage due to difficulty in peeling, or the LCD substrate is displaced horizontally on the support pins. There was a problem of doing. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and quickly releases the close contact between an object to be processed and a hot plate due to the action of static electricity or the like, thereby facilitating the separation of the object to be processed and improving the throughput. It is another object of the present invention to prevent the object to be processed from being damaged by warping and to prevent the object from being displaced horizontally on the support pins. [0007] In order to achieve the above object, a heat treatment apparatus according to the present invention is premised on a heat treatment apparatus for stepwise heat treating an object to be processed. A main heat treatment unit for performing heat treatment at a predetermined temperature; and an auxiliary heat treatment unit for performing heat treatment on the object to be processed at the predetermined temperature and a temperature different from the predetermined temperature, wherein the auxiliary heat treatment unit is opposed to the object to be processed. A heat plate for heating the processing object, a support pin for supporting the object to be processed, and a moving mechanism for relatively moving the hot plate and the support pin, and a concentric connection between the hot plate and vacuum means. And a plurality of branch grooves extending radially from an outer groove to a position near a support pin provided on a peripheral side of the hot plate. According to the present invention, the hot plate of the auxiliary heat treatment means is provided with a plurality of concentric suction grooves connected to the vacuum means, and the vicinity of the support pin provided on the peripheral side of the heat plate from the outer groove. By providing the branch grooves radially extending to the position, the object to be processed heat-treated by the auxiliary heat treatment means can be easily separated from the auxiliary heat treatment means. Therefore, deformation of the object to be processed can be prevented, and the throughput can be improved. Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this embodiment, a case will be described in which the processing apparatus according to the present invention is applied to an LCD substrate coating / developing processing system. As shown in FIG. 1, the coating / developing processing system includes a loader unit 1 for loading / unloading an LCD substrate G (hereinafter, referred to as a substrate) as an object to be processed, and a first processing unit 2 for the substrate G. And a second processing unit 4 connected to the first processing unit 2 via the relay unit 3. Note that an exposure device 6 for exposing a predetermined fine pattern on the resist film via the transfer unit 5 can be connected to the second processing unit 4. The loader unit 1 includes a cassette 7 for storing unprocessed substrates G, a cassette mounting table 8 for mounting a cassette 7a for storing processed substrates G, and a cassette 7 on the cassette mounting table 8. , 7a, the substrate G can be moved and rotated (θ) in the horizontal (X, Y) and vertical (Z) directions so as to carry in and out the substrate G. The first processing unit 2 includes a brush cleaning device 1 for brush cleaning a substrate G on one side of a transfer path 11 of a main arm 10 capable of moving in the X, Y, and Z directions and rotating θ.
2, a jet water washing device 13 for washing the substrate G with high-pressure jet water, an adhesion treatment device 14 for hydrophobizing the surface of the substrate G, and a cooling treatment device 15 for cooling the substrate G to a predetermined temperature. , On the other side of the transport path 11,
A resist coating device 16 and a coating film removing device 17 are provided. On the other hand, similarly to the first processing unit 2, the second processing unit 4 has a main arm 10a that can move in the X, Y, and Z directions and can rotate θ, and transports the main arm 10a. On one side of the path 11a, three heat treatment apparatuses 18 according to the present invention for heating and pre-baking or post-baking the substrate G before and after the application of the resist liquid are arranged in parallel, and developed on the other side of the transport path 11a. The device 20 is arranged. The relay unit 3 is a box 3c having a delivery table 3b on which support pins 3a for supporting the substrate G are erected.
Is provided with a caster 3d on the bottom surface of the first processing unit. If necessary, the relay unit 3 is separated from the first processing unit 2 and the second processing unit 4 and pulled out to secure a space, and the first processing is performed. A worker enters the unit 2 or the second processing unit 4 and can easily perform repairs and inspections. The transfer section 5 includes a cassette 19a for temporarily holding the substrate G, and a cassette 19a for temporarily holding the substrate G.
a tweezers 19 for transferring a substrate G in and out of the substrate G
b and a transfer table 19c for the substrate G are provided. In the coating / developing processing system configured as described above, the unprocessed substrate G accommodated in the cassette 7 is taken out by the loading / unloading tweezers 9 of the loader unit 1 and then the first processing unit 2 And transferred to the brush cleaning device 12. The substrate G that has been brush-cleaned in the brush cleaning device 12 is cleaned with high-pressure jet water in the jet water cleaning device 13 as necessary. Thereafter, the substrate G is subjected to a hydrophobizing treatment by the adhesion treatment device 14 and cooled by the cooling treatment device 15, and then a photoresist film, that is, a photosensitive film is applied and formed by the resist coating device 16. The unnecessary resist film on the peripheral portion of the substrate G is removed by the coating film removing device 17. Then, after the photoresist film is heated and baked by the heat treatment device 18, a predetermined pattern is exposed by the exposure device 6.
Then, the substrate G after exposure is transported into the developing device 20, and
After the development with the developing solution, the developing solution is washed away with the rinsing solution to complete the developing process. After the development processing, the processed substrate G is stored in the cassette 7a of the loader unit 1 after the post-baking process, and then is carried out and transferred to the next processing step. Next, the configuration of the heat treatment apparatus 18 according to the present invention used in the above-described LCD substrate coating / developing processing system will be described. In the heat treatment apparatus 18, an auxiliary heat treatment means 18B or a main heat treatment means 18A is provided in a case 21 formed of a box-shaped container having a carry-in / out port 21a for the main arm 10a on a side wall. In this case, the auxiliary heat treatment means 18B and the main heat treatment means 18A are formed in the same structure, so that the auxiliary heat treatment means 18B will be described here. Auxiliary heat treatment means 18B
A hot plate 22 on which the substrate G is placed, a support pin 25 for supporting the substrate G at the upper end, a hot plate 22 and the support pin 25
And a moving mechanism 27 that relatively moves up and down. In this case, the heating plate 22 is made of, for example, an aluminum alloy or the like. Inside the heating plate 22, the heating plate 22 is heated to heat the substrate G through the heating plate 22. And a temperature sensor (not shown) that can be set to a predetermined heating temperature such as 120 ° C. The hot plate 22 is provided with a total of six through-holes 24, one at each corner and the center of the long side, for example, and the support pins 25 are provided in these through-holes 24, respectively. A total of six pieces are inserted one by one. These support pins 25
The lower part is fixed by a connection guide 26, and the connection guide 26 is connected to a moving mechanism 27. The moving mechanism 27 includes a stepping motor 28 as a drive motor,
Pulley 29 driven by the
Driven pulley 30 disposed above the driving pulley 29, the driving pulley 29 and the driven pulley 30,
And a timing belt 31 connecting the two.
Accordingly, the support pin 25 and the hot plate 22 can be relatively vertically moved by the forward / reverse rotation of the stepping motor 28. The moving distance can be variably set by a control device (not shown). On the other hand, on the upper surface of the hot plate 22, the cross-sectional dimension where the corner portion is located at the position near the two through holes 24 at the center of the long side, that is, the position near the support pin 25 and the position at the center of the short side, is 1 mm in width, for example. A plurality of (approximately three in FIG. 3) vacuum chuck grooves 32 (suction grooves) having a diamond shape with a depth of, for example, 1 mm are provided concentrically. , A total of four branch grooves 32a extending radially to the through holes 24 on both sides, i.e., to positions near the support pins 25 at each corner. This groove 3 for vacuum chuck
2, 32a are connected to a not-shown vacuum pump (vacuum means) through a communication hole (not shown) provided at an appropriate position in the groove 32, and the substrate G is placed on the hot plate 22 by driving the vacuum pump. It is configured to be able to hold by suction. By providing the vacuum chuck grooves 32 and 32a in close proximity to the through holes 24, that is, the support pins 25, the substrate G can be quickly sucked onto the hot plate 22.
This quick adsorption can shorten the time required for the heat treatment of the substrate G and can improve the temperature distribution in the heat treatment. When the substrate G is peeled off from the hot plate 22 and lifted, the support pins 25 are lifted to push up the substrate G, and as shown in FIG. Gap s between the support pin 25
Then, air enters the branch groove 32a for vacuum chuck, and the close contact between the substrate G and the hot plate 22 due to the action of static electricity or the like is quickly released to facilitate the peeling of the substrate G. Accordingly, the substrate G can be easily separated from the hot plate 22 without causing warpage due to the difficulty in peeling as shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 3B, so that the throughput can be improved and the substrate G is warped. Damaged or support pins 2
5, the substrate G can be prevented from being displaced in the horizontal direction. Note that two guide pins 33 for guiding and supporting the corners of the substrate G are planted at the corners of the hot plate 22 (see FIG. 3A). Auxiliary heat treatment means 1 constructed as described above
In FIG. 8B, by changing the height of the elevating position of the support pins 25, the support pins 25 supporting the substrate G are raised to the uppermost position, for example, as shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG.
The substrate G is transferred to and from the main arm 10a entering the case 21, and the upper end of the support pin 25 is set at an appropriate distance h from the upper surface of the heat plate 22 as shown by a dashed line in FIG.
The maximum temperature at which the substrate G does not undergo thermal deformation or the like in the proximity state by being placed at a distance of one, for example, 80
The substrate G can be heat-treated at a temperature of ° C. Further, the support pins 25 are moved down to a position equal to or less than the surface of the hot plate 22, and the substrate G is adsorbed on the hot plate 22 and contacted. In this state, heat treatment can be performed at a target heating temperature, for example, a temperature of 120 ° C. The main heat treatment means 18A does not necessarily have to have the same structure as the auxiliary heat treatment means 18B. For example, the support pins 25 are used for transferring the substrate G, and the temperature of the substrate G is set at a target temperature, for example, 120 ° C. In the case of performing the heat treatment, the substrate G may be placed on the hot plate 22 by lowering the support pins 25. Next, the operation when the substrate G is heated by using the heat treatment apparatus of the present invention configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6, and the tact time of each processing is 40 seconds. It will be described on the assumption that Here, the target predetermined temperature is set to 120 ° C., and the predetermined temperature (12
(0 ° C.) for a predetermined time (50 seconds). First, the hot plates 22 of the auxiliary heat treatment means 18B and the main heat treatment means 18A are set to a predetermined temperature of, for example, about 120 ° C. Then, the hot plate 2 of the auxiliary heat treatment means 18B is moved from the loading / unloading port 21a by the main arm 10a.
The substrate G is carried in above the substrate 2 and the substrate G is moved by the moving mechanism 27.
And is received by the support pin 25 (see FIG. 4A). Thereafter, in this state, the support pins 25 are further raised (or the main arm 10a is lowered) to retreat the main arm 10a. Next, the support pins 25 are lowered and the hot plate 22
Is stopped at a predetermined height position h1 from the surface of the substrate G, and in this state, the substrate G is preheated at a temperature of, for example, 80 ° C. for 30 seconds (see FIG. 4B). In this manner, the substrate G is kept for a predetermined time (3
0 second) After preheating, the support pins 25 are lowered and the substrate G
Is placed on the hot plate 22, and at the same time, the vacuum pump (not shown) is driven to suck the substrate G onto the hot plate. In this state, the substrate G is heated (intermediate heating) at a target predetermined temperature, for example, 120 ° C. for a part of a predetermined time, for example, 10 seconds (see FIG. 4C). Thereafter, the driving of the vacuum pump is stopped, and the stepping motor 28 of the moving mechanism 27 is driven to raise the support pins 25 to move the substrate G on the hot plate 22 upward. Then, the substrate G is received by the main arm 10a entering the case 21, and the main arm 10a transfers the substrate G heat-treated by the auxiliary heat treatment means 18B into the case 21 accommodating the main heat treatment means 18A. 4A, after receiving the substrate G by the support pins 25 of the main heat treatment means 18A, the main arm 10a retreats. The main heat treatment means 18
A main arm 10 retracted from case 21 containing A
a transports the substrate G to be subsequently subjected to the heat treatment into the case 21 accommodating the auxiliary heat treatment means 18B in the same procedure as described above. On the other hand, in the main heat treatment means 18A, the support pins 25 are lowered to place the substrate G on the hot plate 22, and at the same time, the vacuum pump (not shown) is driven to attract the substrate G onto the hot plate. I do. In this state, the substrate G is heated (mainly heated) at a target predetermined temperature, for example, 120 ° C., for the remaining time, for example, for 40 seconds (see FIG. 4D). In this state, if the heat treatment is performed for the remaining time of the predetermined time (40 seconds), the substrate G has the same heating temperature distribution over the entire surface and is uniformly heated. When the heat treatment for a predetermined time is completed in this way, the support pins 25 are then lifted to lift the substrate G from the hot plate 22. At this time, the loading / unloading port 21a
The main arm 10a penetrating into the case 21 from above receives the substrate G. Then, when the support pins 25 are lowered (or the main arm 10a is raised) and the substrate G is delivered to the main arm 10a, the main arm 10a retreats out of the case 21 and moves the substrate G to a predetermined place in the next process. Transport. Thereafter, the above-described operation is repeated to heat-treat the substrate G, so that the substrate G is not subjected to thermal deformation or the like, and the cycle time is set to a predetermined temperature, for example, 120 ° C. for a period of 40 seconds. Heating can be performed for a predetermined time, for example, 50 seconds, and a desired predetermined temperature, for example, 1
Since a part (10 seconds) of the step of performing the heat treatment at 20 ° C. for a predetermined time, for example, 50 seconds, is borne by the auxiliary heat treatment unit 18B, the processing time can be reduced, and the throughput of the entire system can be improved. . In the above description, the processing time by the auxiliary heat treatment means 18B and the processing time by the main heat treatment means 18A are respectively equal (40 seconds).
It is also possible to perform the heat treatment stepwise similarly by arbitrarily changing the processing time by the auxiliary heat treatment means 18B and the processing time by the main heat treatment means 18A. In the above embodiment, the case where the transfer of the substrate G to the auxiliary heat treatment means 18B and the main heat treatment means 18A is performed by the main arm 10a, but the transfer means of the substrate G is not necessarily the main arm 10a. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the hot plate 22 of the auxiliary heat treatment unit 18B and the hot plate 22 of the main heat treatment unit 18A are
A, the substrates G are successively arranged by the substrate transfer arm 10b movable in the direction in which the hot plates 22 are arranged, the direction orthogonal to the hot plates 22, and the vertical direction, and the hot plate 22 of the auxiliary heat treatment means 18B and the main heat treatment means 18A. May be adopted in a track system in which the sheet is sequentially conveyed to the hot plate 22 of FIG. In the above embodiment, the case where the heat treatment apparatus of the present invention is applied to an LCD substrate coating / development processing system has been described. However, the present invention can be applied to a single heat treatment apparatus, a prober, an ashing apparatus, and an exposure apparatus. Needless to say, the present invention can also be applied to the above. Further, the present invention can also be applied to a case where a silicon wafer is processed as an object to be processed. As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of concentric suction grooves connected to the vacuum means are provided on the hot plate of the auxiliary heat treatment means, and the heat grooves are formed from the outer grooves. By providing the branch grooves extending radially to the position near the support pins provided on the peripheral side of the hot plate, the object heat-treated by the auxiliary heat treatment means can be easily separated from the auxiliary heat treatment means. The processing body can be prevented from being deformed, and the throughput can be improved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an LCD substrate coating / developing processing system to which a heat treatment apparatus of the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view showing an example of a heat treatment apparatus according to the present invention. 3A is a plan view showing a hot plate and a support pin according to the present invention, and FIG. 3B is an enlarged sectional view taken along line AA. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing an example of a procedure of a heat treatment method according to the present invention. FIG. 5 is a graph showing the relationship between heating temperature and time in the heat treatment method according to the present invention. FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view showing an example of a transfer mode of the object to be processed in the present invention. FIG. 7 is a schematic plan view showing another transfer mode of the object to be processed in the present invention. [Description of Signs] G LCD substrate (object to be processed) 18A Main heat treatment means 18B Auxiliary heat treatment means 22 Heat plate 23 Heater 25 Support pin 27 Moving mechanism 32 Vacuum chuck groove (suction groove) 32a Branch groove

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI H01L 21/027 B05C 13/00 // B05C 13/00 H01L 21/30 567 (72) Inventor: Hirose Hirose Otsucho, Kikuchi-gun, Kumamoto Prefecture Ootakao character Heisei 272-4 Tokyo Electron Kyushu Co., Ltd. Otsu Office (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) F27D 11/02 F27D 19/00

Claims (1)

(1) A heat treatment apparatus for stepwise heat-treating an object to be processed, a main heat-treatment means for heat-treating the object to be processed at a predetermined predetermined temperature, and An auxiliary heat treatment means for performing heat treatment at a predetermined temperature and a temperature different from the predetermined temperature, the auxiliary heat treatment means supporting a heating plate for heating the object to be processed facing the object to be processed, and supporting the object to be processed; And a moving mechanism for relatively moving the hot plate and the support pin. The hot plate is provided with a plurality of concentric suction grooves connected to vacuum means, and an outer groove. A heat treatment apparatus characterized in that a branch groove extending radially from a hole to a position near a support pin provided on a peripheral side of the hot plate is provided.