KR101155588B1 - imprint apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is an imprint apparatus capable of easily patterning various functional patterns on a substrate side of a flat panel display device by an imprint method using a stamp.

Such an imprint apparatus includes a stamp, a stage disposed in parallel with the stamp, a stage for loading a substrate, a transfer part for transferring the stage toward the stamp, and a tilting part including a plurality of tilting members connected to the stage. And a sensing unit for sensing parallelism between the stamp and the stage, and a tilting driving unit for driving the tilting unit to correct the parallelism of the stage according to the sensing signal of the sensing unit.

Imprint operation, stamp joining and dismounting, parallelism correction, improved workability and joining precision

Description

Imprint apparatus

The present invention relates to an imprint apparatus capable of securing an improved working accuracy during imprinting of a substrate and a stamp.

Among the methods of forming various functional patterns (eg, etched and non-etched regions) on the substrate side of a flat panel display element, an imprint method is widely known, and an imprint apparatus having a stamp is used.

Briefly, the general structure of the imprint apparatus includes a chamber portion, a stage disposed inside the chamber portion and loading a substrate coated with a chemical liquid layer, and a stamp disposed above the stage so as to be bonded to the substrate. It is done by

In addition, the stage has a transfer structure capable of raising and lowering toward the stamp so as to press the chemical liquid layer of the stamp onto the substrate to pattern various functional patterns on the substrate side in an imprint manner.

There are a variety of methods for the transfer structure of such a stage. Among them, a transfer structure in which the stage moves up and down in the Z-axis direction by contacting these cam blocks using two cam blocks is widely known.

That is, the two cam blocks are arranged in a stacked state, and the upper cam block is in contact with the inclined surface of the lower cam block in the Z-axis direction when the lower cam block is moved forward and backward by forward and reverse rotation of the feed screw. It is a structure to raise and lower stage.

In such an imprint apparatus, since the imprint operation is performed while the substrate and the stamp are bonded by the transfer of the stage, it is particularly important to imprint the substrate and the stamp in a bonded state parallel to each other.

However, the stages having the above-described transfer structure may require excessive processing and cost for the manufacture of the device because two cam blocks must be precisely processed to increase the feeding accuracy for imprint. There is a limit to increase the feeding accuracy.

In addition, the stage may be degraded at an early stage due to wear or deformation of the cam blocks.

In particular, when the transfer accuracy of the stage is lowered, for example, poor quality may occur while bonding is performed in an abnormal state in which the parallelism between the substrate and the stamp is outside the allowable range.

Moreover, most of the defect quality that occurs during imprinting of the substrate is known to occur when the substrate and the stamp are bonded with the parallelism outside the permissible range. Therefore, the transfer structure of the stage is satisfactory. You cannot expect productivity.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art,

It is an object of the present invention, in particular, to provide an imprint apparatus capable of proceeding an imprint operation with a simple correction of their parallelism prior to bonding of a substrate and a stamp.

In order to realize the object of the present invention as described above,

Stamp;

A stage disposed in parallel with the stamp and loading a substrate;

A transfer unit for transferring the stage toward the stamp;

A tilting part composed of a plurality of tilting members connected to the stage;

A detector for detecting parallelism between the stamp and the stage;

A tilting driver for driving the tilting part to correct the parallelism of the stage according to the sensing signal of the sensing part;

It provides an imprint apparatus comprising a.

The present invention can easily pattern various functional patterns on the chemical liquid layer of the substrate by imprinting while bonding and separating the substrate loaded on the stage side with the stamp.

In particular, the present invention can be easily corrected by using the tilting unit, the sensing unit and the driving unit before the substrate and the stamp is bonded, so that the parallelism between the substrate and the stamp during the imprint operation is bonded in an abnormal state beyond the allowable range Can solve the problem.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The embodiments of the present invention will be described by those skilled in the art to which the present invention is applicable.

Therefore, the embodiments of the present invention can be modified into various other forms, so that the claims of the present invention are not limited by the embodiments described below.

1 and 2 are views showing the structure of the entire and main parts of the imprint apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The imprint apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a stamp (2).

The stamp 2 may, for example, be installed inside a conventional chamber case C which provides an openable chamber C1 on the frame F as in FIG. 1.

In addition, the chamber C1 has a structure in which an internal pressure can be adjusted to perform an imprint operation in a vacuum state.

The stamp 2 has an imprint surface P1 having predetermined patterns formed on one surface thereof, and the other surface has a conventional structure having a back plate P2 made of a transparent glass plate or a quartz plate attached thereto.

In addition, the stamp 2 may be disposed such that, for example, one surface is fixed to a plate-shaped holder P3 (for example, a vacuum chuck or an electrostatic chuck) so that the imprint surface P1 faces downward while maintaining a flat state. Can be.

Under the stamp 2, a stage 4 for loading the substrate G is located.

The stage 4 has a loading surface L1, and is disposed such that the loading surface L1 is in parallel with the imprint surface P1 of the stamp 2 inside the chamber case C. .

According to the structure of such a stage 4, one surface (bottom surface) of the substrate G is placed on the loading surface L1 side so that the chemical liquid layer G1 can be loaded horizontally in a flat state.

In addition, the stage 4 may have a structure capable of directly fixing the substrate G or releasing the fixed state.

For example, the stage 4 may use a plate-shaped vacuum chuck (or electrostatic chuck).

In this way, when the vacuum chuck (or the electrostatic chuck) is used as the stage 4, the substrate G can be quickly fixed or released in a flat state by a simple on / off operation. Improved workability and loading stability when loading or unloading.

The imprint apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a transfer unit 6.

The transfer part 6 is composed of transfer members having a structure capable of lifting up and down by pushing or pulling the stage 4 toward the stamp 2.

1 and 2, the transfer part 6 is a screw jack (S1, hereinafter referred to as a "transfer screw jack") having a drive screw (S) for linear movement under external power transmission. Can be used as a transfer member.

The free end of the drive screw S of the conveying screw jack S1 is connected to the center point of the bottom surface of the stage 4, and the main body of the screw jack S1 is fixed on the frame F in a conventional manner. do.

The free end of the drive screw S may be connected to the bottom of the stage 4 by a normal ball joint J. Then, the stage 4 is fixed in a state in which the stage 4 can be smoothly tilted about the connection point of the driving screw S.

The screw jack S1 for conveying is particularly suitable for conveying a large heavy object such as the stage 4, and has a self-locking function. Improved operational safety can be achieved.

The conveying part 6 may further include a guide member K for guiding the moving direction of the conveying screw jack S1.

As the guide member K, a normal "LM guide" can be used.

Referring back to Figure 1, the guide member (K), for example, the drive screw in a separate housing (K1) provided in a state surrounding the drive screw (S) of the transport screw jack (S1). It can be installed in a conventional manner so as to hold (S) to be movable.

That is, the housing K1 may be fixed to the side of the frame F, and the main body of the screw jack S1 may be fixed to a lower portion inside the housing K1.

According to the structure of the guide member K as described above, since the feeding direction can be guided so that the feeding deviation of the driving screw S does not occur when the feeding screw jack S1 is driven, Feeding accuracy can be increased.

The imprint apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a tilting unit 8.

The tilting part 8 is composed of tilting members having a structure capable of tilting by pushing or pulling the stage 4.

Referring again to FIGS. 1 and 2, the tilting part 8 is referred to as a screw jack S2 (hereinafter referred to as a “tilting screw jack”) having a driving screw S for linear movement under external power transmission. Can be used as a tilting member.

The tilting screw jacks S2 are connected to a plurality of points of the stage 4, and more preferably, the tilting screw jacks can be tilted in a three-point supporting manner.

3 is a view for explaining a preferred installation state of the tilting unit (8).

For example, the tilting screw jacks S2 may be arranged to correspond to three points spaced apart along the circumference of the transporting screw jack S1 based on FIG. 3.

The free end of the drive screw S of the tilting screw jacks S2 is connected to the bottom of the stage 4, and the jack body is fixed in the usual way on the frame F. That is, the driving screws S of the tilting screw jacks S2 are located on the edge side of the bottom surface of the stage 4 deviating from the center portion where the driving screw S of the transporting screw jack S1 is connected and fixed. The three-point support can be connected and fixed in a spaced apart arrangement.

In particular, the three-point support method as described above, for example, compared to the two-point support method can be variously tilted in the front, rear and left, right directions.

In addition, for example, as compared with the four-point support method, not only the tilting structure is simple, but also the support structure can be supported in a uniform state while minimizing mutual interference of the driving screws S when tilting the stage 4. .

In addition, the tilting part 8 may further include a connection member J1.

The connecting member J1 is configured to connect a point where the driving screw S of the tilting screw jack S2 and the stage 4 are connected in a state capable of changing angles and positions.

4 is a view for explaining the detailed structure of the connecting member (J1).

That is, the connection member J1 may use a normal joint J1a (eg, ball joint, universal joint) and guide rail (J1b, LM guide), and the tilting screw jack S2. It may be provided on the free end side as shown in the drawing. In this case, the guide rails J1b may be disposed in directions crossing each other.

According to the structure of the connection member J1 as described above, even if the driving screw S of the tilting screw jack (S2) is fixed to the stage (4) side in the same direction as in Figure 4 with respect to each connection point The stage 4 can move. Therefore, it is possible to ensure further improved operability when tilting the stage 4 with the tilting part 8.

On the other hand, the imprint apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a sensing unit 10.

The sensing unit 10 is for sensing the parallelism of the stage 4 in correspondence with the stamp 2.

Referring back to FIG. 2, the sensing unit 10 may be configured as a position detecting sensor Q operating in a touch sensing method or a non-contact sensing method.

The position detection sensors (Q) may use a laser displacement sensor, which is one of the sensors that operate in a non-contact detection method. It is known that the laser displacement sensor can easily measure the distance or position change between objects while irradiating the laser toward a specific point and receiving the reflected laser when it is reflected at a specific point.

5 and 6 are views for explaining the detailed structure of the sensing unit 10.

Referring to FIG. 5, the position detecting sensors Q of the sensing unit 10 are, for example, the tilting unit 8, that is, three tilting screw jacks S2 at the edge side of the stage 4. It may be disposed at a point corresponding to the.

In addition, referring to FIG. 6, each of the position detection sensors Q is, for example, the laser toward the upper surface (or stamp holder) of the chamber C1 of the chamber case C at the edge side of the stage 4. It can be fixed in a state that can be irradiated, and that the irradiated laser can receive the reflection.

According to the structure of the sensing unit 10 as described above, the three position sensors Q correspond to the stamp 2 in a manner of measuring the position (height) of three points of the stage 4, respectively. The parallelism of the stage 4 can be easily detected.

That is, since the stamp 2 is disposed flat on the upper surface of the chamber C1 (or the stamp holder), when the heights of three points of the stage 4 are measured based on the upper surface of the chamber C1, the stamp Corresponding to (2), the parallelism of the stage 4 can be easily detected.

The imprint apparatus according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a tilting driver 12.

The tilting driver 12 receives the signal detected by the sensing unit 10 to generate and transmit power for driving the tilting unit 8 so that the parallelism of the stage 4 can be corrected.

Referring back to FIGS. 1 and 2, the tilting driver 12 may include a drive source M1 and drive shafts M2 that may connect power between the drive source M1 and the tilting part 8 to enable power transmission. And clutches M3 for connecting or releasing the driving shafts M2.

The drive source M1 may use a geared motor used for driving a conventional screw jack, and is located inside the frame F.

A plurality of drive shafts M2 are provided inside (or outside) the frame F to transmit power generated from the drive source M1 to the three tilting screw jacks S2, as shown in FIG. 2. The connection can be arranged.

The ends of the drive shafts M2 may be connected, for example, to conventional shaft joint gearboxes M4. Although not shown in the drawings, these shaft joint gearboxes M4 have a structure in which gears (eg, bevel gears) capable of connecting power to the shaft joints connected at a predetermined angle are capable of power transmission.

In addition, the screw jack S1 for conveyance of the transfer part 6 may be connected to the drive shafts M2 so as to be driven by receiving power from the drive source M1. Then, the transfer unit 6 and the tilting unit 8 may be driven together by one drive source M1.

Each of the drive shafts M2 is fixed on the frame F in a conventional manner so as to be able to rotate about an axis, although not shown in the drawings.

The clutches M3 may connect or release the connecting section of the tilting screw jack S2 or the transfer screw jack S1 and the corresponding drive shaft M2 in a conventional manner so as to enable power transmission. Can be installed as in 2. Then, a structure capable of so-called selective drive control capable of individually driving and controlling the tilting screw jacks S2 or the transporting screw jacks S1 by one driving source M1 by the operation of the clutches M3. Can be provided.

The clutch M3 may use any one of various types of clutches (for example, dry or wet, powder, single plate, and multi-plate) that can connect or release power between the shaft and the shaft. .

In addition, the driving source M1 and the clutch M3 are connected to the position sensor Q of the sensing unit 10, respectively, and the stage according to the signal (measured value) detected by the position sensor Q. The tilting part 8 is set so as to properly drive the tilting part 8 so that the parallelism correction of (4) is possible.

For example, when the height measurement values of the three points of the stage 4 are detected by the position detecting sensors Q, the height of the center point of the stage 4 connected to the feed screw jack S1 is increased. The tilting part 8 can be driven such that the lower point is lifted up as a reference and the higher point is pulled down.

In addition, for example, the tilting unit 8 may be driven so that the tilting is performed by lifting or pulling down the remaining points toward the highest point or the lowest point among the three points of the stage 4. Can be.

Such a driving method is a person having an average knowledge in the relevant field, for example, by connecting a conventional numerical control unit (not shown) and the position detection sensor (Q) is made in accordance with the detection signal in the manner described above Since it is possible to control the operation of the drive source (M1) and the clutch (M3) so that more detailed description is omitted.

Although not shown in the drawings, for example, a clutch M3 having a braking function (apparatus) capable of preventing free rotation of the drive shaft M2 on the driven side in a state in which one side of the power transmission section is released. It is good to use. Then, when the drive shaft M2 is connected to the clutch M3 so as to enable power transmission or release of the connection state, it is possible to secure an improved operating safety.

7 is a view for explaining the preferred operation of the tilting drive (12).

The tilting driver 12 is inclined downwardly from the right side to the left side, for example, by the three position detecting sensors Q of the sensing unit 10 as shown in FIG. 7. When is detected, the sensing signal may be received to drive the tilting unit 8 as follows.

That is, the point (left) lower than the height of the center point of the stage 4 connected with the end of the conveying screw jack S1 is lifted up, and the higher point (right) is tilted while being pulled down. It is possible to control the driving of the tilting unit (8).

The driving control of the tilting part 8 properly connects the driving source M1 while connecting or releasing the power transmission section corresponding to the three tilting screw jacks S2 to the clutches M3. It may proceed in a forward and reverse rotation manner.

Then, the parallelism of the stage 4 can be easily corrected in the state corresponding to the stamp 2 by the above tilting operation.

In addition, although not shown in the drawings, the degree of parallelism may be easily corrected to correspond to the stamp 2 while tilting the stage 4 in the front, rear, and left and right directions as described above.

Accordingly, the present invention described above imprints various functional patterns G2 on the chemical liquid layer G1 of the substrate G while bonding and separating the substrate G loaded on the stage 4 side with the stamp 2. Patterning is easy with.

In particular, the present invention can easily correct the parallelism to correspond to the stamp (2) while tilting the stage (4) loading the substrate (G) before bonding the substrate (G) and the stamp (2) For example, it is possible to easily solve the problems that may occur while bonding is performed in an abnormal state in which the parallelism between the stage 4 and the stamp 2 is outside the allowable range.

8 is a view for explaining another structure of the tilting driver 12. Compared to the above embodiment, the present embodiment has a difference in that the tilting unit 8 and the transfer unit 6 are individually driven without using the clutch M3.

That is, referring to FIG. 8, the tilting driver 12 may include a plurality of driving sources M1.

The driving sources M1 are geared motors, and as shown in FIG. 8, the driving sources M1 may be directly connected to the tilting screw jacks S2 and the transporting screw jacks S1 to enable power transmission.

In addition, the driving sources M1 are set to operate individually according to detection signals of the position detection sensors Q of the detection unit 10.

According to this structure, the parallelism of the stage 2 can be corrected by driving the tilting screw jacks S2 and the transporting screw jacks S1 separately.

1 and 2 are views showing the structure of the entire and main parts of the imprint apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a view for explaining a preferred installation state of the tilting unit of the imprint apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a view for explaining the structure of the connecting member of the transfer unit and the tilting unit of the imprint apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 and 6 are views for explaining the detailed structure of the sensing unit of the imprint apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a view for explaining the operation of the tilting driver of the imprint apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a view for explaining another structure of the tilting driving unit of the imprint apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Description of Symbols for Main Parts of Drawing]

2: stamp 4: stage 6: feed section

8: tilting unit 10: sensing unit 12: tilting driving unit

G: Substrate S1: Screw Jacks for Transfer S2: Screw Jacks for Tilting

Claims (12)

A stamp disposed inside the chamber case having a chamber; A stage disposed below the stamp to load a substrate; The stamp screw disposed below the stage is used as a conveying member, and a center portion of the bottom surface of the stage is connected to the free end of the conveying screw jack to push or pull the stage with the conveying screw jack. A conveying part formed to move upward and downward; The tilting screw jacks are used as a tilting member by using a plurality of tilting screw jacks disposed below the stage, and the free ends of the tilting screw jacks are connected to be spaced apart from an edge portion outside the center of the bottom of the stage. A tilting part configured to tilt while pushing or pulling the stage with jacks; A sensing unit having position sensors arranged on the stage to correspond to connection points of the tilting members of the tilting unit and installed to sense parallelism between the stamp and the stage while irradiating and receiving a laser; A drive source for generating power for driving the tilting member and the transfer member of the tilting unit in response to a detection signal of the sensing unit, and drive shafts for enabling power transmission between the driving source and the tilting member, respectively; A tilting driver having clutches installed to control the power transmitted to the tilting members so that parallelism of the stage can be corrected while connecting one side of the driving shafts or canceling the connection state; Imprint apparatus comprising a. The method according to claim 1, The stamp, And an imprint surface, the imprint apparatus being arranged to press the substrate loaded on the stage side into the imprint surface. The method according to claim 1, The stage, An imprint apparatus using either a plate-shaped vacuum chuck or an electrostatic chuck. delete delete delete delete delete The method according to claim 1, The position detection sensors, Using a laser displacement sensor, And an laser beam irradiated toward the inner surface of the chamber above the stage, and to detect the parallelism of the stage while receiving the laser reflected from the inner surface of the chamber. delete delete The method according to claim 1, The tilting unit, Further comprising a connection member for connecting the connection point of the stage and the tilting member in a state capable of changing the angle and position, The connecting member, An imprint apparatus comprising a ball joint or a universal joint or an LM guide.

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