JP5884273B2 - Exposure unit and substrate pre-alignment method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an exposure unit and a substrate pre-alignment method, and more particularly to an exposure unit and a substrate pre-alignment method for pre-aligning a substrate transported to an exposure apparatus.

  Proximity exposure, in which the exposure pattern of a mask is exposed and transferred onto a flat panel display substrate such as a liquid crystal display or plasma display, holds a translucent substrate (material to be exposed) coated with a photosensitive agent on the surface by a work chuck. An exposure pattern drawn on the mask is irradiated with light for pattern exposure toward the mask, for example, by approaching the mask held by the mask holding frame of the mask stage with a gap of several tens of micrometers to several hundreds of micrometers. It is carried out by photolithography technology that transfers to the top.

  In such an exposure apparatus, the work chuck for attracting and fixing the substrate is mounted on a substrate stage that can move in the XYZ directions and can be rotated in the θ direction, and aligns the substrate held by the work chuck with high accuracy. Then, the mask pattern is exposed and transferred. The substrate is usually transferred to the work chuck by a transfer robot or the like, and mounting the substrate on the work chuck with high accuracy is important for improving the exposure accuracy. For this reason, prior to the conveyance of the substrate to the work chuck, the substrate is usually pre-aligned by a pre-alignment apparatus.

  Conventionally, there has been known a substrate processing apparatus in which a pre-alignment apparatus for pre-aligning a substrate is disposed between a substrate supply cassette and an exposure apparatus, and the substrate is subjected to rough pre-alignment prior to transport of the substrate to the exposure apparatus. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1). Further, the position of two orthogonal edges of the substrate mounted on the cooling plate is detected to determine the amount of deviation from the reference position, and the work chuck of the exposure apparatus is moved and rotated in advance by this amount of deviation. A proximity exposure apparatus and a substrate transport method are disclosed in which a substrate is mounted on the work chuck and then the work chuck is returned to its original position (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

Japanese Patent No. 3276477 JP 2009-300972 A

  However, according to Patent Document 1, in order to mount the substrate on the work chuck with high accuracy, a pre-alignment apparatus is installed immediately before the exposure apparatus, and the substrate pre-aligned by the pre-alignment apparatus is received by the robot and delivered to the work chuck. It was. Therefore, there is a problem that the accuracy of mounting the pre-alignment apparatus and the robot and the assembly accuracy affect the accuracy of mounting the substrate on the work chuck. The pre-alignment is performed by detecting a mark on the substrate, and it is necessary to display the mark in advance. Further, according to Patent Document 2, substrate position detection at the time of pre-alignment is performed by detecting the positions of two orthogonal edges of the substrate mounted on the cooling plate. For this reason, the detection result fluctuates due to the substrate straightness, flatness, parallelism, perpendicularity, expansion / contraction of the substrate due to temperature, etc., and there is a possibility that accurate prealignment cannot be performed.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and its purpose is to reduce the tact time by mounting a substrate on a work chuck with high accuracy in a short time without providing a dedicated pre-alignment apparatus. An object of the present invention is to provide an exposure unit and a substrate pre-alignment method that can be realized.

The above object of the present invention can be achieved by the following constitution.
(1) an exposure apparatus that irradiates a substrate as an exposed material through a mask with exposure light and exposes and transfers the pattern of the mask onto the substrate;
A substrate carry-in device that holds the substrate, has an arm portion that can move in the X, Y, and Z directions and that can rotate in the θ direction, and conveys the substrate from a supply position to which the substrate is supplied;
A control unit for controlling the exposure apparatus and the substrate carry-in apparatus;
An exposure unit comprising:
The two sides perpendicular to each other of the substrate are provided with two substantially rectangular notches that are spaced apart from each other on one side and one on the other side ,
The substrate carry-in device further includes a sensor that detects the notch provided in the substrate held by the arm unit,
The sensor detects the position of the edge of the notch in the middle of being conveyed from the supply position to the exposure apparatus,
The control unit calculates a shift amount between a detection result of the sensor and a predetermined reference position, and moves and rotates the arm unit based on the shift amount to pre-align the substrate. Exposure unit.
(2) The arm portion further includes a pressure sensor,
The exposure unit according to (1), wherein the pressure sensor detects a gripping force of the substrate by the arm unit and grips the substrate with a predetermined gripping force.
(3) An exposure apparatus that irradiates a substrate as an exposed material through a mask with exposure light to expose and transfer the pattern of the mask onto the substrate, and holds the substrate and moves in the X, Y, and Z directions And a substrate carry-in device that has an arm portion rotatable in the θ direction and transports the substrate from a supply position to which the substrate is supplied to the exposure apparatus, and a substrate pre-alignment method comprising:
Holding the substrate by an arm portion of the substrate carry-in device;
During the transfer from the supply position to the exposure apparatus by the sensor, two of the two sides orthogonal to each other of the substrate held by the arm unit are provided apart from each other and one on the other side. and detecting the position of the recessed in the notch edge in a substantially rectangular shape and,
Calculating a shift amount between a detection result of the sensor and a predetermined reference position, moving and rotating the arm unit based on the shift amount, and pre-aligning the substrate;
Transporting the pre-aligned substrate to the exposure device by the substrate carry-in device;
A substrate pre-alignment method comprising:

According to the exposure unit of the present invention, a substrate carry-in apparatus having an arm portion that holds a substrate, moves in the X, Y, and Z directions and is rotatable in the θ direction is arranged on one of two sides orthogonal to each other. Two substrates that are spaced apart from each other and one notch recessed in a substantially rectangular shape on the other side are held and conveyed from the substrate supply position to the exposure apparatus. Sensor is to detect the position of the notch in the edge of the substrate held by the arm portion moves and rotates the arm portion based on the shift amount between the detection result and a predetermined reference position of the sensor, the substrate Since the pre-alignment is performed, the substrate can be accurately pre-aligned without being affected by the installation accuracy and assembly accuracy of the substrate carry-in device. In addition, it is not necessary to provide a dedicated pre-alignment device, the tact time can be shortened by the processing time of the pre-alignment device, and the installation cost of the pre-alignment device can be suppressed.

Furthermore, since the substrate position is detected by notches recessed in a substantially rectangular shape provided on two mutually orthogonal sides of the substrate, deformation of the substrate due to external force, in particular, expansion / contraction of the substrate due to temperature change is released by the notch. Thus, the deformation of the substrate can be suppressed, and the substrate position can be detected with high accuracy, thereby improving the pre-alignment accuracy.

Also, according to the substrate pre-alignment method of the present invention, the substrate is held by the substrate carry-in apparatus having an arm portion that can move in the X, Y, and Z directions and rotate in the θ direction, and is transported from the supply position to the exposure apparatus. in the course to be, among the two sides orthogonal to each other of the substrate held by the arm portion, two spaced apart from each other on one side, the position of the one-out substantially cutout recessed rectangular shape provided edge to other side Since the substrate is pre-aligned by moving and rotating the arm portion based on the amount of deviation between the detection result and a predetermined reference position, the substrate is transported to the exposure apparatus. The substrate can be accurately pre-aligned and transported to the exposure apparatus in a short time without being affected by the installation accuracy and assembly accuracy, and the exposure accuracy can be improved and the tact time can be shortened. Kill.

It is a schematic block diagram for demonstrating the exposure unit of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the state which moves and rotates the arm part of the board | substrate carrying-in apparatus holding a board | substrate, and pre-aligns. (A) is a plan view of a substrate according to the present invention in which notches are provided on two orthogonal sides, (b) is an enlarged view of a main part of the substrate for explaining a state in which deformation is suppressed by the notches, c) is an enlarged view of a main part of a conventional substrate for explaining a state in which it does not have a notch and is deformed by heat or the like. (A) is a top view which shows the detection state in which the notch of a board | substrate is detected, (b) is a top view which shows the detection state of the conventional board | substrate which does not have a notch. (A) is explanatory drawing which shows the state which pre-aligns the board | substrate hold | maintained by the board | substrate carrying-in apparatus of a modification, (b) is a top view of the other modification which hold | maintains a board | substrate via a pressure sensor.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of an exposure unit according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
An exposure unit 10 according to an embodiment shown in FIG. 1 includes a processing unit 14 including a coater 11, a hot plate 12, and a cold plate 13, an exposure device 15, a conveyor 16 serving as a carry-out device, a processing unit 14, and an exposure. A robot 17 that transfers the substrate W between the apparatus 15 and the conveyor 16 and a control unit 18 that controls each part of the exposure unit 10 are provided. As the processing unit 14, the exposure device 15, and the conveyor 16, known ones are applied.

  Referring also to FIG. 2, the robot 17 moves up and down along the column 21, and first and second arms 22 and 23 that are independently driven by servo motors (not shown), The first arm 22 has a substrate mounting table 25 on which a plurality of rod-like members 24 are implanted in parallel. Each of the servo motors is controlled and operated by the control unit 18 to move the substrate platform 25 up and down, rotate, and move, and transport the substrate W placed on the substrate platform 25.

  Specifically, the robot 17 holds the substrate W supplied from the processing unit 14 on the substrate mounting table 25, transports it to the exposure device 15 and mounts it on the work chuck 19, and the mask pattern is exposed and transferred. The substrate W is transferred from the exposure device 15 to the conveyor 16. The robot 17 may be any robot that has at least a function as a substrate carry-in device that transports the substrate W supplied from the processing unit 14 to the exposure device 15. It may be provided.

  Three sensors 30 a, 30 b, and 30 c are fixedly disposed on the base 20 of the exposure unit 10 in the middle of the carry-in path for transporting the substrate W from the processing unit 14 to the exposure apparatus 15. The sensors 30a and 30b are arranged on a straight line, and the sensor 30c is arranged on a line orthogonal to the straight line connecting the sensors 30a and 30b. As the sensors 30a, 30b, and 30c, any sensor can be used as long as it can detect the edge of the substrate W, such as a laser sensor, an optical sensor, or a CCD camera.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the sensors 30 a and 30 b detect the position of one side 26 of the substrate W held and transported on the substrate mounting table 25, and the sensor 30 c The position of one side 27 is detected.

  As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the substrate W of this embodiment has two notches 28a and 28b spaced apart from each other on one side 26 by, for example, machining. One notch 29 is formed on another side 27 orthogonal to one side 26 of W.

  As shown in FIG. 3C, in the substrate W not having a notch, when the temperature of the substrate W changes due to the processing of the hot plate 12 or the cold plate 13, the substrate W expands / contracts along with this temperature change. However, the shape may be deformed, for example, the edge E of the substrate W may be waved. This deformation of the edge E is not preferable because it leads to a decrease in detection accuracy by the sensors 30a, 30b, and 30c.

  On the other hand, the substrate W of the present embodiment provided with the notches 28a, 28b, and 29 absorbs the expansion / contraction caused by the temperature change of the substrate W, so that the notches 28a, 28b, and 29 absorb the edges. Is prevented from being deformed. Thereby, the detection accuracy of the substrate W can be maintained with high accuracy.

  As shown in FIG. 4A, the sensors 30a, 30b, and 30c are provided at positions corresponding to the notches 28a, 28b, and 29 provided on the substrate W, respectively. While being mounted on the substrate mounting table 25 and being transported to the exposure apparatus 15, the positions of the edges of the notches 28a, 28b and 29 of the substrate W are detected.

  Here, in the conventional substrate W not having a notch, as shown in FIG. 4B, when detecting the position of the edge E of the substrate W, the sensors 30a and 30b move to a position beyond the edge E. Otherwise, the edge E cannot be detected, and the substrate W goes too far across the light from the sensors 30a and 30b. As a result, the temperature of the substrate W may increase, and the detection accuracy may decrease due to the expansion of the substrate W.

  On the other hand, in the substrate W of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4A, immediately after the sensor 30c detects the upper end of the notch 29, the sensors 30a and 30b detect the positions of the edges of the notches 28a and 28b. Therefore, it is possible to detect within the range of the width A of the notch 29, the time when the substrate W is exposed to the light from the sensors 30a, 30b, 30c is small, and the substrate W is expanded (contracted). ) Can be prevented from lowering in detection accuracy.

  The operation of this embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the exposure unit 10 of the present embodiment holds the substrate W on the substrate mounting table 25 of the robot 17 in the processing unit 14, transports it to the exposure device 15, and mounts it on the work chuck 19. Sensors 30a, 30b, and 30c provided in the middle of the transport path of the substrate W detect the positions of the edges of the notches 28a, 28b, and 29 provided on the substrate W, respectively, and the control unit 18 detects the detection result. And a deviation amount from a predetermined reference position stored in advance in a storage unit (not shown) of the control unit 18 is calculated.

  Note that the midway of the transfer path of the substrate W is a period from the position (substrate supply position) where the robot 17 mounts the substrate W on the substrate mounting table 25 to the time when the substrate W is mounted on the work chuck 19 of the exposure apparatus 15. The sensors 30a, 30b, and 30c can be set to arbitrary positions suitable for detecting the positions of the edges of the notches 28a, 28b, and 29. The predetermined reference position stored in the storage unit is the amount of movement of the substrate W from the detection position of the substrate W until it is mounted on the work chuck 19, for example, the work chuck 19 is rotated by 90 ° from the detection position. In the case of mounting in the control unit 18, the reference position considering the rotation angle (90 °) is stored in the storage unit of the control unit 18.

  The control unit 18 controls the servo motor of the robot 17 based on the calculated deviation amount to operate the first and second arms 22 and 23, thereby moving the substrate mounting table 25 up and down (Z direction) and moving ( The substrate W placed on the substrate platform 25 is pre-aligned at a predetermined position by rotating (X and Y directions) and rotating (θ direction).

  In this way, the substrate W that has been pre-aligned while being held by the robot 17 is further transferred to the exposure device 15 and mounted on the work chuck 19.

  As described above, according to the exposure unit 10 of the present embodiment, the robot (substrate loading) that has the substrate mounting table 25 that holds the substrate W, moves in the X, Y, and Z directions and is rotatable in the θ direction. The apparatus 17 holds the substrate W provided with the notches 28a, 28b, 29 on the two sides 26, 27 orthogonal to each other, and transports the substrate W from the processing unit 14 to the exposure apparatus 15. The sensors 30a, 30b, and 30c detect the positions of the edges of the notches 28a, 28b, and 29 of the substrate W held by the substrate mounting table 25, and the detection results and predetermined reference positions of the sensors 30a, 30b, and 30c. Since the substrate mounting table 25 is moved and rotated based on the deviation amount to pre-align the substrate W, the substrate W can be accurately adjusted without being affected by the installation accuracy and assembly accuracy of the robot 17. Pre-alignment can be performed.

  In addition, it is not necessary to provide a dedicated pre-alignment device, the tact time can be shortened by the processing time of the pre-alignment device, and the installation cost of the pre-alignment device can be suppressed.

  Further, the pre-alignment apparatus may damage the substrate W when delivering the substrate from the robot to the pre-alignment apparatus or holding the substrate W on the suction chuck. According to the exposure unit 10 of the present invention, Since the pre-alignment is performed with the substrate W held by the substrate mounting table 25 of the robot 17, the possibility of damaging the substrate W is eliminated.

  Further, since the substrate position is detected by the notches 28a, 28b, 29 provided on the two sides 26, 27 orthogonal to each other of the substrate W, the deformation of the substrate W due to an external force, particularly the expansion / contraction of the substrate W due to a temperature change. By letting the change escape through the notches 28a, 28b, and 29, deformation can be suppressed and the substrate position can be detected with high accuracy, thereby improving prealignment accuracy.

<Modification>
Next, a modified exposure unit 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b). The robot 17 of the exposure unit 10 according to the modified example includes a substantially U-shaped gripping arm 31 instead of the substrate mounting table 25 of the above-described embodiment, and holds the two opposing sides of the substrate W so as to hold the substrate. Holds W. Since the gripping arm 31 includes the pressure sensor 32 and grips the substrate W with a predetermined gripping force while the pressure sensor 32 detects the gripping force of the substrate W, deformation of the substrate W accompanying the gripping can be suppressed. . Further, in such a substantially U-shaped gripping portion 31, a posture in which the substrate W can be gripped is determined, and a reference position of the gripping portion 31 (for example, based on a rotation axis such as the column 21) is set. Thus, it is possible to easily move to a posture for gripping the substrate W based on the amount of deviation obtained from the sensors 30a, 30b, and 30c.

  Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments and modifications, and modifications, improvements, and the like can be made as appropriate.

10 Exposure unit 14 Processing unit (supply position)
15 Exposure device 17 Robot (substrate loading device)
18 Control part 22 1st arm (arm part)
23 Second arm (arm part)
26, 27 One side 28a, 28b, 29 Notch 30a, 30b, 30c Sensor 32 Pressure sensor W Substrate (material to be exposed)

Claims (3)

An exposure apparatus that irradiates a substrate as an exposed material through a mask with exposure light to expose and transfer the pattern of the mask onto the substrate;
A substrate carry-in device that holds the substrate, has an arm portion that can move in the X, Y, and Z directions and that can rotate in the θ direction, and conveys the substrate from a supply position to which the substrate is supplied;
A control unit for controlling the exposure apparatus and the substrate carry-in apparatus;
An exposure unit comprising:
The two sides perpendicular to each other of the substrate are provided with two substantially rectangular notches that are spaced apart from each other on one side and one on the other side ,
The substrate carry-in device further includes a sensor that detects the notch provided in the substrate held by the arm unit,
The sensor detects the position of the edge of the notch in the middle of being conveyed from the supply position to the exposure apparatus,
The control unit calculates a shift amount between a detection result of the sensor and a predetermined reference position, and moves and rotates the arm unit based on the shift amount to pre-align the substrate. Exposure unit. The arm portion further includes a pressure sensor,
2. The exposure unit according to claim 1, wherein the pressure sensor detects a gripping force of the substrate by the arm unit and grips the substrate with a predetermined gripping force. An exposure apparatus that irradiates a substrate as an exposed material through a mask with exposure light to expose and transfer the pattern of the mask onto the substrate, holds the substrate, moves in the X, Y, and Z directions, and θ A substrate carry-in device having an arm part rotatable in a direction and transporting the substrate from a supply position to which the substrate is supplied to the exposure apparatus, and a substrate pre-alignment method comprising:
Holding the substrate by an arm portion of the substrate carry-in device;
During the transfer from the supply position to the exposure apparatus by the sensor, two of the two sides orthogonal to each other of the substrate held by the arm unit are provided apart from each other and one on the other side. and detecting the position of the recessed in the notch edge in a substantially rectangular shape and,
Calculating a shift amount between a detection result of the sensor and a predetermined reference position, moving and rotating the arm unit based on the shift amount, and pre-aligning the substrate;
Transporting the pre-aligned substrate to the exposure device by the substrate carry-in device;
A substrate pre-alignment method comprising:

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