JPH08288250A - Liquid drip apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To prevent contamination caused by a supporting member like an O-ring at a center of a substrate without a variation in productive process. CONSTITUTION: A liquid drip apparatus is made up of a carrying mechanism and a gas spouting mechanism. In the carrying mechanism, a substrate (W) is supported on its edge part and carried by a pair of rollers 12a. The gas spouting mechanism has a pair of air knives 21 and 22 and upper and lower sides of the substrate (W). The air knives 21 and 22 have each slit-shaped spouting opening 21a or 22a at the top thereof. The upper spouting opening 21 a has a downward convex curve shape which is more projected at the center, while the lower spouting opening 22a has a downward recessed-line shape more recessed to the center. These curved lines have a curvature almost equal to that caused by deflection of the substrate (W) carried by the carrying mechanism. In this constitution, gas is spouted out uniformly all over the substrate (W).

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

This invention relates to a glass substrate for liquid crystal,
The present invention relates to a substrate drainer that removes a processing liquid such as a developing liquid, an etching liquid, and a cleaning liquid attached to the surface of a substrate such as a color filter substrate, a photomask substrate, and a semiconductor wafer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a substrate surface processing apparatus for performing processing such as development, etching, and cleaning on a surface of a substrate, the developing unit, the etching unit, and the cleaning unit carry out horizontal transport of the substrates one by one while transporting them horizontally. It is known that a substrate is surface-treated by passing it through a processing unit such as a chamber and supplying a processing liquid to the substrate surface in each processing unit (for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 3-33153). In such a substrate surface processing apparatus, the processing liquid supplied onto the substrate is carried out together with the substrate to the outside of the processing unit, so that the apparatus is contaminated and the subsequent processing is adversely affected.

In order to prevent the processing liquid from being taken out,
A device for injecting a gas (for example, nitrogen gas) from a nozzle toward the surface of the substrate immediately before the substrate exits the processing unit and returning the processing liquid on the surface of the substrate toward the processing unit is an actual open flat 3- It is proposed in Japanese Patent No. 126046 and Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 4-48621.

By the way, in such a structure in which the gas is jetted toward the surface of the substrate, the jetting is performed while the substrate is being conveyed. At that time, it is general that both edges of the substrate are supported and conveyed. Is. However, in this configuration, as shown in FIG. 6, the substrate 91 bends near its center, and the gap between the slit 93 of the air knife 92 for injecting gas and the surface of the substrate 91 becomes uneven. Therefore, the gas is
1 was not uniformly sprayed, and a region where the treatment liquid was not sufficiently removed was generated on the surface of the substrate 91.

Therefore, in order to prevent the bending of the substrate, as shown in FIG.
A structure in which the O-ring 95 also supports the central portion of the above has been proposed (JP-A-63-15421).
With this configuration, the bending of the substrate 91 can be prevented, and the processing liquid can be sufficiently removed over the entire area of the surface of the substrate 91.

[0006]

However, in this conventional technique, since the O-ring 95 contacts the effective area on the back surface of the substrate 91, the effective area may be contaminated with particles or scratched. There was a problem of getting lost. Further, the substrate 91 is the O-ring 9
By contacting with No. 5, the temperature of the region centering on the contact surface is lowered, which causes a problem that the substrate 91 has uneven processing.

The substrate drainer according to the present invention is intended to prevent the substrate from being contaminated, scratched, and unevenly processed, which are caused by supporting the central portion of the substrate by a supporting member such as an O-ring. .

[0008]

In order to achieve such an object, as a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the substrate drainer of the present invention adheres to a substrate by blowing a gas onto the substrate. A substrate drainer for removing the processing liquid being provided, which is provided above and below the substrate to be transported by the transporting means, which supports both ends of the substrate and transports the substrate in a predetermined transport direction. And a gas jetting means having a downwardly convex curved jet port (claim 1).

In this substrate draining device, the gas jetting means may be configured such that the curved shape of the jetting port is determined according to the bending of the substrate carried by the carrying means (claim 2). ).

Furthermore, in this substrate draining device,
The gas injection means may be arranged such that its injection port is inclined with respect to the direction orthogonal to the substrate transport direction (the third aspect of the invention).

[0011]

According to the apparatus for draining a substrate according to claim 1 configured as described above, the substrate is transported while the both ends of the substrate are supported by the transporting means. At that time, the substrate is near the center thereof. Bends at. On the other hand, since the ejection port of the gas ejection unit has a curved shape that is convex downward, the distance between the ejection port and the surface of the substrate is more uniform than in the conventional example in which the ejection port has a linear shape. Become. Therefore, it becomes possible to uniformly blow the gas over the entire surface of the substrate.

In particular, according to the second aspect, since the curved shape of the ejection port is determined according to the bending of the substrate, the distance between the ejection port and the surface of the substrate becomes completely uniform.
Therefore, it becomes possible to blow the gas over the entire surface of the substrate with higher uniformity.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the treatment liquid adhered to the substrate surface is removed from the substrate by the gas jetting means arranged so that the jet port is inclined with respect to the direction orthogonal to the substrate transport direction. While being washed away by the corner, it is blown away from the corner.

[0014]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in order to further clarify the constitution and operation of the present invention described above. FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a cleaning processing apparatus equipped with a substrate drainer according to the present invention.

The substrate drainer is disposed inside a drying chamber 2 adjacent to the cleaning chamber 1 and is cleaned by spraying pure water or the like (the processing liquid in the present invention) in the cleaning chamber 1. The droplets attached to the formed rectangular substrate (hereinafter, simply referred to as a substrate) W are removed. Drying room 2
In the side wall of the cleaning chamber 1 on the opposite side of the cleaning chamber 1, a loading port 1a for loading the substrate W is provided on a partition wall between the cleaning chamber 1 and the drying chamber 2,
Inlet 2a for guiding the substrate W from the cleaning chamber 1 to the drying chamber 2
However, an outlet 2b for unloading the substrate W is provided on each of the outlet side walls of the drying chamber 2. The transport path of the substrate W is configured so that the substrate W loaded from the loading port 1a is unloaded to the unloading port 2b via the loading port 2a.

The cleaning chamber 1 is provided with a plurality of cleaning nozzles 3 which are vertically opposed to each other with the substrate W to be conveyed interposed therebetween, and a cleaning liquid such as pure water supplied from a cleaning liquid supply source (not shown) is supplied to the cleaning chamber 1.
By spraying the upper and lower surfaces of the substrate W conveyed from each cleaning nozzle 3, unnecessary substances and the like attached to the surface of the substrate W are washed away. At the bottom of the cleaning chamber 1, there is provided a discharge port 1c for discharging unnecessary substances removed from the substrate W together with the cleaning liquid. The transport mechanism for horizontally transporting the substrate W along the above-described transport path is the same as that in the drying chamber 2 described later, and the description thereof is omitted here.

Next, the structure of the substrate draining device provided inside the drying chamber 2 will be described. FIG. 2 is a side view of the inside of the drying chamber 2 in which the substrate drainer is arranged, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of the inside of the drying chamber 2.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the substrate drainer 5 provided inside the drying chamber 2 is transported by the transport mechanism 10 for transporting the substrate W in the horizontal direction and the transport mechanism 10. First to inject gas toward the upper and lower surfaces of the substrate W
The gas injection mechanism 20 and the second gas injection mechanism 30 which injects gas toward the upper and lower surfaces of the substrate W behind the first gas injection mechanism 20.

The transfer mechanism 10 comprises a plurality of idle rollers 11 on which a substrate W is placed and a plurality of drive rollers 12 which are axially supported in parallel in the transfer direction. A pair of body frames 1
Both ends of the drive roller 12 are rotatably supported in a horizontal direction in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction via bearing members 14. A pair of rollers 12 a with steps are arranged opposite to each other near both ends of the drive roller 12. The edge of the substrate W is placed between the steps of the pair of rollers 12a. Each drive roller 12 is linked to a motor via a chain or the like (not shown), and is configured to convey the substrate W cleaned in the cleaning chamber 1 in a horizontal posture and to carry it out from the carry-out port 2b. Above each drive roller 12, a pinch roller 15 that presses the lower surface of the substrate W onto the drive roller 12 is rotatably provided. While pinching the substrate W between the pinch roller 15 and the drive roller 12, the substrate W is forcibly transported without slipping.

The first gas jetting mechanism 20 is provided with a pair of air knives 21 and 22 which are arranged to face each other above and below the substrate W to be transported. FIG. 4 is an enlarged view around the pair of air knives 21 and 22. As shown in FIG. 4, the upper and lower air knives 21 and 22 are integrally formed by stacking plate members whose tips are tapered so as to face each other, and have slits at their tips. It is provided with the injection ports 21a and 22a formed in the above, and ejects a band-shaped air current (air) of high-pressure air supplied from a gas supply source (not shown).

The jet 21 of the air knife 21 located above
“A” has a curved shape that is convex downward and protrudes toward the center. On the other hand, the injection port 22a of the air knife 22 located below has a curved shape which is also downwardly convex,
It is depressed in the central part. In addition, both injection ports 21a,
The curved shape of 22a is substantially the same as the bending curvature of the substrate W transported by the transport mechanism 10. Although the values differ depending on the size and hardness of the substrate W, in this embodiment, the difference Δt between the most protruding (or recessed) portions of the ejection ports 21a and 22a and both ends is, for example, about 3 mm. Has become.

With this structure, the upper air knife 21
The distance between the ejection port 21a of the air knife 22 and the surface of the bent substrate W is always uniform, and the ejection port 22 of the lower air knife 22 is
Since the distance between a and the curved surface of the substrate W is always uniform, it is possible to uniformly eject the gas over the entire surface of the substrate W. Furthermore, these air knives 2
The injection ports 21a and 22a of 1 and 22 are formed to have the same width as or longer than the width of the substrate W in the direction orthogonal to the transport direction, and the gas can be ejected over the entire surface of the substrate W.

The upper and lower air knives 21, 22
Are inclined with respect to the substrate W.
Specifically, the air knives 21 and 22 are shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG.
Is arranged so as to face in the direction opposite to the transport direction of the substrate W, that is, at an angle of θ1 = about 60 ° with respect to the transport direction of the substrate W. Therefore, the high-pressure airflow ejected from the ejection ports 21a and 22a blows off the droplets attached to the upper and lower surfaces of the substrate W in the direction opposite to the transport direction of the substrate W. The blown-off droplets are discharged from a discharge port 2c provided in the lower part of the drying chamber 2.

Furthermore, the upper and lower air knives 2 described above
1, 22 are installed between the main body frames 13 via a pair of mounting members 25 in a state of being inclined with respect to a direction orthogonal to the transport direction in a horizontal plane. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the air knife 21 (22) has a angle θ 2 = 2 with respect to a direction perpendicular to the transport direction of the substrate W.
It is arranged to make an angle of about 7 °. Therefore, the high-pressure air stream jetted from the jet port 21a causes the droplets attached to the upper and lower surfaces of the substrate W to be blown off from the corner while being swept to the corner opposite to the transport direction of the substrate W. There is. In the present embodiment, the inclination angle θ2 is set to about 7 ° in order to suppress the entire length of the apparatus in the carrying direction, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the liquid droplets can be applied to the corner portion of the substrate W. The angle of inclination θ2 is 45
゜ is preferred.

The second gas injection mechanism 30 includes a pair of air knives 31 and 32 having the same structure as the air knives 21 and 22 of the first gas injection mechanism 20 described above, and the substrate is not blown away by the first gas injection mechanism 20. The droplets remaining on the corners of W are removed.

The upper and lower air knives 31, 32 of the second gas injection mechanism 30 are arranged in a state in which they are inclined in the opposite direction to the air knife 21 of the first gas injection mechanism 20 in the horizontal plane. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the air knife 31 (32) is arranged so as to form an angle of θ3 = about 7 ° in the opposite direction to the inclination angle θ2. Although the tilt angle θ3 is set to about 7 °, the tilt angle is not limited to this and may be tilted in the direction opposite to the tilt angle θ2. The inclination angle .theta.3 is preferably 45.degree. From the viewpoint of being washed away to the portion.

By arranging the air knives 21 and 22 so as to be inclined with respect to the direction orthogonal to the transport direction as described above, it will be described how the droplets adhering to the substrate W are removed. Explained. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state in which the droplets are removed.

As shown in FIG. 5, the first gas injection mechanism 20.
Thus, the liquid droplets attached to the entire upper and lower surfaces of the substrate W are blown off from the substrate W while being swept away at the corners of the substrate W. The liquid droplets remaining on the corners of the substrate W without being blown off by the first gas ejecting mechanism 20 are swept away from the corners of the substrate W by the second gas ejecting mechanism 30 along the edges of the substrate W. As a result, the adhesive force between the droplet and the substrate W is weakened, and the droplet is finally blown off from the substrate W.

As described above, in the substrate drainer 5 of this embodiment, the jet nozzles 2 of the air knives 21 and 22 are used.
By making 1a and 22a have a curved shape that is convex downward, the injection ports 21a and 2 of the air knives 21 and 22 are formed.
The distance between 2a and the surface of the bent substrate W can always be made uniform. Therefore, the gas can be ejected uniformly over the entire surface of the substrate W. Therefore, the droplets can be sufficiently removed over the entire area of the surface of the substrate W, and yet the substrate W does not support the central portion,
The generation of particles can be suppressed to prevent contamination and scratches on the substrate W, and the temperature lowering due to the supporter that supports the substrate W at the center does not occur. Can be prevented.

In this embodiment, since the curved shapes of the ejection openings 21a and 22a are determined according to the bending of the substrate W, the distance between the ejection openings 21a and 22a and the surface of the substrate W is completely uniform. Becomes Therefore, the gas can be sprayed over the entire surface of the substrate W with higher uniformity, and the droplet removing performance can be improved.

In the above embodiment, the two-stage air knives are arranged on the upper surface and the lower surface of the substrate which is horizontally held and conveyed, respectively, so as to be opposite to the conveying direction. It is not limited to this. For example, two stages of air knives may be arranged in opposite directions to each other only on the upper surface side of the substrate, and only one stage of air knife may be provided on the lower surface side of the substrate. An air knife may be arranged. Further, a third gas injecting mechanism tilted in the opposite direction to the second gas injecting mechanism may be provided in the subsequent stage so that the liquid is completely drained. Further, the air knives may not be arranged in two stages on the upper surface and the lower surface of the substrate, and the air knives may be arranged in one stage each.

Although the air knives are arranged on the upper surface and the lower surface of the substrate in the above embodiment, the air knives may be arranged on either the upper surface or the lower surface.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the cleaning processing apparatus is described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the developing solution adhering to the substrate processed in the developing apparatus is replaced with nitrogen gas. You may employ | adopt in the structure removed using.

Although some embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments and can be implemented in various modes without departing from the scope of the present invention. Of course, you can do that.

[0035]

As described above, in the substrate drainer of the present invention, the gas can be uniformly blown over the entire surface of the substrate while the substrate is bent without supporting the central portion of the substrate. Therefore, the treatment liquid can be sufficiently removed in the entire area on the surface of the substrate, and yet contamination or scratches on the substrate and occurrence of treatment unevenness can be prevented.

In the substrate drainer according to the third aspect of the present invention, the processing liquid adhering to the surface of the substrate is washed away by being blown away from the corners of the substrate. No processing liquid remains. Therefore, the processing liquid on the substrate can be removed more satisfactorily.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a cleaning processing apparatus of a first embodiment equipped with a substrate drainer 5 according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the inside of a drying chamber 2 in which the substrate drainer 5 is arranged.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the inside of the drying chamber 2.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the periphery of a pair of air knives 21 and 22.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of draining.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional substrate drainer.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional substrate draining device that drains liquid while supporting a central portion of the substrate.

[Explanation of Codes] 1 ... Cleaning chamber 1a ... Input port 1c ... Discharge port 2 ... Drying chamber 2a ... Inlet port 2b ... Outgoing port 2c ... Discharge port 3 ... Cleaning nozzle 5 ... Substrate draining device 10 ... Transfer mechanism 11 Idler roller 12 ... Drive roller 12a ... Roller 13 ... Main body frame 14 ... Bearing member 15 ... Pinch roller 20 ... First gas injection mechanism 21,22 ... Air knives 21a, 22a ... Injection port 25 ... Mounting member 30 ... Second gas Injection mechanism 31, 32 ... Air knife W ... Substrate

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Office reference number FI Technical indication location H01L 21/306 H01L 21/30 569D 21/68 21/306 J

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A substrate drainer for removing a processing liquid adhering to a substrate by blowing a gas onto the substrate, wherein the substrate is transported in a predetermined transport direction while supporting both ends of the substrate. An apparatus for draining a substrate, characterized by comprising: a means and a gas ejecting means provided above or below the substrate conveyed by the conveying means and having a downwardly convex curved ejection port. 2. The liquid draining device for a substrate according to claim 1, wherein the gas injecting means has a curved shape of the ejection port according to the bending of the substrate conveyed by the conveying means. Cutting device. 3. The substrate liquid draining device according to claim 1, wherein the gas jetting means is arranged such that its jetting port is inclined with respect to the direction orthogonal to the substrate transport direction. Substrate drainer.