KR20160104548A - Decompression drying apparatus and substrate processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

According to the problem to be solved, in a seat type substrate drying apparatus having a multistage chamber type decompression drying apparatus, decompression movement of all chambers can be dealt with by a single vacuum pump. According to a solution, the decompression drying apparatus comprises: a plurality of decompression chambers; a single vacuum pump in which an air inlet hole is accessed to each chamber via a pipe; a valve controlling an exhaust and decompression state of each chamber, and individually installed in the pipe by corresponding to each chamber; and a control device controlling each valve in accordance with a predetermined decompression sequence.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a vacuum drying apparatus,

 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a substrate processing system for applying a coating liquid to a substrate by discharging a coating liquid from a slit formed in a mouthpiece and drying the substrate, A drying apparatus, and a substrate processing system using the drying apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art As an apparatus for applying a coating liquid to a substrate such as a glass substrate or a film, there is known a coating apparatus provided with a slit provided with a slit for discharging a coating liquid. This coating apparatus is provided with a tank for holding the coating liquid and a coating liquid supply pump for supplying the coating liquid in the tank to the slit of the coating.

The slit of the nipping is elongated along the width direction of the substrate and the coating liquid is discharged from the slit while relatively moving the nipple horizontally relative to the substrate with respect to the substrate mounted on the stage, To form a thin film (coating film) of the liquid.

Further, the substrate on which the coating film is formed is dried by a drying apparatus using, for example, a reduced-pressure drying method (see Patent Document 1), and is transported to a pre-bake step which is the next step.

In recent years, the coating liquid has been improved in the characteristics of the coating liquid to improve the coating speed by the coating apparatus to 200 mm / sec or more. As for the application using such a high-speed coating liquid, the coating liquid supply pump and the application control system are improved by the improvement of the coating liquid supply pump and the application control system. However, the drying time, ), And in the case of rapid depressurization, the air flow at the time of drying affects the unevenness of the coating film, so that it is difficult to cope with the increase by simply increasing the decompression speed.

Therefore, as shown in Patent Document 2, the pressure reducing chamber of the drying apparatus is constituted in a multi-stage, and sufficient drying time is ensured in each chamber. In the continuous coating except for the first one, the substrate is divided into a plurality of chambers Research has been conducted to shorten the process cycle time.

However, according to the drying apparatus shown in Patent Document 2, since a vacuum pump is provided in each chamber and a common vacuum pump connected to all the chambers is separately installed, an increase in facility cost due to the use of a large number of expensive vacuum pumps Is a problem.

In recent years, the prices of display devices including liquid crystal panels have remarkably decreased, and in order to cope with this price drop, it is necessary to reduce the manufacturing cost of the manufacturing line in order to reduce not only the manufacturing running cost but also the equipment depreciation cost .

[Prior Art Literature]

[Patent Literature]

[Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 09-29167

[Patent Document 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-189303

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a drying apparatus capable of continuously drying under reduced pressure by a vacuum pump which is a single or a fewer than a total of chambers even when a drying apparatus for drying a coated substrate by a vacuum drying method has a multi- And to provide a substrate processing system including the apparatus.

The reduced-pressure drying apparatus of the present invention is a reduced-pressure drying apparatus in which a sheet-like substrate coated with a coating liquid is carried into a chamber of a vacuum drying apparatus by a transfer device, and the inside of the chamber is depressurized in accordance with a predetermined decompression sequence, A pressure reducing pump connected to an intake port provided in each of the chambers via a pipe; and a pressure reducing pump provided in each of the pipes and operating the pressure reducing pump, And a control device for individually controlling each of the valves for reducing the pressure of the respective chambers in accordance with a predetermined pressure reduction sequence.

According to the reduced-pressure drying apparatus of the present invention, it is possible not only to make a substrate processing line configuration in which a depressurizing pump is connected to a plurality of depressurization chambers, the depressurization pumps being smaller in number than a single or a chamber total. It is possible to control the valves connected to the respective chambers via the pipes individually according to a predetermined decompression sequence of each chamber so as to make it possible to make the total of the chambers smaller than the sum of the cases in which the capacity of the vacuum pump is provided in each of the plural chambers, It is possible to continuously realize the substrate drying state in a predetermined manner on each substrate even if the substrates are transferred sequentially. As a result, the cost of the reduced-pressure drying apparatus can be greatly reduced.

Further, the valve of the present invention is a valve opening / closing angle-controlled valve, characterized in that the reduced pressure state in the chamber is controlled by the valve opening / closing angle.

Since the flow rate of the valve is controlled by the valve opening / closing angle in this manner, the exhausting force of each valve can be precisely adjusted, and the depressurized state of each chamber can be controlled in accordance with a predetermined depressurization sequence.

In the vacuum drying apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, the sheet-like substrate coated with the coating liquid is carried into the chamber of the vacuum drying apparatus by the transfer device and the inside of the chamber is decompressed in accordance with the predetermined decompression sequence, A vacuum drying apparatus for drying applied coating liquid, comprising: a plurality of depressurization chambers; a single depressurization pump connected to each of the chambers via an inlet port of the depressurization pump; A control device for individually controlling the regulator according to a depressurization sequence set in each of the chambers; a controller for controlling the flow of air to each of the chambers, And a valve that is provided in the valve body.

According to the reduced pressure drying apparatus of the second embodiment of the present invention, by using the regulator for the control in the reduced pressure state, the depressurized state of each chamber can be controlled more accurately.

The substrate processing system of the present invention is a system for processing a substrate by applying a coating liquid to a sheet-like substrate by means of a coating device and then bringing the substrate into a drying device including at least one pressure-reducing chamber, A substrate processing system comprising a plurality of processing lines of a sheet-like substrate including a coating and drying apparatus for carrying out reduced-pressure drying by decompressing an inside of a chamber, and carrying out a drying and drying process after the completion of drying, A plurality of depressurization pumps each having a total number smaller than the total number of chambers of all drying apparatuses included in the chamber, a pipe provided so that the depressurization pump can be connected to all the chambers, And a plurality of valves for performing connection switching of the pressure reducing pump.

According to the substrate processing system of the present invention, since the decompression pump is commonly used between a plurality of substrate processing lines including a reduced pressure drying apparatus, compared with a substrate processing system in which a specific decompression pump is allocated to each decompression / , It is possible to maintain the cycle time and to reduce the number of pressure reducing pumps to be installed, by connecting the decompression pump that is not operated even when the process cycle time is fast, to the substrate processing line in which the decompression pump is additionally required, The cost of the processing system can be reduced.

The valve in the substrate processing system of the present invention is characterized in that the number of valves equal to the sum of the number of chambers of at least the entire drying apparatus has a flow rate control function and the valve having at least one flow rate control function for each chamber Are connected to each other.

Thereby, each of the chambers can be decompressed by the control device in accordance with the preset depressurization sequence.

A substrate processing system according to a second embodiment of the present invention is a system for processing a substrate by applying a coating liquid to a sheet-like substrate by means of a coating apparatus and then bringing the substrate into a drying apparatus including at least one pressure-reducing chamber, A substrate processing system comprising a plurality of sheet type substrate processing lines including a coating and drying device for performing reduced pressure drying by reducing the pressure in a chamber in accordance with a set pressure reduction sequence and carrying out the drying to the next process after completion of drying, A plurality of pressure reducing pumps each having a total number smaller than the total number of chambers of the pre-drying apparatuses included in the substrate processing system; piping provided so that the pressure reducing pump can be connected to all of the chambers; A plurality of valves for performing connection switching of the pressure reducing pump of each of the chambers, To regulator installed in each chamber, depending on the pressure sequence is set in the chamber and characterized in that, including a control device for reducing the pressure within each chamber.

According to the substrate processing system of the second embodiment of the present invention, the decompressed state of each chamber can be more accurately controlled by using the regulator for the control in the reduced pressure state.

A substrate processing system according to a third embodiment of the present invention is a system in which a coating liquid is applied to a sheet-like substrate by a coating apparatus and then the substrate is carried into a drying apparatus including at least one pressure reducing chamber, A substrate processing system comprising a plurality of sheet type substrate processing lines including a coating and drying apparatus for performing reduced pressure drying by reducing the pressure in a chamber in accordance with a set depressurization sequence and carrying out the drying to the next step after completion of drying, A plurality of pressure reducing pumps each having a total number smaller than the total number of chambers of the pre-drying apparatuses included in the substrate processing system; piping provided so that the pressure reducing pump can be connected to all of the chambers; A plurality of valves for performing connection switching of the decompression pump in the chamber, La is characterized by including for each of the pressure buffer tank installed in the control device, at least one of the pressure reducing pump for reducing the pressure of the chamber.

According to the substrate processing system of the third embodiment of the present invention, the pressure reducing pump, which is mainly fixedly connected to the reduced pressure drying apparatus of each substrate processing line, and the pressure reducing pump temporarily connected to the reduced pressure drying apparatus It is possible to classify the depressurization pump by arranging a buffer tank in the temporary connection depressurization pump, and it becomes possible to greatly reduce the number of depressurization pumps to be installed.

According to the present invention, in a substrate processing system including a coating step on a substrate and a subsequent drying step, the substrate drying quality in the drying step is not lowered, and the number of vacuum depressurizing drying pumps per one vacuum drying apparatus used in the drying step Can be reduced compared to the configuration of one reduced-pressure drying pump for each current chamber, and the facility cost of the substrate processing system can be greatly reduced.

1 is a schematic perspective view showing an embodiment of a reduced-pressure drying apparatus of the present invention.
2 is a graph showing the relationship between the drying time of the substrate and the chamber internal pressure, and the diagrams showing the chamber internal pressure and the valve opening degree.
3 is a chart showing the relationship between the process cycle and the drying cycle.
4 is a schematic perspective view showing another embodiment of the reduced-pressure drying apparatus of the present invention.
5 is a schematic perspective view showing one embodiment of the substrate processing system of the present invention.
6 is a chart showing a relationship between a process cycle and a drying cycle in a plurality of substrate processing lines.
7 is a schematic perspective view showing a second embodiment of the substrate processing system of the present invention.
8 is a schematic perspective view showing a third embodiment of the substrate processing system of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of a reduced-pressure drying apparatus of the present invention. The reduced-pressure drying apparatus 30 includes a substrate 32 on which a coating film is formed on the surface by a not-shown coating apparatus, and transports the substrate 32 to any one of the chambers 2a to 2c of the reduced-pressure drying apparatus 30 And drying the coating film on the surface of the substrate 32 by reducing the pressure in the chamber. Here, in the present invention, the robot 3 is used as the transporting device, but other transporting mechanisms, for example, a roller conveyor or a floating transporting device may be used. In addition, the robot 3 does not specify its format. The reduced-pressure drying apparatus 30 shown in the embodiment of FIG. 1 has a three-stage chamber configuration, but the present invention can be similarly applied to a reduced-pressure drying apparatus having a multi-stage chamber configuration other than the three-stage configuration.

The reduced-pressure drying apparatus 30 of the present invention has chambers 2a to 2c, and each of the chambers is composed of a chamber cover 21 and a chamber vessel 22. When the robot 3 carries the substrate 32 loaded on the robot hand 31 to the vacuum drying apparatus 30, the chamber cover 21 is moved from the contact position with the chamber container 22 by a driving device Rise. A plurality of substrate supporting members (not shown) penetrating the substrate supporting stage and the bottom portion of the chamber container 22 and the substrate supporting stage (not shown) are provided in the chamber container 22, And is raised and lowered by the driving device. In the substrate supporting stage, a plurality of substrate holding members (not shown) for preventing the substrate 32 from contacting the substrate supporting stage at the time of drying are provided at positions different from the substrate supporting member, The support member can be lowered to a position lower than the substrate holding member. On the other hand, when the substrate supporting member is lifted, the substrate supporting member may be raised to a position higher than the position of the robot hand 31. [

When the robot hand 31 reaches the predetermined position in the chamber, the substrate supporting member rises to hold the substrate 32. At the same time, the robot hand 31 is drawn out from the chamber, and the substrate supporting member descends to lead the substrate 32 to the substrate holding member. Then, the chamber cover 21 is lowered, and the decompression of the chamber is started at the same time when the lowering is completed. Here, in the continuous substrate processing operation, since the substrate transfer to the chambers 2a to 2c is performed for the chamber in which the substrate has been taken out of the chamber, the description of the operation is made without specifying a specific chamber.

In the chambers 2a to 2c, a pipe 25 connected to the vacuum pump 4 is provided in the chamber vessel 22 for reducing the pressure. The piping 25 has a piping structure similar to that shown in Fig. 1 for connecting the chambers 2a to 2c to a single vacuum pump 4. In order to control the opening and closing of each chamber and the flow rate of the exhaust gas when the chambers 2a to 2c are depressurized, a valve 23 is provided in the pipe 25 for each chamber. 2, the valve 23 has a rotary valve therein. When the valve 23 is perpendicular to the flow direction of the fluid, the valve 23 is closed. When the valve 23 is parallel to the flow direction, the valve 23 is not fully opened The flow rate can also be adjusted according to the degree of opening of the valve relative to the valve body.

Hereinafter, the reduced-pressure drying will be described in detail with reference to FIG. As shown in the graph of "pressure in chamber-time change" shown in FIG. 2, in the case of drying an object having the same area as that of the sheet-like substrate by performing decompression in several stages without depressurizing linearly under reduced pressure drying, Thereby preventing drying irregularities. In the stage 1 (T0 to T1) as the decompression start stage, the sudden depressurization causes drying irregularities. Therefore, as shown in Fig. 2 (valve opening degree of each stage), the vacuum pump 4 And gradually depressurizes the decompression target chamber. Next, in stage 2 (T1 to T2), the opening degree of the valve 23 is increased and the depressurization speed is increased. Further, in the stages 3 (T2 to T4), the valves are all opened to reach the degree of vacuum reached. Here, T3 is the time from T2 to the degree of vacuum reached, and the valve 23 is included in the stage 3 because the valve 23 is fully opened. The degree of vacuum reached is a matter of several pascals (Pa) because the object is the drying of the liquid. Subsequently, the valve 23 is closed after maintaining the degree of vacuum reaching a predetermined time, and clean air (CDA) or nitrogen gas (N2) is supplied from a pipeline not shown in FIG. 1 to return the inside of the chamber 2a to atmospheric pressure Thereafter, the chamber cover 21 is raised to replace the substrate 32. These series of operations (decompression sequence) are controlled by a control device (not shown).

Next, with reference to Fig. 3, a description will be given of the correlation of the processing process of each chamber with respect to the case where the above cycle is continuously performed using a plurality of chambers. Here, the chambers 1, 2, and 3 shown in the chart of FIG. 3 show the order of substrate carry-in (carry-in) in the continuous substrate processing. For example, when the chamber 1 is the chamber 2a of FIG. 1, 2 is the chamber 2b of Fig. 1, and the chamber 3 is the chamber 2c. In the substrate coating and drying process, there is almost no coincidence between the application time and the drying time, and generally, the drying time is longer than the application time. Therefore, when the substrate is continuously treated, the next coated substrate is brought into the reduced-pressure drying apparatus before completion of drying. To cope with this, generally, a plurality of chambers are provided in the reduced-pressure drying apparatus. Fig. 3 shows an example of a substrate processing chart of the reduced pressure drying apparatus of the three-stage chamber configuration shown in Fig. As is evident from this, it can be seen that not all of the three-stage chamber is simultaneously in stage 3 of the graph of Fig. 2, in which the valve is fully open, and the time at which any two chambers simultaneously become stage 3 is also very short have. This indicates that even with a three-stage chamber configuration, it is sufficient for the vacuum pump to have the ability to process up to two chambers simultaneously. That is, when the chamber 1 is the stage 3, the chamber 2 is the stage 1 or 2, and the chamber 3 is in an unused state. When the chamber 2 becomes the stage 3, the chamber 1 is moved from the stage 4 to the valve closed state, and the chamber 3 becomes the stage 1 or 2. Further, when chamber 3 becomes stage 3, chamber 2 is moved from stage 4 to valve 5, and chamber 1 is newly stage 1 or 2, and this cycle is repeated. Therefore, the third stage chamber does not become stage 3 at the same time.

Of course, FIG. 3 shows an example of a drying cycle for a typical liquid (liquid), and it goes without saying that this cycle is changed depending on the application liquid. In general, however, even if the coating liquid is different, the stage 1 which is slow (SLOW) decompression requires a certain time to prevent drying unevenness, and the stage 2 which is rapidly depressurized depends on the chamber volume. Therefore, the stage 3 is influenced by the kind of the coating liquid, but when the stage 3 is changed in the shortening direction, the stage 3 is not superposed because only the entire chart is compressed to the left side. On the other hand, in the case where the stage 3 is changed in the extending direction, it is sufficient to cope with the case where the ability of the vacuum pump 4 can be enhanced. If the capacity of the vacuum pump 4 can not be coped with, The number of stages is increased or the decompression drying apparatus is increased to match the entire cycle time. In the case of increasing the number of chambers or increasing the number of vacuum drying apparatuses, a vacuum pump may be added as needed. That is, even if all of the above cases are taken into consideration, it is not necessary to provide a vacuum pump for each chamber.

Fig. 4 schematically shows a modification of the reduced-pressure drying apparatus of Fig. 1; 3, the regulator 24 is provided in the pipe 25 for each of the chambers 2a to 2c in the vacuum drying apparatus 40 of FIG. In this configuration, the valve 23 has only the function of opening / closing, and the flow rate is regulated by the regulator 24. Regarding the installation position of the regulator 24, it may be provided on the chamber side rather than the valve 23 in addition to the example of Fig. When the flow rate is adjusted by a valve having a rotary valve as shown in Fig. 2 in the configuration of Fig. 1, the opening degree and the flow rate do not always have a linear function relationship. Therefore, . Therefore, when changing the coating liquid (that is, changing the manufacturing varieties) frequently, there is a possibility that it takes time to set the conditions. Therefore, by using the regulator, it is possible not only to quickly cope with the change of the coating liquid, but also to set the flow rate more precisely by using the regulator dedicated to the reduced pressure operation.

Next, referring to Figs. 5 to 6, the reduced-pressure drying apparatus of the present invention shown in Figs. 1 to 4 in the substrate processing system having a plurality of substrate processing lines including the reduced- Thereby simplifying the system as a whole system will be described. 5 is an embodiment of a substrate processing system comprising a plurality of substrate processing lines including the reduced-pressure drying apparatus of the present invention. In the substrate processing system, for example, in the case of a liquid crystal panel, the substrate processing line has 5 to 6 lines, and each of the substrate processing lines is cleaned, dried, applied, dried, prebaked, exposed, developed, etched, Process. For the sake of simplicity of explanation, the substrate processing system shown in FIG. 5 and the subsequent figures has a two-line configuration of 101a and 101b, and the apparatus also displays only the loading robot and the reduced-pressure drying apparatus in the same manner as in FIG. The reduced-pressure drying apparatuses 30a and 30b of the substrate processing lines 101a and 101b are the same as those of the reduced-pressure drying apparatus 30 shown in FIG. 1, and detailed description of the apparatus configuration is omitted. In the substrate processing system 55 of Fig. 5, a vacuum pump 4ab is newly provided, branched by a valve 26, and connected to each of the chambers 2aa to 2bc via a pipe 25. Here, the valve 26 controls only the opening / closing of the pipe 25 connected to the chamber, and does not control the exhaust flow rate. In addition, it is necessary to use a four-way valve in the form of a valve, but there is no problem in either of the pneumatic opening / closing and the electromagnetic opening / closing. In the substrate processing system 55 of Fig. 5, the piping from the valve 26 is coupled to the piping from the vacuum pump 4a or 4b by the side opposite to the chamber (i.e., the vacuum pump side) . In the configuration of Fig. 5, it is necessary to connect the control of the exhaust by the vacuum pump so that the valve 26 can control the exhaust. The vacuum pumps 4a and 4b and the vacuum pump 4ab are provided with valves 28a and 28b so that no excessive load is applied to the vacuum pumps 4a and 4b, ). The reason for this is as follows.

When the piping from the vacuum pump 4ab is connected to the valve 23 at the side of the vacuum pump, the vacuum pump 4a or 4b is connected to the chambers 2aa to 2bc in which the vacuum pump 4ab is decompressed The connection state is established. In this case, it is difficult to predict what effect will be exerted on the load of the vacuum pump, and in the worst case, there is a danger that any one or both of the pumps 4a and 4b will stop due to an excessive load. Therefore, in order to prevent such a phenomenon, a valve 28 is further provided between the vacuum pumps 4a and 4b and the pipe connecting portion from the vacuum pump 4ab, and the vacuum pump 4a or 4b is connected to the vacuum pump (Vacuum pump 4ab is connected to any of the chambers 2aa to 2bc depressurized by the vacuum pump 4ab).

Fig. 6 illustrates the process correlation between the respective chambers of the respective substrate processing lines when the substrate processing is continuously performed with respect to the substrate processing system 55 shown in Fig. In order to make the explanation easy to understand, the start of each line is the same as the application cycle and the drying cycle. Here, lines 1 and 2 are convenience names for indicating the order of substrate processing, and may be any of the substrate processing lines 101a and 101b of FIG. 5, and the chambers 1,2,3 For example, when line 1 is the substrate processing line 101a of FIG. 5, and chamber 1 is the chamber 2aa, the chamber 2 is the chamber 2ab, the chamber 3b is the chamber 2b, Becomes the chamber 2bc. As is apparent from Fig. 6, it can be seen that the load of the vacuum pump is maximized in the region x sandwiched by the vertical lines on the chart. Here, although it is possible to add a vacuum pump to the vacuum drying apparatuses 30a and 30b of the respective substrate processing lines 101a and 101b, the additional vacuum pump 4ab , It is possible to limit the vacuum pumps 4a and 4b to the capacities corresponding to the maximum load for two chambers respectively. Of course, a plurality of vacuum pumps 4ab may be provided depending on the reduced pressure load and the drying cycle.

As a modified example of the substrate processing system of Fig. 6, a regulator may be used as in the substrate processing system 56 of the embodiment shown in Fig. 7, similarly to the reduced pressure drying apparatus of Fig. 4 for the reduced pressure drying apparatus of Fig. Since the constitution of the reduced pressure drying apparatuses 40a and 40b of the respective substrate processing lines 101a and 101b constituting the substrate processing system 56 of FIG. 7 is the same as that of the reduced pressure drying apparatus 40 of FIG. 4, . 4, in which the regulator 24 is added to the reduced-pressure drying apparatus 30 shown in Fig. 1, the regulator 24 may be disposed at any position before or after the valve. However, The piping from the vacuum pump 4ab is required to be connected to the piping 25 to the chambers 2aa to 2bc between the valve 23 and the regulator 24, . The reason why there are restrictions on the arrangement of the piping and the equipment is as follows.

As shown in the chart of Fig. 6, in the region x, the vacuum pumps 4a and 4b depressurize the two chambers 2aa to 2bc, respectively. In this state, if the pipe from the vacuum pump 4ab is connected to the valve 23 at the side of the vacuum pump, the valve 23 is connected to any one of the chambers 2aa to 2bc in the remaining stage 1 or 2, Which is connected to the pump 4ab) is opened, so that it is consequently connected to the vacuum pumps 4a and 4b. In this case, it is difficult to predict what effect will be exerted on the load of the vacuum pump, and in the worst case, there is a danger that either one or both of the pumps 4a and 4b will stop because of an excessive load. Therefore, in order to prevent such a phenomenon, the piping from the vacuum pump 4ab is connected to the pipe to the chamber between the valve 23 and the regulator 24, and the valve 23 at the above- There is a need.

Figure 8 shows a different embodiment of a variant of the substrate processing system of Figure 5; In the substrate processing system 57 of Fig. 8, the vacuum pump 4ab for use in the substrate processing lines 101a and 101b is provided with a buffer tank 27. Fig. By providing the buffer tank 27 and reducing the pressure in the buffer tank 27 in advance, the vacuum pump 4ab can increase the vacuum capacity. Therefore, it becomes possible to make the capacity of the vacuum pump 4ab lower than that derived from calculation. This makes it possible to further reduce the facility cost of the substrate processing system 57.

8, each of the substrate processing lines 101a and 101b is configured to include the regulator 24 in the same manner as in Fig. 7, but may have the same configuration as that in Fig. 5 in which the regulator 24 is not used. However, the piping connection position from the vacuum pump 4ab needs to have the same structure as that shown in Fig. 7 for the same reason as described in the description of the vacuum drying apparatus in Fig.

As described above, the vacuum drying apparatus (30 or 40) according to each embodiment of the present invention does not require the same number of vacuum pumps as the number of the chambers even in the vacuum drying apparatus having a plurality of chambers, A reduced-pressure drying apparatus can be provided.

According to each of the substrate processing systems 55, 56, and 57 of the embodiments of the present invention, the vacuum pump of the reduced pressure drying apparatus of the substrate processing line constituting the substrate processing system is likewise provided in the same manner as the total number of chambers of the reduced pressure drying apparatus It is possible to perform predetermined substrate drying without lowering system throughput with a small number.

The embodiments of the substrate processing system disclosed herein do not comply with restrictions on the application device. Therefore, any substrate processing system in which a coating liquid is applied and dried can be applied to any coating apparatus including a slit nozzle coater, a spin coater, and an ink jet printer. The substrate can be a rectangular substrate used for a liquid crystal or the like to a circular substrate for a semiconductor wafer. There is no limitation on the coating liquid, and any coating liquid can be dealt with as long as the solvent is evaporated and dried.

Therefore, the reduced-pressure drying apparatus and the substrate processing system of the present invention can be applied to various industrial applications including a liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus, an organic EL panel manufacturing apparatus, a touch panel manufacturing apparatus, and a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

2a: chamber
3: Robot
4: Vacuum pump
21: chamber cover
22: chamber vessel
23: Valve
24: Regulator
25: Piping
26: Valve
27: Buffer tank
30: Vacuum dryer
31: Robot Hand
32: substrate
55: substrate processing system
101a: substrate processing line

Claims (7)

A vacuum drying apparatus for drying a coating liquid applied to a substrate by bringing a sheet-like substrate coated with a coating liquid into a chamber by a transfer device and decompressing the chamber in accordance with a predetermined decompression sequence,
A plurality of pressure reduction chambers,
A single decompression pump connected to an intake port provided in each of the chambers via a pipe,
A valve provided in each of the pipes for controlling the depressurized state of each chamber by operating the depressurizing pump,
A control device for individually controlling the valves in accordance with the depressurization sequence set in each chamber;
Pressure drying apparatus. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the valve is a valve opening / closing angle-controlled valve, and controls the reduced pressure state in the chamber by the valve opening / closing angle. A vacuum drying apparatus for drying a coating liquid applied to a substrate by bringing a sheet-like substrate coated with a coating liquid into a chamber by a transfer device and decompressing the chamber in accordance with a predetermined decompression sequence,
A plurality of pressure reduction chambers,
A single decompression pump connected to each of the chambers via an intake port,
A regulator installed in each of the pipes for controlling the depressurized state of each chamber by operating the depressurizing pump,
A control device for individually controlling the regulator according to a depressurization sequence set in each of the chambers, and
A valve provided in the pipe corresponding to the chamber for controlling air flow to each of the chambers;
Pressure drying apparatus. The coating liquid is applied to the sheet-like substrate by a coating device, then the substrate is brought into a drying apparatus having at least one pressure-reducing chamber, and the inside of the chamber is reduced in pressure in accordance with the pressure-decreasing sequence set in the chamber, A plurality of processing lines of a sheet-like substrate having a coating and drying unit for carrying out a drying process after completion of drying,
A plurality of pressure reducing pumps each having a total number smaller than the total number of chambers of all (all) drying apparatuses included in the substrate processing system,
A pipe provided so that the pressure reducing pump can be connected to all the chambers, and
A plurality of valves connected to the chamber via the pipeline for switching connection of the plurality of pressure reducing pumps
And a substrate processing system. 5. The method of claim 4,
Wherein a number of valves equal in number to the total number of chambers of at least all the drying apparatuses among the plurality of valves of the piping has a flow rate control function and a valve having at least one flow rate control function is connected to each chamber, . The coating liquid is applied to the sheet-like substrate by a coating device, and then the substrate is brought into a drying apparatus having at least one pressure-reducing chamber, and the inside of the chamber is reduced in pressure in accordance with the pressure- A plurality of sheet-like substrate processing lines each having a coating and drying unit for carrying out a drying process after completion of drying,
A plurality of pressure reducing pumps each having a total number smaller than the total number of chambers of all the drying apparatuses included in the substrate processing system,
A pipe provided so that the pressure reducing pump can be connected to all the chambers,
A plurality of valves connected to the chamber via the pipeline for switching connection of the plurality of pressure reducing pumps,
A regulator provided in each chamber for controlling the depressurization state of each chamber, and
A control device for depressurizing each chamber according to a depressurization sequence set in the chamber,
And a substrate processing system. The coating liquid is applied to the sheet-like substrate by a coating device, and then the substrate is brought into a drying apparatus having at least one pressure-reducing chamber, and the inside of the chamber is reduced in pressure in accordance with the pressure- A plurality of sheet-like substrate processing lines each having a coating and drying unit for carrying out a drying process after completion of drying,
A plurality of pressure reducing pumps each having a total number smaller than the total number of chambers of all the drying apparatuses included in the substrate processing system,
A pipe provided so that the pressure reducing pump can be connected to all the chambers,
A plurality of valves connected to the chamber via the pipeline for switching connection of the plurality of pressure reducing pumps,
A control device for depressurizing each chamber in accordance with the depressurization sequence set in the chamber, and
Pressure buffer tank provided in at least one of the pressure-
And a substrate processing system.

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