KR20080082905A - Substrate treatment apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus for processing a substrate is provided to improve a substrate process speed and to reduce a manufacture cost by using a primary transfer mechanism and a secondary transfer mechanism. A cassette holding unit(1) holds a cassette that receives a plurality of substrates stacked in a vertical direction at a horizontal position. A substrate process unit(2) performs a batch process on a multiplicity of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction at a vertical position. A primary transfer mechanism(3) collectively transfers the substrates stacked in the horizontal direction at the vertical position between a certain substrate withdrawing and receiving position and the substrate process unit. A receiving and withdrawing mechanism(4) collectively receives and withdraws the substrate with respect to the cassette, and also converts the positions of the substrates between the vertical position and the horizontal position. A secondary transfer mechanism collectively receives and sends the substrates of the vertical position with the receiving and withdrawing mechanism. The secondary transfer mechanism collectively receives and sends the substrate of the vertical position with the primary transfer mechanism at a substrate receiving and sending position.

Description

Substrate Processing Equipment {SUBSTRATE TREATMENT APPARATUS}

The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus for collectively processing a plurality of substrates. Examples of the substrate to be processed include a semiconductor wafer, a substrate for a liquid crystal display, a substrate for a plasma display, a substrate for a field emission display (FED), a substrate for an optical disk, a substrate for a magnetic disk, a substrate for an optical magnetic disk, Photomask substrates and the like.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A substrate processing apparatus that performs a process using a chemical liquid on a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer has a batch type for collectively processing a plurality of substrates. An example of a batch type substrate processing apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-354604. This substrate processing apparatus is equipped with a carrier mounting part, a horizontal moving robot, a posture change mechanism, a pusher, a conveyance mechanism, and a substrate processing part.

The carrier placing unit is capable of placing a carrier (receptor) held in a state where a plurality of substrates are stacked in a vertical direction in a horizontal posture.

The horizontal mobile repositioning robot is constituted by a multi-arm arm type transport robot, and is configured to rotate around a vertical axis while stretching the multi-arm arm. Thus, the horizontal mobile robot moves the articulated arm toward the carrier, and allows the multiple articulated arms stacked in and out from the horizontal posture with respect to the carrier, and the articulated arm to the posture converting mechanism. With respect to this posture converting mechanism, a plurality of substrates stacked in a vertical direction in a horizontal posture are exchanged.

The posture converting mechanism is used to collectively convert a plurality of stacked substrates into a posture between a horizontal posture and a vertical posture. A substrate alignment mechanism is provided in the posture converting mechanism in order to eliminate the substrate positional shift that may occur on the substrate during substrate transport from the articulated arm.

The pusher has a holder capable of shanghai-dong and horizontal movement, and can collectively exchange a plurality of vertical postures with a posture change mechanism, and a plurality of vertical postures with a conveyance mechanism. Boards can be sent and received collectively. The holder can hold a board | substrate at the pitch of half of the pitch of the several board | substrate which a posture change mechanism grips. For example, after 25 substrates are passed from the posture converting mechanism to the holder, the holder is moved by a small distance in the horizontal direction along the substrate stacking direction. In that state, another 25 board | substrates are passed from a posture change mechanism to a holder. The 25 substrates passed later enter into between the 25 substrates passed first, and a batch of 50 substrates in total is formed on the holder. A batch tank is formed by combining a plurality of substrate groups in this way. When giving a board | substrate from a pusher to a posture change vent, 25 of 50 board | substrates hold | maintained by a holder are passed to a posture change mechanism, and this 25 board | substrate is posture-converted to a horizontal posture, and is passed to a horizontal mobile robot. Thereafter, the remaining 25 substrates on the holder are passed to the posture converting mechanism and subjected to posture conversion in a horizontal posture, and then taken out by the horizontally moving robot. Thus, 50 substrates are separated into two substrate groups of 25 sheets each. As described above, separating a plurality of substrates forming a batch into a plurality of substrate groups is referred to as batch release.

The conveying mechanism has a substrate chuck that grips a plurality of substrates forming a batch in a vertical position, and the substrate chuck is moved in a horizontal direction so that the plurality of substrates constituting the batch is loaded into the substrate processing unit. It is to be taken out. In order to clean the substrate chuck, for example, a chuck cleaning unit is provided below the substrate feed position between the pusher and the transfer mechanism.

The substrate processing unit has a plurality of processing tanks arranged along the moving direction of the transport mechanism. The treatment tank includes a chemical liquid tank, a water washing tank, and a drying tank. In the chemical liquid tank, a plurality of substrates in the vertical posture are immersed in the chemical liquid stored in the tank, and the chemical liquid processing is performed on the plurality of substrates collectively. The water washing tank immerses a plurality of vertical postures in pure water (deionized water) stored in the tank, and performs a washing (rinse) process on a plurality of substrates collectively. The drying tank collectively performs a process of supplying an organic solvent (for example, isopropyl alcohol) or shaking off a liquid component to a plurality of substrates.

The main problem in the substrate processing apparatus according to the prior art is firstly low substrate processing speed (processing efficiency) and secondly high price.

Specifically, since the horizontal mobile repositioning robot is a multi-joint arm type, it is not possible to increase the operation speed in a state in which a plurality of substrates are collectively held by the limitation of the mechanical strength. In addition, the articulated arm robot itself is expensive. In addition, there is a problem that the actual occupied area is increased because a space in which the articulated arm pivots is required.

In addition, since the relative positions of the plurality of substrates are shifted at the time of horizontal movement by the articulated arm, as described above, it is necessary to equip the posture converting mechanism with the substrate alignment mechanism. The operation time of this substrate alignment mechanism presses the substrate processing speed. In addition to the substrate cleaning mechanism, the posture converting mechanism needs to include a horizontal substrate guide for holding a horizontal posture, a vertical substrate guide for holding a vertical posture, and a rotation mechanism for changing the posture of the substrate. It is a very expensive robot.

Further, the pusher is equipped with a shanghai moving mechanism, a horizontal moving mechanism, and a rotating mechanism, and is also an expensive robot.

Thus, the need for time to transport the substrate between the carrier (receptor) and the transfer mechanism is one factor that impedes the improvement of the processing efficiency. In addition, the configuration for transporting the substrate between the carrier (receptor) and the transport mechanism is expensive, which hinders the cost reduction of the substrate processing apparatus.

Further, in the substrate processing apparatus according to the prior art, since the substrate transport path from the carrier to the transport mechanism is one system, when the unprocessed substrate is sent to the main transport mechanism, the substrate that has been processed from the transport mechanism to the carrier is returned. When drawing out the substrate which has not been drawn out and which has been processed, the unprocessed substrate cannot be sent. In addition, when the unprocessed substrate is sent to the conveying mechanism, the batch combination operation on the holder of the pusher is necessary, so that the waiting time until the finished substrate is taken out is long. Similarly, when taking out the processed substrate, the batch release operation on the holder of the pusher is required, so the waiting time until the unprocessed substrate can be sent is long. This is another factor that lowers the substrate processing speed.

When the unprocessed substrate is held in the pusher at the substrate feed position, the conveyance mechanism cannot take out the processed substrate having been processed in the drying tank to the substrate feed position. Therefore, the conveyance mechanism first receives an untreated substrate at the substrate feeding position and carries it into the chemical liquid tank. After that, after carrying out the washing | cleaning of the chuck | cleaning unit and the board | substrate chuck, a conveyance mechanism receives a processed board | substrate from a drying tank, and hands it to a pusher at the board | substrate feed back and receive position. Since foreign matter on the surface of the unprocessed substrate is transferred to the substrate chuck on which the unprocessed substrate is held, do not clean the substrate chuck before holding the processed substrate to prevent the foreign substance from transferring to the processed substrate. There is no way. This is another factor that lowers the substrate processing speed.

An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus capable of improving a substrate processing speed.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus capable of reducing costs.

A substrate processing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention is a container holding portion for holding a container for accommodating a plurality of substrates stacked in a vertical position in a horizontal position, and stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical position. A substrate processing unit for collectively performing processing on a plurality of substrates, a predetermined substrate feeding position, and a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical position between the substrate processing portions are collectively conveyed. A main transport mechanism and an import / export mechanism for collectively carrying out a plurality of substrates to and from a container held by the receiver holding portion, and collectively converting the plurality of substrates between a horizontal posture and a vertical posture. A plurality of substrates having a vertical posture are collectively exchanged between the carrying-out mechanism and the transfer mechanism at a predetermined moving position. A unit for collectively transferring a plurality of substrates in a vertical posture at the receiving position with the main transport mechanism and collectively conveying a plurality of substrates in a vertical posture between the moving position and the substrate feed receiving position. A conveying mechanism.

According to this structure, the several board | substrate accommodated in the horizontal posture in a container is carried out collectively by a carrying-out mechanism, and also a posture change | vertises to a vertical attitude by this carrying-out mechanism. The plurality of substrates in this vertical posture are moved to the sub-conveying mechanism from the moving position, conveyed to the substrate feed-in position, and passed from the substrate feed-in position to the main transport mechanism. The main transport mechanism transports a plurality of vertical substrates to the substrate processing unit. The board | substrate after the process in a board | substrate process part is conveyed to a board | substrate feed-back position from a board | substrate process part by a main transport mechanism, and is handed to a sub transport mechanism. The sub conveyance mechanism conveys the substrate from the substrate feeding position to the moving position, and passes the substrate to the carrying in / out mechanism. After carrying out the posture change of a board | substrate from a vertical posture to a horizontal posture, a carrying-in / out mechanism is carried in to a receiver.

As described above, in the present invention, the loading and unloading mechanism is configured to carry in and unload the substrate to the receiver and to change the attitude of the substrate. Therefore, the structure can be simplified in comparison with the prior art, which uses the articulated arm robot to carry in and take out the substrate and uses a dedicated posture changing mechanism for changing the attitude of the substrate. Can be.

In addition, since the carry-out / out mechanism may perform the board | substrate loading / unloading operation | movement and posture change operation | movement with respect to a receiver, it does not need to rotate a multi-joint arm horizontally like the prior art. Therefore, the operation time can be shortened. As a result, the time required for transporting the substrate can be shortened, and the number of substrates that can be processed per unit time can be improved. That is, the substrate processing speed can be improved.

The carry-in / out mechanism is a hand for advancing and retreating along a predetermined direction along a horizontal direction with respect to a container held by a plurality of holding hands for collectively holding a plurality of substrates and a plurality of holding hands held in the container holding portion. It is preferable to include a retracting mechanism and a hand turning mechanism for rotating the plurality of grip hands by at least 90 degrees along a vertical surface in the retracting direction.

According to this configuration, the carrying in / out mechanism moves out a plurality of substrates collectively from the receiver by advancing the plurality of grip hands with respect to the container, and then rotates the plurality of grip hands along the vertical plane in the advancing direction by 90 °. Can be converted from horizontal posture to vertical posture. In addition, when carrying a board | substrate into a container, it is good to advance to the receiver after carrying out the posture change of a plurality of holding hands from a vertical position to a horizontal position. In this way, the attitude of the substrate can be changed by the hand turning operation in the vertical plane including the advance direction of the plurality of grip hands, so that the configuration of the carrying in / out mechanism can be simplified. Of course, horizontal rotation of the articulated arm as in the prior art is unnecessary. As a result, it is possible to quickly advance and change the position of the plurality of grip hands with respect to the receiver.

The plurality of holding hands may include a plurality of hand elements each holding one substrate, and each of the hand elements has a first substrate holding part on one side of the hand element alignment direction. You may have a 2nd board | substrate holding part in one side of an element alignment direction. In this case, it is preferable that the carrying-in / out mechanism further includes a hand rotating mechanism for rotating the plurality of grip hands about a predetermined rotational axis so as to reverse the front and back of the hand element.

According to this structure, either a 1st board | substrate holding part or a 2nd board | substrate holding part can be made into the upper surface side by rotating a plurality of holding hands by a hand rotating mechanism. Thus, the first substrate holding portion and the second substrate holding portion can be switched and used for substrate holding. Thus, for example, one substrate holding part can be used for holding an unprocessed substrate, and the other substrate holding part can be used for holding a substrate that has been processed. Thereby, it is possible to suppress or prevent the transfer of foreign matter on the surface of the unprocessed substrate to the processed substrate.

It is preferable that the said carrying out mechanism further contains the support guide which supports the several board | substrate of a vertical posture from the bottom. According to this configuration, the vertical posture of the substrate can be supported by the support guide. At the same time, when the plurality of grip hands are placed in the vertical position, the plurality of substrates can be aligned at the same time by the support guide. Thereby, a some board | substrate can be aligned by a cheap structure. In addition, since the posture change of the substrate and the alignment of the substrate can be completed at the same time, the time required for transporting the substrate between the receiver and the main transport mechanism can be further shortened.

The support guide preferably has a pair of substrate holding grooves for each hand element. In this case, it is preferable that the carrying-in / out mechanism further includes a guide drive mechanism for selecting one of the pair of substrate holding grooves for holding the substrate by driving the support guide. According to this configuration, either of the pair of substrate holding grooves can be selected by the guide driving mechanism, so that one of the pair of substrate holding grooves is used for holding the unprocessed substrate, and the other is finished. It can be used for holding the substrate. Thereby, it is possible to suppress or prevent the transfer of foreign matter on the surface of the unprocessed substrate to the processed substrate.

The sub-conveying mechanism has a movable mounting support for collectively holding a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical position, and the movable mounting support is moved to the shanghai dong, whereby A moving positioning mechanism for collectively transferring a plurality of substrates in a vertical position at the moving position, and a horizontal conveying gripping portion for aligning and holding a plurality of substrates in a vertical position in a horizontal direction. A plurality of vertical postures are collectively exchanged between the movable placement support portion and the horizontal conveyance gripper, and a plurality of vertical postures are disposed between the main transport mechanism and the horizontal conveyance gripper at the substrate transfer position. Sending and receiving substrates collectively, the horizontal conveying grip portion between the moving position and the substrate feed position Flat or may be of a horizontal transport mechanism to move.

According to this structure, the movement placement support part of a movement placement mechanism can be moved up and down, and the board | substrate can be exchanged with a carrying-in mechanism, and a board | substrate with a horizontal conveyance mechanism can be performed. Therefore, by intermediary with the mobile mounting mechanism of a simple structure, a board | substrate can be passed between a carrying-in mechanism and a horizontal conveyance mechanism. In addition, since the horizontal conveyance mechanism only has to convey the substrate horizontally between the moving position and the substrate feed-in position, the configuration is not complicated. In this way, the cost of the subcarrier can also be reduced.

It is preferable that the said moving mounting mechanism is arrange | positioned on the opposite side to the said half entrance / exit mechanism with respect to the advancing direction of the plurality of holding hands.

According to this structure, the carrying in / out mechanism can carry in / out a board | substrate with respect to a receiver by advancing a plurality of holding hands, and can also approach a moving position by moving along the advance direction. Thereby, the structure of the carrying in / out mechanism can be further simplified, and cost can be reduced.

For example, the horizontal transport mechanism may be configured to approach the moving position from the horizontal direction perpendicular to the advancing direction of the plurality of holding hands. That is, the horizontal conveyance mechanism may move the horizontal conveyance gripping portion in the horizontal direction orthogonal to the advancing direction of the plurality of holding hands. With this arrangement, the switching of the substrate conveyance direction between the approaching direction to the receiver and the conveying direction to the substrate feed receiving position can be achieved at the moving position by the moving placing operation by the moving placing mechanism. . As a result, the configuration can be further simplified. In addition, since the substrate conveyance speed can be remarkably increased compared to the prior art in which the substrate conveyance direction is switched by turning the articulated arm, the substrate processing speed can be further improved.

The moving positioning mechanism preferably further includes a supporting portion horizontal moving mechanism for moving the moving positioning support portion in a predetermined distance range in a horizontal direction (for example, hand retreat direction) in which a substrate having a vertical posture is stacked. According to this structure, after moving a 1st board group from a moving placement support part to a horizontal conveyance gripper, a 2nd board group is received by a moving placement support part from a carrying-in / out mechanism, and this 2nd board group Can be moved to a position shifted from the first substrate group of the horizontal carrier gripper. As a result, the first and second substrate groups can be held by the horizontal conveying gripper, and the arrangement consisting of the first and second substrate groups can be combined.

For example, after moving the first substrate group to the horizontal carrier gripper, the movable relocation supporter is horizontally moved by half the distance (½ pitch) of the substrate grip pitch of the first substrate group to move the second substrate group to the horizontal carrier gripper. It may be moved. As a result, the first substrate group and the second substrate group are held on the horizontal conveying gripper in a state where the constituent substrates of each group are alternately overlapped with each other. As a result, the horizontal carrier gripping portion can hold a plurality of substrates in a small space. In addition, the substrate processing unit that processes the batch in this state can process a plurality of substrates in a small space.

The moving relocation support unit preferably includes a pair of support guide shafts for holding a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical position from both sides, and the support guide shafts are in positions different in circumferential direction, and contact the substrate. It is preferable to have a retreat part which secures a predetermined space | interval between a pair of support guide shafts so that a contact part may pass through a board | substrate between a pair of support guide shafts, and the said moving positioning mechanism Preferably, it further comprises a guide rotating mechanism for rotating the pair of support guide shafts around each axial direction. The substrate processing apparatus controls the guide rotation mechanism to switch between a substrate supporting state in which contact portions of the pair of support guide shafts face each other, and a substrate passing state in which receding portions of the pair of support guide shafts face each other. It is preferable to further include a control unit.

According to such a structure, by making the board | substrate supporting state which the contact part of a pair of support guide shafts oppose, it is possible to receive and support the several board | substrate of a vertical posture from a carrying-out mechanism or a horizontal conveyance mechanism. On the other hand, when the substrate is not supported, the pair of support guide shafts can be moved up and down by avoiding the interference with the substrate held by the carrying-in / out horizontal mechanism by placing the receding portions facing each other. have. Thus, for example, after passing the substrate to the horizontal transport mechanism, one support guide shaft can be retracted to a predetermined retracted position (for example, a position that does not inhibit the horizontal movement of the horizontal transport gripper). Is also simple.

The contact portion preferably includes a first contact portion and a second contact portion disposed at different positions in the circumferential direction of the support guide shaft. With this configuration, since either of the first contact portion and the second contact portion can be selected and used for supporting the substrate, for example, the support of the unprocessed substrate and the finished substrate can be used to support the substrate. 2 contacts can be switched. As a result, it is possible to suppress or prevent the transfer of foreign matter on the surface of the unprocessed substrate to the processed substrate.

The horizontal conveying mechanism preferably further comprises a horizontal rotating mechanism for rotating the horizontal conveying gripping portion at least 90 degrees around the vertical axis (preferably horizontal rotating about the center of the horizontal conveying gripping portion).

The main transport mechanism includes, for example, substrate collective holding means for collectively holding a plurality of vertical posture stacked substrates stacked in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the hand retracting direction of the carrying in / out mechanism; And transverse means for moving in a transverse direction parallel to the direction. In this case, the substrate processing unit includes, for example, a plurality of processing units arranged along the transverse direction.

In this case, by rotating the horizontal conveying gripper by 90 ° about the vertical axis with respect to the horizontal conveying mechanism, the stacking direction of the plurality of substrates is shifted between the stacking direction in the mobile positioning mechanism and the stacking direction in the main transport mechanism. I can convert it. In the prior art, conversion of the substrate stacking direction is performed by horizontal rotation of the articulated arm, which takes too much time in such horizontal arm rotation. On the other hand, in the present invention, since the horizontal carrier gripping portion may be rotated, the rotation can be completed quickly, and the configuration is simple. Thereby, the board | substrate conveyance speed can be improved and cost reduction of a substrate processing apparatus can be aimed at.

It is preferable that the horizontal rotating mechanism rotates the horizontal conveying gripping portion at least 180 degrees around the vertical axis (preferably horizontal rotating around the center of the horizontal conveying gripping portion). According to this configuration, the vertical posture held by the horizontal conveying gripping portion can be rotated 180 degrees horizontally. Thus, for example, at the time of the batch combination described above, the device formation surfaces (surfaces on the side where the devices are formed) between the component substrates of the first substrate group and the component substrates of the second substrate group are opposed to each other. Such non-device forming surfaces (surfaces on which the device is not formed) can be opposed to each other. Thereby, for example, when processing by immersing a batch in process liquid, the problem that a foreign material reattaches to the device formation surface from the non-device formation surface of an adjacent board | substrate can be suppressed or prevented.

Preferably, the horizontal conveying gripping portion has a plurality of substrate holding grooves formed at a pitch of ½ of the substrate holding pitch in the moving placement support portion. By this configuration, the horizontal carrier gripper can hold a plurality of substrates in a small space, and the batch can be combined on the horizontal carrier gripper.

The horizontal conveying gripper includes a first guide for supporting a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical posture, and a second guide for supporting a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical posture. The conveying mechanism preferably further includes a guide elevating mechanism for relatively elevating the first guide with respect to the second guide. With this configuration, the substrate can be held by either the first guide or the second guide by raising and lowering the first guide relative to the second guide. Therefore, by using the first and second guides separately between the unprocessed substrate and the processed substrate, it is possible to suppress or prevent the transfer of foreign matter on the surface of the unprocessed substrate to the processed substrate.

Preferably, the main transport mechanism conveys a plurality of substrates collectively between a predetermined first substrate feed-in position and a second substrate feed-in position and the substrate processing unit. A mobile placement mechanism having a movement placement support for holding and holding a plurality of substrates in a batch; and at the movement placement position, a movement placement mechanism for collectively exchanging a plurality of substrates between the movement placement support and the carrying-in / out mechanism; A first conveying gripping portion for holding a substrate, a plurality of substrates are collectively exchanged between the moving placing support portion and the first conveying gripping portion at the moving placing position, and the main substrate at the first substrate feeding and receiving position; A plurality of substrates are collectively exchanged between a conveyance mechanism and the first conveying gripper, and the first substrate is disposed between the moving position and the first substrate feeding position. A first substrate moving mechanism for moving the song holding part, and a second carrier holding part for holding a plurality of substrates, and collectively placing a plurality of substrates between the moving placement support part and the second carrier holding part at the moving position. Send and receive a plurality of substrates collectively from the second substrate give-and-take position to the main conveying mechanism with the second conveying gripping portion, and between the moving position and the second substrate give-and-take position. It is preferable to include a second substrate moving mechanism for moving the second carrier holding part.

The first carrier support may be a first horizontal carrier grip for aligning and gripping a plurality of substrates in a vertical position in a horizontal direction. The first substrate moving mechanism may collectively exchange a plurality of substrates in a vertical posture between the moving placement support and the first horizontal conveying gripper at the moving placement position, and at the first substrate transfer position. A plurality of substrates having a vertical posture may be collectively exchanged between the main transport mechanism and the first horizontal transport gripper, and the first horizontal transport gripper is disposed between the moving position and the first substrate transport position. It may be possible to move horizontally. The second conveyance support part may be a second horizontal conveyance grip part for aligning and holding a plurality of substrates in a vertical position in a horizontal direction. In this case, the second substrate moving mechanism is capable of collectively transferring a plurality of substrates in a vertical posture between the moving placement support and the second horizontal conveying gripper at the moving placement position, and giving the second substrate. A plurality of substrates having a vertical posture may be collectively exchanged between the main transport mechanism and the second horizontal transport gripper at a receiving position, and the second horizontal may be transferred between the moving position and the second substrate transferring position. A second horizontal transport mechanism capable of horizontally moving the carrier gripper may be used.

According to this configuration, the main transport mechanism can access the first and second substrate transfer positions, and can transfer the substrates. The substrate transfer between the first substrate pick-up position and the moving positioning mechanism is performed by the first substrate moving mechanism, and the substrate transfer between the second substrate pick-up position and the moving positioning position is the second substrate moving mechanism. Is done by. As a result, since the substrate transport path between the mobile positioning mechanism and the main transport mechanism can be made into two systems, even if one substrate transport path is used to take out the unprocessed substrate from the container by the loading / unloading mechanism and send it to the main transport mechanism. The substrate which has been processed through one of the substrate transfer paths can be taken out from the main transport mechanism toward the moving placement mechanism. Therefore, since the waiting time can be reduced, the substrate processing speed can be improved.

The first substrate transfer mechanism receives the substrate after being processed by the substrate processing unit from the main transport mechanism at the first substrate transfer position, and passes the substrate to the movable placement mechanism at the movable placement position. The substrate transfer mechanism preferably receives the substrate before being processed by the substrate processing unit from the movement placing mechanism at the movement placing position and passes the substrate to the main transfer mechanism at the second substrate feeding position.

According to this configuration, the main transport mechanism receives the unprocessed substrate from the second substrate transfer mechanism at the second substrate transfer position and conveys it to the substrate processing unit, and the processed substrate is moved from the first substrate transfer position to the first substrate transfer mechanism. It is operated to withdraw. By separating the paths of the unloaded substrates and the withdrawal of the processed substrates, the waiting time can be shortened compared to the prior art which has shared the substrate transfer paths at the time of loading and unloading the substrate. Can improve.

The main transport mechanism may include a substrate chuck for collectively holding a plurality of substrates. In this case, the substrate processing apparatus includes, after conveying the chuck cleaning unit for cleaning the substrate chuck of the main transport mechanism, and the substrate after the processing in the substrate processing unit to the first substrate feed-in position (preferably Without cleaning the chuck cleaning unit and the substrate chuck), the substrate is conveyed from the second substrate feed-back position to the substrate processing unit, and then the chuck cleaning unit and the substrate chuck are cleaned so as to clean the chuck cleaning unit and the substrate chuck. It is preferable to further include a conveyance control unit for controlling the operation.

According to this configuration, even if the unprocessed substrate is waiting at the second substrate feed-back position, the main transport mechanism first pulls out the processed substrate from the substrate processing portion to the first substrate feed-back position, and thereafter, 2 The unprocessed substrate at the substrate feed position can be conveyed to the substrate processing unit. In other words, since the main transport mechanism does not need to bring the substrate chuck into contact with the unprocessed substrate prior to unloading the processed substrate, the main transport mechanism does not need to clean the substrate chuck before withdrawing the processed substrate.

Therefore, the number of washings of the substrate chuck can be reduced. In addition, since the substrate chuck may be cleaned by using the vacant time after taking out the processed substrate and bringing the unprocessed substrate into the substrate processing unit, the substrate processing speed can be further improved.

The substrate processing apparatus passes a first substrate group, which is a part of a plurality of substrates held by the first conveying gripping portion, to the moving placement support portion, passes the first substrate group from the moving placement support portion to the carrying-in / out mechanism. Subsequently, a second substrate group, which is another part (for example, a remainder) of the plurality of substrates held by the first conveying gripping portion, is passed to the moving placing support portion, and the second substrate group is transferred from the moving placing support portion to the carrying-out mechanism. Controlling the carry-in / out mechanism, the movable placing mechanism and the first substrate moving mechanism to pass a third substrate group from the carrying-in mechanism to the moving placing support portion, and passing the second carrier wave from the moving placing support portion; Handing the third board group to a branch, thereafter, passing a fourth board group from the carrying-in / out mechanism to the moving placement support section, and also carrying the fourth board group to the moving placement support. Passing from the unit to the second carrier gripper, and controlling the carrying-in / out mechanism, the movable mounting mechanism and the second substrate moving mechanism to hold the third substrate group and the fourth substrate group on the second carrier gripper; It is preferable to further include a mobile location control unit for executing.

According to this structure, a batch release operation | movement is performed by dividing the several board | substrate hold | maintained by the 1st conveyance holding part into a 1st board | substrate group and a 2nd board | substrate group, and moving it to a moving placement support part. Further, the batch combination operation is performed by moving the third substrate group from the moving placement support section to the second carrier holding section, and then moving the fourth board group from the moving placement support section to the second carrier holding section. In this way, the batch release operation is performed on the side of the first substrate moving mechanism (first carrier gripping portion), and the batch combination operation is performed on the side of the second substrate moving mechanism (second carrier gripping portion). Therefore, even during the batch release operation, the operation of passing a plurality of unprocessed substrates forming a batch from the second substrate transfer mechanism to the main transport mechanism is possible. Further, even during the batch combination operation, the operation of passing the processed substrate from the main transport mechanism to the first substrate transfer mechanism is possible. As a result, the waiting time during the batch release operation or during the batch combination operation can be shortened, so that the substrate processing speed can be further improved.

Preferably, the substrate processing apparatus further comprises an intermediary mechanism for mediating the transfer of the substrate between the second conveying gripping portion and the main conveying mechanism at the second substrate conveying position.

According to this configuration, since the transfer of the substrate between the second horizontal transfer mechanism and the main transfer mechanism can be performed through an intermediary mechanism, the time for which the second horizontal transfer mechanism or the main transfer mechanism is constrained to transfer the substrate is shortened. can do. As a result, the substrate processing speed can be further improved. In addition, it is also possible to pass the substrate to another unit arranged at the second substrate feeding position by the intermediary mechanism. An example of such a unit is a substrate orientation alignment mechanism for aligning the orientation of a substrate (for example, crystal orientation of a semiconductor wafer).

The movable placing support of the movable placing mechanism collectively grips a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical position, and the movable placing mechanism is configured to move the movable placing support and the carry-out mechanism at the movable placing position. A plurality of substrates in a vertical posture are exchanged in a collective manner, and the first conveying gripping portion is for holding and aligning a plurality of substrates in a vertical posture in a horizontal direction. A plurality of substrates having a vertical posture are collectively exchanged between the moving placement support and the first transporting gripper at a moving mounting position, and between the main transport mechanism and the first transporting gripper at the first substrate feeding and receiving position. A plurality of substrates in a vertical posture are collectively exchanged with each other, and the second conveying gripping portion aligns the plurality of substrates in a vertical posture in a horizontal direction, The second substrate moving mechanism is configured to transfer a plurality of substrates in a vertical position collectively between the movable placement support portion and the second conveyance grip portion at the movable placement position, and at the second substrate transfer position. Preferably, a plurality of substrates having a vertical posture are collectively exchanged between the main transport mechanism and the second transport gripper.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus comprising: a container holding portion for holding a container containing a plurality of substrates; a substrate processing portion for collectively processing a plurality of substrates; A plurality of substrates are collectively stored in the main transport mechanism for collectively conveying a plurality of substrates between the substrate feed position and the second substrate feed position and the substrate processing portion, and the receiver held by the receiver holding portion. And a mobile relocation supporter for holding and holding a plurality of substrates collectively, and a plurality of substrates are collectively exchanged between the mobile relocation supporter and the carrying in / out mechanism at a predetermined moving location. A moving repositioning mechanism and a first conveying gripping portion for holding a plurality of substrates, wherein said moving placing supporting portion and said first conveying holding portion A plurality of substrates are collectively exchanged between the main substrate transfer mechanism and the first carrier holding portion at the first substrate transfer position, and the plurality of substrates are collectively exchanged between the first substrate transfer position and the transfer position and the first substrate. A first substrate moving mechanism for moving the first conveying gripping portion between one substrate giving and receiving positions, and a second conveying gripping portion for holding a plurality of substrates; Sending and receiving a plurality of substrates collectively between the conveying gripping portion, and collectively sending and receiving a plurality of substrates between the main conveying mechanism and the second conveying gripping portion at the second substrate giving and receiving position, and moving the And a second substrate moving mechanism for moving the second conveying gripping portion between a position and the second substrate giving and receiving position.

According to this configuration, the main transport mechanism can access the first and second substrate feed-back positions and perform the transfer of the boards. The substrate transfer between the first substrate pick-up position and the moving positioning mechanism is performed by the first substrate moving mechanism, and the substrate transfer between the second substrate pick-up position and the moving positioning position is performed by the second substrate moving mechanism. Is done. As a result, since the substrate transport path between the mobile positioning mechanism and the main transport mechanism can be made into two systems, even when one substrate transport path is used to take out an unprocessed substrate from the container by the carrying out mechanism and send it to the main transport mechanism, Through the other substrate transport path, the processed substrate can be taken out from the main transport mechanism toward the moving placement mechanism. Therefore, since the waiting time can be reduced, the substrate processing speed can be improved.

Preferably, the first substrate transfer mechanism receives the substrate after being processed by the substrate processing unit from the main transport mechanism at the first substrate transfer position, and passes the substrate to the movable placement mechanism at the movable placement position. Preferably, the second substrate transfer mechanism receives the substrate before being processed by the substrate processing unit from the movement placement mechanism at the movement placement position and passes the substrate to the main transport mechanism at the second substrate transfer position.

According to this configuration, the main transport mechanism receives the unprocessed substrate from the second substrate transfer mechanism at the second substrate transfer position and conveys it to the substrate processing unit, and the processed substrate is the first substrate transfer mechanism at the first substrate transfer position. It is operated to withdraw. By separating the path between the unloaded substrate and the withdrawal of the processed substrate, the waiting time can be shortened compared to the prior art, which has shared the substrate transfer path at the time of loading and unloading the substrate. Can improve.

It is preferable that the said main conveyance mechanism contains the board | substrate chuck which hold | grip and hold a plurality of board | substrates collectively. In this case, the substrate processing apparatus, after conveying the chuck cleaning unit for cleaning the substrate chuck of the main transport mechanism and the substrate after the processing in the substrate processing unit to the first substrate feed-in position, (preferably The main transport mechanism is configured to convey the substrate from the second substrate feed-in position to the substrate processing unit without cleaning the chuck cleaning unit and the substrate chuck, and thereafter, the chuck cleaning unit and the substrate chuck are cleaned. It is preferable to further include a conveyance control unit for controlling the operation.

According to this configuration, even in a situation where the unprocessed substrate is waiting at the second substrate feed-in position, the main transport mechanism first takes out the processed substrate from the substrate processing unit to the first substrate feed-in position, and thereafter, 2 The unprocessed substrate at the substrate feed position can be conveyed to the substrate processing unit. In other words, since the main transport mechanism does not need to bring the substrate chuck into contact with the unprocessed substrate prior to unloading the processed substrate, the main transport mechanism does not need to clean the substrate chuck before withdrawing the processed substrate. Therefore, the number of washings of the substrate chuck can be reduced. In addition, the cleaning of the substrate chuck may be carried out using the empty time after taking out the processed substrate and bringing the unprocessed substrate into the substrate processing unit, whereby the substrate processing speed can be further improved.

The substrate processing apparatus passes a first substrate group, which is a part of a plurality of substrates held by the first conveying gripping portion, to the moving placing support portion, passes the first substrate group from the moving placing supporting portion to the carrying-out mechanism, Thereafter, the second substrate group, which is another part (for example, the remainder) of the plurality of substrates held by the first conveying gripping portion, is passed to the moving placing support portion, and the second substrate group is transferred from the moving placing support portion. Controlling the loading / unloading mechanism, the moving placing mechanism and the first substrate moving mechanism to pass to the loading / unloading mechanism, passing a third substrate group from the loading / unloading mechanism to the moving placement support, The third substrate group is passed to the second conveying gripper, and thereafter, the fourth substrate group is passed from the carrying-in / out mechanism to the movable mounting support portion, and the fourth substrate group is transferred to the moving member. Controlling the carrying-in / out mechanism, the movable repositioning mechanism and the second substrate moving mechanism to pass from the tooth support portion to the second carrier holding portion to hold the third substrate group and the fourth substrate group on the second carrier holding portion; It is preferable to further include a mobile location control unit for executing the step.

According to this structure, a batch release operation | movement is performed by dividing the several board | substrate held by the 1st conveyance holding part into a 1st board | substrate group and a 2nd board | substrate group, and moving it to a moving placement support part. In addition, the batch combination operation is performed by moving the third substrate group from the moving placement support section to the second carrier holding section, and then moving the fourth board group from the moving placement supporting section to the second carrier holding section. Thus, the batch release operation | movement is performed by the 1st board | substrate moving mechanism (1st conveyance holding part) side, and a batch combination operation | movement is performed by the side of the 2nd board | substrate moving mechanism (2nd conveyance holding part). Therefore, even during the batch release operation, the operation of passing a plurality of unprocessed substrates forming a batch from the second substrate transfer mechanism to the main transport mechanism is possible. Further, even during the batch combination operation, the operation of passing the processed substrate from the main transport mechanism to the first substrate transfer mechanism is possible. This makes it possible to shorten the waiting time during the batch release operation or during the batch combination operation, so that the substrate processing speed can be further improved.

Preferably, the substrate processing apparatus further includes an intermediary mechanism for mediating the transfer of the substrate between the second conveying gripping portion and the main conveying mechanism at the second substrate feeding and receiving position.

According to this configuration, since the transfer of the substrate between the second substrate transfer mechanism and the main transport mechanism can be carried out through an intermediary mechanism, the time for which the second substrate transfer mechanism or the main transport mechanism is restrained for the exchange of the substrate is determined. It can be shortened. As a result, the substrate processing speed can be further improved. It is also possible to pass the substrate to another unit arranged at the second substrate feed-in position by the intermediary mechanism. An example of such a unit is a substrate orientation alignment mechanism that aligns the orientation of a substrate (for example, the crystal orientation of a semiconductor wafer).

The receiver gripping portion is for holding a plurality of substrates stacked in a vertical direction in a horizontal posture, and the substrate processing unit collectively processes a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical posture. The main transport mechanism collectively conveys a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical position, and the carrying-in / out mechanism collectively delivers a plurality of substrates to a receiver held by the receiver holding portion. Carry out the carry-out, and simultaneously convert the plurality of substrates into a horizontal posture and a vertical posture to collectively change the posture. The moving placement support of the mobile positioning mechanism includes a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical posture. And collectively gripping the moving placing mechanism, the moving placing support portion and the loading / unloading machine at the moving placing position. The plurality of substrates in a vertical posture are collectively exchanged between the substrates and the first conveying gripping portion is for holding and aligning a plurality of substrates in a vertical posture in a horizontal direction. A plurality of substrates having a vertical posture are collectively exchanged between the movable placement support portion and the first transport gripper at a mounting position, and between the main transport mechanism and the first transport gripper at the first substrate transfer position. A plurality of substrates in a vertical posture are collectively exchanged, and the second conveying gripping portion is for holding and aligning a plurality of substrates in a vertical posture in a horizontal direction, and the second substrate moving mechanism is provided at the moving position. A plurality of substrates having a vertical posture are collectively exchanged between the movable placement support and the second conveying gripper, and the main board is at the second substrate feed-back position. The plurality of substrates in a vertical posture may be collectively exchanged between the air supply mechanism and the second conveyance gripping portion.

According to this structure, the several board | substrate accommodated in the horizontal posture in a container is carried out collectively by a carrying-out mechanism, and also a posture change | vertises to a vertical attitude by this carrying-out mechanism. The plurality of substrates in this vertical posture are moved to the first or second carrier holding portion at the moving position and conveyed to the first or second substrate feed position, and the main substrate at the first or second substrate feed position. Passed to conveyance mechanism. The main transport mechanism conveys a plurality of vertical substrates to the substrate processing unit. The substrate after the processing in the substrate processing unit is conveyed from the substrate processing unit to the first or second substrate transfer position by the main transport mechanism, and is passed to the first or second substrate transfer mechanism. The first or second substrate transfer mechanism conveys the substrate from the first or second substrate transfer position to the movement placement position, and passes the substrate to the movement placement mechanism. The mobile placement mechanism also hands over such a substrate to the carrying in and out mechanism. After carrying out the posture change of a board | substrate from a vertical posture to a horizontal posture, a carrying-in / out mechanism is carried in to a receiver.

In this way, the carrying in / out mechanism is configured to carry in and unload the substrate to the receiver and to change the attitude of the substrate. Therefore, a structure can be simplified compared with the prior art which carries out the carrying-in of a board | substrate using a articulated arm type robot, and uses the dedicated posture changing mechanism for the posture change of a board | substrate.

In addition, since the carrying in / out mechanism may perform the board | substrate import / export operation | movement and posture change operation | movement with respect to a receiver, it does not need to rotate a multi-joint arm horizontally like the prior art. Therefore, the operation time can be shortened. As a result, the time required for transporting the substrate can be shortened and the number of substrates that can be processed per unit time can be improved. That is, the substrate processing speed can be improved.

Further, by moving the movable placement support portion of the movable placement mechanism up and down, the substrate can be exchanged with the carrying-out mechanism and the substrate is exchanged with the first and second substrate transfer mechanisms. Therefore, the substrate can be passed between the carrying in / out mechanism and the first and second substrate moving mechanisms by intermediating with the mobile positioning mechanism having a simple configuration.

The above or other objects, features, and effects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a substrate processing apparatus which can improve the substrate processing speed and reduce the manufacturing cost.

Overall Configuration of First Embodiment

1 is a schematic plan view for explaining an overall configuration of a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The substrate processing apparatus 10 includes a FOUP gripping portion 1, a substrate processing portion 2, a main transport mechanism 3, a carrying in / out mechanism 4, a moving mounting mechanism 5, and a first horizontal transport mechanism. (6), a second horizontal conveying mechanism (7), a chuck cleaning unit (8), and a controller (9) (control unit).

The hoop holding part 1 is arrange | positioned at the corner part of the substrate processing apparatus 10 formed in the substantially rectangular shape in planar view. The hoop gripping portion 1 is a container gripping portion capable of holding the hoop F as a container for accommodating a plurality of substrates W having a horizontal posture stacked in the Z-direction (vertical direction, vertical direction). to be. The automatic hoop conveying apparatus 11 shown by the dashed-dotted line is arrange | positioned so that the front surface 10a (it may correspond to one side in plan view) of the substrate processing apparatus 10 may be arrange | positioned. The automatic hoop conveying apparatus 11 has a function of supplying the hoop F which accommodated the unprocessed substrate W to the hoop holding part 1, and a hoop F which should receive the processed substrate W. (The function of supplying the empty hoop to the hoop holding part 1 and the function of evacuating the hoop F held by the hoop holding part 1 in order to replace the hoop held by the hoop holding part 1 In this embodiment, the substrate W is a circular substrate like a semiconductor wafer.

The substrate processing unit 2 includes a plurality of processing units 20 arranged along the Y-direction (horizontal direction) along the side surface (corresponding to one long side in plan view) 10b of the substrate processing apparatus 10. (Processing unit) The plurality of processing units 20 includes a first chemical liquid tank 21, a first rinse liquid tank 22, a second chemical liquid tank 23, a second rinse liquid tank 24, and a drying treatment unit 25. The first chemical liquid tank 21 and the second chemical liquid tank 23 respectively store the same or different types of chemical liquids, and immerse a plurality of substrates in the chemical liquid to treat the chemical liquid. Each of the first rinse liquid tank 22 and the second rinse liquid tank 24 stores a rinse liquid (for example, pure water), and supplies a plurality of substrates (for example, 50 sheets) in the rinse liquid. It is immersed in a batch, and a surface is rinsed.

In this embodiment, the first chemical liquid tank 21 and the first rinse liquid tank 22 adjacent thereto are paired, and the second chemical liquid tank 23 and the second rinse liquid tank 24 adjacent thereto are paired. It is.

Then, the chemical liquid treatment is performed by the first lifter 27 and the second chemical liquid tank 23 as a dedicated transport mechanism for transferring the substrate W treated with the chemical liquid in the first chemical liquid tank 21 to the first rinse liquid tank 22. The 2nd lifter 28 as a dedicated conveyance mechanism for moving the board | substrate W which was made to the 2nd rinse liquid tank 24 is provided. The first and second lifters 27 and 28 each include a substrate support portion for supporting a plurality of vertical postures (for example, 50 sheets) of the substrates W in a stacked state along the X direction (horizontal direction); A lift drive mechanism for moving the substrate support up and down, and a transverse drive mechanism for traversing the substrate support in the Y direction. In addition, the X direction is a horizontal direction along the front surface 10a of the substrate processing apparatus 10 and is a direction orthogonal to the Y direction.

According to this configuration, the first lifter 27 receives the plurality of substrates W stacked in the vertical direction from the main transport mechanism 3 in the X direction and collectively removes the plurality of substrates W. 1 It descends in the chemical liquid tank 21, and is immersed in chemical liquid. In addition, after waiting for a predetermined chemical liquid processing time, the first lifter 27 raises the substrate supporting portion, pulls up a plurality of substrates W from the chemical liquid, and then supplies the substrate supporting portion to the first rinse liquid tank 22. The substrate supporting portion is lowered into the first rinse liquid tank 22 and immersed in the rinse liquid. After waiting for a predetermined rinse processing time, the first lifter 27 raises the substrate support and pulls the substrate W out of the rinse liquid. Thereafter, a plurality of substrates W are collectively passed from the first lifter 27 to the main transport mechanism 3. Similarly, the second lifter 28 receives the plurality of substrates W stacked in the X direction in the vertical direction from the main transport mechanism 3 in a batch, and receives the plurality of substrates W in the second chemical liquid tank 23. D) into the chemical solution. In addition, after waiting for a predetermined chemical processing time, the second lifter 28 raises the substrate supporting portion, pulls up a plurality of substrates W from the chemical liquid, and traverses the substrate supporting portion to the second rinse liquid tank 24. Further, the substrate supporting portion is lowered into the second rinse liquid tank 24 to be immersed in the rinse liquid. After waiting for a predetermined rinse processing time, the second lifter 28 raises the substrate support and pulls the substrate W out of the rinse liquid. Thereafter, a plurality of substrates W are collectively passed from the second lifter 28 to the main transport mechanism 3.

The drying processing unit 25 has a substrate holding mechanism for holding a plurality of sheets (for example, 50 sheets) of substrates W stacked in the X direction in a vertical position, and in a reduced pressure atmosphere, The substrate W is dried by supplying an organic solvent (isopropyl alcohol or the like) to the substrate W or by shaking off the liquid component on the surface of the substrate W by centrifugal force. The drying treatment unit 25 can exchange the substrate W between the main transport mechanisms 3.

The main transport mechanism 3 is a pair of substrate chucks as a substrate collective gripping means capable of collectively gripping a plurality of vertical sheets (for example, 50 sheets) of substrates W stacked in the X direction. Mechanism) 30, the chuck driving mechanism for operating the substrate chuck 30, the transverse driving mechanism for moving the substrate chuck 30 horizontally (transverse) along the Y direction, and the substrate chuck 30 along the Z direction. Elevating drive mechanism is provided for lifting. Each of the pair of substrate chucks 30 includes a pair of axial support guides 31 extending in the X direction, and a plurality of vertical postures are provided on opposite sides of the support guides 31. The board | substrate support groove for receiving and supporting the board | substrate W of the board | substrate is formed at intervals in the axial direction. The chuck drive mechanism expands and contracts the distance between the pair of support guides 31 by rotating the pair of substrate chucks 30 in the direction of the arrow 33. Thereby, the board | substrate chuck 30 can perform the opening-and-closing operation which switches to the holding state which clamps and grips the board | substrate W, and the release state which releases the holding of the board | substrate W. As shown in FIG. By the opening and closing operation and the movement of the first and second lifters 27 and 28, the substrate W can be exchanged between the first and second lifters 27 and 28 and the substrate chuck 30. Can be. The main transport mechanism 3 can also collectively send and receive a plurality of substrates W in a state of being stacked in the X direction vertically between the drying processing units 25.

The main transport mechanism 3 receives the plurality of unprocessed substrates W stacked in the X direction in the vertical position at the first substrate feed-in position P1, and processes the plurality of sheets stacked in the X direction in the vertical position. The finished substrate W is operated to be drawn out to the second substrate feed-back position P2.

The chuck cleaning unit 8 is disposed below the first substrate feed-in position P1. The chuck cleaning unit 8 has a pair of cleaning tanks 35 into which a pair of substrate chucks 30 are placed, respectively. In this pair of cleaning tanks 35, the substrate chuck 30 (particularly the support guide 31) is cleaned using a cleaning liquid. The main transport mechanism 3 lowers the substrate chuck 30 to the first substrate feed-in position P1 before transporting the processed substrate W that has been dried in the drying processing unit 25 to clean the chuck. It puts in the washing tank 35 of the unit 8. After the substrate chuck 30 is cleaned in the cleaning tank 35, the main transport mechanism 3 operates to collectively receive the processed substrate W from the drying processing unit 25.

A shutter 15 is provided on the side of the mobile mounting mechanism 5 of the first substrate feed-in position P1, and a shutter 16 is provided on the side of the carry-in / out mechanism 4 of the second substrate feed-in position P2. . The shutter 15 is opened when the first horizontal transport mechanism 6 approaches the first substrate feed-back position P1, and the other period is gripped in a closed state. The shutter 16 is opened when the second horizontal conveyance mechanism 7 approaches the second substrate feed-in position P2. The other period is held closed. This suppresses or prevents leakage of the chemical liquid atmosphere on the substrate processing section 2 side.

[Configuration for Board Return]

FIG. 2: is a perspective view which expands and shows the structure related to board | substrate conveyance between the hoop F and the main conveyance mechanism 3. As shown in FIG. Reference is made to FIG. 2 and FIG. 1 described above.

The second substrate feed-in position P2 is set near one corner near the front surface 10a of the substrate processing apparatus 10, and the carry-in / out mechanism of the other azimuth portion along the front surface 10a is set. (4) is arrange | positioned. With respect to this carrying-out mechanism 4, the movement mounting mechanism 15 is arrange | positioned on the opposite side to the hoop holding part 1 with respect to a Y direction. The first horizontal conveyance mechanism 6 is arranged between the movable placement mechanism 5 and the first substrate feed-in position P1. Further, a second horizontal conveyance mechanism 7 is arranged between the carry-out and inlet 4 and the second substrate feed-in position P2. The moving placing mechanism 5 transfers the substrate between the carrying-out mechanism 4 and the moving placing mechanism 5, and transfers the substrate between the first horizontal transfer mechanism 16 to the moving placing mechanism 5. It is arrange | positioned at the movement placement position P3 which exchanges a board | substrate between the receiving and movement placing mechanism 15 and the 2nd horizontal conveyance mechanism 7.

[Constitution of carrying in and out mechanism]

3 is a perspective view viewed obliquely from above to explain the configuration of the carrying in / out mechanism 4. The carry-out / out mechanism 4 includes a batch hand 40 which is a plurality of holding hands capable of collectively holding a plurality of substrates W in a stacked state, and a hand supporting portion 41 that supports the batch hand 40. And a swing block 42, an advance block 43, and a hand advance mechanism 44. In the swing block 42, a hand rotating motor 45 as a hand rotating mechanism is fixed, and a hand support portion 41 is coupled to a rotating shaft of the hand rotating motor 45. As a result, the hand support portion 41 is capable of relative rotation with respect to the swing block 42 in the range of 360 ° around the central axis 46 of the batch hand 40, thereby allowing the hand rotation motor 45 to be rotated. By driving, relative rotation can be caused. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 4, the batch hand 40 can be rotated about the central axis 46. FIG.

The swing block 42 is coupled to the advancing block 43 so as to be able to swing around the axis 47 via the axis 47 along the X direction. More specifically, the advancing block 43 has a pair of arm portions 48 extending in the Z direction on both end surfaces thereof facing the X direction. The swing block 42 is disposed between the pair of arm portions 48, and one end of the swing block 42 in the X direction is connected to one arm portion 48 through the shaft 47. Are combined. The other end of the swing block 42 in the X direction is engaged with the rotation shaft of the swing motor 50 as the hand swing mechanism. This swing motor 50 is fixed to the other arm part 48. Therefore, by driving the swing motor 50, the swing block 42 can be rotated in the YZ plane about the axis 47. As shown in FIG. Thereby, the hand turning mechanism which rotates the central axis 46 of the batch hand 40 along the YZ plane is comprised. By using this hand turning mechanism, the postures of the plurality of substrates W can be converted between the horizontal posture and the vertical posture (see Fig. 5).

The hand retraction mechanism 44 includes a pair of linear guides 53 and 54 for guiding the advance and retreat block 43 to move linearly along the Y direction, and a driven member disposed near one end of one linear guide 53. A pulley (toothed pulley) 55, a drive pulley (toothed pulley) 56 disposed near the other end of the linear guide 53, and a belt that extends along the Y direction between these pulleys 55 and 56 ( A belt presser 58 for coupling the toothed belt 57 and the retraction block 43 to the belt 57 and a retraction motor 60 coupled to the rotation shaft of the drive pulley 56 are provided. According to this configuration, the retraction block 43 can be horizontally moved in the Y direction by driving the retraction motor 60 to rotate the belt 57, whereby the batch hand 40 can be moved to the hoop holding part. The hoop F held in (1) can be advanced.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view for explaining a configuration for moving the batch hand 40 up and down, and the configuration provided inside the hand support part 41 is shown. The hand support part 41 is provided with the fixed base 62, the movable base 63, and the actuator 65. As shown in FIG. The batch hand 40 is fixed to the moving base 63. The movable base 63 is coupled to the movable block 64, and the movable block 64 is driven by the actuator 65. The movement base 63 may be moved relative to the fixed base 62 while being guided along the hand element alignment direction 69 of the batch hand 40 along a straight guide (not shown).

The actuator 65 linearly moves the moving block 64 along the hand element alignment direction 69 by using, for example, an electric motor as a drive source. By this structure, by driving the actuator 65, the batch hand 40 can be moved along the hand element alignment direction 69. As shown in FIG. By using this, the plurality of substrates W accommodated in the hoop F may be raised or the plurality of substrates W may be placed on the plurality of substrate receiving shelves formed in the hoop F.

7 is a perspective view for explaining the batch hand 40 and its configuration.

The batch hand 40 has a plurality of hand elements 70 aligned along the hand element alignment direction 69. Each hand element 70 is a thin plate-shaped beam extending in the normal direction of one surface of the hand support portion 41, and is formed in a substantially wedge shape in plan view. The plurality of hand elements 70 are stacked at intervals in the hand element alignment direction 69 orthogonal to the opposite directions in a state in which the two hand elements 70 face each other at a predetermined distance from each other. The central axis 46 of the batch hand 40 is defined by an imaginary straight line along the direction parallel to the hand element 70, with the center of all hand elements 70. A pair of hand element rows 70A, 70B are formed, which are composed of a plurality of hand elements 70 aligned in the hand element alignment direction 69 with the central axis 46 therebetween.

One substrate W can be gripped by two opposing hand elements 70. Therefore, a plurality of substrates W are held in a state in which the plurality of substrates W are laminated in the hand element alignment direction 69. can do. In this embodiment, one hoop F can hold 25 horizontal postures W stacked in the Z-direction, and correspondingly, 25 hand elements 70 are supported by the hoop F. They are stacked and arranged at the same interval as the distance between the substrates W in the wafer). Therefore, the batch hand 40 can hold all the board | substrates W in the hoop F collectively.

As shown schematically in FIG. 8, each hand element 70 is provided with a first supporting surface 71 and a second supporting surface 72, which are surfaces opposite to each other. At the base end, which is an end of the hand support portion 41 side of the hand element 70, a first supporting protrusion 73 is provided on the first supporting surface 71, and the second supporting ground ( The second supporting protrusion 74 is provided at 72. Further, the first guide protrusion 75 is provided on the first support surface 71 at the distal end of the hand element 70, and the second guide protrusion 76 is provided on the second support surface 72. The first support protrusion 73 and the first guide protrusion 75 formed on the first support surface 71 constitute the first substrate holding portion, and the second support protrusion 74 provided on the second support surface 72. And the second guide protrusion 76 constitutes the second substrate gripping portion.

By controlling the rotational position around the central axis 46 of the batch hand 40, when the first supporting surface 71 is upward, the first supporting protrusion 73 and the first guide protrusion 75 are provided. Can be brought into contact with the substrate W to support the substrate W. FIG. In addition, when the second support surface 72 is upward, the second support protrusion 74 and the second guide protrusion 76 may be brought into contact with the substrate W to support the substrate W. As shown in FIG. When supporting the substrate W, the support protrusions 73 and 74 contact the lower surface of the substrate W at the proximal end side of the hand element 70, and the guide protrusions 75 and 76 make the hand element 70. In contact with the peripheral end surface and the lower surface edge of the board | substrate W at the front-end | tip side of ().

For example, when the hand-wound motor 45 needs to hold the unprocessed substrate W by the batch hand 40, the first supporting surface 71 becomes the upper surface, and the processed substrate W is batched. When the grip 40 is to be held by the hand 40, the second supporting surface 72 is controlled to be the upper surface. Thus, the support protrusions 73 and 74 and the guide protrusions 75 and 76 in contact with the substrate W can be switched between the unprocessed substrate W and the processed substrate W. FIG. As a result, foreign matter adhering to the unprocessed substrate W can be suppressed or prevented from being transferred to the processed substrate W through the batch hand 40.

As shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 5, FIG. 7, etc., the hand support part 41 is equipped with three axial support guides 80 in the position of the base end side of the hand element 70. As shown in FIG. The three support guides 80 are arranged in parallel in the hand element alignment direction 69 and one on the outer side of one hand element row 70A (opposite to the batch hand center axis 46). The support guide 80 is disposed, the other support guide 80 is disposed outside of the other hand element row 70B, and the rest of the rest is almost at an intermediate position between the hand element rows 70A and 70B. One support guide 80 is arranged.

The three support guides 80 are fixed to the front of the guide base 81 (see FIG. 7) in common. The guide base 81 is coupled to the movable base 63 such that the guide base 81 can be linearly moved in the direction along the batch hand center axis 46. On the rear part of the guide base 81, an almost L-shaped bracket 79 protruding to the opposite side from the support guide 80 with respect to the movable base 63 is fixed. The bracket 79 is equipped with a cam follower 82 facing the side opposite to the support guide 80. On the other hand, a cam 84 having a cam surface 83 in contact with the cam follower 82 is provided on the moving base 63. The cam 84 is located on the side opposite to the support guide 80 with respect to the movable base 63, and has a cam surface 83 on the support guide 80 side. This cam surface 83 includes an inclined surface that is inclined with respect to the hand element alignment direction 69. The cam 84 is attached to the movement base 63 so that it can move linearly along the hand element alignment direction 69.

The cam 84 is coupled to the cam base 85, and the cam base 85 is driven by the cylinder 86. The cylinder 86 is fixed to the movement base 63 and moves the cam base 85 linearly along the hand element alignment direction 69. The linear movement of the cam base 85 is guided by the linear guide 66 (refer FIG. 6). By the linear movement of the cam base 85, the cam follower 82 moves (moves) on the cam surface 83 so that the guide base 81 advances and retreats along the batch hand center axis 46, and accordingly, The support guide 80 also advances along the batch hand center axis 46. In this way, the guide retraction mechanism 87 for advancing and retracting the support guide 80 with respect to the hand element 70 is constituted by the cam 84, the cylinder 86, and the like.

A pair of through holes 77 and 78 is formed near both edges of the guide base 81. These through holes 77 and 78 are rectangular along the hand element alignment direction 69. Hand element supporting members 67 and 68 are provided to penetrate through the through holes 77 and 78. The rear part of the hand element supporting members 67 and 68 is fixed to the moving base 63. Further, a plurality of hand elements 70 constituting the hand element rows 70A and 70B are fixed to the front portions of the hand element support members 67 and 68, respectively.

By advancing the support guide 80 to the front end side of the batch hand 40 by driving the guide retraction mechanism 87, the substrate W can be pinched from the front and back by the support guide 80 and the guide protrusions 75 and 76. have. This clamping state is used when the batch hand 40 is posture-converted between a horizontal posture and a vertical posture. Thereby, the board | substrate W can be stably maintained during posture change, and fall of the board | substrate W can be suppressed or prevented.

As shown schematically in FIG. 8, the individual support guides 80 are opened in the direction of the substrate W supported by the hand element 70 and spaced apart from the hand element alignment direction 69. It has a plurality of substrate holding grooves 88 formed. More specifically, for each hand element 70, a first substrate gripping groove 88A and a second substrate gripping groove 88B are formed. And the guide drive mechanism 89 which moves the guide base 81 to the axial direction of the support guide 80 is provided. By this structure, by controlling the guide drive mechanism 89, the end surface of the board | substrate W holding the 1st board | substrate gripping groove 88A or the 2nd board | substrate holding groove 88B in the hand element 70. Can be positioned at Thus, for example, the first substrate gripping groove 88A can be used for gripping the unprocessed substrate W so that the second substrate gripping groove 88B can be used for holding the processed substrate W. FIG.

[Constitution of mobile locator]

9 is a perspective view for explaining the configuration of the moving placing mechanism 5. The moving mounting mechanism 5 has a pair of support guide shafts 91 extending in the Y direction, and the pair of support guide shafts 91 face each other along the X direction. The support guide shaft 91 can function as a movable mounting support portion for collectively holding a plurality of substrates W stacked in the Y direction in a vertical position.

The pair of support guide shafts 91 are supported by the guide support portion 92. The guide support part 92 is attached to the upper end of the main body part 93 so that linear reciprocating movement is possible by a small distance along the Y direction. The main body 93 is a columnar component extending in the Z direction, and is assembled to the substrate processing apparatus 10 so as to be movable along the Z direction.

As shown in FIG. 10, the actuator 95 as an up-and-down drive mechanism is couple | bonded with the lower end of the main-body part 93. As shown in FIG. The actuator 95 is a drive part in which the motor 94 as a drive source is integrated together with the linear guide and the ball screw, and moves the main body 93 up and down along the Z direction.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing a configuration for moving the pair of support guide shafts 91 along the Y direction, and the configuration seen from the rear of FIG. 9 is shown. The guide support part 92 is attached to the upper end of the main body part 93 extending in the Z direction, and can be moved in the Y direction while being guided by the linear guide 97 on the main body part 93. The guide moving motor 100 is attached to the upper surface of the main body 93 via a bracket 98. Screws are squared on the rotating shaft 101 of the guide movement motor 100, and the rotating shaft 101 is arranged along the Y direction. The rotary shaft 101 is screwed into the screw hole of the block 99 fixed to the side of the guide support part 92. By this structure, the pair of support guide shafts 91 can be advanced in the Y direction together with the guide support 92 by driving the guide movement motor 100 forward / reverse. In this way, the support guide horizontal movement mechanism 102 (support portion horizontal movement mechanism) for horizontally moving the support guide shaft 91 is constituted by the guide movement motor 100 or the like.

The guide support portion 92 is further provided with a guide pivot mechanism 105 for rotating the pair of support guide shafts 91 around each shaft. The pair of support guide shafts 91 are attached to the guide support portion 92 so that rotation around the shaft is possible, respectively. The pulleys 106 and 107 are fixed to the base end of each support guide shaft 91, respectively. On the other hand, the guide support unit 92, the guide rotation motor 110 and the tension pulley 108 is mounted. The pulley 109 is fixed to the rotation shaft of the guide rotation motor 110. A belt (toothed belt) 111 is wound around the pulleys 106, 107, and 109, and tension is given by the tension pulley 108 from the outside of the belt 111. By this structure, by driving the guide rotation motor 110, the pair of support guide shafts 91 can be rotated in conjunction with each axis.

12 is a plan view for explaining the configuration of the support guide shaft 91. The support guide shaft 91 is provided with the 1st contact part 113 and the 2nd contact part 114 in the position (other position 180 degree different in this embodiment) in a circumferential direction, and has two places between these. Is the retreat portion 115.

The 1st and 2nd contact parts 113 and 114 are comprised by aligning the some tooth-shaped protrusion 116 which protruded in the direction orthogonal to the axial direction of the support guide shaft 91 in the axial direction. At the distal end of each tooth-shaped projection 116, a support groove for receiving and supporting the edge of the substrate W is formed. In the receding part 115, the sawtooth protrusion 116 is not formed.

By rotating the support guide shaft 91 by the guide rotation mechanism 105, the first support state in which the first contact portions 113 of the pair of support guide shafts 91 are opposed to each other (see Fig. 12), the second It can be set as the 2nd support state which the contact part 114 mutually opposed, or the retracted state which opposes the retraction part 115 mutually (refer FIG. 13).

In the first supporting state, the distance between the first contact portions 113 of the pair of support guide shafts 91 is narrower than the diameter of the substrate W. As shown in FIG. Therefore, it is possible to collectively hold the plurality of substrates W in a vertical position on the pair of support guide shafts 91. Similarly, in the second support state, the distance between the second contact portions 114 of the pair of support guide shafts 91 is narrower than the diameter of the substrate W. As shown in FIG. Therefore, it is possible to collectively hold the plurality of substrates W in a vertical position on the pair of support guide shafts 91. For example, when the unprocessed substrate W is held, the guide rotation motor 110 is controlled to be in a first supported state, and when the processed substrate W is held in a second supported state. The unprocessed substrate W and the processed substrate W can be switched to and gripped by the first and second contact portions 113 and 114.

In the retracted state, as shown in FIG. 13, the distance between the pair of support guide shafts 91 becomes longer than the diameter of the substrate W. As shown in FIG. Therefore, the vertical substrate W can pass between the pair of support guide shafts 91.

[Constitution of the first horizontal conveyance mechanism]

14 is a perspective view for explaining the configuration of the first horizontal conveyance mechanism 6. The first horizontal transport mechanism 6 is capable of rotating the first horizontal carrier branch 120 and the first horizontal carrier branch 120 that collectively grip the plurality of substrates W in a vertical position about the vertical axis. A main body portion 121 supported in a state, a movable base 122 on which the main body portion 121 is mounted, and a horizontal driving mechanism 125 for horizontally moving the movable base 122 in the X direction. . The main body 121 has a columnar shape along the Z direction, and a first horizontal conveying gripper 120 is mounted at an end thereof, and a lower end thereof is fixed to the moving base 122.

The horizontal drive mechanism 125 is provided with a pair of linear guides 126 for guiding horizontal movement along the X direction of the movement base 122. The driving pulley 127 is disposed at one end side of the linear guide 126, and the driving pulley 128 is disposed at the other end side of the linear guide 126, and the horizontal conveying motor is provided at the driving pulley 128. The rotating shaft of 130 is coupled. The belts (toothed belts) 129 are wound around the pulleys 127 and 128. Therefore, the belt 129 has a straight portion extending in the X direction toward the side of the straight guide 126. The belt pressing portion 131 fixed to the moving base 122 is coupled to the straight portion of the belt 129. By this configuration, by moving the horizontal conveying motor 130 forward / reverse rotation, the moving base 122 can be linearly moved in the X direction, and therefore, the horizontal conveying gripper 120 can be linearly moved in the X direction. Can be.

FIG.15 and FIG.16 is the front view (front view seen from the X direction) which expands and shows the structure of the 1st horizontal conveyance holding part 120. FIG. The horizontal conveying gripper 120 includes a first guide 135 and a second guide 136.

The first guide 135 has three supporting members 135a, 135b, and 135c arranged in parallel in the horizontal direction, and these are supported by the first guide base 137. On each of the upper surfaces of the three support members 135a, 135b, and 135c, a plurality of substrate holding grooves (for example, 50) are formed in the longitudinal direction of the support members 135a, 135b, and 135c. . The three substrate holding grooves (substrate holding grooves formed in the supporting members 135a, 135b, and 135c, respectively) along the vertical surface perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the supporting members 135a, 135b, and 135c are each a single substrate (the vertical posture). The lower edge is in contact with a position different from that of W), and the board | substrate W of this vertical attitude is gripped. As a result, the first guide 135 can collectively hold the plurality of vertical postures W. As shown in FIG. The board | substrate holding groove is arrange | positioned at the half space | interval (½ pitch) of the holding | gripping interval of the board | substrate W in the hoop F.

Similarly, the second guide 136 has three supporting members 136a, 136b, and 136c arranged in parallel along the horizontal direction, and they are supported by the second guide base 138. On each upper surface of the three supporting members 136a, 136b, and 136c, a plurality of substrate holding grooves (for example, 50) are formed in alignment with the longitudinal direction of each of the supporting members 136a, 136b, and 136c. The three substrate holding grooves (substrate holding grooves formed in the supporting members 136a, 136b, and 136c, respectively) along the vertical plane orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the supporting members 136a, 136b, and 136c each include a single substrate (a vertical posture). The lower edge of W) comes in contact with another position to hold the substrate W in this vertical posture. As a result, the second guide 136 can collectively grip the substrates W having a plurality of vertical postures. The board | substrate holding groove is formed in the space | interval (½ pitch) of half of the holding space of the board | substrate W in the hoop F. As shown in FIG.

While one support member 136c of the second guide 136 is directly mounted to the second guide base 138, the remaining two support members 136a and 136b are supported by the sub guide base 139, The sub guide base 139 is supported by the second guide base 138 via the support shaft 140. The second guide base 138 is located below the first guide base 137, and the support shaft 140 mounts an insertion hole formed in the first guide base 137 to form a second guide base 137. Guide base 138 is reached.

Two linear bushes 145 and 146 are fixed to the lower surface of the second guide base 138. The rotary shaft 147 is attached to one linear bush 145, and the shaft 148 is attached to the other linear bush 146. The upper ends of the rotating shaft 147 and the shaft 148 are both fixed to the first guide base 137. The rotary shaft 147 and the shaft 148 are guided along the Z direction by the linear bushes 145 and 146 so that the first guide base 137 is in the Z direction relative to the second guide base 138. It is possible to move up and down. That is, the first guide 135 may be moved up and down with respect to the second guide 136. In addition, when the rotating shaft 147 is rotated around its axis, the first guide base 137 rotates around the rotating shaft 147, and this rotation is carried out through the linear bush 146 and the shaft 148. It is delivered to the second guide base 138. As a result, the first and second guides 135 and 136 may be rotated together.

By moving the first guide 135 up and down with respect to the second guide 136, the first support 135, the substrate support position of the first guide 135 disposed above the substrate support position of the first guide 135 It is possible to switch between the support state (state of FIG. 15) and the second support state (see FIG. 16) disposed above the substrate support position of the first guide 135 of the second guide 136. have. Thus, for example, in the case of supporting the unprocessed substrate W, the substrate W is supported by the first guide 135 as the first support state while the substrate W is processed. As the second supporting state, the substrate W may be supported by the second guide 136.

Further, the first and second guides 135 and 136 are rotated horizontally (for example, 90 °) about the vertical axis, whereby the alignment direction and the main conveyance of the substrate W in the movement placing mechanism 5 are maintained. The substrate alignment direction can be switched between the alignment direction of the substrate W in the mechanism 3. Furthermore, after receiving and holding 25 board | substrates W, for example from the movable mounting mechanism 5, the 1st horizontal conveyance holding part 120 (guides 135 and 136) is horizontally 180 degree around a vertical axis. It can rotate, and it can operate to receive another 25 board | substrates W from the moving mounting mechanism 5. In this case, the constituent substrates W of the first 25 substrate groups and the constituent substrates W of the later 25 substrate groups are stacked in a horizontal direction so as to cross each other and gripped by the horizontal conveying gripper 120. Since the plurality of substrates W are held on the hoop F by aligning the directions of the device formation surfaces, the 50 substrates W on the horizontal carrier holding portion 120 are adjacent to each other, so that the device formation surfaces are adjacent to each other. Alternatively, the non-device forming surfaces are held to face each other.

FIG. 17 is a perspective view for explaining a configuration for horizontal rotation of the first horizontal conveying gripper 120 and lifting of the first guide base 137, and FIG. 18 is a side view thereof. In the main body 121, a guide rotation motor 150 serving as a horizontal rotating mechanism for rotating the rotating shaft 147 and an air cylinder 151 serving as a guide lifting mechanism 1 for moving the guide rotating motor 150 up and down. ) Is accommodated. The linear guide 152 is arrange | positioned along the Z direction on the inner wall of the main body part 121, and the guide unit 153 is movable in the Z direction according to this linear guide 152. As shown in FIG. The guide rotation motor 150 is mounted to the guide unit 153, and the rotation shaft 147 is equipped with the guide unit 153. On the other hand, on the upper surface of the main body 121, a bearing 154 (not shown in FIG. 18) with the main shaft 121 can be rotated about the vertical axis, and the rotary shaft 147 is mounted. It is. The linear bush 146 is fixed to the rotating part of this bearing 154. According to this configuration, by driving the air cylinder 151, the rotating shaft 147 can be moved up and down together with the guide rotation motor 150, whereby the first guide 135 to the second guide 136 Can be raised and lowered. In addition, by rotating the rotary shaft 147 by driving the guide rotation motor 150, it is possible to horizontally rotate the horizontal conveying gripper 120.

[Constitution of the second horizontal conveyance mechanism]

19 is a perspective view for explaining a configuration of a part of the second horizontal transport mechanism 7. Reference is also made to this FIG. 19 and FIG. 2 described above.

The second horizontal conveyance mechanism 7 has a configuration similar to that of the first horizontal conveyance mechanism 6, and includes a second horizontal conveyance grip portion 160 for collectively holding a plurality of substrates W having a vertical posture. A main body 161 for supporting the horizontal carrier grip 160 in a state capable of rotating about the vertical axis, a rotation base 162 on which the main body 161 is mounted, and a rotation base 162 around the vertical axis. And a horizontal drive mechanism 165 for horizontally moving the movable base 163 along the X direction. The main body portion 161 has a columnar shape along the Z direction, and a horizontal conveying grip portion 160 is mounted at an end thereof, and a lower end thereof is fixed to the rotation base 162.

The horizontal drive mechanism 165 is provided with a pair of linear guides 166 which guide horizontal movement along the X direction of the movement base 163. A driven pulley (not shown) is disposed between the pair of straight guides 166 near one end of the straight guide 166, and a pair of the pulleys is provided on the other end side of the straight guide 166. The driving pulley 168 is disposed between the linear guides 166 of the. The rotation shaft of the horizontal conveying motor 170 is coupled to the driving pulley 168. A belt (toothed belt) 169 is wound between the driven pulley and the drive pulley 168, so that the belt 169 has a straight portion extending in the X direction between the pair of straight guides 166. have. The belt pressing portion 171 fixed to the moving base 163 is coupled to the straight portion of the belt 169. By this configuration, by moving the horizontal conveying motor 170 forward / reverse rotation, the moving base 163 can be linearly moved along the X direction, and thus, the second horizontal conveying gripper 160 is moved in the X direction. Can be moved linearly.

The rotating base 162 is attached to the moving base 163 so that the rotation base 162 may rotate around the vertical axis 172. The swing motor 164 is fixed to the moving base 163, and the rotation shaft of the swing motor 164 is coupled to the rotation base 162. By this structure, by driving the swing motor 164, the 2nd horizontal conveyance gripping part 160 can be rotated about the vertical axis 172 simultaneously with the rotation base 162. FIG. The rotation base 162 is formed in substantially L shape, and the main-body part 161 is mounted in the position shifted from the perpendicular axis 172. As shown in FIG. Therefore, by the rotation of the rotation base 162, the horizontal conveyance gripper 160 can be moved between one side and the other side of the linear guide 166 in plan view.

20 is a perspective view showing a state when the second horizontal conveying gripper 160 is located on the front surface 10a side of the substrate processing apparatus 10. The linear guide 166 is disposed on the front surface 10a side of the substrate processing apparatus 10 more than the linear guide 126 in parallel with the linear guide 126 of the first horizontal transport mechanism 6. When the second horizontal conveying gripper 160 is positioned on the front surface 10a side of the substrate processing apparatus 10 with respect to the linear guide 166, the second horizontal conveying gripper 160 receives the second substrate feed position ( In the state facing the X direction with respect to P2), it can move along the X direction, and can move to the 2nd board | substrate give-and-take position P2.

FIG. 21 is a perspective view showing a state when the second horizontal conveying gripper 160 is positioned on the substrate processing section 2 with respect to the linear guide 166. In this state, the horizontal conveying gripper 160 can move along the X direction in a state opposite to the X direction with respect to the moving position P3, and can be located up to the moving position P3.

Accordingly, the second horizontal conveying gripper 160 can move along the X direction and pivotal movement around the vertical axis 172, whereby the second feed position P2 and the moving position P3 can be moved. The plurality of substrates W can be horizontally conveyed in a batch.

In addition, the structure of the detail of the 2nd horizontal conveyance mechanism 7 is the same as that of the 1st horizontal conveyance mechanism 6, Hereinafter, it shows in the figure with reference to description of the 1st horizontal conveyance mechanism 6 as needed. One reference numeral may be used also for the description of the second horizontal transport mechanism 7.

[Configuration for exchanging substrates between the second horizontal transport mechanism and the main transport mechanism]

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing a configuration relating to collective transfer of the substrate W at the second transfer position P2. The first intermediate robot 175 and the second intermediate robot 176 constituting the intermediate mechanism are provided at the second transfer position P2. The first intermediate robot 175 collectively receives a plurality of substrates W (for example, 50 sheets) stacked in the vertical direction from the second horizontal conveyance mechanism 7 in the X direction. The second intermediate robot 176 collectively receives a plurality of substrates W (for example, 50 sheets) stacked in the vertical direction from the first intermediate robot 176 in the X direction. The main transport mechanism 3 operates to collectively receive the plurality of substrates W stacked in the X direction in a vertical position from the second intermediate robot 176.

23 is a perspective view showing the configuration of the first intermediary robot 175. The first intermediary robot 175 includes a pair of support guides 177 formed axially, a guide support 178 for supporting the support guide 177, and a body in which the guide support 178 is fixed at the upper end. The part 179 and the actuator 180 for moving this main body part 179 up and down are included. The pair of support guides 177 are wider than the horizontal conveying gripper 160 and face each other in the Y direction with a narrower distance than the diameter of the substrate W, and a plurality of vertical postures (for example, 50 sheets) are provided between them. ), The substrate W can be collectively gripped. The main body 179 extends in the vertical direction. The actuator 180 moves the main body 179 up and down by using the motor 181 as a driving source. By this structure, the several board | substrate W hold | maintained perpendicularly to the 2nd horizontal conveyance holding part 160 can be collectively raised and received from below.

24 is a perspective view illustrating the configuration of the second intermediary robot 176. The second intermediary robot 176 includes a pair of support guides 183, a guide support 184 supporting the pair of support guides 183, and a main body having the guide support 184 fixed to the upper end. The part 185 and the actuator 186 for moving this main body part 185 up and down are included. The pair of support guides 183 can collectively hold a plurality of substrates W (e.g., 50 sheets) of vertical posture therebetween. The main body portion 185 extends in the vertical direction and is formed. The actuator 186 makes the main body 185 move up and down using the motor 187 as a drive source. According to this configuration, the plurality of substrates W in the vertical posture can be collectively supported from the first intermediary robot 175, and it can be passed to the main transport mechanism 3.

A substrate orientation alignment mechanism may be mounted on the upper end of the main body 185 in place of the support guide 183. The substrate orientation alignment mechanism aligns the orientation (crystal orientation in the case of a semiconductor wafer) of a plurality of substrates, for example, by orienting the notches (notches, etc.) formed on the semiconductor wafer. By having both of the first intermediary robot 175 and the second intermediary robot 176, neither the case of having the substrate orientation alignment mechanism nor the case of the case of having the substrate orientation alignment mechanism does not require a large change in the configuration. The transfer operation of the substrate at the substrate transfer position P2 can be performed.

[Operation of Substrate Processing Equipment]

Next, the operation of the substrate processing apparatus 10 will be described.

In this operation, the controller 9 includes a substrate processing unit 2, a main transport mechanism 3, a carrying in / out mechanism 4, a moving mounting mechanism 5, a first horizontal transport mechanism 6, and a second transport mechanism ( 7) It is realized by controlling the operation of each part such as the chuck cleaning unit 8 and the like. In particular, the controller 9 functions as a moving relocation control unit for controlling the carrying in / out mechanism 4, the moving placing mechanism 5, and the first and second horizontal transfer mechanisms 6 and 7, and also the main transfer mechanism. It functions as a conveyance control unit which controls the operation of (3).

[Carrying out of hoop F of unprocessed board | substrate W]

When the hoop F holding a plurality of sheets (for example, 25) of unprocessed substrates W is held in the hoop holding part 1, the carrying in / out mechanism 4 is horizontally positioned in the hoop F. The plurality of unprocessed substrates W stacked in the Z direction are collectively taken out. More specifically, in the hoop holding part 1, an opener for opening the cover of the hoop F is arranged. After opening the cover of the hoop F with this opener, the number of the substrates W in the hoop F is confirmed by the sensor.

When taking out the unprocessed substrate W from the hoop F, the carrying in / out mechanism 4 puts the batch hand 40 in a horizontal position, and moves the batch hand 40 by the hand retraction mechanism 44. Advancing in the Y direction toward F), each of the plurality of hand elements 70 enters between the substrates W. As shown in FIG. At this time, the batch hand 40 is controlled in a posture with the first supporting surface 71 of the hand element 70 facing upward.

Then, the actuator 65 raises the batch hand 40 by a small distance. As a result, the batch hand 40 raises a plurality of unprocessed substrates W simultaneously. In this state, the hand retraction mechanism 44 causes the batch hand 40 to retract from the hoop F to the posture change position, whereby the plurality of substrates W in the hoop F are collectively taken out. do.

[Posture change of unprocessed board (W)]

The substrate W carried out from the hoop F is held by the batch hand 40 in a state of being stacked in the Z direction in a horizontal position. From this state, the turning motor 50 is driven so that the hand support portion 41 is turned 90 ° along the YZ plane. As a result, the batch hand 40 is raised such that the support guide 80 is downward and the tip of the hand element 70 is upward. As a result, the plurality of substrates W are subjected to posture conversion in a state of being stacked in the Y direction in a vertical position. By this attitude change, the several board | substrate W is guide | induced to the moving position P3.

Prior to the posture change, the support guide 80 is formed by the guide driving mechanism 89 so that the first substrate gripping groove 88A for gripping the unprocessed substrate W is rearward of the substrate holding position of each hand element 70. It is controlled to be located at. Then, the guide retraction mechanism 87 advances the support guide 80 to the front end side of the hand element 70. As a result, the substrate W is sandwiched between the support guide 80 and the first guide protrusion 75 at the tip of the hand element 70. In this state, the above-described attitude change operation is performed. After the posture change, the guide retraction mechanism 87 retracts the support guide 80 by a small distance behind the hand element 70, thereby releasing the clamping of the substrate W. FIG. As a result, the substrate W is held in a vertical position by the substrate holding groove 88 of the support guide 80. At this time, since the substrate W is pressed into the substrate holding groove 88 by gravity, at the same time, the alignment of the substrate W is achieved.

[Mounted substrate relocation operation]

During the posture change operation by the carry-in / out mechanism 4, the movement mounting mechanism 5 makes the support guide shaft 91 stand by the lower value below the hand support part 41. FIG. At this time, the guide rotation mechanism 105 controls the rotation position of the support guide shaft 91 so as to face the first contact portions 113 of the pair of support guide shafts 91.

When the posture converting operation is completed and the pinch of the substrate W is released, the actuator 95 causes the support guide shaft 91 to be raised to an upper value of the upper side of the batch hand 40. . In the process of ascending, the plurality of substrates W are collectively moved from the batch hand 40 to the support guide shaft 91.

The width of the hand support portion 41 in the X direction is smaller than the distance between the pair of support guide shafts 91. Therefore, there is no fear that interference with the hand support portion 41 will occur when the support guide shaft 91 is raised.

After moving the board | substrate W, the carrying-in / out mechanism 4 drives the turning motor 50, returns the batch hand 40 to the horizontal position toward the hoop holding part 1, and becomes a standby state.

Next, the second horizontal conveyance mechanism 7 moves the second horizontal conveyance gripper 160 to the moving position P3. At this time, for example, the first guide 135 is in a first supporting state located above the second guide 136.

In this state, the movement placing mechanism 5 moves the support guide shaft 91 to a lower value. In this process, the plurality of substrates W held vertically on the support guide shaft 91 are collectively moved and placed on the second horizontal conveying gripper 160. At this time, the second horizontal conveying gripper 160, the support member of the guide (135, 136) is in a posture along the Y direction, and can hold a plurality of substrates (W) stacked in the Y direction in a vertical position It is in a state. The width of the second horizontal carrier holding part 160 in this state in the X direction is smaller than the distance between the pair of support guide shafts 91. Therefore, there is no fear that interference with the second horizontal carrier holding part 160 may occur when the support guide shaft 91 descends.

After this moving placing, the guide rotating mechanism 105 of the moving placing mechanism 5 rotates the pair of support guide shafts 91 so that the receding portions 115 face each other. In that state, the moving mounting mechanism 5 raises the support guide shaft 91 to an upper value and evacuates it. Since the distance between the receding portions 115 of the pair of support guide shafts 91 is longer than the diameter of the substrate W, the support guide shafts 91 are connected to the substrate W held by the horizontal conveying gripper 160. It is possible to retreat to a higher value without interference.

After the support guide shaft 91 is evacuated, the second horizontal conveying mechanism 7 pivots the second horizontal conveying gripper 160 around the vertical axis to withdraw from the moving position P3.

In this way, after the horizontal conveyance gripping part 160 retracts, the moving positioning mechanism 5 lowers the support guide shaft 91 to a lower value and waits. In addition, the rotational position of the pair of support guide shafts 91 is controlled by the guide rotation mechanism 1105 so that the first contact portions 113 face each other.

[Batch combination operation]

The second horizontal transfer mechanism 7 holds the first 25 substrates W in one substrate holding groove every other of the first guide 135. From this state, the next 25 sheets W are received in every other substrate holding groove every other empty one, whereby a batch composed of 50 sheets W can be formed. This is called a batch tank.

The second horizontal conveying gripper 160 withdrawn from the moving position P3 is rotated 180 degrees horizontally by the function of the guide rotation motor 150 as needed.

On the other hand, the carry-out / out mechanism 4 carries out collectively the several sheets of unprocessed board | substrate W from the other hoop F arrange | positioned at the hoop holding part 1 by the function of the automatic hoop conveying apparatus 11. In the same manner as in the above case, the plurality of substrates W are subjected to posture conversion from the horizontal posture to the vertical posture, and are supported by the moving guide position P3 by the support guide 80.

In this state, the carry-out / out mechanism 4 moves the support guide 80 along the movement direction 63 along the Y direction by half the distance (½ pitch) of the holding | gripping interval of the board | substrate W with the actuator 65 by this actuator 65. Let's do it. On the other hand, the movement positioning mechanism 15 drives the guide movement motor 100, so that the support guide shaft 91 is moved in the same direction as the movement direction of the support guide 80 by a half distance of the holding interval of the substrate W. As shown in FIG. Move in the (Y direction). Thus, the substrate holding positions of the support guide 80 and the support guide shaft 91 are shifted by ½ pitch along the Y direction than when the first 25 substrates W are held while being aligned in the vertical direction.

From this state, the moving mounting mechanism 5 raises the support guide shaft 91 and guides it to the upper teeth. In this process, the support guide shaft 91 collectively raises the plurality of substrates W on the support guide 80.

Subsequently, the carry-out / out mechanism 4 moves the batch hand 40 in a horizontal position to evacuate from the moving position P3.

In this state, the second horizontal conveying mechanism 7 pivots the second horizontal conveying gripping portion 160 to the moving position P3. Thereafter, the movable placing mechanism 5 lowers the pair of support guide shafts 91 to lower values. In this process, 25 substrates W held by the support guide shaft 91 are collectively exchanged on the first guide 135 of the second horizontal carrier holding part 160. The 25 substrates W enter so as to be engaged with each other between the 25 substrates W already held by the second horizontal carrier holding part 160, whereby the 50 substrates W are ½ The second horizontal carrier gripper 160 is held in the Y direction at a pitch.

Thereafter, the second horizontal conveying mechanism 7 pivots the second horizontal conveying gripper 160 around the vertical axis 172 to face the second substrate feed position P2, thereby guiding the rotation motor 150. ) Rotates around the rotating shaft 147 and horizontally moves in the X direction to move to the second substrate feed-in position P2 (see FIG. 20). At this time, the second horizontal conveyance mechanism 7 horizontally rotates the second horizontal conveyance gripper 160 so that the plurality of substrates W in the vertical posture are stacked in the X direction.

[Transfer and Receipt of Substrate at Second Substrate Transfer Position P2]

Before the second horizontal conveying gripper 160 of the second horizontal conveying mechanism 7 moves to the second substrate feed position P2, the first intermediate robot 175 moves the support guide 177 to the second horizontal position. The air is held at a lower value lower than the carrier gripper 160. After the second horizontal carrier gripper 160 moves to the second substrate feed-back position P2, the first intermediate robot 175 moves the support guide 177 to a higher value than the second horizontal carrier gripper 160. Raise. In this process, the plurality of substrates W (50 sheets) of vertical posture stacked at ½ pitch from the second horizontal carrier holding part 160 to the support guide 177 are collectively exchanged.

Thereafter, the second horizontal conveyance mechanism 7 evacuates the second horizontal conveyance gripper 160 from the second substrate conveyance position P2 and prepares for the next unprocessed substrate W to be exchanged.

On the other hand, the first intermediate robot 175, the support guide 177 is lowered to the lower lower than the support guide 183 of the second intermediate robot 176. In this process, a plurality of sheets (50 sheets) of substrates are collectively exchanged from the first intermediate robot 175 to the second intermediate robot 176. In the case where the second intermediate robot 176 is equipped with the substrate orientation alignment mechanism, the substrate orientation alignment operation is further performed.

[Movement of main transport mechanism]

The main transport mechanism 3 holds the plurality of (50) unprocessed substrates W held in a vertical position by the support guide 183 of the second intermediate robot 176 by the substrate chuck 30. Receive. The main transport mechanism 3 raises the substrate chuck 30 to a position higher than the processing tanks 21 to 25, and further, moves the Y direction to the first chemical liquid tank 21 or the second chemical liquid tank 23. Accordingly, the substrate chuck 30 is moved, and a plurality of (50 sheets) of substrates W are collectively exchanged between the first and second lifters 27 and 28. Thereafter, by the function of the first or second lifters 27 and 28, the plurality of sheets (50 sheets) of substrates W are collectively immersed in the chemical liquid in the chemical liquid tanks 21 and 23, and then, It is immersed in the rinse liquid in the rinse liquid tanks 22 and 24. After the substrate treatment with the first chemical liquid stored in the first chemical tank 23, it is necessary to further perform the treatment with the second chemical liquid stored in the second chemical liquid tank 23, or to the second chemical liquid. In the case where it is necessary to perform the treatment with the first chemical liquid after the treatment by the main body, the main transport mechanism 3 carries out a plurality of sheets (50 sheets) of the substrates W between the first and second lifters 27 and 28. Return collectively.

The substrate W to be dried and rinsed in the rinse liquid tanks 22 and 24 is transferred to and received from the lifters 27 and 28 to the main transport mechanism 3, and the main transport mechanism 3 It is carried in to the drying process part 25 by this. Then, the processed substrate W having finished the processing in the drying processing unit 25 is carried out from the drying processing unit 25 by the main transport mechanism 3 and conveyed to the first substrate feed-in position P1.

The main transport mechanism 3 moves to the chuck cleaning unit 8 before removing the processed substrate W from the drying treatment unit 25, and the substrate is transferred to the cleaning tank 35 of the chuck cleaning unit 8. The chuck 30 is put in and the substrate chuck 30 is washed. After the processed substrate W has been transferred to the first horizontal transfer mechanism 16 at the first substrate transfer position P1, the substrate chuck 30 is not cleaned and the second substrate transfer position is not cleaned. In operation P2, the second intermediate robot 176 receives the unprocessed substrate W from the second intermediate robot 176.

[Drawing of finished board | substrate]

When the first horizontal transport mechanism 6 is waiting for the first horizontal transport gripper 120 at the first substrate transfer position P1 (see Figs. 20 and 21), the main transport mechanism 3, The plurality of processed substrates W held by the substrate chuck 30 are collectively passed to the first horizontal conveying gripper 120.

The first horizontal transfer mechanism receiving the processed substrate W moves horizontally along the X direction and rotates the first horizontal transfer grip portion 120 by 90 ° around the vertical axis, thereby moving the repositioning mechanism. It is matched with the holding direction (Y direction) of the board | substrate W in (5). Then, the first horizontal transport gripper 120 in the posture is moved to the moving position P3.

Prior to this, the moving positioning mechanism 5 causes the support guide shaft 91 to be held at a lower value lower than the first horizontal conveying gripper 120. At this time, the guide rotation mechanism 105 controls the rotation position of the support guide shaft 91 so as to face the second contact portions 114 of the pair of support guide shafts 91.

The moving mounting mechanism 15 raises the support guide shaft 91 to the upper value of the upper side of the first horizontal conveying gripper 120 by the actuator 95. In the process of ascending, the plurality of substrates W are collectively moved from the first horizontal conveying gripper 120 to the support guide shaft 91. At this time, the first horizontal conveying gripper 120 grips 50 substrates W stacked in the Y direction at ½ pitch, but the substrates W are collectively moved and placed on the support guide shaft 91. Is 25 sheets in one sheet interval therein. Thereby, the batch consisting of 50 sheets W is released to the substrate group of 25 sheets each. This is called batch release. After the batch release operation, the first horizontal transport mechanism 6 once retracts the first horizontal transport gripper 120 in the X direction (the first substrate feed-in position P1 side).

Next, the carry-out / out mechanism 4 converts the batch hand 40 from a horizontal posture to a vertical posture at the posture change position. As a result, the batch hand 40 is disposed at the moving position P3 in a vertical position. At this time, the batch hand 40 is controlled in advance so that the second support surface 72 is upward in the horizontal posture. In addition, the support guide 80 is controlled such that the second substrate gripping groove 88B for gripping the processed substrate W is located behind the substrate gripping position of each hand element 70. Of course, the substrate support position of the support guide 80 and the substrate support position of the support guide shaft 91 are controlled to coincide in plan view.

In this state, the moving positioning mechanism 15 lowers the support guide shaft 91 from the upper value to the lower value lower than the hand support portion 41. In this process, a plurality of sheets (25 sheets) of substrates W are collectively passed from the support guide shaft 91 to the support guide 80.

Next, the guide retraction mechanism 87 of the carrying in / out mechanism 4 advances the support guide 80. As a result, the substrate W is sandwiched between the support guide 80 and the second guide protrusion 76 at the tip of the hand element 70. In this state, the turning motor 50 is driven so that the batch hand 40 is turned horizontally from the vertical posture. As a result, the 25 substrates W are subjected to the attitude change from the vertical posture to the horizontal posture. After the posture change, the guide retraction mechanism 187 retracts the support guide 80 by a small distance behind the hand element 70, thereby releasing the clamping of the substrate W. FIG.

The carrying in and out mechanism 4 further advances the batch hand 40 along the Y direction toward the hoop F. Until this time, the automatic hoop conveying apparatus 11 arrange | positions the empty hoop F which should accommodate the board | substrate W which completed the process in the hoop holding part 1. After entering the hoop F, the batch hand 40 is lowered by a small height by the function of the actuator 65. Thereby, the board | substrate W is accommodated in the some board | substrate holding shelf formed in the hoop F, respectively. Thereafter, the batch hand 40 retreats out of the hoop F to prepare for receiving the next 25 sheets W. As shown in FIG.

At the movement placing position P3, the movement placing mechanism 5 waits for the support guide shaft 91 to be lowered to a lower value, so that the first horizontal conveying mechanism 6 moves the first horizontal conveying gripping portion 120. Return to position P3 again. At this time, the moving positioning mechanism 5 adjusts the support guide shaft 91 so that the position of the remaining 25 sheets W held by the first horizontal conveying gripper 120 and the substrate supporting position match. It is moving in the Y direction by ½ pitch. In addition, correspondingly, the carry-out / out mechanism 4 moves the support guide 80 along the moving base 63 in the Y direction by ½ pitch.

In the state where the first horizontal carrier gripper 120 reenters the moving position P3, the movable restraint mechanism 5 raises the support guide shaft 91 to an upper value above the first horizontal carrier gripper 120. Let's do it. In this process, 25 substrates W held by the first horizontal conveying gripper 120 are collectively passed to the support guide shaft 91.

Thereafter, when the first horizontal transport mechanism 16 retracts the horizontal transport gripper 120 from the moving position P3, the carrying-in / out mechanism 4 changes the posture of the batch hand 40 from the horizontal posture to the vertical posture. To the moving position P3. From this state, the movable positioning mechanism 15 lowers the support guide shaft 91 to the lower value lower than the hand support portion 41. In this process, 25 substrates W are collectively handed from the support guide shaft 91 to the support guide 80 at the bottom of the batch hand 40.

After that, the guide retraction mechanism 87 of the carrying in / out mechanism 4 advances the support guide 80. Thus, the substrate W is sandwiched between the second guide protrusion 76 at the tip of the hand element 70 by the support guide 80. In this state, the turning motor 50 is driven so that the batch hand 40 is turned from a vertical position to a horizontal position. As a result, the 25 substrates W are subjected to the attitude change from the vertical posture to the horizontal posture. After the posture change, the guide retraction mechanism 87 retracts the support guide 80 by a small distance behind the hand element 70, thereby releasing the clamping of the substrate W. FIG.

The carrying in and out mechanism 4 further advances the batch hand 40 along the Y direction toward the hoop F. Until this time, the automatic hoop conveying apparatus 11 arrange | positions the empty hoop F which should accommodate the board | substrate W which completed the process in the hoop holding part 1. The batch hand 40 enters the hoop F and then descends by a small height. Thereby, the board | substrate W is accommodated in the some board | substrate holding shelf formed in the hoop F, respectively.

Second Embodiment

25 is a plan view showing the structure of a substrate processing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 26 is a schematic perspective view showing the configuration between the hoop and the substrate feed-back position.

In the above-described first embodiment, the main transport mechanism 3 passes the substrate W, which has been processed at the first substrate feed-in position P1, to the first horizontal transport mechanism 6, and receives and feeds the second substrate. The unprocessed substrate W conveyed by the second horizontal conveyance mechanism 7 is received at the position P2. On the other hand, in the substrate processing apparatus 200 which concerns on this embodiment, the 2nd horizontal conveyance mechanism 7 is abbreviate | omitted and only one horizontal conveyance mechanism 6 is provided. The horizontal transport mechanism 6 passes the unprocessed substrate W to the main transport mechanism 3 at the substrate feed-in position P1 and from the main transport mechanism 3 to the same substrate feed-in position P1. It operates so that the board | substrate W which completed the process may be received. In addition to the batch release operation, the horizontal transfer mechanism 6 also performs the batch combination operation performed by the second horizontal transfer mechanism 7 in the first embodiment described above.

When holding the unprocessed substrate W, the horizontal transport mechanism 6 makes the substrate holding position of the first guide 135 higher than the substrate holding position of the second guide 136. The unprocessed substrate (W) is gripped at. In addition, when holding the substrate W which has been processed, the horizontal transport mechanism 6 lowers the substrate holding position of the first guide 135 from the substrate holding position of the second guide 136, and the second guide. At 136, the substrate W having been processed is gripped.

You may arrange | position a board | substrate orientation alignment mechanism in the position P4 corresponding to the 2nd board | substrate feed-back position P2 in 1st Embodiment mentioned above. In this case, the main transport mechanism 3 receives the unprocessed substrate W from the first horizontal transport mechanism 6 at the substrate feed position P1, and then receives the unprocessed substrate W at the position P4. Send and receive to the alignment mechanism. After the substrate orientation alignment operation, the main transport mechanism 3 receives the substrate W from the substrate orientation alignment mechanism and transports the substrate W to the substrate processing unit 2.

[Other Embodiments]

With respect to the first embodiment, the first and second horizontal transport mechanisms 6 and 7 have first and second guides 135 and 136 and have a configuration for switching them and using them. However, in the operation of the first embodiment, the first horizontal transport mechanism 6 grips and conveys the substrate W which has just finished processing, and the second horizontal transport mechanism 7 only moves the unprocessed substrate W. Since it is carried by holding and conveying, it is not necessary to provide two board | substrate holding guides and the structure for the change, It is sufficient if it can be equipped with one board | substrate holding guide used always. However, in order to improve the substrate conveyance speed, the first and second horizontal conveyance mechanisms 6 and 7 may be operated to convey either the processed substrate W or the unprocessed substrate W. In this case, the first and second guides 135 and 136 are switched to the processed substrate W and the unprocessed substrate W to suppress the transfer of foreign matter to the processed substrate W. It can prevent.

In addition, in the above-described first embodiment, the first and second intermediary robots 175 and 176 are provided for the transfer of the substrate between the second horizontal transport mechanism 6 and the main transport mechanism 3. Although it is provided, these may be omitted and the second horizontal transport mechanism 6 and the main transport mechanism 3 may directly exchange the substrate. However, from the viewpoint of shortening the waiting time at the second substrate feed / receive position P2 of the second horizontal transfer mechanism 6 while the substrate orientation alignment mechanism can be set as an option, the first and second intermediate robots ( 175 and 176 are preferable.

In addition, the first and second substrate feed-in positions P1 and P2 in the above-described first embodiment are replaced so that the second substrate feed-in position for the unprocessed substrate W is closer to the substrate processing unit 2. You may arrange in.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the carrying in / out mechanism 4 moves the support guide 80 by 1/2 pitch for batch combination. However, after passing the board | substrate W to the moving mounting mechanism 5, it carries out the 1/2 pitch movement of the support guide shaft 91 of the moving mounting mechanism 5, and after that, it removes from this support guide shaft 91. Batch combination can be performed by sending and receiving the board | substrate W to the 2 horizontal conveyance mechanism 7. As shown in FIG. Since the batch release can be performed in the same manner, the half pitch shift of the support guide 80 is not necessarily required.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, although the hoop (FOUP: Front Opening Unified Pod) which accommodates the board | substrate W is sealed as a container which accommodates the board | substrate W, what is limited to a hoop is not limited. Alternatively, a standard mechanical inter face (SMIF) pod, an open cassette (OC), or the like may be used.

In the above-described embodiment, a circular substrate such as a semiconductor wafer is shown as an example as the substrate W, but, of course, another type of substrate such as a square substrate for a liquid crystal panel may be the object of processing.

Although embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail, these are merely specific examples used to clarify the technical contents of the present invention, and the present invention should not be construed as being limited to these specific examples, but the spirit of the present invention. And the scope is defined only by the appended claims.

This application is filed with Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-60779 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-60780 filed with the Japan Patent Office on March 9, 2007, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-321142 filed with the Japan Patent Office on December 12, 2007. And the entire disclosure of such applications is hereby incorporated by reference.

1 is a schematic plan view for explaining the overall configuration of a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is an enlarged perspective view showing a configuration related to substrate transfer between the hoop and the main transport mechanism.

3 is a perspective view of the carrying in and out mechanism.

4 is a perspective view for explaining the rotation of the batch hand.

5 is a perspective view for explaining a substrate posture change by the carrying in / out mechanism.

6 is a perspective view for explaining a configuration for moving the batch hand up and down.

7 is a perspective view for explaining a batch hand and a configuration thereof.

8 is a diagram for explaining the configuration of the hand element and the support guide.

9 is a perspective view for explaining the configuration of the mobile mounting mechanism.

Fig. 10 is a perspective view showing the structure for moving the support guide shaft up and down.

11 is a perspective view showing a configuration for horizontally moving the support guide shaft in the axial direction.

12 is a plan view (substrate supporting state) for explaining the structure of the support guide shaft.

Fig. 13 is a plan view (substrate passing state) for explaining the structure of the support guide shaft.

14 is a perspective view for explaining the configuration of the first horizontal transport mechanism.

15 is an enlarged front view of the configuration of the horizontal carrier gripper.

Fig. 16 is an enlarged front view showing the configuration of the horizontal carrier gripper.

FIG. 17 is a perspective view for explaining a configuration for horizontal rotation of the horizontal conveying gripper and lifting of the first guide base. FIG.

18 is a side view for explaining a configuration for horizontal rotation and lifting of the first guide base of the horizontal conveying gripper.

19 is a perspective view for explaining the configuration of a second horizontal conveyance mechanism.

20 is a perspective view showing a state when the horizontal conveying gripping portion is located on the front side of the substrate processing apparatus.

Fig. 21 is a perspective view showing a state when the horizontal conveying gripping portion is located on the substrate processing portion side with respect to the linear guide.

Fig. 22 is a diagram showing a configuration relating to collective transfer of substrates at the second transfer position.

Fig. 23 is a perspective view showing the configuration of the first intermediary robot.

24 is a perspective view illustrating a configuration of a second intermediary robot.

25 is a plan view showing the structure of a substrate processing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 26 is a schematic perspective view showing the configuration between the hoop and the substrate feed-back position.

Claims (25)

A receiver gripping portion for holding a receiver for accommodating a plurality of substrates stacked in a vertical direction in a horizontal posture; A substrate processing unit for collectively processing a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical position; A main transport mechanism for collectively transporting a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical position between a predetermined substrate feed-in / receive position and the substrate processing unit; A carrying-in / out mechanism for collectively carrying out a plurality of substrates to and from the container held by the receptor holding portion, and converting the plurality of substrates collectively between a horizontal posture and a vertical posture; A plurality of sheets of vertical posture are collectively exchanged with the carrying-out mechanism at a predetermined moving position, and a plurality of sheets of vertical posture between the main conveying mechanism and the substrate transfer position are collectively exchanged. And a sub conveyance mechanism for collectively transferring a plurality of substrates, and collectively conveying a plurality of substrates in a vertical position between the moving position and the substrate feeding position. The method of claim 1, The carrying out mechanism is, A plurality of holding hands for collectively holding a plurality of substrates, A hand retracting mechanism for advancing and retracting the plurality of gripping hands along a predetermined advancing direction along a horizontal direction with respect to the container held by the container holding unit; And a hand swing mechanism for pivoting the plurality of grip hands by at least 90 ° along a vertical plane in the advancing direction. The method of claim 2, The plurality of gripping hands each have a plurality of hand elements that hold one substrate, and each hand element has a first substrate gripping portion on one side of the hand element alignment direction, and one of the hand element alignment directions. Has a second substrate holding part on the side, And the carrying-out mechanism further comprises a hand rotating mechanism for rotating the plurality of grip hands about a predetermined rotational axis so as to reverse the front and back of the hand element. The method of claim 2, The carrying out mechanism is, A substrate processing apparatus further comprising a support guide for supporting a plurality of substrates in a vertical position from below. The method of claim 4, wherein The support guide has a pair of substrate holding grooves for each hand element, And the carrying-out mechanism further includes a guide driving mechanism for selecting one of the pair of substrate holding grooves for holding the substrate by driving the support guide. The method of claim 2, The sub-carrier, It has a movable relocation support part which hold | grips and hold | collects several board | substrate collectively in the state laminated | stacked in a vertical position in a vertical position, this movable relocation support part is moved to Shanghai, and between this carrying out mechanism A movement placing mechanism for collectively transferring a plurality of substrates having a vertical posture to the movement placing position; It has a horizontal conveying grip portion for aligning and holding a plurality of substrates in the vertical posture in the horizontal direction, and the plurality of substrates in the vertical posture are collectively exchanged between the movable placement support portion and the horizontal conveying gripper at the movable placement position, A horizontal transfer for transferring a plurality of substrates in a vertical position collectively between the main transport mechanism and the horizontal transport gripper at the substrate transfer location, and horizontally moving the horizontal transport gripper between the moving position and the substrate feed-receive position Substrate processing apparatus including a mechanism. The method of claim 6, And the movable repositioning mechanism is arranged on the opposite side of the half entrance and exit mechanism with respect to the advancing and retracting direction of the plurality of gripping hands. The method of claim 6, The movement placing mechanism further comprises a support portion horizontal movement mechanism for moving the movement placement support portion in a predetermined distance range along a horizontal direction in which the substrate having a vertical posture is stacked. The method of claim 6, The movable relocation support unit includes a pair of support guide shafts for holding a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical position from both sides, The support guide shaft may include a retraction part that secures a predetermined distance between the contact portion that contacts the substrate and the pair of support guide shafts so that the substrate can pass between the pair of support guide shafts at positions different in the circumferential direction. Has a And the moving repositioning mechanism further comprises a guide rotating mechanism for rotating the pair of support guide shafts around the respective axial directions. The method of claim 9, And the contact portion includes a first contact portion and a second contact portion disposed at different positions in the circumferential direction of the support guide shaft. The method of claim 6, And the horizontal conveying mechanism further comprises a horizontal rotating mechanism for rotating the horizontal conveying gripping portion in a range of at least 90 degrees about a vertical axis. The method of claim 11, And the horizontal rotating mechanism rotates the horizontal conveying gripping portion at least 180 degrees around the vertical axis. The method of claim 6, And the horizontal conveying gripping portion has a plurality of substrate gripping grooves formed at a pitch that is half the pitch of the substrate holding in the moving placement support portion. The method of claim 6, The horizontal conveying gripper includes a first guide for supporting a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical position, and a second guide for supporting a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical position, The horizontal transport mechanism further includes a guide lifting mechanism for lifting and lowering the first guide relative to the second guide. The method of claim 1, The main transport mechanism conveys a plurality of substrates collectively between a predetermined first substrate feed-in position and a second substrate feed-in position and the substrate processing unit. The sub-carrier, A mobile relocation mechanism having a mobile relocation support portion for collectively holding a plurality of substrates, wherein the mobile relocation support portion collectively exchanges a plurality of substrates between the mobile relocation support portion and the carry-in / out mechanism at the moving reposition position; A first conveying gripping portion for gripping a plurality of substrates, the plurality of substrates are collectively exchanged between the moving repositioning support portion and the first conveying gripping portion at the movable placing position, and at the first substrate feeding and receiving position A first substrate moving mechanism which collectively exchanges a plurality of substrates between the main transport mechanism and the first transport gripper, and moves the first transport gripper between the moving position and the first substrate feed position; , A second conveying gripping portion for holding a plurality of substrates, the plurality of substrates are collectively exchanged between the moving repositioning support portion and the second conveying gripping portion at the movable placing position, and the A second substrate transfer mechanism for collectively transferring a plurality of substrates between the main transport mechanism and the second transport gripper, and moving the second transport gripper between the moving position and the second board transfer position; Substrate processing apparatus including a. The method of claim 15, The first substrate transfer mechanism receives the substrate after being processed by the substrate processing unit from the main transport mechanism at the first substrate transfer position, and passes the substrate to the movable placement mechanism at the movable placement position. The second substrate moving mechanism receives the substrate before being processed by the substrate processing unit from the moving placing mechanism at the moving position and passes the substrate to the main transport mechanism at the second substrate feeding position. Processing unit. The method of claim 6, The main transport mechanism includes a substrate chuck that collectively holds a plurality of substrates, The substrate processing apparatus includes a chuck cleaning unit for cleaning a substrate chuck of the main transport mechanism, and a second substrate transfer position after the substrate processed by the substrate processing unit is transferred to the first substrate transfer position. And a conveyance control unit which conveys the substrate from the substrate processing unit to the substrate processing unit, and thereafter controls the operation of the main transport mechanism such that the chuck cleaning unit and the substrate chuck are cleaned. The method of claim 16, A first substrate group, which is a part of the plurality of substrates held by the first carrier holding part, is passed to the moving placement support, and the first substrate group is passed from the moving placement support to the carrying-out mechanism, and thereafter, the first carrier The carrying-out mechanism, the moving placing mechanism and the second substrate group, which is another part of the plurality of substrates held by the branch, to the moving placing support portion, and passing the second substrate group to the carrying-out mechanism from the moving placing supporting portion; Controlling the first substrate moving mechanism; Passing the third substrate group from the carrying-out mechanism to the moving placement support, passing the third board group from the moving placing support to the second conveying gripper, and thereafter, the fourth substrate from the carrying-out mechanism to the moving placing support. Handing over the group, and passing the fourth substrate group from the moving placement support to the second conveying gripper to hold the third substrate group and the fourth substrate group on the second conveying gripper; A substrate processing apparatus further comprising a movement placement control unit for performing a step of controlling the movement placement mechanism and the second substrate movement mechanism. The method of claim 15, And a mediation mechanism for mediating the exchange of the substrate between the second conveyance gripping portion and the main conveyance mechanism at the second substrate transmit and receive position. The method of claim 15, The movable placing support of the movable placing mechanism collectively grips a plurality of substrates stacked in a horizontal direction in a vertical position, and the movable placing mechanism is configured to move the movable placing support and the carry-out mechanism at the movable placing position. It is to send and receive a plurality of substrates in the vertical posture collectively, The first carrier holding part is for holding and aligning a plurality of substrates in a vertical position in a horizontal direction, and the first substrate moving mechanism is a vertical posture between the moving position supporting part and the first carrier holding part at the moving position. A plurality of substrates are collectively exchanged, and a plurality of substrates in a vertical posture are collectively passed between the main transport mechanism and the first transport gripper at the first substrate transfer position. The second carrier holding part is for holding and aligning a plurality of substrates in a vertical position in a horizontal direction, and the second substrate moving mechanism is perpendicular between the moving placing support part and the second carrier holding part at the moving position. A substrate processing apparatus for collectively exchanging a plurality of substrates in a posture, and collectively exchanging a plurality of substrates in a vertical posture between the main transport mechanism and the second transport gripper at the second substrate transfer position. A receiver holding part for holding a receptor for receiving a plurality of substrates, A substrate processing unit for collectively processing a plurality of substrates, A main transport mechanism for collectively conveying a plurality of substrates between a predetermined first substrate feed-in position and a second substrate feed-in position and the substrate processing unit; An import / export mechanism for carrying in and carrying out a plurality of substrates collectively with respect to the receiver held by the receiver holding portion; A mobile relocation mechanism having a mobile relocation support portion for holding and holding a plurality of substrates in a batch, and transferring a plurality of substrates collectively between the mobile relocation support portion and the carry-in / out mechanism at a predetermined relocation position; A first conveying gripping portion for holding a plurality of substrates, and collectively exchanging a plurality of substrates between the moving placing support portion and the first conveying gripping portion at the movable placing position, and at the first substrate feeding and receiving position A first substrate transfer mechanism for collectively transferring a plurality of substrates between the main transport mechanism and the first transport gripper, and moving the first transport gripper between the moving position and the first substrate feed position; Wow, A second conveying gripping portion for holding a plurality of substrates, the plurality of substrates are collectively exchanged between the moving repositioning support portion and the second conveying gripping portion at the moving position and at the second substrate feeding position A second substrate moving to collectively exchange a plurality of substrates between the main transport mechanism and the second transport gripper, and to move the second transport gripper between the moving position and the second board transfer position; Substrate processing apparatus comprising a mechanism. The method of claim 21, The first substrate moving mechanism receives the substrate after being processed by the substrate processing unit from the main transport mechanism at the first substrate transfer position, and passes the substrate to the movement placing mechanism at the movement placing position. And the second substrate moving mechanism receives the substrate before being processed by the substrate processing unit from the moving placing mechanism at the moving position and passes the substrate to the main transport mechanism at the second substrate feeding position. The method of claim 22, The main transport mechanism includes a substrate chuck for collectively holding a plurality of substrates, The substrate processing apparatus is a chuck cleaning unit for cleaning the substrate chuck of the main transport mechanism, and after the substrate processed by the substrate processing unit is transported to the first substrate feed position, from the second substrate feed position. And a conveyance control unit which conveys the substrate to the substrate processing unit and thereafter controls the operation of the main transport mechanism such that the substrate chuck is cleaned by the chuck cleaning unit. The method of claim 22, A first substrate group, which is a part of the plurality of substrates held by the first carrier holding part, is passed to the moving placement support, and the first substrate group is passed from the moving placement support to the carrying-out mechanism, and thereafter, the first carrier A second substrate group, which is another part of the plurality of substrates held by the branch, to the moving relocation support section, and to pass the second substrate group to the carrying out mechanism from the moving relocation support section; Controlling the first substrate moving mechanism; Passing the third substrate group from the carrying-out mechanism to the moving placement support, passing the third board group from the moving placing support to the second conveying gripper, and thereafter, the fourth substrate from the carrying-out mechanism to the moving placing support. Handing the group, and further passing the fourth substrate group from the moving placement support portion to the second carrier holding portion, and holding the third substrate group and the fourth substrate group on the second carrier holding portion; And a movement placement control unit configured to control the movement placement mechanism and the second substrate movement mechanism. The method of claim 22, And a mediation mechanism for mediating the exchange of the substrate between the second conveyance gripping portion and the main conveyance mechanism at the second substrate transmit and receive position.

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