JPH1172774A - Production of liquid crystal display substrate and wet treating device used for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to cost effectively executed a wet treatment of large-sized substrates by automatically and successively executing a series of treatments by transporting the substrates to a horizontal treating section where the substrates are subjected to a horizontal treatment, transporting the substrates to a spin washing section where the substrates are subjected to washing and drying and carrying the substrates into a cassette in an unloader section at the front of the apparatus. SOLUTION: The substrates receiving a descending lift are lowered in a horizontal held state and are transferred to a first spin treating section. The substrates are successively installed to two units of spin treating mechanisms by the double arm transporting robot of this spin treating section. While the substrates are rotated, a treating liquid is dropped from nozzles and the required wet treatment is executed for a specified time in the spin treatment. The number of revolutions is thereafter increased to shake off the treating liquid on the substrates. The substrates subjected to the treatment are recovered and are transferred to the horizontal treating section. While the substrates are horizontally transported by rollers in the horizontal treating section, both surfaces of the substrates are rinsed and washed by spraying using pure water and ultrasonic waves and, thereafter, the substrates are subjected to water draining and drying with air knives. The substrates are received by the double arm transporting robot and are installed onto a spin table.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, and more particularly to a method for manufacturing an active matrix circuit substrate on which a thin film transistor is formed, and further relates to a liquid crystal display device manufactured by the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art TFT which is a typical liquid crystal display device
-LCD (Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal)
An example of manufacturing an active matrix circuit substrate (also referred to as a TFT substrate), which is the most important component of the display, will be described below with reference to FIG.

A gate electrode 2 is formed on a glass substrate 1,
Next, the gate insulating film 3, the i-layer, and the a-S
The i (Amorphous Silicon) film 4 is formed by CVD (Chemical V).
Then, the a-Si film 4 is processed into an island shape, and the gate insulating film 3 is processed into a predetermined shape. Next, a source electrode 5 and a drain electrode 6 are formed, and then, unnecessary n + layers are removed. Next, a passivation film 7 is formed and processed into a predetermined shape. Next, a transparent electrode 8 of ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) is formed in the pixel portion, and an active matrix circuit substrate may be manufactured.

In order to manufacture a liquid crystal display device using such a TFT substrate, a TFT substrate and a color filter substrate are bonded together, a liquid crystal is sealed in a gap, and then a polarizing plate, a driving circuit, a backlight, a light guide plate and the like are mounted. You do it. Through such a series of steps, a color liquid crystal display is manufactured.

In the manufacture of a TFT substrate, it is advantageous to increase the size of the glass substrate in order to improve productivity and increase the number of liquid crystal panels that can be obtained from one mother glass substrate. There is a tendency to use glass substrates. Conventionally, the number of liquid crystal panels obtained from a mother glass substrate was about one to four, but now it is necessary to obtain six to nine or more.

In the manufacture of a TFT substrate using such a large glass substrate, in a series of steps for forming TFT elements on the substrate, the substrates are sequentially charged from a substrate cassette to a processing apparatus, processed, and then charged into the cassette. With a combination of a series of operations such as transfer to the next apparatus as a unit of one step, a predetermined number of steps are sequentially processed by different processing apparatuses to manufacture a TFT substrate. Representative of such processes are cleaning, film formation, photoresist pattern formation, etching, resist peeling, characteristic inspection, and the like.
A dedicated processing device is provided for each process.

Among such apparatuses, a wet processing apparatus used for cleaning, etching, resist stripping, etc. receives a substrate from a cassette at a loader section at the front of the apparatus and performs various wet processing while transporting the substrate horizontally with rollers. After a series of processes such as rinsing, washing, and drying, the substrate is stored in a cassette by an unloader unit at the rear of the apparatus, which is a so-called horizontal transport type single-wafer processing apparatus. Manufacturing a TFT substrate using such an apparatus was well known to those skilled in the art. When the processing time required for the wet processing is insufficient with such an apparatus, the wet processing is performed using an apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-176507 called a vertical immersion type single wafer processing apparatus to manufacture a TFT substrate. I was doing it.

[0008]

However, as the size of a glass substrate for manufacturing a TFT is significantly increased, the size of a wet apparatus for realizing a manufacturing process is also significantly increased as compared with the related art. Therefore, the effect of improving the productivity due to the increase in the size of the glass substrate tends to be offset by the increase in the size of the apparatus. Specifically, the increase in the size of the wet processing equipment significantly increases the equipment price, resulting in a decrease in capital investment efficiency, and the need to transport and process large glass substrates without breaking them inside the equipment. As a result, the processing tact rises, and a problem such as a decrease in the throughput of the apparatus occurs.

Further, an increase in the load of transporting cassettes between apparatuses due to the increase in the size of the substrate also contributes to an increase in the product price. This is an essential issue for providing a good liquid crystal display device.

Further, independently developing a processing apparatus suitable for various types of wet processing requires enormous development costs for the processing apparatus, significantly increasing the price of the manufacturing apparatus, and as a result, manufacturing using the apparatus. There is a problem that the price of the liquid crystal display device becomes extremely expensive. In order to solve such a problem, there has been a demand for the development of a technique that enables common use of wet treatment apparatuses and enables various wet treatments with a common apparatus.

Therefore, to summarize the object of the present invention,
An object of the present invention is to provide a high-performance wet processing method and apparatus that innovate a method of manufacturing a TFT substrate required for a liquid crystal display device using a large glass substrate.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and the processing form of a conventional wet processing process for a large substrate has been drastically changed.
The wet processing of the substrate is performed according to the process flow shown in FIG. That is, in the method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate of the present invention, the substrate stored in the cassette after completing the step immediately before the wet processing step targeted by the present invention is transferred to the wet processing apparatus of the present invention, Next, the cassette is loaded into the loader section on the front of the apparatus, the substrate is taken out of the cassette, then transferred to the horizontal transfer section by an ascending lift, the substrate is transferred by horizontal transfer to the rear of the apparatus, and then the substrate is transferred by the descending lift. Descends to the transfer height,
Is performed, and then the substrate is subjected to horizontal processing in a horizontal transfer processing unit, and then the substrate is subjected to a second spin processing,
Then, the substrate is loaded into the cassette by the unloader unit on the front of the apparatus, the cassette filled with the substrate is unloaded, the substrate is transported to the next step, and the next step is performed. By automatically and sequentially performing such a series of processes, wet processing of a large substrate can be performed surprisingly economically.

Further, in the process of the present invention, a common processing procedure can be used for different wet processing, and the waste of developing a different apparatus for each type of processing can be largely reduced.

An example of the wet processing step which is an object of the present invention is a glass substrate receiving and cleaning step subsequent to a step of filling a purchased glass substrate into a cassette,
The substrate is transferred to a gate electrode manufacturing process after cleaning.
After the gate electrode is formed, the substrate is washed, and the next C is formed.
The cleaning process to be sent to the VD process is also related to the present invention. In addition, the substrate cleaning after forming the source and drain electrodes, the substrate cleaning between processes after forming the transparent electrode, or T
The present invention is also effective for cleaning before transferring to the liquid crystal cell forming step after the completion of the FT substrate, or for cleaning the substrate after various inspection steps inserted during the step.

Further, in the step of forming each electrode, after a photoresist pattern having a predetermined shape is formed on the substrate on which the film has been formed, unnecessary portions are etched by the wet processing apparatus of the present invention, and the next photoresist is etched. A series of treatments sent to the peeling step can also be an object of the present invention.

A series of processes in which the substrate after the photoresist coating process and the exposure process is developed by the wet processing apparatus of the present invention, and then the resist is peeled off can also be an object of the present invention.

Further, a series of processes in the subsequent inspection and film forming process after the resist on the substrate after the etched substrate is removed by the method of the present invention can also be an object of the present invention.

As is apparent from this example, the method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate of the present invention can cover almost all wet processes related to the manufacture of a TFT substrate.

An example of a wet processing apparatus used in the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the present invention, the cassette 10 filled with the substrate after the previous process is carried into the wet processing apparatus, and then the loader unit 11 on the front of the apparatus for removing the substrate from the cassette 10 and the removed substrate are transferred to the rear of the apparatus. Horizontal transport section 12
And a spin processing mechanism 13 for performing the first spin processing
, A horizontal processing unit 15 for processing while horizontally transporting a substrate, and a spin processing unit 1 including a spin processing mechanism 13 for performing a second spin processing.
6, an unloader unit 17 for filling a cassette with a substrate after a series of processes and carrying it out to the next process, a plurality of transfer robots 18 for transferring the substrate between these units, It comprises a control unit (not shown) for performing a series of operations according to a predetermined procedure. Here, the front surface of the apparatus refers to a portion facing a passage for conveying a cassette between the apparatuses in the present invention.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the present invention, the loader section and the unloader section on the front of the apparatus function in the same section, and after a series of processing is performed on substrates sequentially taken out of a cassette containing unprocessed substrates. And a function of sequentially storing the processed substrates in the same cassette.

The horizontal transfer unit of the present invention receives an unprocessed substrate taken out of the cassette, lifts the substrate while holding it horizontally, and lifts the substrate to a horizontal transfer surface, and lifts the substrate to the rear of the apparatus. Horizontal transport function,
The apparatus comprises a lowering lift 20 for lowering the substrate to a transfer height while holding the substrate horizontally at the rear of the apparatus.
By providing such a horizontal transfer section, the substrate can be moved from the loader section at the front of the apparatus to the rear of the apparatus. Such a function is necessary to use a series of different parts to sequentially apply a series of processes to a substrate in a wet apparatus. Further, in the present invention, in order to reduce the floor area of the device,
It is preferable and more recommended to dispose the horizontal transport section above a horizontal processing section described later.

The spin processing mechanism 13 of the first spin processing section 14 of the present invention holds a substrate on a spin table mechanically or by vacuum suction, and performs wet processing by dropping a processing liquid onto the substrate. As for the method of supplying and dropping the processing liquid, a method of supplying from a fixed or movable single or plural nozzles can be selected. These supply methods should be optimized according to the intended processing process. Also, the control of the spin rotation speed of the substrate during or after the processing should be optimized according to the target processing process. Such optimization needs to be determined from a plurality of viewpoints, such as the required performance in the target process and the economics of the amount used for the processing solution or the economics of recovery and reuse of the processing solution. However, one of the features of the present invention is that the substrate that has been processed on the spin table is rotated at a high speed so that the amount of the processing liquid attached on the substrate is surprisingly reduced, and is sent to the next rinsing step. What you can do.

In the spin processing section, it is also possible to apply a rinsing liquid of a type different from the target processing liquid to the substrate after the processing, and replace the processing liquid with the rinsing liquid while spin-rotating the processing liquid. Further, it is also possible to carry out up to spin drying after rinsing. The design of such a process should also be optimized from the viewpoint of economics such as the processing speed of the substrate and the amount of the processing solution and rinsing solution used.

Further, the number of spins of the spin processing unit is determined in consideration of the processing performance of the entire wet processing apparatus and the processing time required from the process, and is not limited to one and may be increased as necessary. .

The horizontal processing section 15 of the present invention is a section for rinsing or cleaning the processing liquid attached to the substrate by fluid processing such as spraying or ultrasonic waves while horizontally transporting the substrate. A combination of spray processing is common. In the horizontal processing section, not only the front surface (upper surface) but also the back surface (lower surface) of the substrate processed by spin are simultaneously rinsed,
It can be washed. One of the features of the present invention in which a horizontal processing unit is provided is that the horizontal processing unit can strongly clean dirt, foreign matter, and the like on the back surface of the substrate, which are difficult to clean by spinning. The liquid used in the horizontal processing unit is mainly pure water or deionized water, but this does not mean that other chemicals cannot be used. The selection of such a liquid should be appropriately selected according to the intended processing.

Further, the horizontal processing section of the present invention is preferably and more preferably provided with an air knife for draining or drying the liquid attached to the substrate after the fluid processing.

The second spin processing section 16 of the present invention holds the substrate on the spin table mechanically or by vacuum suction similarly to the first spin processing section, and sprays the substrate using pure water or deionized water. The substrate is washed by a fluid treatment such as microwave or ultrasonic waves, and then the washed substrate is spin-dried. As a method of fluid treatment by such spin, a treatment method using a fixed or movable single or plural nozzles can be selected. These treatment methods should be optimized according to the target substrate cleanliness. Also, the control of the spin speed of the substrate during or after the cleaning should be optimized according to the intended cleaning process.

Further, in the second spin processing section of the present invention, air or nitrogen gas blow for promoting drying can be used together, and it is preferable to shorten the drying time. Such a blow nozzle can be fixed at the center of the substrate at the time of drying, or can be moved from the center to the periphery of the substrate. Moving the nozzle is preferred and more recommended for shortening the drying time.

In the present invention, the first spin processing section and the second spin processing section are separated via the horizontal processing section, so that the processing liquid used in the first spin processing section is separated from the second spin processing section. Therefore, such effects should be emphasized as a feature of the present invention.

Further, the number of spins of the spin processing unit is determined depending on the processing performance of the entire wet processing apparatus and the processing time required from the process, and is not limited to one, and may be increased as necessary. This is the same as in the case of the first spin processing unit.

Further, in the present invention, it is possible to additionally provide a bake position for heating and cooling the substrate which has been dried in the second spin processing section. Since the necessity of such baking depends on the intended treatment process, its use is recommended when the necessity is high. In addition, processing such as irradiation with ultraviolet light as well as baking may be added as necessary.

Further, in the present invention, the transfer robot 18 for transferring a substrate between each part in the apparatus is not limited to the transfer function between two parts, but is limited to three or more parts. It is also possible to set the function so that the substrate can be transferred between them. Rather, such features may be more favorable for the optimization of equipment throughput and equipment costs.

Further, in the present invention, a wet processing apparatus in which the first spin processing section is omitted may be used depending on a target processing process. An example of such a case is a washing step using pure water. It should be particularly noted that such a case is also included in the present invention. If the substrate is processed by omitting the first spin processing in the wet processing apparatus having the first spin processing unit, the cleaning with pure water can be performed. What can be achieved should be emphasized. As described above, the present invention has a feature that a very flexible processing can be performed in the manufacture of the TFT substrate.

Further, according to the present invention, the cassette after the previous step is carried into a wet apparatus, the substrate is taken out of the cassette, and then the substrate is processed in the second spin processing unit.
Next, the substrate is processed while horizontally transporting the substrate in the horizontal processing section, the substrate is washed and dried in the first spin processing section, and then the substrate is transported from the rear of the apparatus to the front of the apparatus in the horizontal transport section. The same processing can be performed by an operation reverse to the above-described operation of filling the cassette with the processed substrate into a cassette and carrying it out to the next step. The fact that such a configuration becomes possible is merely a proof that the present invention can flexibly cope with a wet process.

The size of the glass substrate suitable for the present invention is 0.3.
0.03 to 3 m 2 on a glass substrate 5 to 5 mm thick
The lower limit of the size is determined by the economics that do not require such an apparatus, and the upper limit of the size is determined by the limit that can be processed without breaking a large glass substrate.

In the wet processing of the present invention, the productivity of the TFT substrate can be increased, and the production tact is 0.1.
Surprisingly short processing of 5 to 5 minutes / substrate is possible. The lower limit of the tact is determined by the balance between the time required for wet processing, cleaning, drying, and substrate transfer and the cost of the apparatus, and the upper limit is limited by the limit that does not increase the manufacturing cost.

Further, the direct object of the present invention is the manufacture of a liquid crystal display substrate. The excellent functions of the present invention are also applicable to the manufacture of a plasma display device using the same glass substrate and the manufacture of a semiconductor device using a silicon wafer. It can be used, and it can also be used to manufacture magnetic heads and mounting boards for multi-chip modules. It should be emphasized that the manufacture of such products is also included in the present invention. In such a case, it is naturally necessary to select an appropriate range for the usable basic size in consideration of the mechanical characteristics of the substrate.

[0038]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The results of the concrete implementation of the present invention are shown below. In the practice of the present invention, a wet processing apparatus whose perspective view is shown in FIG. 4 was used. Such a wet processing apparatus according to the present invention is used for manufacturing a TFT substrate and is 650 mm × 83
It was developed to process a rectangular glass substrate of 0 mm and thickness of 0.7 mm in about one minute in tact time. The same equipment is used for a wide range of applications such as cleaning, etching, development, and resist stripping related to the manufacture of TFT substrates. It can be used. Since the following embodiments are commonly performed using such a wet processing apparatus, the operation of this apparatus will first be described in detail.

The substrate having undergone the previous process is transported to the apparatus by an automatic carrier while being stored in a cassette, and is set in the apparatus by a loader disposed on the front of the apparatus. The double-arm transfer robot of the loader unit takes out the substrates in the cassette one by one and loads them into the lift unit. The lift lifts the substrate while holding it horizontally, and transfers the substrate to a horizontal transfer mechanism. This is moved to a descending lift section at the rear of the apparatus by a roller conveyor. The descending lift descends while holding the received substrate horizontally, and transfers it to the first spin processing unit. The double-arm transfer robot of the spin processing unit sequentially sets the substrates on the two spin processing mechanisms.

In the spin processing, the processing liquid is dropped from a nozzle while rotating the substrate, and the required wet processing is performed for a certain period of time. Thereafter, the processing liquid on the substrate is shaken off by increasing the number of rotations. The processed substrate is collected and delivered to the horizontal processing unit. In the horizontal processing unit, both sides of the substrate are rinsed with spray and ultrasonic waves using pure water while transporting the substrate horizontally with rollers,
After washing, drain with an air knife and dry. The substrate is received by the double arm transfer robot of the spin cleaning unit, and is sequentially set on two spin cleaning spin tables.

In the spin cleaning, the nozzle arm is reciprocated while supplying pure water from an ultrasonic wave and a spray nozzle installed above the substrate while rotating the substrate to precisely clean the front surface of the substrate. After the cleaning is completed, the substrate is rotated at a high speed and dried. At this time, the drying time is reduced by simultaneously using nitrogen blowing from the center of the substrate toward the periphery. The robot receives the dried substrate, completely removes the moisture in a baking oven, moves to a cooling plate below the baking oven, and cools it. This operation is also performed by the double arm transfer robot of the spin cleaning unit. Finally, the double-arm transfer robot of the loader receives the cooled substrate, and stores the substrate in the same cassette in which the substrate before processing is stored. When all the substrates in the cassette have been processed, the automatic transporter transports the cassette and moves to the next step.

Example 1 Purchased 650 mm × 830
After the glass substrate having a thickness of 0.7 mm and a thickness of 0.7 mm was washed by the above-described wet processing apparatus of the present invention, the substrate was put into the next gate wiring step, and a TFT substrate was manufactured through a series of subsequent steps. In the first spin processing unit, an alkaline cleaning agent having a pH of 13 was heated to 60 ° C. and dropped on the entire surface of the substrate for 60 seconds. At this time, the substrate was rotated at 50 rpm. After that, the dripping of the alkaline cleaning agent was stopped, and the substrate was rotated at 500 rpm.
The cleaning liquid adhering to the substrate was shaken off. Then, after rinsing and washing in the horizontal processing section, water adhering to the substrate was removed with an air knife. Then, the substrate was rotated at 200 rpm in the spin cleaning section.
The substrate surface was washed by swinging four ultrasonic nozzles and two sprays for 60 seconds while rotating with. Thereafter, the substrate was rotated at a high speed of 2000 rpm and dried while using nitrogen blowing.

No harmful contamination or foreign matter was found on the substrate subjected to the alkali cleaning treatment, and it was found that the yield of the TFT substrate completed through the next gate wiring step was extremely high.

Furthermore, it was also found that the method of the present invention can perform high-speed processing for one tact of processing by operating two processing mechanisms in parallel for spin processing and spin cleaning.

Example 2 After a chromium alloy for a gate electrode was sputtered to a thickness of 200 nm over the entire surface of a substrate, the substrate on which a predetermined photoresist pattern was formed was etched by the wet processing apparatus of the present invention, and then the resist was peeled off. The TFT substrate was manufactured through the following steps and a series of subsequent steps. In the first spin processing section, an acidic cerium etching solution as an etching solution was heated to 30 ° C. and dropped on the entire surface of the substrate for 60 seconds. At this time, the substrate was rotated at 50 rpm. Thereafter, the dropping of the etching solution was stopped, and the substrate was rotated at 500 rpm while pure water was dropped at the center of the substrate to shake off the etching solution attached to the substrate. Then, after rinsing and washing in the horizontal processing section, water adhering to the substrate was removed with an air knife. Then, the substrate was washed for 200 r in the spin cleaning section.
60 rpm for 4 seconds, 4 ultrasonic nozzles and 2
The surfaces of the substrates were washed by swinging the sprays. Thereafter, the substrate was rotated at a high speed of 2000 rpm and dried while using nitrogen blowing.

No harmful contamination or foreign matter was observed on the substrate subjected to the etching treatment, and it was found that the yield of the TFT substrate completed through the subsequent resist removing step was extremely high.

Further, it was also found that in the method of the present invention, high-speed processing for one tact of processing is possible by operating two processing mechanisms in parallel for spin processing and spin cleaning, respectively.

(Example 3) The substrate after the gate electrode etching was completed was subjected to resist stripping by the wet processing apparatus of the present invention, and then was subjected to a CVD process. After a series of processes, a TFT substrate was manufactured. In the first spin processing section, monoethanolamine is used as a resist stripper for 60 minutes.
The solution was heated to ℃ and dropped on the entire surface of the substrate for 60 seconds. At this time, the substrate was rotated at 50 rpm. Thereafter, the dropping of the resist stripping solution was stopped, and the substrate was rotated at 500 rpm to shake off the stripping solution attached to the substrate. Then, after rinsing and washing in the horizontal processing section, water adhering to the substrate was removed with an air knife. Next, while rotating the substrate at 200 rpm in the spin cleaning unit, four ultrasonic nozzles and two sprays were swung for 60 seconds to wash the substrate surface. Thereafter, the substrate was rotated at a high speed of 2000 rpm and dried while using nitrogen blowing.

No harmful contamination, no unstripped resist or foreign matter was observed on the substrate subjected to the resist stripping process, and the following C
The yield of the TFT substrate completed through the VD process was found to be extremely high.

Further, it was also found that the method of the present invention enables high-speed processing of one processing tact by operating two processing mechanisms in parallel for spin processing and spin cleaning, respectively.

(Embodiment 4) The same wet processing as in Embodiments 1 to 3 is performed by a CVD film forming step other than the gate wiring step.
Although applied to pure water washing and resist stripping in the Si island formation process, source drain wiring process, passivation formation process, and transparent electrode formation process, no harmful contamination or foreign matter was observed on the finished substrate, and a series of The yield of the TFT substrate completed through the process was found to be extremely high. The performance of the 12-inch diagonal liquid crystal display device completed after sealing the liquid crystal using such a TFT substrate is satisfactory, and it is also found that a high-performance liquid crystal display device having both high yield and high productivity can be provided at low cost. Was. From these results, it was confirmed that the present invention was an excellent production method.

[0052]

According to the present invention, the processing mode of the wet processing process for a large substrate is drastically changed. The substrate after the previous process is unloaded from the cassette by the loader unit on the front of the apparatus, and the substrate is processed by the spin processing unit. Transported to
The substrate is transported to the horizontal processing unit to perform horizontal processing, the substrate is transported to the spin cleaning unit, washed and dried, the substrate is loaded into the cassette by the unloader unit on the front of the apparatus, and a series of processes until proceeding to the next step An object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, wherein the operations are performed by the same device. According to the present invention, the wet processing of a large substrate can be performed surprisingly economically by automatically and sequentially performing such a series of processing.

Further, since the present invention can be applied commonly to various types of wet processing, the waste of developing and manufacturing apparatuses having different specifications for each processing can be greatly reduced. In the manufacture of TFTs for large substrates, the price of the processing equipment becomes enormous, and the development cost of the equipment occupies a large part of the price. Therefore, the present invention, which can perform various kinds of different processing with a common equipment, greatly increases the equipment price. Therefore, the manufacturing cost of the liquid crystal display substrate is reduced.

In addition, according to the present invention, a highly reliable device can be provided, so that the production yield of the liquid crystal display device can be improved. Various effects such as reduction of pollution due to reduction of the number of units, isolation of the two spin processing units by the horizontal processing unit, and reduction of the equipment installation area by providing the horizontal processing unit at the bottom of the horizontal transport unit are considered to be comprehensive. Some of the economic and technical effects of the invention are immeasurable.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a cross section of a transistor portion of a TFT substrate according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a wet process of the present invention according to the process flow of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an arrangement block of the wet processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a wet processing apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: glass substrate, 2: gate electrode, 3:
Gate insulating film, 4 ... a-Si film, 5 ... source electrode, 6 ... drain electrode, 7 ... passivation film,
8 transparent electrode, 10 cassette, 11 loader section, 12 horizontal transport section, 13 spin processing mechanism, 14 first spin processing section, 15 horizontal processing section,
16: second spin processing section, 17: unloader section,
18: transfer robot, 19: lift, 20: lift.

Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H01L 21/336 H01L 29/78 626C 627Z (72) Inventor Satoshi Amano 3300 Hayano, Mobara-shi, Chiba Pref. Electronic Device Division, Hitachi, Ltd.

Claims (21)

[Claims] 1. A substrate stored in a cassette after the previous step is conveyed to a wet processing apparatus, the cassette is loaded into a loader section on the front of the apparatus, the substrate is taken out of the cassette, and then lifted by a lift. The substrate is transferred to the horizontal transfer unit, then the substrate is transferred to the rear part of the apparatus by horizontal transfer, the substrate is lowered to the transfer height by the downward lift, the substrate is subjected to the first spin process, and the substrate is then horizontally transferred. Section, a second spin process is performed on the substrate, then the substrate is loaded into a cassette by an unloader section on the front of the apparatus, the cassette filled with the substrate is unloaded, and the substrate is then transferred to the next step. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, comprising transporting and then performing the following steps. 2. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate according to claim 1, wherein said wet treatment shown in claim 1 is at least one of washing, etching, photoresist development, and photoresist stripping steps. 3. After performing the cleaning step according to claim 2, any one of a gate wiring step, a CVD film forming step, an a-Si island forming step, a source / drain wiring step, a passivation forming step, and a transparent electrode forming step. Alternatively, a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, comprising manufacturing a TFT substrate through a plurality of steps. 4. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, comprising a step of subjecting a substrate having undergone a photoresist coating step and an exposure step to the development described in claim 2, and then removing the resist. 5. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, comprising the steps of: etching a substrate having undergone a film forming step and a photoresist forming step; and removing the resist. 6. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, comprising: subjecting a substrate which has undergone a photoresist forming step and an etching step to peeling of the resist as set forth in claim 2; 7. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, comprising: performing the process according to claim 1 on the substrate a plurality of times. 8. A liquid crystal display substrate according to claim 1, wherein the treatment according to claim 1 is a wet treatment of a glass substrate having a thickness of 0.5 to 5 mm and a size of 0.03 to 3 square m. Manufacturing method. 9. The loader unit and the unloader unit according to claim 1 function as the same unit, and after performing a series of processing on the substrates sequentially taken out of the cassette storing the unprocessed substrates, A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, comprising a function of sequentially storing processed substrates in a cassette. 10. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate according to claim 1, wherein said horizontal transport section is disposed above said horizontal processing section. 11. The spin processing unit according to claim 1, further comprising a spin processing mechanism for holding the substrate on a spin table by mechanical or vacuum suction, and dropping a processing liquid onto the substrate to perform wet processing. Of manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate. 12. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate according to claim 1, wherein said spin processing section has a plurality of spin processing mechanisms. 13. The second spin processing unit according to claim 1, wherein the first spin processing unit performs a wet process using a processing liquid, and the horizontal processing unit performs pure water rinsing and pure water cleaning. Washing with pure water and drying in a liquid crystal display substrate. 14. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, wherein said second spin processing section according to claim 1 is cleaned with pure water using spray or ultrasonic waves. 15. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate according to claim 1, further comprising blowing air or nitrogen gas when drying the substrate after washing with pure water in said second spin processing section. 16. A liquid crystal display substrate according to claim 1, wherein when the substrate is dried after washing with pure water in the second spin processing section, drying is promoted by moving a blow of air or nitrogen gas. Manufacturing method. 17. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate according to claim 1, wherein said horizontal processing section is cleaned with pure water using spray or ultrasonic waves. 18. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate according to claim 1, wherein the substrate subjected to the fluid processing is drained or dried with an air knife in the horizontal processing section. 19. A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, wherein the wet processing according to claim 1 is performed at a cycle time of 0.5 to 5 minutes / substrate. 20. A method for manufacturing a plasma display device, a semiconductor device, a magnetic head, or a mounting substrate using the wet processing according to claim 1. 21. A loader section on the front of the apparatus, a horizontal transport section for transferring the taken-out substrate to the rear section of the apparatus, a spin processing section having a spin processing mechanism for performing a first spin processing, Horizontal processing unit for processing while horizontally transporting the substrate, a spin processing unit having a spin processing mechanism for performing the second spin processing, and filling the cassette with the substrate after the series of processing to the next process An unloader unit for unloading, a plurality of transfer robots for transferring substrates between these units, and a control unit for performing a series of these operations in accordance with a predetermined procedure. Wet processing equipment.