JP3725618B2 - Substrate transfer apparatus and substrate processing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a substrate transport apparatus that transports substrates while supplying a processing liquid to the surface of the substrates such as a glass substrate and a printed circuit board, and substrate processing such as a substrate drying apparatus using the substrate transport apparatus. Relates to the device.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, a substrate drying apparatus as this substrate processing apparatus, for example, supplies a predetermined cleaning solution to the surface of a rectangular substrate and transports the rectangular substrate from a cleaning processing unit that cleans the substrate to the drying processing unit. If the surface is dried during transportation, the chemical components remain on the surface, causing stains and adversely affecting the processing of subsequent processes and causing particles to be generated, so a rinse solution such as pure water is supplied to the surface of the substrate. However, it was transferred by the substrate transfer device. Thus, the substrate was transported without drying the surface of the substrate after the cleaning treatment.
[0003]
For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the substrate transfer device supports a pair of substrate support members 72 near the outer peripheral edges of two opposing sides of a rectangular substrate 71, and externally intersects these two sides. The substrate was transported while being supported near the periphery by a pair of substrate support members 73. At this time, the substrate transport device supplies pure water to the surface of the substrate 71 by a pure water nozzle (not shown) disposed at the center upper portion of the substrate 71 supported by the substrate support members 72 and 73. It was prevented that pure water was repelled from the surface of the substrate 71 being conveyed and partially dried.
[0004]
Moreover, as a board | substrate conveyance apparatus, as shown, for example in FIG. 9, both the corners which the board | substrate 71 mutually opposes were conveyed, swallowing with a pair of board | substrate support member 74, and supporting. Also in this case, a pure water nozzle (not shown) is provided at the upper center of the substrate 71 whose both corners are supported by the substrate support members 74.
[0005]
Further, as the substrate transfer device, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, the lower surfaces of both outer peripheral edges of the two opposite sides of the substrate 71 are transferred while being placed on the substrate support member 75 over the entire length. Also in this case, a pure water nozzle (not shown) is disposed at the upper center of the substrate 71 supported by each substrate support member 75.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In recent years, with the increase in size and thickness of substrates, the substrate tends to be bent due to its own weight, and in addition to this, the substrate surface is conveyed while supplying a treatment liquid such as pure water to prevent partial drying. In the substrate transport apparatus, there is a problem that the deflection of the substrate may be further increased due to the weight of the processing liquid supplied to the substrate surface. For example, in the case of supporting six points at the end of the substrate in FIG. 8, the vicinity of the center portion L1 of the substrate 71 (when the support position of the substrate support member 72 is relatively close to the center portion) or the center line portion L2 (substrate support member 72). 9 is relatively close to the end), and in the case of four-point support at the end of the substrate in FIG. 9, the central diagonal portion M of the substrate 71 is further added to the six points on the back surface of the substrate in FIG. In the case of support, the center line portion N of the substrate 71 bends downward. Further, when pure water is supplied during substrate transportation, acceleration acts in the substrate transportation direction, causing a deviation in the distribution of pure water on the substrate surface, which also tends to cause the substrate to bend.
[0007]
As described above, if the substrate 71 to be transported is bent or the substrate 71 is not evenly bent, for example, the substrate transport apparatus of FIG. 8 will be described as an example. As shown in FIGS. Since pure water is supplied to the central portion of the substrate 71 from the pure water nozzle 76 at the upper center of the substrate, pure water flows as shown by an arrow (FIG. 12), and the substrate 71 is bent as shown by a two-dot chain line. A portion where pure water was not supplied, such as the upper end A of both ends, was generated. As described above, when the pure water is not uniformly supplied to the entire surface of the substrate and the supply of the pure water to the surface of the substrate 71 is uneven, the surface of the substrate is partially dried. The components of the processing liquid in the cleaning process remain on the surface, resulting in spots that cannot be easily removed even after cleaning, and this has the problem of adversely affecting the processing in the subsequent process and causing particles. It was. If the substrate 71 to be transported is a hydrophobic substrate, such unevenness in drying occurs remarkably.
[0008]
In order to prevent the occurrence of a stain due to the bending of the substrate 71, it is necessary to dispose a plurality of substrate support members on the center side of the back surface of the substrate 71. The central side of the substrate is contaminated by the substrate support member, and the mechanism of the substrate support member becomes complicated. In addition, as a countermeasure against the above-mentioned spots, it may be possible to disperse a plurality of pure water nozzles over the entire surface of the substrate, but in this case, the supply amount of pure water is greatly increased, There has been a problem that the flexure is further increased and the substrate is easily damaged.
[0009]
The present invention solves the above-described problem, and prevents damage due to the bending of the substrate without significantly increasing the supply amount of processing liquid such as pure water with a simple configuration, and causes a stain on the surface of the substrate. It is an object of the present invention to provide a substrate transfer apparatus and a substrate processing apparatus that can prevent this.
[0010]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The substrate transport apparatus of the present invention is a substrate transport device that transports the substrate by supporting the edge of the substrate with a substrate support member, and the substrate support member abuts against the opposite edges of the substrate respectively to hold the substrate. Both end edges that are configured to support in a state of being bent due to their own weight , are provided on each of the substrate support members along the both end edges on the surface of the substrate, and are the uppermost portions of the substrate that are bent due to the own weight. And a processing liquid supply member for supplying the processing liquid toward the head.
[0011]
With this configuration, when the substrate is supported and transported as the substrate becomes larger or thinner, the vicinity of the center of the substrate is curved downward and warped. Since the processing liquid is supplied from the processing liquid supply member toward both ends, which are the uppermost parts, the processing liquid flows toward the vicinity of the central portion, which is the curved bottom, so that the entire surface of the substrate is uniformly processed. The liquid can be supplied. Therefore, it is not necessary to disperse a large number of processing liquid supply nozzles over the entire surface of the substrate as in the prior art, and it is possible to prevent breakage due to bending of the substrate without greatly increasing with a simple configuration. The treatment liquid is supplied toward both edges, where the treatment liquid is difficult to be supplied, and it is difficult to supply the treatment liquid partially. Occurrence of this can also be prevented.
[0012]
The substrate processing apparatus of the present invention is a substrate processing apparatus that performs predetermined processing on a substrate by the substrate processing means, and includes the above-described substrate transfer apparatus that transfers the substrate onto the substrate processing means. When the substrate processing apparatus is a substrate drying apparatus, the substrate processing apparatus includes the above-described substrate transfer apparatus that transfers the substrate onto the substrate rotating means.
[0013]
With this configuration, it is possible to easily adapt a substrate transport apparatus that transports a substrate without drying the surfaces of both end edges of the substrate, to which the processing liquid is hardly supplied, to a substrate processing apparatus such as a substrate drying apparatus. Become.
[0014]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0015]
FIG. 1 is a rear view of a substrate drying apparatus including a substrate transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a B1-B2 sectional view of the substrate drying apparatus of FIG.
[0016]
1 and 2, a support frame 3 is provided so as to be reciprocally movable in the horizontal direction by a pair of upper and lower guide rails 1 and 1 disposed in parallel and a rodless cylinder 2 disposed therebetween. ing. The support frame 3 is provided with support members 4 and 4 for transporting the substrate at predetermined intervals in the horizontal direction. Each of these substrate transfer supports 4 and 4 includes a pair of left and right second guide rails 5 and 5 disposed in parallel in the vertical direction, and an air cylinder 6 for raising and lowering disposed therebetween. It can be moved up and down.
[0017]
The cleaning processing unit 41 is a cleaning processing unit that supplies the cleaning liquid to the rectangular substrate 11 to clean the substrate 11. The rotation processing unit 42 is a drying processing unit that rotates the substrate 11 having a processing liquid such as cleaning liquid and pure water attached to the surface thereof, and dries the substrate 11. The substrate delivery unit 43 delivers the substrate 11 to an indexer robot (not shown) that stores the substrate 11 in a cassette (not shown). The first shuttle 30 is located on the cleaning processing unit 41. The first shuttle 31 is located on the rotation processing unit 42. These first shuttles 30 and 31 are the same, and two are drawn for convenience of explanation. Further, the second shuttle 32 transports the substrate 11 from the drying processing unit to the substrate delivery unit 43, and the first shuttles 30 and 31 are configured by removing the processing liquid supply member 20 and the gas nozzle 24. Is almost the same.
[0018]
3 is a plan view of the substrate drying apparatus of FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a main part C of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of a main part D of the substrate transfer apparatus of FIG. 6 is a side view of the main part F of FIG.
[0019]
In FIGS. 3 to 6, a pair of first support arms 7, 7 provided opposite to each other, and one ends of these support arms 7, 7 are provided on the support bodies 4, 4 for transporting the substrate, respectively. The first air cylinders 9 and 9 are respectively connected to each other through the first connection arms 8 and 8, respectively. These individual first air cylinders 9 and 9 are arranged. When driven, the pair of first support arms 7 and 7 are configured to move in opposite directions along the substrate transport direction E so as to approach or retract. Each of the pair of first support arms 7 and 7 is provided with a pair of first substrate support members 10 extending downward, and the pair of first substrate support members 10. Supporting rods 12 for receiving the edge of the square substrate 11 from the back surface are respectively disposed at the lower end portions of the substrate. These first substrate support members 10 and 10 have a configuration in which two opposing sides of the substrate 11 are squeezed from both sides and the edges of these two sides are supported by the support ridges 12 from the back surface. is there.
[0020]
In addition, a pair of second support arms 13 and 14 which are provided in parallel and have different lengths, and one end portions of the second support arms 13 and 14, respectively, are provided on the support bodies 4 and 4 for transporting the substrate. Are respectively connected to the second air cylinders 17 and 17 connected via the second connection arms 15 and 16, respectively, and a set of the air cylinders 17 and 17 is driven by the drive of the second air cylinders 17 and 17. The other end portions of the second support arms 13 and 14 are configured to move toward and away from each other in directions opposite to each other perpendicular to the substrate transport direction E. A second substrate support member 18 is disposed at the other end of each of the pair of second support arms 13 and 14 so as to extend downward, and at the lower end of the substrate support member 18. Each is provided with a support rod 19 for receiving the vicinity of the center of the edge of two sides orthogonal to the edge of the substrate 11 supported by the substrate support members 10 and 10 from the back surface. These second substrate support members 18 and 18 are configured to squeeze the two opposite sides of the substrate 11 and to support the vicinity of the center of the side edges of these two sides by the support rods 19 from the back surface. is there. At this time, the substrate support surface of the edge supported by the support rods 19, 19 of the second substrate support members 18, 18 and the side supported by the support rods 12, 12 of the first substrate support members 10, 10. It is at the same height as the substrate support surface at the edge.
[0021]
Further, the treatment liquid supply members 20 and 20 are disposed on the first substrate support members 10 and 10 side, respectively, along the edge of the substrate 11 supported by the first substrate support members 10 and 10, respectively. ing. Each of these processing liquid supply members 20 and 20 is formed of a cylindrical body such as a pipe, and both ends thereof are sealed, and a discharge port (for example, a hole is formed in the pipe and a nozzle is attached to the processing liquid is discharged). May be provided at predetermined intervals in the longitudinal direction, for example, at a discharge port diameter of 1 mm and at intervals of 30 mm. In addition, depending on the position of the substrate support or the like, the substrate 11 bends and a non-uniformly inclined flow or the like causes a flow that is offset from the supplied processing solution, but the processing solution flows as uniformly as possible on the surface of the substrate. You may comprise so that the space | interval and diameter of a discharge port may be provided differently. Each of these discharge ports is opened so that the processing liquid is discharged toward the edge of the substrate 11, and is connected via a processing liquid supply pipe 20 a connected at the tip of the processing liquid supply members 20, 20. Thus, the processing liquid is supplied evenly along both edge portions of the substrate 11. Further, these processing liquid supply members 20 and 20 are respectively supported and fixed to the first substrate support members 10 and 10 by a fixing bracket or the like so that the first substrate support members 10 and 10 can move. Further, the processing liquid supply pipe 20a is connected to the processing liquid supply members 20 and 20 with a margin.
[0022]
Further, a substrate holding means 23 as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 is provided at a predetermined position on the transport path of the substrate 11 which is supported and transported by these substrate support members 10 and 18, and the first shuttle is provided. 30, the substrate 11 is placed and fixed on the substrate holding means 23, the substrate 11 is rotated, and nitrogen gas is jetted from the gas nozzle 24 of the first shuttle 30 to the center of the substrate 11. In this configuration, the treatment liquid is shaken off by centrifugal force and dried. At this time, the gas nozzle 24 is rotated by driving the air cylinder 25 so that the jet nozzle of the gas nozzle 24 faces the substrate 11 side.
[0023]
The substrate holding mechanism of the substrate holding means 23 is provided with a substrate mounting arm 26 configured in a cross shape, and a substrate for supporting the back side of the corner portion of the substrate 11 at each tip of the substrate mounting arm 26. Support pins 27 are provided, and positioning pins 28 for positioning the four corners of the substrate 11 with two pins are provided. Further, a rotation shaft is provided on the back side of the central portion of the substrate mounting arm 26, and this rotation shaft is connected to the drive shaft of the electric motor 29 shown in FIG.
[0024]
The processing liquid supply member 20 is attached to the rodless cylinder 2, the lifting / lowering cylinder 6, the first air cylinder 9, the second air cylinder 17, the first substrate support member 10 and the second substrate support member 18. In addition, a substrate transfer apparatus is configured to transfer the substrate 11 from the cleaning processing unit 41 or the like to the drying processing unit while supplying a processing liquid such as pure water to the surface thereof.
[0025]
With the above configuration, first, the substrate 11 to which the cleaning liquid that has been cleaned in the cleaning processing unit 41 is attached is supported by the support rods 12 of the first substrate support member 10 at two locations on each of the two opposite sides. The substrate 11 is given a predetermined deflection due to its own weight as shown in FIG. 7 (a) by supporting it with the support rod 19 of the second substrate support member 18 that supports the two sides orthogonal to the two sides. In this state, the substrate is transported while being supported at six points so as to squeeze from four directions as a whole. At the same time, as shown in FIG. 7B, the processing liquid is uniformly discharged from the discharge ports of the processing liquid supply members 20 and 20 toward both end edges of the substrate 11.
[0026]
Next, after transporting the substrate 11 onto the substrate holding means 23, the rod of the air cylinder 6 for raising and lowering is shortened, the substrate 11 is lowered, and the substrate 11 is placed on the support pins 27. Thereafter, the air cylinders 9 and 17 are driven to retract the substrate supporting members 10 and 18 from the respective edges of the substrate 11 and the lifting air cylinder 6 is extended to a predetermined position. Further, by driving the cylinder 25, the gas nozzle 24 is made to stand upright so that the gas nozzle 24 faces the substrate 11 side, and nitrogen gas is blown from the gas nozzle 24 to the surface side of the substrate 11 while rotating the substrate 11. By doing so, the substrate 11 is dried. After such a drying process, the substrate 11 is taken out from the substrate holding means 23 and transported to the substrate delivery section 43 by an operation reverse to that described above.
[0027]
Therefore, the processing liquid is supplied from the processing liquid supply members 20 and 20 toward the both end edges, which are the uppermost portions of the substrate 11 supported by the first substrate support members 10 and 10 and bent by its own weight, respectively. Will flow toward the vicinity of the central portion, which is a curved bottom, so that the processing liquid can be supplied uniformly over the entire surface of the substrate. Therefore, there is no need to disperse a plurality of processing liquid supply nozzles over the entire surface of the substrate as in the prior art, and it is possible to further reduce the amount of processing liquid supplied, as well as on both side edges. In addition, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of spots due to partial drying and the generation of particles due to the spots due to the difficulty of supplying the treatment liquid. Further, since the substrate 11 is supported by the back surface of the edge of the substrate 11, there is no contamination near the center of the back surface of the substrate 11.
[0028]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention as described above, to deflect downward by its own weight a central portion of the substrate, respectively processing liquid supply member along the opposite edges of the surface of that board is disposed, from the treatment liquid supply member Since the processing liquid is supplied toward the both end edges of the substrate, a uniform flow of the processing liquid is generated from both end edges on the substrate surface to the central portion, and many processing liquid supply members are provided on the entire surface of the substrate as in the past. The processing liquid can be applied uniformly over the entire surface of the substrate while preventing the substrate from being damaged and suppressing the supply amount of the processing liquid with a simple configuration without having to be provided in a dispersed manner. As a result, it is possible to prevent generation of a stain on the substrate surface and to suppress generation of particles due to this stain.
[0029]
Moreover, since the substrate is supported by the back surface of the edge of the substrate, there is no contamination near the center of the back surface of the substrate.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a front view of a substrate drying apparatus including a substrate transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a B1-B2 cross-sectional view of the substrate drying apparatus of FIG.
3 is a plan view of the substrate drying apparatus of FIG. 1. FIG.
4 is an enlarged view of a main part C in FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of a main part D of FIG.
6 is a side view of a main part F of the substrate drying apparatus of FIG. 5. FIG.
7A is a cross-sectional view schematically showing a main part of a substrate transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7B is a partial perspective view of the substrate transfer apparatus of FIG.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a six-point support state of a conventional substrate by a substrate support member.
FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a four-point support state of a conventional substrate by a substrate support member.
FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a six-point support state by another substrate support member of a conventional substrate.
11 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing a support state by the substrate support member of FIG.
12 is a plan view schematically showing a support state by the substrate support member of FIG. 11. FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
2 Rodless cylinder 6 Cylinder for raising and lowering 7 First support arm 8 First connection arm 9 First air cylinder 10 First substrate support member 11 Substrate 12, 19 Support rod 13, 14 Second support arm 15 , 16 Second connecting arm 17 Second air cylinder 18 Second substrate support member 20 Processing liquid supply member 20a Processing liquid supply pipe

Claims (3)

In the substrate transfer apparatus for supporting and transferring the edge of the substrate with the substrate support member, the substrate support member is in contact with the two opposite edges of the substrate and the substrate is bent by its own weight. The substrate support member is provided so as to be along the both end edges on the surface of the substrate, and the processing liquid is supplied toward both end edges that are the uppermost portions of the substrate bent by the own weight. A substrate transfer apparatus comprising a processing liquid supply member.   2. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the substrate processing apparatus performs a predetermined process on the substrate by the substrate processing means, and has a substrate transfer apparatus according to claim 1 for transferring the substrate onto the substrate processing means.   The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the substrate processing apparatus performs a drying process by rotating the substrate by the substrate rotating unit, and transports the substrate onto the substrate rotating unit.

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