JPH05114554A - Processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To apply a processing liquid in a uniform thickness by suppressing the disturbance of an air current at the time of rotationally applying the liquid. CONSTITUTION:In this processing device which applies a processing liquid 5 to a plate-like object 12 to be processed, a rotary holding means 14 which supports the object 12 formed to a polygonal shape other than circles and a processing liquid supplying means 16 which is positioned above the means 14 and supplies the processing liquid 5 are provided. In addition, a rotary container 18 which contains the object 12 and rotates together with the object 12 and an exhausting means which sets the distance between the opened end section 18a of the container 18 and periphery of the object 12 so that the distance can become the same along the outer peripheral direction of the object 12 and, at the same time, discharges the air contained in the container 18 are also provided. Then the air contained in the container 18 is discharged without allowing the air to be disturbed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a processing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a manufacturing process of an LCD (liquid crystal display) device, ITO (Indium Tin) is used.
Oxide) In order to form a fine pattern such as a thin film or an electrode pattern, exposure from the photoresist coating process is performed.
Lithography technology is used, which includes a series of photoengraving steps leading to development. As a coating device for applying photoresist, for example, the device shown in FIG. 4 is known.

FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view of a conventional coating apparatus. A relatively large area LCD substrate 2 formed in a rectangular shape or a rectangular shape has an upper end portion of a chucking 4 rotatably provided in the central portion. The substrate 2 is sucked and held by a vacuum chuck, and the substrate 2 is housed in the vicinity of the opening of the inner container 6 whose upper opening is circular, and is used when the photoresist is applied by diffusion using centrifugal force. It is configured so that it can rotate integrally with the substrate 2. When a rectangular LCD substrate is spin-coated as described above, a very uniform and uniform film is formed on a portion corresponding to the inscribed circle of the rectangular substrate, but on the other peripheral portions. It tends to form a non-uniform film, and in order to eliminate this non-uniformity, the turbulence of the air flow that occurs during rotation is reduced as much as possible,
As described above, the inner container 6 is rotated together with the substrate 2. The atmosphere inside the inner container 6 is sucked and exhausted from the lower part. And on the outside of this inner container 6,
An outer container 8 is fixedly provided so as to open the upper part and cover the whole. Further, as another conventional apparatus, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-63166, a rotary head having a larger area than the substrate to be processed is provided, and a concave substrate accommodating portion is formed on the upper surface of the rotary head to rotate the substrate. An apparatus is known in which turbulent air flow is prevented from occurring on the upper surface of a square or rectangular substrate during coating.

[0004]

By the way, in the above-mentioned conventional coating apparatus shown in FIG. 5, the inner container 6 and the LCD are suppressed in order to suppress the turbulence of the air flow generated during rotation.
Although the LCD substrate 2 has a rectangular shape, the opening of the inner container 6 has a circular shape even though the substrate 2 is integrally rotated. The distance from the open end of the inner container 6 is different at each point on the peripheral edge of the substrate 2, and this causes turbulence of the air flow during rotation, causing splashing of the photoresist, that is, splashback, and yield. It had the improvement point of decreasing.

The above-mentioned photoresist splashback problem was hardly noticeable when the size of the LCD substrate 2 was small, but it did not become a problem, but along with technological innovation, the LCD substrate is large, for example, 300 × 400 mm in length and width. Under such a situation, it cannot be ignored and it is strongly desired to solve the above-mentioned problems. Further, in the conventional device shown in the above publication, although the upper surface of the object to be processed hardly projects from the upper surface of the rotary head, it is affected by the change in the air flow in the peripheral portion of the device,
It is difficult to completely prevent the generation of turbulence. The present invention has been made to pay attention to the above problems and to solve them effectively. An object of the present invention is to provide a processing apparatus that can suppress the turbulence of the air flow during spin coating and can apply the processing liquid to a uniform thickness.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a rotation holding means for rotatably holding a flat object to be processed formed in a polygonal shape other than a circular shape, and the rotation holding means. Between the processing liquid supply means for supplying the processing liquid to the surface of the object to be processed held by the holding means, and the peripheral portion of the object to be processed while accommodating the object to be processed held by the rotation holding means. A rotary container having an open end portion in which the distance therebetween is substantially the same along the outer peripheral direction thereof and rotating integrally with the object to be processed; and an exhaust means for exhausting an atmosphere in the rotary container. It is configured to be equipped.

[0007]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, the polygonal shaped flat plate-shaped object is held by the rotation holding means, and in this state, the object is integrally rotated in the rotary container. At the same time, the to-be-processed liquid supplied from the to-be-processed liquid supply means is diffused by the centrifugal force to apply the processing liquid onto the substrate surface. At the time of this spin coating, the inside of the rotary container is sucked and evacuated from its lower portion by the exhaust means, and the shape of the opening of the rotary container is a shape slightly larger than the shape of the substrate.
The distance between the peripheral edge of the object to be processed and the opening end of the rotary container is set to be substantially the same at any point on the peripheral edge of the object to be processed, and therefore, the air flow is hardly disturbed during these rotations. It does not occur, and it is possible to suppress the rebound of the processing liquid.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 is a partially cutaway plan view showing a processing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. It is a perspective view which shows the mounted processing apparatus collective unit. As shown in the figure, in this embodiment, a photoresist coating apparatus 10 is shown as a processing apparatus, and a rectangular liquid crystal substrate 12 is used as a processing liquid as a flat object to be processed formed in a polygonal shape other than a circular shape. The case of applying a photoresist will be described. Figure 4
As shown in FIG. 3, the photoresist coating apparatus 10 is covered with a case that can be opened and closed as a whole, and the processing apparatus assembly unit 7
0 is mounted on the collecting unit 70 as another related device, and a pair of brush scrubbers 74 and 74 for brush-cleaning the LCD substrate as the object to be processed from the carrier station 72 side, after this brush cleaning. A pair of high-pressure jet cleaners 76, 76 for cleaning with high-pressure jet water, a plurality of hot plate machines 78 for heating the LCD substrate, and a hydrophobic treatment for applying photoresist to the LCD substrate. A fusion processor 80 and an edge remover 82 for removing unnecessary photoresist in the edge portion after the photoresist is applied are provided. In order to convey and transfer the LCD substrate between the above-mentioned devices, the central portion of the collecting unit 70 has
A pair of main arms 84, 84 having claws are provided so as to be movable along the unit longitudinal direction. The photoresist coating apparatus 10 includes a rotation holding means 14 for rotatably holding the LCD substrate 12, a processing liquid supplying means 16 for supplying a photoresist to the surface of the substrate 12, and a housing liquid for accommodating the substrate 12. The rotary container 18 that rotates integrally with the rotary container 18 and an exhaust unit 20 that exhausts the atmosphere in the rotary container 18 are mainly configured.

Specifically, the rotation holding means 14 has a chucking 22 for sucking and holding the substrate 12 by a vacuum chuck, and the chucking 22 has a bearing 24.
Is attached to the tip of a rotary shaft 26 that is rotatably supported by. The rotary shaft 26 is connected to a motor via a timing belt (not shown) and can be moved up and down in the vertical direction. When the rotary shaft 26 is moved up, the substrate 12 is delivered. The substrate 12 sucked and held by the chucking 22 is formed into a rectangular shape or a rectangular shape as described above.
It has a relatively large area of about 400 mm. Then, above the center point of the chucking 22, the processing liquid supply means 16 for supplying a photoresist as a processing liquid onto the substrate is provided so as to be movable in the lateral direction.

A disc-shaped cover member 28 is attached and fixed to the rotary shaft 26 below the chucking 22 so as to cover the entire lower surface of the substrate 12 with a slight distance therebetween. The peripheral portion is bent downward to form a gas guide wall 30. Further, the rotating container 18
Is shaped like a bottomed cylindrical container having an open top, and the inside of the substrate 12 and the chucking 2
2 and the cover member 28, and a bottom portion 32 thereof.
The central portion of is attached and fixed through the rotary shaft 26 so that it can rotate integrally with the substrate 12 and the like. The shape of the upper opening 34 of the rotary container 18 is a similar rectangular shape slightly larger than the rectangular substrate 12, and therefore the peripheral edge of the substrate 12 and the open end 18a of the rotary container 18 are formed. The distances between and are set to be substantially the same at each point on the peripheral portion of the substrate.

Specifically, when the substrate is mounted on the chucking 22, the substrate 12 is installed so as to be located slightly below the opening end 18a of the rotary container 18, and in this embodiment, the opening is provided. The horizontal distance L2 between the portion 18a and the substrate peripheral portion is about 6 mm, and the vertical distance L3 is 7 m.
The value is set to be approximately the same value over the entire circumference of the substrate so as to be about m. In addition, the bottom 32 of the rotary container 18
A large number of ventilation holes 36 for passing the drain of the photoresist shaken off by rotation and the atmosphere in the rotary container 18 are formed at predetermined intervals along the circumferential direction in the peripheral portion of the. Further, the entire rotary container 18 formed in this manner is covered by an outer fixed container 38 having a cylindrical shape with a bottom and an open top, and is separated by an appropriate distance. It is fixed.

The upper opening 42 of the outer fixed container 38
Is formed into a circular shape larger than the opening 34 of the rotary container 18. Also, this outer fixed container 3
A drain reservoir 46 having a concave cross section is formed in the bottom portion 44 of the rotary container 18 corresponding to the lower portion of the ventilation hole 36 along the circumferential direction. In this embodiment, two drain outlets 48 are formed in the drain reservoir 46, and a drain pipe 50 is connected to the drain outlets 48.
The drain of the photoresist which has been shaken off can be discharged. Further, in the present embodiment, the bottom 44 inside the drain reservoir 46 is provided with two exhaust ports 52 in point symmetry with respect to the rotating shaft 26, and these exhaust ports 52 have a vacuum pump (not shown). Is connected to the exhaust pipe 54 so that the atmosphere in the rotary container 18 can be sucked and discharged to the outside of the apparatus through the vent hole 36 provided in the bottom portion 32.

Next, the operation of this embodiment configured as described above will be described. First, the LCD substrate 12 processed in the previous step is held by the main arm 84 from the carrier station 72 of the processing device assembly unit 70 and carried into the brush scrubber 74, where brush cleaning is performed. In addition, this substrate is a high pressure jet cleaner 76
At high temperature, it is washed with high-pressure jet water and dried by a hot plate machine 78. After that, the substrate is subjected to a hydrophobizing treatment by the adfusion processor 80 and then introduced into the photoresist coating apparatus 10 according to the present invention. First,
The LCD substrate 12 is placed on the chucking 22 by an automatic transfer device such as an arm (not shown) while the chucking 22 of the rotation holding means 14 is moved upward, and the LCD substrate 12 is suction-held. Then, the chucking 22 is lowered to a predetermined position as illustrated. Next, by rotating the rotary shaft 26, the rotary container 18 fixed to the rotary shaft 18 and the LCD substrate 12 sucked by the chucking 22 are integrally rotated, and the processing liquid is supplied onto the substrate 12. A predetermined amount of photoresist 5 is discharged and supplied from the means 16, and this is diffused by the centrifugal force over the entire surface of the substrate 12 to apply a thin film of photoresist.

On the other hand, during this time, the exhaust means 20 is already driven so that the atmosphere in the rotary container 18 when it is rotated has a large number of vent holes 36 and exhaust pipes provided in the bottom 32 of the rotary container as indicated by an arrow 55. The air that has been discharged through 54, and therefore flows from the opening 34 of the rotary container 18 into the container 18 flows from the center of the rotating substrate 12 toward this entire peripheral edge. In particular, in this embodiment, L
The peripheral edge of the CD substrate 12 and the open end 18a of the rotary container 18
Since the distance between and is substantially the same over the entire circumference of the peripheral edge of the substrate 12, the air flow radially flows from the central portion of the rotating substrate 12 to the peripheral edge, and the opening end portion The air flow discharged through the gap between 18a and the peripheral edge of the substrate is discharged as a laminar flow without any turbulence. Therefore, since the air flow is not disturbed at the peripheral edge of the substrate 12, the splashing of the photoresist, that is, the splashback does not occur, and the 4
It is possible to form a thin film having a uniform thickness even in the vicinity of a corner. Therefore, it is possible to suppress the generation of mist,
It is possible to prevent the yield from decreasing.

In particular, in this embodiment, the LCD substrate 1
When 2 was rotated at a speed of 1500 rpm and the flow of the air flow was observed with smoke from dry ice, the air flow was directed radially straight from the substrate 12 toward the peripheral edge, and no turbulence was generated. In addition, splashing of the photoresist due to splashback was not observed. Further, the vent hole 3 through which the atmosphere in the rotary container 18 passes.
6 are evenly provided along the circumferential direction of the bottom portion 32, so that the atmosphere in the rotary container 18 is even.
It is possible to prevent turbulence from occurring in the air flow discharged to the side of 8 and from this point. Further, the photoresist shaken off by the rotation of the substrate 12 is stored in the rotation container 18
Flows down the side wall of the drainage container and collects in the recessed drain reservoir 46 of the outer fixed container 38 through the vent hole 36, and this drainage is extracted through the drain pipe 50.

In the above embodiment, the distance between the peripheral edge of the substrate 12 and the open end 42 of the rotary container 18 was set to a horizontal distance of 6 mm and a vertical distance of 7 mm, but the present invention is not limited to these values. Needless to say, the size can be appropriately changed according to the size of the substrate 12 or the rotation speed of the substrate 12. Also, the substrate 1
The shape of 2 is not limited to a quadrangle, and can be applied to any polygon other than a circle such as a triangle and a pentagon. Furthermore, in the above embodiments, the case where the present invention is applied to the photoresist coating apparatus has been described, but the present invention can be applied to any apparatus as long as it has a structure for coating the substrate with the processing liquid. it can.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following excellent operational effects can be exhibited. Since the distance between the peripheral edge of the object to be processed and the opening end of the rotary container is set to be the same along the circumferential direction, it is possible to reliably prevent turbulence from occurring in the exhausted airflow. You can Therefore, the treatment liquid does not splash due to the turbulence of the air flow, and the occurrence of splashback can be suppressed and the yield can be significantly improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway plan view showing a processing apparatus according to the present invention.

2 is a cross-sectional view of the device shown in FIG.

3 is a schematic perspective view of the device shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a processing device assembly unit in which a photoresist coating device and the like are mounted.

FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view showing a conventional processing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2, 12 LCD substrate (object to be treated) 5 Photoresist (treatment liquid) 10 Photoresist coating device (treatment device) 14 Rotation holding means 16 Treatment liquid supply device 18 Rotating container 18a Open end 20 Exhaust means 36 Vent hole 38 Outside Fixed container 46 Drain reservoir 50 Drain pipe 54 Exhaust pipe 70 Processing device collective unit 74 Brush scrubber 76 High pressure jet cleaning machine 78 Hot plate machine 80 Adfusion processing machine

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A rotation holding means for rotatably holding a flat object to be processed formed in a polygonal shape other than a circular shape, and a treatment liquid supplied to the surface of the object to be processed held by the rotation holding means. An opening in which the distance between the processing liquid supply means for storing the object to be processed held by the rotation holding means and the peripheral portion of the object to be processed is substantially the same along the outer peripheral direction thereof. A processing apparatus comprising: a rotary container having an end portion that rotates integrally with the object to be processed; and an exhaust unit that exhausts an atmosphere in the rotary container.