JPH0234823Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a wet processing apparatus for immersing and processing a substrate in a processing liquid.

[Conventional technology]

As is well known, a plurality of semiconductor substrates such as wafers and thin substrates such as liquid crystal substrates are generally stored in a storage container and sequentially immersed in processing solutions such as developing, etching, peeling, or washing with water. While
Wet treatment.

Conventional substrate wet processing equipment includes:
For example, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, a plurality of substrates 1 stored in a storage container 2 are loaded into a loader 6,
Processing liquid tanks T1 to T5 for development, resist film stripping, or etching, etc., washing tanks T6 to T7, drying device D, and a wet processing device in which an unloader 7 is installed in parallel, are loaded and unloaded sequentially. It is known to transport while This processing tank T
The substrates 1 are immersed in and taken out of the substrates 1 to T5 and the washing tanks T6 to T7, while the storage container 2 is held between fingers 3 that are mounted on a transport device and are movable up and down and can be opened and closed.

In addition, to talk about such a conveying device in more detail, the details of the conveying device shown in FIG.
It is described in Publication No. 150974. That is, the eighth
To explain this using the schematic diagram in the figure, the horizontal conveyance section 11
Inside, a rail and a wheel that engages with this rail,
and a built-in drive means for driving this wheel,
Inside the elevating section 10, elevating drive means, elevating guide columns,
Furthermore, the clamping part 5 has clamping driving rods 4, 4 projecting in a cantilevered manner, and the clamping driving rods 4, 4 are provided with fingers 3 at their free ends. A mechanism etc. for opening and closing the finger 3 is installed.

In addition, the processing tank T shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 is, for example, a
-117725), a processing tank can be used in which a liquid supply port is provided at the bottom of the tank and a suction pipe is provided near the liquid surface, and the processing liquid in this tank is uniformly circulated. .

[The problem that the idea attempts to solve]

By the way, such a storage container, a substrate erecting jig for loading and unloading, and a substrate wet processing device used are disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 54-4668 and Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 57-44685.
No. 4143, JP-A-58-4143, and JP-A-58-
This is shown in Publication No. 48423, etc.

However, in substrate wet processing equipment that uses a storage container or a substrate erecting jig that transports the substrate in and out of the processing tank, especially in the case of a storage container, the substrate in the processing tank is stored in the storage container. Therefore, even if measures are taken to ensure uniform circulation of the processing solution in the processing tank, there are problems in that the processing solution is not sufficiently circulated between the substrate and the storage container, and the storage container does not stand up to the substrate. In the case of the installation jig, the edge of the board is left inserted, so there are problems with cleaning the board after processing, and removing the board at once from the storage container or the board stand-up jig so that it cannot be used in another jig. There is a problem in that it is difficult to automatically transfer it to a container.

Therefore, in the substrate wet processing apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 59-134834, the storage container and conventional substrate erecting jig are no longer used, and instead, a rod-shaped jig that moves up and down exclusively for the processing tank and a horizontal transfer jig are used. It is possible to avoid the above-mentioned problems with the storage container and the substrate erecting jig that go in and out of the processing tank by providing the jig separately, and also to clean the storage container and the substrate erecting jig at regular intervals. This prevents dust from entering the processing tank.

However, in such a substrate wet processing apparatus, in order to transfer from a rod-shaped jig to a horizontal transfer jig, these jigs are simply crossed vertically.
It is difficult to reliably insert the substrate into the grooves carved in each jig, and not only is there still difficulty in transferring, but there is also a risk that the substrate may fall during horizontal transfer.

[Means to solve the problem]

Therefore, the present invention attempts to eliminate the various problems mentioned above in conventional equipment, and its gist is to direct the processing liquid to the surface treatment tank through a porous rectifier plate provided at the bottom of the device. In a substrate wet processing apparatus that performs surface treatment on a plurality of substrates that are supplied to the surface treatment tank and arranged in parallel at equal pitches in a substantially vertical manner in the surface treatment tank, a plurality of the surface treatment tanks are installed in series. , on the rectifying plate of the surface treatment tank, the opening thereof is widened in a tapered shape, and grooves having a U-shaped cross section for standing and holding the end of the inserted substrate are carved at a constant pitch. A pair of substrate holding plates 27 are provided with substrate holding rods 23 fixed in a horizontal manner, and a pair of substrate holding plates 27 are formed with grooves having the same pitch as the grooves of the substrate holding rods 23 and whose openings are widened into a tapered shape. are arranged perpendicularly and facing each other, forming a finger device that can freely hold and remove the substrate between these opposing grooves,
A substrate wet processing apparatus characterized in that the finger device is further equipped with an elevating and moving device for moving the substrate holding plate 27 in and out of the processing tank and for horizontally transferring the finger device to an adjacent surface treatment tank. be.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the configuration of the present invention will be explained in detail using examples. First, to give an overview of the entire substrate wet processing apparatus to which this embodiment is applied, the processing tank group (8 to 10
For example, similar to the conventional apparatus shown in Fig. 9, a large number of processing tanks are installed in series, and these tanks are designed to be able to immerse 25 to 50 substrates at a time. The finger device reciprocates. Therefore, the finger device moves up and down and also horizontally moves along the group of processing tanks.

Regarding the processing tank T in such a substrate wet processing apparatus, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the processing tank T has two cleaning tanks.
The liquid overflowing from the inner tank 20 is stored in the outer tank 21, and this is supplied from the bottom of the inner layer 20 by a circulation pump P, which is installed above the bottom of the inner tank 20. In addition, cleaning is performed by uniformly bringing the liquid into contact with the surface of the substrate 1 while making the liquid flow uniform through a rectifying plate 22 formed of a porous plate.

In this embodiment, substrate holding rods 23, 23, which are two parallel rod-shaped jigs, are fixed on the current plate 22. Grooves 24 having a U-shaped cross section are formed at equal intervals on the substrate holding rod 23 to hold the substrate 1 vertically. Tapered portions 2 are provided at the openings of these grooves 24 to make it easier to stand the substrate 1 upright.
5 is provided. In addition, the current plate 22 has a third
As shown in the figure, an outflow hole 26 is provided corresponding to the groove 24, through which the processing liquid below the current plate 22 flows out.

Next, regarding the finger device, the conveying device (elevating and moving device) used in this example is the 8th finger device.
It utilizes a conveyance mechanism that is almost similar to the conventional finger conveyance mechanism shown in the figure. That is, the horizontal conveying section 11, the elevating section 10, the holding section 5, this holding section 5
In a transport mechanism consisting of clamping drive rods 4, 4 protruding from the substrate, the clamping drive rods 4 are provided with substrate clamping plates 27, shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, in place of the conventional fingers that clamp the storage container 2. 27 is suspended by a cantilevered support rod 28. A predetermined number of parallel substrate clamping grooves 29 into which the ends of the substrate 1 are inserted are cut into the pair of substrate clamping plates 27, 27. The intervals between these grooves 29 are the same as the grooves 24 formed in the substrate holding rod 23, and the openings of these grooves 29 are also provided with tapered portions 30. A pair of substrate holding plates 2
7 and 27 reciprocate a certain distance in opposite directions, as shown by arrow B in Fig. 5, or rotate forward and backward by a certain angle in opposite directions, as shown by arrow A in the same figure. The operation is performed by a drive source built into the holding part 5. That is, in this holding part 5, for example, an air cylinder or
A mechanism such as a torque actuator or a motor and gears is built in, and these mechanisms actuate the support rod 28 in the direction of arrow A or B.

The operation of this embodiment is performed as follows. That is, a normal substrate storage container is placed in a position opposite to a table opening of a loader (not shown), and a substrate holder that moves up and down by retracting from the table opening is raised through an opening in the bottom of the storage container. , the substrate in the storage container is lifted from the storage container, moved to the upper part of the loader, and positioned between the pair of waiting substrate clamping plates 27, 27. Therefore, by using the holding part 5 shown in FIG.
These substrate clamping plates 27 are closed, and the ends of the substrate 1 are inserted into the grooves 29 of the substrate clamping plates 27 and clamped.
Next, after the substrate holder is lowered, a horizontal transport means similar to the conventional one is driven to move the substrate 1 above a predetermined processing layer T while holding it therebetween. next,
A horizontal conveying means similar to the conventional one is driven to lower the substrate 1 while holding it into the processing tank T, and here, the first
Grooves 24 of the substrate holding rods 23, 23 as shown in the figure
After inserting the end of each board 1 and standing the board 1 on these board holding rods 23, 23, the board holding plates 27, 27 are moved outward in the direction of the arrow A or B. Thus, the substrate 1 is released from the substrate holding plate 27, and then the substrate holding plate 27 is raised. After these substrates 1 are immersed in the processing liquid for a predetermined time and subjected to a predetermined surface treatment, the substrate holding plate 27 descends into the processing tank T again, and after sandwiching the substrates 1, rises and moves to the next processing tank. , and then repeat the same operation.

In addition, in the embodiment described above, the substrate holding rod 23,
23 is directly fixed to the rectifying plate 22, but for example, it may be mounted horizontally with a slight distance from the rectifying plate 22, and the board holding rods 23 may be one slightly wider one instead of two. It may be something.

However, in the case of one groove, in order to give a sense of stability to the substrate 1 on which it is placed, it is desirable that the shape of the groove be similar to the outer peripheral edge of the substrate.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the treatment tank T
Although we have explained the case where the treatment tank is made up of a double tank consisting of an inner tank and an outer tank, it is not necessarily necessary to have a double tank, and the treatment tank can be composed of a normal treatment layer,
Of course, the processing liquid may be collected from the upper part of the processing tank, and the collected processing liquid may be circulated from the bottom of the processing tank via a current plate.

Further, the grooves 24 formed in the substrate holding rod 23 are not necessarily vertical as shown in FIG. 4, but may be formed slightly inclined.

[Effect of idea]

According to the present invention, unlike conventional general processing equipment, there is no need to take storage containers or substrate mounting jigs into and out of the surface treatment tank, so less dust is brought into the surface treatment tank. Of course, the vertical substrate holding plate 2
Since only one pair of 7 is taken in and out, the amount of processing liquid taken out between processing tanks can be reduced.

In addition, unlike the processing apparatus described in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 59-134834, in which the substrate is simply placed on a jig, the substrate can be horizontally transferred from one processing tank to another, and the processing When a large number of substrates are taken in and taken out from the tank at once, the substrates are held between the pair of substrate holding plates 27, so that the substrates do not fall and can be taken out and transferred in a stable manner.

Furthermore, as shown in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-134834, two substrate holding rods are used in the surface treatment tank.
3 that can be raised and lowered freely, the substrate holding rod 23 is fixed to the processing tank, and only the substrate holding plate 27 of the finger device can be taken in and out of the processing tank, so it is especially difficult to use the Not only is the structure simple because no elevating device is provided, but since there is no elevating device for the substrate holding rods 23 at the bottom of each processing tank, the flow of the processing liquid by the rectifier plate is not obstructed.

Since the substrates are erected in the processing tank using only the substrate holding rods 23 that are fixed horizontally, the contact area between the substrates and the substrate holding rods 23 is minimized, and this also allows the processing in the processing tank to be carried out easily. The flow of the liquid is not obstructed, and in combination with the provision of a rectifying plate, uniform processing is performed.

The substrate holding rod 23 and the substrate clamping plate 27 have wide grooves with tapered openings, so when inserting or clamping a substrate, the edges of the substrate can be inserted into the grooves. Not only can it be slid in without damaging the board, but especially
With the substrate holding rod 23, the substrate can be reliably inserted into the groove having a U-shaped cross section and can be set upright.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a sectional view of a processing tank according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of the main part of Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a sectional view of another embodiment. Enlarged view of main parts,
FIG. 5 is a front view of the conveying device according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a sectional view of Fig. 5, and Fig. 7 is a sectional view of Fig. 6.
8 shows a side sectional view of the conventional example, and FIG. 9 shows a front view of FIG. 8. 1... Board, 4... Holding drive rod, 23... Board holding rod, 24... Groove, 27... Board holding plate, 29
...Groove, T...processing tank.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] The treatment liquid is supplied into the surface treatment tank through a porous rectifying plate provided at the bottom of the tank, and a plurality of them are arranged in parallel in a substantially vertical manner at equal pitches within the surface treatment tank. In a substrate wet processing apparatus that performs surface treatment on a single substrate, a plurality of surface treatment tanks are arranged in series, and an opening thereof is widened in a tapered shape on the rectifying plate of the surface treatment tank, and , A board holding rod 23 in which grooves with a U-shaped cross section are carved at a constant pitch for standing and holding the end of the inserted board is fixed horizontally, and the grooves are the same as the grooves of the board holding rod 23. A pair of substrate holding plates 27 each having pitched grooves with tapered openings are arranged vertically to face each other, and the substrate can be freely held and removed between these opposing grooves. A finger device is formed, and an elevating and moving device is added to the finger device to move the substrate holding plate 27 in and out of the processing tank and to horizontally transfer the finger device to an adjacent surface treatment tank. Substrate wet processing equipment.