WO2007145265A1 - Method and system for bringing in/out of substrate, and photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus - Google Patents

Method and system for bringing in/out of substrate, and photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2007145265A1
WO2007145265A1 PCT/JP2007/061956 JP2007061956W WO2007145265A1 WO 2007145265 A1 WO2007145265 A1 WO 2007145265A1 JP 2007061956 W JP2007061956 W JP 2007061956W WO 2007145265 A1 WO2007145265 A1 WO 2007145265A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
substrate
substrates
bring
bonded
bringing
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/JP2007/061956
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Ryoichi Sugihara
Ryo Mori
Original Assignee
Fujifilm Corporation
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Fujifilm Corporation filed Critical Fujifilm Corporation
Publication of WO2007145265A1 publication Critical patent/WO2007145265A1/en

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/67005—Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/67011—Apparatus for manufacture or treatment
    • H01L21/67098—Apparatus for thermal treatment
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B32—LAYERED PRODUCTS
    • B32B—LAYERED PRODUCTS, i.e. PRODUCTS BUILT-UP OF STRATA OF FLAT OR NON-FLAT, e.g. CELLULAR OR HONEYCOMB, FORM
    • B32B37/00—Methods or apparatus for laminating, e.g. by curing or by ultrasonic bonding
    • B32B37/02—Methods or apparatus for laminating, e.g. by curing or by ultrasonic bonding characterised by a sequence of laminating steps, e.g. by adding new layers at consecutive laminating stations
    • B32B37/025—Transfer laminating
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B32—LAYERED PRODUCTS
    • B32B—LAYERED PRODUCTS, i.e. PRODUCTS BUILT-UP OF STRATA OF FLAT OR NON-FLAT, e.g. CELLULAR OR HONEYCOMB, FORM
    • B32B37/00—Methods or apparatus for laminating, e.g. by curing or by ultrasonic bonding
    • B32B37/08—Methods or apparatus for laminating, e.g. by curing or by ultrasonic bonding characterised by the cooling method
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B32—LAYERED PRODUCTS
    • B32B—LAYERED PRODUCTS, i.e. PRODUCTS BUILT-UP OF STRATA OF FLAT OR NON-FLAT, e.g. CELLULAR OR HONEYCOMB, FORM
    • B32B38/00—Ancillary operations in connection with laminating processes
    • B32B38/10—Removing layers, or parts of layers, mechanically or chemically
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B32—LAYERED PRODUCTS
    • B32B—LAYERED PRODUCTS, i.e. PRODUCTS BUILT-UP OF STRATA OF FLAT OR NON-FLAT, e.g. CELLULAR OR HONEYCOMB, FORM
    • B32B38/00—Ancillary operations in connection with laminating processes
    • B32B38/18—Handling of layers or the laminate
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/677—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
    • H01L21/67703—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations between different workstations
    • H01L21/67706—Mechanical details, e.g. roller, belt
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/677—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
    • H01L21/67703—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations between different workstations
    • H01L21/67721—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations between different workstations the substrates to be conveyed not being semiconductor wafers or large planar substrates, e.g. chips, lead frames
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/677—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
    • H01L21/67739—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations into and out of processing chamber
    • H01L21/67742—Mechanical parts of transfer devices
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
    • B65H—HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL, e.g. SHEETS, WEBS, CABLES
    • B65H2301/00—Handling processes for sheets or webs
    • B65H2301/50—Auxiliary process performed during handling process
    • B65H2301/51—Modifying a characteristic of handled material
    • B65H2301/516—Securing handled material to another material
    • B65H2301/5162—Coating, applying liquid or layer of any material to material

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a method and a system for bringing in and out substrates using a substrate stocker with a plurality of substrate storage chambers, and a photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus equipped with this substrate bring in/out system.
  • a color filter for liquid crystal display panels and plasma display panels is composed of a glass substrate, i.e. , a base material, and a photosensitive resin layer in a predetermined pattern.
  • the photosensitive resin layer is firstly bonded to the glass substrate, and then exposed, developed, and cleaned to take the predetermined pattern. This procedure is repeated for each of red, green, blue, and black color photosensitive resin, so that red, green, and blue color filters and a black matrix surrounding these color filters are formed on the glass substrate.
  • the bonded product of the glass substrate and the not-yet-patterned photosensitive resin layer (hereinafter, photosensitive laminate) is fabricated by a photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus, such as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2003-062906.
  • a photosensitive web which includes a long base film and the photosensitive resin layer thereon is bonded to the glass substrates conveyed at constant time intervals.
  • the photosensitive web is then cut between each glass substrate, and thus a bonded substrate of the glass substrate and the photosensitive resin layer is produced. Then, only the base film is peeled from the bonded substrate, and the photosensitive laminate is obtained.
  • the glass substrate and the photosensitive web are heated to soften the photosensitive resin layer for better adhesion.
  • the softened photosensitive resin layer may possibly stick to the base film and come off from the glass substrate when the base film is peeled.
  • the bonded substrate is cooled down before the base film peeling operation. It is therefore conventional to provide a cooling mechanism to convey, while blowing cold air onto, the bonded substrate between a photosensitive web cutting section and a base film peeling section of the manufacturing apparatus .
  • the bonded substrate is stored in a substrate storage chamber of a substrate stocker until it cools down.
  • Such a substrate stocker is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publications No. 2002-154648, No. 2001-308158, and No. 2003-045935.
  • the substrate stocker of the publication No. 2002-154648 is equipped with storage sensors or line sensors to detect the size, the orientation, and the alignment of the substrate.
  • the substrate stocker of the publication No. 2001-308158 is equipped with a filter, a gas removal device, and a temperature controller.
  • the substrate stocker of the publication No. 2003-045935 is configured to store the glass substrates upright. Additionally, as a part of the technology to treat substrates under a clean environment, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No.
  • 2003-282669 discloses a substrate transport apparatus whose process line is divided into several transport lines to offer a buffering function.
  • the cooling method to blow cold air sometimes results in delivering dust on the bonded substrate. Additionally, in this case, the bonded substrate needs to be conveyed over a relatively long distance so that it can cool down to a certain temperature, and the space efficiency of the apparatus is therefore sacrificed.
  • the cooling method using the substrate stocker has a limit on a capacity of the substrate stocker. Accordingly, if one of downstream devices falls into trouble to stop the conveyance of the substrates, some glass substrates are detained in an upstream heating section and heated there for a long time to reach an excessively high temperature. Additionally, if the bonded substrate stops near a laminate roller, the photosensitive resin layer may be fogged by the heat of the laminate roller.
  • a primary object of the present invention is to provide substrate bring in/out method and system capable of cooling down the substrate without fouling the surface thereof and also capable of properly protecting the glass substrates and the bonded substrates at an upstream device when a downstream device falls into trouble.
  • Another object of the present invention is to provide a photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus equipped with this substrate bring in/out system.
  • a substrate bring in/out method separates all substrate storage chambers of a substrate stocker into either a normal storage area or a buffer area.
  • the substrate storage chambers are used cyclically to store substrates brought in from an upstream device, and after a predetermined period the substrates are sequentially brought out and conveyed to a downstream device. Normally, the substrates are brought in and out of only the normal storage area. If a trouble occurs to stop the downstream device, the substrate bring out step is suspended, and the substrates at the upstream device are stored in the buffer area.
  • the substrates are brought in and out such that a predetermined number of the substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant . If a trouble occurs to stop the downstream device, the substrate bring out step is suspended, and the substrates at the upstream device are stored in the vacant substrate storage chambers . When the trouble is solved and the downstream device resumes operating, as many substrates as stored during the trouble time are sequentially brought out and conveyed to the downstream device. Then, the substrates are brought in and out such that a predetermined number of the substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant .
  • the substrates are brought out form the substrate storage chambers in descending order of the time spent from the predetermined period.
  • a substrate bring in/out system brings in substrates sequentially from an upstream device and stores the substrates cyclically in a plurality of substrate storage chambers of a substrate stocker, and then sequentially brings out and conveys the substrates from the substrate storage chambers to a downstream device after a predetermined period.
  • This substrate bring in/out system includes storage sensors, a substrate bring in/out device, a storage management device, and a bring in/out management device.
  • the storage sensors are provided in each of said substrate storage chambers, and detect presence of the substrate.
  • the substrate bring in/out device brings the substrates in and out of the substrate storage chambers .
  • the storage management device produces management information based on a detection result of the storage sensors .
  • This management information includes the presence/absence of the substrate in each of the substrate storage chambers and a storage period since the substrate is brought in the substrate storage chamber.
  • the bring in/out management device controls the storage management device based on the management information so as to store the substrates brought in from the upstream device into the vacant substrate storage chambers while sequentially bringing out and conveying the substrates from the substrate storage chambers to the downstream device.
  • the bring in/out management device separates all the substrate storage chambers of the substrate stocker into either a normal storage area or a buffer area, and uses only the normal storage area under a normal condition. If a trouble occurs to stop the downstream device, the substrate bring out step is suspended, and the substrates at the upstream device are stored in the buffer area.
  • the substrates are brought in and out such that a predetermined number of the substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant. If a trouble occurs to stop the downstream device, the substrate bringing out step is suspended, and the substrates at the upstream device are stored in the vacant substrate storage chambers. When the trouble is solved and the downstream device starts operating, as many substrates as stored during the trouble are sequentially brought out and conveyed to the downstream device. Then, the substrates are brought in and out such that a predetermined number of the substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant .
  • the storage management device compares the storage period of each substrate with the predetermined period, and registers the substrates exceeding the predetermined period as conveyable substrates in the management information. Based on this management information, the bring in/out management device drives the substrate bring in/out device to sequentially bring out and conveys the conveyable substrates from the substrate storage chambers to the downstream device in descending order of the time spent from the storage period.
  • the substrate bring in/out device is preferably a robot with a holder for holding the substrate and a moving mechanism to move this holder among the upstream device, the substrate stocker, and the downstream device.
  • the substrate bring in/out device may be a conveyor.
  • a photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus includes a substrate heating section, a web supply section, a bonding section, a peeling section, and one of the above substrate bring in/out systems.
  • the substrate heating section heats up the substrate.
  • the web supply section supplies a photosensitive web composed of a base film and a photosensitive resin layer on at least one surface of the base film.
  • the bonding section bonds the photosensitive web to the substrates and then cuts the photosensitive web between the substrates so as to produce bonded substrates .
  • the peeling section peels off only the base film from the bonded substrate so as to produce a photosensitive laminate.
  • the substrate bring in/out system located between the bonding section and the peeling section, cools down the bonded substrates brought from the bonding section in a substrate stocker, and then bring out and conveys these substrates to the peeling section.
  • the substrates which are otherwise detained in the upstream device can be stored in the buffer area when the downstream device falls into trouble. Therefore, the substrates and their photosensitive resin layers can be kept from deterioration due to the detention.
  • the buffer area is made vacant when the trouble in the downstream device is solved, and the substrate bring in/out operation is performed efficiently.
  • the substrate bring in/out operation is performed such that a predetermined number of the substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant. These vacant chambers allow for storing the substrates which are otherwise detained in the upstream device when a trouble occurs. Additionally, in this case, there is no buffer area to be made vacant when the trouble is solved, and thus the normal operation can be resumed promptly.
  • the substrate is considered conveyable, or ready for bring-out, when its storage period exceeds the predetermined period, and such conveyable substrates are brought out from the substrate stocker in descending order of the time spent from the storage period. Accordingly, errors in bringing out of the substrates are prevented.
  • the robot By using the robot, it is possible to bring the substrates in and out of the substrate storage chambers efficiently.
  • the robot may be replaced with the conveyor, and the cost will be reduced in this case.
  • the photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus incorporates the substrate bring in/out system, which prevents the deterioration of the substrates due to the detention. Additionally, if a necessary period for cooling down of the substrate is set as the predetermined period, the substrates are cooled down without failure .
  • Figure 1 is a perspective view of a photosensitive laminate
  • Figures 2A to 2F are explanatory views showing a manufacturing procedure of the photosensitive laminate
  • Figure 3 is a cross sectional view of a photosensitive web
  • Figure 4 is a schematic view showing a configuration of a photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus
  • Figure 5 is a schematic block diagram for sections, other than a web supply section, of the photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus ;
  • Figure 6 is a perspective view of a bonded substrate stocker;
  • Figure 7 is a perspective view of a substrate storage chamber of the bonded substrate stocker;
  • Figure 8 is a block diagram for a configuration of a control section of the photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus;
  • Figure 9 is a functional block diagram for a substrate cooling section controller
  • Figure 10 is schematic view of a normal storage area and a buffer area in the bonded substrate stocker
  • Figures HA to HD are explanatory views showing a bonded substrate bring in/out operation in a normal condition
  • Figure 12 is a flow chart of the bonded substrate bring in/out operation in the normal condition
  • Figures 13A to 13D are explanatory views showing a bonded substrate bring in/out operation in a trouble time
  • Figure 14 is a flow chart of the bonded substrate bring in/out operation in the trouble time;
  • Figures 15A to 15C are explanatory views of the bonded substrate bring in/out operation in the normal condition using the bonded substrate stocker with an unfixed buffer area;
  • Figure 16 is a flow chart of the bonded substrate bring in/out operation in the normal condition using the bonded substrate stocker with the unfixed buffer area;
  • Figures 17A to 17C are explanatory views of the bonded substrate bring in/out operation in the trouble time using the bonded substrate stocker with the unfixed buffer area;
  • Figure 18 is a flow chart of the bonded substrate bring in/out operation in the trouble time using the bonded substrate stocker with the unfixed buffer area;
  • Figure 19 is a block diagram of the sections, other than the web supply section, of a photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus using a conveyor as a substrate bring in/out device. Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention
  • a photosensitive laminate 2 is a half-way product of a color filter for liquid crystal display panels and plasma display panels , and composed of a transparent glass substrate 3 and a photosensitive resin layer 4 bonded onto this glass substrate 3.
  • the photosensitive resin layer 4 is made of photosensitive resin of either red, green, blue, or black color. Firstly bonded to the glass substrate 3, the photosensitive resin layer 4 is exposed, developed, and cleaned to take a predetermined pattern. This sequence is repeated on the photosensitive resin for each color, and thus red, green, and blue color filters and a black matrix surrounding these color filters are formed on the glass substrate 3.
  • a photosensitive web 7 is composed of a long base film 8, the photosensitive resin layer 4 lying thereon, and a protective film 9 on the top, as best shown in cross section in FIG.3.
  • the photosensitive web 7 is rolled into a photosensitive roll 10 to be set in a photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus (hereinafter, manufacturing apparatus) 25 described below.
  • the photosensitive web 7 placed in the manufacturing apparatus 25 is pulled out from the photosensitive roll 10, and the protective film 9 is cut into sheets of two different lengths; a length Ll to be bonded to the glass substrate 3 and a length L2 not to be bonded to the glass substrate 3. These sheets of the protective film 9 remain attached to the photosensitive web 7 due to adhesion of the photosensitive resin layer 4.
  • This cutting process is called a half-cut process, by which the lengths Ll and L2 are created alternately.
  • each cut point is referred to as a half-cut portion 7a
  • each region of L2 between the adjoining half-cut portions 7a is referred to as a residual region 7b.
  • attachment labels 13 are attached onto the protective film 9 after the half-cut process, and bridge a rear end of a preceding protective film sheet 9a and a front end of a succeeding protective film sheet 9b. At this time, the attachment labels 13 are not attached to the residual regions 7b. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 2D, when the protective film 9 is peeled off from the photosensitive web 7, the sheets of the protective film 9 are continuously peeled off like a web, but at the same time the residual regions 7b are left on the photosensitive web 7.
  • the photosensitive web 7 without the protective film 9 is inverted, and the photosensitive resin layer 4 is bonded to an upper surface of the glass substrate 3. More specifically, the glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 are pressed together between a pair of laminating rollers 16a, 16b. The laminating roller 16a is rotated by a motor 17, and thereby the glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 are advanced and bonded together. Actually, the glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 are heated to soften the photosensitive resin layer 4 before sent to the laminating rollers 16a, 16b, so that the photosensitive resin layer 4 is bonded easily to the glass substrate 3.
  • each of the laminating rollers 16a, 16b has a built-in heating element which heats the glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 to achieve sure bonding.
  • the photosensitive web 7 on the glass substrate 3 is cut between each glass substrate 3 by a cutter, and a bonded substrate 20 is produced as a half-way product of the photosensitive laminate 2. Consequently, the base film 8 is peeled off from the bonded substrate 20, as shown in FIG. 2F, leaving only the photosensitive resin layer 4 on the glass substrate 3.
  • the photosensitive laminate 2 shown in Fig. 1 is thus completed.
  • the bonded substrate 20, by the way, is cooled down for a while to stabilize the photosensitive resin layer 4 , so that the softened photosensitive resin layer 4 will not come off with the base film 8 from the glass substrate 3.
  • the manufacturing apparatus 25 includes a web supply section 26 to supply the photosensitive web 7 , a glass substrate supply section 27 to supply the glass substrates 3, a substrate heating section 28 to pre-heat the glass substrates 3, a bonding section 29 to bond together the glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 to produce the bonded substrate 20, a substrate cooling section 30 to cool down the bonded substrate 20, a base peeling section 31 to peel off the base film 8 from the bonded substrate 20 to produce the photosensitive laminate 2, and a laminate collecting section 32 to collect the photosensitive laminates 2.
  • An inside of the manufacturing apparatus 25 is separated into a first clean room 36a and a second clean room 36b by a partition wall 35.
  • the first clean room 36a houses the web supply section 26
  • the second clean room 36b houses the other sections 27 through 32 than the web supply section 26. Additionally, the first clean room 36a and the second clean room 36b are connected by a through hole 35a.
  • the web supply section 26 includes a web advancing mechanism 39 that holds the photosensitive roll 10 and draws the photosensitive web 7 out of the photosensitive roll 10, a processing mechanism 40 to execute the half-cut process to the protective film 9 of the drawn photosensitive web 7, a label attaching mechanism 41 to attach the attachment labels 13 to the protective film 9, and a peeling mechanism 42 to peel off the protective film 9 from the photosensitive web 7.
  • the peeled protective film 9 is wound on a take-up roller 43.
  • the substrate supply section 27 includes a glass substrate stocker 46 to store the multiple glass substrates 3, and a substrate supply robot 47.
  • the glass substrate stocker 46 has multiple substrate storage chambers 46a arranged vertically.
  • a dust removal fan unit 48 which supplies anti-static clean air to each substrate storage chamber 46a to keep the glass substrate 3 from dust.
  • the substrate supply robot 47 is a multiaxis robot having a robot hand 47a and a suction pad 47b that sticks to hold the glass substrate 3 on the bottom. The substrate supply robot 47 takes out the glass substrate 3 from the substrate storage chamber 46a, and supplies it to the substrate heating section 28 located downstream.
  • the substrate heating section 28 includes, for example, four substrate heating units 50 in a line.
  • Each of the substrate heating units 50 includes two substrate heating members (heaters, for example) 51a, 51b between which the glass substrate 3 passes, and a glass substrate conveying member 52.
  • the glass substrate 3 is heated by these four substrate heating units 50 as it is conveyed to the bonding section 29 downstream.
  • the substrate heating section 28 keeps monitoring the temperature of the glass substrate 3, and when detecting an abnormal condition it stops the conveying member 52 or raises an alarm firstly and then issues abnormal information, which can be used for discharge of an NG substrate, quality control, production management and so on.
  • the bonding section 29 includes a tension control mechanism
  • a contact preventive roller 58 that changes the conveying path to prevent the photosensitive web 7 from coming into contact with the bonding mechanism 57, a pre-heater 59 to previously heat the photosensitive web 7 to a predetermined temperature, and a cut portion detection camera 60 to detect the half-cut portions 7a on the photosensitive web 7.
  • an end cutting mechanism 61 to cut a front end of the photosensitive web 7 at the onset of the operation, and a middle-portion cutting mechanism 62 to cut the photosensitive web 7 between each glass substrate 3 to produce the bonded substrates 20.
  • the bonding mechanism 57 has the laminating rollers 16a, 16b which are located above and below the passage 56 and individually have the built-in heating element able to reach a predetermined temperature.
  • the laminating rollers 16a, 16b are composed of a core cylinder of metal or the like and an elastic coating, such as silicon rubber, around the core. Outer surfaces of these laminating rollers 16a, 16b come into contact with back-up rollers 65a, 65b that prevent deformation of the laminating rollers 16a, 16b.
  • the laminating roller 16a holds and conveys the glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 in between the laminating roller 16b, and thereby bonds the photosensitive resin layer 4 onto the glass substrate 3.
  • the substrate cooling section 30 includes a bonded substrate stocker 68 to store the bonded substrates 20 and a bring in/out robot 69.
  • the bring in/out robot 69 brings in a heated (or uncooled) bonded substrate 20 from the bonding section 29 and stores it in the bonded substrate stocker 68, and then brings out and conveys the cooled bonded substrate 20 from the bonded substrate stocker 68 to the base peeling section 31.
  • the bonded substrate stocker 68 has a dust removal fan unit 70 on a side wall, and the bonded substrate 20 is cooled down in the bonded substrate stocker 68 filled with anti-static clean air.
  • the bonded substrate stocker 68 is constituted of an outer frame 72 , pillars 73 , beams 74 , and support pins 75, which are assembled to form a plurality (for example, eighteen) of longitudinally-arranged substrate storage chambers 76 to store the bonded substrates 20 horizontally.
  • the outer frame 72 is constituted of aluminum extruded shapes assembled into a rectangular parallelepiped, and includes bottom and top frames 77, 78 in a square or rectangular shape, and four outer pillars 79 connecting four corners of the bottom frame 77 to those of the top frame 78.
  • the pillars 73 are placed at equal spaces along both lateral sides of the outer frame 72 , and stand parallel to the outer pillars 79. Although this embodiment uses five pillars 73 on one lateral side, the number of the pillars 73 may be changed appropriately according to the size of the bonded substrate 20.
  • the pillars 73 stand at the same positions on both lateral sides, and form five pillar pairs in the outer frame 72.
  • the beams 74 are attached horizontally to each pair of the pillars 73.
  • the number of the beams 74 is equivalent to those of the substrate storage chambers 76. In this embodiment, eighteen pieces of the beams 74 are attached to a pair of the pillars 73, so that the bonded substrate stocker 68 will have eighteen substrate storage chambers 76.
  • each beam 74 there are four support pins 75 standing parallel to the outer pillars 79. These support pins 75 are located such that they can surely support the storable bonded substrates 20 of different sizes. Since the bonded substrate 20 is held on the rear surface and put in the bonded substrate stocker 68 such that the photosensitive resin layer 4 faces upwards, the support pins 75 are made to a height not to interfere with the bring in/out robot 69.
  • the support pins 75 are made entirely of synthetic resin, and able to support the bonded substrate 20 without giving any impact. Alternatively, the support pin 75 may be made of metal, and covered on the top with a synthetic resin cap or a rubber cap.
  • each of the substrate storage chambers 76 is constituted of horizontally-arranged five beams 74, and configured to horizontally support the bonded substrate 20 (illustrated with a two-dot chain line) using the support pins 75.
  • the bonded substrate stocker 68 is able to store the bonded substrates 20 of various sizes. Additionally, the bonded substrate 20 can be inserted upright or sideways into the bonded substrate stocker 68.
  • One of the support pins 75 in the middle of the beam 74 between the central-most pair of the pillars 73 is a middle support pin 75a, which is equipped with a storage sensor 82.
  • the storage sensor 82 is, for example, a reflection type infrared optical sensor to detect presence of the bonded substrate 20 by emitting an infrared beam from a beam emitter and receiving the reflected beam with a beam receiver.
  • the bring in/out robot 69 is, for example, a double-hand type SCARA robot having two robot hands
  • the bring in/out robot 69 is able to bring in an uncooled bonded substrate 20 from the bonding section 29 and store it in the bonded substrate stocker 68 using one robot hand, while at the same time bringing out a cooled bonded substrate 20 from the bonded substrate stocker 68 and conveying it to the base peeling section 31 using the other robot hand.
  • the base peeling section 31 located downstream from the base cooling section 30, has a plurality of suction pads 89 that stick by suction to the bonded substrate 20 on the bottom.
  • the cooled bonded substrate 20 is held by these suction pads 89, and the base film 8 together with residual regions 7b is peeled off by a robot hand 90 to complete the photosensitive laminate 2.
  • the base peeling section 31 has anti-static air blowing devices (not shown) which are located on the upstream, downstream, and both sides of the suction pads 89, and blow ionized air to the entire laminated portion of the bonded substrate 20 from four lateral sides thereof.
  • the bonded substrate 20 may be turned upright, inclined, or inverted during this peeling operation.
  • the laminate collecting section 32 includes a laminate stocker 93 to store a plurality of the photosensitive laminates 2, and a laminate transfer robot 94.
  • the laminate stocker 93 has a plurality of vertically-arranged substrate storage chambers 93a.
  • the laminate stocker 93 also has, on the side wall, a dust removal fan unit 95 which supplies anti-static clean air to each substrate storage chamber 93a to keep the photosensitive laminate 2 from dust.
  • the laminate transfer robot 94 is a multiaxis robot with a robot hand 94a and a suction pad 94b that sticks to hold the photosensitive laminate 2 on the bottom.
  • the laminate transfer robot 94 takes up the photosensitive laminates 2 from the base peeling section 31 and stores it in the substrate storage chamber 93a of the laminate stocker 93.
  • the operation of the manufacturing apparatus 25 is controlled by a main controller 98, which is connected through an internal network 103 to each of sub controllers for each functional section of the manufacturing apparatus 25, such as a substrate heating section controller 99, a bonding section controller 100, a substrate cooling section controller 101, and a base peeling section controller 102.
  • the substrate heating section controller 99 takes control over the substrate supply section 27 and the substrate heating section 28.
  • the bonding section controller 100 takes control over the web supply section 26 and the bonding section 29 •
  • the substrate cooling section controller 101 takes control over the substrate cooling section 30.
  • the base peeling section controller 102 takes control over the base peeling section 31 and the laminate cooling section 32.
  • the substrate cooling section controller 101 includes a stock management section 106, a robot controller 107, and a display controller 108.
  • the stock management section 106 receives the detection signals from the storage sensors 82 and keeps monitoring the presence of the bonded substrate 20 in each substrate storage chamber 76, the time of storage of the bonded substrate 20 to the substrate storage chamber 76, and the time elapsed from the storage (hereinafter, storage period).
  • the robot controller 107 controls the bring in/out robot 69 to store an uncooled bonded substrate 20 in a vacant substrate storage chamber 76 and bring out a cooled bonded substrates 20 from one of the substrate storage chambers 76.
  • the display control section 108 controls a display panel 109 on the manufacturing apparatus 25, based on the management information from the stock management section 106.
  • the display panel 109 is provided on an exterior surface of the manufacturing apparatus 25, and displays such information as a current status of each substrate storage chamber 76 and the storage period of each bonded substrate 20.
  • each horizontal solid line represents a bonded substrate 20 in the substrate storage chamber 76
  • each dashed line represents a vacant substrate storage chamber 76.
  • the stock management section 106 assigns numbers Pl through P18 to the substrate storage chambers 76 from bottom to top, and separates them into either a normal storage area 112 (for example, Pl to P13) or a buffer area 113 (for example, P14 to P18).
  • the normal storage area 112 is used in a normal operation where the manufacturing apparatus 25 operates without any trouble, and the buffer area 113 is used when the base peeling section 31 or other downstream section is in failure or trouble.
  • each of the substrate storage chambers 76 is vacant as shown in FIG. HA at the onset of the normal operation where there is no trouble on the downstream side from the substrate cooling section 30.
  • the robot controller 107 controls the bring in/out robot 69 to store uncooled bonded substrates 20 in the substrate storage chambers 76 of P13 to Pl sequentially.
  • the numerals on the right side of the bonded substrate stocker 68 indicate a descending order of the storage period, and these numerals change as the bring in/out operation advances .
  • the storage sensor 82 of this substrate storage chamber 76 detects the presence of the bonded substrate 20, and sends a detection signal to the stock management section 106.
  • the stock management section 106 records the number of this substrate storage chamber 76 as well as the time of storage, and starts clocking the storage period.
  • the stock management section 106 keeps comparing the clocked storage period with a predetermined period (hereinafter, a preset reference storage period) , and when the clocked storage period exceeds the reference storage period, it registers this bonded substrate 20 as a conveyable cooled substrate in the management information .
  • the robot controller 107 refers to the management information and controls the bring in/out robot 69 to bring out and convey the oldest cooled bonded substrate 20 to the base peeling section 31.
  • the cooled bonded substrate 20 is brought out from the substrate storage chamber 76 of P13 (see, FIG. HC) .
  • a new uncooled bonded substrate 20 is stored in the just-emptied substrate storage chamber 76 of P13.
  • the normal operation of the substrate cooling section 30 is finished.
  • the bring in/out operation of the bonded substrate 20 to the bonded substrate stocker 68 is performed on a so-called first in first out basis, where a plurality of the substrate storage chambers 76 are used cyclically from top to bottom, and the first stored bonded substrate 20 is brought out first .
  • a trouble time operation is conducted when a trouble occurs in the base peeling section 31 on the downstream side from the substrate cooling section 30.
  • the robot controller 107 controls the bring in/out robot 69 to suspend the bring-out operation of the cooled bonded substrate 20 to the base peeling section 31. Therefore, no vacant substrate storage chamber 76 is left in the normal storage area 112. Then, as shown in FIG. 13A, the robot controller 107 stores the uncooled bonded substrates 20 from the bonding section 29 in the substrate storage chambers 76 of P18 through P14 of the buffer area 113.
  • the glass substrates 3 and the bonded substrate 20 are detained in the substrate heating section 28 and the bonding section 29 respectively.
  • the glass substrates 3 is heated for a long time to reach an excessively high temperature in the substrate heating section 28.
  • the bonded substrate 20 in the bonding section 29 is heated by the heating elements of the laminating rollers 16a, 16b, and possibly fogged by this heat.
  • the glass substrates 20 are held in, or not conveyed from, the substrate supply section 28 when a trouble occurs.
  • the glass substrates 20 already in the substrate heating section 28, on the other hand are bonded to the photosensitive web 7 as usual, and stored in the buffer area 113. Because of this series of process, the substrates are not detained in the substrate heating section 28 and the bonding section 29, and the deterioration of the glass substrates 3 and the bonded substrate 20 is therefore prevented.
  • the buffer area is composed of five substrate storage chambers 76. This is because there are up to four glass substrates 3 and one bonded substrate 20 detained in the substrate heating section 28 having four substrate heating units 50 and in the bonding section 29 that bonds one glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 at a time. Accordingly, it is preferred to determine the number of the substrate storage chambers 76 of the normal storage area 112 and the buffer area 113 according to the capacity of the upstream substrate heating section 28 and the bonding section 29, and a necessary cooling period for the bonded substrate 20.
  • the robot controller 107 refers to the management information and drives the bring in/out robot 69 to bring out and convey as many cooled bonded substrates 20 as stored in the buffer area 113 during the trouble time from both the normal storage area 112 and the buffer area 113 to the base peeling section 31 in descending order of the storage period.
  • the cooled bonded substrates 20 that exceed the reference storage period are brought out from the substrate storage chambers 76 of PlO through P6 (see, FIG. 13B) .
  • a given number of the bonded substrates 20 are thus conveyed to the base peeling section 31, and the normal operation is resumed in the right manner.
  • the robot controller 107 After bringing out as many cooled bonded substrates 20 as stored during the trouble time, the robot controller 107 refers to the management information and drives the bring in/out robot 69 to bring out the oldest conveyable cooled bonded substrate 20 from the normal storage area 112 or the buffer area 113 , and conveys it to the base peeling section 31. If the bonded substrate 20 is brought out from the substrate storage chamber 76 of the normal storage area 112, the next uncooled bonded substrate 20 is stored in the just-emptied substrate storage chamber 76.
  • the cooled bonded substrates 20 are brought out from the substrate storage stockers 76 of P5 through Pl and P13 through PIl sequentially.
  • the uncooled bonded substrates 20 are stored one by one in the vacant substrate storage chambers 76 of P5 through Pl and P13 through PIl every time the cooled bonded substrate 20 is brought out.
  • the bonded substrate 20 is brought out from the substrate storage chamber 76 of the buffer area 113, the next uncooled bonded substrate 20 is stored in the upper-most one of the vacant substrate storage chambers 76 of the normal storage area 112.
  • the uncooled bonded substrates 20 are stored one by one in the substrate storage chambers 76 of PlO through P6 every time the cooled bonded substrates 20 are brought out from the substrate storage chambers 76 of P18 through P14.
  • the substrate cooling section 30 switches back to the normal operation. This allows the substrate cooling section 30 to switch to the trouble time operation any time a next trouble occurs, and thus the deterioration of the bonded substrate 20 due to the detention can be prevented.
  • the buffer area 113 can be used when one or some of the bonded substrates 20 are picked up as a sample for inspection or the like .
  • the positions of the normal storage area 112 and the buffer area 113 are fixed in the bonded substrate stocker 68. It may, however, be possible to displace the normal storage area 112 and the buffer area 113 in the bonded substrate stocker 68, along with the progress of the bring-in operation of the bonded substrates 20.
  • a second embodiment of the present invention where the normal storage area and the buffer area are displaced, or moved in the bonded substrate stocker.
  • the identical components are labeled with the same numerals as the first embodiment, and a detailed explanation thereof is omitted.
  • the normal operation is performed with using, for example, 13 out of 18 substrate storage chambers 76, so that the remaining five substrate storage chambers 76 can be reserved as the buffer area for the trouble time operation. Additionally, one or some of these five substrate storage chambers 76 are reserved as an emergency buffer area which is not used even in the trouble time operation. This emergency buffer area allows to store the bonded substrates 20 when the bring in/out robot 69 is controlled improperly.
  • the robot controller 107 drives the bring in/out robot 69 to store the uncooled bonded substrates 20 one by one in the substrate storage chambers 76 of P18 through P6, as shown in FIG. 15A.
  • the robot controller 107 refers to the management information and controls the bring in/out robot 69 to bring out the oldest cooled conveyable bonded substrate 20, and convey it to the base peeling section 31.
  • the cooled bonded substrate 20 is brought out from the substrate storage chamber 76 of P18.
  • a next uncooled bonded substrate 20 brought in from the bonding section 29 is stored in the vacant substrate storage chamber 76 adjoining to the in-use substrate storage chamber 76 in the cyclical direction.
  • a next uncooled bonded substrate 20 is stored in the vacant substrate storage chamber 76 of P5 adjoining to the substrate storage chamber 76 of P6.
  • the bring in/out operation of the bonded substrates 20 is repeated in this manner and, as shown in FIG. 15B and FIG. 15C, the vacant substrate storage chambers 76 move cyclically in the bonded substrate stocker 68.
  • the trouble time operation is performed.
  • the robot controller 107 controls the bring in/out robot 69 to suspend the bring-out operation of the cooled bonded substrate 20 to the base peeling section 31 (see, FIG.17A).
  • the uncooled bonded substrates 20 brought in from the bonding section 29 are stored in the vacant substrate storage chambers 76 of, for example, P8 through P5. Accordingly, the bonded substrate 20 will avoid being detained in the upstream section, where the bonded substrate 20 is otherwise deteriorated by the heat.
  • the robot controller 107 refers to the management information and drives the bring in/out robot 69 to bring out and convey as many cooled bonded substrates 20 as stored during the trouble from the substrate storage chambers 76 to the base peeling section 31 in descending order of the storage period. For example, in the situation of FIG. 17B, the cooled bonded substrates 20 that exceed the reference storage period are brought out from the substrate storage chambers 76 of P3 through Pl and P18 (see, FIG. 17C). A given number of the bonded substrates 20 are thus conveyed to the base peeling section 31, and the normal operation is resumed in the right manner.
  • the substrate cooling section 30 switches back to the normal operation, as shown in FIG. 15 and FIG. 16. Since the normal storage area and the buffer area are not fixed in this embodiment and there is no need to empty the buffer area, the normal operation can be resumed more promptly.
  • the bring in/out robot 69 may be replaced with a conveyor 121. It is preferred in this case to incorporate an elevator mechanism which raises and lowers the bonded substrate stocker 68, so that each of the substrate storage chambers 76 can level with the conveyor 121.
  • the bonded substrates 20 are brought out from the bonded substrate stocker 68 in descending order of the time spent from the stored period in the above embodiments , they can also be brought out in other order such as, for example, the order of completion of cooling process determined by measured temperature of each bonded substrate 20 or the order for efficiency of the bring in/out robot 69.
  • the above embodiments are explained with the manufacturing apparatus of single-row type which handles a single photosensitive web 7 at once, but the present invention is also applicable to the manufacturing apparatus of multi-row type which handles several photosensitive webs at once.
  • the above embodiments are explained with the photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus to form the photosensitive resin layer on the glass substrate of a color filter, but the present invention is also applicable to bring in/out devices and bonding devices for other types of substrates .
  • the present invention is preferably applied in the manufacture of the color filters and other such laminates.

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Abstract

A substrate cooling section (30) is provided downstream from a bonding section (29) which bonds a photosensitive web (7) to a glass substrate (3) so as to produce a bonded substrate (20). The substrate cooling section (30) includes a bonded substrate stocker (68) having a plurality of substrate storage chambers (76) each of which stores the bonded substrate (20), and a bring in/out robot (69) which brings uncooled bonded substrates (20) from the bonding section into the bonded substrate stocker (68) while bringing out and conveying cooled bonded substrates (20) from the bonded substrate stockers (68) to a base peeling section (31). All the substrate storage chambers (76) are separated into either a normal storage area or a buffer area. When the base peeling section (31) falls into trouble, the substrates at a substrate heating section (28) and the bonding section (29) are stored in the buffer area.

Description

DESCRIPTION
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR BRINGING IN/OUT OF SUBSTRATE. AND PHOTOSENSITIVE LAMINATE MANUFACTURING APPARATUS
Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method and a system for bringing in and out substrates using a substrate stocker with a plurality of substrate storage chambers, and a photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus equipped with this substrate bring in/out system.
Background Art
A color filter for liquid crystal display panels and plasma display panels is composed of a glass substrate, i.e. , a base material, and a photosensitive resin layer in a predetermined pattern. The photosensitive resin layer is firstly bonded to the glass substrate, and then exposed, developed, and cleaned to take the predetermined pattern. This procedure is repeated for each of red, green, blue, and black color photosensitive resin, so that red, green, and blue color filters and a black matrix surrounding these color filters are formed on the glass substrate.
The bonded product of the glass substrate and the not-yet-patterned photosensitive resin layer (hereinafter, photosensitive laminate) is fabricated by a photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus, such as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2003-062906. In this manufacturing apparatus, a photosensitive web which includes a long base film and the photosensitive resin layer thereon is bonded to the glass substrates conveyed at constant time intervals. The photosensitive web is then cut between each glass substrate, and thus a bonded substrate of the glass substrate and the photosensitive resin layer is produced. Then, only the base film is peeled from the bonded substrate, and the photosensitive laminate is obtained.
Before bonded together, the glass substrate and the photosensitive web are heated to soften the photosensitive resin layer for better adhesion. However, the softened photosensitive resin layer may possibly stick to the base film and come off from the glass substrate when the base film is peeled. In view of this problem, the bonded substrate is cooled down before the base film peeling operation. It is therefore conventional to provide a cooling mechanism to convey, while blowing cold air onto, the bonded substrate between a photosensitive web cutting section and a base film peeling section of the manufacturing apparatus . Alternatively, the bonded substrate is stored in a substrate storage chamber of a substrate stocker until it cools down.
Such a substrate stocker is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publications No. 2002-154648, No. 2001-308158, and No. 2003-045935. The substrate stocker of the publication No. 2002-154648 is equipped with storage sensors or line sensors to detect the size, the orientation, and the alignment of the substrate. The substrate stocker of the publication No. 2001-308158 is equipped with a filter, a gas removal device, and a temperature controller. The substrate stocker of the publication No. 2003-045935 is configured to store the glass substrates upright. Additionally, as a part of the technology to treat substrates under a clean environment, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2003-282669 discloses a substrate transport apparatus whose process line is divided into several transport lines to offer a buffering function. The cooling method to blow cold air, however, sometimes results in delivering dust on the bonded substrate. Additionally, in this case, the bonded substrate needs to be conveyed over a relatively long distance so that it can cool down to a certain temperature, and the space efficiency of the apparatus is therefore sacrificed.
The cooling method using the substrate stocker, on the other hand, has a limit on a capacity of the substrate stocker. Accordingly, if one of downstream devices falls into trouble to stop the conveyance of the substrates, some glass substrates are detained in an upstream heating section and heated there for a long time to reach an excessively high temperature. Additionally, if the bonded substrate stops near a laminate roller, the photosensitive resin layer may be fogged by the heat of the laminate roller.
Although these problems, caused by such detention of the substrates, would be solved by the buffering function of the publication No. 2003-282669, this buffering function will increase the apparatus size to cause cost and space problems. It would also be effective if the substrate stocker has the buffering function mentioned in the publication No. 2003-045935, but there is no clear disclosure of how to achieve this buffering function. In view of the forgoing, a primary object of the present invention is to provide substrate bring in/out method and system capable of cooling down the substrate without fouling the surface thereof and also capable of properly protecting the glass substrates and the bonded substrates at an upstream device when a downstream device falls into trouble.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus equipped with this substrate bring in/out system.
Disclosure of Invention
In order to achieve the above objects and other objects, a substrate bring in/out method according to the present invention separates all substrate storage chambers of a substrate stocker into either a normal storage area or a buffer area. The substrate storage chambers are used cyclically to store substrates brought in from an upstream device, and after a predetermined period the substrates are sequentially brought out and conveyed to a downstream device. Normally, the substrates are brought in and out of only the normal storage area. If a trouble occurs to stop the downstream device, the substrate bring out step is suspended, and the substrates at the upstream device are stored in the buffer area. When the trouble is solved and the downstream device resumes operating, as many substrates as stored in the buffer area are sequentially brought out and conveyed from both the normal storage area and the buffer area to the downstream device. Then, the substrates are sequentially brought out from the normal storage area and the buffer area while storing substrate brought in from the upstream device into the normal storage area. When all the substrates in the buffer area have been brought out, the substrates are brought in and out of only the normal storage area.
In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the substrates are brought in and out such that a predetermined number of the substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant . If a trouble occurs to stop the downstream device, the substrate bring out step is suspended, and the substrates at the upstream device are stored in the vacant substrate storage chambers . When the trouble is solved and the downstream device resumes operating, as many substrates as stored during the trouble time are sequentially brought out and conveyed to the downstream device. Then, the substrates are brought in and out such that a predetermined number of the substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant .
The substrates are brought out form the substrate storage chambers in descending order of the time spent from the predetermined period.
A substrate bring in/out system according to the present invention brings in substrates sequentially from an upstream device and stores the substrates cyclically in a plurality of substrate storage chambers of a substrate stocker, and then sequentially brings out and conveys the substrates from the substrate storage chambers to a downstream device after a predetermined period. This substrate bring in/out system includes storage sensors, a substrate bring in/out device, a storage management device, and a bring in/out management device. The storage sensors are provided in each of said substrate storage chambers, and detect presence of the substrate. The substrate bring in/out device brings the substrates in and out of the substrate storage chambers . The storage management device produces management information based on a detection result of the storage sensors . This management information includes the presence/absence of the substrate in each of the substrate storage chambers and a storage period since the substrate is brought in the substrate storage chamber. The bring in/out management device controls the storage management device based on the management information so as to store the substrates brought in from the upstream device into the vacant substrate storage chambers while sequentially bringing out and conveying the substrates from the substrate storage chambers to the downstream device. The bring in/out management device separates all the substrate storage chambers of the substrate stocker into either a normal storage area or a buffer area, and uses only the normal storage area under a normal condition. If a trouble occurs to stop the downstream device, the substrate bring out step is suspended, and the substrates at the upstream device are stored in the buffer area. When the trouble is solved and the downstream device resumes operating, as many substrates as stored in the buffer area are sequentially brought out and conveyed from both the normal storage area and the buffer area to the downstream device. Then, the substrates are sequentially brought out from the normal storage area while storing the substrate brought in from the upstream device into the normal storage area. When all the substrates in the buffer area have been brought out, the substrates from the upstream device are brought in and out of the normal storage area.
In another preferred embodiment of the substrate bring in/out system, the substrates are brought in and out such that a predetermined number of the substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant. If a trouble occurs to stop the downstream device, the substrate bringing out step is suspended, and the substrates at the upstream device are stored in the vacant substrate storage chambers. When the trouble is solved and the downstream device starts operating, as many substrates as stored during the trouble are sequentially brought out and conveyed to the downstream device. Then, the substrates are brought in and out such that a predetermined number of the substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant . The storage management device compares the storage period of each substrate with the predetermined period, and registers the substrates exceeding the predetermined period as conveyable substrates in the management information. Based on this management information, the bring in/out management device drives the substrate bring in/out device to sequentially bring out and conveys the conveyable substrates from the substrate storage chambers to the downstream device in descending order of the time spent from the storage period.
The substrate bring in/out device is preferably a robot with a holder for holding the substrate and a moving mechanism to move this holder among the upstream device, the substrate stocker, and the downstream device. Alternatively, the substrate bring in/out device may be a conveyor.
A photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention includes a substrate heating section, a web supply section, a bonding section, a peeling section, and one of the above substrate bring in/out systems. The substrate heating section heats up the substrate. The web supply section supplies a photosensitive web composed of a base film and a photosensitive resin layer on at least one surface of the base film. The bonding section bonds the photosensitive web to the substrates and then cuts the photosensitive web between the substrates so as to produce bonded substrates . The peeling section peels off only the base film from the bonded substrate so as to produce a photosensitive laminate. The substrate bring in/out system, located between the bonding section and the peeling section, cools down the bonded substrates brought from the bonding section in a substrate stocker, and then bring out and conveys these substrates to the peeling section.
According to the present invention, the substrates which are otherwise detained in the upstream device can be stored in the buffer area when the downstream device falls into trouble. Therefore, the substrates and their photosensitive resin layers can be kept from deterioration due to the detention. The buffer area is made vacant when the trouble in the downstream device is solved, and the substrate bring in/out operation is performed efficiently.
If the buffer area is not fixed in the substrate stocker, the substrate bring in/out operation is performed such that a predetermined number of the substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant. These vacant chambers allow for storing the substrates which are otherwise detained in the upstream device when a trouble occurs. Additionally, in this case, there is no buffer area to be made vacant when the trouble is solved, and thus the normal operation can be resumed promptly.
The substrate is considered conveyable, or ready for bring-out, when its storage period exceeds the predetermined period, and such conveyable substrates are brought out from the substrate stocker in descending order of the time spent from the storage period. Accordingly, errors in bringing out of the substrates are prevented.
By using the robot, it is possible to bring the substrates in and out of the substrate storage chambers efficiently. The robot may be replaced with the conveyor, and the cost will be reduced in this case.
The photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention incorporates the substrate bring in/out system, which prevents the deterioration of the substrates due to the detention. Additionally, if a necessary period for cooling down of the substrate is set as the predetermined period, the substrates are cooled down without failure .
Brief Description of Drawings
Figure 1 is a perspective view of a photosensitive laminate; Figures 2A to 2F are explanatory views showing a manufacturing procedure of the photosensitive laminate;
Figure 3 is a cross sectional view of a photosensitive web; Figure 4 is a schematic view showing a configuration of a photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus;
Figure 5 is a schematic block diagram for sections, other than a web supply section, of the photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus ; Figure 6 is a perspective view of a bonded substrate stocker; Figure 7 is a perspective view of a substrate storage chamber of the bonded substrate stocker; Figure 8 is a block diagram for a configuration of a control section of the photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus;
Figure 9 is a functional block diagram for a substrate cooling section controller; Figure 10 is schematic view of a normal storage area and a buffer area in the bonded substrate stocker;
Figures HA to HD are explanatory views showing a bonded substrate bring in/out operation in a normal condition;
Figure 12 is a flow chart of the bonded substrate bring in/out operation in the normal condition;
Figures 13A to 13D are explanatory views showing a bonded substrate bring in/out operation in a trouble time;
Figure 14 is a flow chart of the bonded substrate bring in/out operation in the trouble time; Figures 15A to 15C are explanatory views of the bonded substrate bring in/out operation in the normal condition using the bonded substrate stocker with an unfixed buffer area;
Figure 16 is a flow chart of the bonded substrate bring in/out operation in the normal condition using the bonded substrate stocker with the unfixed buffer area;
Figures 17A to 17C are explanatory views of the bonded substrate bring in/out operation in the trouble time using the bonded substrate stocker with the unfixed buffer area;
Figure 18 is a flow chart of the bonded substrate bring in/out operation in the trouble time using the bonded substrate stocker with the unfixed buffer area; and
Figure 19 is a block diagram of the sections, other than the web supply section, of a photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus using a conveyor as a substrate bring in/out device. Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention
Referring to FIG. 1, a photosensitive laminate 2 is a half-way product of a color filter for liquid crystal display panels and plasma display panels , and composed of a transparent glass substrate 3 and a photosensitive resin layer 4 bonded onto this glass substrate 3. The photosensitive resin layer 4 is made of photosensitive resin of either red, green, blue, or black color. Firstly bonded to the glass substrate 3, the photosensitive resin layer 4 is exposed, developed, and cleaned to take a predetermined pattern. This sequence is repeated on the photosensitive resin for each color, and thus red, green, and blue color filters and a black matrix surrounding these color filters are formed on the glass substrate 3.
In FIG. 2A, a photosensitive web 7 is composed of a long base film 8, the photosensitive resin layer 4 lying thereon, and a protective film 9 on the top, as best shown in cross section in FIG.3. The photosensitive web 7 is rolled into a photosensitive roll 10 to be set in a photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus (hereinafter, manufacturing apparatus) 25 described below.
As shown in FIG. 2B, the photosensitive web 7 placed in the manufacturing apparatus 25 is pulled out from the photosensitive roll 10, and the protective film 9 is cut into sheets of two different lengths; a length Ll to be bonded to the glass substrate 3 and a length L2 not to be bonded to the glass substrate 3. These sheets of the protective film 9 remain attached to the photosensitive web 7 due to adhesion of the photosensitive resin layer 4. This cutting process is called a half-cut process, by which the lengths Ll and L2 are created alternately. Hereinafter, each cut point is referred to as a half-cut portion 7a, and each region of L2 between the adjoining half-cut portions 7a is referred to as a residual region 7b. As shown in FIG. 2C, several attachment labels 13 are attached onto the protective film 9 after the half-cut process, and bridge a rear end of a preceding protective film sheet 9a and a front end of a succeeding protective film sheet 9b. At this time, the attachment labels 13 are not attached to the residual regions 7b. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 2D, when the protective film 9 is peeled off from the photosensitive web 7, the sheets of the protective film 9 are continuously peeled off like a web, but at the same time the residual regions 7b are left on the photosensitive web 7.
Then, as shown in FIG. 2E, the photosensitive web 7 without the protective film 9 is inverted, and the photosensitive resin layer 4 is bonded to an upper surface of the glass substrate 3. More specifically, the glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 are pressed together between a pair of laminating rollers 16a, 16b. The laminating roller 16a is rotated by a motor 17, and thereby the glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 are advanced and bonded together. Actually, the glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 are heated to soften the photosensitive resin layer 4 before sent to the laminating rollers 16a, 16b, so that the photosensitive resin layer 4 is bonded easily to the glass substrate 3. Additionally, each of the laminating rollers 16a, 16b has a built-in heating element which heats the glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 to achieve sure bonding. The photosensitive web 7 on the glass substrate 3 is cut between each glass substrate 3 by a cutter, and a bonded substrate 20 is produced as a half-way product of the photosensitive laminate 2. Consequently, the base film 8 is peeled off from the bonded substrate 20, as shown in FIG. 2F, leaving only the photosensitive resin layer 4 on the glass substrate 3. The photosensitive laminate 2 shown in Fig. 1 is thus completed. The bonded substrate 20, by the way, is cooled down for a while to stabilize the photosensitive resin layer 4 , so that the softened photosensitive resin layer 4 will not come off with the base film 8 from the glass substrate 3.
InFIG.4andFIG.5, the manufacturing apparatus 25 includes a web supply section 26 to supply the photosensitive web 7 , a glass substrate supply section 27 to supply the glass substrates 3, a substrate heating section 28 to pre-heat the glass substrates 3, a bonding section 29 to bond together the glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 to produce the bonded substrate 20, a substrate cooling section 30 to cool down the bonded substrate 20, a base peeling section 31 to peel off the base film 8 from the bonded substrate 20 to produce the photosensitive laminate 2, and a laminate collecting section 32 to collect the photosensitive laminates 2. An inside of the manufacturing apparatus 25 is separated into a first clean room 36a and a second clean room 36b by a partition wall 35. The first clean room 36a houses the web supply section 26 , and the second clean room 36b houses the other sections 27 through 32 than the web supply section 26. Additionally, the first clean room 36a and the second clean room 36b are connected by a through hole 35a.
The web supply section 26 includes a web advancing mechanism 39 that holds the photosensitive roll 10 and draws the photosensitive web 7 out of the photosensitive roll 10, a processing mechanism 40 to execute the half-cut process to the protective film 9 of the drawn photosensitive web 7, a label attaching mechanism 41 to attach the attachment labels 13 to the protective film 9, and a peeling mechanism 42 to peel off the protective film 9 from the photosensitive web 7. The peeled protective film 9 is wound on a take-up roller 43.
The substrate supply section 27 includes a glass substrate stocker 46 to store the multiple glass substrates 3, and a substrate supply robot 47. The glass substrate stocker 46 has multiple substrate storage chambers 46a arranged vertically. Provided on a side wall of the glass substrate stocker 46 is a dust removal fan unit 48 which supplies anti-static clean air to each substrate storage chamber 46a to keep the glass substrate 3 from dust. The substrate supply robot 47 is a multiaxis robot having a robot hand 47a and a suction pad 47b that sticks to hold the glass substrate 3 on the bottom. The substrate supply robot 47 takes out the glass substrate 3 from the substrate storage chamber 46a, and supplies it to the substrate heating section 28 located downstream.
The substrate heating section 28 includes, for example, four substrate heating units 50 in a line. Each of the substrate heating units 50 includes two substrate heating members (heaters, for example) 51a, 51b between which the glass substrate 3 passes, and a glass substrate conveying member 52. In the substrate heating section 28, the glass substrate 3 is heated by these four substrate heating units 50 as it is conveyed to the bonding section 29 downstream. Additionally, the substrate heating section 28 keeps monitoring the temperature of the glass substrate 3, and when detecting an abnormal condition it stops the conveying member 52 or raises an alarm firstly and then issues abnormal information, which can be used for discharge of an NG substrate, quality control, production management and so on. The bonding section 29 includes a tension control mechanism
55 to control the tension of the photosensitive web 7, a passage
56 on which the glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 pass, and a bonding mechanism 57 on the passage 56 to bond the glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive resin layer 4 bared by peeling off of the protective film 9. Located on the upstream side from the bonding mechanism 57 are a contact preventive roller 58 that changes the conveying path to prevent the photosensitive web 7 from coming into contact with the bonding mechanism 57, a pre-heater 59 to previously heat the photosensitive web 7 to a predetermined temperature, and a cut portion detection camera 60 to detect the half-cut portions 7a on the photosensitive web 7. Located on the downstream side from the bonding mechanism 57, on the other hand, are an end cutting mechanism 61 to cut a front end of the photosensitive web 7 at the onset of the operation, and a middle-portion cutting mechanism 62 to cut the photosensitive web 7 between each glass substrate 3 to produce the bonded substrates 20.
The bonding mechanism 57 has the laminating rollers 16a, 16b which are located above and below the passage 56 and individually have the built-in heating element able to reach a predetermined temperature. The laminating rollers 16a, 16b are composed of a core cylinder of metal or the like and an elastic coating, such as silicon rubber, around the core. Outer surfaces of these laminating rollers 16a, 16b come into contact with back-up rollers 65a, 65b that prevent deformation of the laminating rollers 16a, 16b. Rotated by, for example, a pulse motor, the laminating roller 16a holds and conveys the glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 in between the laminating roller 16b, and thereby bonds the photosensitive resin layer 4 onto the glass substrate 3.
The substrate cooling section 30 includes a bonded substrate stocker 68 to store the bonded substrates 20 and a bring in/out robot 69. The bring in/out robot 69 brings in a heated (or uncooled) bonded substrate 20 from the bonding section 29 and stores it in the bonded substrate stocker 68, and then brings out and conveys the cooled bonded substrate 20 from the bonded substrate stocker 68 to the base peeling section 31. Similar to the glass substrate stocker 46, the bonded substrate stocker 68 has a dust removal fan unit 70 on a side wall, and the bonded substrate 20 is cooled down in the bonded substrate stocker 68 filled with anti-static clean air.
As shown in FIG. 6, the bonded substrate stocker 68 is constituted of an outer frame 72 , pillars 73 , beams 74 , and support pins 75, which are assembled to form a plurality (for example, eighteen) of longitudinally-arranged substrate storage chambers 76 to store the bonded substrates 20 horizontally. The outer frame 72 is constituted of aluminum extruded shapes assembled into a rectangular parallelepiped, and includes bottom and top frames 77, 78 in a square or rectangular shape, and four outer pillars 79 connecting four corners of the bottom frame 77 to those of the top frame 78.
The pillars 73 are placed at equal spaces along both lateral sides of the outer frame 72 , and stand parallel to the outer pillars 79. Although this embodiment uses five pillars 73 on one lateral side, the number of the pillars 73 may be changed appropriately according to the size of the bonded substrate 20. The pillars 73 stand at the same positions on both lateral sides, and form five pillar pairs in the outer frame 72. The beams 74 are attached horizontally to each pair of the pillars 73. The number of the beams 74 is equivalent to those of the substrate storage chambers 76. In this embodiment, eighteen pieces of the beams 74 are attached to a pair of the pillars 73, so that the bonded substrate stocker 68 will have eighteen substrate storage chambers 76.
On an upper surface of each beam 74, there are four support pins 75 standing parallel to the outer pillars 79. These support pins 75 are located such that they can surely support the storable bonded substrates 20 of different sizes. Since the bonded substrate 20 is held on the rear surface and put in the bonded substrate stocker 68 such that the photosensitive resin layer 4 faces upwards, the support pins 75 are made to a height not to interfere with the bring in/out robot 69. The support pins 75 are made entirely of synthetic resin, and able to support the bonded substrate 20 without giving any impact. Alternatively, the support pin 75 may be made of metal, and covered on the top with a synthetic resin cap or a rubber cap.
As shown in FIG. 7, each of the substrate storage chambers 76 is constituted of horizontally-arranged five beams 74, and configured to horizontally support the bonded substrate 20 (illustrated with a two-dot chain line) using the support pins 75. By using a plurality of the support pins 75 to support the bonded substrate 20 in this manner, the bonded substrate stocker 68 is able to store the bonded substrates 20 of various sizes. Additionally, the bonded substrate 20 can be inserted upright or sideways into the bonded substrate stocker 68. One of the support pins 75 in the middle of the beam 74 between the central-most pair of the pillars 73 is a middle support pin 75a, which is equipped with a storage sensor 82. The storage sensor 82 is, for example, a reflection type infrared optical sensor to detect presence of the bonded substrate 20 by emitting an infrared beam from a beam emitter and receiving the reflected beam with a beam receiver.
Referring back to FIG. 4, the bring in/out robot 69 is, for example, a double-hand type SCARA robot having two robot hands
85, 86. These robot hands 85, 86 are equipped, respectively, with suction pads 85a, 86a that stick by suction to the bonded substrate 20 on the bottom. Accordingly, the bring in/out robot 69 is able to bring in an uncooled bonded substrate 20 from the bonding section 29 and store it in the bonded substrate stocker 68 using one robot hand, while at the same time bringing out a cooled bonded substrate 20 from the bonded substrate stocker 68 and conveying it to the base peeling section 31 using the other robot hand.
The base peeling section 31, located downstream from the base cooling section 30, has a plurality of suction pads 89 that stick by suction to the bonded substrate 20 on the bottom. The cooled bonded substrate 20 is held by these suction pads 89, and the base film 8 together with residual regions 7b is peeled off by a robot hand 90 to complete the photosensitive laminate 2. Also, the base peeling section 31 has anti-static air blowing devices (not shown) which are located on the upstream, downstream, and both sides of the suction pads 89, and blow ionized air to the entire laminated portion of the bonded substrate 20 from four lateral sides thereof. For protection from dust, the bonded substrate 20 may be turned upright, inclined, or inverted during this peeling operation.
The laminate collecting section 32 includes a laminate stocker 93 to store a plurality of the photosensitive laminates 2, and a laminate transfer robot 94. The laminate stocker 93 has a plurality of vertically-arranged substrate storage chambers 93a. The laminate stocker 93 also has, on the side wall, a dust removal fan unit 95 which supplies anti-static clean air to each substrate storage chamber 93a to keep the photosensitive laminate 2 from dust. The laminate transfer robot 94 is a multiaxis robot with a robot hand 94a and a suction pad 94b that sticks to hold the photosensitive laminate 2 on the bottom. The laminate transfer robot 94 takes up the photosensitive laminates 2 from the base peeling section 31 and stores it in the substrate storage chamber 93a of the laminate stocker 93. As shown in FIG. 8, the operation of the manufacturing apparatus 25 is controlled by a main controller 98, which is connected through an internal network 103 to each of sub controllers for each functional section of the manufacturing apparatus 25, such as a substrate heating section controller 99, a bonding section controller 100, a substrate cooling section controller 101, and a base peeling section controller 102.
The substrate heating section controller 99 takes control over the substrate supply section 27 and the substrate heating section 28. The bonding section controller 100 takes control over the web supply section 26 and the bonding section 29 • The substrate cooling section controller 101 takes control over the substrate cooling section 30. The base peeling section controller 102 takes control over the base peeling section 31 and the laminate cooling section 32.
As shown in FIG.9, the substrate cooling section controller 101 includes a stock management section 106, a robot controller 107, and a display controller 108. The stock management section 106 receives the detection signals from the storage sensors 82 and keeps monitoring the presence of the bonded substrate 20 in each substrate storage chamber 76, the time of storage of the bonded substrate 20 to the substrate storage chamber 76, and the time elapsed from the storage (hereinafter, storage period). Based on the information (management information) from the stock management section 106, the robot controller 107 controls the bring in/out robot 69 to store an uncooled bonded substrate 20 in a vacant substrate storage chamber 76 and bring out a cooled bonded substrates 20 from one of the substrate storage chambers 76.
The display control section 108 controls a display panel 109 on the manufacturing apparatus 25, based on the management information from the stock management section 106. The display panel 109 is provided on an exterior surface of the manufacturing apparatus 25, and displays such information as a current status of each substrate storage chamber 76 and the storage period of each bonded substrate 20.
In FIG. 10, each horizontal solid line represents a bonded substrate 20 in the substrate storage chamber 76, and each dashed line represents a vacant substrate storage chamber 76. The stock management section 106 assigns numbers Pl through P18 to the substrate storage chambers 76 from bottom to top, and separates them into either a normal storage area 112 (for example, Pl to P13) or a buffer area 113 (for example, P14 to P18). The normal storage area 112 is used in a normal operation where the manufacturing apparatus 25 operates without any trouble, and the buffer area 113 is used when the base peeling section 31 or other downstream section is in failure or trouble.
Next, the operation of the substrate cooling section 30 is explained. As shown in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12, each of the substrate storage chambers 76 is vacant as shown in FIG. HA at the onset of the normal operation where there is no trouble on the downstream side from the substrate cooling section 30. Then, as shown in FIG. HB, the robot controller 107 controls the bring in/out robot 69 to store uncooled bonded substrates 20 in the substrate storage chambers 76 of P13 to Pl sequentially. It is to be noted that the numerals on the right side of the bonded substrate stocker 68 indicate a descending order of the storage period, and these numerals change as the bring in/out operation advances .
When a bonded substrate 20 is stored in one of the substrate storage chambers 76, the storage sensor 82 of this substrate storage chamber 76 detects the presence of the bonded substrate 20, and sends a detection signal to the stock management section 106. Receiving the detection signal, the stock management section 106 records the number of this substrate storage chamber 76 as well as the time of storage, and starts clocking the storage period. The stock management section 106 keeps comparing the clocked storage period with a predetermined period (hereinafter, a preset reference storage period) , and when the clocked storage period exceeds the reference storage period, it registers this bonded substrate 20 as a conveyable cooled substrate in the management information .
The robot controller 107 refers to the management information and controls the bring in/out robot 69 to bring out and convey the oldest cooled bonded substrate 20 to the base peeling section 31. In the situation of FIG. HB, for example, the cooled bonded substrate 20 is brought out from the substrate storage chamber 76 of P13 (see, FIG. HC) .
Then, as shown in FIG. HD, a new uncooled bonded substrate 20 is stored in the just-emptied substrate storage chamber 76 of P13. When all the uncooled bonded substrates 20 are carried in, cooled, and carried out of the bonded substrate stocker 68, the normal operation of the substrate cooling section 30 is finished. In this manner, the bring in/out operation of the bonded substrate 20 to the bonded substrate stocker 68 is performed on a so-called first in first out basis, where a plurality of the substrate storage chambers 76 are used cyclically from top to bottom, and the first stored bonded substrate 20 is brought out first .
As shown in FIG. 13 and FIG. 14, a trouble time operation is conducted when a trouble occurs in the base peeling section 31 on the downstream side from the substrate cooling section 30. At the onset of the trouble time operation, the robot controller 107 controls the bring in/out robot 69 to suspend the bring-out operation of the cooled bonded substrate 20 to the base peeling section 31. Therefore, no vacant substrate storage chamber 76 is left in the normal storage area 112. Then, as shown in FIG. 13A, the robot controller 107 stores the uncooled bonded substrates 20 from the bonding section 29 in the substrate storage chambers 76 of P18 through P14 of the buffer area 113.
If it is unable to convey the bonded substrate 20 to the substrate cooling section 30, the glass substrates 3 and the bonded substrate 20 are detained in the substrate heating section 28 and the bonding section 29 respectively. In this situation, the glass substrates 3 is heated for a long time to reach an excessively high temperature in the substrate heating section 28. Also, the bonded substrate 20 in the bonding section 29 is heated by the heating elements of the laminating rollers 16a, 16b, and possibly fogged by this heat. However, in the present invention, the glass substrates 20 are held in, or not conveyed from, the substrate supply section 28 when a trouble occurs. The glass substrates 20 already in the substrate heating section 28, on the other hand, are bonded to the photosensitive web 7 as usual, and stored in the buffer area 113. Because of this series of process, the substrates are not detained in the substrate heating section 28 and the bonding section 29, and the deterioration of the glass substrates 3 and the bonded substrate 20 is therefore prevented.
In this embodiment, the buffer area is composed of five substrate storage chambers 76. This is because there are up to four glass substrates 3 and one bonded substrate 20 detained in the substrate heating section 28 having four substrate heating units 50 and in the bonding section 29 that bonds one glass substrate 3 and the photosensitive web 7 at a time. Accordingly, it is preferred to determine the number of the substrate storage chambers 76 of the normal storage area 112 and the buffer area 113 according to the capacity of the upstream substrate heating section 28 and the bonding section 29, and a necessary cooling period for the bonded substrate 20.
When the trouble is solved and the base peeling section 31 resumes operating, the robot controller 107 refers to the management information and drives the bring in/out robot 69 to bring out and convey as many cooled bonded substrates 20 as stored in the buffer area 113 during the trouble time from both the normal storage area 112 and the buffer area 113 to the base peeling section 31 in descending order of the storage period. For example, in the situation of FIG. 13A, the cooled bonded substrates 20 that exceed the reference storage period are brought out from the substrate storage chambers 76 of PlO through P6 (see, FIG. 13B) . A given number of the bonded substrates 20 are thus conveyed to the base peeling section 31, and the normal operation is resumed in the right manner.
After bringing out as many cooled bonded substrates 20 as stored during the trouble time, the robot controller 107 refers to the management information and drives the bring in/out robot 69 to bring out the oldest conveyable cooled bonded substrate 20 from the normal storage area 112 or the buffer area 113 , and conveys it to the base peeling section 31. If the bonded substrate 20 is brought out from the substrate storage chamber 76 of the normal storage area 112, the next uncooled bonded substrate 20 is stored in the just-emptied substrate storage chamber 76.
For example, in the situation of FIG.13B, the cooled bonded substrates 20 are brought out from the substrate storage stockers 76 of P5 through Pl and P13 through PIl sequentially. In this period, as shown in FIG. 13C, the uncooled bonded substrates 20 are stored one by one in the vacant substrate storage chambers 76 of P5 through Pl and P13 through PIl every time the cooled bonded substrate 20 is brought out. On the other hand, if the bonded substrate 20 is brought out from the substrate storage chamber 76 of the buffer area 113, the next uncooled bonded substrate 20 is stored in the upper-most one of the vacant substrate storage chambers 76 of the normal storage area 112. For example, in the situation of FIG. 13C, the uncooled bonded substrates 20 are stored one by one in the substrate storage chambers 76 of PlO through P6 every time the cooled bonded substrates 20 are brought out from the substrate storage chambers 76 of P18 through P14.
When all the bonded substrates have been brought out from the substrate storage chamber 76 of the buffer area 113, the substrate cooling section 30 switches back to the normal operation. This allows the substrate cooling section 30 to switch to the trouble time operation any time a next trouble occurs, and thus the deterioration of the bonded substrate 20 due to the detention can be prevented. Additionally, in this case, the buffer area 113 can be used when one or some of the bonded substrates 20 are picked up as a sample for inspection or the like . Although the above embodiment depicts a relatively long-term trouble where the buffer area 113 is used to full capacity, the operation is the same to a short-term trouble, only differing in the number of the bonded substrates 20 to be stored in the buffer area 113. In the above embodiment, the positions of the normal storage area 112 and the buffer area 113 are fixed in the bonded substrate stocker 68. It may, however, be possible to displace the normal storage area 112 and the buffer area 113 in the bonded substrate stocker 68, along with the progress of the bring-in operation of the bonded substrates 20. Explained hereafter is a second embodiment of the present invention where the normal storage area and the buffer area are displaced, or moved in the bonded substrate stocker. In this embodiment, the identical components are labeled with the same numerals as the first embodiment, and a detailed explanation thereof is omitted.
In the second embodiment, the normal operation is performed with using, for example, 13 out of 18 substrate storage chambers 76, so that the remaining five substrate storage chambers 76 can be reserved as the buffer area for the trouble time operation. Additionally, one or some of these five substrate storage chambers 76 are reserved as an emergency buffer area which is not used even in the trouble time operation. This emergency buffer area allows to store the bonded substrates 20 when the bring in/out robot 69 is controlled improperly. In the normal operation when there is no trouble on the downstream side from the substrate cooling section 30, the robot controller 107 drives the bring in/out robot 69 to store the uncooled bonded substrates 20 one by one in the substrate storage chambers 76 of P18 through P6, as shown in FIG. 15A. Then, the robot controller 107 refers to the management information and controls the bring in/out robot 69 to bring out the oldest cooled conveyable bonded substrate 20, and convey it to the base peeling section 31. For example, in the situation of FIG. 15A, the cooled bonded substrate 20 is brought out from the substrate storage chamber 76 of P18.
Since the normal storage area is not fixed, and the substrate storage chambers 76 are used cyclically from top to bottom in this embodiment, a next uncooled bonded substrate 20 brought in from the bonding section 29 is stored in the vacant substrate storage chamber 76 adjoining to the in-use substrate storage chamber 76 in the cyclical direction. For example, in the situation of FIG. 15A, a next uncooled bonded substrate 20 is stored in the vacant substrate storage chamber 76 of P5 adjoining to the substrate storage chamber 76 of P6. The bring in/out operation of the bonded substrates 20 is repeated in this manner and, as shown in FIG. 15B and FIG. 15C, the vacant substrate storage chambers 76 move cyclically in the bonded substrate stocker 68.
As shown in FIG.17 and FIG.18, when the base peeling section 31 falls into trouble, the trouble time operation is performed. At the onset of the trouble time operation, the robot controller 107 controls the bring in/out robot 69 to suspend the bring-out operation of the cooled bonded substrate 20 to the base peeling section 31 (see, FIG.17A). Then, as shown in FIG.17B, the uncooled bonded substrates 20 brought in from the bonding section 29 are stored in the vacant substrate storage chambers 76 of, for example, P8 through P5. Accordingly, the bonded substrate 20 will avoid being detained in the upstream section, where the bonded substrate 20 is otherwise deteriorated by the heat.
When the trouble is solved and the base peeling section 31 resumes operating, the robot controller 107 refers to the management information and drives the bring in/out robot 69 to bring out and convey as many cooled bonded substrates 20 as stored during the trouble from the substrate storage chambers 76 to the base peeling section 31 in descending order of the storage period. For example, in the situation of FIG. 17B, the cooled bonded substrates 20 that exceed the reference storage period are brought out from the substrate storage chambers 76 of P3 through Pl and P18 (see, FIG. 17C). A given number of the bonded substrates 20 are thus conveyed to the base peeling section 31, and the normal operation is resumed in the right manner.
Thereafter, the substrate cooling section 30 switches back to the normal operation, as shown in FIG. 15 and FIG. 16. Since the normal storage area and the buffer area are not fixed in this embodiment and there is no need to empty the buffer area, the normal operation can be resumed more promptly.
Such as a substrate cooling section 120 shown in FIG. 19, the bring in/out robot 69 may be replaced with a conveyor 121. It is preferred in this case to incorporate an elevator mechanism which raises and lowers the bonded substrate stocker 68, so that each of the substrate storage chambers 76 can level with the conveyor 121.
Although the bonded substrates 20 are brought out from the bonded substrate stocker 68 in descending order of the time spent from the stored period in the above embodiments , they can also be brought out in other order such as, for example, the order of completion of cooling process determined by measured temperature of each bonded substrate 20 or the order for efficiency of the bring in/out robot 69. Additionally, the above embodiments are explained with the manufacturing apparatus of single-row type which handles a single photosensitive web 7 at once, but the present invention is also applicable to the manufacturing apparatus of multi-row type which handles several photosensitive webs at once. Further, the above embodiments are explained with the photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus to form the photosensitive resin layer on the glass substrate of a color filter, but the present invention is also applicable to bring in/out devices and bonding devices for other types of substrates .
Various changes and modifications are possible in the present invention and may be understood to be within the present invention.
Industrial Applicability
The present invention is preferably applied in the manufacture of the color filters and other such laminates.

Claims

1. A substrate bring in/out method to bring in substrates sequentially from an upstream device and store said substrates cyclically in a plurality of substrate storage chambers of a substrate stocker, and then sequentially bring out and convey said substrates from said substrate storage chambers to a downstream device after a predetermined period, said method comprising steps of: separating all of said substrate storage chambers into either a normal storage area or a buffer area; bringing said substrates in and out of only said normal storage area; suspending bringing out said substrates to said downstream device while storing said substrates at said upstream device in said buffer area when a trouble occurs to stop said downstream device; bringing out and conveying as many said substrates as stored in said buffer area from both said normal storage area and said buffer area to said downstream device when said trouble is solved and said downstream device resumes operating; bringing out and conveying said substrates sequentially from said normal storage area and said buffer area to said downstream device while bringing in said substrate sequentially from said upstream device and storing said substrates in said normal storage area; and bringing said substrates in and out of only said normal storage area when all of said substrates have been brought out from said buffer area.
2. A substrate bring in/out method to bring in substrates sequentially from an upstream device and store said substrates cyclically in a plurality of substrate storage chambers of a substrate stocker, and then sequentially bring out and convey said substrates from said substrate storage chambers to a downstream device after a predetermined period, said method comprising steps of: bringing in and out said substrates such that a predetermined number of said substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant; suspending bringing out said substrates to said downstream device while storing said substrates at said upstream device in said vacant substrate storage chambers when a trouble occurs to stop said downstream device; bringing out as many said substrates as stored during said trouble and conveying said substrates to said downstream device when said trouble is solved and said downstream device resumes operating; and bringing in and out said substrates such that a predetermined number of said substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant when all of said substrates stored during said trouble have been brought out.
3. The substrate bring in/out method of claim 1, wherein said substrates are brought out and conveyed from said substrate storage chambers to said downstream device in descending order of time spent from said predetermined period.
4. The substrate bring in/out method of claim 2, wherein said substrates are brought out and conveyed from said substrate storage chambers to said downstream device in descending order of time spent from said predetermined period.
5. A substrate bring in/out system to bring in substrates sequentially from an upstream device and store said substrates cyclically in a plurality of substrate storage chambers of a substrate stocker, and then sequentially bring out and convey said substrates from said substrate storage chambers to a downstream device after a predetermined period, said system comprising: storage sensors provided in each of said substrate storage chambers, for detecting presence of said substrate; a substrate bring in/out device to bring said substrates in and out of said substrate storage chambers; a storage management device for producing management information based on a detection result of said storage sensor, said management information including the presence/absence of said substrate in each of said substrate storage chambers and a storage period since said substrate is brought in said substrate storage chamber; and a bring in/out management device for controlling said substrate bring in/out device based on said management information.
6. The substrate bring in/out system of claim 5, wherein said bring in/out management device drives said substrate bring in/out device to perform steps of: separating all of said substrate storage chambers into either a normal storage area or a buffer area; bringing said substrates in and out of only said normal storage area; suspending bringing out said substrates to said downstream device while storing said substrates at said upstream device in said buffer area when a trouble occurs to stop said downstream device; bringing out and conveying as many said substrates as stored in said buffer area from both said normal storage area and said buffer area to said downstream device when said trouble is solved and said downstream device resumes operating; bringing out and conveying said substrates sequentially from said normal storage area and said buffer area to said downstream device while bringing in said substrates sequentially from said upstream device and storing said substrates in said normal storage area; and bringing said substrates in and out of only said normal storage area when all of said substrates have been brought out from said buffer area.
7. The substrate bring in/out system of claim 5, wherein said bring in/out management device drives said substrate bring in/out device to perform steps of: bringing in and out said substrates such that a predetermined number of said substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant ; suspending bringing out said substrates to said downstream device while storing said substrates at said upstream device in said vacant substrate storage chambers when a trouble occurs to stop said downstream device; bringing out as many said substrates as stored during said trouble and conveying said substrates to said downstream device when said trouble is solved and said downstream device resumes operating; and bringing in and out said substrates such that a predetermined number of said substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant when all of said substrates stored during said trouble have been brought out .
8. The substrate bring in/out system of claim 5, wherein said storage management device compares said storage period with said predetermined period and then registers said substrates exceeding said predetermined period as conveyable substrates in said management information, and wherein said bring in/out management device drives said substrate bring in/out device based on said management information so as to bring out and convey said conveyable substrates from said substrate storage chambers to said downstream device in descending order of time spent from said storage period.
9. The substrate bring in/out system of claim 5, wherein said substrate bring in/out device is a robot with a holder for holding said substrate and a moving mechanism to move said holder among said upstream device, said substrate stocker, and said downstream device.
10. The substrate bring in/out system of claim 5, wherein said substrate bring in/out device is a conveyor to convey said substrate among said upstream device, said substrate stocker, and said downstream device.
11. A photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing a photosensitive laminate composed of a substrate and a photosensitive resin layer on at least one surface of said substrate, said manufacturing apparatus comprising: a substrate heating section for heating up said substrate; a web supply section for supplying a photosensitive web composed of a base film and a photosensitive resin layer on at least one surface of said base film; a bonding section for bonding said photosensitive web to said substrates and then cutting said photosensitive web between said substrates so as to produce bonded substrates; a peeling section for peeling off only said base film from said bonded substrate so as to produce a photosensitive laminate; and a substrate bring in/out system located between said bonding section and said peeling section, and having a substrate stocker for cooling down said bonded substrate, said substrate bring in/out system bringing in said bonded substrates sequentially from said bonding section and storing said bonded substrates cyclically in a plurality of substrate storage chambers of said substrate stocker, and then sequentially bringing out and conveying said bonded substrates from said substrate storage chambers to said peeling section after a predetermined period, said substrate bring in/out system comprising: storage sensors provided in each of said substrate storage chambers, for detecting presence of said bonded substrate; a substrate bring in/out device to bring said bonded substrates in and out of said substrate storage chambers; a storage management device for producing management information based on a detection result of said storage sensor, said management information including the presence/absence of said bonded substrate in each of said substrate storage chambers and a storage period since said bonded substrate is stored in said substrate storage chamber; and a bring in/out management device for controlling said substrate bring in/out device based on said management information.
12. The photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus of claim 11, wherein said bring in/out management device drives said substrate bring in/out device to perform steps of: separating all of said substrate storage chambers into either a normal storage area or a buffer area; bringing said bonded substrates in and out of only said normal storage area; suspending bringing out said bonded substrates to said peeling section while storing said bonded substrates at said bonding section in said buffer area when a trouble occurs to stop said peeling section; bringing out and conveying as many said bonded substrates as stored in said buffer area from both said normal storage area and said buffer area to said peeling section when said trouble is solved and said peeling section resumes operating; bringing out and conveying said bonded substrates sequentially from said normal storage area and said buffer area to said peeling section while bringing in said bonded substrates sequentially from said bonding section and storing said bonded substrates in said normal storage area; and bringing said bonded substrates in and out of only said normal storage area when all of said bonded substrates have been brought out from said buffer area.
13. The photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus of claim 11, wherein said bring in/out management device drives said substrate bring in/out device to perform steps of: bringing in and out said bonded substrates such that a predetermined number of said substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant ; suspending bringing out said bonded substrates to said peeling section while storing said bonded substrates at said bonding section in said vacant substrate storage chambers when a trouble occurs to stop said peeling section; bringing out as many said bonded substrates as stored during said trouble and conveying said bonded substrates to said peeling section when said trouble is solved and said peeling section resumes operating; and bringing in and out said substrates such that a predetermined number of said substrate storage chambers are always kept vacant when all of said bonded substrates stored during said trouble have been brought out.
PCT/JP2007/061956 2006-06-13 2007-06-07 Method and system for bringing in/out of substrate, and photosensitive laminate manufacturing apparatus WO2007145265A1 (en)

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