KR101092136B1 - Single-wafer coating film apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided is a single sheet coating film forming apparatus and a single sheet coating method for forming a predetermined film thickness, chromaticity and / or optical density on a plate-like object without variation in the film thickness, chromaticity and / or optical concentration of the coating film.

A coating device for supplying a coating liquid to the surface of the plate-shaped workpiece with a slit nozzle, a pressure reduction drying device for drying the coating liquid applied to the surface of the plate-shaped workpiece, and a heating device for heating the dried coating liquid. In the single-layer coating film forming apparatus, a measuring apparatus for measuring the film thickness, chromaticity, and / or optical density of the plate-shaped object to be heated by the heating apparatus, and transmitting the measurement result to the coating apparatus is provided. The coating liquid was supplied to the surface of the plate-like object by the slit nozzle using a sheet forming film forming apparatus, and then the surface of the plate-like object was dried under reduced pressure and heated, and then the heated plate-like object was heated. When the film thickness, chromaticity and / or optical density are measured and the measurement results do not reach the predetermined film thickness, chromaticity and / or optical concentration, the coating device is temporarily stopped. Later, and subjected to an air removing and / or cleaning from the front end of the slit nozzle, then again moving the resin coating device.

Single sheet film forming device, air bleed, slit nozzle, plate shaped object

Description

Single layer coating film forming apparatus and method for forming single layer coating film {Single-wafer coating film apparatus and method}

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is a block diagram of the sheet | seat film forming apparatus of this invention.

2 is a chart of the sheet forming film forming apparatus of the present invention.

The present invention measures the film thickness, chromaticity and / or optical density of the film formed on the surface of a plate-shaped object, and feeds back this measurement result so as not to reach a predetermined film thickness, chromaticity and / or optical density. In this case, the present invention relates to a single-wafer coating film forming apparatus and a single sheet coating film forming method for performing a predetermined treatment.

Conventionally, in order to apply a resist liquid or the like onto a surface of a plate-like workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate, the coating liquid is dropped and supplied from a nozzle to the center of the workpiece placed on a spinner, and is supplied by a spinner. The coating liquid is diffused outward by centrifugal force generated by rotating the object to be treated, and then baked and finished. In this method, a uniform coating film can be formed stably, and once the coating conditions are set, a uniform coating film can be formed without measuring the thickness of the coating film one by one.

However, compared with the amount of coating liquid to be supplied, the amount of coating liquid remaining on the substrate as the actual coating film is too small. As a result, the amount of the coating liquid that is discarded without being used as the coating liquid is too large. Moreover, as the size of the substrate became larger, the amount of coating liquid discarded also increased, and the amount was not negligible. Therefore, instead of spinner application, it is conceivable to apply the coating liquid to the surface of the workpiece with a predetermined width by opening a coating liquid discharge port having a predetermined width in the nozzle itself and moving the nozzle.

When the slit nozzle having the coating liquid discharge port of the predetermined width described above is used, the coating liquid can be eliminated and the coating can be efficiently carried out. However, since the substrate to be processed is not rotated, the thickness of the coating film first applied is intact. It becomes the film thickness. Therefore, the coating liquid quantity to be supplied may also become nonuniform in the thickness of a coating film by air, such as piping. Moreover, this film thickness nonuniformity produces the nonuniformity of chromaticity or optical density. Therefore, when apply | coating with a slit nozzle, you should test and control whether the conditions which set thickness, chromaticity, and / or optical density of a coating film are satisfied.

Therefore, the relationship between the discharge film thickness dimension value inputted by the control means in advance by the signal from the discharge film thickness dimensional sensor arranged in the vicinity of the slit nozzle downward direction and the traveling speed of the strip plate. A strip material surface coating film thickness dimension value is calculated through a program, and it transmits to a display panel etc. on an operation board, and controls the film thickness of the slit nozzle. In addition, the coating film thickness dimension on the surface of the strip | belt material which runs is confirmed by the coating film thickness measurement sensor which is provided in the slit nozzle back side, and performs measurement while traversing continuously in the plate width direction of a strip | belt material. When the setting error is confirmed, it is proposed to perform fine adjustment by operation of an operation panel, without stopping a line (patent document 1).

[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-204561 (Pages 2 to 3, Fig. 2)

However, the slit nozzle coating apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-204561 is provided on the discharge film thickness dimensional sensor disposed in the vicinity of the slit nozzle downward direction and on the rear side of the slit nozzle. Since the film thickness of the strip material is adjusted while the strip material is being driven by the coating film thickness measurement sensor which measures while traversing in the plate width direction, the film thickness variation and chromaticity fluctuation of the portion close to the coating film starting position, which is a problem in sheet coating, is varied. And / or it is difficult to detect optical concentration variations. In particular, if bubbles exist in the coating liquid supply pipe, there is also a problem that the variation in film thickness, chromaticity and / or optical concentration immediately after the start of coating becomes large.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sheet-forming film forming apparatus and a sheet-forming film forming method for forming a film having a predetermined thickness on a plate-shaped object without variation in the coating film thickness near the coating film starting position. do.

MEANS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM In order to solve the said subject, the coating film forming apparatus of this invention drys to some extent the coating apparatus which supplies a coating liquid with the slit nozzle on the surface of a plate-shaped to-be-processed object, and the coating liquid apply | coated to the surface of the said plate-shaped to-be-processed object to some extent. A sheet-coated film forming apparatus comprising a reduced pressure drying device (which is not waved or not flowing during conveyance) and a heating device which further dries the coating liquid dried to some extent to form a coating film. The film thickness, chromaticity, and / or optical density were measured by the measuring device, and the film thickness measuring device which feeds back the measurement result to the said coating device was provided.

Further, according to the method of forming the sheet-like coating film of the present invention, the coating liquid is supplied to the surface of the plate-like object by a slit nozzle, and then the coating liquid on the surface of the plate-like object is dried under reduced pressure to dry the coating liquid to some extent, Subsequently, the coating liquid is further dried by heating to form a coating, and when the thickness, chromaticity and / or optical density of the coating is measured with a measuring apparatus, and the measurement result does not reach a predetermined value, the coating apparatus Was paused, the air was drained from the slit nozzle and / or the front end was cleaned, and then the applicator was operated again.

According to the present invention, when the film thickness, chromaticity and / or optical density of the plate-like object to be processed after coating film formation are measured and a value different from the predetermined value is measured as a result, the coating film forming apparatus is stopped, and the sheet-coated coating liquid is supplied. By performing necessary measures such as bleeding air in the pipe for use and cleaning the front end of the nozzle, it is possible to respond quickly to an abnormal situation.

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Below, embodiment of this invention is described based on an accompanying drawing. Here, FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the sheet | seat film forming apparatus of this invention, FIG. 2 is a chart of the sheet | seat film forming apparatus of this invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the sheet | seat coating-film forming apparatus consists of a conveyance part, an applicator, a pressure reduction drying apparatus, a receiving part, a heating apparatus, a cooling apparatus, a conveyance part, and a distribution part. The slit nozzle is provided in the coating device. The coating liquid is supplied to the slit nozzle through the pump A, and the air valve A regulates the supply amount thereof, and is connected to the air scavenging tank for the slit nozzle through the air valve B and the pump B. In addition, the air valve B is always closed except when the air of the slit nozzle is taken out.

In addition, in the vacuum drying apparatus, the solvent is dried and removed to some extent from the whole coating liquid in a short time to prevent the coating liquid from waving or flowing during transportation. In addition, sudden heating with a heating apparatus without drying under reduced pressure tends to cause a phenomenon that only the surface of the coating film hardens, and the solvent tends to exist in the coating film with a concentration gradient, which is not preferable.

In addition, the heating apparatus of this embodiment can bake three plate-like objects to be processed once, and the cooling device can cool one plate-like object to be processed once. Further, a measuring device for measuring the film thickness, chromaticity and / or optical density of the plate-like object to be processed is provided at the rear portion of the conveying section. This measuring device controls the opening and closing of air valves A and B by a controller sensor.

In this way, the coating liquid is supplied from the slit nozzle onto the plate-shaped object to be transferred to the coating device, and dried under reduced pressure with a vacuum drying device, and then transferred to the heating device by the robot via the receiving unit. In the heating apparatus, the plate-like object to be baked is cooled by a cooling apparatus and then the film thickness, chromaticity and / or optical density are measured by a measuring apparatus provided in the conveying unit. The film thickness measuring apparatus used in this embodiment is a chromaticity measuring instrument. This colorimeter measures the thickness of the film in color. In addition, the film thickness measurement is not limited to the chromaticity meter.

In addition, the measurement location of the plate-shaped object is not particularly limited, but it is necessary to include at least one coating start position and one center portion of the substrate. It demonstrates using the example which manages the film thickness of a red coating film as the chromaticity value of three points | pieces in surface as an operation example of this invention. Here, the management standard is the center value ± 7/1000.

As shown in FIG. 2, when a measurement result does not exceed specification center value +/- 7/1000, a plate-shaped processed object is conveyed to a distribution part as it is. On the other hand, when the measurement result exceeds the standard center value ± 7/1000, an alarm signal is generated to stop the transfer of the plate-shaped object to the coating device, and the slit nozzle stands by in the deep position, and the air valve A Is closed, and the transfer of the coating liquid is stopped.

Next, when the air valve B is opened, air bleeding of the slit nozzle is started. After the slit nozzle is cleaned and predispense, the alarm is released and the application is returned to normal operation to resume application.

That is, although a coating film is formed by supplying and baking a coating liquid on a plate-shaped to-be-processed object, when air exists in the coating liquid supply piping, the film thickness of an application | coating initial stage will become thinner than predetermined film thickness. In addition, the amount of the coating liquid to be supplied also varies due to air such as piping, and it is impossible to continuously form a stable coating film. Conventionally, a degassing device is attached between the coating liquid tank and the slit nozzle, but air is collected in the slit nozzle in the pipe while the operation such as a suckback is repeated at the front end of the slit nozzle. By automatically releasing this air, the phenomenon that the film thickness at the beginning of application becomes thinner than the predetermined film thickness can be suppressed.

In addition, although the measuring apparatus was provided in the conveyance part in this embodiment, you may install in a receiving part or a conveyor.

After the baking, the film thickness, chromaticity and / or optical density were measured, and when different from the predetermined value, the coating device was stopped once, the air was released from the slit nozzle, and the coating was resumed, thereby applying the coating film thickness, chromaticity and And / or optical concentration.

Claims (2)

A coating device for supplying a coating liquid to the surface of the plate-like workpiece with a slit nozzle, a pressure reduction drying device for drying the coating liquid applied to the surface of the plate-shaped workpiece to such an extent that it does not wave or flow during transportation, and the wave during the transportation. A single sheet coating film forming apparatus comprising a heating device for further drying a coating liquid dried so as not to strike or flow, wherein the film thickness and / or chromaticity of the film formed by the heating are measured, and the measurement result is obtained. A sheet coating film forming apparatus, characterized in that a measuring device for feeding back to the coating device is provided. The coating liquid is supplied to the surface of the plate-shaped workpiece by a slit nozzle, and then the coating liquid on the surface of the plate-shaped workpiece is dried under reduced pressure to dry the coating liquid so as not to wave or flow during transportation, and then heated. When the coating liquid is dried to form a coating, the film thickness and / or chromaticity of the coating are measured by a measuring device. When the measurement result does not reach a predetermined value, the coating device is paused and the slit nozzle A method of forming a single-layer coating film, wherein the coating device is started again after the air is removed from the air and / or the front end of the slit nozzle is cleaned.

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