JP4871582B2 - Substrate processing equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus that processes a substrate while being inclined at a predetermined angle.

  A circuit pattern is formed on a glass substrate used in the liquid crystal display device. A lithographic process is employed to form a circuit pattern on the substrate. In a lithography process, as is well known, a resist is applied to the substrate, and light is irradiated through a mask having a circuit pattern formed on the resist.

  Next, the portion of the resist not irradiated with light or the portion irradiated with light is removed, and the portion of the substrate where the resist is removed is etched. A circuit pattern is formed on the substrate by repeating a series of steps of removing the resist after etching a plurality of times.

  In such a lithography process, the substrate is treated with a processing solution such as a developing solution, an etching solution or a stripping solution for removing the resist after etching, a step of washing with a rinsing solution, and a residue remaining on the substrate after washing. The drying process which removes the rinse solution which was done is needed.

  Conventionally, when the above-described series of processing is performed on a substrate, the substrate is sequentially transported to processing chambers in which the processing is performed in a substantially horizontal state by transport rollers arranged with the axis line horizontal, and in each processing chamber. The substrate is processed with a processing liquid, or after the processing, a compressed gas is injected to dry the substrate.

  Recently, glass substrates used in liquid crystal display devices tend to be larger and thinner. For this reason, when the substrate is horizontally transported, the bending of the substrate between the transport rollers becomes large, so that processing in each processing chamber cannot be performed uniformly over the entire plate surface of the substrate.

  Furthermore, when the substrate is enlarged, the transport shaft provided with the transport roller for transporting the substrate becomes longer. In addition, since the substrate is increased in size, the processing liquid supplied onto the substrate is increased, and the load applied to the transport shaft is increased according to the amount of the processing liquid on the substrate. Deflection increases. Therefore, the substrate may be bent even when the transport shaft is bent, and uniform processing may not be performed.

  In order to prevent the substrate from being bent by the weight of the processing liquid when processing the substrate with the processing liquid, it may be considered that the substrate is transported with a predetermined inclination angle, for example, an angle of 75 degrees. ing. If the substrate is conveyed while being inclined, the processing liquid does not accumulate on the plate surface of the substrate and flows smoothly from the upper side to the lower side, so that the substrate can be prevented from being bent by the weight of the processing liquid.

  By the way, in the case of a processing apparatus that processes a substrate while being inclined at a predetermined angle, the lower surface of the substrate is supported by a support roller and the lower end is supported by a drive roller. The drive roller is attached to a drive shaft, and the drive shaft is rotationally driven by a drive source. In the processing apparatus, a plurality of the supporting rollers and the driving roller are arranged at a predetermined interval along the transport direction of the substrate. As a result, the substrate is driven by the drive roller while being supported by the support roller. Therefore, the processing apparatus is provided with drive shafts corresponding to the number of the plurality of drive rollers provided in the processing apparatus.

  Conventionally, when assembling the processing apparatus having the above-described configuration, a plurality of drive shafts are incorporated into the processing apparatus one by one. That is, an attachment portion corresponding to the number of drive shafts provided in the processing apparatus is formed in the chamber of the processing apparatus. A bearing is provided at each mounting portion, and the drive shaft is rotatably supported and attached to the bearing, and at the same time, the respective drive shafts are positioned so as to be inclined at an angle parallel to each other and corresponding to the inclination angle of the substrate. Things were going on.

  However, the work of positioning and mounting a plurality of drive shafts with respect to the chamber is not only very troublesome, but because the drive shaft is provided at the lower part in the vertical direction of the chamber, the number of workers is low. Since work must be performed in a posture, workability may be poor, and the burden on the worker may increase.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus capable of easily and accurately assembling a drive shaft with respect to a chamber.

The present invention, in the substrate processing apparatus for processing while conveying by inclining the substrate at a predetermined angle,
A chamber;
A plurality of transfer shafts provided in the chamber , inclined at the same angle as the predetermined angle, and provided along the transfer direction of the substrate, each of which is below the inclination direction of the substrate A transport shaft having a plurality of rotatable support rollers for supporting the surface of
A plurality of drive rollers for supporting the lower end of the substrate which is inclined at a predetermined angle is provided at predetermined intervals along the conveying direction of the substrate,
A drive mechanism for rotating the drive roller to convey the substrate supported by the support roller in a predetermined direction;
The drive mechanism is
A base member attached to an attachment surface formed on the outer surface of the chamber which is long along the transport direction of the substrate ;
A plurality of mounting holes formed in the base member at the same interval as the arrangement interval of the transport shaft along the longitudinal direction of the base member ,
External outer cylinders that are inserted into the mounting holes and fixed to the base member with screws ,
A plurality of drive shafts that are rotatably supported by the respective outer outer cylinders, and the drive rollers are detachably provided at the tips protruding into the chamber;
A power transmission member that is provided at a rear end of the drive shaft located outside the chamber and transmits power from a drive source to the drive shaft to rotate the drive shaft;
Insertion holes are formed in the mounting surface of the chamber at intervals corresponding to the mounting holes formed in the base member,
The base member is mounted and fixed to the mounting surface of the chamber in a state where the transport shaft is inserted through the insertion hole .
The base member may be mounted on the mounting surface of the chamber in a state where the drive shaft is assembled in advance.

A tip portion of the drive shaft that protrudes into the chamber is inserted into and supported by an internal cylinder supported in communication with the external cylinder in the chamber, and the external cylinders are provided in the external cylinders. It is preferable that a gas supply pipe for supplying a gas flowing out into the chamber through the inside of the chamber is connected.

  The drive roller is detachably attached to the tip of the drive shaft, a mounting ring that is detachably attached to the surface of the disk, and a detachably provided on the outer peripheral surface of the mounting ring. It is preferable that it is comprised by the elastic ring which receives the lower end of a board | substrate.

  According to the present invention, the plurality of drive shafts constituting the drive mechanism for rotationally driving the drive roller are attached to the base member, and the base member is attached to the chamber. Therefore, if a plurality of drive shafts are attached to the base member in advance with a predetermined accuracy, a plurality of drive shafts can be attached to the chamber at once through the base member. This eliminates the time-consuming work of attaching to the camera.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a processing apparatus according to the present invention. The processing apparatus has an apparatus body 1. The apparatus main body 1 is formed by connecting a plurality of divided processing units, in this embodiment, first to fifth processing units 1A to 1E in a row so as to be disassembled.

  Each processing unit 1 </ b> A to 1 </ b> E has a gantry 2. A box-shaped processing unit 3 is held on the front surface of the gantry 2 at a predetermined angle. On the upper surface of the gantry 2 and the processing unit 3, an upper transport unit 4 is provided. A pair of plate-like legs 5 (only one is shown) are provided at both ends in the width direction of the lower end of the gantry 2 so as to be disassembled. The leg 5 forms a space 6 on the lower surface side of the gantry 2.

  Control for controlling supply of a processing liquid such as a tank or a pump for supplying a processing liquid such as a chemical liquid or a rinsing liquid used for processing the substrate W performed in the processing section 3 as will be described later. A device unit 9 in which a device 7 such as a device is mounted on a frame 8 is accommodated. That is, the processing units 1A to 1E support the gantry 2 with the legs 5 and form the space 6 below the processing unit 3, so that the processing unit 3, the upper transport unit 4 and the equipment unit positioned in the vertical direction. It is divided into 9 parts.

  The processing apparatus having the above configuration can be divided into a plurality of processing units 1 </ b> A to 1 </ b> E, and each processing unit can be divided into a processing unit 3, an upper transport unit 4, and a device unit 9. Therefore, even when the processing apparatus is increased in size, it is not only disassembled into a plurality of processing units 1A to 1E during transportation, but each processing unit 1A to 1E is further divided into the processing unit 3, the upper transport unit 4 and The device unit 9 can be divided and handled.

  That is, the apparatus main body 1 of the processing apparatus can be handled not only in the length dimension but also in the height dimension, so that it can be transported without exceeding the limit height when loaded on the truck bed. is there.

As shown in FIG. 1, the processing unit 3 has a chamber 12 provided with a lid 11 on the front surface so as to be opened and closed. The chamber 12 is held at a predetermined angle, for example, at an angle of 75 degrees with respect to the vertical line on the gantry 2 and is conveyed at an angle of 75 degrees on both side surfaces in the width direction. The slit 13 ( only one place is shown in FIG. 1) through which the substrate W is passed is formed.

Inside the chamber 12 , as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of transfer shafts 15 (only one is shown) constituting the inclined transfer means are provided at predetermined intervals in the width direction of the chamber 12 . A plurality of support rollers 14 are provided on the transport shaft 15 so as to be rotatable at predetermined intervals in the axial direction.

  The transport shaft 15 has a lower end supported by the lower bracket 15 a and an upper end supported by the upper bracket 15 b so that the axis is inclined at the same angle as the slit 13. One end of each bracket 15a, 15b is fixed to the chamber 12, and the lower end and upper end of the transport shaft 15 are supported at the other end.

  A substrate W is transferred from the slit 13 into the chamber 12 by being converted from a horizontal state to an angle of 75 degrees by a first posture changing unit 16 indicated by a chain line in FIG. The back surface, which is a non-device surface, is supported on the substrate W carried into the chamber 12 by the support roller 14 provided on the transport shaft 15. The lower end of the substrate W is supported by the driving roller 17. The drive roller 17 is rotationally driven by a drive mechanism 18. As a result, the substrate W having the lower end supported by the drive roller 17 and the back surface supported by the support roller 14 is conveyed in the rotational direction of the drive roller 17.

In the processing units 3 of the processing units 1 </ b> A to 1 </ b> E, processing means 20 such as a shower unit for processing the substrate W as shown in FIG.

  The substrate W processed by sequentially passing through each of the processing units 1A to 1E is carried out in an inclined state of 75 degrees. The substrate W carried out from the final stage processing unit 1E is changed in posture from the inclined state to the horizontal state by the second posture converting unit 19 shown by a chain line in FIG.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the drive mechanism 18 includes a base member 21 that is long along the transport direction of the substrate W. A plurality of first mounting holes 22 are formed in the base member 21 at a predetermined interval in the longitudinal direction, that is, at the same interval as the conveying shaft 15. In this embodiment, if ten processing shafts 15 are provided in one processing unit 3, two base members 21 are provided in a line in the chamber 12 of the processing unit 3, and each base member Five first attachment holes 22 are formed in each 21.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the first mounting hole 22 is inserted with a distal end portion of an outer outer cylindrical body 24 in which a pair of bearings 23 are provided in both axial end portions. A flange 25 is provided at the distal end of the external outer cylinder 24. The collar 25 is fixedly attached to a second mounting hole (not shown) formed in the base member 21 by a screw 26.

  A drive shaft 27 is inserted through the external outer cylinder 24. The drive shaft 27 is rotatably supported by the pair of bearings 23 on the rear end side. A first gear 28 as a power transmission member is fitted and fixed to the rear end portion of the drive shaft 27 protruding from the outer outer cylinder 24.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the base member 21 has a third mounting hole 29, and a screw (not shown) is attached to the mounting surface 12 a on the outer surface of the lower end of the chamber 12 through the third mounting hole 29. Installation fixed.

  Insertion holes 31 are formed in the attachment surface 12 a at intervals corresponding to the first attachment holes 22 formed in the base member 21. An inner and outer cylindrical body 32 is inserted and supported in each insertion hole 31 before the base member 21 is attached to the mounting surface 12a. The inner outer cylinder 32 is provided with a flange 33 having a diameter larger than that of the insertion hole 31 at the rear end. A packing 34 made of an O-ring interposed between the flange 33 and the mounting surface 12a is provided on one side surface, and a ventilation groove 35 is formed along the radial direction on the other side surface.

  The base member 21 is attached to the mounting surface 12a while the distal end portion of the drive shaft 27 is inserted into the inner outer cylinder 32 in a state where the inner outer cylinder 32 is inserted and supported in the insertion holes 31. Fixed to the mounting. Accordingly, the other side surface of the flange 33 of the inner outer cylindrical body 32 is pressed against the front end surface of the outer outer cylindrical body 24 so as to be immovable in the axial direction.

  Further, a plurality of large-diameter portions 36 that are slightly smaller in diameter than the inner-diameter dimension of the inner-outer cylinder 32 are formed on the distal end side of the drive shaft 27 that is inserted and supported by the inner-outer cylinder 32. Thereby, the inner and outer cylindrical bodies 32 are held by the large diameter portion 36 without shaking in the radial direction.

  The driving roller 17 is mounted on the tip of the driving shaft 27 protruding into the chamber 12 via a bush 37. The drive roller 17 has a disk-like body 42 as shown in FIGS. The plate-like body 42 is provided with a boss portion 41 that is split, and four long through holes 43 are formed at intervals of 90 degrees in the circumferential direction in the radial direction. A large diameter portion 43 a is formed in the midway portion of the through hole 43 in the longitudinal direction.

  And the said board-shaped body 42 attaches the said boss | hub part 41 to the front-end | tip part of the said drive shaft 27, and fixes the semicircular fixing member 44 to the opposite boss | hub part 41 with the screw 44a, The above-mentioned The drive shaft 27 is detachably mounted and fixed.

  An attachment ring 45 is detachably attached and fixed to the surface of the plate-like body 42 by a screw 46 inserted from the large diameter portion 43 a of the through hole 43. An elastic ring 47 formed of an elastic material such as ultra high molecular weight polyethylene or EPDM (a kind of rubber material) is detachably mounted on the outer peripheral surface of the mounting ring 45. The elastic ring 47 supports the lower end of the substrate W as shown in FIG.

  The external dimensions of the head portion of the screw 46 are smaller than the large diameter portion 43a of the through hole 43 and larger than the portion other than the large diameter portion 43a. Accordingly, the screw 46 attached to the attachment ring 45 can be inserted / removed only from the large diameter portion 43 a of the through hole 43.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the second gear 51 is engaged with the first gear 28 fitted to the rear end of the drive shaft 27 protruding from the outer outer cylinder 24. The plurality of second gears 51 meshed with the plurality of first gears 28 are attached to the attachment shaft 52 at predetermined intervals. The mounting shaft 52 is rotatably supported, and a driven pulley 53 is fitted in the middle portion.

  A belt 57 is stretched between the driven pulley 53 and a drive pulley 56 provided on the output shaft 55 of the drive source 54. Accordingly, when the drive source 54 is operated and the output shaft 55 is rotated, the rotation is transmitted to the drive shaft 27 via the mounting shaft 52, so that the drive shaft 27 is provided at the tip of the drive shaft 27. The drive roller 17 rotates. When the driving roller 17 rotates, the substrate W whose lower end is supported by the elastic ring 47 of the driving roller 17 is conveyed in the rotation direction of the driving roller 17.

  As shown in FIG. 3, an air supply hole 58 communicating with the first mounting hole 22 is formed in the base member 21 at a lower end surface of a portion corresponding to the first mounting hole 22. A gas supply pipe 59 is connected to the air supply hole 58 to supply a gas such as clean air or nitrogen into the first mounting hole 22.

  The gas supplied from the gas supply pipe 59 into the first mounting hole 22 passes through the ventilation groove 35 formed in the flange 33 of the inner outer cylinder 32 as shown by the arrow in FIG. It flows into the inside and the inside of the outer outer cylinder 24.

  The gas that has flowed into the inner outer cylinder 32 flows out of the opening at the tip. Thereby, the atmosphere containing the processing liquid in the chamber 12 is prevented from flowing out of the chamber 12 through the inner outer cylinder 32. The gas flowing into the external outer cylinder 24 flows out from the rear end opening. Thus, even if dust is generated from the pair of bearings 23 that support the drive shaft 27, the dust is prevented from flowing into the chamber 12 through the inner outer cylinder 2.

  In the processing apparatus having such a configuration, when the drive mechanism 18 is assembled to the chamber 12, first, the plurality of external outer cylinders 24 are attached and fixed to the base member 21. Next, a drive shaft 27 having a first gear 28 fitted to the rear end is inserted into each outer outer cylinder 24, and a pair of bearings 23 provided in the outer outer cylinder 24 on the rear end side. It is supported in a rotatable manner.

  If the drive shaft 27 is inserted and supported in the outer outer cylinder 24, the inner outer cylinder 32 is inserted and supported in the insertion hole 31 formed in the mounting surface 12 a on the outer surface of the lower end portion of the chamber 12. Next, the base member 21 holding the drive shaft 27 is attached and fixed to the attachment surface 12a. At this time, the first gear 28 provided at the rear end of the drive shaft 27 is engaged with the second gear 51 provided on the mounting shaft 52.

  When the base member 21 is attached and fixed to the mounting surface 12a, the drive shaft 27 is inserted into the inner outer cylinder 32 and the flange 33 of the inner outer cylinder 32 inserted and supported in the insertion hole 31 is inserted. The base member 21 is fitted into the first mounting hole 22. As a result, the front end portion of the drive shaft 27 protrudes from the front end surface of the inner outer cylinder body 32, and the inner outer cylinder body 32 is pressed and held by the front end surface of the outer outer cylinder body 24 with the collar 33 at the rear end.

  If the base member 21 is attached and fixed to the attachment surface 12 a of the chamber 12, the drive roller 17 is attached and fixed to the tip portion of the drive shaft 27 that protrudes from the internal outer cylinder 32. Further, the gas supply pipe 59 is connected to the air supply hole 58 of the base member 21. Thereby, the drive mechanism 18 can be assembled to the chamber 12.

  A plurality of drive shafts 27 are assembled to the base member 21 in advance, and the base member 21 is attached and fixed to the attachment surface 12a of the chamber 12 so that the plurality of drive shafts 27 can be assembled to the chamber 12 at a time. it can.

  Therefore, as compared with the case where a plurality of drive shafts 27 are assembled to the chamber 12 one by one, the assembly operation of the drive shaft 27 can be performed easily and quickly. In addition, since the plurality of drive shafts 27 are attached to the base member 21, it is relatively easy to accurately and reliably set the parallelism and the attachment angle of the axes of the drive shafts 27 to each other. Therefore, the plurality of drive shafts 27 can be assembled to the chamber 12 with high accuracy.

Drive roller 17 is composed of a disk-shaped body 42, a mounting ring 45 which is detachably attached to the disk-shaped body 42, the elastic ring 47 made of an elastic material which is detachably attached to the mounting ring 45 .

  The lower end of the substrate W transported in the chamber 12 is supported by the elastic ring 47. For this reason, it is possible to prevent the lower end of the substrate W from being damaged by the elastic ring 47, but it is inevitable that the elastic ring 47 is worn by long-term use.

  If the elastic ring 47 is worn out, the screw 46 that fixes the mounting ring 45 provided with the elastic ring 47 to the disk-like body 42 is loosened, and the mounting ring 45 is rotated in the circumferential direction to increase the size of the through hole 43 of the screw 46. It is located in the diameter part 43a. And the attachment ring 45 can be removed from the disk-shaped body 42 with the screw 46 by letting the screw 46 pass through the large diameter part 43a.

  If the attachment ring 45 is removed from the plate-like body 42, the elastic ring 47 held by the attachment ring 45 can be easily replaced. That is, the drive roller 17 is divided into the plate-like body 42, the attachment ring 45, and the elastic ring 47 attached to the attachment ring 45, so that if the elastic ring 47 is worn out by use, it can be easily replaced. It becomes.

  Moreover, since the attachment ring 45 can be removed from the plate-like body 42 without removing the screw 46 from the attachment ring 45, the removal operation can be easily performed, and the attachment operation can be easily performed. it can.

  The through-hole 43 is formed long in the circumferential direction, and a large-diameter portion 43a into which the screw 46 can be inserted and removed is formed in the middle portion. Therefore, when the mounting ring 45 is fixed to the disk-shaped body 42, if the screw 46 is positioned at the end of the through hole 43 opposite to the rotation direction of the driving roller 17, the screw 46 may be loosened during use. Even if it exists, the attachment ring 45 rotates in the direction opposite to the rotation direction of the disk-shaped body 42, and the screw 46 does not come to a position corresponding to the large diameter portion 43 a of the through hole 43. Therefore, as long as the screw 46 is not detached from the attachment ring 46, the attachment ring 45 is not detached from the plate-like body 42.

  The drive shaft 27 is inserted into and supported by an outer outer cylinder 24 positioned outside the chamber 12 and an inner outer cylinder 32 positioned inside the chamber 12. And gas is supplied into these outer cylinders 24 and 32 from the connection part of the front-end | tip of the outer outer cylinder 24, and the rear end of the inner outer cylinder 32, and the gas is made into the front-end | tip opening of the inner outer cylinder 32, and The external outer cylinder 24 is caused to flow out from the rear end opening.

  Therefore, it is possible not only to prevent the atmosphere containing the mist-like processing liquid in the chamber 12 from flowing into the inner outer cylinder 32 and out of the chamber 12 but also being provided in the outer outer cylinder 24. Even if dust is generated from the bearing 23, it can be prevented that the dust flows into the chamber 12 through the inner outer cylinder 32.

  In the above embodiment, the outer cylinder is divided into an outer outer cylinder and an inner outer cylinder, and the drive shaft is inserted and supported in these outer cylinders. However, the outer cylinder is divided into two parts. Alternatively, a structure in which the outer outer cylinder and the inner outer cylinder are integrated may be employed.

The perspective view which shows schematic structure of the processing apparatus of one embodiment of this invention. Sectional drawing of the chamber of the said processing apparatus. The enlarged view which shows the drive mechanism provided in the lower end part of the chamber. The perspective view which assembled | attached the drive shaft to the base member. The exploded perspective view of a drive roller.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 12 ... Chamber, 14 ... Support roller, 17 ... Drive roller (tilt conveyance means), 18 ... Drive mechanism, 21 ... Base member, 27 ... Drive shaft, 28 ... First gear (power transmission member), 54 ... Drive source .

Claims (3)

In the substrate processing apparatus for processing while conveying by inclining the substrate at a predetermined angle,
A chamber;
A plurality of transfer shafts provided in the chamber , inclined at the same angle as the predetermined angle, and provided along the transfer direction of the substrate, each of which is below the inclination direction of the substrate A transport shaft having a plurality of rotatable support rollers for supporting the surface of
A plurality of drive rollers for supporting the lower end of the substrate which is inclined at a predetermined angle is provided at predetermined intervals along the conveying direction of the substrate,
A drive mechanism for rotating the drive roller to convey the substrate supported by the support roller in a predetermined direction;
The drive mechanism is
A base member attached to an attachment surface formed on the outer surface of the chamber which is long along the transport direction of the substrate ;
A plurality of mounting holes formed in the base member at the same interval as the arrangement interval of the transport shaft along the longitudinal direction of the base member ,
External outer cylinders that are inserted into the mounting holes and fixed to the base member with screws ,
A plurality of drive shafts that are rotatably supported by the respective outer outer cylinders, and the drive rollers are detachably provided at the tips protruding into the chamber;
A power transmission member that is provided at a rear end of the drive shaft located outside the chamber and transmits power from a drive source to the drive shaft to rotate the drive shaft;
Insertion holes are formed in the mounting surface of the chamber at intervals corresponding to the mounting holes formed in the base member,
The base member is mounted and fixed to the mounting surface of the chamber in a state where the transport shaft is inserted through the insertion hole .
The substrate processing apparatus , wherein the base member is attached to the attachment surface of the chamber in a state where the drive shaft is assembled in advance.   A tip portion of the drive shaft that protrudes into the chamber is inserted into and supported by an internal cylinder supported in communication with the external cylinder in the chamber, and the external cylinders are provided in the external cylinders. 2. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a gas supply pipe for supplying a gas flowing out into the chamber through the inside of the chamber is connected.   The drive roller is detachably attached to the tip of the drive shaft, a mounting ring that is detachably attached to the surface of the disk, and a detachably provided on the outer peripheral surface of the mounting ring. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, comprising: an elastic ring that receives a lower end of the substrate.

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