HK1112293B - Pellicle storage container - Google Patents

Description

Protective film assembly storage container

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a container for storing pellicle components for lithography, which can store, store and transport pellicle components for lithography used as dust-proof devices in the manufacture of products such as semiconductor devices, printed circuit boards, liquid crystal displays, etc.

Background

In the manufacture of semiconductor devices such as LSIs and articles such as liquid crystal displays, patterns are formed by irradiating a semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate for liquid crystal with light, but if dust adheres to a photomask or reticle (hereinafter referred to as "photomask") used at this time, the dust blocks light or refracts light, and the transferred pattern is damaged.

Therefore, these operations are usually performed in a clean room, but even if it is difficult to keep the mask clean frequently, a method of attaching a pellicle as a dust-proof device to the surface of the mask is adopted.

At this time, the foreign matter is not directly attached to the mask surface but attached to the pellicle, so that the foreign matter on the pellicle does not affect the transfer printing as long as the mask pattern is focused in the photolithography step.

However, although the closed space formed by attaching the pellicle to the mask has an effect of preventing foreign matter from entering the mask from the outside, it is difficult to prevent foreign matter from adhering to the mask surface if the foreign matter adheres to the pellicle itself and is inside the closed space. Therefore, in addition to the high cleanability of the pellicle itself, the pellicle container used for storage and transportation is strongly required to have the performance of maintaining the cleanability. Specifically, a structure which is excellent in antistatic performance, is made of a material having a small amount of dust generation when rubbed, and can prevent contact between the pellicle and the component as much as possible, and a high-rigidity structure which can prevent deformation when an external force is applied are required.

The container for housing a pellicle is generally manufactured by injection molding or vacuum molding a resin such as Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) resin or acrylic acid. The molding methods have advantages of smooth surface, less contamination of foreign matters or dust, no seam in one-piece molding, less contamination of dust or foreign matters, easy production even if the shape of the article is complicated, excellent mass productivity, and low cost.

A container for housing a pellicle for semiconductor or printed circuit board, which has an outer shape side of about 200 to 300mm, is generally manufactured by injection molding. As described above, in order to keep the pellicle storage container clean, it is required to have high rigidity that is hard to deform even when an external force is applied, but there is a problem that rigidity is less in the pellicle storage container having the side length of 200 to 300 mm.

In the prior art, a small container is relatively easy to ensure its rigidity, and the thickness of an important part can be easily increased by changing the thickness of a part by injection molding.

On the other hand, a large pellicle unit container mainly used for a pellicle unit for liquid crystal having a side length of more than 500mm is generally manufactured by vacuum forming a synthetic resin sheet such as ABS or acrylic.

This is because, in the case of injection molding in which resin is injected into a mold at a high speed from one or a plurality of gates, the resin flow distance is too long, which makes the production difficult. In the vacuum molding method, a heated resin sheet is placed on a mold and vacuum suction molding is performed, so that even a large article can be easily produced.

However, the vacuum forming method cannot form a thick wall, and although the rib portion can be used for some degree of reinforcement, it is basically produced by bending a sheet having the same thickness, and thus it is difficult to produce a high-rigidity article using the method.

Examples of such ribs are shown in patent document 1 and the like, for example, with respect to the container body. The lid body is provided with, for example, a groined rib or an X-shaped rib (not shown) as shown in fig. 3.

Further, if reinforcement by the rib portion alone is insufficient, for example, as shown in patent document 2, it can be connected to another reinforcement to secure rigidity.

[ patent document 1] Japanese laid-open No. 2000-

[ patent document 2] Japanese patent application No. 2005-

Disclosure of Invention

Problems to be solved by the invention

When the cover is opened by removing the protective film assembly from the container, a strong external air entrainment is generated in the container. In this case, suspended matter in the air or foreign matter adhering to the periphery of the container may be entrained with the outside air and adhere to the protective film assembly.

Since the cover of the large-sized container for the pellicle is also large, even if the cover is slowly lifted, such a phenomenon is likely to occur.

The cover is required to have high rigidity in order to prevent deformation due to external force during transportation or the like, but this phenomenon becomes more remarkable as the rigidity of the cover becomes higher. This is to suppress a slight deformation when the lid body is lifted from the storage container body.

Therefore, it has not been possible to provide a container for housing a pellicle, which has high rigidity for ensuring the cleanliness of the container interior and which does not involve foreign matter attached to the pellicle when the lid is opened.

In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a container for housing a pellicle, which has sufficient rigidity to withstand external forces during storage and transportation, and which can prevent the occurrence of a strong outside air blow when the cover is opened, and which can prevent foreign matter from adhering to the pellicle.

Means for solving the problems

The protective film assembly container of the invention is composed of the following components: a container body on which a pellicle is placed; a lid body which is covered with the protective film assembly and is engaged with the container body in a manner that the peripheral edge portions thereof are fitted to each other, characterized in that: the cover is formed of a resin sheet, and at least 5 ribs are provided on the upper surface of the cover, the ribs forming an angle of 10 DEG or less with one side of the outer shape of the cover, and the ribs do not intersect with the other ribs.

Then, the angle between the rib and the short side of the outer shape of the lid body is preferably within 10 °.

Effects in comparison with the prior art

The cover body of the protective film assembly container has enough rigidity for bearing external force during storage and transportation due to the rib, and is easy to bend and deform when the cover body is opened, so that violent entrainment of outside air flowing into the container when the cover is opened can be inhibited, and the probability of foreign matters adhering to the protective film assembly is greatly reduced.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an embodiment of a container for housing a pellicle according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic side view showing a state where the protective film assembly housing container of the present invention is opened.

Fig. 3 is a schematic perspective view showing an embodiment of a protective film assembly storage container using a conventional lid.

Fig. 4 is a schematic side view showing a state where a container is opened using a protective film assembly of a conventional lid.

Description of the main reference numerals

1 cover body

2 Container body

3 Rib

11 cover body

12 Container body

13 Rib

14 protective film assembly

21 cover body

22 container body

23 Rib

31 cover body

32 container body

33 Rib

34 protective film assembly

amount of bending of a, b

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the pellicle assembly storing container according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an example of a container for housing a pellicle according to the present invention, and fig. 2 is a schematic side view showing a state where a lid body is lifted from a container main body.

As shown in fig. 1, a protective film assembly (not shown) is placed on the container body 2 and covered by the lid body 1. Then, the lid body 1 and the container body 2 are sealed and fixed by an adhesive tape or the like (not shown), or fixed by a fastening tool such as a jig (not shown).

The container body 2 and the lid body 1 can be formed by bonding resin plates, but in view of cleanliness, mass productivity, etc., a vacuum forming method is preferable.

The lid and the container body may be made of any suitable material selected from resins such as acrylic, ABS, and PVC, but materials capable of preventing static electricity are preferably used in order to reduce adhesion of foreign matter due to static electricity. Then, the cover is preferably transparent or translucent to confirm the inside condition, and the container body is preferably black to confirm whether foreign materials are attached.

In fig. 1, the lid 1 is fitted to the peripheral edge of the container body 2, and the gap between the lid 1 and the container body 2 during fitting is preferably minimized to prevent foreign matter from entering from the outside.

Then, 5 ribs 3 for reinforcement are provided on the upper surface of the lid body 1. The rib 3 is angled within 10 ° from one side of the outer shape of the lid (within 10 ° from the short side in the example of fig. 1), and the ribs must not intersect each other.

The width, height, arrangement, number, cross-sectional shape, etc. of the ribs may be appropriately designed in accordance with the rigidity required for the lid body, and the form of the figure is not limited at all.

The ribs 3 are angled from the edge of the lid profile to within 10 degrees of practical problem and can be suitably arranged, but preferably parallel, in particular parallel to the short sides. This is because the rigidity can be improved more in parallel to the short side having a short distance than in parallel to the long side, and the effect of the rib can be maximized.

Then, since each rib is not crossed by other ribs, the rigidity in the vertical direction (longitudinal direction) of the rib can be greatly improved as compared with a rib having a vertical direction (as illustrated in fig. 3, for example).

For example, as shown in fig. 3, ribs intersecting with each other on the upper surface of the lid body 21 are, at first glance, considered to be well-balanced and excellent in rigidity, but these structures cannot actually achieve the desired rigidity.

That is, although the ribs of the same shape produced by the vacuum forming method ensure rigidity by the longitudinal surface being bent, the other ribs crossing (connecting) each other cut off the rigidity of the longitudinal surface.

The present invention has no crossed rib, so that the original rigidity of the rib can be exerted. Further, since the present invention has almost only the rib portions in the same direction, the bending rigidity in the direction perpendicular to the rib portions can be greatly reduced.

However, in actual storage and transportation, when the lid body is fitted to the container body, the rigidity of the container body can completely support the lid body, and therefore, the reduction in bending rigidity does not cause any problem at all. On the contrary, this produces a great advantage when the lid is lifted from the container body.

When the lid body is opened from the container body, the lid body 11 is easily bent as shown in FIG. 2. In this case, the support position when the lid 11 is lifted is preferably lifted from both short sides in the rib arrangement shown in fig. 2, and therefore, it is particularly suitable for providing a handle or the like.

Then, the lid body 11 is flexibly bent from the earliest stage at the time of opening the lid at a low bending rigidity in a direction perpendicular to the rib (in this example, the longitudinal direction). Therefore, the air smoothly flows into the cover body and the container body statically and statically at the initial stage of opening the cover, so that the cover body can be easily opened without resistance, the condition of violent inflow of external air can not occur, and the probability of foreign matters attached to the internal protective film component can be greatly reduced.

[ examples ]

Hereinafter, examples of the present invention will be described, but the present invention is not limited thereto. An ABS resin sheet (t 3mm, black) capable of preventing static electricity was formed into a protective film module storage container body 2 having a shape shown in fig. 1 by vacuum forming.

The container body has a high central portion and can be loaded with a pellicle.

Next, an ABS resin sheet (transparent with t of 3 mm) capable of preventing static electricity was formed into a lid body 1 having a shape shown in fig. 1 by vacuum forming. The lid body 1 is provided with ribs 3 at five positions on the upper surface, the rib height at four positions being 20mm and 50mm, and the rib height at the center being 20mm and 100 mm.

Of course, the lid body 1 may be fitted to the container main body 2, and the appearance after assembly is as shown in fig. 1. The overall size is 1450 mm in length, 1330 mm in width, 95mm in height.

The pellicle film assembly container was carried into a clean room of class 1, thoroughly washed with a neutral rinse and pure water, and then dried. Then, a protective film assembly (outer size 1366 × 1146, not shown) in which foreign substances were inspected by a condenser lamp (light amount 30 million lux) in a darkroom was carefully housed in the container.

Then, whether or not foreign matter adheres to the pellicle assembly inside the container is evaluated by opening and closing the lid.

As shown in fig. 2, 2 workers grip both short sides of the lid 11 and take them off slowly.

At this time, the lid 11 is slightly bent after being opened, and when completely separated from the container body 12, the central portion is bent by about 20mm (a in fig. 2). After that, the interior of the pellicle 14 is carefully taken out, and the foreign matter inspection is performed by the spot lamp in the darkroom. As a result, it was found that no increase in foreign matter was observed on the protective film.

After that, in order to confirm that the experiment was repeated 4 more times, the foreign matter on the protective film was not increased at all.

In addition, at this time, the cover 11 and the container body 12 are cleaned again every time, and the same object is reused by the protective film assembly for testing.

Next, a 1000 × 1300 × 8mmt aluminum plate (weighing about 28kg) was placed on the lid body 1 (more precisely, on the rib 3) to evaluate the rigidity.

Then, the appearance of the lid body was observed from the lateral direction, and it was found that the lid body was not significantly bent.

[ comparative example ]

An ABS resin sheet (t 3mm, black) capable of preventing static electricity was formed into a pellicle unit housing container body 22 having a shape shown in fig. 3 by vacuum forming.

The container body has a high central portion and can be loaded with a pellicle.

Next, an ABS resin sheet (transparent with t of 3 mm) capable of preventing static electricity was formed into a lid body 21 having a shape shown in fig. 3 by vacuum forming.

The upper surface of the lid body 21 is provided with a groined rib 23, and all the ribs have a height of 20mm and a width of 50 mm. Of course, the lid 21 may be fitted to the container main body 22, and the appearance after assembly is as shown in fig. 1.

The overall size is 1450 mm in length, 1330 mm in width, 95mm in height, as in the example.

With respect to the protective film module storage container, exactly the same evaluation as in the above-described embodiment was performed as to whether or not foreign matter adheres to the internal protective film module by opening and closing the lid body.

As shown in fig. 4, 2 workers grip both short sides of the lid body 31 and take it off slowly. At this time, the lid 31 is strongly resistant to the opening action and cannot be easily opened.

When the lid 31 is lifted from the container body 32, a violent air swirl is generated, and the film surface of the pellicle 34 housed inside is observed to be greatly fluctuated through the transparent lid 31.

After the lid 31 is completely removed from the container body 32, no significant bending is observed, and only the central portion is bent by about 5mm (the size of b in fig. 4). After that, the interior of the pellicle 34 is carefully taken out, and the foreign matter inspection is performed by the light collecting lamp in the darkroom. As a result, 3 foreign matters having a size of about 50 to 100 μm were found to be added to the protective film.

Thereafter, in order to confirm that the experiment was performed 4 more times, the foreign matter was increased on the protective film in 3 out of 4 times. At this time, the cover body 31 and the container body 32 are cleaned again, the same object is used for the protection film assembly for testing, and the attached foreign matters are removed by the air blower every time.

Next, a 1000 × 1300 × 8mmt aluminum plate (having a weight of about 28kg) was placed on the lid body 21 (more precisely, on the rib 23) to evaluate the rigidity. When the appearance of the lid body is viewed in the lateral direction, it is found that the rib 23 of the lid body is depressed about 15 to 20mm inward, and the lid body is damaged.

Claims (2)

1. A protective film assembly container, comprising:

a container body for carrying the protective film assembly;

a lid body covering the protective film assembly and engaged with the container body at a peripheral edge portion thereof,

it is characterized in that:

the cover body is formed by resin sheet, and at least 5 ribs are arranged on the upper surface of the cover body, the angle between the ribs and one side of the outer shape of the cover body is within 10 degrees, and the ribs do not intersect with other ribs.

2. The protective film assembly receiving container of claim 1,

the rib forms an angle within 10 DEG with the short side of the cover profile.