KR20070033279A - Coating device and coating method - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided is a coating apparatus that can easily determine the parallel reference and the height reference of the slit nozzle, and can precisely adjust the distance between the substrate surface and the lower end of the slit nozzle during application.

On both ends of the width direction of the side surface of the application starting position of the board | substrate mounting part 3, the reference fixtures 6 and 6 for determining the horizontal reference | standard and height reference | standard of the slit nozzle 5 are attached, respectively. The reference jig 6 has an elevating elbow 8, which is applied upward by a spring or the like, and its descending source is placed on the upper surface of the elbow 8 and the substrate. Let the position of the upper surface of the part 3 correspond to, and make the position the reference point of a height direction.

Coating device, coating method, slit nozzle, side ruler, standard fixture

Description

Coating apparatus and coating method {Coating apparatus and coating method}

1 is a plan view showing one embodiment of the coating device of the present invention.

It is a side view of the principal part of the coating device shown in FIG.

3 is a view seen from the arrow A in FIG.

4 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of the coating method of the present invention (1).

Fig. 5 is a process diagram showing one embodiment of the coating method of the present invention (2).

6 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of the coating method of the present invention (3).

7 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of the coating method of the present invention (4).

[Description of the code]

One… Expectation, 2... Rail, 3... Substrate placing part; Gate-shaped moving mechanism, 5... Slit nozzle, 6.. Reference fixture, 7... Contactless distance measuring sensor, 8... The chief ruler, W… Glass substrate

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a coating apparatus and a coating method for applying a developer, cleaning solution, SOG solution, resist solution and the like to a substrate such as a glass substrate or a semiconductor wafer.

In manufacturing processes, such as a liquid crystal (LCD), a PDP (plasma display), a semiconductor element, etc., the coating apparatus provided with the slit nozzle is used in order to form various films on a board | substrate, or to apply a washing | cleaning liquid or a developing solution.

In recent years, in accordance with the tendency of increasing the size of the substrate, in place of the conventional spin coating that is applied while rotating the substrate, an increasing number of coating apparatuses are applied while the wide slit nozzle is moved in one direction relative to the substrate. Doing. The applicator provided with such a slit nozzle is advantageous in that even a large substrate can form a film of uniform thickness on its surface. On the other hand, however, there are some problems.

For example, one of them is difficult to properly adjust the coating gap, which is the distance between the substrate surface and the lower end of the slit nozzle at the time of coating. The reason for this is that the same coating gap should be set over the entire width of the wide slit nozzle, and the slit nozzle is moved up and down in response to the reaction when the coating liquid is discharged to the substrate. This becomes unstable and wrinkles the coating film.

In the related art, after the reference jig is attached to the running part of the slit nozzle and the slit nozzle is placed on the reference jig to determine the horizontal level of the slit nozzle, the clearance between the slit nozzle and the substrate mounting stage ( clearance, that is, the application gap was visually fine tuned using a thickness gauge (gap gauge). Therefore, there was a problem that the error due to human factors is large and lacks accuracy.

In order to solve this problem, in patent document 1, the thickness of a to-be-processed material (board | substrate) is measured by the thickness sensor, and this thickness is considered and a coating material discharge apparatus and a coating material are considered. A sheet-coating method and a device thereof have been proposed in which the paint discharging device is lowered such that the gap between the common materials is a gap corresponding to the thickness of the coating film to be formed.

Moreover, in patent document 2, the recessed part which has the same level as the table surface (reference surface) is formed in the predetermined position of a board | substrate mounting table, and the gap amount of a recessed part and a slit nozzle tip part is measured. The table-type die coater which improved the detection accuracy of the laser beam which passes directly through this clearance gap is disclosed by arrange | positioning a non-contact interpolar measurement sensor across the recessed part.

[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-182953

[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-9341

However, in patent document 1, since the thickness sensor and slit nozzle of a board | substrate are comprised separately, adjustment of a thickness sensor and a slit nozzle support member is needed.

Moreover, in patent document 2, when the front end of a slit nozzle contacts a recessed part, there exists a possibility that it may be damaged or deform | transformed. In this case, uniform application becomes difficult in the longitudinal direction of the slit.

In view of the foregoing, the present invention provides an application apparatus which can easily determine the parallel reference and the height reference of the slit nozzle, and can accurately determine and maintain the fine adjustment of the distance between the substrate surface and the bottom of the slit nozzle during application. Provide a coating method.

The coating apparatus of this invention forms a coating film on a board | substrate by discharging a coating liquid from the slit nozzle which is non-contacted and relatively movable with this board | substrate to the board | substrate mounted on the board | substrate mounting part, The coating start side of a board | substrate mounting part On both ends of the width direction, a reference fixture for determining the horizontal reference and the height reference of the slit nozzle is provided, and the reference fixture has an elevable ellipsoid, whose ellipsoid has an upper surface with a substrate placing surface. An applicator characterized in that it is controlled to stop at the same surface height.

According to the coating apparatus of this invention, the reference fixture for determining the horizontal reference | standard and the height reference | standard of a slit nozzle is provided in the width direction both ends of the application starting side of a board | substrate mounting part, and a reference fixture has an elevable side length measurement ruler. Since the upper surface thereof is controlled to stop at the same plane height as the substrate placing surface, when the coating is actually applied on the substrate, the slit nozzle can be horizontally slit without being damaged or deformed. It is possible to easily adjust the height of the nozzle.

In the coating method of the present invention, the standby position of the slit nozzle is determined on the basis of the same height position as the surface of the substrate placing portion controlled in the above-described coating apparatus, and the distance between the substrate and the slit nozzle is determined on the basis of the standby position. To start the application.

According to the coating method of the present invention, in the above-described coating apparatus, the standby position of the slit nozzle is determined on the basis of the same height position as the controlled substrate placing surface, and the distance between the substrate and the slit nozzle is determined based on the standby position. Since the slit nozzle is not damaged or deformed, the slit nozzle can be leveled, and the height adjustment of the slit nozzle can be easily performed. This makes it possible to apply uniformly.

Specifically, the coating method is performed in the order of the following (1) to (5).

(1) The slit nozzle is lowered and the lower end of the slit nozzle is brought into contact with the upper end of the side ruler of the reference fixture in the raised position.

(2) With the state shown in (1), the slit nozzle is lowered together with the length of the slit nozzle until the upper surface of the length is equal to the height of the substrate placing portion, and the horizontal reference, the height reference and the distance of the slit nozzle are lowered. Determine the criteria of the sensor.

(3) Raise the slit nozzle to the standby position.

(4) The distance between the upper surface of the substrate and the lower end of the slit nozzle is measured by a non-contact distance measuring sensor provided by the slit nozzle.

(5) Based on the value measured by the distance measuring sensor, the slit nozzle is lowered until the distance between the upper surface of the substrate and the lower end of the slit nozzle reaches the target coating start position.

In the above coating method, the substrate is loaded into and placed on the substrate placing unit, the slit nozzle raised to the standby position is moved to the coating start position, and the distance sensor to the substrate surface is measured by a distance measuring sensor. It is preferable to determine a coating gap by feeding back this distance data to a slit nozzle lifting control part, and to lower a slit nozzle to the determined coating gap position.

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Below, embodiment of this invention is described based on an accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The top view which shows one Embodiment of the coating apparatus of this invention, FIG. 2 is a side view of the principal part of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is the figure seen from the arrow of the A direction of FIG.

In the board | substrate coating apparatus of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, a pair of parallel rails 2 and 2 are provided in the base 1, and the base 1 which becomes an intermediate position of these rails 2 and 2 is shown. The board | substrate mounting part 3 for mounting the board | substrate W is fixed to the center of the surface. Then, the door-shaped moving mechanism 4 hangs between the rails 2 and 2 so that the door-mounted moving mechanism 4 can run over the substrate placing part 3, and the slit nozzle 5 is connected to the door-shaped moving mechanism 4 via a lifting device. It is installed.

And especially in this embodiment, the board | substrate mounting part 3 WHEREIN: The reference | standard for determining the horizontal reference | standard and height reference | standard of the slit nozzle 5 in the width direction both ends of the side surface of the application starting position side. Jig 6, 6 is mounted, respectively.

The reference jig 6 has an elevating elbow 8, which is applied upward by a spring or the like, and the lower source is the upper surface of the elbow 8. The upper surface of the substrate placing part 3 and the board | substrate mounting part 3 are made into the same surface height, and this position is made into the reference point of a height direction.

The length measuring device 8 is controlled so that its upper surface stops at the same surface height position as the upper surface of the substrate placing part 3.

The non-contact distance measuring sensor 7 is provided on the front and back of the slit nozzle 5 based on the movement direction.

That is, the glass substrates W and the like are slightly different in thickness, respectively. In order to cope with such a case, it is necessary to provide a non-contact distance measuring sensor 7 to know the actual distance between the bottom of the slit nozzle 5 and the upper surface of the substrate W.

Thus, in each of the glass substrates W having different thicknesses, it is possible to know the actual distance between the lower end of the slit nozzle 5 and the upper surface of the substrate W. As shown in FIG.

When applying to the board | substrate W using the coating apparatus of such a structure, it is assumed that the slit nozzle 5 is moved from the left side to the right side of this figure.

Next, the coating method using the coating apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is demonstrated using FIGS.

First, in order to set the parallel reference and the height reference of the slit nozzle 5, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the slit nozzle 5 is lowered from a predetermined position so that the lower end of the slit nozzle 5 is left and right two Abuts on the top surface of the side owner (8).

At this time, since the length measuring device 8 can be raised and lowered, the impact when the slit nozzle 5 is brought into contact with each other is alleviated, and the lower end of the slit nozzle 5 is not scratched.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the slit nozzle 5 is pushed down and stopped together with the length measuring device 8 until the top surface of the length measuring device 8 and the top surface of the substrate placing part 3 coincide with each other.

By this operation, it is possible to confirm whether the slit nozzle 5 is horizontal, and the reference height position of the lower end of the slit nozzle 5 is determined.

In this embodiment, the distance measuring sensor 7 sets the value (measured value) measured at the time of this determination to 0 micrometer, and performs arithmetic processing by a slit nozzle lifting control part.

In this way, the horizontal reference, the height reference (reference height position) of the slit nozzle 5 and the reference of the distance sensor are determined, and these data are stored in the slit nozzle lifting control unit. These operations are performed when the slit nozzle is mounted.

Subsequently, after carrying in and placing the board | substrate W in the board | substrate mounting part 3, as shown in FIG. 5, the slit nozzle 5 is raised to a standby position. Although this waiting position is arbitrary, for example, when apply | coating to the board | substrate W of thickness about 500-1000 micrometers, it is 3000-3000 from the surface of the board | substrate mounting part 3, ie, the reference height position assumed to be 0 micrometer. It is preferable to set it as 5000 micrometers upwards.

In addition, the distance between the standby position and the reference height position is also stored in the slit nozzle lifting control unit.

Next, as shown in FIG. 6, the slit nozzle 5 is moved horizontally along the rails 2 and 2, and the slit nozzle 5 is positioned above the application starting point of the board | substrate W. As shown in FIG. At this point in time, the distance to the upper surface (substrate W surface) of the substrate W is measured by the distance measuring sensor 7.

For example, in the case where the height of the standby position is 3500 µm and the thickness of the substrate W is 700 µm, the calculation will be 3500-700 = 2800 µm, but the substrate W has a variation in the thickness and the substrate ( In order to be affected by reflection from W), the measured value is slightly larger or smaller than 2800 µm.

Therefore, the data is corrected. That is, when the measured value is, for example, 2790 µm, the value 2760 µm is calculated by subtracting the predetermined coating start position (for example, 30 µm) from this value. As shown in Fig. 7, the slit nozzle lifting control is lowered by 2760 µm. It is made to fall, and this is set as a coating gap. By doing in this way, setting of the coating gap which considered the slightly different thickness for every board | substrate W becomes possible.

The coating gap is determined by the above method, and the slit nozzle 5 is lowered to this coating gap position (to the target coating starting position) to apply the substrate W while maintaining the coating gap.

Here, from the start of the application to the end, the distance measuring sensor 7 monitors the variation of the gap (application gap) between the upper surface of the substrate and the lower end of the slit nozzle 5, and if the application gap exceeds the allowable range. If it is changed, an alarm or a lamp is turned on. Thereby, it becomes possible to know whether the coating gap fluctuated beyond the permissible range.

According to this embodiment, a board | substrate is carried in and mounted to a board | substrate mounting part, the slit nozzle which raised to the standby position was moved to the application | coating start position, and this distance was measured after distance data to the board | substrate surface was measured by the distance measuring sensor. The data is fed back to the slit nozzle raising and lowering control unit to calculate the coating gap, and the slit nozzle is lowered to the determined coating gap position so that the application of the substrate W is performed while maintaining the coating gap. The slit nozzle can be leveled even when applied to the slit nozzle, and the slit nozzle can be leveled, and the height adjustment of the slit nozzle can be easily performed.

In the present embodiment described above, the slit nozzle 5 is pushed down and adjusted when the horizontal reference and the height reference are determined. However, the slit nozzle 5 may be pushed up and adjusted from a position lower than the reference point.

In addition, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above, A various other structure can be taken in the range which does not deviate from the summary of this invention.

Since the coating apparatus and the coating method of the present invention can easily apply a large substrate by a slit nozzle, various coatings are formed on substrates such as liquid crystals, plasma displays, semiconductor elements, and the like on a magnetic recording medium. It can use suitably for various film formation.

According to the present invention, when applying a coating liquid such as a developing solution, a cleaning liquid, a SOG solution, a resist liquid, or the like to a substrate such as a glass substrate or a semiconductor wafer, the parallel reference and the reference height position of the slit nozzle are easily determined. Can be.

For this reason, fine adjustment of the distance of the board | substrate surface and the lower end of a slit nozzle at the time of application | coating can be performed correctly, and it becomes possible to check the vertical movement of the slit nozzle at the time of application | coating, and to prevent application | coating nonuniformity.

Therefore, a coating method suitable for forming a high performance, high reliability coating device and a uniform coating film can be realized.

Claims (4)

In the coating device which forms a coating film on the said board | substrate by discharging a coating liquid from the slit nozzle which is non-contacted and relatively movable with the said board | substrate on the board | substrate mounted on the board | substrate mounting part, At both ends in the width direction of the coating start side of the substrate placing unit, reference fixtures for determining the horizontal reference and the height reference of the slit nozzle are provided, and the reference fixture has a liftable side length holder, and the top length measuring side And a control device so as to stop at the same surface height as the substrate placing surface. The coating device according to claim 1, wherein the distance between the upper surface of the substrate and the lower surface of the slit nozzle, which is placed on the substrate placing part, is measured on the front surface of the slit nozzle based on the moving direction when the slit nozzle is applied. Applicator characterized in that the non-contact distance measuring sensor is mounted. In the coating apparatus of claim 1, the standby position of the slit nozzle is determined on the basis of the same height position as the controlled substrate placing surface, and the interval between the substrate and the slit nozzle is determined on the basis of the standby position to start the application. A coating method characterized by the above-mentioned. In the coating method of Claim 3, between the start of application | coating and completion | finish of application | coating, a distance measuring sensor monitors the fluctuation | variation of the space | interval of the said upper surface of a board | substrate and the lower end of said slit nozzle, and alerts an abnormal state of the said space | interval A coating method characterized by informing by lamp lighting.

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