JP7613849B2 - ALIGNMENT APPARATUS, FILM FORMING APPARATUS, ALIGNMENT METHOD, ELECTRONIC DEVICE MANUFACTURING METHOD, PROGRAM, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an alignment apparatus, a film forming apparatus, an alignment method, a method for manufacturing an electronic device, a program, and a storage medium.

In the manufacture of organic EL displays and the like, a manufacturing line may be formed by connecting multiple blocks, each including a transfer chamber in which a transfer robot for transferring substrates is installed and multiple deposition chambers arranged around the transfer chamber. In such a manufacturing line, when a substrate is transferred to an upstream block, the substrate flows downstream sequentially while passing through multiple deposition processes, and is transferred out of the downstream block. Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which a transfer chamber is provided for transferring substrates between adjacent blocks. Patent Document 1 also discloses that edge alignment is performed in the transfer chamber, in which the edge of the substrate is detected and the position of the substrate is adjusted based on the detection result. This edge alignment is positioned as a preliminary alignment for efficiently performing alignment using alignment marks formed on the substrate and mask, which is performed in the deposition chamber.

JP 2019-192898 A

Organic EL displays are manufactured by forming multiple layers on a substrate through various film-forming processes. At this time, depending on the convenience of the production line, a large substrate (also called mother glass) may be processed up to a certain stage, after which the large substrate is cut and divided into multiple smaller substrates, and in subsequent stages, film-forming and other processes may be performed on the divided substrates. For example, in the manufacture of organic EL displays for smartphones, film-forming and other processes are performed on a sixth-generation large substrate (approximately 1500 mm x approximately 1850 mm) in the backplane process (TFT formation process, anode formation process, etc.). This large substrate is then cut in half to form a sixth-generation half-cut substrate (approximately 1500 mm x approximately 925 mm), and subsequent processes such as film-forming are performed on this sixth-generation half-cut substrate.

However, substrates cut from a large substrate may have different characteristics, such as size, depending on which part of the large substrate they were cut from (for example, the left half or the right half of the mother glass). When substrate sizes differ, the positional relationship between the center position of the substrate based on the edge and the center position of the substrate based on the alignment mark may vary. Therefore, when edge alignment is performed on substrates of different sizes and the substrate is then transported to a film formation chamber, the center position of the substrate based on the alignment mark may vary. This variation may affect alignment in the film formation chamber.

The present invention relates to edge alignment of a substrate cut from a large substrate, and provides a technology that suppresses a decrease in alignment accuracy in the deposition chamber to which the substrate is transported.

According to the present invention,
a substrate support means for supporting one of a plurality of substrates obtained by dividing a large substrate;
an edge detection means for detecting an edge of the substrate supported by the substrate support means;
a position adjusting means for adjusting a position of the substrate supported by the substrate supporting means;
A control means for controlling the position adjustment means;
An alignment apparatus comprising:
an acquisition unit for acquiring substrate information relating to a portion of the large substrate before division of the substrate supported by the substrate support unit;
the control means controls the position adjustment means based on position information of the edge of the substrate detected by the edge detection means and the substrate information acquired by the acquisition means;
a transport means for transporting the substrate whose position has been adjusted by the position adjustment means;
a second substrate support means for supporting the substrate transported by the transport means;
A mask support means for supporting a mask;
an alignment mark detection means for detecting an alignment mark formed on the substrate supported by the second substrate support means;
a second position adjusting means for adjusting a relative position between the substrate supported by the second substrate supporting means and the mask supported by the mask supporting means;
and a second control means for controlling the position adjustment means based on a detection result of the alignment mark detection means.
An alignment apparatus is provided.

The present invention provides a technology for preventing a decrease in the accuracy of edge alignment of a substrate cut from a large substrate in the deposition chamber to which the substrate is transported.

Schematic diagram of a part of a manufacturing line for electronic devices. 1 is a schematic diagram of a film forming apparatus according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an outline of an edge alignment device. FIG. 4 is a plan view illustrating a schematic configuration of a support unit. 6A to 6C are diagrams illustrating an operation of carrying out a substrate supported by a supporting unit. A diagram outlining edge alignment. 1A and 1B are diagrams showing examples of a large substrate and a cut substrate. 11A and 11B are diagrams for explaining the difference between a central position based on an alignment mark and a central position based on an edge. 1A is a flowchart showing an example of processing by a processing unit 3111; FIG. 1B is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of a manufacturing line for electronic devices; FIG. 3 shows an example of information managed by a storage unit 3112. FIG. 2A is an overall view of an organic EL display device, and FIG. 2B is a view showing the cross-sectional structure of one pixel.

The following embodiments are described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. Note that the following embodiments do not limit the invention according to the claims. Although the embodiments describe multiple features, not all of these multiple features are necessarily essential to the invention, and multiple features may be combined in any manner. Furthermore, in the attached drawings, the same reference numbers are used for the same or similar configurations, and duplicate explanations are omitted.

<Electronic device manufacturing line>
1 is a schematic diagram showing a part of the configuration of a manufacturing line for electronic devices to which the film forming apparatus of the present invention can be applied. The manufacturing line in FIG. 1 is used, for example, for manufacturing display panels for organic EL display devices for smartphones. Substrates 100 are sequentially transported to a film forming block 301, and an organic EL film is formed on the substrates 100.

In the deposition block 301, a plurality of deposition chambers 303a-303d in which deposition processing is performed on the substrate 100, and a mask storage chamber 305 in which masks before and after use are stored are arranged around a transfer chamber 302 that has an octagonal shape in a plan view. A transfer robot 302a that transfers the substrate 100 is arranged in the transfer chamber 302. In other words, the deposition block 301 is a cluster-type deposition unit in which a plurality of deposition chambers 303a-303d are arranged to surround the transfer robot 302a. When the deposition chambers 303a-303d are referred to collectively or when no distinction is made, they are referred to as deposition chambers 303.

In the transport direction (arrow direction) of the substrate 100, a buffer chamber 306, a swirl chamber 307, and a delivery chamber 16 (pass chamber) are arranged upstream and downstream of the deposition block 301, respectively. During the manufacturing process, each chamber is maintained in a vacuum state. Although only one deposition block 301 is shown in FIG. 1, the manufacturing line according to this embodiment has multiple deposition blocks 301, and the multiple deposition blocks 301 are connected by a connection device composed of a buffer chamber 306, a swirl chamber 307, and a delivery chamber 308. The configuration of the connection device is not limited to this, and may be composed of only the buffer chamber 306 or the delivery chamber 308, for example.

The transfer robot 302a transfers the substrate 100 from the upstream delivery chamber 16 to the transfer chamber 302, transfers the substrate 100 between the deposition chambers 303, transfers the mask between the mask storage chamber 305 and the deposition chamber 303, and transfers the substrate 100 from the transfer chamber 302 to the downstream buffer chamber 306.

The buffer chamber 306 is a chamber for temporarily storing the substrates 100 depending on the operating status of the production line. The buffer chamber 306 is provided with a multi-tiered substrate storage shelf (also called a cassette) capable of storing multiple substrates 100 while maintaining the horizontal state in which the surfaces to be processed (surfaces to be film-formed) of the substrates 100 face downward in the direction of gravity, and a lifting mechanism for raising and lowering the substrate storage shelf to align the tier for loading or unloading the substrates 100 with the transport position. This allows multiple substrates 100 to be temporarily stored and retained in the buffer chamber 306.

The swirl chamber 307 is equipped with a device for changing the orientation of the substrate 100. In this embodiment, the swirl chamber 307 rotates the orientation of the substrate 100 by 180 degrees using a transport robot (not shown) provided in the swirl chamber 307. The transport robot provided in the swirl chamber 307 rotates 180 degrees while supporting the substrate 100 received in the buffer chamber 306 and delivers it to the delivery chamber 308, thereby swapping the front end and rear end of the substrate between the buffer chamber 306 and the delivery chamber 308. As a result, the orientation of the substrate 100 when it is brought into the film formation chamber 303 is the same in each film formation block 301, so that the scan direction of film formation on the substrate 100 and the orientation of the mask can be matched in each film formation block 301. With this configuration, the orientation of the mask installed in the mask storage chamber 305 in each film formation block 301 can be aligned, simplifying mask management and improving usability.

The delivery chamber 16 is a chamber for delivering the substrate 100, which has been carried in by the device in the swirl chamber 307, to the transport robot 302a in the downstream deposition block 301. In this embodiment, as described below, edge alignment, which is alignment based on the edge position of the substrate 100, is performed in the delivery chamber 16. From this point of view, the delivery chamber 16 in this embodiment functions as an edge alignment device for the substrate 100. Hereinafter, the delivery chamber 16 may be referred to as the edge alignment device 16.

The control system of the manufacturing line includes a higher-level device 300 that controls the entire line as a host computer, and control devices 14a-14d, 309, 310, 311 that control each component, and these can communicate via a wired or wireless communication line 300a. The control devices 14a-14d (second control means) are provided corresponding to the deposition chambers 303a-303d, and control the deposition device 1 described below. Note that when the control devices 14a-14d are referred to collectively or when no distinction is made, they are referred to as control device 14.

The control device 309 controls the transport robot 302a. The control device 310 controls the devices in the swirl chamber 307. The control device 311 controls the edge alignment device 16, which will be described later. The higher-level device 300 transmits information about the substrate 100 and instructions such as transport timing to each of the control devices 14, 309, 310, and 311, and each of the control devices 14, 309, 310, and 311 controls each component based on the received instructions.

<Overview of the film formation equipment>
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a film forming apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The film forming apparatus 1 is an apparatus for forming a film of a deposition material on a substrate 100, and forms a thin film of the deposition material in a predetermined pattern using a mask 101. The material of the substrate 100 on which a film is formed in the film forming apparatus 1 can be appropriately selected from materials such as glass, resin, and metal, and a resin layer such as polyimide formed on glass is preferably used. The deposition material is an organic material, an inorganic material (metal, metal oxide, etc.), and other materials. The film forming apparatus 1 can be applied to a manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing electronic devices such as display devices (flat panel displays, etc.), thin-film solar cells, and organic photoelectric conversion elements (organic thin-film imaging elements), and optical members, and is particularly applicable to a manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing organic EL panels. In the following description, an example will be described in which the film forming apparatus 1 forms a film on the substrate 100 by vacuum deposition, but the present invention is not limited to this, and various film forming methods such as sputtering and CVD can be applied. In each figure, the arrow Z indicates the vertical direction (gravity direction), and the arrows X and Y indicate horizontal directions perpendicular to each other.

The film forming apparatus 1 has a box-shaped vacuum chamber 3. The internal space 3a of the vacuum chamber 3 is maintained in a vacuum atmosphere or an inert gas atmosphere such as nitrogen gas. In this embodiment, the vacuum chamber 3 is connected to a vacuum pump (not shown). In this specification, "vacuum" refers to a state filled with gas at a pressure lower than atmospheric pressure, in other words, a reduced pressure state. In the internal space 3a of the vacuum chamber 3, a substrate support unit 6 that supports the substrate 100 in a horizontal position, a mask table 5 (mask support means) that supports the mask 101, a film forming unit 4 (film forming means), and a plate unit 9 are arranged. The mask 101 is a metal mask having an opening pattern corresponding to the thin film pattern to be formed on the substrate 100, and is fixed on the mask table 5. As the mask 101, a mask having a structure in which a mask foil having a thickness of about several μm to several tens of μm is welded and fixed to a frame-shaped mask frame can be used. The material of the mask 101 is not particularly limited, but it is preferable to use a metal with a small thermal expansion coefficient such as Invar material. The film formation process is performed with the substrate 100 placed on the mask 101 and the substrate 100 and the mask 101 superimposed on each other.

The plate unit 9 includes a cooling plate 10 that cools the substrate 100 during film formation, and a magnet plate 11 that attracts the mask 101 by magnetic force and brings the substrate 100 and the mask 101 into close contact with each other. The plate unit 9 is arranged so that it can be raised and lowered in the Z direction by a lifting unit 13 equipped with, for example, a ball screw mechanism.

The film-forming unit 4 is composed of a heater, a shutter, an evaporation source drive mechanism, an evaporation rate monitor, etc., and is an evaporation source that deposits an evaporation material onto the substrate 100. More specifically, in this embodiment, the film-forming unit 4 is a linear evaporation source in which multiple nozzles (not shown) are arranged in the X direction, and the evaporation material is discharged from each nozzle. The film-forming unit 4 is moved back and forth in the Y direction (a direction moving away from the connection between the film-forming chamber 303 and the transport chamber 302) by an evaporation source moving mechanism (not shown).

The film forming apparatus 1 also includes an alignment device 2 (second alignment unit) that aligns the substrate 100 and the mask 101. In summary, the alignment device 2 detects the alignment marks formed on the substrate 100 and the mask 101 using cameras (imaging devices, alignment mark detection means) 7 and 8, and adjusts the relative positions of the substrate 100 and the mask 101 based on the detection results. The cameras 7 and 8 are disposed above the upper wall of the vacuum chamber 3, and can capture an image of the inside of the vacuum chamber 3 through a window portion (not shown) formed on the upper wall. The cameras 7 and 8 capture the substrate alignment mark provided on the substrate 100 and the mask alignment mark provided on the mask 101 disposed in the vacuum chamber 3. The position information of the substrate 100 and the mask 101 can be obtained by processing the obtained image by an image processing means (not shown).

The alignment device 2 includes a substrate support unit 6 (second substrate support means) that supports the peripheral portion of the substrate 100. The substrate support unit 6 includes a pair of base portions 62 spaced apart from each other in the X direction and extending in the Y direction, and a number of claw-shaped mounting portions 61 that protrude inward from the base portions 62. The mounting portions 61 are sometimes called "receiving claws" or "fingers." The multiple mounting portions 61 are arranged at intervals on each of the pair of base portions 62. The mounting portions 61 are placed on the long side portions of the peripheral portion of the substrate 100. The base portions 62 are suspended from the beam member 222 via a number of supports 64.

In this embodiment, the base portions 62 are spaced apart in the X direction and are not formed on the short side of the substrate 100, so that interference between the transport robot 302a and the base portion 62 can be suppressed when the transport robot 302a transfers the substrate to the placement unit 61. However, the base portion 62 may be a rectangular frame that surrounds the entire peripheral portion of the substrate 100. This can improve the efficiency of transport and transfer of the substrate 100. The base portion 62 may also be a rectangular frame with a partial cutout. By making the base portion 62 a rectangular frame with a partial cutout, interference between the transport robot 302a and the base portion 62 can be suppressed when the transport robot 302a transfers the substrate to the placement unit 61, so that the efficiency of transport and transfer of the substrate 100 can be improved.

The substrate support unit 6 also includes a clamp unit 63. The clamp unit 63 includes a plurality of clamp portions 66. Each clamp portion 66 is provided corresponding to each mounting portion 61, and the clamp portion 66 and the mounting portion 61 can sandwich and hold the peripheral portion of the substrate 100. In addition to the above-described manner in which the peripheral portion of the substrate 100 is sandwiched and held between the clamp portion 66 and the mounting portion 61, a supporting mode for the substrate 100 can also be one in which the substrate 100 is simply placed on the mounting portion 61 without providing the clamp portion 66.

Alignment device 2 also includes adjustment unit 20 (second position adjustment means) that adjusts the relative position between mask 101 and substrate 100, the peripheral portion of which is supported by substrate support unit 6. Adjustment unit 20 adjusts the relative position of substrate 100 with respect to mask 101 by displacing substrate support unit 6 on the XY plane based on the detection results of alignment marks provided on substrate 100 and mask 101 by cameras 7 and 8. In this embodiment, the position of mask 101 is fixed and substrate 100 is displaced to adjust their relative positions, but adjustment may also be made by displacing mask 101, or both substrate 100 and mask 101 may be displaced.

The alignment device 2 also includes a contact unit 22 that moves the substrate 100, the peripheral portion of which is supported by the substrate support unit 6, closer to and farther from the mask 101 in the thickness direction (Z direction) of the substrate 100 by raising and lowering the substrate support unit 6. In other words, the contact unit 22 can move the substrate 100 and the mask 101 closer to each other in the direction in which they are superimposed. As the contact unit 22, for example, an electric actuator employing a ball screw mechanism may be used.

<Edge alignment device>
The edge alignment device 16 (alignment device, first alignment unit) will be described with reference to Figures 3 to 6. Figure 3 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the edge alignment device 16. Figure 4 is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of a support unit 161.

The edge alignment device 16 detects the edge of the substrate 100 transported from an external device in the swirl chamber 307, and performs edge alignment to adjust the position of the substrate 100 based on the detection results. Note that FIG. 3 and FIGS. 4 to 6 and 8 described below show a coordinate system fixed relative to the edge alignment device 16, with the transport direction of the substrate 100 (direction of the arrow in the figure) being the Y direction. In other words, the XY directions in FIG. 2 do not necessarily coincide with the XY directions in FIGS. 3 to 5.

The edge alignment device 16 has a support unit 161 (substrate support means, first substrate support means), a position adjustment mechanism 162 (position adjustment means, first position adjustment means), a detection unit 163 (detection means), a chamber 164 (container), and a reference member 165 (see FIG. 6).

The support unit 161 supports the substrate 100 transported from an external device, and is sometimes referred to as a substrate stage. In this embodiment, it supports the substrate 100 transported from the swirl chamber 307. However, if the buffer chamber 306 and the swirl chamber 307 are not provided in the production line, it may support the substrate 100 transported from the upstream transport robot 302a. The support unit 161 includes a support portion 1611 that supports the substrate 100 inside the chamber 164, and a shaft 1612 that connects the support portion 1611 to a position adjustment mechanism outside the chamber 164.

The support portion 1611 includes a pair of frame members 1611a spaced apart in the X direction intersecting the transport direction of the substrate 100, and a plurality of receiving claws 1611b extending inward from the frame members 1611a to receive the substrate 100. The frame member 1611a includes an elongated portion extending in the transport direction (Y direction) of the substrate 100, and portions extending from both ends of this elongated portion toward the other frame member 1611a (X direction). The receiving claws 1611b are provided on both the portion of the frame member 1611a extending in the Y direction and the portion extending in the X direction. The peripheral portion of the substrate 100 is supported by the plurality of receiving claws 1611b.

The shaft 1612 connects the support 1611 to a position adjustment mechanism outside the chamber 164 through an opening formed in the chamber 164. The shaft 1612 is configured to be capable of moving relative to the chamber 164 while maintaining the vacuum state within the chamber 164 using well-known techniques such as vacuum bellows.

Figures 5 (A) to (C) are diagrams explaining the operation of carrying out the substrate 100 supported by the support unit 161. First, the transport robot 302a on the downstream side of the edge alignment device 16 moves its robot hand below the substrate 100 supported by the support portion 1611 (Figures 5 (A) and (B)). Then, the downstream transport robot 302a lifts the substrate by moving its robot hand above the support portion 1611 (Figure 5 (C)). In this embodiment, the pair of frame members 1611a are provided spaced apart in the X direction, so the transport robot 302a can lift the substrate by passing between the pair of frame members 1611a. Note that when the upstream device places the substrate 100 on the support portion 1611, the reverse operation to that described above is performed.

Refer to FIG. 3 again. The position adjustment mechanism 162 is a mechanism capable of adjusting the position of the substrate 100 supported by the support unit 161. In this embodiment, the position adjustment mechanism 162 can adjust the position of the substrate 100 by moving the support unit 161 in the XY direction or rotating it around the Z axis to displace it on the XY plane. For example, the position adjustment mechanism 162 may include a fixed member (not shown) fixed to the installation location and a movable member (not shown) that is movable in the XY direction relative to the fixed member and connected to the shaft 1612. The position adjustment mechanism 162 may displace the support unit 161 on the XY plane by displacing the movable member using one electric cylinder that can expand and contract in the X direction and two electric cylinders that can expand and contract in the Y direction and are spaced apart in the X direction.

The detection units 163 detect the edge of the substrate 100 supported by the support units 161. In this embodiment, the detection units 163 are cameras, and two are provided so that they can detect the periphery of two diagonal corners of the substrate 100. In this embodiment, the detection units 163 are provided outside the chamber 164, and detect the edge of the substrate 100 through a transparent window provided on the bottom surface of the chamber 164. In this embodiment, the detection units 163 detect a reference mark on a reference member 165 provided inside the chamber 164 (see FIG. 6). In this specification, the "edge" of the substrate refers to the end of the substrate in general, and includes not only the "side" but also the "corner".

The chamber 164 is a container that maintains its internal space 164a in a vacuum state, and houses the support portion 1611 of the support unit 161. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the position adjustment mechanism 162, the detection unit 163, etc. are housed in the chamber 164. In this embodiment, a reference member 165, which will be described later, is fixed to the chamber 164.

The control device 311 controls the entire edge alignment device 16. More specifically, the control device 311 controls the position adjustment mechanism 162. The control device 311 includes a processing unit 3111 (control means, first control means), a memory unit 3112, an input/output interface (I/O) 3113, and a communication unit 3114.

The processing unit 3111 is a processor represented by a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and executes a program stored in the memory unit 3112 to control the edge alignment device 16. The memory unit 3112 is a storage device (storage means) such as a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), or a HDD (Hard Disk Drive), and stores various control information in addition to the program executed by the processing unit 3111. The I/O (Input/Output) 3113 is an interface that transmits and receives signals between the processing unit 3111 and an external device. The communication unit 3114 is a communication device that communicates with the upper device 300 via the communication line 300a, and the processing unit 3111 receives information from the upper device 300 via the communication unit 3114, or transmits information to the upper device 300. In addition, all or part of the control device 311 may be configured as a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array).

<Outline of edge alignment>
6 is a diagram showing an outline of edge alignment, and is a diagram showing the inside of the chamber 164 as viewed from the bottom. In terms of the relationship with the alignment by the alignment device 2 of the above-mentioned film forming apparatus 1, the edge alignment by the edge alignment device 16 corresponds to a preliminary alignment for efficiently performing the alignment by the alignment device 2. If the position of the substrate 100 supported by the support unit 161 varies, the position of the substrate 100 relative to the substrate support unit 6 when the substrate 100 is transported to the film forming apparatus 1 also varies. If the initial position of the substrate 100 placed on the substrate support unit 6, more specifically, the position of the alignment mark 1002 formed on the substrate 100, varies, depending on the initial position, the alignment time by the alignment device 2 may become longer or the alignment accuracy may decrease, and the takt time and alignment accuracy may become unstable. Therefore, in this embodiment, in order to reduce the positional deviation of the substrate 100 relative to the film forming apparatus 1 when the substrate 100 is transported to the film forming apparatus 1 , edge alignment is performed by the edge alignment device 16 .

First, the processing unit 3111 executes a detection process using the detection unit 163. As shown in FIG. 6, the detection unit 163 detects the edge 1001 of the substrate 100 and the reference mark 1651 of the reference member 165 within the detection range 163a.

Next, the processing unit 3111 calculates the center position C1 of the substrate 100 based on the position information of the two edges 1001 of the substrate 100 detected, and calculates the center position C2 of the reference mark 1651 based on the position information of the two reference marks 1651 detected. In this embodiment, the center position C2 of the reference mark 1651 is used as a reference position for positioning in edge alignment. In this embodiment, the memory unit 3112 stores information linking the coordinate system (camera coordinate system) within the detection range 163a to the coordinate system (world coordinate system) in the entire edge alignment device 16. The processing unit 3111 calculates position information in the world coordinate system of the center position C1 of the substrate 100 and the center position C2 of the reference mark 1651 based on the detection results of each detection unit 163 and the information stored in the memory unit 3112.

Then, the processing section 3111 adjusts the position of the support unit 161 by the position adjustment mechanism 162 so that the center position C1 of the substrate 100 coincides with the center position C2 of the reference mark 1651. This completes the edge alignment. The processing section 3111 may calculate the angle of the substrate 100 in addition to calculating the center position C1 of the substrate 100 based on the detection result of the detection unit 163. The processing section 3111 may then rotate the substrate 100 around the Z axis by the position adjustment mechanism 162 so that the angle of the substrate 100 coincides with the reference angle. The reference angle can be calculated based on the position information of the reference mark 1651 detected by the detection unit 163.

<Substrate>
The substrate 100 of this embodiment is a cut substrate cut out from a large substrate. Fig. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a large substrate and a cut substrate. The large substrate MG is a sixth generation full-size (approximately 1500 mm x approximately 1850 mm) mother glass, and has a rectangular shape. An orientation flat OF is formed at one corner of the large substrate MG to specify the orientation of the large substrate MG.

Note that, although an example has been shown here in which only one of the four corners of the large substrate MG is cut off to form the orientation flat OF, this is not limiting, and although all four corners are cut off, the orientation flat OF may also be formed by cutting off one corner to a larger extent than the others. In this case, the part that is cut off into a different shape from the other corners can be considered to be the orientation flat OF.

As described above, for example, in the manufacture of organic EL displays for smartphones, in the backplane process (TFT formation process, anode formation process, etc.), film formation and the like are performed on a large-sized 6th generation full-size substrate MG. After that, this large substrate MG is cut in half (cutting process), and the substrate 100 of the 6th generation half-cut size (about 1500 mm x about 925 mm) obtained by cutting is carried into the film formation block 301 in the manufacturing line according to this embodiment, where the organic layer is formed. The substrate 100 carried into the film formation block 301 is one of two types of divided substrates obtained by cutting out the large substrate MG, and in this embodiment, it is the substrate 100A or the substrate 100B. The large substrate MG is cut at a cutting line CTL at a position of a distance L from a reference side, which is one side of the large substrate MG, to obtain the substrate 100A and the substrate 100B. In the manufacturing line illustrated in FIG. 1, the substrate 100A and the substrate 100B are mixed and transported as the substrate 100, and various processes are performed.

Note that, although the large substrate MG is cut in half here, this is not limited thereto, and the large substrate MG may be cut and divided into multiple substrates of approximately the same size. For example, the large substrate MG may be divided into four to obtain four substrates 100, which are then carried into the deposition block 301.

Substrate 100A and substrate 100B may differ in substrate characteristics such as size and rigidity distribution. For example, substrate 100A has a short side length measured as L, but the short side length of substrate 100B is not measured, and the short side length of substrate 100A may differ from that of substrate 100B. This difference in the short side length may affect the initial positional deviation when substrate 100 is loaded into film forming apparatus 1. This will be described in detail below.

Figure 8 is a diagram illustrating the difference between the center position of substrate 100A or substrate 100B based on the alignment mark and the center position based on the edge. In this embodiment, substrate 100A has a short side length L, so the center position based on the alignment mark 1002 used for alignment in alignment device 2 and the center position based on the edge 1001 coincide (center position C10). On the other hand, the short side length of substrate 100B is not measured, and in the example of Figure 8, the length LB of the short side is longer than the length L. Therefore, there is a deviation of distance c between center position C111 based on alignment mark 1002 and center position C112 based on edge 1001.

In edge alignment in the edge alignment device 16, the center position C112 calculated based on the position information of the edge 1001 is aligned to match the center position C2, which is the reference position. That is, in edge alignment, the edge 1001 of the substrate 100 is detected to obtain the position information of the substrate 100, and alignment is performed. In other words, in edge alignment, alignment is performed using the outer shape of the substrate 100 as an index. By detecting the edge 1001 of the substrate 100 and performing alignment based on the position information of the edge 1001, alignment can be performed more easily than when alignment is performed based on the position information of the alignment mark 1002, as in the alignment in the film formation device 1 described later.

On the other hand, in the alignment in the film forming apparatus 1 (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "mark alignment"), the center position C111 calculated based on the position information of the alignment mark 1002 is aligned to coincide with the center position of the alignment mark of the mask 101. That is, in the mark alignment, the alignment mark 1002 of the substrate 100 is detected to obtain the position information of the substrate 100, and alignment is performed. As a result, in the film forming apparatus 1, a film is formed in a desired area on the substrate 100 so that the center of the effective area in which an opening is formed on the pattern of the mask 101 coincides with the center of the film-forming area of the substrate 100 defined by the alignment mark 1002. The alignment mark 1002 is formed on the substrate 100 with high precision by a method such as photolithography, and by aligning the substrate 100 and the mask 101 using the alignment mark 1002, the film-forming area on the substrate 100 can be aligned with the effective area of the mask 101 with high precision.

In this way, the edge alignment in the edge alignment device 16 and the alignment in the film forming device 1 differ in the object to be detected to obtain position information of the substrate 100 (the edge 1001 in edge alignment and the alignment mark 1002 in mark alignment).

As described above, when a large substrate MG is cut and divided into multiple substrates, some substrates may have a center of the substrate calculated based on the outline that does not match the center of the substrate calculated based on the alignment marks formed on the substrate. In such cases, there will be a misalignment between the result of alignment performed by edge alignment based on edge position information and the result of alignment performed by mark alignment based on alignment mark position information. Furthermore, the misalignment between the center position of the substrate calculated based on the outline and the center position of the substrate calculated based on the alignment marks may differ for each substrate obtained by division. In this case, the misalignment between the edge alignment result and the mark alignment result will vary depending on the substrate.

As described above, the edge alignment in this embodiment is for performing preliminary alignment in order to efficiently perform mark alignment with the mask 101 for film formation in the film formation apparatus 1. In other words, preliminary alignment is performed in the edge alignment device 16 so that the substrate 100 can be transported to a position in the film formation apparatus 1 where the substrate 100 will be located or a position nearby the position after mark alignment is performed in the film formation apparatus 1. However, if the results of the edge alignment and the mark alignment differ as described above, the preliminary alignment in the edge alignment device 16 may not be able to sufficiently efficiently perform mark alignment in the film formation apparatus 1.

For example, as a result of edge alignment in the edge alignment device 16, the substrate 100 may be aligned to a position that is significantly shifted from the position in the film formation device 1 where the substrate 100 will be located after mark alignment in the film formation device 1. In such a case, the problem can be solved by correcting the target position of the edge alignment in the edge alignment device 16 to offset this shift. However, when dealing with substrates divided from a large substrate MG as described above, the above shift may vary from substrate to substrate, so simply correcting with a single correction value is insufficient.

Furthermore, substrate 100B has an orientation flat OF, but substrate 100A does not. The magnitude of residual stress at the cut surface may differ between substrate 100A and substrate 100B. Furthermore, the position of the cut surface is on the right side of substrate 100A and the left side of substrate 100B, and they are in different locations. These differences in the characteristics of the substrates can cause differences in the way substrate 100 bends when supported by support unit 161, which can affect the accuracy of edge alignment.

Therefore, in this embodiment, as described below, the position adjustment mechanism 162 is controlled according to the portion of the large substrate MG from which the substrate 100 is cut out.

<Control example>
An example of control of the edge alignment device 16 executed by the processing unit 3111 of the control device 311 will be described. Fig. 9A is a flowchart showing an example of processing by the processing unit 3111. This flowchart starts, for example, when the processing unit 3111 receives an instruction to execute edge alignment from the upper device 300.

In step S1 (hereinafter, simply referred to as S1, and the same applies to other steps), the processing unit 3111 acquires substrate information of the substrate 100 supported by the support unit 161 (acquisition process). In this embodiment, the substrate information includes information regarding the relative position of the substrate 100 in the large substrate MG before it is divided. In other words, this information is part information regarding the part of the large substrate MG from which the substrate 100 is cut, and may also be called "cut-out information" or "cut information". In this way, the processing unit 141 functions as an acquisition means for acquiring information regarding the part of the substrate 100 in the large substrate MG before it is divided. In this embodiment, in FIG. 7, the substrate 100A, which corresponds to the part on the left side of the cutting line CTL of the large substrate MG and whose cut position is on the right side of the drawing, is the A cut, and the substrate 100B, which corresponds to the part on the right side of the cutting line CTL of the large substrate MG and whose cut position is on the left side of the drawing, is the B cut. The processing unit 3111 acquires part information indicating whether the substrate 100 supported by the support unit 161 is an A-cut or a B-cut.

In this embodiment, the substrate information is managed by the host device 300 in association with other information on the substrate 100. The host device 300 stores identification information for identifying each substrate 100 and part information on the substrate 100 (substrate 100A or substrate 100B) in association with each other. When the host device 300 instructs the processing unit 3111 or the like to perform edge alignment on the substrate 100, it transmits the identification information and part information to the processing unit 3111. That is, in S1, the processing unit 3111 acquires substrate information by receiving information on the substrate 100 from the host device 300 via the communication unit 3114. The host device 300 may acquire substrate information from, for example, a cutting device (substrate dividing device) that cuts the large substrate MG, other devices arranged upstream of the film forming device 1 in the manufacturing line, or devices outside the manufacturing line, or may receive input from an operator on the manufacturing line and acquire substrate information based on the operator's input.

In S2, the processing unit 3111 executes a detection process using the detection unit 163. Specifically, the processing unit 3111 causes the detection unit 163 to detect the edge 1001 and the reference mark 1651 of the substrate 100.

In S3, the processing unit 3111 sets a target position. The target position can also be considered a reference position that is the target for alignment. Specifically, the processing unit 3111 calculates the center position C2 (XC2, YC2) of the reference mark 1651 based on the detection result in S2, and sets the center position C2 as the target position.

In S4, the processing unit 3111 corrects the target position calculated in S3 based on the substrate information acquired in S1. Specifically, edge alignment correction information for offsetting the deviation of the center position based on the alignment mark 1002 of the substrate 100 from the center position based on the edge 1001 of the substrate 100 is stored in the memory unit 3112 in association with the substrate information. Then, in S4, the processing unit 3111 refers to the edge alignment correction information stored in the memory unit 3112 in association with the substrate information, and performs correction of the target position. The memory unit 142 stores a plurality of edge alignment correction information corresponding to the number of substrates 100 cut out from one large substrate MG (i.e., the number of divisions).

In this embodiment, the edge alignment correction information is a correction amount (offset amount) that is added to or subtracted from the reference position to offset the reference position. For example, in the example of FIG. 8, the center position C111 of the substrate 100B based on the alignment mark 1002 is shifted in the negative X direction by a distance c from the center position C112 based on the edge 1001 (there is no shift in the Y direction). In other words, the center position C111 based on the alignment mark 1002 is shifted by (-c, 0) from the center position C112 based on the edge 1001. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of information managed by the storage unit 3112. As shown in FIG. 10, the storage unit 3112 stores part information and edge alignment correction information in association with each other.

For example, if the substrate information acquired in S1 is a B-cut, the processing unit 3111 reads out the edge alignment correction information (c, 0) stored corresponding to the substrate 100B, which is a B-cut substrate. Then, the edge alignment correction information is added to the center position C2 (XC2, YC2) of the reference mark 1651, which is the reference position calculated in S3, to acquire a corrected reference position C2' (XC2 + c, YC2). This corrected reference position C2' is used as the target position of the center position C1 based on the edge 1001 of the substrate 100 in the subsequent alignment. When the center position C1 based on the edge 1001 of the substrate 100 is aligned with this target position, the center position C111 based on the alignment mark 1002 will be located at (XC2, YC2).

In S5, the center position C1 (XC1, YC1) calculated based on the detection result in S2 and based on the edge 1001 of the substrate 100 is compared with the reference position C2' (XC2+c, YC2) as the target position corrected in S4. In S5, it is determined whether the positional deviation between the center position C1 and the reference position C2' is within the allowable range. If the distance between the center position C1 and the reference position C2' is equal to or less than a threshold, it is determined to be within the allowable range, and if the distance exceeds the threshold, it is determined to be outside the allowable range. If the determination result in S5 is within the allowable range, the edge alignment operation is terminated, and if it is outside the allowable range, the process proceeds to S6.

For simplicity, the case where the alignment is judged by comparing the distance between the center position C1 and the reference position C2' with a threshold has been described here, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the position of the multiple reference marks 1651 corresponding to the reference position C2' corrected in S4 (i.e., the positions of the multiple reference marks 1651 detected in S2 corrected with the edge alignment correction information) may be compared with the position of the edge 1001 of the substrate 100 corresponding to each reference mark 1651 to judge the alignment. In this case, for each pair of the reference mark 1651 and the edge 1001, the distance between the position of the reference mark 1651 after correction in S4 and the position of the edge 1001 is calculated. Then, the average value or the sum of squares of the calculated distances may be compared with a preset threshold, and if the distance is equal to or less than the threshold, it may be judged to be within the allowable range, and if the distance exceeds the threshold, it may be judged to be outside the allowable range.

In S6, the processing unit 3111 sets the control amount of the position adjustment mechanism 162. For example, the processing unit 3111 sets the displacement amount of the support unit 161 in the X direction and the Y direction so that the positional deviation of the center position C1 and the reference position C2' falls within the allowable range based on the center position C1 based on the detection result of the detection unit 163 and the positional deviation amount of the reference position C2' corrected in S4. Typically, the processing unit 3111 sets the displacement amount of the support unit 161 in the X direction and the Y direction so that the center position C1 coincides with the reference position C2'. Also, for example, if the angle of the substrate 100 is also included in the judgment conditions, the processing unit 3111 calculates the angular deviation of the substrate 100 from the reference based on the detection result in S2, and sets the rotation angle of the support unit 161 around the Z axis so that the angular deviation of the substrate 100 falls within the allowable range. Note that the control amount is not limited to the displacement amount of the support unit 161, and may be a control parameter of the position adjustment unit, etc.

In S7, the processing unit 3111 executes a position adjustment process to adjust the position of the substrate 100 using the position adjustment mechanism 162 based on the control amount set in S6. This displaces the support unit 161 on the XY plane, and adjusts the relative position of the substrate 100 with respect to the chamber 164 and the reference member 165.

In S8, the processing unit 3111 executes the detection process again using the detection unit 163. Specifically, the processing unit 3111 causes the detection unit 163 to detect the edge 1001 of the substrate 100 and the reference mark 1651. Thereafter, the processing unit 3111 returns to S5 and repeats the above process until the positional deviation between the center position C1 and the reference position C2' corrected in S4 falls within the allowable range.

<Example of operations from edge alignment to film formation>
FIG. 9B is a flow chart showing an example of the operation of a manufacturing line for electronic devices, showing a flow from edge alignment in the delivery chamber 16 to a film deposition process in the film deposition apparatus 1.

In S101, the edge alignment device 16 performs edge alignment. In this embodiment, the edge alignment device 16 performs edge alignment of the substrate 100 by the processing unit 3111 executing the flowchart shown in FIG. 9(A).

In S102, the transport robot 302a transports the substrate 100 to the film formation chamber 303. For example, when the control device 309 receives an instruction to transport the substrate 100 from the control device 311 or the higher-level device 300, the control device 309 causes the transport robot 302a to transport the substrate 100. In this embodiment, the transport robot 302a transports the substrate 100 to the substrate support unit 6 of the film formation device 1 provided in the film formation chamber 303.

In this embodiment, the substrate 100 is transported by the transport robot 302a after edge alignment is performed in S101. Therefore, at the time of transport of the substrate 100, the position of the substrate 100 is adjusted so that the center position of the substrate 100 based on the alignment mark 1002 is at a constant position. Therefore, the transport robot 302a can transport the substrate 100 to a position in the film formation apparatus 1 where the substrate 100 will be located after mark alignment is performed in the film formation apparatus 1 or a position nearby the position. In other words, the transport robot 302a can transport the substrate 100 so that the center position of the substrate 100 based on the alignment mark 1002 of the substrate 100 supported by the substrate support unit 6, which is the delivery destination, is constant (or the variation in the center position is suppressed).

In S103, the alignment device 2 of the film forming apparatus 1 performs mark alignment of the substrate 100. For example, the alignment device 2 performs mark alignment using the method described in <Overview of the film forming apparatus>. As described above, the substrate 100 supported by the substrate support unit 6 has a constant center position of the substrate 100 based on the alignment mark 1002 at the start of mark alignment (or the variation in the center position is suppressed). Therefore, the alignment device can efficiently perform mark alignment.

In S104, the film forming apparatus 1 performs a film forming process on the substrate 100. For example, the control device 303 causes the film forming unit 4 to perform the film forming process.

As described above, in this embodiment, the processing unit 3111 controls the position adjustment mechanism 162 based on the position information of the edge 1001 of the substrate 100 detected by the detection unit 163 and the substrate information (S4 to S7). This makes it possible to suppress a decrease in the accuracy of the alignment in the film formation apparatus 1 to which the substrate 100 cut out from the large substrate MG is transported. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the position adjustment mechanism 162 is controlled with different control amounts based on the substrate information for the substrates 100A and 100B that are cut out from the large substrate MG at different locations. This makes it possible to perform edge alignment for the substrates 100 with different cut out locations, taking into account the deviation between the center position based on the edge 1001 and the center position based on the alignment mark.

In addition, in this embodiment, edge alignment can be performed so that the center position based on the alignment mark is constant even if the cut-out portion is different. This makes it possible to make the center position of the substrate 100 based on the alignment mark constant when the substrate 100 is transported to the film forming apparatus 1 after edge alignment is completed, regardless of the cut-out portion of the substrate 100. In other words, when the substrate support unit 6 of the film forming apparatus 1 first receives the substrate 100 transported from the edge alignment device 16, the center position of the substrate 100 based on the alignment mark can be constant regardless of the cut-out portion of the substrate 100. As a result, it is possible to suppress a decrease in alignment accuracy in the film forming apparatus 1 at the transport destination and an increase in the time required for alignment.

In this embodiment, the alignment reference position is corrected based on the substrate information, and the control amount of the position adjustment mechanism 162 is set based on the positional deviation amount between the center position C1 and the corrected reference position C2'. However, after the control amount of the position adjustment mechanism 162 is set so that the center position C1 of the substrate 100 coincides with the center position C2 of the reference mark 1651, the control amount may be corrected based on the substrate information. In other words, the subject of correction based on the substrate information is not limited to the alignment reference position, and may be the control amount of the position adjustment mechanism 162, etc.

<Method of Manufacturing Electronic Device>
Next, an example of a method for manufacturing an electronic device will be described. Below, as an example of an electronic device, the configuration of an organic EL display device and a method for manufacturing the same will be described. In this example, the deposition block 301 illustrated in FIG. 1 is provided in, for example, three places on a manufacturing line.

First, the organic EL display device to be manufactured will be described. Figure 11(A) is an overall view of the organic EL display device 50, and Figure 11(B) is a diagram showing the cross-sectional structure of one pixel.

As shown in FIG. 11A, a plurality of pixels 52 each including a plurality of light-emitting elements are arranged in a matrix in a display area 51 of an organic EL display device 50. As will be described in detail later, each light-emitting element has a structure including an organic layer sandwiched between a pair of electrodes.

The pixel referred to here refers to the smallest unit that allows a desired color to be displayed in the display area 51. In the case of a color organic EL display device, the pixel 52 is composed of a combination of multiple sub-pixels of a first light-emitting element 52R, a second light-emitting element 52G, and a third light-emitting element 52B that emit light differently from each other. The pixel 52 is often composed of a combination of three types of sub-pixels, a red (R) light-emitting element, a green (G) light-emitting element, and a blue (B) light-emitting element, but is not limited to this. The pixel 52 needs to include at least one type of sub-pixel, and preferably includes two or more types of sub-pixels, and more preferably includes three or more types of sub-pixels. The sub-pixels that compose the pixel 52 may be, for example, a combination of four types of sub-pixels, a red (R) light-emitting element, a green (G) light-emitting element, a blue (B) light-emitting element, and a yellow (Y) light-emitting element.

Figure 11 (B) is a partial cross-sectional schematic diagram taken along line A-B in Figure 11 (A). Pixel 52 has a plurality of sub-pixels on substrate 53, each of which is composed of an organic EL element having a first electrode (anode) 54, a hole transport layer 55, a red layer 56R, a green layer 56G, or a blue layer 56B, an electron transport layer 57, and a second electrode (cathode) 58. Of these, hole transport layer 55, red layer 56R, green layer 56G, blue layer 56B, and electron transport layer 57 are organic layers. Red layer 56R, green layer 56G, and blue layer 56B are formed in patterns corresponding to light-emitting elements (sometimes referred to as organic EL elements) that emit red, green, and blue light, respectively.

The first electrode 54 is formed separately for each light-emitting element. The hole transport layer 55, the electron transport layer 57, and the second electrode 58 may be formed in common across multiple light-emitting elements 52R, 52G, and 52B, or may be formed for each light-emitting element. That is, as shown in FIG. 11B, the hole transport layer 55 may be formed as a common layer across multiple sub-pixel regions, and the red layer 56R, the green layer 56G, and the blue layer 56B may be formed separately for each sub-pixel region on top of the hole transport layer 55, and the electron transport layer 57 and the second electrode 58 may be formed as a common layer across multiple sub-pixel regions on top of the hole transport layer 55.

In addition, an insulating layer 59 is provided between the first electrodes 54 to prevent short circuits between adjacent first electrodes 54. Furthermore, since the organic EL layer deteriorates due to moisture and oxygen, a protective layer 60 is provided to protect the organic EL element from moisture and oxygen.

In FIG. 11B, the hole transport layer 55 and the electron transport layer 57 are shown as a single layer, but depending on the structure of the organic EL display element, they may be formed of multiple layers including a hole blocking layer and an electron blocking layer. In addition, a hole injection layer having an energy band structure that allows holes to be smoothly injected from the first electrode 54 to the hole transport layer 55 may be formed between the first electrode 54 and the hole transport layer 55. Similarly, an electron injection layer may be formed between the second electrode 58 and the electron transport layer 57.

The red layer 56R, the green layer 56G, and the blue layer 56B may each be formed of a single light-emitting layer, or may be formed by laminating multiple layers. For example, the red layer 56R may be configured with two layers, with the upper layer being a red light-emitting layer and the lower layer being a hole transport layer or an electron blocking layer. Alternatively, the lower layer may be formed of a red light-emitting layer and the upper layer being an electron transport layer or a hole blocking layer. In this way, by providing a layer below or above the light-emitting layer, the light-emitting position in the light-emitting layer can be adjusted, and the optical path length can be adjusted, thereby improving the color purity of the light-emitting element.

Note that, although an example of the red layer 56R is shown here, a similar structure may also be adopted for the green layer 56G and the blue layer 56B. The number of layers may be two or more. Furthermore, layers of different materials may be laminated, such as a light-emitting layer and an electron blocking layer, or layers of the same material may be laminated, for example, two or more light-emitting layers may be laminated.

Next, we will specifically explain an example of a manufacturing method for an organic EL display device. Here, we assume that the red layer 56R is made up of two layers, a lower layer 56R1 and an upper layer 56R2, and the green layer 56G and the blue layer 56B are made up of a single light-emitting layer.

First, a substrate 53 is prepared on which a circuit (not shown) for driving the organic EL display device and a first electrode 54 are formed. The material of the substrate 53 is not particularly limited, and it can be made of glass, plastic, metal, or the like. In this embodiment, a substrate in which a polyimide film is laminated on a glass substrate is used as the substrate 53.

A resin layer such as acrylic or polyimide is coated by bar coating or spin coating on the substrate 53 on which the first electrode 54 is formed, and the resin layer is patterned by lithography so that an opening is formed in the portion where the first electrode 54 is formed, forming an insulating layer 59. This opening corresponds to the light-emitting region where the light-emitting element actually emits light. Note that in this embodiment, processing is performed on the large substrate up to the formation of the insulating layer 59, and after the insulating layer 59 is formed, a division process is carried out to divide the substrate 53.

The substrate 53 with the patterned insulating layer 59 is carried into the first deposition chamber 303, and the hole transport layer 55 is deposited as a common layer on the first electrode 54 of the display area. The hole transport layer 55 is deposited using a mask with an opening for each display area 51 that will eventually become the panel portion of each organic EL display device.

Next, the substrate 53 on which the hole transport layer 55 has been formed is carried into the second film formation chamber 303. The substrate 53 and the mask are aligned, the substrate is placed on the mask, and the red layer 56R is formed on the hole transport layer 55 in the portion of the substrate 53 where the red-emitting element is arranged (the region where the red subpixel is formed). Here, the mask used in the second film formation chamber is a high-definition mask in which openings are formed only in the multiple regions that will become the red subpixels among the multiple regions on the substrate 53 that will become the subpixels of the organic EL display device. As a result, the red layer 56R including the red light-emitting layer is formed only in the region that will become the red subpixel among the multiple regions on the substrate 53 that will become the subpixels. In other words, the red layer 56R is selectively formed in the region that will become the red subpixel, without being formed in the region that will become the blue subpixel or the green subpixel among the multiple regions on the substrate 53 that will become the subpixels.

Similar to the formation of the red layer 56R, the green layer 56G is formed in the third film formation chamber 303, and then the blue layer 56B is formed in the fourth film formation chamber 303. After the formation of the red layer 56R, the green layer 56G, and the blue layer 56B is completed, the electron transport layer 57 is formed over the entire display area 51 in the fifth film formation chamber 303. The electron transport layer 57 is formed as a layer common to the three color layers 56R, 56G, and 56B.

The substrate on which the electron transport layer 57 has been formed is moved to the sixth deposition chamber 303, where the second electrode 58 is formed. In this embodiment, the layers are formed by vacuum deposition in the first deposition chamber 303 to the sixth deposition chamber 303. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, the second electrode 58 may be formed by sputtering in the sixth deposition chamber 303. Thereafter, the substrate on which the second electrode 58 has been formed is moved to a sealing device, and the protective layer 60 is formed by plasma CVD (sealing process), completing the organic EL display device 50. Note that, although the protective layer 60 is formed by the CVD method here, the method is not limited to this, and it may also be formed by the ALD method or the inkjet method.

Here, the films are formed in the first to sixth film forming chambers 303 using a mask in which openings corresponding to the pattern of each layer to be formed are formed. When forming the film, the relative positions of the substrate 53 and the mask are adjusted (aligned), and then the substrate 53 is placed on the mask and film formation is performed. Here, the alignment process performed in each film forming chamber is performed in the same manner as the alignment process described above.

<Other embodiments>
In the above embodiment, the storage unit 3112 of the edge alignment device 16 stores the substrate information, the positional deviation tolerance from the center position C2 (XC2, YC2), and the correction amount in association with each other. However, some or all of this information may be collectively managed by the higher-level device 300.

In the above embodiment, the processing unit 3111 acquires the substrate information from the higher-level device 300 through communication (step S1). However, the processing unit 3111 may acquire the substrate information in other ways. For example, the detection unit 163 or a camera separately provided in the edge alignment device 16 may detect the presence or absence of an orientation flat OF, and the processing unit 3111 may acquire the substrate information based on the detection result. Also, for example, a code indicating the substrate information may be assigned to each substrate 100, and the processing unit 3111 may acquire the substrate information by reading the code.

In addition, in the above embodiment, the substrate information and the identification information of the substrate 100 are associated with each other and managed by the higher-level device 300, but the identification information of the substrate 100 itself may contain the substrate information. For example, a character string or the like constituting the identification information may contain a portion that represents the substrate information. In this case, the processing unit 3111 can obtain the substrate information from the identification information of the substrate 100 received from the higher-level device 300.

The present invention can also be realized by supplying a program that realizes one or more of the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or device via a network or storage medium, and having one or more processors in the computer of the system or device read and execute the program. It can also be realized by a circuit (e.g., an ASIC) that realizes one or more of the functions.

The invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications and variations are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, the following claims are appended to disclose the scope of the invention.

1 Film forming device, 16 Edge alignment device (alignment device, first alignment unit), 161 Support unit (substrate support means, first substrate support means), 162 Position adjustment mechanism (position adjustment means, first position adjustment means), 163 Detection unit (edge detection means), 3111 Processing unit (acquisition means, control means), 3112 Memory unit (memory means), 100 Substrate, 101 Mask

Claims (19)

a substrate support means for supporting one of a plurality of substrates obtained by dividing a large substrate;
an edge detection means for detecting an edge of the substrate supported by the substrate support means;
a position adjusting means for adjusting a position of the substrate supported by the substrate supporting means;
A control means for controlling the position adjustment means;
An alignment apparatus comprising:
an acquisition unit for acquiring substrate information relating to a portion of the large substrate before division of the substrate supported by the substrate support unit;
the control means controls the position adjustment means based on position information of the edge of the substrate detected by the edge detection means and the substrate information acquired by the acquisition means;
a transport means for transporting the substrate whose position has been adjusted by the position adjustment means;
a second substrate support means for supporting the substrate transported by the transport means;
A mask support means for supporting a mask;
an alignment mark detection means for detecting an alignment mark formed on the substrate supported by the second substrate support means;
a second position adjusting means for adjusting a relative position between the substrate supported by the second substrate supporting means and the mask supported by the mask supporting means;
and a second control means for controlling the position adjustment means based on a detection result of the alignment mark detection means.
An alignment apparatus comprising: a substrate support means for supporting one of a plurality of substrates obtained by dividing a large substrate;
an edge detection means for detecting an edge of the substrate supported by the substrate support means;
a position adjusting means for adjusting a position of the substrate supported by the substrate supporting means;
A control means for controlling the position adjustment means;
An alignment apparatus comprising:
an acquisition unit for acquiring substrate information relating to a portion of the large substrate before division of the substrate supported by the substrate support unit;
the control means controls the position adjustment means based on position information of the edge of the substrate detected by the edge detection means and the substrate information acquired by the acquisition means;
The edge detection means detects a plurality of the edges and detects a plurality of reference marks;
the control means corrects position information of the plurality of reference marks detected by the edge detection means in accordance with the substrate information, and controls the position adjustment means based on the corrected position information of the plurality of reference marks and position information of the plurality of edges detected by the edge detection means.
An alignment apparatus comprising: An alignment mark is formed on the substrate,
the control means controls the position adjustment means so that positions of the substrates are offset in a direction that suppresses variation in center positions of the substrates based on the alignment marks, for substrates at different locations in the large substrate before division.
3. An alignment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the alignment apparatus comprises: a container for housing the substrate support means;
The member having the reference mark is fixed relative to the container.
3. The alignment apparatus according to claim 2. the control means corrects position information of the plurality of reference marks detected by the edge detection means so as to offset the position information in accordance with the substrate information.
5. An alignment apparatus according to claim 2 or 4. a storage unit that stores correction information for correcting the position information of the reference mark in association with the substrate information;
6. An alignment apparatus according to claim 2, 4 or 5. An alignment device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the substrate information is included in identification information that identifies the substrate. a substrate support means for supporting one of a plurality of substrates obtained by dividing a large substrate;
an edge detection means for detecting an edge of the substrate supported by the substrate support means;
a position adjusting means for adjusting a position of the substrate supported by the substrate supporting means;
A control means for controlling the position adjustment means;
An alignment apparatus comprising:
an acquisition unit for acquiring substrate information relating to a portion of the large substrate before division of the substrate supported by the substrate support unit;
the control means controls the position adjustment means based on position information of the edge of the substrate detected by the edge detection means and the substrate information acquired by the acquisition means;
The alignment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the substrate information is included in identification information for identifying the substrate. 9. The alignment apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the alignment apparatus functions as a delivery chamber for delivering the substrate unloaded from an external apparatus to another external apparatus different from the external apparatus. a first substrate support means for supporting any one of a plurality of substrates obtained by dividing a large substrate;
an edge detection means for detecting an edge of the substrate supported by the first substrate support means;
a first position adjusting means for adjusting a position of the substrate supported by the first substrate supporting means; and
a first control means for controlling the first position adjustment means;
A first alignment unit comprising:
A second substrate support means for supporting the substrate;
A mask support means for supporting a mask;
an alignment mark detection means for detecting an alignment mark of the substrate supported by the second substrate support means;
a second position adjusting means for adjusting a relative position between the substrate supported by the second substrate supporting means and the mask supported by the mask supporting means; and
a second control means for controlling the second position adjustment means based on position information of the alignment mark detected by the alignment mark detection means;
a second alignment unit that aligns the substrate transferred from the first alignment unit and whose position has been adjusted by the first position adjustment means;
An alignment apparatus comprising:
an acquisition unit for acquiring substrate information relating to a portion of the large substrate before division of the substrate supported by the first substrate support unit;
the first control means controls the first position adjustment means based on position information of the edge of the substrate detected by the edge detection means and the substrate information acquired by the acquisition means.
An alignment apparatus comprising: An alignment device according to claim 10;
and a film forming means for forming a film on the substrate through the mask.
A film forming apparatus comprising: a first supporting step of supporting one of a plurality of substrates obtained by dividing a large substrate;
an edge detection step of detecting an edge of the substrate supported in the first supporting step;
and a position adjusting step of adjusting a position of the substrate,
An acquisition step of acquiring substrate information relating to a portion of the large substrate before division, the portion being subjected to position adjustment;
In the position adjustment step, a position of the substrate is adjusted based on position information of the edge of the substrate detected in the edge detection step and the substrate information acquired in the acquisition step;
a transport step of transporting the substrate whose position has been adjusted by the position adjusting step;
a second substrate supporting step of supporting the substrate transported by the transport step;
a mask supporting step of supporting a mask;
an alignment mark detection step of detecting an alignment mark formed on the substrate supported by the second substrate supporting step;
a second position adjusting step of adjusting a relative position between the substrate supported in the second substrate supporting step and the mask supported in the mask supporting step based on a detection result of the alignment mark detecting step,
13. An alignment method comprising: a supporting step of supporting one of the plurality of substrates obtained by dividing the large substrate;
an edge detection step of detecting an edge of the substrate supported in the supporting step;
and a position adjusting step of adjusting a position of the substrate,
An acquisition step of acquiring substrate information relating to a portion of the large substrate before division, the portion being subjected to position adjustment;
In the position adjustment step, a position of the substrate is adjusted based on position information of the edge of the substrate detected in the edge detection step and the substrate information acquired in the acquisition step;
In the edge detection step, a plurality of edges are detected and a plurality of reference marks are detected;
In the position adjustment step, position information of the plurality of reference marks detected in the edge detection step is corrected in accordance with the substrate information, and a position of the substrate is adjusted based on the corrected position information of the plurality of reference marks and position information of the plurality of edges detected in the edge detection step.
13. An alignment method comprising: a supporting step of supporting one of the plurality of substrates obtained by dividing the large substrate;
an edge detection step of detecting an edge of the substrate supported in the supporting step;
and a position adjusting step of adjusting a position of the substrate,
An acquisition step of acquiring substrate information relating to a portion of the large substrate before division, the portion being subjected to position adjustment;
In the position adjustment step, a position of the substrate is adjusted based on position information of the edge of the substrate detected in the edge detection step and the substrate information acquired in the acquisition step;
The substrate information is included in identification information for identifying the substrate.
13. An alignment method comprising: An alignment step of aligning a substrate by the alignment method according to any one of claims 12 to 14;
A film forming process of forming a film on the substrate aligned by the alignment process.
2. A method for producing an electronic device comprising the steps of: an alignment step of aligning a substrate;
a carrying-in step of carrying the substrate aligned by the alignment step into a film forming apparatus;
a film forming step of forming a film on the substrate carried into the film forming apparatus by the carrying-in step,
The alignment step includes:
a supporting step of supporting one of the plurality of substrates obtained by dividing the large substrate;
an edge detection step of detecting an edge of the substrate supported in the supporting step;
a position adjusting step of adjusting the position of the substrate;
and acquiring substrate information relating to a portion of the large substrate before division, the portion being subjected to position adjustment;
In the position adjustment step, a position of the substrate is adjusted based on position information of the edge of the substrate detected in the edge detection step and the substrate information acquired in the acquisition step.
2. A method for producing an electronic device comprising the steps of: and a second alignment step of adjusting a relative position between the substrate carried into the deposition apparatus in the carrying-in step and a mask provided in the deposition apparatus based on a position of an alignment mark formed on the substrate, prior to the deposition step.
The method for manufacturing an electronic device according to claim 16 . A program for causing a computer to execute each step of the alignment method according to any one of claims 12 to 14. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute each step of the alignment method according to any one of claims 12 to 14.

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