JP5193739B2 - Thin film forming system and thin film forming method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a thin film forming system and a thin film forming method for forming a thin film made of a resin material on the surfaces of various substrates such as a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate for photomask, a glass substrate for liquid crystal display, a glass substrate for plasma display, and an optical disk substrate. Is.

  As this type of thin film formation technology, in order to obtain a uniform thin film without defects, a coating solution containing a thin film material is applied onto a resin sheet film, and the sheet film is peeled off after being adhered to the substrate surface. In some cases, the thin film is transferred onto the substrate surface. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a thin film forming system in which a sheet film stored in a film storage cassette is taken out one by one, a thin film material is applied to the surface, the sheet film is transferred to a substrate, and then the sheet film is peeled off. Yes.

  On the other hand, in this type of technology, in order to convey a thin and flexible sheet film while maintaining a flat state, it has been proposed to attach a holding frame to the peripheral portion of the sheet film. For example, Patent Documents 2 to 4 describe that a sheet film can be easily handled by holding the sheet film between a pair of ring-shaped holding members.

JP 2004-296855 A JP 2002-299406 A JP 2003-100726 A Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-100727

  It is expected that the holding frame described in Patent Documents 2 to 4 is also adopted for the thin film forming system described in Patent Document 1 described above. However, in order to realize this as a thin film forming system that can withstand practical use, the following problems that have not been studied in Patent Documents 1 to 4 described above to be improved, particularly, a large number of sheet films are processed continuously. The problem from the viewpoint of productivity in the case of doing was left.

  That is, when processing a large number of sheet films, it is not realistic to attach holding frames to all the sheet films in advance. One of the reasons is that the external dimensions and weight are significantly increased in a state where the holding frame is attached to the sheet film, compared with a single sheet film, and thus it is not suitable for a large amount of conveyance. In particular, when a sheet film is carried into a thin film forming system, the number of sheet films that can be carried at one time is greatly reduced, and the processing efficiency is lowered. Another reason is that it is necessary to prepare a large number of holding frames that require high processing accuracy, and the cost required for the manufacture and storage thereof increases. In addition, although it is necessary to carry out the holding frame after processing out of the system, a new device configuration is required for that purpose, and processing throughput is reduced.

  Thus, when considering the realization of the entire system, there are many issues to be examined regarding the mode of delivery of the sheet film and the mounting and removal of the holding frame for this, but in this regard, in the prior art including the above-mentioned literature Has not been sufficiently studied, and such a thin film forming system has not been put into practical use.

  This invention is made in view of the said subject, and provides the technique suitable for processing many sheet films continuously in the thin film formation system and thin film formation method which form a thin film on a sheet film. With the goal.

  In order to achieve the above object, a thin film forming system according to the present invention has a coating means for coating a thin film material on the surface of a sheet film, a film transporting means for transporting the sheet film and carrying it into the coating means, A holding frame for holding a peripheral edge of the film is carried into the coating means, and a holding frame conveying means for carrying out the sheet film after application of the thin film material from the coating means while being held by the holding frame. It is characterized by providing.

  Further, the thin film forming method according to the present invention includes a carrying-in step of individually carrying a sheet film and a holding frame for holding the sheet film into the coating means, and a thin film material on the surface of the sheet film in order to achieve the above object. And an unloading step of unloading the sheet film coated with the thin film material from the coating means while being held by the holding frame.

  In the invention configured as described above, the sheet film is carried into the coating means without mounting the holding frame. On the other hand, the holding frame is carried into the coating means independently of this, and is carried out in a state where the holding frame is mounted on the sheet film after application of the thin film material. It is the sheet film after the thin film material is applied mainly that requires the holding frame to prevent the shape change of the sheet film. In this invention, it is possible to transport a large number of sheets at a time by transporting an untreated sheet film without mounting a holding frame, while mounting a retaining frame on a sheet film after coating. By conveying the sheet, the shape change of the sheet film can be reliably prevented.

  In the present invention, the holding frame is attached to the sheet film in the coating means. This allows the holding frame to be circulated in the system. That is, when the holding frame is separated from the sheet film in the subsequent processing steps, the holding frame can be carried into the coating means again and mounted on another sheet film for reuse. Therefore, it is possible to process a large number of sheet films continuously by preparing only a limited number of holding frames necessary for circulation in the system, and to carry out the holding frames to the outside. The apparatus configuration and processing steps are not required. In addition, since the holding frame is attached to the sheet film in the coating means, the entire apparatus can be made smaller than when the holding frame is attached by a dedicated separate unit.

  As described above, in the thin film forming system and the thin film forming method according to the present invention, it is possible to carry in a large number of untreated sheet films at one time, while circulating a finite number of holding frames in the system. Can be used repeatedly. For this reason, it is suitable for processing a large number of sheet films continuously. Further, since it is not necessary to carry in and out a large amount of holding frames, the holding frames are attached to the sheet film in the coating means, so that the entire apparatus can be simplified and downsized. Furthermore, since it is not necessary to prepare a large number of holding frames, the apparatus cost can be reduced.

  Note that the thin film forming system configured as described above includes a transfer unit that brings the substrate into contact with the thin film material on the surface of the sheet film held by the holding frame and transfers the thin film to the surface of the substrate. The holding frame conveying means may carry the holding frame separated from the sheet film into the coating means after transferring the thin film to the substrate. Furthermore, it has peeling means for peeling the sheet film from the substrate after transfer of the thin film to the substrate, and the holding frame transport means carries the holding frame separated from the sheet film in the peeling means into the coating means. You may make it do.

  For the sheet film after the thin film is transferred to the substrate, it is not necessary to attach a holding frame for holding the shape. Therefore, the use of the holding frame can be limited to the inside of the system by integrating the application unit requiring transfer with the holding frame to the transfer unit, and more preferably the separating unit as a system. That is, it is not necessary to carry in the holding frame from outside the system and carry out the holding frame outside the system.

  Further, the holding frame conveying means can circulate one set or a plurality of sets of the holding frames between the coating means and the peeling means. In particular, when only one set of holding frames is used, the process proceeds in accordance with the circulation cycle of the holding frames, so that the holding frames do not stay. Therefore, a space for temporarily placing the holding frame is not required, and the apparatus size can be minimized. Further, when a plurality of sets of holding frames are circulated, for example, a plurality of thin film materials are applied to another sheet film while the thin film formed on one sheet film is transferred to the substrate. Since these processes can be performed in parallel, the throughput of the process can be improved.

  The holding frame includes a pair of clamping members that clamp the sheet film, and the film conveying means moves the holding member after the holding frame conveying means carries one member of the pair of clamping members into the coating means. While carrying the sheet film into the coating means, after the application of the thin film material to the sheet film, the holding frame conveying means carries the other member of the pair of clamping members into the coating means and The sheet film may be sandwiched between them, and the pair of sandwiching members and the sheet film sandwiched between the pair of sandwiching members may be integrally transported from the application unit.

  That is, one member of the pair of sandwiching members is previously loaded into the coating means, and then the sheet film is loaded and the thin film material is applied, and then the other member is loaded and the sheet film is sandwiched. In this way, it is possible to easily attach the holding frame to the sheet film within the coating means. In particular, if the thin film material is applied in a state where the sheet film is placed on the previously loaded holding member, the holding frame can be attached to the sheet film simply by placing the other holding member thereon. .

  Also in the thin film forming method described above, a transfer step of bringing a substrate into contact with the thin film material on the surface of the sheet film carried out from the coating means and transferring the thin film to the surface of the substrate, and a thin film on the substrate You may make it provide the peeling process of peeling the said sheet film from the said board | substrate after transcription | transfer. In particular, in the thin film forming method in which the thin film is transferred to a plurality of substrates by repeating the carry-in process, the coating process, the carry-out process, the transfer process, and the peeling process, in the peeling process, the holding frame is moved from the sheet film. May be separated, and the holding frame may be carried into the coating means in the subsequent carrying-in step. Furthermore, in this thin film forming method, one set or a plurality of sets of the holding frames may be circulated. The effects of these configurations are the same as those of the thin film formation system described above.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to carry in a large number of untreated sheet films at one time, while a finite number of holding frames can be circulated in the system and used repeatedly. The film can be processed continuously and efficiently. In addition, simplification, downsizing, and cost reduction of the entire apparatus can be achieved.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a thin film forming system according to the present invention. More specifically, it is a layout view of the thin film forming system as viewed from above. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a thin film forming process by this thin film forming system. In the following description, the depth direction (left and right direction in FIG. 1) of this system is the X direction, the width direction (up and down direction in FIG. 1) is the Y direction, and the height direction (direction perpendicular to the paper surface in FIG. 1) is the Z direction. And

  This thin film formation system is a system for forming a thin film by, for example, SOG (Spin-On-Glass) as an insulating film on the surface of a semiconductor substrate, more specifically, a thin film material on a resin sheet film. A thin film is formed by applying a coating solution containing, and the thin film supported by the sheet film is transferred to the substrate surface after being adhered to the substrate surface, and then the sheet film is peeled off to leave only the thin film on the substrate surface. .

  That is, in the thin film forming process executed by this thin film forming system, as shown in FIG. 2, first, a film cassette containing a sheet film and a substrate cassette containing a substrate are carried in (step S10). Following this, the following steps: an application step (step S20) of applying a coating solution containing a thin film material to the sheet film taken out from the film cassette; a drying step of drying this to form a thin film on the sheet film (Step S30); Transfer process for transferring the thin film thus formed on the sheet film to the substrate taken out from the substrate cassette (Step S40); Peeling / collecting step for peeling and collecting only the sheet film from the substrate (Step S30) S50) is performed on the total number of substrates to be processed (step S60), and the cassette containing the processed substrates is unloaded (step S70), thereby completing the processing.

  In this system, as shown in FIG. 1, an indexer unit 1 for receiving a substrate cassette 11 storing unprocessed substrates W from the outside is provided on the upper side (left side in FIG. 1). On the other hand, on the lower side (the right hand side in FIG. 1) of the indexer unit 1, a transport unit TP in which a substrate transport robot 2 that reciprocates in the Y direction is installed is provided. Further, on the opposite side of the transporter TP from the indexer unit 1, there is provided a thin film forming unit 3 that performs a predetermined process to be described later on the substrate W to form a thin film on the surface thereof. In this thin film forming system, each of the above-described parts constituting the system operates based on a control command from the control unit 4.

  In the thin film forming unit 3, a center robot 70 is provided at the center, and the reversing unit 31, the ring mounting table 32, the film cassette mounting table 33, the coating unit 34, the peeling unit 10, and the recovery unit 50 are surrounded so as to surround it. The transfer unit 35 and the drying unit 36 are provided. A film transport robot 39 is provided adjacent to the film cassette mounting table 33 and the coating unit 34.

  Hereinafter, although the structure and operation | movement of said each part are demonstrated, as each of these units, as the reversing unit 31, the coating unit 34, the transfer unit 35, and the drying unit 36, for example, the above-mentioned patent document 4 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-1000072) Since the thing of the same structure as what was described in the gazette) can be used, detailed description is abbreviate | omitted about the structure of these units.

  In this thin film forming system, in order to convey a flexible sheet film while maintaining its shape, the thin film forming system is moved in the system in the state of a ring body equipped with a ring-shaped holding frame as is also done in the prior art described above. . However, in the apparatus of the prior art, the sheet film is carried in from the outside with the ring attached, whereas in the present embodiment, the sheet film alone without the ring is received from the outside and the inside of the system is received. The ring is circulated in the system by attaching and removing the ring.

  In the case of a device that accepts a sheet film with a ring attached, one set of rings is required for each sheet film, and if a large number of substrates are processed, a large number of rings should be prepared. It is necessary to increase the apparatus cost and the substrate processing cost. In addition, since an extremely thin sheet film is bulky when the ring is attached, a space for storing them is required and it is not suitable for mass transportation.

  On the other hand, in the present embodiment configured to circulate the ring in the system as described in detail below, a large number of sheet films are carried at once in order to receive the sheet film from the outside alone. In addition, the storage space can be reduced by laminating films. Furthermore, since one set of rings is required in the minimum and several pairs are preferably prepared in view of processing efficiency, the apparatus cost and the substrate processing cost can be greatly reduced. Of course, the space for storing the ring is also minimal.

  FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing the structure of the ring body. This ring body RF holds the sheet film F by sandwiching the peripheral portion of the resin sheet film F between the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw. The upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw are, for example, circular rings formed of the same diameter with aluminum, and a plate made of four magnetic materials (for example, iron or an iron alloy) is formed on a part of the upper surface of the upper ring Rup. 91 is attached.

  A plurality of permanent magnets 92 are embedded in the upper ring Rup at positions different from the plate 91, while the same number of permanent magnets 93 are embedded in the lower ring Rdw. The permanent magnet 92 and the permanent magnet 93 are attached to positions facing each other when the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw are overlapped with each other and have polarities attracting each other. For this reason, when the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw are overlapped directly or with the sheet film F interposed therebetween, the upper and lower rings are integrated by the attractive force of the permanent magnet.

  Positioning cuts 94 and 95 are provided at each of the outer peripheral surfaces of the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw. The upper ring Rup is provided with a plurality of through holes 96, and the lower ring Rdw is also provided with a plurality of through holes 97. The through-hole 96 of the upper ring Rup and the through-hole 97 of the lower ring Rdw are provided at different positions, and when the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw are integrated, the respective through-holes may overlap. There is no such thing. The functions of these through holes 96 and 97 will be described later.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the structure of the center robot. More specifically, FIG. 4A is a plan view of the center robot 70 viewed from above, and FIG. 4B is a side view thereof. The center robot 70 is an articulated robot, and includes a robot body 701 and two articulated arms 702 and 703 attached to the top of the robot body 701. The robot body 701 rotates about the rotation axis AX1, and is further extendable in the Z direction.

  A substrate hand 704 for holding the substrate W is attached to the tip of the articulated arm 702. A gripping claw 704 a for gripping the outer peripheral portion of the substrate W is provided on the upper surface of the substrate hand 704. On the other hand, the bottom surface of the substrate hand 704 is provided with a large number of small holes communicating with an exhaust device (not shown) so that the top surface of the substrate W can be vacuum-sucked. That is, the substrate hand 704 can hold the substrate W by two methods of placing the substrate W on its upper surface side or vacuum-sucking the substrate W on its lower surface side. Further, a ring hand 705 for magnetically attracting and holding the upper ring Rup is attached to the tip of the other articulated arm 703.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a more detailed structure of the ring hand. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5A, four electromagnets 706 are fixed to the ring hand 705 corresponding to the four plates 91 attached to the upper ring Rup. When the electromagnet 706 is excited in accordance with a control command from the control unit 4, the upper ring Rup plate 91 is electromagnetically attracted and the upper ring Rup or the upper ring Rup is integrated with the lower ring Rdw or the sheet film F. The body RF can be held. Further, by stopping the excitation of the electromagnet 706, the holding of the upper ring Rup or the ring body RF can be released.

  In addition, a protrusion mechanism 707 for separating the upper and lower rings is provided at a position corresponding to the through hole 96 formed in the upper ring Rup. FIG. 5B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line A-A ′ of FIG. As shown in FIG. 5B, the protrusion mechanism 707 houses the protrusion pin 708 and can protrude the protrusion pin 708 downward from the lower surface of the ring hand 705 in accordance with a control command from the control unit 4. it can. As shown in FIG. 5C, in the state where the protrusion pin 708 protrudes downward, the tip of the protrusion pin 708 pushes the upper surface of the lower ring Rdw downward through the through hole 96 provided in the upper ring Rup. Thus, the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw that are electromagnetically attracted by the permanent magnets 92 and 93 are separated.

At this time, the condition necessary for separating only the lower ring Rdw while the upper ring Rup is held by the ring hand 705 is that the total electromagnetic attractive force of the electromagnet 706 to the plate 91 is F1, and the protruding pin 708 is the lower ring. When the total force pushing Rdw is F2, and the total electromagnetic attractive force between the permanent magnets 92 and 93 is F3,
F1>
F2> F3
Is established. The electromagnetic attraction force F1 of the electromagnet 706 with respect to the plate 91 must be larger than the total weight of the upper ring Rup, the lower ring Rdw, the sheet film F on which the thin film is formed, and the substrate W.

  Here, of the thin film formation process (FIG. 2) by this thin film formation system, the operation from the beginning to the transfer step (steps S10 to S40) will be described. The structure of the peeling unit 35 and the collecting unit 36 and the processes after the peeling / collecting step (step S50) using them will be described in detail later.

  First, a film cassette and a substrate cassette are carried in from the outside (step S10). The substrate cassette is installed in the indexer unit 1, while the film cassette is installed on the film cassette mounting table 33. In the thin film forming unit 3, at least one set of an upper ring Rup and a lower ring Rdw is introduced in advance. Here, the case of one set will be described, and the case of a plurality of sets will be described later. One set of rings is placed on the ring mounting table 32 in a state where the upper and lower rings are integrated. Subsequently, an application process (step S20) is performed.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing processing in the coating process. 7 and 8 are diagrams schematically showing the operation in the coating process. First, the lower ring Rdw is installed in the coating unit 34 (step S201). More specifically, the center robot 70 sucks and holds the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw mounted on the ring mounting table 33 in an integrated state, and carries them into the coating unit 34. FIG. As shown to (a), it mounts on the cylindrical stage 341 provided in the coating unit 34. FIG. Next, the protrusion mechanism 707 is operated to disconnect the upper and lower rings, and only the upper ring Rup is carried out of the coating unit 34 as shown in FIG. 7B. As a result, only the lower ring Rdw is placed on the stage 341 of the coating unit 34. The ring hand 705 stands by with the upper ring Rup being sucked and held.

  The stage 341 is rotatable about a substantially vertical axis, and the upper surface of the central portion 341a is finished flat. The central portion 341a is raised by the thickness of the lower ring Rdw with respect to the upper surface of the peripheral edge portion 341b, and the diameter thereof is substantially equal to the inner diameter of the lower ring Rdw. Therefore, in a state where the lower ring Rdw is installed on the stage 341, the central portion 341a of the stage 341 and the upper surface of the lower ring Rdw are aligned to form a substantially single plane. In addition, the central portion 341a and the peripheral portion 341b of the stage 341 are provided with a vacuum suction function, and the placed object can be vacuum-sucked. Further, the suction can be turned on / off independently at the central portion 341a and the peripheral portion 341b. When the lower ring Rdw is installed on the stage 341, the lower ring Rdw is fixed on the stage 341 by turning on the suction of the peripheral edge portion 341b.

  Next, one sheet film is taken out from the film cassette and carried into the coating unit 341 (step S202). Specifically: A film transport robot 39 (FIG. 1) installed between the film cassette mounting table 33 and the coating unit 34 includes a ring-shaped hand 391 having a vacuum suction function on the lower surface, and is stacked in the film cassette. One sheet film can be adsorbed and held at its peripheral edge. As the structure of the film cassette, for example, the one described in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-296855) can be used. As shown in FIG. 7C, the film transport robot 39 carries the single sheet film F thus held onto the stage 341 in the coating unit 34. At this time, the vacuum suction of the central portion 341 a of the stage 341 is started and the suction by the hand 391 is released, whereby the sheet film F is transferred from the hand 391 to the stage 341. Since the center part 341a of the stage 341 and the lower ring Rdw have the same height on the upper surface, the sheet film F is placed on the stage 341 in a flat state and held by suction.

  Subsequently, a coating liquid containing a thin film material is applied to the sheet film F by spin coating (step S203). That is, as shown in FIG. 7D, the stage 341 is rotated by rotationally driving the rotating shaft 342 connected to the stage 341 by a driving mechanism (not shown). Then, a predetermined amount of coating liquid containing SOG as a thin film material is supplied onto the sheet film F from the coating nozzle 343 provided above the rotation center, thereby forming a thin and uniform coating liquid layer on the sheet film F. .

  After applying the thin film material, an edge rinse process is subsequently performed (step S204). That is, as shown in FIG. 7D, the cleaning liquid is supplied from the edge rinse nozzle 344 installed toward the peripheral edge of the sheet film F while rotating the stage 341, thereby attaching to the peripheral edge of the sheet film F. Wash away the applied liquid. Thereby, the thin film R will be carry | supported by the sheet film F on the surface except the peripheral part.

  Next, the upper ring Rup is put back into the coating unit 34 and coupled with the lower ring Rdw to form a ring body RF (step S205). That is, as shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, the upper ring Rup that has been held outside the coating unit 34 while being held by the ring hand 705 is carried into the coating unit 34 again, And integrated with the lower ring Rdw. As a result, a ring body RF in which the sheet film F carrying the thin film R is sandwiched between the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw is formed.

  The ring body RF formed in this way is unloaded from the coating unit 34 while being held by the ring hand 705 as shown in FIG. 8C (step S206), loaded into the drying unit 36, and then on the sheet film F. The thin film R is completely dried (step S70). Since the configuration of the drying unit 36 and the drying process executed thereby are described in detail in Patent Document 4 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-1000072), description thereof is omitted here.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing processing in the transfer process. FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically showing the operation in the transfer process. The structure of the transfer unit 35 is the same as that described in Patent Document 4 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-100727). In the transfer process, first, the ring body RF is carried into the transfer unit 35 (step S401). That is, as shown in FIG. 10A, the ring body RF after the drying process taken out from the drying unit 36 by the center robot 70 by the ring hand 705 is installed on the stage (second stage) 352 in the transfer unit 35. .

  Subsequently, the substrate W is carried in a face-down state, and is brought into close contact with the thin film R on the sheet film F (step S402). In the substrate cassette 11, the substrate W is stored with the surface Wf on which the thin film is to be formed facing upward, that is, in a face-up state. The substrates W are taken out from the substrate cassette 11 one by one by the substrate transport robot 2 and transferred to the reversing unit 31. The center robot 70 receives the substrate W inverted by the reversing unit 31 in a face-down state in which the front surface Wf faces downward and the back surface Wb faces upward, and this is staged as shown in FIG. 10B. The ring body RF placed on 352 is overlaid. By attracting and holding the back surface Wb of the substrate W on the lower surface of the substrate hand 704, the substrate can be transported without touching the substrate surface Wf on which the thin film is to be formed, and can be easily placed on the stage 352 in a face-down state. Can be done.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 10 (c), the sheet film F and the substrate W are sandwiched and pressurized by the stage 352 and the first stage 351 provided thereabove, and a heater 353 provided on each stage. , 354. As a result, the thin film R carried on the sheet film F is transferred to the surface Wf of the substrate W (step S403). Then, after the first and second stages 351 and 352 are separated from each other, as shown in FIG. 10D, a structure in which the substrate W is integrated with the ring body RF is transferred by the ring hand 705 to the transfer unit 35. (Step S <b> 404), which is subsequently carried into the peeling unit 10, and the sheet film F is peeled from the substrate W.

  Next, the structure of the peeling unit 10 and the recovery unit 50 and the peeling / recovery process (step S50 in FIG. 2) executed by them will be described in detail. These units have a structure in which the ring body RF and the substrate W, which are formed by performing the above-described transfer process, as an object to be processed. It will be referred to as a work Wk.

  FIG. 11 shows the structure of the peeling unit and the recovery unit. More specifically, FIG. 11A is an external top view of the peeling unit 10 and the recovery unit 50, and FIG. 11B is a side view thereof. The peeling unit 10 and the collecting unit 50 receive a substrate carried from the outside with a sheet film attached thereto as a workpiece, and peel and collect the sheet film from the substrate. A peeling unit 10 for peeling the sheet film from the substrate and a collecting unit 50 for collecting the peeled sheet film are fixed to the frame 90.

  The peeling unit 10 includes a suction stage block 100 for sucking and holding the substrate from above, a winding block 200 for winding and peeling the sheet film while moving below the sucked and held substrate, and a winding block 200. Is provided with a guide rail block 300 for moving the substrate in a substantially horizontal direction (X direction) and a temporary stage block 400 for receiving a substrate from the outside and transferring it to the suction stage block 100. Detailed structures of the suction stage block 100 and the winding block 200 will be described later.

  The guide rail block 300 holds a guide rail 303 that serves as a guide when the winding block 200 is moved horizontally, a ball screw 302 that constitutes a ball screw mechanism that drives the winding block 200, a ball screw driving unit 304, and these. A base 301 is provided.

  The temporary placement stage block 400 includes a temporary placement stage 410 that receives and temporarily supports a workpiece Wk including a substrate W and a sheet film F to be processed. On the upper surface of the temporary placement stage 410, a ring support pin 411 for supporting the ring body RF constituting the workpiece and a substrate support pin 412 for supporting the substrate after the sheet film is peeled are provided. . Three or more ring support pins 411 and three substrate support pins 412 are provided. At the tip of each ring support pin 411, there is provided a tip projection that fits into a through hole 97 (FIG. 3) provided in the lower ring Rdw constituting the workpiece. A shaft 420 extends vertically downward at the lower portion of the temporary placement stage, and is attached to a stage lifting mechanism 430 that holds the shaft 420 and drives it in the vertical direction (Z-axis direction). That is, in the temporary placement stage block 400, the temporary placement stage 410 is held by the stage lift mechanism 430 so as to be lifted and lowered.

  Further, the recovery unit 50 recovers and stores the transported block 500 that transports the sheet film peeled from the substrate backward (rightward in FIG. 11) and the peeled sheet film transported by the transport block 500. And a box 600. The transport block 500 includes a sheet peeling mechanism 510, an upper transport mechanism 520, a lower transport mechanism 530, and the like attached to a housing 501 that is held up and down by a housing lift mechanism 540. The collection box 600 is a hollow housing capable of storing a sheet film therein, and a door 601 for taking out the stored sheet film is provided in a part of the collection box 600.

  A region sandwiched between the upper transport mechanism 520 and the lower transport mechanism 530 is a transport path for transporting the sheet film peeled from the substrate toward the collection box 600. The upper transport mechanism 520 moves up and down the sheet guides 521 and 524 for guiding the sheet film peeled from the substrate to the transport path, a plurality of driven rollers 522 rotatably mounted on these, and the sheet guide 521. And a guide opening / closing mechanism 523 for opening and closing the conveyance path. The lower transport mechanism 530 includes a plurality of transport rollers 531 that are driven to rotate by a transport roller driving unit 532. The driven roller 522 and the transport roller 531 are in contact with each other to form a nip portion, and the transport path includes this nip portion.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram showing the structure of the suction stage block. More specifically, FIG. 12A is a view of the suction stage block 100 as viewed from below, and FIG. 12B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line A-A ′ of FIG. The suction stage block 100 has a structure in which a first plate (top plate) 101, a second plate 102, and a third plate 103 are overlapped. The third plate 103 has a disk shape having substantially the same diameter as the substrate W, and the lower surface thereof is an opposing flat surface 130a that faces the upper surface (back surface Wb) of the substrate W. A plurality of substrate adsorbers 113 for vacuum adsorbing the substrate W by being connected to the adsorption mechanism unit 130 via the substrate adsorption control valve 123 are provided near the periphery of the third plate 103.

  The second plate 102 has a disk shape having substantially the same diameter as the outer diameter of the upper ring Rup, and is connected to the suction mechanism 130 via the ring suction control valve 121 at the periphery thereof. A plurality of ring adsorbers 111 for vacuum adsorbing the ring Rup are provided. A plurality of sheet adsorbers 112 a and 112 b for adsorbing the sheet film F are provided inside the ring adsorber 111. Further, a protrusion pin hole 114 is provided through the first and second plates 101 and 102 to protrude a protrusion pin, which will be described later, at a position adjacent to the protrusion pin hole 114 in the sheet adsorber. The two adsorbers 112a provided and the other adsorbers 112b are connected to the adsorbing mechanism unit 130 via sheet adsorbing control valves 122a and 122b that are independent of each other.

  Here, the sheet adsorbers 112 a and 112 b are provided inside the ring adsorber 111, but may be provided on the same circumference as the ring adsorber 111. In this case, a sheet adsorber is disposed between the ring adsorbers 111, and a through hole is formed at a portion of the upper ring Rup facing the sheet adsorber. And a sheet | seat adsorption device can be set as the structure which adsorb | sucks the upper surface of a sheet film through the through-hole of an upper ring.

  The suction mechanism unit 130 and the control valves 121, 122a, 122b, and 123 are controlled by the control unit 4. The control unit 4 can suck and release the substrate W, the upper ring Rup, and the sheet film F independently. it can. Further, the sheet film F can be sucked and released independently in the vicinity of the protruding pin hole 114 and in other areas.

  FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line B-B ′ of FIG. 12A and is a view for explaining the operation of the protrusion mechanism. As shown in FIG. 12A, a protruding mechanism 140 is provided on the upper portion of the first plate 101. The ejecting mechanism 140 includes a cylinder 141 and an ejecting pin 142 provided inside the cylinder 141 so as to be movable up and down. The ejecting pin 142 moves up and down in response to a control command from the control unit 4. Since the protrusion pin hole 114 is formed through the first plate 101 and the second plate 102 immediately below the protrusion mechanism 140, the protrusion pin 142 moves downward through the protrusion pin hole 114 when the protrusion mechanism 140 is operated. Project to

  The position of the protruding pin 142 is provided on the outer side of the outer peripheral portion and on the inner side of the inner peripheral portion of the upper ring Rup when viewed from the central axis J of the substrate W. The sheet film F extending outward is brought into contact with the sheet film F and protrudes downward. Although details will be described later, in this embodiment, the suction stage block 100 is held by removing the lower ring Rdw from the workpiece Wk, so that the peripheral edge of the projected sheet film F is shown in FIG. The part will hang down.

  FIG. 14 is a perspective view showing the configuration of the winding block. In the winding block 200, a winding roller 220 and a guide roller 214 are rotatably mounted on a substantially U-shaped frame 210 constituted by a base frame 211 and two side frames 212 and 213. The base frame 211 is provided with a slider 215 slidably fitted to the guide rail 303 provided on the guide rail block 300, and the moving direction of the winding block 200 is restricted to the X direction. Further, a ball screw nut 216 that fits with the ball screw 302 provided on the guide rail block 300 is provided, and the entire take-up block 200 is formed by a ball screw mechanism including the ball screw 302 and the ball screw nut 216. Reciprocates in the X direction.

  The take-up roller 220 has a substantially cylindrical envelope outer shape, and a notch 221 from which a portion corresponding to about ¼ of the peripheral surface is removed is provided at the center in the axial direction. The notch portion 221 includes sheet clamps 223 and 225 for gripping the peripheral edge portion of the sheet film F that hangs downward, and motors 222 and 224 that are controlled by the control unit 4 to open and close them, respectively. Is provided.

  Next, the operation of the peeling and collecting unit configured as described above will be described. The operation of the peeling device 1 includes (1) loading a workpiece (carrying-in operation), (2) peeling the sheet film from the substrate (peeling operation), and (3) collecting the peeled sheet film (collecting operation). (4) By repeating a series of operations of unloading the substrate and the ring (unloading operation), a large number of workpieces are continuously processed. Hereinafter, the flow of processing for one workpiece Wk will be described with reference to FIGS. 15 to 23.

  FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing the processing in the peeling / collecting step. FIG. 16 and FIG. 17 are schematic diagrams for explaining the work loading operation. 18 and 19 are schematic diagrams for explaining the peeling operation. 20 to 23 are schematic diagrams for explaining the collecting operation.

  First, a loading operation (steps S501 to S504) for loading the workpiece Wk is performed. That is, as shown in FIG. 16, the housing elevating mechanism 540 is operated to move the housing 501 containing the transport block 500 downward, and the winding block 200 is retracted to the space (right side) created thereby ( Step S501). Further, the stage elevating mechanism 430 is actuated to lower the temporary placement stage 410 to widen the distance from the suction stage block 100. In this state, the work Wk carried in along the direction of the arrow in FIGS. 16 and 17A is received while being held by the ring hand 705 of the center robot 70. The loaded work Wk is placed on the temporary placement stage 410 (step S502). The workpiece Wk is supported from below the lower ring Rdw by a ring support pin 411 installed on the upper surface of the temporary placement stage 410 (FIG. 17A).

  At this time, since the work can be carried in from the outside by a combination of simple horizontal movement and vertical movement, a conventionally known conveyance mechanism can be used. Further, when viewed from above, the guide rail block 300 is substantially U-shaped with the left side of FIG. 16 opened, and the take-up block 200 is retracted to the right end position. There will be no hindrance.

  When the work Wk is placed on the temporary placement stage 410 in this way, the temporary placement stage 410 is raised toward the suction stage block 100 by the stage lifting mechanism 430. Then, when the workpiece Wk on the temporary placement stage 410 comes to just below the suction stage block 100, the suction mechanism unit 130 holds the workpiece Wk by suction (step S503). At this time, the ring suction device 111 sucks the upper ring Rup of the workpiece Wk. The sheet adsorbers 112a and 112b adsorb the sheet film F. Further, the substrate adsorber 113 adsorbs the back surface Wb of the substrate W (FIG. 17B).

  Next, only the lower ring Rdw is removed from the workpiece Wk. In this embodiment, the temporary placement stage 410 that supports the lower ring Rdw is rotated around the rotation axis J of the substrate W to disconnect the magnetic coupling with the upper ring Rup, and the temporary placement stage remains on the lower ring Rdw. By lowering 410, the lower ring Rdw is retracted downward (step S504, FIG. 17C). At this time, the fitting between the tip protrusion of the ring support pin 411 and the through hole 97 of the lower ring Rdw functions as a detent for the lower ring Rdw. Although the removed lower ring Rdw is in a state of being retracted downward together with the temporary placement stage 410, it may be carried out to the outside at this time.

  Next, a peeling operation is performed. At this time, as shown in FIG. 18A, the upper ring Rup, the substrate W and the sheet film F are integrally held by suction at the lower part of the suction stage block 100, while the winding block 200 is retracted to the right. It has become a state. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 18B, the winding block 200 is moved to the left end, and the transport block 500 that has been retracted downward is returned to the original position (step S505). Further, the motors 222 and 224 are operated to open the sheet clamps 223 and 225.

  In this state, only the adsorption by the sheet adsorber 112a is canceled (step S506). Thereby, only the area | region adjacent to the protrusion pin hole 114 among the sheet | seat films F is not adsorb | sucked, but another area | region will be in the adsorbed state. Here, when the protrusion mechanism 140 is operated to protrude the protrusion pin 142 downward (step S507), a part of the peripheral edge of the sheet film F hangs down. As shown in FIG. 18C, the protrusion mechanism 140 is provided directly above the winding block 200 positioned at the left end, and the positional relationship between the end Fs of the sheet film F that hangs on the winding roller 220 and It has become. Here, when the motors 222 and 224 are operated to close the sheet clamps 223 and 225 (step S507), as shown in FIG. 18D, the end Fs of the suspended sheet film F is clamped by the sheet clamps 223 and 225. And fixed to the take-up roller 220. Even if the end portion Fs of the sheet film F is clamped, the adsorption by the remaining sheet adsorber 112b is not canceled.

  Thus, in this embodiment, the end portion of the sheet film F that hangs down due to gravity is clamped and wound up. Here, if the substrate is set on the lower side and the sheet film is set on the upper side and the sheet film is peeled upward, the configuration for clamping the end of the flexible sheet film may be complicated, but this embodiment If the sheet film is arranged on the lower side and peeled downward as described above, the end of the sheet film F hangs down due to gravity, so that it is easy to clamp. Further, in this embodiment, in the sheet film F extending outward from the outer peripheral portion of the substrate W, only the vicinity of the area protruding by the protruding pin 142 is released, while the other areas are adsorbed. Thereby, the sagging location and the shape of the sheet film F can be controlled, and the clamping by the sheet clamps 223 and 225 can be easily and reliably performed.

  Subsequently, when the take-up roller 220 is moved in the X direction below the substrate W while rotating the take-up roller 220 in the direction of arrow D1 in FIG. 19A (step S508), the sheet film F is sequentially moved from the clamped end portion Fs side. It is peeled off from the substrate W and taken up by the take-up roller 220 (FIG. 19B). At this time, the pulling direction of the sheet film F from the substrate W is controlled to be constant by the guide roller 214 regardless of the position of the take-up roller 220, and a uniform thin film can be left on the substrate surface Wf.

  At this time, since the suction by the sheet suction unit 112b is not released, the take-up roller 220 peels off the sheet film F from the substrate W while forcibly releasing the suction. When the winding block 200 reaches an end position (position shown in FIG. 19C) described later, the suction by the sheet adsorber 112b is released. This prevents the sheet film F from sagging during the peeling operation. At this time, a needle valve (not shown) is provided in each sheet adsorber 112b in order to prevent the partial vacuum break caused by the sheet film F from being peeled off.

  When the winding block 200 passes through the lower part of the substrate and reaches a predetermined end position (the position shown in FIGS. 11 and 19C) (step S510), as shown in FIG. The substrate W is completely peeled off and wound up by the winding roller 220.

  The rotation amount of the winding roller 220 during the movement of the winding block 200 is about 3/4 rotation (270 degrees). Thus, by setting the rotation amount of the winding roller 220 when winding the sheet film F to less than one rotation, the winding start position (end portion Fs) of the sheet film F is covered by the wound sheet film. It will never be. For this reason, when the sheet film F is peeled off from the winding roller 220 in the collecting operation described below, it can be peeled off from the winding start position (end Fs). This has a great significance for achieving the object of reliably removing the sheet film F from the take-up roller 220.

  When the substrate W and the sheet film F are thus separated, the sheet film F is collected in the collection box 600 by the collecting operation, while the substrate W is carried out by the carrying-out operation.

  First, the collecting operation (steps S521 to S524) for collecting the peeled sheet film F will be described. After the end of the peeling operation, as shown in FIG. 20A, the winding block 200 is positioned at the end position immediately adjacent to the left side of the transport block 500 with the sheet film F being wound around the winding roller 220. ing. At this time, the winding start position of the sheet film F on the winding roller 220 is set to face the conveyance block 500 side (right side in the figure).

  The sheet peeling mechanism 510 provided in the transport block 500 includes a sheet peeling claw 512 that is slidably mounted in the X direction on the main body 511. At almost the same time as the sheet clamps 223 and 225 on the take-up roller 220 release the clamp, the sheet peeling claw 512 extends toward the take-up roller 220 and hooks the end portion of the sheet film F. When the sheet peeling claw 512 is moved backward (FIG. 20B) and returned to the original position (FIG. 20C), the sheet peeling mechanism 510 holds the end Fs of the sheet film F. (Step S521).

  As shown in FIG. 21A, the sheet peeling claw 512 has a structure in which a tip member 512b formed of an elastic metal plate or resin plate protrudes downward from the tip of the main body 512a. . Therefore, when the sheet peeling claw 512 advances toward the take-up roller 220, the tip member 512b is notched in the direction opposite to the advance direction as shown in FIG. It deforms elastically along the flat surface. When the sheet peeling claw 512 moves backward from the take-up roller 220 in the separating direction, the elastically deformed tip member 512b acts to scoop up the tip portion Fs of the sheet film F as shown in FIG. Therefore, the end portion of the sheet film F can be reliably hooked and held.

  In addition, as described above, the end portion of the sheet film F drawn out by the sheet peeling claw 512 is the winding start end portion Fs that is first wound up by the winding roller 220. When the thin sheet-like sheet film F is peeled off from the substrate W and wound up, the terminal portion may be bent or curved, or in a severe case, may be rounded into a cylindrical shape. It is extremely difficult to grip the resulting end. On the other hand, since the end portion Fs at the start of winding is pressed against the notch portion 221 of the take-up roller 220 by the sheet clamps 223 and 225, there are few such problems. Thus, by pulling out the end Fs of the sheet film F on the winding start side by the winding roller 220 by the sheet peeling claw 512, in this embodiment, the sheet from the winding roller 220 to the sheet peeling mechanism 510 is obtained. The delivery of the film F can be performed smoothly and reliably.

  When the end portion of the sheet film F is gripped by the sheet peeling mechanism 510, the guide roller 521 provided on the side closer to the winding block 200 in the upper transport roller mechanism 520 is driven as shown in FIG. It is raised together with the roller 522 by the guide opening / closing mechanism 522. As a result, the conveyance path P sandwiched between the upper conveyance mechanism 520 and the lower conveyance mechanism 530 opens greatly toward the take-up roller 220 side. It may be opened before the sheet film F is gripped by the sheet peeling mechanism 510.

  The sheet peeling mechanism 510 includes a skew feeding mechanism 513 that moves the main body 511 obliquely downward along the direction of the arrow D2 in FIG. 22A. The sheet peeling mechanism main body 510 and the sheet peeling mechanism 510 are operated by the operation of the skew feeding mechanism 513. The sheet peeling claw 512 moves downward in the direction of the arrow D2 while holding the end Fs of the sheet film F (step S522). As a result, as shown in FIG. 22B, the sheet film wound up by the winding roller 220 is pulled and gradually peeled off.

  As shown in FIG. 22C, when the sheet peeling mechanism 510 moves to the lowermost end, the sheet guide 521 is lowered by the guide opening / closing mechanism 523 and the conveyance path is closed. Therefore, the end Fs of the sheet film F that has been lowered together with the sheet peeling mechanism 510 is clamped by the upper and lower rollers 522 and 531 (step S523, FIG. 23A). In this state, the holding of the sheet film by the sheet peeling claw 512 is released, and the conveying roller 531 is rotationally driven in the direction of arrow D3 in FIG. 23A, whereby the sheet film F is further peeled off from the take-up roller 220. Then, it is transported along the transport path P in the direction of arrow D4 (FIG. 23 (b)). The conveyed sheet film is finally collected in the collection box 600 (step S524, FIG. 23 (c)).

  Next, the carrying-out operation of the substrate W will be described. Prior to unloading the substrate W, a space is created so as not to interfere with the raising / lowering operation of the temporary placement stage 410 and the operation of the external transport mechanism. That is, the housing 501 in which the transfer block 500 is housed is retracted downward, and the winding block 200 is retracted in the space (right side) generated by this as in the case of the work loading (step S525).

  When the peeling operation is completed, the substrate W and the upper ring Rup after the sheet film is peeled are separated from each other and are individually sucked by the suction stage block 100. Therefore, the temporary placement stage 410 is raised to receive them (step S126). Specifically, when the lower ring Rdw that has been retracted on the temporary placement stage 410 comes close to the upper ring Rup and is coupled by a permanent magnet, the adsorption by the ring adsorber 111 is released. As a result, the ring body formed by combining the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw is supported by the ring support pins 411 of the temporary placement stage 410. Further, by releasing the suction by the substrate suction unit 113, the substrate W is supported by the substrate support pins 412 of the temporary placement stage 410. In this state, the temporary placement stage 410 is lowered, and the substrate W and the ring body RF can be individually carried out to the outside by the center robot 70 (step S527).

  Here, the substrate W and the ring body RF are placed on the temporary placement stage 410 and lowered simultaneously, but the substrate W and the ring body RF are removed from the suction stage block 100 and carried out at different timings. You may make it do. Either can be accommodated by individually controlling the substrate suction unit 113 and the ring suction unit 111.

  Thereby, peeling and collection | recovery of the sheet film F from the board | substrate W are completed about one workpiece | work Wk. By repeating the above series of operations for each workpiece, it is possible to continuously perform processing for a large number of workpieces. The sheet film thus collected and stored in the collection box 600 can be taken out from the door 601 at a necessary timing by the operator and reused or discarded.

  The center robot 70 carries the substrate W, onto which the thin film R has been transferred, from the peeling unit 10 by the substrate hand 702 and the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw integrally by the ring hand 705. At this time, the substrate W is in a face-down state, and the center robot 70 delivers the substrate W to the reversing unit 31. When the reversing unit 31 reverses the substrate W to the face-up state, the substrate transport robot 2 receives this and stores it in the substrate cassette 11. Thereby, a series of processes for one substrate W is completed.

  Then, the substrate transfer robot 2 newly takes out one unprocessed substrate W from the substrate cassette 11 and performs the above processing. At this time, the substrate W and the sheet film F that are newly taken out from the cassette are used, but the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw that are removed from the workpiece Wk in the previous processing are used again. By repeating this, the thin film R can be sequentially formed on the plurality of substrates W.

  FIG. 24 is a diagram showing the flow of materials in this thin film forming system. The sheet film F taken out from the film cassette is combined with the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw carried from the ring mounting table 32 in the coating unit 34. The ring body RF formed in this way is sent to the transfer unit 35 through the drying unit 36. On the other hand, after the substrate W is taken out from the substrate cassette 11, the substrate W is reversed to the face-down state by the reversing unit 31 and carried into the transfer unit 35. Then, the substrate W and the ring body RF are integrated in the transfer unit 35 to form the workpiece Wk.

  The workpiece Wk is sent to the peeling unit 10 and separated into the substrate W, the sheet film F, the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw. Among these, the substrate W is sent back to the reversing unit 31 to be returned to the face-up state and accommodated in the original substrate cassette 11. The used sheet film F is collected by the collection unit 50. On the other hand, the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw are sent again to the coating unit 34 and combined with the sheet film F newly taken out from the film cassette to form a ring body RF.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the ring body RF is formed inside the system by attaching the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw in the coating unit 34 to the sheet film F supplied from the outside alone. ing. Then, after the thin film R carried on the sheet film F is transferred to the substrate W, the removed upper ring Rup and lower ring Rdw are returned to the coating unit 34 to form a new ring body RF together with another sheet film F. . Therefore, since the single sheet film F can be received from the outside, the sheet film F can be transported more easily than the conventional technology loaded in the state of a ring body, and a large number of untreated sheet films can be loaded at one time. Is possible.

  On the other hand, since the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw are repeatedly used by being circulated in the system, at least one set is sufficient. For this reason, since it is not necessary to produce and store a large number of rings, the apparatus cost and the substrate processing cost can be greatly reduced, and the entire apparatus can be simplified and downsized. Moreover, since the process of carrying out a ring outside is unnecessary, many sheet films can be processed continuously and efficiently.

  The sheet film F before application of the thin film material does not require strict shape maintenance, but after application of the thin film material, it is required to maintain the shape of the sheet film F so as not to generate defects in the thin film. Accordingly, as in this embodiment, when the sheet film F is carried into the coating unit 34, the ring is not attached to facilitate handling of the sheet film F before coating, while the ring is attached to the sheet film F after coating. It can be said that the configuration in which the ring is mounted after being mounted, that is, the ring is mounted in the coating unit 34 is the most rational. This also allows the ring to circulate within the system.

  By the way, here, the thin film forming system in which one upper ring Rup and one lower ring Rdw are built in has been described. However, as described above, a plurality of sets of the upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw may be provided in the plural sets system. Good. That is, as shown in FIG. 24, in this system, the center robot 70 sequentially moves the ring body RF or the work Wk between the coating unit 34, the drying unit 36, the transfer unit 35, and the peeling unit 10, but each process After the ring body RF or the workpiece Wk is loaded into the unit, the center robot 70 is in a waiting state until the processing in the processing unit is completed.

  If a plurality of sets of rings are used, this waiting time can be effectively utilized. For example, the substrate processing efficiency can be greatly improved by the following manner. That is, after the coating process is completed and the first ring body RF1 is moved from the coating unit 34 to the drying unit 36, a new sheet film F and another set are added to the vacant coating unit 34 while waiting for the drying process. The rings Rup and Rdw are carried in and the coating process is executed to form the second ring body RF2. In the meantime, the dried first ring body RF1 taken out from the drying unit 36 is moved to the transfer unit 35. The second ring body RF2 after the coating process is moved to the drying unit 36 thus vacated. Then, the third ring body RF3 is formed in the coating unit 34 while the transfer process for the first ring body RF1 and the drying process for the second ring body RF2 are performed.

  In this way, the waiting time of the center robot 70 is reduced, and the processing in each processing unit can be performed in parallel, so that the processing throughput can be greatly improved. In this embodiment, it is possible to perform processing in four processing units (coating unit, drying unit, transfer unit, and peeling unit) in parallel using four sets of rings. In this case, if the center robot 70 continues to hold the upper ring Rup removed from the ring body, which hinders the transportation of other ring bodies, the upper ring Rup is temporarily placed on the ring mounting table 32. You may do it.

  In this embodiment, when four sets of rings are used as described above, the processing efficiency is the highest, and it does not make much sense to prepare more rings than this. In other words, the thin film formation system of this embodiment has a higher throughput than the conventional technique in which a large number of rings are prepared in advance and the ring is attached to each sheet film if only four sets of rings are prepared. It can be obtained, and the apparatus cost and processing cost can be kept low. Of course, even if there are 1 to 3 rings, it has sufficient practicality.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the coating unit 34, the transfer unit 35, and the peeling unit 10 function as the “coating means”, “transfer means”, and “peeling means” of the present invention, respectively. The upper ring Rup and the lower ring Rdw function as a pair of “clamping members”, and these integrally function as the “holding frame” of the present invention. The center robot 70 functions as the “holding frame transport unit” of the present invention, while the film transport robot 39 functions as the “film transport unit” of the present invention.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications other than those described above can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the sheet film is sandwiched by adsorbing a pair of annular rings with permanent magnets and coupling them together, but the ring shape and coupling method are not limited to this. For example, a rectangular ring or a ring that is partially open, such as a U-shape or C-shape, may be used instead of a complete ring. Further, the holding of the ring by the ring hand 705 and the holding of the substrate by the substrate hand 702 are not limited to those described above.

  Moreover, although the said embodiment is a thin film formation system which forms a SOG insulating film on a semiconductor substrate, the formation object and thin film material of a thin film are not limited to these. For example, as a substrate on which a thin film is to be formed, a liquid crystal panel glass substrate, a photomask glass substrate, a plasma display glass substrate, an optical disk substrate, and the like can be used in addition to a semiconductor wafer. As the thin film material, SOD (Spin-On-Dielectric) material, photoresist material, etc. can be used in addition to SOG.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the thin film material is apply | coated on the sheet film by the spin coat method, the application | coating system is not limited to this, Arbitrary systems can be used. In the above embodiment, the drying step is provided after the coating step, but the drying step may be omitted depending on the properties of the thin film material or the coating solution. In addition, the present invention can be applied to a system having other processing units such as a hydrophilic processing unit that performs a hydrophilic surface treatment on a sheet film.

  In the above-described embodiment, the ring body RF or the workpiece Wk is moved between the processing units by the single central robot 70. However, a dedicated transport robot is provided between the processing units for transport. It may be.

  The present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate for photomask, a glass substrate for liquid crystal display, a glass substrate for plasma display, a substrate for FED (Field Emission Display), a substrate for optical disk, a substrate for magnetic disk, a substrate for magneto-optical disk, etc. The present invention can be suitably applied to a thin film forming system in which the entire substrate including the target is a processing target and a thin film is formed on these substrates.

It is a figure showing one embodiment of a thin film formation system concerning this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the thin film formation process by this thin film formation system. It is a disassembled assembly perspective view which shows the structure of a ring body. It is a figure which shows the structure of a center robot. It is a figure which shows the more detailed structure of a ring hand. It is a flowchart which shows the process in an application | coating process. It is a 1st figure which shows typically the operation | movement in an application | coating process. It is a 2nd figure which shows typically the operation | movement in an application | coating process. It is a flowchart which shows the process in a transcription | transfer process. It is a figure which shows typically the operation | movement in a transcription | transfer process. It is a figure which shows the structure of a peeling unit and a collection | recovery unit. It is a figure which shows the structure of a suction stage block. It is B-B 'line sectional drawing of Fig.12 (a). It is a perspective view which shows the structure of a winding block. It is a flowchart which shows the process in a peeling and collection | recovery process. It is a 1st schematic diagram for demonstrating workpiece | work carrying-in operation | movement. It is a 2nd schematic diagram for demonstrating the carrying-in operation | movement of a workpiece | work. It is a 1st schematic diagram for demonstrating peeling operation | movement. It is a 2nd schematic diagram for demonstrating peeling operation | movement. It is a 1st schematic diagram for demonstrating collection | recovery operation | movement. It is a 2nd schematic diagram for demonstrating collection | recovery operation | movement. It is a 3rd schematic diagram for demonstrating collection | recovery operation | movement. It is a 4th schematic diagram for demonstrating collection | recovery operation | movement. It is a figure which shows the flow of the material in this thin film formation system.

Explanation of symbols

10 ... peeling unit (peeling means)
34 ... Application unit (application means)
35. Transfer unit (transfer means)
39. Film transport robot (film transport means)
70 ... Center robot (holding frame transport means)
F ... sheet film R ... thin film Rup ... upper ring (clamping member, holding frame)
Rdw ... Lower ring (clamping member, holding frame)
W ... Board

Claims (9)

Application means for applying a thin film material to the surface of the sheet film;
Film conveying means for conveying the sheet film and carrying it into the coating means;
A holding frame carrying means for carrying in a holding frame for holding the peripheral edge of the sheet film into the coating means, and carrying out the sheet film after application of the thin film material from the coating means while being held by the holding frame. And a thin film forming system. A transfer means for bringing the substrate into contact with the thin film material on the surface of the sheet film held by the holding frame and transferring the thin film to the surface of the substrate;
The thin film forming system according to claim 1, wherein the holding frame conveying unit carries the holding frame separated from the sheet film after the thin film is transferred onto the substrate into the coating unit. A peeling means for peeling the sheet film from the substrate after thin film transfer to the substrate;
The thin film forming system according to claim 2, wherein the holding frame conveying unit carries the holding frame separated from the sheet film in the peeling unit into the coating unit.   The thin film forming system according to claim 3, wherein the holding frame transport unit circulates one or more sets of the holding frames between the coating unit and the peeling unit. The holding frame includes a pair of clamping members that clamp the sheet film,
After the holding frame conveying means carries one member of the pair of clamping members into the applying means, the film conveying means carries the sheet film into the applying means, while the thin film material is applied to the sheet film. The holding frame conveying means carries the other member of the pair of sandwiching members into the coating means and sandwiches the sheet film between the one member, and the pair of sandwiching members and the sheet sandwiched between the pair of sandwiching members The thin film forming system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the film is unloaded from the coating means. A carrying-in step of individually carrying in a sheet film and a holding frame for holding the sheet in the application means;
An application step of applying a thin film material on the surface of the sheet film;
And a carrying-out step of carrying out the sheet film coated with the thin-film material from the coating unit in a state of being held by the holding frame. A transfer step of bringing a substrate into contact with the thin film material on the surface of the sheet film carried out from the coating means and transferring the thin film to the surface of the substrate;
The thin film formation method of Claim 6 provided with the peeling process which peels the said sheet film from the said board | substrate after thin film transfer to the said board | substrate. By transferring the thin film to a plurality of substrates by repeating the loading step, the coating step, the unloading step, the transfer step and the peeling step ,
The thin film forming method according to claim 7, wherein the holding frame is separated from the sheet film in the peeling step, and the holding frame is carried into the coating unit in the subsequent carrying-in step.   The thin film forming method according to claim 8, wherein one set or a plurality of sets of the holding frames are circulated.

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