JP3904406B2 - Substrate processing equipment - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display device, with respect to various substrates such as a plasma display glass substrate and a magnetic / optical disk substrate panel, the substrate processing equipment for performing a process using the process fluid .
[0002]
[Prior art]
In a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device or a liquid crystal display device, a substrate processing apparatus for supplying a processing liquid (chemical solution or pure water) to the substrate and performing a surface treatment of the substrate is used. In a single-wafer type substrate processing apparatus that processes substrates one by one, for example, a spin chuck that holds and rotates a substrate horizontally is provided, and the substrate is rotated in a horizontal plane by the spin chuck, By supplying the processing liquid to the surface of the substrate, the surface of the substrate is processed with the processing liquid. Further, after the treatment with the treatment liquid, a drying process is performed in which the substrate is rotated at a high speed by a spin chuck, and the treatment liquid adhering to the surface of the substrate is shaken off by a centrifugal force and dried.
[0003]
In such a single wafer type substrate processing apparatus, in order to perform good processing on the substrate, a blocking plate is disposed at a position close to the upper surface of the substrate held by the spin chuck so as to face the upper surface of the substrate. There is a case. This blocking plate is attached to the lower end of a rotating shaft that can rotate about the vertical axis, and is rotated in the same direction at almost the same speed as the substrate rotated by the spin chuck while processing the substrate. . This prevents the airflow in the vicinity of the upper surface of the substrate from being disturbed, and allows favorable processing to be performed on the upper surface of the substrate.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The barrier plate must have its center of gravity coincident with the center of rotation. If the center of gravity of the shield plate does not coincide with the center of rotation, the shield plate will vibrate when the shield plate is rotated, and the rotary shaft that supports the shield plate and the rotation drive to rotate the rotary shaft This is because uneven wear may occur in the mechanism, leading to a decrease in the life of the rotary shaft and the rotary drive mechanism. In addition, if vibration is generated in the shielding plate, there is a possibility that air current disturbance near the upper surface of the substrate may be caused.
[0005]
However, it is difficult to manufacture the shielding plate with high accuracy so that its center of gravity coincides with the center of rotation, and even if it can be manufactured with high accuracy, it will cause eccentricity due to the bending of the shielding plate. End up. Further, if the shielding plate is made of a material having high rigidity in order to prevent such bending, the cost of the shielding plate is increased.
In order to make the center of gravity and the rotation center of the shielding plate coincide with each other, it has been conventionally performed to appropriately arrange a plurality of balancers on the upper surface of the shielding plate. However, until the center of gravity of the shielding plate matches the center of rotation, the position of the balancers must be changed many times, and the balancer must be detached from the top surface of the shielding plate each time the change is made, The adjustment work took time and effort.
[0006]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus provided with a rotating member (blocking plate ) capable of solving the above technical problem and easily adjusting the position of the center of gravity.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems and Effects of the Invention]
In order to achieve the above object, a first aspect of the present invention is a substrate processing apparatus for performing processing using a processing fluid on a substrate, and a substrate holding and rotating means (11) for holding and rotating the substrate substantially horizontally. And a processing fluid supply means (13, 14, 22, 23, 25, 26) for supplying a processing fluid to the substrate held by the substrate holding and rotating means, and an upper surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding and rotating means. and the rotating member (20) which is rotated about a substantially vertical axis of rotation is opposed in a close position, it is incorporated in the rotating member, provided so as not to be exposed to the outside, adjust the position of the center of gravity of the rotating member a balancing member for (205), a substrate processing apparatus which comprises a position adjusting mechanism (60, 61) for adjusting the position of the balancing member with respect to the rotation axis.
[0008]
In addition, the alphanumeric characters in parentheses represent corresponding components in the embodiments described later. The same applies hereinafter.
According to this invention, the position adjustment mechanism for adjusting the position of the balance adjustment member is provided, and the position of the balance adjustment member is adjusted by this position adjustment mechanism, for example, with the center of gravity of the rotation member as the center of rotation. Can be matched. Therefore, compared with the conventional method of arranging a plurality of balancers and adjusting the position of the center of gravity of a rotating member (for example, a blocking plate), the labor required for the adjustment work can be reduced and the time required for the adjustment work can be reduced. It can be shortened.
[0009]
Further, since the balance adjusting member is built in the rotating member and is not exposed to the outside, there is no risk of being corroded by the processing fluid. Therefore, the balance adjustment member can be configured with a relatively high weight using a metal material or the like, and the center of gravity of the rotating member is greatly deviated from the rotation center by configuring the balance adjustment member with a relatively high weight. Even so, it becomes possible to make the center of gravity coincide with the center of rotation.
Further, when the rotating member is a shielding plate having a flat surface facing the upper surface of the substrate substantially parallel to the lower surface, the vibration of the shielding plate when the shielding plate is rotated can be suppressed. Generation of turbulence near the upper surface can be prevented, and an effect that favorable processing can be performed on the substrate can be obtained.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the position adjusting mechanism includes at least three adjusting screws (60) for abutting the balance adjusting member and displacing the balance adjusting member from a direction intersecting the rotation axis. May be included.
[0010]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the balance adjusting member may be a ring-shaped member formed in a ring shape so as to surround a predetermined axis parallel to the rotation axis of the rotating member.
Furthermore, as according to claim 4, wherein said position adjusting mechanism adjusts the position of the balancing member, also the center of gravity of the rotating member be of to match the rotation center of the rotary member Good.
[0012]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view for explaining the configuration of a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This substrate processing apparatus is for performing a surface treatment with a processing liquid on a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter simply referred to as “wafer”) W which is an example of a substrate. The surface treatment for the wafer W may be, for example, a cleaning process for cleaning the surface of the wafer W with a chemical solution or pure water.
[0013]
This substrate processing apparatus includes a spin chuck 11 in a processing cup (not shown) that holds a wafer W substantially horizontally and rotates about a vertical axis passing through the substantially center of the held wafer W. The spin chuck 11 is coupled to the drive shaft of the motor 12 and is rotated. The drive shaft of the motor 12 is a hollow shaft, and a lower surface nozzle 13 through which a processing liquid can be supplied is inserted. The lower surface nozzle 13 has a discharge port at a position close to the center of the lower surface of the wafer W held by the spin chuck 11, and a central axis for supplying a processing liquid from the discharge port toward the center of the lower surface of the wafer W. It has the form of a nozzle. A processing liquid is supplied to the lower surface nozzle 13 via a processing liquid supply valve 14 from a processing liquid supply source (not shown).
[0014]
A blocking plate 20 is provided above the spin chuck 11 so as to face the upper surface of the wafer W held by the spin chuck 11. The shielding plate 20 is attached to the lower end of the support shaft 21 disposed on the rotation axis of the wafer W. The support shaft 21 is rotatably held near the tip of the arm 40 coupled to the lifting drive mechanism 30. Further, the lower surface 20 a of the blocking plate 20 is a flat surface facing the upper surface of the wafer W substantially in parallel.
[0015]
The support shaft 21 is formed hollow, and a processing liquid nozzle 22 for supplying a processing liquid to the upper surface of the wafer W is inserted through the support shaft 21. A processing liquid is supplied to the processing liquid nozzle 22 from a processing liquid supply source via a processing liquid supply valve 23. The processing liquid supplied to the processing liquid nozzle 22 is supplied from the front end of the processing liquid nozzle 22 to the upper surface of the wafer W through the opening 24 (see FIG. 2) formed in the central portion of the lower surface 20a of the blocking plate 20. Is done.
[0016]
Between the inner surface of the support shaft 21 and the treatment liquid nozzle 22 is a nitrogen gas flow passage through which nitrogen gas for wafer drying flows, and in this nitrogen gas flow passage, nitrogen gas from a nitrogen gas supply source is passed. The gas is supplied through a nitrogen gas valve 25 and a nitrogen gas supply pipe 26. Nitrogen gas supplied to the nitrogen gas flow path is blown out from the opening 24 of the blocking plate 20 toward the upper surface of the wafer W.
The elevating drive mechanism 30 includes a support cylinder 31, a hollow elevating shaft 32 that is supported by the support cylinder 31 so as to be movable up and down, and a ball screw mechanism 33 for elevating the elevating shaft 32. A lower end of the elevating shaft 32 is fixed to a bracket 34, and the bracket 34 is fixed to a nut portion 33 a of the ball screw mechanism 33. The screw shaft 33b of the ball screw mechanism 33 is rotationally driven by a motor 33c. Therefore, when the motor 33c is rotated forward / reversely, the lifting shaft 32 is moved up and down, and the arm 40 attached to the tip of the lifting shaft 32 is moved up and down. 35 is a bellows for preventing the treatment liquid from entering.
[0017]
A rotary shaft 41 is inserted through the lifting shaft 32. The rotating shaft 41 is rotatably held by bearings 42 and 43 disposed at the upper end and the lower end of the elevating shaft 32, respectively. A lower end of the rotation shaft 41 is coupled to a rotation shaft of a motor 45 attached to the bracket 34 via a coupling 44. A pulley 46 is fixed to the upper end of the rotating shaft 41, and a timing belt 47 disposed in the internal space of the arm 40 is wound around the pulley 46. The timing belt 47 is also wound around a pulley 27 fixed to the support shaft 21 of the blocking plate 20. Therefore, when the motor 45 is driven to rotate, the rotational force of the motor 45 is transmitted to the support shaft 21 via the rotary shaft 41 and the timing belt 47, and the shielding plate 20 together with the support shaft 21 is moved around a substantially vertical axis. Will rotate. In this way, the rotational drive mechanism for the blocking plate 20 is configured.
[0018]
When the wafer W is loaded into the spin chuck 11, the blocking plate 20 is largely retracted above the spin chuck 11. When the wafer W is held on the spin chuck 11, the rotation of the wafer W held on the spin chuck 11 is started. Further, as the elevating drive mechanism 30 lowers the arm 40, the blocking plate 20 is brought close to the upper surface of the wafer W held by the spin chuck 11, and the lower surface 20a of the blocking plate 20 and the upper surface of the wafer W are in a predetermined range. It becomes an interval. Then, the motor 45 is energized, and the blocking plate 20 is rotated in the same direction in the vicinity of the wafer W at substantially the same speed as the substrate rotated by the spin chuck 11. In a state where the wafer W and the blocking plate 20 are rotating, the processing liquid is supplied to the upper and lower surfaces of the wafer W from the processing liquid supply nozzle 22 and the lower surface nozzle 13 near the center of the blocking plate 20. A cleaning process using a processing solution is performed. At this time, since the shielding plate 20 is disposed so as to face the upper surface of the wafer W, it is possible to prevent the processing liquid supplied to the upper surface of the wafer W from splashing and scattering outside.
[0019]
After the cleaning process, the elevating drive mechanism 30 further lowers the arm 40 to bring the blocking plate 20 closer to the surface of the wafer W. At the same time, both the wafer W and the shielding plate 20 are rotated at a high speed, and in this state, nitrogen gas is supplied from the vicinity of the center of the shielding plate 20 to the space between the wafer W and the shielding plate 20. Thereby, since the space between the upper surface of the wafer W and the lower surface 20a of the blocking plate 20 is filled with nitrogen gas, the wafer W can be satisfactorily dried without leaving traces of the processing liquid on the upper surface of the wafer W. Can do.
[0020]
2 is a plan view showing the configuration of the blocking plate 20, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the section line III-III in FIG. The blocking plate 20 includes a circular main body plate 201 having an opening 24 in the center and a connection boss 202 provided on the upper surface of the main body plate 201.
The connection boss 202 is formed in a flat cylindrical shape, and the hollow portion 203 communicates with the opening 24 of the main body plate 201. The connecting boss 202 press-fits one end of a dowel 52 into four dowel holes 51 formed on the peripheral edge of the lower surface (contact surface with the upper surface of the main body plate 201), and the other end of the dowel 52 is connected to the main body plate 201. By being press-fitted into a dowel hole 53 formed at a position corresponding to the dowel hole 51 on the upper surface, the upper surface of the main body plate 201 is aligned and fixed. In addition, eight through holes 54 are formed on the peripheral edge of the connecting boss 202, and eight female screws (not shown) are formed on the upper surface of the main body plate 201 at positions corresponding to the through holes 54. Using these through holes 54 and female screws, the main body plate 201 and the connecting boss 202 are fixed with bolt screws. In a state where the connecting boss 202 is attached to the lower surface of the support shaft 21, the hollow portion of the connecting boss 202 and the hollow portion of the support shaft 21 communicate with each other, whereby the processing liquid nozzle inserted into the hollow portion of the support shaft 21. The tip of 22 (see FIG. 1) can be arranged in the vicinity of the opening 24 of the main body plate 201.
[0021]
On the upper surface of the connecting boss 202, a seal receiving groove into which an O-ring (not shown) for sealing between the support shaft 21 and the connecting boss 202 is fitted inside the peripheral edge where the dowel hole 54 is formed. 204 is formed. In addition, a balancer accommodation groove 206 that accommodates a metal balancer ring 205 is formed inside the seal accommodation groove 204. An auxiliary balancer accommodating groove 207 capable of accommodating an unillustrated auxiliary balancer is formed further inside the balancer accommodating groove 206, and a screw hole 208 for fixing the auxiliary balancer is formed on the bottom surface of the auxiliary balancer accommodating groove 207. Is formed.
[0022]
The balancer ring 205 is accommodated in the balancer accommodation groove 206 with a margin, and can be displaced along the upper surface of the main body plate 201 within the margin. Four adjusting screws 60 for adjusting the position of the balancer ring 205 in the balancer receiving groove 206 are provided so as to penetrate from the outer peripheral surface of the connecting boss 202 to the balancer receiving groove 206. In other words, the through holes 61 are formed in the connecting boss 202 at four positions shifted from each other by 90 degrees in plan view. The inner surface of the through-hole 61 is threaded so that the adjusting screw 60 can be screwed in. Regardless of the position of the balancer ring 205 in the balancer receiving groove 206, the adjustment screw 60 is formed in such a length that its tip abuts against the outer peripheral surface of the balancer ring 205. Therefore, by adjusting the screwing amount of each adjusting screw 60 into the through hole 61, the balancer ring 205 can be pushed and displaced to a desired position by the adjusting screw 60. Further, the balancer ring 205 can be fixed at that position by causing each adjustment screw 60 to abut the outer peripheral surface of the balancer ring 205 and holding the balancer ring 205 from four directions with each adjustment screw 60.
[0023]
The position of the balancer ring 205 is adjusted using, for example, a dedicated jig so that the center of gravity of the blocking plate 20 and the rotation center coincide. The dedicated jig is a device that can rotate the shielding plate 20 around the same point as the center of rotation when attached to the support shaft 21, and can measure the vibration generated in the shielding plate 20 at that time. . Using this jig, the vibration generated in the shielding plate 20 when the shielding plate 20 is rotated is measured, and each adjusting screw 60 is adjusted based on the measurement result to balance the ring 205 in the direction in which the vibration is suppressed. Is displaced. Then, when the position of the balancer ring 205 with the smallest vibration is found, the position adjustment of the balancer ring 205 is completed, and in this state, the center of gravity of the blocking plate 20 and the rotation center substantially coincide.
[0024]
When adjusting the position of the balancer ring 205 using this dedicated jig, for example, by placing an appropriate weight on the connecting boss 202, the weight is set in the direction in which vibration is suppressed. Then, the balancer ring 205 may be displaced in that direction.
In addition, it is not always necessary to adjust the position using a jig. For example, vibration when the shield plate 20 is attached to the support shaft 21 and rotated or the state of the shield plate 20 is observed, You may make it adjust the position of the balancer ring 205 so that the vibration of the shielding board 20 may become small.
[0025]
In any method, according to the configuration of this embodiment, the position of the balancer ring 205 can be easily adjusted by adjusting the screwing amount of the four adjusting screws 60, and the blocking plate 20. Can be made to coincide with the center of rotation. Therefore, compared with the conventional method of arranging a plurality of balancers and adjusting the position of the center of gravity of the blocking plate, it is possible to reduce the labor required for the adjustment work and to shorten the time required for the adjustment work.
[0026]
Further, since the balancer ring 205 is not exposed in a state where the blocking plate 20 is attached to the support shaft 21, even if the balancer ring 205 is made of metal, the balancer ring 205 is not likely to be corroded by the processing liquid (especially chemical liquid). . Therefore, since the balancer ring 205 can be made of a metal material with a relatively high weight, the balancer ring 205 can be positioned even when the center of gravity of the main body plate 201 and the connecting boss 202 is greatly deviated from the center of rotation. By appropriately adjusting, the center of gravity and the rotation center of the blocking plate 20 can be matched.
[0027]
In this embodiment, when the center of gravity of the blocking plate 20 cannot be made coincident with the center of rotation only by adjusting the position of the balancer ring 205, the balancer ring is attached after the auxiliary balancer is attached to the auxiliary balancer receiving groove 207. By adjusting the position of 205, the center of gravity of the blocking plate 20 can be reliably aligned with the center of rotation.
As mentioned above, although one Embodiment of this invention was described, this invention can also be implemented with another form. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the configuration in which the four adjustment screws 60 for adjusting the position of the balancer ring 205 are described as an example. However, the balancer ring 205 is provided with at least three adjustment screws. It can be adjusted if it is done. For example, when there are three adjustment screws, it is preferable that these three adjustment screws are arranged at equal angular intervals of 120 ° in plan view in FIG.
[0028]
In the above-described embodiment, the blocking plate 20 is taken up as an example of the rotating member. However, other than the blocking plate 20, for example, a scrub that is disposed to face the surface of the wafer W and scrubs the surface of the wafer W. The present invention may be applied to a rotating brush. In this case, since the vibration of the scrubbing brush can be suppressed by matching the center of gravity and the rotation center of the scrubbing brush, the effect that the surface cleaning of the wafer W can be satisfactorily performed with the scrubbing brush is obtained. Can do. Of course, it is possible to obtain an effect that labor and time required for adjustment work for adjusting the center of gravity of the scrubbing brush to the center of rotation can be reduced.
[0029]
Furthermore, the substrate to be processed by the substrate processing apparatus is not limited to the wafer W, and may be other types of substrates such as a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display device, a glass substrate for a plasma display panel and a magnetic / optical disk substrate. .
In addition, various design changes can be made within the scope of matters described in the claims.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view for explaining the configuration of a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a configuration of a blocking plate.
3 is a cross-sectional view taken along section line III-III in FIG. 2. FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
11 Spin chuck 13 Lower surface nozzle 14 Processing liquid supply valve 20 Blocking plate 21 Support shaft 22 Processing liquid nozzle 23 Processing liquid supply valve 24 Opening 25 Nitrogen gas valve 26 Nitrogen gas supply pipe 60 Part 205 Balancer ring 206 Balancer receiving groove W Wafer

Claims (4)

A substrate processing apparatus for performing processing using a processing fluid on a substrate,
A substrate holding and rotating means for rotating the substrate while holding it substantially horizontal;
A processing fluid supply means for supplying a processing fluid to the substrate held by the substrate holding rotation means;
A rotating member that is disposed opposite to the upper surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding rotating means and is rotated about a substantially vertical rotation axis;
A balance adjusting member built in the rotating member, provided not to be exposed to the outside, and for adjusting the position of the center of gravity of the rotating member;
And a position adjusting mechanism for adjusting a position of the balance adjusting member with respect to the rotation axis . 2. The position adjusting mechanism includes at least three adjusting screws for displacing the balance adjusting member by contacting the balance adjusting member from a direction intersecting the rotation axis. Substrate processing equipment . 3. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the balance adjusting member is a ring-shaped member formed in a ring shape so as to surround a predetermined axis parallel to the rotation axis of the rotating member. .   4. The position adjusting mechanism is for adjusting the position of the balance adjusting member so that the center of gravity of the rotating member coincides with the center of rotation of the rotating member. 2. The substrate processing apparatus according to 1.

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