JP4820705B2 - Substrate processing equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate by a fluid such as a processing liquid while conveying the substrate in an upright state inclined at a predetermined angle.

  A circuit pattern is formed on a glass substrate used in the liquid crystal display device. A lithographic process is employed to form a circuit pattern on the substrate. In a lithography process, as is well known, a resist is applied to the substrate, and light is irradiated through a mask having a circuit pattern formed on the resist.

  Next, the portion of the resist not irradiated with light or the portion irradiated with light is removed, and the portion of the substrate where the resist is removed is etched. A circuit pattern is formed on the substrate by repeating a series of steps of removing the resist after etching a plurality of times.

  In such a lithography process, the substrate is treated with a developer, an etching solution or a stripping solution that removes the resist after etching, a step of washing with a rinsing solution, and a rinsing solution remaining on the substrate after washing. A drying step to be removed is required.

  Conventionally, when the above-described series of processing is performed on a substrate, the substrate is sequentially transported to processing chambers in which the processing is performed in a substantially horizontal state by transport rollers arranged with the axis line horizontal, and in each processing chamber. The substrate is processed with a processing liquid, or after the processing, a compressed gas is injected to dry the substrate.

  Recently, glass substrates used in liquid crystal display devices tend to be larger and thinner. For this reason, when the substrate is horizontally transported, the bending of the substrate between the transport rollers becomes large, so that processing in each processing chamber cannot be performed uniformly over the entire plate surface of the substrate.

  Furthermore, when the substrate is enlarged, the transport shaft provided with the transport roller for transporting the substrate becomes longer. In addition, since the substrate is increased in size, the processing liquid supplied onto the substrate is increased, and the load applied to the transport shaft is increased according to the amount of the processing liquid on the substrate. Deflection increases. Therefore, the substrate may be bent even when the transport shaft is bent, and uniform processing may not be performed.

  Therefore, when the substrate is processed with the processing liquid, the substrate is transported at a predetermined inclination angle, for example, an angle of 75 degrees inclined by 15 degrees from the vertical state in order to prevent the substrate from being bent by the weight of the processing liquid. The front surface of the substrate is processed by injecting the processing liquid onto the front surface located on the upper side in the tilt direction.

  If the substrate is transported at an incline and the processing liquid is sprayed and supplied to the front surface of the substrate, the processing liquid does not stay on the plate surface of the substrate, but smoothly flows from the upper side to the lower side. It is possible to prevent the substrate from being bent by the weight of the liquid.

  By the way, in the case of a processing apparatus that processes a substrate while inclining the substrate at a predetermined angle, as shown in Patent Document 1, the back surface of the substrate that is lower in the inclined direction is supported by a support roller, and the lower end is a driving roller. Supported by. The drive roller is attached to a drive shaft, and the drive shaft is rotationally driven by a drive source.

In the processing apparatus, a plurality of the supporting rollers and the driving roller are arranged at a predetermined interval in the transport direction of the substrate. As a result, the substrate is driven by the drive roller while being supported by the support roller.
JP 2004-210511 A

  By the way, in order to enhance the effect depending on the type of the processing liquid, the front surface of the substrate to be transported is sprayed from the spray nozzle at a high pressure of about 0.7 MPa, for example. When the processing liquid is sprayed to the front surface of the substrate at a high pressure, the substrate is bent to the back side by the pressure of the processing liquid.

  If the substrate is only bent by the pressure of the processing liquid, the bending is limited by the support roller that supports the back surface of the substrate. However, when the lower end of the substrate rearward in the conveyance direction is curved to the back side due to the pressure of the processing liquid and comes into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the drive roller in a curved state, the driving force of the drive roller passes through the outer peripheral surface of the substrate. It will be transmitted to the lower end.

  When the driving force of the driving roller is transmitted to the lower end of the curved substrate in the conveyance direction, the lower end of the substrate in the conveyance direction receives the force in the direction of further bending due to the driving force. The lower end may be too curved and damaged.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus in which the lower end of the substrate in the rearward direction of the substrate is prevented from being bent back by the driving force received from the driving roller.

This invention is a substrate processing apparatus for processing with a fluid while transporting the substrate inclined at a predetermined angle,
A chamber;
A support roller that is provided in the chamber and supports a back surface on the lower side in the tilt direction of the substrate;
A driving roller that supports the lower end of the substrate supported by the supporting roller on the back surface by the outer peripheral surface and is driven to rotate to convey the substrate in a predetermined direction;
Fluid supply means for ejecting the fluid to the front surface on the upper side in the tilt direction of the substrate;
On the back side of the substrate conveying direction upstream arranged side conveying direction behind the lower end the lower end the substrate under the pressure of the fluid ejected from the fluid supply means of the substrate in the vicinity of the drive roller An apparatus for processing a substrate, comprising: a curving prevention roller that prevents further curving due to contact with the outer peripheral surface of the driving roller when curving.

  It is preferable that the anti-curvature roller is provided within a range of a diameter along the conveyance direction of the substrate of the drive roller.

  The curving prevention rollers are preferably provided on the upstream side and the downstream side in the transport direction of the substrate.

  It is preferable that the anti-curvature roller is provided at a position where the rotation axis is orthogonal to the rotation axis of the drive roller in the transport direction of the substrate.

  According to the present invention, the anti-curvature roller for preventing the lower end of the substrate rearward in the conveyance direction is provided in the vicinity of the drive roller, so that the lower end of the substrate rearward in the conveyance direction is curved and driven from the drive roller. It is possible to prevent an increase in curvature and damage due to force.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
1 to 4 show a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a processing apparatus according to the present invention. The processing apparatus has an apparatus body 1. The apparatus main body 1 is formed by connecting a plurality of divided processing units, in this embodiment, first to fifth processing units 1A to 1E in a row so as to be disassembled.

  Each processing unit 1 </ b> A to 1 </ b> E has a gantry 2. A box-shaped chamber 3 is held on the front surface of the gantry 2 at a predetermined angle. An upper transfer unit 4 is provided on the upper surface of the gantry 2 and the chamber 3. A pair of plate-like legs 5 (only one is shown) are provided at both ends in the width direction of the lower end of the gantry 2 so as to be disassembled. The leg 5 forms a space 6 on the lower surface side of the gantry 2.

  In the space 6, a tank or pump for supplying a processing liquid such as a chemical liquid or a rinsing liquid used for processing the substrate W performed in the chamber 3 as described later, or a control device for controlling the supply of the processing liquid. A device unit 9 in which a device 7 such as is mounted on a frame 8 is accommodated. That is, each of the processing units 1A to 1E supports the gantry 2 with the legs 5 and forms the space 6 below the chamber 3, so that the chamber 3, the upper transport unit 4 and the equipment unit 9 positioned in the vertical direction are arranged. It is divided into three parts.

  The chamber 3 is held at a predetermined angle with respect to the gantry 2 at an angle of 75 degrees, for example, an angle of 15 degrees with respect to a vertical line, and 75 degrees on both sides in the width direction. The slit 13 (only one place is shown in FIG. 1) through which the substrate W transported with an inclination of 1 passes is formed.

  Inside the chamber 3, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a plurality of conveying shafts 15 constituting the inclined conveying means are provided at predetermined intervals in the width direction of the chamber 3. A plurality of support rollers 14 are provided on the transport shaft 15 so as to be rotatable at predetermined intervals in the axial direction. The transport shaft 15 is supported at its upper and lower ends by brackets 15 a so that the axis is inclined at the same angle as the slit 13.

  A substrate W is transferred from the slit 13 into the chamber 3 by being converted from a horizontal state to an angle of 75 degrees by a first posture changing unit 16 indicated by a chain line in FIG. That is, the unprocessed substrate W is transported from the fifth processing unit 1E side to the first processing unit 1A side by the upper transport unit 4, and is moved from the horizontal state to the 75 degree angle by the first attitude conversion unit 16. It is inclined and carried into the first processing unit 1A.

  The back surface, which is a non-device surface, is supported on the substrate W carried into the chamber 3 of the first processing unit 1 </ b> A by the support roller 14 provided on the transport shaft 15. The lower end of the substrate W is supported by the outer peripheral surface of the drive roller 17 (shown in FIG. 2).

  The drive roller 17 is provided on the rotary shaft 19 of the drive unit 18. When the rotary shaft 19 is rotationally driven, the substrate W, the lower end of which is supported by the drive roller 17 and the back surface of which is supported by the support roller 14, is conveyed in the rotational direction of the drive roller 17. Yes.

  The substrate W is cleaned with the removing liquid as the processing liquid in the first to third processing units 1A to 1C upstream in the transport direction, and then cleaned with the cleaning liquid as the processing liquid in the fourth processing unit 1D. Processing is performed. Then, a drying process using hot air is performed in the fifth processing unit 1E.

Substrate W which are sequentially passed to process each processing unit 1A~1E is unloaded from the fifth processing unit 1E in a state inclined at an angle of 75 degrees. The substrate W carried out of the fifth processing unit 1E is changed in posture from the inclined state to the horizontal state by the second posture converting unit 23 shown by a chain line in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the drive unit 18 has a plate-like lower base member 24 that is long along the width direction of the chamber 3 (the transport direction of the substrate W). On the upper surface of the lower base member 24, a channel-shaped upper base member 25 having the same length as the lower base member 24 is provided with both lower ends fixed.

  One end and the other end in the width direction of a flat mounting member 26 having substantially the same size as the lower base member 24 are connected to the upper base member 25 so that the inclination of the upper base member 25 can be adjusted. Is provided. That is, the attachment member 26 can adjust the tilt angle in the front-rear direction of the chamber 3.

  A plurality of brackets 31 are provided at one end and the other end in the width direction of the mounting member 26 at predetermined intervals with respect to the longitudinal direction of the mounting member 26 and at positions corresponding to the width direction. A pair of brackets corresponding to each other in the width direction supports a midway portion in the axial direction of the rotary shaft 19 via a bearing (not shown) so as to be rotatable. The driving roller 17 is attached to the tip of the rotating shaft 19, and the first gear 33 is fitted to the rear end.

  When the chamber 3 is installed on the gantry 2, the lower end surfaces of the four rod-shaped reference members 35 are attached and fixed to the upper surface of the support portion 41 provided on the gantry 2 with screws 42. In the drive unit 18, the lower surfaces of the four corners of the lower base member 24 are fixedly attached to the upper end surface of the reference member 35 with screws 42. The upper end surfaces of the four reference members 35 are located on the same plane. Therefore, the drive unit 18 is mounted and fixed without distortion in the width direction and the longitudinal direction of the lower base member 24.

  When the drive unit 18 is incorporated into the chamber 3 with the upper end surface of the reference member 35 as a reference, the rear end portions of the plurality of rotary shafts 19 supported by the drive unit 18 are led out to the front plate 12 b of the chamber 3. Project into the drive chamber 45 from the hole 44. Then, after the drive unit 18 is assembled in the chamber 3, the first gear 33 is fitted to the rear end of the rotary shaft 19.

  A drive source 51 is provided in the drive chamber 45. A drive pulley 53 is fitted on the output shaft of the drive source 51. A belt 55 is stretched between the driving pulley 53 and the driven pulley 54. The driven pulley 54 is provided with a second gear (not shown) coaxially. The second gear meshes with the first gear 33. As a result, when the drive source 51 is activated, the rotary shaft 19 is rotationally driven, so that the drive roller 17 provided at the tip of the rotary shaft 19 is also rotationally driven.

  If the driving roller 17 is rotationally driven, the substrate W having the lower end supported by the driving roller 17 is transported in the rotational direction of the driving roller 17.

  As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 4, the tilt of the substrate W that is transported in an inclined manner to the first to third processing units 1 </ b> A to 1 </ b> C that removes the resist by spraying a stripping solution onto the front surface of the substrate W. A plurality of liquid supply pipes 61 are arranged at a predetermined interval along the transport direction of the substrate W so as to be spaced apart from and parallel to the upper surface in the direction, that is, the front surface on which the circuit pattern is formed.

  Each liquid supply pipe 61 is provided with a plurality of nozzle bodies 62 at a predetermined interval with respect to an axial direction intersecting the transport direction of the substrate W. The liquid supply pipe 61 and the nozzle body 62 form the processing liquid supply means of the present invention.

  The stripping liquid is supplied to the liquid supply pipe 61 at a high pressure of about 0.7 MPa. As a result, the processing liquid is ejected from the nozzle body 62 provided in the liquid supply pipe 61 onto the front surface of the substrate W at a high pressure.

  In the vicinity of the driving roller 17 that supports the lower end of the substrate W, the lower end of the substrate W, the lower end of which is supported by the outer peripheral surface of the driving roller 17, is curved to the back side by the pressure of the processing liquid ejected from the nozzle body 62. An anti-curvature roller 64 that prevents this is disposed. The curving prevention roller 64 is rotatably supported by a support shaft 66 provided on a bracket 65 erected from the inner bottom surface of the chamber 3.

  That is, the anti-curvature roller 64 is provided in the vicinity of the drive roller 17, and in this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the conveyance direction of the substrate W (arrow X) from the rotational axis of the drive roller 17 is shown. And a part of the radial direction is located above the range of the diameter D (shown in FIG. 3) of the driving roller 17 along the transport direction X of the substrate W, and the outer peripheral surface is The back surface of the substrate W supported by the support roller 14 is disposed at a position in contact with the back surface.

  According to such a configuration, the drive roller 17 is rotationally driven with the lower end of the substrate W supported by the outer peripheral surface of the drive roller 17 and the back surface supported by the support roller 14. Thereby, the substrate W is conveyed along the rotation direction of the driving roller 17 by the contact resistance between the lower end thereof and the outer peripheral surface of the driving roller 17. Then, a high-pressure processing liquid is ejected from the nozzle body 62 provided in the liquid supply pipe 61 to the front surface of the substrate W to be transported, and the front surface is processed.

  When the pressure of the processing liquid sprayed from the nozzle body 62 is received by the substrate W, the portion of the substrate W that is not supported by the support roller 14 is curved to the back side, and in particular, the lower end portion at the rear of the substrate W in the transport direction. The peripheral portion including E (shown in FIGS. 3 and 4) is more easily curved toward the back side than the other portions.

  Then, when the lower end E of the rear side of the substrate W in the peripheral part of the substrate W is curved as shown by a chain line in FIG. 4 and is conveyed to a position in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the driving roller 17, the driving roller 17. The driving force received from the outer peripheral surface of the substrate acts in a direction in which the lower end E behind the curved substrate W in the transport direction is further curved as indicated by an arrow B in FIG. For this reason, the lower end E of the substrate W in the rearward transfer direction is greatly curved, and the lower end E may be broken or otherwise damaged.

  However, a curving prevention roller 64 is disposed in the vicinity of the driving roller 17. Therefore, the lower end E of the substrate W is prevented from being bent in the direction of the back side indicated by the arrow B due to the contact with the outer peripheral surface of the driving roller 17 as indicated by the solid line in FIG.

  In other words, when the substrate W receives the pressure of the processing liquid and is transported to the vicinity of the position in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the drive roller 17 in a state where the lower end E at the rear in the transport direction is curved, the lower end E is prevented from bending. The curved state is corrected by the roller 64 and comes into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the driving roller 17.

  Therefore, even if the lower end E at the rear of the substrate W in the transport direction is curved to the back side due to the pressure received from the processing liquid, the lower end E is reliably prevented from being further bent by the driving roller 17 and being damaged. can do.

  The curving prevention roller 64 is provided on a support shaft 66 that is different from the conveyance shaft 15 on which the support roller 14 is provided. Therefore, the installation position of the anti-bending roller 64 can be freely set in the vicinity of the driving roller 17 without being limited by the installation state of the support roller 14.

  FIGS. 5A and 5B show a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, as the vicinity of the driving roller 17 where the anti-curvature roller 64 is installed, both on the upstream side and the downstream side within the range of the diameter D of the driving roller 17 along the conveyance direction of the substrate W. The pair of anti-curvature rollers 64 is provided so that a part of the radial direction is located within the range of the diameter D.

  FIGS. 6A and 6B show a third embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the anti-curvature roller 64 is provided in the vicinity of the drive roller 17 at a position where the rotation axis of the anti-curvature roller 64 is orthogonal to the rotation axis of the drive roller 17 in the transport direction of the substrate W. Yes. In other words, the anti-curvature roller 64 is provided with the rotation axis aligned with the center of the diameter D of the drive roller 17 along the transport direction of the substrate W.

  Also in the second and third embodiments, even if the lower end E behind the substrate W in the conveyance direction is curved by receiving the pressure of the processing liquid, the substrate W is conveyed to a position in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the drive roller 17. When it comes, the bending state is corrected by the bending prevention roller 64.

  Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent the lower end E of the substrate W rearward in the transport direction from being excessively curved and damaged by the driving force received from the driving roller 17, as in the first embodiment.

  The anti-curvature roller of the present invention can be applied not only when the substrate is processed with a stripping solution, but also when processing with another processing solution such as pure water or gas. This is effective when a fluid such as a processing liquid or gas is jetted onto the substrate at a high pressure.

The perspective view which shows schematic structure of the processing apparatus of 1st Embodiment of this invention. Sectional drawing of the chamber of the said processing apparatus. The front view which shows the arrangement | positioning relationship between a support roller and a drive roller. The top view which shows the arrangement | positioning relationship between a support roller and a drive roller. The 2nd Embodiment of this invention is shown, (a) is a front view which shows the arrangement | positioning relationship between a support roller and a drive roller, (b) is a top view which shows the arrangement | positioning relationship between a support roller and a drive roller. The 3rd Embodiment of this invention is shown, (a) is a front view which shows the arrangement | positioning relationship between a support roller and a drive roller, (b) is a top view which shows the arrangement | positioning relationship between a support roller and a drive roller.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 3 ... Chamber, 14 ... Support roller, 17 ... Drive roller, 19 ... Rotating shaft, 62 ... Nozzle body, 64 ... Curvature prevention roller

Claims (4)

A substrate processing apparatus for processing with a fluid while transporting the substrate inclined at a predetermined angle,
A chamber;
A support roller that is provided in the chamber and supports a back surface on the lower side in the tilt direction of the substrate;
A driving roller that supports the lower end of the substrate supported by the supporting roller on the back surface by the outer peripheral surface and is driven to rotate to convey the substrate in a predetermined direction;
Fluid supply means for ejecting the fluid to the front surface on the upper side in the tilt direction of the substrate;
On the back side of the substrate conveying direction upstream arranged side conveying direction behind the lower end the lower end the substrate under the pressure of the fluid ejected from the fluid supply means of the substrate in the vicinity of the drive roller An apparatus for processing a substrate, comprising: a curving prevention roller that prevents further curving due to contact with the outer peripheral surface of the driving roller when curving.   2. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the curving prevention roller is provided within a range of a diameter of the driving roller along a conveyance direction of the substrate.   3. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the curving prevention rollers are provided on an upstream side and a downstream side in the transport direction of the substrate.   3. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the anti-bending roller is provided at a position where the rotation axis is orthogonal to the rotation axis of the drive roller in the transport direction of the substrate.

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