TW201631285A - Decompression drying apparatus and substrate processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is using a single vacuum pump to correspond to a decompression operation of all chambers in a drying apparatus that is provided for flat substrates and comprises multiple chamber decompression drying device. The solution of the present invention is to provide a decompression drying apparatus, which comprises multiple decompression chambers; a single vacuum pump, which has a gas-drawing opening that is connected to each of the chambers through piping; valves, which control gas draining and decompression condition of each of the chambers and are mounted on the piping to respectively correspond to the chambers; and a control device, which controls each of the valves through a predetermined decompression process.

Description

Vacuum drying device and substrate processing system

The present invention relates to a substrate processing system for spraying a coating liquid from a slit formed in a ferrule, thereby applying a coating liquid to a substrate and drying the substrate, and more particularly to a method for using a substrate A drying device for drying the coating liquid and a substrate processing system using the drying device.

In an apparatus for applying a coating liquid to a substrate such as a glass substrate or a film, there is known a coating apparatus including a ferrule formed with a slit for discharging a coating liquid. The coating apparatus includes a tank for storing a coating liquid, and a coating liquid supply pump for supplying the coating liquid in the tank to a slit of the ferrule.

The slit of the ferrule is formed to be elongated along the width direction of the substrate, and the coating liquid is ejected from the slit to the stage while the ferrule is horizontally moved relative to the substrate. Substrate This forms a film (coating film) of the coating liquid on the surface of the aforementioned substrate.

Recently, a coating liquid is also provided which improves the characteristics of the coating liquid, and the coating speed of the coating apparatus is raised to 200 mm/sec or more. In the application of such a high-speed coating liquid, it is necessary to improve the coating apparatus by the coating liquid supply pump and the coating control system. However, in the drying apparatus, particularly the vacuum drying apparatus, the drying time is drastically shortened. When the pressure is reduced, the airflow during drying affects the uniformity of the coating film, so it is difficult to cope with the increase in the simple decompression speed.

Therefore, as shown in Patent Document 2, the chamber for decompression of the drying device is configured in a plurality of stages, and sufficient drying time is ensured in each chamber. On the other hand, the first sheet is removed, and in the continuous coating, The substrate is distributed to a plurality of chambers, thereby shortening the process cycle time.

However, according to the drying device 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 additionally provided, the use of a plurality of expensive vacuum pumps results in an increase in equipment cost. problem.

In recent years, the price of a display device including a liquid crystal panel has been remarkably lowered, and in order to reduce the cost of the manufacturing, it is necessary to reduce the manufacturing operation cost. (running cost), in order to reduce the depreciation of equipment, it is necessary to cut the cost of equipment for manufacturing lines.

[Previous Technical Literature]

[Patent Literature]

Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. H09-29167.

Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2012-189303.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vacuum pump which can be continuously or in combination with a plurality of chambers even in a case where a drying device for drying a coated substrate by a vacuum drying method is constituted as a multi-stage chamber. A drying device that performs drying under reduced pressure and a substrate processing system including the drying device.

In the vacuum drying apparatus of the present invention, the sheet substrate coated with the coating liquid is carried into the chamber of the vacuum drying apparatus by the conveying device, and the chamber is decompressed according to a predetermined decompression sequence. Thereby, the coating liquid applied to the substrate is dried; the vacuum drying apparatus includes a plurality of pressure reducing chambers; and a single pressure reducing pump is connected to the suction chambers provided in the respective chambers via pipes a valve; the valve is respectively disposed in the pipe for operating the decompression pump, thereby controlling the decompression state of each chamber; And the control device individually controls each valve so that the decompressed state of each chamber is decompressed in response to a preset decompression program.

The vacuum drying apparatus according to the present invention can be constructed not only for the substrate processing circuit for connecting a single or a plurality of decompression pumps which are combined with a plurality of chambers to a plurality of decompression chambers, but also for each chamber in advance. The set pressure reduction program individually controls the valves connected to the respective chambers via the pipes, whereby the capacity of the vacuum pump can be reduced to be smaller than the total of the cases in which the plurality of chambers are respectively disposed, so that even the substrates after the coating are finished one by one. By moving into each chamber, it is also possible to continuously realize the dry state of the substrate according to the design on each substrate. Thereby, the cost of the vacuum drying apparatus can be greatly reduced.

Further, the valve of the present invention is a valve opening and closing angle control type valve, and the pressure reducing state in the chamber is controlled by the valve opening and closing angle.

In this way, since the flow rate of the valve can be controlled by the valve opening and closing angle, the exhaust force of each valve can be finely adjusted, and the decompression state of each chamber can be controlled in accordance with a preset decompression program.

Further, in the vacuum drying apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the sheet substrate coated with the coating liquid is carried into the chamber of the vacuum drying apparatus by the conveying device, and the chamber is opened in accordance with a preset pressure reducing program. The coating liquid applied to the substrate is dried by decompression, and the vacuum drying apparatus includes a plurality of pressure reducing chambers and a single pressure reducing pump. The intake port is connected to each chamber via a pipe; regulators are respectively disposed in the pipe, and the decompression pump is operated to control the decompression state of each chamber; the control device is The regulators are individually controlled in response to a decompression program set in each of the chambers; and valves are provided corresponding to the chambers and are respectively disposed in the piping to control airflow toward the respective chambers.

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

The substrate processing system of the present invention has a plurality of sheet substrate processing lines having a coating and drying device which applies a coating liquid to a sheet substrate by a coating device, and then carries the coated sheet substrate into the coating substrate. a drying device having at least one decompression chamber, and decompressing the chamber in accordance with a decompression program set in the chamber, thereby performing vacuum drying, and carrying out the drying to the next step; the substrate The processing system includes a plurality of decompression pumps for performing the decompression drying, and the total number of chambers is smaller than the total number of chambers of all the drying devices included in the substrate processing system; The pressure pump is connectable to all of the chambers; and a plurality of valves are connected to the chamber via the piping for performing the connection switching of the plurality of pressure reducing pumps.

The substrate processing system according to the present invention includes decompression Since the decompression pump is shared between the plurality of substrate processing lines of the drying device, the substrate processing system that distributes and connects the specific decompression pump to each of the decompression drying devices is used, even in the case where the process cycle time is slow. It is also possible to maintain the cycle time by additionally connecting the undecompressed decompression pump to the substrate processing line to be added to the decompression pump, and to reduce the number of decompression pumps provided, thereby reducing the substrate processing system. the cost of.

The valve of the substrate processing system of the present invention has at least the same number of chambers as the total number of chambers of the drying device having a flow control function, and at least one valve system having a flow control function is connected to each chamber.

Thereby, each chamber can be decompressed by the control device in response to a preset decompression program.

A substrate processing system according to a second embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of sheet-like substrate processing lines having a coating and drying device that applies a coating liquid to a sheet substrate by a coating device, and then applies the coated sheet. The substrate is carried into a drying device having at least one decompression chamber, and the chamber is decompressed in accordance with a decompression program set in the chamber, thereby drying under reduced pressure, and then moving out to the next after drying is completed. The substrate processing system includes a plurality of pressure reducing pumps for performing the vacuum drying, and the total number of chambers is smaller than the total number of chambers of all the drying devices included in the substrate processing system; The pressure reducing pump is connectable to all of the chambers; a plurality of valves are connected to the chamber via the piping for performing the foregoing plurality of pressure reducing pumps The switch is arranged in each chamber to control the decompression state of each chamber; and the control device decompresses each chamber according to a decompression program set in the chamber.

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

A substrate processing system according to a third embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of sheet-like substrate processing lines having a coating and drying device that applies a coating liquid to a sheet substrate by a coating device, and then applies the coated sheet. The substrate is carried into a drying device having at least one decompression chamber, and the chamber is decompressed in accordance with a decompression program set in the chamber, thereby drying under reduced pressure, and then moving out to the next after drying is completed. The substrate processing system includes a plurality of pressure reducing pumps for performing the vacuum drying, and the total number of chambers is smaller than the total number of chambers of all the drying devices included in the substrate processing system; Provided that the pressure reducing pump is connectable to all of the chambers; a plurality of valves are connected to the chamber via the piping for performing switching connection of the plurality of pressure reducing pumps; and a control device The respective chambers are decompressed in accordance with a decompression program set in the chamber; and a decompression buffer tank is provided in at least one of the decompression pumps.

The substrate processing system according to the third embodiment of the present invention, the main energy region a pressure reducing pump that is fixedly connected to a vacuum drying device of each substrate processing line, and a decompression pump (temporary connection decompression pump) that is temporarily connected to the vacuum drying device as needed, and The temporary connection decompression pump is provided with a buffer tank to adjust the depressurization pressure, and the number of decompression pumps to be installed can be greatly reduced.

According to the present invention, in the substrate processing system including the coating step for the substrate and the drying step following the coating step, the drying quality of the substrate in the drying step is not lowered, and one chamber can be used from the current one chamber. The configuration of the vacuum drying pump reduces the number of pumps for vacuum drying in one of the vacuum drying apparatuses used in the drying step, and the equipment cost of the substrate processing system can be greatly reduced.

1, 40‧‧‧ decompression drying device

2a to 2c, 2aa to 2bc‧‧‧ chamber

3‧‧‧ Robot

4, 4a, 4b, 4ab‧‧‧ vacuum pump

21‧‧‧ chamber cover

22‧‧‧Cell container

23, 26, 28‧‧‧ valves

24‧‧‧ adjuster

25‧‧‧Pipe

27‧‧‧buffer tank

30, 30a, 30b, 40, 40a, 40b‧‧‧ decompression drying device

31‧‧‧Robot arm

32‧‧‧Substrate

55, 56, 57‧‧‧ substrate processing system

101a, 101b‧‧‧ substrate processing circuit

Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing one embodiment of the vacuum drying apparatus of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a graph showing the relationship between the drying time of the substrate and the pressure in the chamber, and the pressure in the chamber and the opening degree of the valve.

Figure 3 is a graph showing the relationship between the process cycle and the drying cycle.

Fig. 4 is a schematic perspective view showing another embodiment of the reduced-pressure drying apparatus of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic perspective view showing one embodiment of the substrate processing system of the present invention.

Figure 6 is a graph showing the relationship between a process cycle and a drying cycle in a plurality of substrate processing lines.

Fig. 7 is a schematic perspective view showing a second embodiment of the substrate processing system of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a schematic perspective view showing a third embodiment of the substrate processing system of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing one embodiment of the vacuum drying apparatus of the present invention. In the vacuum drying apparatus 30, the substrate 32 having the coating film formed on its surface by a coating device (not shown) is carried into any of the chambers 2a to 2c of the vacuum drying apparatus 30, and the chamber is placed. The inside of the substrate 32 is depressurized to dry the coating film on the surface of the substrate 32. Here, in the present invention, the robot 3 is used as the transport device, but other transport mechanisms may be used. For example, a roller conveyer or a float transport may be used. Further, the robot 3 is not limited in its form. Further, although the vacuum drying apparatus 30 shown in the embodiment of Fig. 1 has a three-stage chamber configuration, the present invention is also applicable to a vacuum drying apparatus including a plurality of chambers other than the three-stage configuration.

The vacuum drying apparatus 30 of the present invention has chambers 2a to 2c, and each chamber is constituted by a chamber cover 21 and a chamber container 22. When robot 3 When the substrate 32 loaded on the robot hand 31 is transported to the vacuum drying device 30, the chamber cover 21 is raised from the contact position with the chamber container 22 by a driving device (not shown). A substrate receiving base (not shown) and a plurality of substrate receiving members (not shown) that penetrate the bottom of the chamber container 22 and the substrate receiving table are provided inside the chamber container 22, and are not shown in the drawings. The drive unit is raised and lowered. Further, a plurality of substrate holding members (not shown) for preventing the substrate 32 from coming into contact with the substrate receiving table during drying are provided at a position different from the substrate receiving member in the substrate receiving table, and the substrate receiving member can be lowered to A position lower than the aforementioned substrate holding member. On the other hand, when the substrate receiving member is raised, the substrate receiving member can be raised to a position higher than the position of the robot arm 31.

When the robot arm 31 enters a predetermined position in the chamber, the substrate receiving member rises and holds the substrate 32. At the same time, the robot arm 31 is pulled out from the chamber, and the substrate receiving member is lowered and the substrate 32 is transferred to the substrate holding member. Then, the chamber cover 21 is lowered, and at the same time as the end of the lowering, the chamber starts to decompress. Here, in the continuous substrate processing operation, since the substrate transfer system to the chambers 2a to 2c is performed for the chamber in which the substrate is carried out, the operation description is not performed in the specific chamber.

In the chambers 2a to 2c, a piping 25 connected to the vacuum pump 4 is provided in the chamber container 22 for decompression. In order to connect the chambers 2a to 2c to a single vacuum pump 4, the piping 25 is constructed as a piping as shown in Fig. 1. In addition, In order to control the opening and closing of the respective chambers and the flow rate of the exhaust gas during the decompression of the chambers 2a to 2c, a valve 23 is provided in the piping 25 of each chamber. The inside of the valve 23 has a rotary valve which, like the schematic configuration shown in Fig. 2, is closed when it is perpendicular to the flow direction of the fluid; it is fully open when it is parallel to the flow direction, and can be opened relative to the valve body The valve opening is used to adjust the flow.

Here, the vacuum drying will be described in detail using FIG. 2 . As shown in the graph of "in-chamber pressure/time change" shown in Fig. 2, in the vacuum drying, the pressure is not linearly reduced, but the pressure is reduced in several stages, thereby preventing the sheet substrate. Such a large object is unevenly dried due to the air flow when it is dried. In the stage 1 (T0 to T1) which is the start stage of the decompression, since the rapid decompression causes uneven drying, the valve 23 is slightly opened as shown in the "valve opening degree of each stage" as shown in FIG. At the same time, the vacuum pump (4) is driven, and the pressure reduction of the decompression target chamber is gradually performed. Next, in the phase 2 (T1 to T2), the opening degree of the valve 23 is increased to increase the decompression speed. Furthermore, in stage 3 (T2 to T4), the valve is fully opened in order to reach the degree of vacuum. Here, since T3 is from T2 to the time when the degree of vacuum is reached, since the valve 23 is in the fully open state, it is defined in the stage 3. The purpose of reaching the degree of vacuum is to dry the liquid as long as a few Pascals (Pa) is sufficient. Then, after maintaining the degree of vacuum for a certain period of time, the valve 23 is closed, and the clean air (CDA) or the nitrogen gas N2 is supplied from the piping path (not shown) in FIG. 1, and the inside of the chamber 2a is returned to the atmospheric pressure, and then the chamber cover is closed. 21 is raised, and replacement of the substrate 32 is performed. These series of operations (decompression procedures) are controlled by a control device not shown.

Next, the correlation of the processing processes of the respective chambers in the case where the above-described cycles are continuously performed using a plurality of chambers will be described using FIG. Here, the chambers one, two, and three of the chambers shown in the graph of FIG. 3 show the order in which the substrates are carried in the continuous substrate processing, for example, the chamber one is the chamber 2a of FIG. 1, and the chamber two is the one of FIG. In the case of the chamber 2b, the chamber 3 is the case of the chamber 2c. In the substrate coating/drying process, the coating time and the drying time are hardly the same, and in general, the drying time is longer than the coating time. Therefore, in the case where the substrate treatment is continuously performed, the next coated substrate is introduced into the vacuum drying apparatus before the end of drying. To cope with this, in general, the vacuum drying apparatus is provided with a plurality of chambers. Fig. 3 is a view showing an example of a substrate processing chart of the vacuum drying apparatus including the three-stage chamber shown in Fig. 1; It can be seen that all of the chambers of the three-stage chamber do not simultaneously become stage 3 of the graph of Fig. 2 in which the valve is fully open, and the time during which any two of the chambers simultaneously become stage 3 is also very short. This case means that even in the configuration of the three-stage chamber, it is sufficient that the vacuum pump has the capability of having the chamber capable of simultaneously processing the two-stage portion at the same time. That is, in the case where the chamber is in the stage 3, the chamber 2 is the stage 1 or the stage 2, and the chamber 3 is in an unused state. When the chamber 2 becomes the stage 3, the chamber changes from the stage 4 to the stage 5, that is, the valve is closed, and the chamber three becomes the stage 1 or the stage 2. Furthermore, when the chamber 3 becomes the stage 3, the chamber second becomes the stage 5 from the stage 4 to the stage 5, and the chamber is again changed to the stage 1 or the stage 2, and the cycle is repeated. Therefore, there is no case where the three-stage chamber simultaneously becomes the stage 3.

Of course, Fig. 3 shows an example of a typical liquid drying cycle, which cycle is changed depending on the coating liquid. However, in general, even if the coating liquid is different, in order to prevent uneven drying, the stage 1 which is a slow decompression requires a certain period of time, and the stage 2 which is a rapid decompression is affected by the volume of the chamber. Therefore, the person affected by the type of the coating liquid is the stage 3, and in the case where the stage 3 is changed in the shortening direction, since only the entire chart is compressed toward the left side, the stage 3 does not overlap. On the other hand, in the case where the phase 3 is changed in the direction in which the direction is extended, in the case where the capacity of the vacuum pump 4 can be enhanced, such a square should be used; and in the case where the capacity enhancement of the vacuum pump 4 cannot be matched, Increase the number of chamber sections or increase the decompression drying device and match the overall cycle time. In the case of increasing the number of chamber sections or increasing the decompression drying apparatus, it is only necessary to add a vacuum pump as needed. That is, even if all the conditions are considered as described above, it is not necessary to provide a vacuum pump in each chamber.

Fig. 4 is a view schematically showing a modified embodiment of the reduced-pressure drying apparatus of Fig. 1. Unlike the configuration of FIG. 1, in the vacuum drying apparatus 40 of FIG. 3, the regulator 24 is provided in the piping 25 in each of the chambers 2a to 2c. In this configuration, the valve 23 has only a function of opening/closing, and the flow rate adjustment is performed by the regulator 24. Regarding the installation position of the regulator 24, in addition to the example of Fig. 4, it may be disposed closer to the chamber side than the valve 23. In the configuration of Fig. 1, in the case where the flow rate is adjusted by the valve having the rotary valve as shown in Fig. 2, the opening degree and the flow rate do not necessarily exhibit a linear function relationship, and therefore it is necessary The set value is adjusted in advance by an ex ante test. Therefore, in the case where the coating liquid exchange (i.e., the manufacturing type change) is frequently performed, it is possible to set the possibility of time consuming. Therefore, the regulator can not only quickly respond to the exchange of the coating liquid or the like, but can also perform more precise flow rate setting by using the regulator for the decompression operation.

Next, a substrate processing system having a plurality of substrate processing lines including the vacuum drying apparatus of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 6, using the present invention shown in FIGS. 1 to 4. The vacuum drying apparatus is an embodiment in which the apparatus is simplified in the entire system. Fig. 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. The substrate processing system has 5 to 6 substrate processing lines in the case of, for example, a liquid crystal panel, and each substrate processing circuit is washed, dried, coated, dried, prebaked, exposed, developed, imaged, and etched. It consists of a net → bake step. For the sake of brevity, the substrate processing system of FIG. 5 and later is depicted as two lines shown by the reference numerals 101a and 101b, and the apparatus only displays the loading robot and the vacuum drying apparatus in the same manner as in FIG. The respective systems of the vacuum drying apparatuses 30a and 30b of the substrate processing lines 101a and 101b have the same configuration as the vacuum drying apparatus 30 shown in Fig. 1, and detailed description of the apparatus configuration is omitted. A new vacuum pump 4ab is provided in the substrate processing system 55 of FIG. 5, and is connected to the respective chambers 2aa to 2bc via a pipe 25 branched by the valve 26. Here, the valve 26 controls only the opening/closing of the pipe 25 connected to the chamber, and does not control the exhaust gas flow rate. In addition, although the valve type requires the use of a four-way valve, The driving method may be any one of air pressure opening and closing or electromagnetic opening and closing. In the substrate processing system 55 of Fig. 5, the piping extending from the valve 26 is coupled to the piping from the vacuum pump 4a or the vacuum pump 4b in the opposite side of the chamber (i.e., the vacuum pump side) with respect to the valve 23. In the configuration of Fig. 5, in order to correspond to the control of the exhaust gas, the valve 26 needs to be connected to the vacuum pump side. Further, in order to prevent the vacuum pumps 4a and 4b from being subjected to an excessive load, the valve 28 is further provided, and the chambers (2aa to 2bc) which are decompressed by the vacuum pumps 4a and 4b and the vacuum pump 4ab are distinguished. The reason is as follows.

In the case where the piping from the vacuum pump 4ab is connected to the valve 23 on the vacuum pump side, the vacuum pump 4a or the vacuum pump 4b is also connected to the chamber (2aa to 2bc) which is decompressed by the vacuum pump 4ab. In this case, it is difficult to predict what kind of influence is exerted on the load of the vacuum pump, and the worst case is the risk of stopping either or both of the vacuum pump 4a and the vacuum pump 4b due to excessive load. Therefore, in order to prevent such a situation, a valve 28 is further provided between the vacuum pump 4a and the vacuum pump 4b and the piping connection portion from the vacuum pump 4ab, thereby preventing the vacuum pump 4a or the vacuum pump 4b from being decompressed with respect to the chamber of the vacuum pump 4ab ( A vacuum pump 4ab is connected to any of 2aa to 2bc) to be in a connected state.

Fig. 6 is a view showing the process-related relationship between the respective chambers of the respective substrate processing lines in the case where the substrate processing is continuously performed with respect to the substrate processing system 55 shown in Fig. 5. For easy understanding of the description, the starting point of each line is set to be the same as the coating cycle/drying cycle. Here, line one and line The names that are simply defined in order to display the order of the substrate processing may be any of the substrate processing lines 101a and 101b of FIG. 5; the chambers one, two, and three of the chambers shown in the graph of FIG. 6 are used to indicate continuous In the case where the substrate is carried in the substrate processing, for example, in the case where the line one is the substrate processing line 101a of FIG. 5 and the chamber one is the chamber 2aa, the chamber 2 is the chamber 2ab, and the chamber 3 is the chamber 2bc. As can be seen from Fig. 6, in the region x sandwiched by the vertical line on the graph, the load of the vacuum pump becomes maximum. Here, although the vacuum pump can be added to the vacuum drying apparatuses 30a and 30b of the respective substrate processing lines 101a and 101b, the additional vacuum pump 4ab is connected to the chamber 3 of the line which is not in the fully open state as shown in FIG. The vacuum pumps 4a, 4b are limited to the capacity corresponding only to the maximum load of the two chambers, respectively. Of course, a plurality of vacuum pumps 4ab can also be provided in response to the reduced pressure load and the drying cycle.

A variation of the substrate processing system of FIG. 6 can be configured as the vacuum drying apparatus of FIG. 4 with respect to the vacuum drying apparatus of FIG. 1, and can be utilized as the substrate processing system 56 of the embodiment of FIG. Regulator. Since the configurations of the vacuum drying apparatuses 40a and 40b constituting the respective substrate processing lines 101a and 101b of the substrate processing system 56 of Fig. 7 are the same as those of the vacuum drying apparatus 40 of Fig. 4, the description of the overlapping portions will be omitted. Here, in the case of the vacuum drying apparatus 40 of FIG. 4 in which the regulator 24 is added to the vacuum drying apparatus 30 of FIG. 1, the setting position of the regulator 24 can be performed before and after the valve; In the embodiment of Fig. 7, it is necessary to be disposed closer to the chamber than the valve 23, and the piping from the vacuum pump 4ab needs to be connected between the valve 23 and the regulator 24 to the piping 25 facing the chambers 2aa to 2bc. Such pair of piping The reasons for the limitation with the configuration of the machine are as follows.

As shown in the graph of Fig. 6, in the region x, the vacuum pumps 4a and 4b perform decompression of the two chambers (any of 2aa to 2bc). In this state, when the piping from the vacuum pump 4ab is connected to the valve 23 on the vacuum pump side, in order to reduce the remaining chambers in the stage 1 or the stage 2 (the vacuum pump 4ab is connected to any of 2aa to 2bc) When the pressure is applied, the valve 23 is opened, and as a result, it is connected to the vacuum pumps 4a and 4b. In this case, it is difficult to predict what kind of influence is exerted on the load of the vacuum pump, and the worst case is the risk of stopping either or both of the vacuum pump 4a and the vacuum pump 4b due to excessive load. Therefore, in order to prevent such a situation, the piping from the vacuum pump 4ab is connected between the valve 23 and the regulator 24 to the piping facing the chamber, and the valve 23 at this portion needs to be set to be closed.

Figure 8 is a diagram showing different embodiments of variations of the substrate processing system of Figure 5. In the substrate processing system 57 of FIG. 8, the vacuum pump 4ab common to the substrate processing lines 101a and 101b is provided with a buffer tank 27. The buffer tank 27 is provided and the inside of the buffer tank 27 is depressurized in advance, whereby the vacuum pump 4ab can increase the vacuum capacity. Therefore, the capacity of the vacuum pump 4ab can be set to be lower than that calculated by the calculation. As such, the equipment cost of the substrate processing system 57 can be further reduced.

In FIG. 8, each of the substrate processing lines 101a and 101b may have the same configuration as that of FIG. 7, and may have the same configuration as that of FIG. 5 in which the regulator 24 is not used. However, the piping connection position from the vacuum pump 4ab The reason for the same arrangement as that described in the description of the vacuum drying apparatus of Fig. 7 is that it is necessary to have the same configuration as that of Fig. 7 .

As described above, according to the vacuum drying apparatus 30 or 40 of each embodiment of the present invention, even if it is a vacuum drying apparatus having a plurality of chambers, it is not necessary to provide the same number of vacuum pumps as the number of chambers, thereby providing an equipment cost. Lower vacuum drying unit.

Further, according to the substrate processing systems 55, 56, and 57 of the embodiments of the present invention, the vacuum pump of the vacuum drying apparatus constituting the substrate processing line of the substrate processing system is made smaller than the total number of chambers of the same vacuum drying apparatus. The amount and the predetermined substrate drying can be performed without reducing the system throughput.

The embodiment of the substrate processing system disclosed in the specification is not limited by the coating device. Therefore, as long as it is a substrate processing system in which a coating liquid is applied and the coating liquid is dried, it can be applied to a slit nozzle coater, a spin coater, an ink jet (ink jet). Any coating device of printer). Further, the substrate can be used from a rectangular substrate using a liquid crystal or the like to a circular substrate for a semiconductor wafer. Further, the coating liquid is not limited in any way, and any coating liquid can be used as long as it can evaporate the solvent and dry it.

Therefore, the vacuum drying apparatus and the substrate processing system of the present invention are It is used in various industrial applications including a liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus, an organic EL (electroluminescence) panel manufacturing apparatus, a touch panel manufacturing apparatus, and a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

2a to 2c‧‧‧ chamber

3‧‧‧ Robot

4‧‧‧vacuum pump

21‧‧‧ chamber cover

22‧‧‧Cell container

23‧‧‧Valves

25‧‧‧Pipe

30‧‧‧Decompression drying device

31‧‧‧Robot arm

32‧‧‧Substrate

Claims (7)

In a vacuum drying apparatus, a sheet substrate coated with a coating liquid is carried into a chamber by a conveying device, and the chamber is depressurized according to a predetermined pressure reducing program, thereby applying the coating to the substrate. The coating liquid is dried; the vacuum drying apparatus includes: a plurality of pressure reducing chambers; and a single pressure reducing pump connected to the air inlets provided in the respective chambers via pipes; the valves are respectively disposed on The piping is configured to operate the decompression pump to control a decompressed state of each chamber, and the control device individually controls the valves in accordance with a decompression program set in advance in each of the chambers. The vacuum drying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the valve is a valve opening and closing angle control type valve, and the pressure reducing state in the chamber is controlled by a valve opening and closing angle. In a vacuum drying apparatus, a sheet substrate coated with a coating liquid is carried into a chamber by a conveying device, and the chamber is depressurized according to a predetermined pressure reducing program, thereby applying the coating to the substrate. The coating liquid is dried; the vacuum drying apparatus includes: a plurality of pressure reducing chambers; and a single pressure reducing pump, wherein the suction ports are connected to the respective chambers via pipes; the regulators are respectively disposed in the foregoing Piping, and operating the decompression pump, thereby controlling the decompression state of each chamber; The control device individually controls the regulators in accordance with a decompression program set in each of the chambers, and a valve corresponding to the chambers and provided in the piping to control airflow toward the respective chambers. A substrate processing system comprising a plurality of sheet substrate processing lines having a coating drying device for applying a coating liquid to a sheet substrate by a coating device, and then loading the coated sheet substrate to have At least one drying device for the decompression chamber, and decompressing the chamber according to a decompression program set in the chamber, thereby performing vacuum drying, and carrying out the drying to the next step after the drying; the substrate processing The system includes a plurality of pressure reducing pumps for performing the reduced pressure drying, and the total number of chambers is smaller than the total number of chambers of all the drying devices included in the substrate processing system; The pump is connectable to all of the chambers; and a plurality of valves are connected to the chamber via the piping for performing the connection switching of the plurality of decompression pumps. The substrate processing system according to claim 4, wherein the same number of valves of at least one of the plurality of valves of the piping are the same as the total number of chambers, and at least one has a flow control function. The valve train is connected to each chamber. A substrate processing system having a plurality of sheet substrate processing lines having a coating drying device, the coating drying device is coated Applying the coating liquid to the sheet substrate, then transferring the coated sheet substrate to a drying device having at least one decompression chamber, and decompressing the chamber according to a decompression program set in the chamber And drying under reduced pressure, and carrying out the drying to the next step; the substrate processing system is provided with: a plurality of pressure reducing pumps for performing the vacuum drying, and the total number of substrate processing systems The total number of chambers of all the drying devices included is small; the piping is provided such that the pressure reducing pump can be connected to all of the chambers; and the plurality of valves are connected to the chamber through the piping, for use To perform switching connection of the plurality of decompression pumps; the regulator is disposed in each chamber for controlling the decompression state of each chamber; and the control device is adapted to the decompression procedure set in the chamber Decompression is performed in each chamber. A substrate processing system comprising a plurality of sheet substrate processing lines having a coating drying device for applying a coating liquid to a sheet substrate by a coating device, and then loading the coated sheet substrate to have At least one drying device for the decompression chamber, and decompressing the chamber according to a decompression program set in the chamber, thereby performing vacuum drying, and carrying out the drying to the next step after the drying; the substrate processing The system is equipped with: A plurality of decompression pumps are used for performing the above-described decompression drying, and the total number is smaller than the total number of chambers of all the drying devices included in the substrate processing system; the piping is connected to the decompression pump to All of the chambers are disposed; a plurality of valves are connected to the chamber through the piping for performing switching connection of the plurality of decompression pumps; and the control device is configured to be decompressed according to the chamber The respective chambers are depressurized; and the decompression buffer tank is provided in at least one of the aforementioned decompression pumps.