JPH10180601A - Method and device for manufacturing sensor element - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform grinding, exposing and other operations under the condition of good parallelism by providing a reference surface used as a positioning reference for a plurality of articles to be manufactured and treating surfaces to be treated while surfaces provided in the manufactured articles to be referenced are pressed to the reference surface by spring elastic members. SOLUTION: As a fixing means to facilitate attaching/detaching of an article 1 to be manufactured, a holder 5 having a press plate 4 as a spring elastic member for producing a pressing force is provided between the reference surface 1a of the manufactured article 1 and the reference surface 3a of a parallel plate 3. For the press plate 4 for pressing the manufactured article 1, depending on the shape, dimension or the like of the manufactured article 1, a leaf spring made of a metallic material, a coil spring or a rubber pad is used. By joining the holder 5 with the parallel plate 3, the press plate 4 is held between the manufactured article 1 and the holder 5, a pressing force is produced between the reference surface 1a of the manufactured article 1 and the reference surface 3a of the parallel plate 3 by a resisting force thereof and thus firm fixing is realized.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a sensor element and an apparatus for manufacturing a sensor element, for example, a polishing apparatus and an exposure apparatus using a diaphragm used for a pressure sensor, a load sensor or the like as a workpiece.

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a sensor element used for a pressure sensor, a load sensor, or the like has a cylindrical shape with one end closed.
A strain gauge is formed in a closed pattern in a predetermined pattern by a film forming method such as vapor deposition or sputtering. Conventionally, as a polishing apparatus used in a polishing step in a manufacturing process of this type of sensor element, a polishing apparatus as shown in FIG. 7 is generally used. A holder 105 provided with a plurality of holes into which the workpiece 101 can be inserted is arranged on a polishing plate 108 and is held by a guide 107. At the time of polishing, the workpiece 101 is inserted into the hole of the holder 105. From above, a parallel plate 103 made of a hard material (ceramics or the like) having a horizontal surface 103a as a reference is placed on the workpiece 1.
01, and the weight 102 is arranged on the parallel plate. The polishing is performed by operating the polishing plate 108 while the workpiece 101 is pressed against the polishing plate 108 in this manner. When a plurality of workpieces 101 are polished at the same time, a pressing force is not generated in the initial stage of polishing due to a variation in height before polishing, and the workpiece 101 swings and tilts in the holder hole, and the polishing target surface is polished. In some cases, "draining" (deterioration of the flatness at the end) may occur.

As a countermeasure to prevent this "drain", as shown in FIG.
There is a case where a method is employed in which the adhesive is fixed using a removable adhesive such as a wax (wax) 109. But,
In such a method, a relatively troublesome process such as application and peeling of a wax or the like is required, and there is a disadvantage that productivity is reduced. On the other hand, the present applicant has proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-132344 a method in which a plurality of products 101 are fitted or welded to a thin plate 110 as shown in FIG. Was. Thereby, a plurality of sensor elements can be manufactured at the same time, and the productivity has been greatly improved. However, when the workpiece is fitted or welded, a slight distortion may occur in the thin plate. When the thin plate is distorted, the product 101
The pressing force between the workpiece and the polishing plate 108 becomes non-uniform, which may cause a variation in the height of the workpiece and a decrease in the parallelism between the bottom surface of the workpiece and the polishing surface. Was desired. The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to easily attach / detach a product to be manufactured, and to correct variation in height, and to have excellent parallelism. An object of the present invention is to provide a sensor element manufacturing method and a sensor element manufacturing apparatus that can improve flatness in a state. By the way, the manufacturing method of the sensor element described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-132344 can be used throughout the manufacturing process of the sensor element in addition to the polishing method. The parallelism deteriorated and a problem could arise. For example, in the exposure process in the photolithography process, when a plurality of workpieces 101 are fitted or welded to the thin plate 110 as described above, and this is processed as one unit, due to distortion or warpage generated in the thin plate 110, In some cases, a gap may be formed between the parallel base 111 for fixing the entire thin plate on the exposure jig and the workpiece 101 (FIG. 9). Therefore, the pin 112 provided on the parallel base 111 is fitted into the hole 101a of the product 101, and air is further sucked from the vacuum suction hole 111a.
In some cases, the conventional method of vacuum-sucking and fixing 01 to the parallel base 111 at a predetermined position does not work. If the photomask is to be brought into close contact with the surface of the workpiece in a state where the workpiece is not firmly pressed against the parallel base, FIG.
As described above, when the photomask 113 is brought into close contact with the object, the inclination of the object changes after the surface of the photomask 113 contacts the object, so that the resist 114 on the surface of the object and the surface of the photomask 113 In some cases, friction occurred between the two. As a result, the resist 114 was fixed to the photomask 113 or the resist 114 was cracked. As a result, a phenomenon in which the resist 114 adheres to the mask 113 and peels off from the surface of the workpiece (sticking) occurs, thereby causing a defect (pattern defect). The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to easily attach / detach a product to be manufactured, and to correct variation in height, and to have excellent parallelism. An object of the present invention is to provide a sensor element manufacturing method and a sensor element manufacturing apparatus that can perform polishing, exposure, and other processing in a state.

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a plurality of products are fixed to one thin plate, and this is processed as one unit, so that one end is processed. In a method for manufacturing a sensor element for simultaneously manufacturing a plurality of closed substantially cylindrical sensor elements, a reference surface serving as a positioning reference for the plurality of products is provided, and the reference surface is provided on the product. The processing is performed on the surface to be processed while the reference surface is pressed by a spring-like elastic member. As a result, the processing is performed in a state in which the reference surface and the non-reference surface of the product are in close contact with each other, so that the workpiece to be processed is prevented from swinging, and the surfaces to be processed of a plurality of products are reduced. Processing can be performed simultaneously while being reliably positioned.
Preferably, the processing is polishing or photolithography. Thus, a plurality of workpieces can be simultaneously polished and exposed while reliably positioning the workpieces irrespective of the distortion or warpage of the thin plate. In order to manufacture a plurality of substantially cylindrical sensor elements having one end closed at the same time, a plurality of workpieces are fixed to a single thin plate, and this is required in a sensor element manufacturing apparatus that polishes this as a unit. A parallel plate having a reference surface having a flatness equal to or higher than the polishing accuracy, and a polishing plate having a polishing surface parallel to the reference surface at a position opposed to the reference surface; and A spring-like elastic member is provided for pressing the workpiece against a reference plane when the unit is sandwiched between the workpiece and the polishing. Accordingly, the swing of the workpiece is prevented, and the workpiece can be polished with high accuracy while the workpiece is pressed against the parallel plate with a uniform pressing force. It has a hole for exposing the surface to be polished of the object to be polished to the polishing board side, and the object to be polished is exposed through the spring-like elastic member while the surface to be polished of the object is exposed from the hole. It is characterized in that a holder is provided for pressing against the reference surface of the parallel plate. Thus, the article can be easily attached and detached as compared with the method of fixing the article to the parallel plate with an adhesive. Also,
A plurality of products can be polished simultaneously and accurately. In order to manufacture a plurality of substantially cylindrical sensor elements having one end closed at the same time, a plurality of workpieces are fixed to a single thin plate, and this is used as a unit in a sensor element manufacturing apparatus that performs photolithography processing. A parallel table having a surface, and a photomask holder supporting a photomask parallel to the reference surface at a position facing the reference surface, wherein the object to be manufactured is disposed between the reference surface and the photomask. A spring-like elastic member is provided for pressing the reference surface against the workpiece when exposure is performed with the photomask in close contact with the workpiece surface with the object interposed therebetween. Thereby, when the photomask is brought into close contact with the surface to be processed at the time of exposure, the occurrence of sticking due to the surface to be processed not having a stable parallelism can be suppressed. By providing a cover having a hole for exposing the processing surface of one unit of the workpiece to the photomask side, by bringing the photomask holder and the parallel base close to each other while maintaining parallelism, the photomask can be formed by a cover and a spring. The object is pressed against the reference surface of the parallel base via the elastic member, and in this state, a photomask is pressed against the surface to be processed of the object. Therefore, with a simple configuration, photolithography processing with less pattern defects due to sticking can be simultaneously performed on a plurality of products.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the dimensions of the components described in this embodiment,
The material, shape, relative arrangement, and the like are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to them unless otherwise specified. (Embodiment 1) FIGS. 1 and 2 show a polishing apparatus as a sensor element manufacturing apparatus using a sensor element manufacturing method according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The polishing apparatus shown in this embodiment is a part of a manufacturing process of a sensor element having a cylindrical shape with one end closed and a peripheral surface formed in two stages of a large diameter portion and a small diameter portion. A plurality of sensor elements are manufactured at the same time by polishing a plurality of products as a unit, in which a plurality of products whose peripheral surface is processed into two steps of a large-diameter portion and a small-diameter portion are formed as a unit. It is. In addition, this is because the unevenness of the height of the product, the parallelism and the deterioration of the flatness are caused by the non-uniformity of the swing and the pressing force of the product. And fixing the product to each other. In particular, in the present embodiment, a plurality of pressure sensor diaphragms are targeted as a product to be manufactured. A commonly used diaphragm has a height of about 5 mm and a diameter of about 6.5 mm.
As described above, when polishing a workpiece having a smaller bottom area and an aspect ratio than a plate-shaped workpiece, since the rotational moment acting on the entire workpiece due to shear stress on the polished surface is large, a parallel plate is used. Of the reference surface of the object to be manufactured is not uniform. Therefore, the parallelism between the reference surface and the polished surface of the workpiece and the flatness of the polished surface are deteriorated. Therefore, in order to obtain easy attachment / detachment of the product and the fixing accuracy, it is necessary to directly and firmly contact the reference surface of the product with the reference surface of the parallel plate. In the form,
As a fixing means, a holder 5 having a pressing plate 4 as a spring-like elastic member for generating a pressing force between the reference surface 1a of the workpiece 1 and the reference surface 3a of the parallel plate 3 was used. Next, the polishing apparatus will be described in detail. The parallel plate 3 is made of a material having a higher hardness than the workpiece 1, and has a reference surface 3a having a flatness higher than the required polishing accuracy. A plurality of female screw holes for fixing the holder 5 are provided on the reference surface 3a. The internal thread may be provided by a method using a bushing or the like. The holder 5 has a plurality of mounting holes for inserting the workpiece 1, grooves or holes for allowing the pressing plate 4 to move to some extent, and screw mounting holes. As the pressing plate 4 for pressing the workpiece 1, any suitable pressing means such as a leaf spring, a coil spring, and a rubber pad made of a metal material depending on the shape and dimensions of the workpiece 1 can be used. The pressing plate 4 has a structure for generating a pressing force on each of the workpieces 1.
When mounting the workpiece 1, the holder 5 is arranged in the hole of the holder 5 via the pressing plate 4, and the holder 5 and the parallel plate 3 are fastened with the screw 6. The means for fixing the holder 5 and the parallel plate 3 generates a sufficiently large force with respect to the repulsive force of the pressing plate 4, further withstands external force and vibration at the time of polishing, and uses a method other than a screw if easy to attach and detach. It is also possible. The pressing plate 4 is sandwiched between the workpiece 1 and the holder 5 by the fastening of the holder 5 and the parallel plate 3, and the repulsive force causes a gap between the reference surface 1 a of the workpiece 1 and the reference surface 3 a of the parallel plate 3. A pressing force is generated, and strong fixing is realized. When polishing, the parallel plate 3
Is mounted together with a workpiece 1, a guide 7 is mounted thereon, and a weight 2 having a weight corresponding to a required polishing pressure is further mounted thereon, and the polishing plate 8 is brought into contact with the polishing surface 8a with the surface 1b to be pressed against the polishing plate 8. Work in parallel and polish. When the workpiece 1 is removed after the polishing is completed, the operation opposite to the mounting operation may be performed. In this manner, by polishing the workpiece while pressing it against the parallel plate by the pressing plate, even if the dimension of the workpiece in the height direction is large, the workpieces are polished in order from the highest one and gradually polished. The overall height is uniform, and even the low ones can be finally finished to a uniform size without swinging or tilting in the holder hole. Further, as in JP-A-8-132344, even when a plurality of workpieces 1 fitted and welded to a thin plate are polished as one unit of workpiece, the repulsive force of the pressing plate 4 is sufficient. According to the present invention, as shown in FIG.
The distortion can be corrected. Therefore, even when warpage or distortion occurs, variation in polishing pressure can be prevented, and thus variation in height and deterioration in parallelism can be prevented. (Example) Nineteen cylindrical products having a diameter of about 5 mm and a height of about 5 mm were welded to a holding plate, and this was used as a unit to obtain 3 units.
The units were polished simultaneously. Here, the holding plate is a flexible thin plate 10 or 110 made of metal having a thickness of about 100 μm, for example, stainless steel having excellent corrosion resistance. It is pierced at a plurality of locations by punching or the like. In order to hold a plurality of workpieces on the holding plate as described above, insert a small diameter part of the workpiece into each hole, and connect a series between the periphery of each hole and the large diameter part of the workpiece. It is fixed together by welding or the like. And the 19 products held on the holding plate are taken as one unit,
Three units were simultaneously placed on one polishing plate, and a weight was placed on the upper portion, and each product was pressed in the direction of the polishing plate and polished. This corresponds to the method for manufacturing a sensor element described in JP-A-8-132344. And
The conventional polishing method shown in FIG. 6 and the polishing method of the present invention shown in FIG. 2 using a spring-like elastic member were implemented, and the results were compared. Table 1 below shows the standard deviation of the height, the parallelism of the polished surface with respect to the reference surface, and the flatness of the polished surface.

[Table 1] From this table, it can be seen that according to the polishing method of the present invention, the variation in height can be corrected, and the flatness can be improved with excellent parallelism. (Embodiment 2) FIG. 3 shows an outline of an exposure apparatus as a sensor element manufacturing apparatus using a sensor element manufacturing method according to a second embodiment of the present invention. As in the case of FIG. 2, the apparatus performs exposure processing on a plurality of workpieces 1 fitted and welded to a thin plate 10 as one unit of workpiece, and a parallel plate having a horizontal reference plane. Parallel stand 11, as
A cover 13 having a hole 13a for exposing the processed surface 1b of the workpiece 1 to the photomask 12 side, a pressing plate 4 as a spring-like elastic member interposed between the cover 13 and the thin plate 10, and a photomask 12 are supported. Photomask holder 1
4 is provided. The reference surface 11b of the parallel base 11 is made of a material having a high hardness, and has a flatness that is equal to or greater than that of the workpiece 1 as compared with the variation in height.
Two positioning pins 11a are attached to the reference surface 11b. The pin 11a is desirably adjusted to the inner diameter of the sensor element, but a hole or a groove corresponding to the outer diameter may be provided on the reference surface 11b of the parallel base 11 depending on required accuracy. Further, the number of pins may be the same as the number of products 1 to be exposed at one time. Parallel stand 11 and photomask holder 14
Are positioned so that the photomask 12 accurately adheres to the workpiece 1 placed on the pins 11a. The pressing plate 4 may be the same as that used in the first embodiment, and as shown in FIG.
a is provided and the plate spring portion 4b is provided on the inner periphery of the hole. The leaf spring portion 4b is slightly bent to one side. The thickness of the cover 13 is such that the work surface 1b of the work 1 is slightly lower than the upper surface of the cover 13 when the cover 13 is simply placed on the work 1 via the pressing plate 4. In addition, when the cover 13 is pressed, the thickness of the pressing plate 4 must be reduced to ensure that the processed surface 1b projects from the hole 13a. Also,
The elastic force of the pressing plate 4 is such that the photomask holder 14 is lowered and the photomask 12 is easily thinned by an amount of pressing to press the cover 13, and the pressing force causes the pressing plate 4 to be thinned. Before the work surface 1b of the workpiece 1 protrudes from the hole 13a of the cover 13, the elastic force must be set to such an extent that distortion and warpage of the thin plate 10 are corrected. The operation of the thus configured apparatus when the photomask 12 is in close contact will be described with reference to FIG. First, the photomask holder 1 on which the photomask 12 is mounted
4 is lowered (a). Photomask 12 is cover 13
, And presses the upper surface of the cover 13 so that the thin plate 1
Zero distortion and warpage are corrected, and the gap between the reference surface of the workpiece 1 and the reference surface of the parallel stand 11 disappears (b). The bending of the leaf spring portion of the pressing plate 4 becomes smaller, and the entire pressing plate 4 becomes thinner, so that the photomask 12 and the work surface 1 of the workpiece 1 are formed.
b adheres (c). Then, the photomask holder 14
Are raised, and at the stage of releasing the photomask 12, (b) to
Return to (a). In other words, the close contact and detachment of the photomask 12 have completely corrected the distortion and warpage of the thin plate 10.
The process can be performed in a state of excellent parallelism, sticking can be prevented, and resist peeling can be suppressed.
Further, it is not necessary to perform vacuum suction fixing as in the related art, and productivity is improved. (Other Embodiments) In the above embodiments and examples, a product having a large-diameter portion and a small-diameter portion was used as a product to be manufactured.
The present invention is not limited to this. The present invention is appropriately applied to the manufacture of a sensor element having a prism shape or a column shape as long as it has a rod shape.

According to the present invention, the surface to be processed is processed while the surface to be provided provided on the workpiece is pressed against the reference surface by a spring-like elastic member. Process can be performed on a plurality of non-manufactured products at the same time and in a state where they are reliably positioned without swinging, thereby realizing high-precision, high-precision sensor element manufacturing. be able to. If the processing is a polishing process or a photolithography process, a plurality of objects can be simultaneously polished and exposed while reliably positioning the objects irrespective of the distortion or warpage of the thin plate. A parallel plate with a reference surface having a flatness greater than the required polishing accuracy,
A polishing plate provided with a polishing surface parallel to the reference surface at a position opposed to the reference surface, and when polishing by sandwiching one unit of the product between the reference surface and the polishing surface Since a spring-like elastic member that presses the workpiece against the reference surface is provided, the swinging of the workpiece is prevented with a simple configuration, and the workpiece is pressed against the parallel plate with a uniform pressing force. Thus, the workpiece can be polished with high accuracy, and the productivity of the sensor element can be improved. A hole for exposing a surface to be polished of the object to be polished to the polishing plate side, and the object to be polished is exposed through the spring-like elastic member while the surface to be polished of the object is exposed from the hole. Providing a holder that presses against the reference surface of the plate, compared to a method of fixing the workpiece to the parallel plate with an adhesive,
Since the workpieces can be easily attached and detached and a plurality of workpieces can be simultaneously polished with high accuracy, the productivity of the sensor element can be improved. A parallel base having a reference surface, and a photomask holder supporting a photomask parallel to the reference surface at a position facing the reference surface, wherein a workpiece to be manufactured is provided between the reference surface and the photomask. When performing exposure with the photomask in close contact with the surface to be processed of the workpiece, the spring-like elastic member that presses the reference surface and the workpiece is provided. Since the surface to be processed stably maintains the parallelism when it comes into close contact with the surface, occurrence of sticking can be suppressed, and the quality of the sensor element can be improved. Providing a cover having a hole that exposes the processing surface of one unit of the workpiece on the photomask side, the photomask holder and the parallel base,
By approaching while maintaining parallelism, the photomask presses the workpiece against the reference surface of the parallel base via the cover and the spring-like elastic member, and in that state, the photomask contacts the processing surface of the workpiece. By pressure bonding, a plurality of products can be simultaneously subjected to photolithography processing with few pattern defects due to sticking with a simple configuration, and a sensor element with good productivity can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a polishing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of a polishing apparatus according to the present invention used in an experiment of an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of an exposure apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of a spring-like elastic member used in an exposure apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of close contact of a photomask in an exposure apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic sectional view of a polishing apparatus according to the prior art.

FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional view of a polishing apparatus according to the prior art.

FIG. 8 is a schematic sectional view of a polishing apparatus according to the prior art.

FIG. 9 is a schematic sectional view of an exposure apparatus according to the related art.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of sticking in an exposure apparatus according to the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 101: Workpiece 1a: Reference surface 1b: Polished surface 2, 102: Weight 3, 103: Parallel plate 3a: Reference surface 4: Press plate 5, 105: Holder 6: Screw 7, 107: Guide 8 Polishing board 8a Polishing surface 109 Wax 10, 110 Thin plate 11 Parallel stand 12, 113 Photomask 13 Cover 14 Photomask holder 114 Resist

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of products are fixed to one thin plate,
By processing this as one unit, in a sensor element manufacturing method for simultaneously manufacturing a plurality of substantially cylindrical sensor elements one end of which is closed, providing a reference surface serving as a positioning reference of the plurality of workpieces, A method for manufacturing a sensor element, wherein a process is performed on a surface to be processed while the surface to be provided provided on the workpiece is pressed against the reference surface by a spring-like elastic member. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the processing is polishing. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the processing is photolithography. 4. An apparatus for manufacturing a sensor element, in which a plurality of products to be manufactured are fixed to a single thin plate and polished as a unit in order to simultaneously manufacture a plurality of substantially cylindrical sensor elements having one end closed. A parallel plate provided with a reference surface having a flatness equal to or higher than the required polishing accuracy, and a polishing plate provided with a polishing surface parallel to the reference surface at a position facing the reference surface. A step of manufacturing the sensor element, wherein a spring-like elastic member for pressing the object against the reference surface is provided when the one unit of the object is sandwiched between the reference surface and the polishing surface for polishing. apparatus. 5. A workpiece having a hole for exposing a surface to be polished of the object to the side of the polishing plate, and the object to be polished is exposed to the spring-like elasticity with the surface to be polished of the object being exposed from the hole. The apparatus for manufacturing a sensor element according to claim 4, further comprising a holder that is pressed against a reference surface of the parallel plate via a member. 6. A sensor element for performing photolithography processing by fixing a plurality of workpieces to a single thin plate and manufacturing the same as one unit in order to simultaneously manufacture a plurality of substantially cylindrical sensor elements having one end closed. A manufacturing apparatus, comprising: a parallel base having a reference surface; and a photomask holder supporting a photomask parallel to the reference surface at a position facing the reference surface. A spring-like elastic member that presses the reference surface and the workpiece when exposure is performed with the photomask in close contact with the workpiece surface of the workpiece with the workpiece sandwiched therebetween is provided. Equipment for manufacturing sensor elements. 7. A photomask, comprising: a cover having a hole for exposing a processing surface of the one unit workpiece on a photomask side; and bringing the photomask holder and the parallel base close to each other while maintaining parallelism. The mask, via a cover and a spring-like elastic member,
The apparatus for manufacturing a sensor element according to claim 6, wherein the workpiece is pressed against a reference surface of the parallel base, and in this state, a photomask is pressed on a processing surface of the workpiece.