KR20110052348A - Apparatus for processing substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A substrate processing apparatus is provided to prevent the contamination of the recycled chemical and a collecting container by preventing the chemical from being inputted to a different collecting container. CONSTITUTION: A spin head(210) rotates a substrate(W). A nozzle(230) supplies the chemical for cleaning the substrate. A container(220) is arranged to surround the edge of the spin head. The container includes first to third collecting containers(222,224,226) which are vertically laminated to separate and collect various chemicals. A collecting container driving unit(250) controls first to third cylinders(242,244,246).

Description

Apparatus for processing substrate

The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus, and more particularly, to a substrate processing apparatus for recovering a chemical liquid used in a substrate processing process.

In general, in manufacturing a semiconductor device or a flat panel display, various substrate processing processes such as photoresist coating, developing & baking, etching, ashing, etc. Wet cleaning is also performed to remove various contaminants generated in the process of performing these various steps.

These processes can be performed in a substrate processing apparatus such as sheet cleaning equipment, and are performed using various chemical liquids. In this case, the chemical liquids previously used in the substrate processing apparatus may be recovered and recycled or discarded as necessary.

1 is a cross-sectional view showing a substrate processing apparatus according to the prior art. Referring to Figure 1 briefly described the substrate treatment and chemical liquid recovery process according to the prior art as follows.

When the substrate processing process is started, the substrate W seated on the spin head 110 is rotated together with the spin head 110 by the rotation of the spin head 110, and the nozzle (W) onto the substrate W is rotated. The chemical liquid is injected through 130). Here, the chemical liquid injected toward the center of the substrate (W) is moved to the edge of the substrate (W) due to the centrifugal force caused by the rotation of the substrate (W), and finally, the spin head (110) leaves the substrate (W). It is introduced into the container 120 disposed at the edge of the.

The container 120 recovers the chemical liquid introduced in this way. At this time, the container 120 is composed of a plurality of recovery bins, for example, the first to third recovery bins (122, 124, 126), each of the first to third recovery bins (122, 124, 126) Separate and recover the specific chemicals assigned to you according to the recipe. To this end, the spin head 110 or the container 120 is moved up and down, and thus the relative vertical position between the spin head 110 and the container 120 is adjusted so that a specific chemical liquid is introduced into a specific recovery container.

By the way, in the above-described substrate processing process, the chemicals to be introduced into the recovery container of a particular stage are often introduced into the recovery container of the other end, and thus the recovery container is contaminated and the recycled chemical is contaminated. Problems are causing.

The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus that can prevent the chemical liquid to be introduced into the recovery container of the particular stage to be introduced into the recovery container of the other end.

Problems to be solved by the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned problems, and other problems not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

A substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention for solving the above problems is a spin head for supporting and rotating the substrate; A container disposed at an edge of the spin head and having multiple stages of recovery bins stacked up and down to recover the chemical liquid; And a recovery bin drive unit for moving the multi-stage recovery bins separately up and down respectively.

Other specific details of the invention are included in the detailed description and drawings.

According to the substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent contamination of the recovery container, contamination of the recycling chemical liquid, etc. by preventing the chemical liquid to be introduced into the recovery container of the particular stage from flowing into the recovery container of the other end.

Advantages and features of the present invention, and means or method for achieving the same will become apparent with reference to the embodiments described below in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below, but will be implemented in various forms, and only the present embodiments are intended to complete the disclosure of the present invention, and the general knowledge in the art to which the present invention pertains. It is provided to fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, and the present invention is defined only by the scope of the claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. In addition, "and / or" includes each and all combinations of one or more of the items mentioned.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. In the present specification, the singular form includes plural forms unless otherwise specified in the specification. As used herein, “comprises” and / or “comprising” refers to the presence of one or more other components, steps, operations and / or elements. Or does not exclude additions.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used in the present specification may be used in a sense that can be commonly understood by those skilled in the art. In addition, terms that are defined in a commonly used dictionary are not ideally or excessively interpreted unless they are specifically defined clearly.

Hereinafter, a substrate processing apparatus according to some embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the substrate processing apparatus 200 according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a spin head 210, a container 220, a nozzle 230, and a recovery container driver 250.

The spin head 210 supports and rotates the substrate W disposed thereon. Here, the spin head 210 may be connected to a driver (not shown) for rotating the spin head 210 and may be connected to a driver (not shown) for moving the spin head 210 up and down. As described above, the spin head 210 vertically moves in conjunction with vertical movement of each of the recovery containers 222, 224, and 226 of the container 220 to be described later to allow the chemical liquid to flow into a specific recovery container.

The nozzle 230 is positioned above the substrate W and supplies the chemical liquid for substrate processing (eg, substrate cleaning) toward the substrate W. Here, the chemical liquid contains pure water (DI water). The chemical liquid injected into the center of the substrate W through the nozzle 230 is moved to the edge of the substrate W by the rotation of the substrate W, and finally, the container 220 to be described later by leaving the substrate W. Flows into).

The container 220 is disposed to surround the edge of the spin head 210 and has a bowl shape with an open top. The container 220 has multi-stage recovery bins, for example, first to third recovery bins 222, 224, and 226, stacked up and down in order to separate and recover various chemical liquids used in a substrate processing process.

Here, in the prior art, the multi-stage recovery bins are connected to each other to move up and down together when moving up and down of the container (see FIG. 1), whereas in one embodiment of the present invention, the first to third recovery bins 222, 224, and 226 are Since they are not connected to each other, they can move up and down separately. To this end, a lower portion of each of the first to third recovery containers 222, 224, and 226 supports the first to third recovery containers 222, 224, and 226, and moves up and down, respectively, to the first to third cylinders 242. , 244, 246.

In addition, each of the first to third recovery containers 222, 224, and 226 may have guides G1, G2, and G3 that stand vertically at their ends to block inflow of chemical liquids other than the chemical liquids assigned thereto. .

The recovery container driver 250 controls the operation of the first to third cylinders 242, 244, and 246 to move the first to third recovery containers 222, 224, and 226 up and down separately. In this case, the recovery container driver 250 moves the first to third recovery containers 222, 224, and 226 so that the spin heads 210 are located in the recovery containers of different stages according to the type of the chemical liquid, in particular, the specific stages. The first to third recovery containers 222, 224 and 226 are moved up and down separately so that the chemical liquid to be introduced into the recovery container of the other end is adjusted to adjust the height thereof. This will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5 below.

3 is an enlarged view of a portion of the substrate processing apparatus of FIG. 2. In this drawing, as an example, the movement of the recovery vessels 222, 224, and 226 when a specific chemical liquid flows into the first recovery vessel 222 is illustrated.

As shown in FIG. 3, the spin head 210 or the first waste container 222 is moved to the first waste container 222 (see the solid arrow) to allow a specific chemical to flow into the first waste container 222. ) Is positioned at a height corresponding to the first recovery container 222.

At this time, in order to prevent the chemical liquid to be introduced into the first recovery container 222 flows into the recovery container of the other end adjacent to, for example, the second recovery container 224 (see the dashed arrow) of the upper end, the recovery container driver 250 ) May lower the second recovery container 224 until the second recovery container 224 contacts the guide G1 of the first recovery container 222. Accordingly, since the inlet of the second recovery container 224 is blocked by the guide G1 of the first recovery container 222, the inflow of the chemical liquid into the second recovery container 224 is prevented. In addition, in order to prevent the chemical liquid to be introduced into the first recovery container 222 to flow into the third recovery container 226 (see the dotted arrow), the contact with the guide (G2) of the second recovery container 224. The third recovery container 226 may be lowered until it is. Accordingly, since the inlet of the third recovery container 226 is blocked by the guide G2 of the second recovery container 224, the inflow of the chemical liquid into the third recovery container 226 is prevented.

4 is an enlarged view of a portion of the substrate processing apparatus of FIG. 2. In the drawing, as an example, the movement of the recovery containers 222, 224, and 226 when a specific chemical liquid flows into the second recovery container 224 is illustrated.

As shown in FIG. 4, the spin head 210 or the second recovery container 224 is moved up and down to allow the specific chemical liquid to flow into the second recovery container 224 (see the solid arrow). ) Is positioned at a height corresponding to the second recovery container 224.

At this time, in order to prevent the chemical liquid to be introduced into the second recovery container 224 into the recovery container of the other end adjacent to, for example, the third recovery container 226 (see the dotted arrow), the recovery container driving unit 250 ) May lower the third recovery container 226 until the third recovery container 226 contacts the guide G2 of the second recovery container 224. Accordingly, since the inlet of the third recovery container 226 is blocked by the guide G2 of the second recovery container 224, the inflow of the chemical liquid into the third recovery container 226 is prevented. In addition, the second recovery container 224 by lowering the first recovery container 222 to an acceptable range in order to prevent the chemical liquid to be introduced into the second recovery container 224 into the first recovery container 222 at the bottom. It is desirable to widen the inlet.

5 is an enlarged view of a portion of the substrate processing apparatus of FIG. 2. In this drawing, as an example, the movement of the recovery vessels 222, 224, and 226 when a specific chemical liquid flows into the third recovery vessel 226 is illustrated.

As shown in FIG. 5, in order to allow a specific chemical to flow into the third recovery container 226 (see the solid arrow), the spin head 210 or the third recovery container 226 may be moved to move the spin head 210. ) Is positioned at a height corresponding to the third recovery container 226.

In this case, in order to prevent the chemical liquid to be introduced into the third recovery container 226 into the first and second recovery containers 222 and 224 at the bottom, the recovery container driver 250 may include the first and second recovery containers. It is preferable to lower the inlet of the third recovery container 226 by lowering 222 and 224 to an acceptable range as much as possible.

In this way, since the containers can move up and down separately, and especially have guides at their ends, controlling the up and down movement of these containers can effectively prevent the chemical liquid flowing into the recovery container of a particular stage from entering the recovery container of the other end. have.

Although embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may implement the present invention in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features thereof. You will understand that. It is therefore to be understood that the above-described embodiments are illustrative in all aspects and not restrictive.

For example, in the present specification, a case in which a container for recovering a chemical liquid used in a substrate processing process has three stages of recovery containers is described, but is not limited thereto, and the number of stages may be changed. In addition, the manner of movement of each of the recovery bins is not limited to that described herein, and the up and down movement of each of the recovery bins may also be changed to allow the chemical liquid to flow into the recovery bin of a specific stage.

1 is a cross-sectional view showing a substrate processing apparatus according to the prior art.

2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is an enlarged view of a portion of the substrate processing apparatus of FIG. 2.

4 is an enlarged view of a portion of the substrate processing apparatus of FIG. 2.

5 is an enlarged view of a portion of the substrate processing apparatus of FIG. 2.

<Description of the code for the main part of the drawing>

210: spin head 220: container

230: nozzles 242, 244, 246: cylinder

250: recovery container drive unit

Claims (4)

A spin head supporting and rotating the substrate; A container disposed at an edge of the spin head and having multiple stages of recovery bins stacked up and down to recover the chemical liquid; And And a recovery container driver configured to separately move the plurality of recovery containers in a vertical direction. According to claim 1, The multi-stage recovery bins are each supported by a cylinder, The recovery container driving unit, The substrate processing apparatus which controls the up-down movement of the cylinder. According to claim 1, And said multistage recovery bins each have guides erected perpendicularly to their ends. The method of claim 3, The recovery container driving unit, And a predetermined chemical liquid flows into a specific recovery container of one of the plurality of recovery containers, causing the upper recovery container of the specific recovery container to come into contact with the guide of the specific recovery container.

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