KR100643507B1 - Apparatus for manufacturing fpd - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a flat panel display (FPD) manufacturing apparatus.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus including a load lock chamber, a transfer chamber, and a process chamber, the load lock chamber comprising: a vacuum chamber capable of forming a vacuum therein; An opening formed on a sidewall of the vacuum chamber and capable of carrying in and taking out a substrate into the vacuum chamber; A gate valve which opens and closes the opening; And an end effect insertion groove which is formed to be recessed to a predetermined depth in the lower wall of the vacuum chamber and is inserted into an end effect of a substrate transfer robot installed outside the load lock chamber to move in an up and down direction. A flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus is provided.

Flat Panel Display, Flat Panel Display Manufacturing Equipment, Load Lock Chamber, Aligner

Description

Flat panel display device manufacturing device {APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING FPD}

1 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a conventional flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus.

2 is a diagram illustrating a process of loading a substrate into a conventional load lock chamber.

3 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a structure of a load lock chamber according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a load lock chamber according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a process chart of the substrate loading method in the load lock chamber according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of Symbols for Major Parts of Drawings>

1: conventional flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus

10: load lock chamber 12: loading portion

14 gate valve 16 aligner

18: lift pin 20: conveying chamber

30: process chamber 110: load lock chamber according to an embodiment of the present invention

120: vacuum chamber 120: end effect insertion groove

130 substrate protection member 140 substrate guide portion

150: lamination table 152: substrate lamination member

E: End Effect S: Substrate

The present invention relates to a flat panel display (FPD) manufacturing apparatus.

In general, a flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus used for manufacturing a flat panel display device such as a liquid crystal display (PDP) or a PDP is composed of a load lock chamber, a transfer chamber, and a process chamber.

As shown in FIG. 1, the load lock chamber, the transfer chamber, and the process chamber are connected in parallel in parallel, and provided with gate valves for maintaining airtightness between the chambers to independently maintain a vacuum atmosphere between the chambers, and the like. To keep it.

At this time, the load lock chamber 10 is connected to the outside, and serves to bring in a new substrate to be processed from the outside, or to take out the processed substrate in the flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus to the outside, the inside of the vacuum It keeps in contact with the outside while repeatedly maintaining its state and atmospheric pressure. Therefore, there is provided a mounting portion 12 for loading a substrate therein, one or a plurality of substrates can be loaded in the loading portion 12. The load lock chamber 10 is provided with a lift pin 18 for loading the substrate S on the loading part 12. As shown in FIG. 2A, the lift pin 18 lifts the substrate S loaded by the transfer robot from the outside of the load lock chamber 10 by a predetermined height, and then the transfer robot retracts out of the load lock chamber. As shown in FIG. 2B, the substrate S is lowered to load the loaded part 12.

1, an aligner 16 for correcting the position of the substrate S loaded on the mounting part 12 is provided outside the mounting part 12. This aligner 16 correct | amends the position of a board | substrate by pushing the side surface of the board | substrate S mounted in a loading part diagonally. In addition, the load lock chamber 10 is also provided with an exhaust device (not shown) and a gas supply device (not shown) for changing the interior thereof into a vacuum atmosphere and an atmospheric atmosphere.

In addition, the transfer chamber 20 is connected to the load lock chamber 10 and the process chamber 30, the transfer robot 22 is provided therein, between the load lock chamber 10 and the process chamber 30 It serves as an intermediate passage for importing and unloading substrates. The interior of the transfer chamber 20 is always maintained in a vacuum atmosphere so that the atmosphere inside the process chamber 30 is maintained in a vacuum atmosphere even when the substrate in the process chamber 30 is taken out or brought into the process chamber 30. To help.

In addition, the process chamber 30 is provided with a mounting table 32 on which a substrate can be mounted, and a processing apparatus (not shown in the drawing) capable of performing a predetermined treatment on the substrate. Etching, etc.

However, as described above, the conventional load lock chamber is provided with a lift pin for loading of the substrate, so that the structure is complicated and the loading process of the substrate is complicated and takes a long time. In addition, the conventional load lock chamber is provided with an aligner for adjusting the position of the substrate, and since the position of the substrate is adjusted by the aligner, it takes a lot of time to align the substrate.

Therefore, the conventional load lock chamber has a problem in that the loading and aligning process of the substrate is complicated, and the process takes a lot of time, and thus the overall time for the substrate processing is long.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus having a simple structure, a low manufacturing cost, and a load lock chamber having a short tex time required for carrying in and out of a substrate.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for loading a substrate in a load lock chamber using a load lock chamber and requiring a short time.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises a load lock chamber, a transfer chamber, a process chamber, in the flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing a flat panel display device, the load lock chamber, the vacuum can be formed therein A vacuum chamber; An opening formed on a sidewall of the vacuum chamber and capable of carrying in and taking out a substrate into the vacuum chamber; A gate valve which opens and closes the opening; And an end effect insertion groove which is formed to be recessed to a predetermined depth in the lower wall of the vacuum chamber and is inserted into an end effect of a substrate transfer robot installed outside the load lock chamber to move in an up and down direction. A flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus is provided.

In addition, in the present invention, the substrate guide portion inclined at a predetermined angle is further provided at an edge portion where the sidewall and the bottom wall of the load lock chamber meet, so that the substrate alignment is completed in the substrate loading process without a separate substrate alignment process. .

In addition, in the present invention, two or more lamination boards on which the substrates are stacked are stacked at a predetermined interval, and a plurality of substrate lamination members are formed on each lamination table at predetermined intervals, and the substrate lamination members are adjacent to each other. By inserting the end effect between the substrate stacking member to have a length that can move in the vertical direction, it is possible to load a plurality of substrates in one load lock chamber.

In addition, in the present invention, the substrate protection member is further provided at a portion of the lower wall of the vacuum chamber in contact with the substrate, thereby preventing damage to the substrate during the loading process.

In the present invention,

1) Open the opening of the load lock chamber and bring the substrate into the load lock chamber using a substrate transfer robot, and insert the substrate so that the end effect of the transfer robot is inserted into the end effect insertion groove of the load lock chamber. Importing;

2) the end effect of the transfer robot is lowered in the end effect insertion groove to load the substrate into the load lock chamber;

3) horizontally moving the substrate transfer robot to take it out of the load lock chamber;

4) providing a substrate loading method in a load lock chamber including closing the opening and forming the inside of the load lock chamber in a vacuum atmosphere.

In addition, in the present invention, after performing step 2), an alignment step of correcting the position of the substrate is further included, thereby preventing the substrate from being treated as a defect.

At this time, the alignment step is a step in which the substrate is automatically aligned while sliding by placing the substrate on the substrate guide portion inclined to the side of the load lock chamber. It is preferable because the substrate can be aligned.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a specific embodiment of the present invention.

The flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a load lock chamber, a transfer chamber, and a process chamber. Here, the transfer chamber and the process chamber have the same structure and function as those provided in the conventional flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus, and thus will not be repeated.

On the other hand, the load lock chamber of the flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus according to the present embodiment has a different structure from the prior art will be described in detail. The load lock chamber according to the present embodiment, the vacuum chamber 110; Openings (not shown in the figure); Gate valves (not shown); End effect insertion groove 120; is configured to include.

First, the vacuum chamber 110 refers to a chamber capable of forming a vacuum therein. At this time, the load lock chamber repeats the process of making the interior into a vacuum state and atmospheric pressure, so that a vacuum pump for making the interior of the vacuum state and a venting device for injecting a specific gas into the vacuum pump to make the atmospheric pressure Prepared.

Next, two openings are formed to face each other on the side wall of the vacuum chamber. Openings formed in the sidewalls adjacent to the conveying chamber among the openings are used as passages for bringing the substrate into or out of the conveying chamber, and openings formed on the opposite sidewalls convey the substrate to the outside or remove the substrate from the outside. It is used as a carry-in passage. This opening is then opened and closed by the gate valve. That is, the opening is provided with a gate valve for opening and closing the opening, the gate valve has a structure that can maintain the airtight inside the chamber when a gap does not occur between the gate valve and the opening when the opening is closed. .

Next, the end effect insertion groove 120 is a path that passes when the end effect E of the transfer robot, which brings the substrate into the load lock chamber, enters the load lock chamber. Therefore, the end effect E equipped with the substrate enters the load lock chamber with the end effect inserted into the end effect insertion groove while the substrate is lifted to a height such that the substrate does not collide with the lower wall of the chamber. Therefore, the end effect insertion groove 120 is formed in the shape of a groove recessed to a predetermined depth in the lower wall of the vacuum chamber 110, as shown in Figure 3, 4, the degree that the end effect can be inserted and move in the vertical direction It is formed to have a depth of. Therefore, the end effect E can be driven in the vertical direction while being inserted into the end effect insertion groove 120. When the substrate is lowered with the substrate mounted thereon, the substrate is caught by the lower wall of the vacuum chamber and separated from the end effect. The effect is retracted to the outside.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 3, a portion of the lower wall of the vacuum chamber 110 that contacts the substrate is preferably further provided with a substrate protection member 130. When the substrate is in direct contact with the lower wall of the chamber, since the hardness of the lower wall of the chamber is greater than that of the substrate, the substrate may be damaged, thereby forming a substrate protection member formed of a material that does not damage the substrate.

In addition, it is preferable that the substrate guide part 140 is further provided in the load lock chamber according to the present invention. The substrate guide part 140 serves to guide the substrate loaded in the load lock chamber to be loaded at the correct position. In the present exemplary embodiment, the substrate guide part 140 is provided at the edge portion of the lower wall of the load lock chamber, and has a structure inclined toward the center of the chamber. Accordingly, when the substrate is loaded, the edge of the substrate is slid by the substrate guide 140 and moved to the correct position. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the side of the substrate guide unit 140 in which the end effect E enters and exits is provided in an open shape. That is, the substrate guide part 140 is provided in a 'c' shape in three directions among four surfaces.

Next, the stacking rack 150 may be further provided in the load lock chamber according to the present embodiment. The stacking table is a component on which substrates are stacked, and two or more stacks are preferably stacked at predetermined intervals so that two or more substrates can be stacked at the same time. In this case, a plurality of substrate stacking members 152 are formed on each stacking stand 150 at predetermined intervals. The substrate stacking member 152 is formed of a member having a hardness smaller than that of the substrate so as not to damage the substrate. The substrate stacking member 152 is formed to have a length sufficient to allow an end effect to be inserted between adjacent substrate stacking members to move in the vertical direction.

The substrate guide unit for correcting the position of the substrate loaded on the stack 150 is further provided. This substrate guide portion is provided on the outside of the stack as shown in FIG. 3, but has a structure inclined to a lower height than the substrate stacking member. Of course, a separate aligner may be provided in the load lock chamber, and a plurality of substrates stacked on each stack may be aligned at a time.

Hereinafter, a method of loading a substrate in a load lock chamber according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 5.

First, a step (S110) of loading the substrate S into the load lock chamber is performed. In this step, the gate valve is driven to open the opening, and the substrate is brought into the load lock chamber using a substrate transfer robot installed outside the load lock chamber. At this time, the end effect of the substrate transfer robot is inserted into the end effect insertion groove formed in the lower wall of the load lock chamber.

Next, a step (S120) of loading a substrate into the load lock chamber is performed. In this step, the substrate transfer robot is driven so that the end effect falls within the end effect insertion groove. The substrate on the top of the end effect is then hung on the bottom wall of the load lock chamber.

Next, the step S130 of carrying out the substrate transfer robot from the load lock chamber is performed. In this step, the substrate transfer robot is moved horizontally so that the end effect exits the load lock chamber completely.

Next, an alignment step S140 of moving the substrate to the correct position is performed. In this step, when using the substrate guide portion, in the substrate loading step (S120) while the substrate is loaded on the lower wall of the load lock chamber by the substrate guide portion formed on the lower wall edge is moved to the correct position of its own substrate loading step It proceeds simultaneously with (S120). Of course, if a separate aligner is used, the process proceeds separately from the substrate loading step (S120).

Finally, a step (S150) of making the inside of the load lock chamber into a vacuum state is performed. In this step, the gate valve is driven to close the open opening, and a vacuum pump is operated to suck and discharge gas inside the load lock chamber.

On the other hand, when loading a plurality of substrates in the load lock chamber by repeating the steps S110, S120, S130 several times and proceeds to step S140, S150 after the several substrates are loaded in the load lock chamber.

 According to the present invention, since the lift pin and the aligner do not need to be installed in the load lock chamber, the structure thereof is simplified, and manufacturing costs are lowered. In addition, since the process of loading the substrate into the load lock chamber is simplified, the tex time required for the loading of the substrate is reduced, thereby reducing the overall processing time for the substrate.

Claims (9)

In the flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus consisting of a load lock chamber, a transfer chamber, a process chamber for manufacturing a flat panel display device, The load lock chamber, A vacuum chamber capable of forming a vacuum therein; An opening formed on a sidewall of the vacuum chamber and capable of carrying in and taking out a substrate into the vacuum chamber; A gate valve which opens and closes the opening; And an end effect insertion groove which is formed to be recessed to a predetermined depth in the lower wall of the vacuum chamber and is inserted into an end effect of a substrate transfer robot installed outside the load lock chamber to move in an up and down direction. Flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus. The method of claim 1, Flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus provided in the load lock chamber lower wall edge region, characterized in that the substrate guide portion of the structure inclined toward the center of the chamber is further provided. The method according to claim 1 or 2, Two or more lamination boards on which the substrates are stacked are provided on the upper part, and the lamination boards are provided on the upper part of each lamination board. And the substrate stacking member is formed to have a length such that the end effect is inserted between adjacent substrate stacking members to move in the vertical direction. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The lower portion of the vacuum chamber is in contact with the substrate is formed of a member having a lower hardness than the substrate, the flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus, characterized in that further provided on the substrate protection member for supporting the substrate. The method of claim 2, wherein the substrate guide portion, Flat panel display device manufacturing apparatus characterized in that the direction in which the end effect enters and exits, the other direction is closed. The method of claim 3, And an aligner for adjusting a position of a substrate stacked on the stacking table outside the stacking table inside the load lock chamber. delete delete delete

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