JP2002319192A - Spin coating method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To form a film having uniform film thickness, when the film is formed on a disk body by a spin coating method using a radiation curing liquid material. SOLUTION: In the spin coating method wherein the coating film of the liquid material is formed on the surface of the disk body by supplying the radiation curing liquid material to the vicinity of the center of the disk body which is installed on a spinner for rotating the disk body and rotating the disk body to spread the liquid material on the disk body by the centrifugal force, before the rotation of the disk body is stopped when the spin coating is performed, the disk body is irradiated with the radioactive ray having the function for curing the radiation curing liquid material and the fluidity of the liquid material applied on the disk body is reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for coating a radiation-curable material on a disk using a spin coating method. The method and apparatus of the present invention can be applied to CD-type discs such as CDs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVD-ROMs, DVD-Rs, and DVDs.
-Suitable for making a wide range of discs such as DVD discs such as RW and DVD-RAM, optical discs such as blue laser discs which have been developed in recent years, and magneto-optical discs such as MO and MD.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In spin coating, a liquid material is supplied near the center of a disk body, the disk body is rotated, and the liquid material is spread by centrifugal force generated by the rotation. This is a technique of forming a thin film with a large thickness. Spin coating is widely used, for example, for forming a protective layer for CD-based discs and DVD-based discs.

On the other hand, in recent years, blue laser compatible discs have been developed as next-generation information recording media. Conventional compact discs and DVD discs have a transparent substrate made of polycarbonate or the like, and information is reproduced from the transparent substrate side through the transparent substrate (and recording in the case of a recordable disc). The information is recorded and reproduced from the opposite side. Therefore, a thickness of 0.1 mm (100 μm)
m) It is necessary to form a transparent light transmitting layer.

A method of pasting a transparent film having a thickness of 0.1 mm as a light transmitting layer on a disk has been proposed. However, problems such as bubbles entering between the film and the disk or undulation of the film occur. There are cases. Also, the process of cutting and pasting the film into a circle is troublesome. Therefore, it would be advantageous if the light-transmitting layer of this blue laser-compatible disc could be formed by spin coating. However, the conventional spin coating has the following problems. It was thought that it was difficult to use this method.

[0005]

That is, when a liquid material is dropped near the center of the disk during spin coating of the disk and the disk is rotated, the liquid material has a very uniform film thickness over the entire disk due to centrifugal force. Distributed.
However, when the rotation is stopped and the centrifugal force is removed, the surface tension of the liquid distributed on the disk causes unevenness in film thickness such as a rise of the coating film near the outer periphery of the disk body. This is particularly noticeable as the viscosity of the liquid material to be coated is higher.

This is a big problem in some cases,
For example, in the case of the light-transmitting film of the blue laser-compatible disk described above, the recording / reproducing signal accuracy of the disk is deteriorated unless an error (non-uniformity) of about ± 3 μm or less with respect to a film thickness of 100 μm is required in the recording area. The non-uniformity caused by the surface tension as described above sometimes exceeds this.

[0007]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a spin coating method in which a liquid material, in particular, a radiation-curable liquid material is spin-coated on a disk so that the film thickness does not become uneven. It is an object to provide a method and an apparatus.

In the spin coating method of the present invention, a radiation-curable liquid material is supplied to the vicinity of the center of a disk placed on a spinner for rotating the disk, and the liquid is rotated by the centrifugal force to rotate the disk. A spin coating method of forming a coating film of the liquid material on the surface of the disk body by spreading the film on the surface of the disk body, wherein the rotation of the disk body is stopped before stopping the rotation of the disk body during spin coating. The method includes irradiating radiation having a function of curing the liquid material to reduce the fluidity of the liquid material coated on the disk body.

By reducing the fluidity of the liquid material on the disk before stopping the rotation of the disk during spin coating, the coating film on the disk is hardened to some extent even if the rotation of the disk is stopped, and the fluidity is reduced. Since the temperature is lowered, the film does not bulge due to the surface tension of the liquid material, so that a uniform film can be formed.

[0010] In the case of CDs, DVDs, blue laser compatible disks, etc., holes for centering are generally formed when the disk is mounted on a disk driver, and there are grooves for holding a stamper during injection molding. No coating film is formed on the center of the disk substrate. Therefore, in one embodiment of the present invention, the spin coating method further comprises a step of covering a part near the center of the disk body with a mask member prior to coating, wherein the radiation-curable liquid material is placed on the mask member. When irradiating the disk body with the radiation in the step of reducing the fluidity of the supplied material, the mask member is not irradiated with the radiation. Since no radiation is applied to the mask member, the liquid material in the form of the mask member is not cured, and the mask member can be easily removed.

In the spin coating method of the present invention, the step of reducing the fluidity of the material is a temporary curing step of curing the liquid material coated on the disk to a certain extent, and thereafter, the disk is rotated once. Stop and move the disc body from the spinner to another place, and irradiate the disc body with radiation having an effect of curing the radiation-curable liquid material, to completely remove the liquid material coated on the disc body. It is also possible to perform a step of performing main curing for curing.

Further, the spin coating apparatus of the present invention comprises:
A spinner mechanism that holds and rotates a disk body, a dispenser mechanism that supplies a radiation-curable liquid material near the center of the disk body that is held by the spinner mechanism, and that the radiation is applied to the disk body that is held by a spinner mechanism. A radiation irradiating means for irradiating radiation having an action of curing a curable liquid material, wherein the apparatus comprises a spin coating mechanism for irradiating radiation near the center of the disk body held by a spinner mechanism by the dispenser mechanism. After the curable liquid material is supplied, the disk body is rotated by the spinner mechanism, whereby the liquid material is spread on the disk body and a coating film of the liquid material is formed on the disk. While the disk is rotating without stopping the rotation of the disk, The is operated, characterized in that to lower the fluidity of the liquid material on the disk body.

In order to prevent a coating film from being formed in the vicinity of the center of the disk body as described above, in the spin coating mechanism of the present invention, the disk body held on the spinner mechanism is placed near the center of the disk body. A mask member supplying means for supplying a mask member covering a part of the disk member; a dispenser mechanism for supplying a radiation-curable liquid material onto the mask member provided on the disk body; and The mask member installed on the body can be prevented from being irradiated with radiation.

The radiation irradiating means may be a temporary curing radiation irradiating section for curing the radiation curable liquid material coating on the disk to a certain extent, and separately from the radiation curing section on the disk outside the spinner mechanism. The main curing radiation irradiating section for completely curing the liquid material coating film of the above (1) can be further provided.

Although referred to herein as a radiation-curable liquid material, radiation-curable is widely used in this specification to include light (including visible light, ultraviolet light, and infrared light), electromagnetic waves (regardless of wavelength), X-rays, and the like. , A liquid material that is cured by radiation, including an electron beam and also a vibration wave such as an ultrasonic wave. The radiation emitted to cure the liquid material will, of course, correspond to it.

The disc body is a CD, CD-R, CD
-Compact disc such as RW, DVD-ROM, D
DVD such as VD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM
Optical discs such as blue discs, which have been developed recently, and MO and MD discs.
And the like, and not limited thereto, but generally means a disk-shaped disk in general. The present invention can be widely applied to generally applying a radiation curable material to a disk by spin coating.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a radiation curing method for irradiating a radiation-curable material spin-coated on a disk with radiation, such that the integrated irradiation amount at each point on the disk is made uniform. It is intended to provide a method and an apparatus for curing a conductive material.

This method is a method of irradiating a radiation-curable liquid material applied on a disk body with radiation to cure the radiation-curable liquid material. The radiation source emits the radiation by rotating the disk body while moving straight. This is a curing method characterized in that the liquid material on the disk is cured by passing through the irradiation area.

The apparatus is a curing apparatus for curing a radiation-curable liquid material applied on a disk body, and applies radiation having an action of curing the radiation-curable liquid material to a predetermined irradiation area. A curing device comprising: a radiation irradiation unit for irradiation; and a disk moving mechanism for moving the disk in a straight line while rotating the disk to pass through an illumination area of the radiation irradiation unit.

In these methods and apparatuses, the whole disk body can be irradiated with radiation evenly by rotating the disk body and passing it through the radiation irradiation area.

In this apparatus, the disk body moving mechanism includes a ball screw, a nut that moves along a linear axis of the ball screw, a rotatable spindle that holds a disk mounted on the nut, And a motor for rotating the spindle.

Further, the present invention provides various spin coating methods, spin coating apparatuses, curing methods,
Another object of the present invention is to provide a disk produced using a curing device.

[0023]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view of an optical disk spin coating apparatus as an embodiment of the present invention. This spin coating apparatus is an apparatus suitably used for forming a light transmitting layer of a blue laser compatible disk which is a next generation disk.

For a read-only blue laser-compatible disc, an aluminum reflective film is formed by sputtering on a polycarbonate substrate having information pits and having a diameter of 120 mm and a thickness of 1.1 mm, and a light-curing material as a radiation-curable material is formed on the surface thereof. It is formed by spin-coating a (UV or ultraviolet) curable resin to form a 100 μm thick light transmitting layer. The apparatus of the present embodiment is an apparatus for performing the spin coating of the light transmitting layer.

The spin coating apparatus 1 has the following parts: a load / unload unit for supplying a disk to be coated from the outside, and for taking out the coated disk from the apparatus to the outside. 10, a cleaner unit 20 for removing foreign matter such as dust on the surface of the disk supplied from the loading / unloading unit, a transfer hand unit 30 for synchronously moving the disk between units in the apparatus, and a resin A spinner section 40 for rotating a disk to perform spin coating of a layer; a mask supply / discharge section 50 for supplying and removing a mask covering a central portion of a disk placed on the spinner section during spin coating; Edge cleaning unit 6 for removing excess resin material protruding from the outer peripheral edge A temporary curing UV radiating section 70 for temporarily curing the surface of the resin layer applied to the disk on the spinner with ultraviolet light during spin coating, and a full curing UV radiating section 80 for fully curing the resin layer applied to the disk, A film thickness inspection unit 90 for inspecting the film thickness of the resin layer formed on the disk, and a defective product discharge unit 110 for discharging a disk with a defective resin layer formation.

In the following, the details of the operation of each of the above-described units will be described in order along the processing flow. The loader unit 11 of the loading / unloading unit 10 has a pin holder 111 that holds a plurality of disks to be coated in a stacked (stacked) state. The disk is held by inserting the pin 111a of the pin holder 111 into the center hole. A spacer is inserted between the discs held by the pin holder to separate the discs from each other. A lifter 112 for raising and lowering the disk stack is provided below the stacked disks. The lifter 112 adjusts the level so that the top disk of the stack is at a predetermined supply height position.

The loading / unloading section also includes the supply hand 1
3 is provided. This supply 13 hand has three arms extending radially at equal intervals (ie, at 120 degree intervals). A disk pickup mechanism that sucks and releases the disk by vacuum suction or the like that sucks the disk is provided below the tip of the arm. The supply hand 13 is configured to swing around its axis 13d under predetermined control by a device control unit (not shown). The uppermost disk in the pin holder 111 of the loader 11 is picked up by one arm 13a of the supply hand 3 and transferred to the supply / discharge position 22A on the turntable 22 of the cleaner section.
At this time, the processed disk can be simultaneously transferred from the position 22A on the turntable 22 to the pin holder 115 of the unloader section by another arm 13b. The other arm 13c is for transferring a spacer inserted between disks stacked on the pin holder 111 of the loader unit onto the pin holder 115 of the unloader unit.

The details of the operation of the supply hand as described above are described in detail in Japanese Patent Application No. 11-289267 filed by the same applicant.

The disk transferred to the turntable 22 of the cleaner section 20 enters the cleaner 24 while being placed on the turntable by the clockwise rotation of the turntable. The cleaner 24 includes a blower that blows clean air onto the disk surface and a vacuum suction device that sucks in particles such as dust blown off by the wind of the blower. Preferably, the rotation speed of the turntable 22 is speed-changed, and the rotation speed is reduced while the disk is moving inside the cleaner 24, so that the disk cleaning is performed for a sufficient time. Further, in order to further extend the cleaning time, the rotation of the turntable 22 is temporarily stopped when the disk enters the cleaner 24, and the disk is stopped in the cleaner 24 for a predetermined time and then restarted. You can do things.

In this embodiment, in order to sufficiently clean the disk, the speed of the turntable 22 for transporting the disk is controlled to extend the time during which the disk stays in the cleaner 24, but this is not necessary. For example, the turntable may be rotated at a constant speed.

When the disk passes through the cleaner 24 and reaches the transfer position 22B on the turntable 22 (ie, a position rotated by 180 degrees from the supply / discharge position 22A), the disk is transferred to the transfer hand 31 of the transfer hand unit 30.
Is transferred to the spinner section.

The transfer hand 31 has a similar structure to the supply hand 30 described above, but the supply hand 30 has three arms, whereas the transfer hands 31 are arranged at equal intervals (ie, at 90 ° intervals). 4) Four arms 31a, 3 extending radially
1b, 31c and 31d. A disk pickup mechanism that sucks and releases the disk by vacuum suction or the like that sucks the disk is provided below the tip of the arm. The supply hand 13 is configured to swing around its axis 13a under predetermined control by the device control unit.

The transfer hand 31 uses the four arms 31a to 31d to simultaneously move the disk between the components of the apparatus. The state shown in FIG. 1 shows the standby position of the transfer hand 31. By rotating 45 degrees clockwise from this state, the arms 31a, 13b, 31c,
31d is a cleaner part, a spinner part, and main curing U, respectively.
This is the position where the discs located in the V radiation section and the film thickness inspection section can be picked up. At that position, each arm picks up the disk by vacuum suction. Thereafter, the transfer hand 31 rotates 90 degrees counterclockwise. As a result, the disk located in the cleaner section was located in the spinner section, the disk located in the spinner section was located in the main curing UV emitting section, the disk located in the main curing UV emitting section was located in the film thickness inspecting section, and in the film thickness inspecting section. The discs move simultaneously to the cleaner section, and at each position, each arm releases the disc. In this way, the disks are simultaneously moved between the units by the transfer hand 31.

The disk transferred from the cleaner section 20 to the spinner section 40 is subjected to spin coating here. As is well known, not only a blue laser compatible disc but also an optical disc generally has a hole (15) at the center of the disc for centering when mounted on a disc drive device.
φ) is formed, and since there is a groove for holding the stamper during injection molding, no coating film is formed on the center portion of the disk substrate. Therefore, even when spin coating is performed by the present apparatus, a center mask as a mask member covering the area is attached in order to prevent the formation of the light transmitting resin film in the center area of the disk.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a main part of the spinner section 40 together with a disk and a mask installed therein. Referring to FIG. 2, the spinner 41 of the spinner unit 40 and the disk 10 placed on the spinner 41
0 and the mask 56 placed thereon.
More specifically, the spinner has a spinner shaft 151 connected to a rotation drive source (motor) (not shown) and rotatable at high speed around a vertical axis, and a spinner table 152 is fixed on an upper portion thereof. The upper part of the spinner table 152 is formed in a disk shape having substantially the same diameter as the disk 100.

An annular projection 152a is provided at the center of the upper surface of the spinner table 152. Circular protrusion 1
The outer diameter of 52a is a dimension that fits into the inner diameter of the center hole of the disk, and the disk 100 installed on the spinner is positioned and centered by the annular projection 152a. The annular projection 152a fits into an annular groove 56a formed on the lower surface of the mask 56 to position the mask. A ring-shaped spacer 153 is fixed to the spinner table 152 on the upper surface of the spinner table immediately outside the ring-shaped protrusion 152a, and is fixed to the spinner shaft 151. When placing the disk 100 on the spinner table 152, the disk 100
Is supported by a spacer 153 at the inner periphery thereof. That is, the space between most of the disk 100 and the spinner table 152 is separated by the gap S by the spacer.

The disk 100 and the mask 56 placed on the spinner table are sucked and held by a vacuum suction mechanism provided on the spinner table. The suction of the disk 100 and the suction of the mask on the spinner table are performed separately from each other. In other words, two separate vacuum paths are provided in the spinner so that their adsorption can be controlled independently.

The supply and removal of the center mask 56 to and from the disk 100 on the spinner 40 are performed by a mask supply / discharge unit 50. The mask supply / discharge unit 50 has a disk shape and is rotatable around its center.
A plurality of masks 56 (a total of 24 masks are shown in the example of FIG. 1) placed in a double circumferential array on the mask storage, and a mask moving arm having a mask chuck for holding the masks 51, mask moving arm 51
And a ball screw 52 that reciprocates between the mask storage 55 and the spinner 40. A dispenser for supplying a coating material (a photocurable resin forming a light transmitting film) onto the disk is integrally attached to the mask moving arm.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of the tip of the mask moving arm 51 located above the spinner 40. The tip of the mask moving arm 51 has a chuck 154 for holding the mask 56 at its upper cylindrical portion 56b,
Dispenser 156 for supplying photo-curable resin to disk
And Chuck 154 and dispenser 156
Is driven by an air cylinder (not shown) and can move integrally in a substantially vertical direction, thereby approaching the disk 100 on the spinner table.

The chuck 154 has two chuck claws that can be opened and closed by driving an air cylinder.
Can be pinched / released. The dispenser 156 is placed on the disk from the nozzle 157 at the tip (more precisely, on a mask placed on the disk).
The liquid photo-curable resin is discharged. FIG. 4 shows how the photocurable resin is discharged.

As shown in FIG. 4, when a liquid photocurable resin is supplied from the dispenser 156 onto the mask, the tip of the mask moving arm 51 having the dispenser 156 and the chuck 154 is raised, and the ball screw 52 is driven. The mask moving arm 51 is retracted from the spinner 40.

After the mask moving arm 51 retreats (before or during the course), the spinner table 152
Is rotated at a high speed to perform a spin coating operation, that is, the photocurable resin supplied to the central portion is distributed over the entire upper surface of the disk by the centrifugal force of rotation.

When a predetermined time has elapsed after the start of spin coating by rotation of the spinner table and a resin layer having a substantially uniform film thickness is formed on the disk, the edge cleaner 61 of the edge cleaning unit 60 causes the outer peripheral portion of the disk to rotate. Edge cleaning is performed to remove the protruding resin. The edge cleaner 61 can swing around the axis 63 in the horizontal plane of the device. By the swing, the knife edge 65 attached to one end of the edge cleaner 61 approaches the outer peripheral end surface of the disk, and the photocurable material protrudes from the outer periphery of the disk. Remove the resin.

After such a disk edge cleaning, the photo-curable resin is temporarily cured by a temporary curing UV radiation part. The resin film uniformly formed on the disk surface by the spin coating loses its uniformity in film thickness due to the surface tension of the liquid resin when the spin is stopped, and causes unevenness particularly in which the outer peripheral portion rises. The higher the viscosity of the resin, the greater the non-uniformity of the film thickness. In order to prevent this in the present invention, without stopping the rotation of the spinner after spin coating, irradiate UV light by a temporary curing UV radiation unit,
Preliminary curing of the resin layer is performed.

Referring to FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B, temporary curing UV
Details of the radiating section 70 will be described. FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B are side views of the temporary curing UV radiating section, and respectively show a rising state and a falling state of an irradiation head cover described later. The temporary curing UV radiating section is composed of the main body section 71 and the irradiation head section 7.
2, and a connecting tube portion 73 connecting the main body portion 71 and the irradiation head portion. An ultra-high pressure mercury lamp (not shown) as a UV light source is installed in the main body. Ultra-high pressure mercury lamps are capable of curing UV curable resin.
V) It emits light having a wavelength including the region (hereinafter referred to as UV light). A focusing / sending optical system (not shown) is further provided in the main body 71 to collect the UV light from the ultra-high pressure mercury lamp and send it as a UV light beam toward the connecting cylinder 73. The connection cylinder 73 is a hollow cylinder, and the UV light beam passes through the connection cylinder and enters the irradiation head 72.

The irradiation head section 171 has a built-in reflection plate 171a, and transmits the UV light beam that has entered from the connecting cylinder section to the reflection section 171a.
Bends and reflects downward. The irradiation head 171 is covered with a rectangular cover 172. The cover 172 is fixed to a slider 75 that can move up and down on a rail 74 fixed to the main body 71, and can move up and down together with the slider 75. The slider 75 is driven by an air cylinder to move up and down. Shock absorbers 177 and 178 capable of directly positioning the slider 75 are provided at the upper and lower ends of the movable range of the slider 75, respectively.

When loading / unloading a disk from / to the spinner unit 40, supply / discharge of a mask to / from the disk 100 set in the spinner unit, and dispenser 156.
The cover 172 is at the retracted position, that is, the raised position (the state shown in FIG. 5A) at the upper end of its moving range so as not to hinder these operations when the photocurable resin is supplied onto the mask by the above. Then, the disk 10 installed on the spinner section 40
Only when the photocurable resin layer spin-coated to 0 is temporarily cured, it is moved to its lowered position (the state shown in FIG. 5B). The timing of the provisional curing is immediately after the spin cleaning of the liquid photocurable resin and the edge cleaning by the edge cleaner are performed as described above.

At the lower part of the cover 172, a cylindrical outer cover 173 and an inner cover 174 are provided concentrically. When the cover 172 is lowered, the inner peripheral cover 174
Of the disc 100 on the center of the spinner table 152
Is aligned with the center. Cover 172
Is in the lowered position, and when UV light for UV temporary curing is applied to the disk, the UV light beam reflected downward by the reflector 171a of the irradiation head passes through the annular space between the outer peripheral cover 173 Then, the light is emitted downward as illumination light having a ring-shaped illumination area. The outer diameter of the annular illumination area is made to substantially match the outer diameter of the disk, and the inner diameter is made to almost match the outer diameter of the mask. Thus, the irradiation area of the UV light beam substantially coincides with the entire disk outside the mask portion.

With the above-described structure, the UV by the temporary curing UV unit
Light does not irradiate the mask placed on the disk. At the time of spin coating, a liquid photocurable resin is dropped on the mask, and if the mask is irradiated with UV light, the resin at the boundary between the mask and the mask and the disk is hardened, making it difficult to remove the mask. In order to prevent this, UV light is not applied to the mask portion. In addition, as described above, the present invention is not limited to the method in which the outer peripheral cover and the inner peripheral cover are used to form a ring-shaped illumination area, and other means for preventing the mask from being irradiated with UV light by any method may be used.

The UV irradiation by the temporary curing UV radiating section
Since the photocurable resin layer coated on the disc is for preventing the film thickness from becoming non-uniform due to its surface tension, the film pressure does not simply occur due to the surface tension of the resin layer. What is necessary is just to reduce the fluidity of the material to a certain extent. The irradiation intensity and irradiation time for that purpose are appropriately determined according to the type and thickness of the resin coated on the disk.

After UV irradiation for temporary curing, the rotation of the spinner is stopped. Subsequently, the vacuum suction of the mask 56 is released, and the mask is picked up from the disk by the mask moving arm 51 and transferred to the mask storage 55.

Further, the vacuum suction of the disk 100 on the spinner table 152 is released, the disk is picked up by the arm 31b of the transfer hand unit 30, and the final curing UV
It moves to the position 80A of the radiation part 80.

The main curing UV radiating section 80 has a UV irradiation unit 81 for irradiating UV light and a disk moving mechanism 85 for linearly moving the disk 100 while rotating. U
The V irradiation unit has a UV lamp 82 and irradiates UV light downward. FIG. 6 is a side view showing the outline of the main curing UV radiation section.

FIG. 7 is a view showing a main part of the disk moving mechanism 85 of the main curing UV radiating section 80, and is a side view from a direction different from that of FIG. The configuration of the main curing UV radiating section will be described with reference to FIGS. The disk moving unit includes a spindle unit 182 for holding a disk and a servo motor driven ball screw unit 180 for linearly moving the spindle unit. As can be seen from FIG. 7, the housing 186 of the spindle unit 182 is fixed to the driven nut of the ball screw unit 180 via the plate 187. Housing 1
A spindle 183 rotatably supported by a bearing (not shown) is provided in the inside 86. Spindle 18
Reference numeral 3 is connected to a servomotor 184 via a coupling 185, and is rotationally driven by the servomotor 184. The top of the spindle 183 fits into the hole at the center of the disk 100, and a mechanism for vacuum-sucking the disk 100 is also provided.

The disk 1 mounted on the spindle 183 of the main curing UV radiating section 80 by the mechanism described above.
00 can be linearly moved by the ball screw unit while being rotated by the servomotor 184.

The main curing UV radiating unit controls the disk 100 to pass through the irradiation area of the UV irradiation unit while rotating the disk 100 during the main curing of the photocurable resin layer coated on the disk. Due to the rotation of the disk at the time of irradiation, even if the irradiation light distribution of the UV irradiation unit has non-uniformity, the amount of UV irradiation received by each part of the disk can be made uniform.

The linear movement control of the disk by the ball screw unit is appropriately determined according to various conditions such as UV irradiation time required for curing the resin. For example, UV at a constant speed
The irradiation area of the irradiation unit may be reciprocated, or may be temporarily stopped or reduced in the irradiation area to extend the irradiation time.

The disk 100 that has been completely cured is returned to the disk transfer position 80A of the fully cured UV radiating section 8 again, and sent to the next processing step. After the completion of the main curing process, the disk 100 is moved to the position 80B (FIG. 1) of the main curing UV radiating portion, and a hard coating process (a process of further coating a protective layer on the transparent resin layer) is performed therefrom. May be configured to transfer the disk to the device.

The disk 100 returned to the position 80A after the main curing process is transferred to the next film thickness inspection unit 90 by the arm 31C of the transfer hand unit 30. The film thickness inspection unit measures the film thickness of the light transmitting resin layer of the disk to check whether the film thickness of the light transmitting resin layer coated on the disk is within a predetermined range. The disk 100 is mounted on the moving table 91 at the position 90A of the film thickness inspection section by the arm 31C of the transfer hand. The moving table 91 is moved by the uniaxial ball screw unit 93 along the unit 93, and is moved directly below a laser displacement meter 95 as a film thickness measuring device. The moving table 91 has a function of rotating the disk placed thereon, and combines the rotation of the disk and the linear movement by the ball screw unit 93 to change the measurement point by the laser displacement meter to change one disk. Is measured at a plurality of measurement points. In a typical example, eight points are measured on one circumference in one of seven system directions. Therefore, the number of measurement points is 8 × 7 = 56 points.

The disk on which the film thickness measurement has been completed is returned to the position 90A again while remaining on the moving table, and is sent to the cleaner unit 20 by the arm 31D of the transfer hand unit 30 at that position. However, as a result of the film thickness inspection performed by the film thickness inspection unit 90, a defective disk found to be not coated with an appropriate film thickness is transferred by the arm 31d during transfer from the film thickness inspection unit 90 to the cleaner unit. The vacuum suction is released, and the disk is delivered to the defective disk discharge unit 110.

The non-defective disk transferred from the film thickness inspection section 90 to the position 22B of the cleaner section 20 is a turntable 2
2 is moved to the position 22A by the rotation of the pin holder 1 of the unloader 15 by the supply hand 13b.
The pin 115a is mounted on the disc 15 so as to fit into the center hole of the disc. The pin holder 115 on the unloader 15 side also has a lifter 116 similarly to the pin holder on the loader 11 side. As the disks are stacked on the pin holder 115, the lifter 116 descends, and The height of the disc is always constant.

When a predetermined number of processed disks are stacked on the pin holder 115 of the unloader 15, the pin holder 115 is moved to the left in FIG. 1 so that the stacked disks can be taken out from the left end of the apparatus.

Thus, one cycle of the operation of the spin coating apparatus according to the present embodiment is completed.

The operations of the spin coating apparatus described above are all performed by the control unit (not shown) of the apparatus having a CPU.
It is done automatically under the control of.

The embodiment of the present invention has been described above, but the present invention is not limited to this embodiment.

The above embodiments relate to the spin coating of the light transmitting film of the blue laser compatible disk. However, the present invention is not limited to this and can be widely applied to the spin coating of a radiation-curable material on the disk body. it can. For example, the present invention can be applied to spin coating such as coating of a protective layer of CD / CDRW / CD-R, coating of a protective layer of DVD, or various hard coats, or a spin coating apparatus for performing the spin coating.

Although the resin coated in the present embodiment is a UV-curable resin, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, an infrared-curable material, another photo-curable material, an electromagnetic-wave curable material, an X-ray The present invention can be applied to spin coating of various radiation curable materials such as a curable material, an electron beam curable material, and an ultrasonic curable material onto a disk.

In the spin coating apparatus according to the embodiment, a temporary curing UV radiating section and a main curing UV radiating section are separately provided as light (radiation) irradiating means for curing the light (radiation) curable material on the disk. Then, temporary curing is performed by semi-curing to reduce the fluidity of the photocurable material layer of the disc on the spinner by the temporary curing UV radiation part, and then the photocurable material layer is completely completed by the full curing UV radiation part outside the spinner. Although the curing is performed, the photocurable material layer may be completely cured on the spinner without separately providing the full curing UV radiation part.

[0069]

According to the method and apparatus of the present invention, when a radiation-curable material is spin-coated on a disk, the radiation applied to the disk while the disk is still rotating without being stopped. Since the fluidity of the curable material is reduced, even if the rotation of the disk body is stopped, unevenness of the film thickness due to swelling of the material does not occur.

In the method and apparatus for curing a radiation-curable material coated on a disk according to the present invention, the radiation is uniformly applied to the entire disk by rotating the disk and passing the radiation-irradiated area. Can be irradiated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an overall configuration of a spin coating apparatus as an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a partial cross-sectional view showing a main part of a spinner unit of the spin coating apparatus together with a disk and a mask installed therein.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a tip of a mask moving arm having a dispenser located above a spinner unit of the spin coating apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing how a UV curable resin is supplied onto a disk (mask) by a dispenser of a spin coating apparatus.

FIG. 5A is a side view showing a configuration of a pre-curing UV radiating section of the spin coating apparatus, and shows a state where a cover is at a raised position.

FIG. 5B is a side view showing the configuration of the temporary curing UV radiating section of the spin coating apparatus, showing a state where the cover is at a lowered position.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing an outline of a main UV curing section of the spin coating apparatus.

FIG. 7 is a side view showing a structure of a main part of a main UV curing unit of the spin coating apparatus, viewed from another direction forming 90 degrees with respect to FIG. 6;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Load / unload part 11 Loader 13 Supply hand 15 Unloader 20 Cleaner part 22 Turntable 24 Cleaner 30 Transfer hand part 31 Transfer hand 40 Spinner part 50 Mask supply / discharge part 51 Mask moving arm 55 Mask storage 56 Mask 60 Edge Cleaning unit 61 Edge cleaner 65 Knife edge 70 Temporary curing UV radiation unit 71 Main unit 72 Irradiation head unit 80 Full curing UV radiation unit 81 UV irradiation unit 85 Disk moving mechanism 90 Film thickness inspection unit 100 Disk 110 Defective disk ejection unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Hiroki Mifune 1-13-1 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo TDK Corporation (72) Inventor Mamoru Usami 1-13-1 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo TDK (72) Inventor Tomoki Ushida 1-13-1, Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo TDC Corporation F-term (reference) 4D075 AC65 AC73 AC79 AD05 BB42Z BB43Y CA48 CB06 DA08 DB31 DC27 EA07 EA21 EA43 4F042 AA08 AB00 CB03 DB41 DE01 DG01 DG11 DG17 EB09 EB13 EB18 EB21 EB28 EB29 5D121 AA04 EE22 EE23 EE24

Claims (19)

[Claims] 1. A radiation-curable liquid material is supplied near the center of a disk placed on a spinner for rotating the disk, and the disk is rotated to spread the liquid on the disk by centrifugal force. A spin coating method for forming a coating of the liquid material on the surface of a disk by extending the disk, wherein the radiation-curable liquid material is cured on the disk before spinning of the disk is stopped during spin coating. A spin coating method comprising: irradiating a radiation having the following properties to reduce the fluidity of the liquid material coated on the disk body. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of covering a portion of the disk body near the center with a mask member prior to coating, wherein the radiation-curable liquid material is supplied onto the mask member to reduce the fluidity of the material. 2. The spin coating method according to claim 1, wherein the mask member is not irradiated with the radiation when the disk body is irradiated with the radiation in the lowering step. 3. The spin coating method according to claim 1, further comprising, prior to the step of reducing the fluidity of the material, a step of stripping the radiation-curable liquid material protruding from an outer peripheral edge of the disk body. 4. The step of reducing the fluidity of the material is a temporary curing step of curing the liquid material coated on the disk to a certain extent. In the spin coating method, the rotation of the disk is further stopped once thereafter. The disk body is moved from the spinner to another place, where the disk body is irradiated with radiation having an effect of curing the radiation-curable liquid material, and the liquid material coated on the disk body is completely cured. 4. The spin coating method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of performing main curing. 5. In the step of performing the main curing, the liquid material on the disk body is hardened by rotating the disk body while rotating the disk body and passing the radiation body through an irradiation area of a radiation source that emits the radiation. The spin coating method according to claim 4, wherein 6. A disk body coated by using the spin coating method according to claim 1. Description: 7. The disk body according to claim 6, wherein said disk body is a blue laser compatible disk, and said coating film forms a light transmitting layer thereof. 8. A spinner mechanism that holds and rotates a disk body, a dispenser mechanism that supplies a radiation-curable liquid material near the center of the disk body held by the spinner mechanism, and a spinner mechanism that is held by the spinner mechanism. A radiation irradiating means for irradiating the disk body with radiation having an effect of curing the radiation-curable liquid material, wherein the apparatus comprises a center of the disk body held by a spinner mechanism. After the radiation-curable liquid material is supplied to the vicinity by the dispenser mechanism, the disk body is rotated by the spinner mechanism, whereby the liquid material is spread on the disk body and a coating film of the liquid material is formed on the disk. After the disk is formed, the disk rotates without stopping the rotation of the disk by the spinner mechanism. Spin coating apparatus by operating said irradiation means to have state that is characterized by reducing the fluidity of the coating liquid material on the disk body. 9. The apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising: a mask member supply unit for supplying a mask member covering a part near a center of the disk body onto the disk body held on the spinner mechanism, wherein the dispenser mechanism includes the radiation member. A curable liquid material is supplied onto a mask member provided on the disk body, and an irradiation area of the radiation by the radiation irradiating means is configured so that the mask member provided on the disk body is not irradiated with the radiation. 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein
The spin coating apparatus according to item 1. 10. The apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising an edge cleaning means for peeling off the radiation-curable liquid material protruding from the outer peripheral edge of the disk body from the disk prior to the irradiation of the radiation from the radiation irradiation means.
Or the spin coating apparatus according to 9. 11. The radiation irradiating means is a temporary curing radiation irradiating section for curing a radiation curable liquid material coating film on a disk body to some extent, and the apparatus is provided outside the spinner mechanism. The spin coating apparatus according to any one of claims 8 to 10, further comprising a main curing radiation irradiator for completely curing the liquid material coating. 12. A radiation irradiation unit for irradiating a radiation area having a function of curing the radiation-curable liquid material to a predetermined irradiation area, and a main irradiation unit for rotating the disk body while rotating the disk body. 12. The spin coating apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising a disk moving mechanism for passing the irradiation area of the radiation irradiation unit. 13. A disk body coated by the apparatus according to claim 8. 14. The disk body according to claim 13, wherein the disk body is a blue laser compatible disk, and the liquid material coated by the spin coating device is for forming a light transmitting layer thereof. Disk body. 15. A method of irradiating a radiation-curable liquid material applied on a disk body with radiation to cure the radiation-curable liquid material, wherein the radiation is applied to a radiation source that emits the radiation by moving the disk body straight while rotating the disk body. A curing method characterized by curing a liquid material on a disk body by passing through a region. 16. A disk produced by using the curing method according to claim 15. 17. A curing device for curing a radiation-curable liquid material applied on a disk body, the radiation irradiating radiation having a function of curing the radiation-curable liquid material to a predetermined irradiation area. A curing device, comprising: an irradiation unit; and a disk moving mechanism that moves the disk in a straight line while rotating the disk to pass through an illumination area of the radiation irradiation unit. 18. A disk moving mechanism comprising: a ball screw; a nut moving along a linear axis of the ball screw; a rotatable spindle for holding a disk mounted on the nut; The curing device according to claim 17, further comprising a motor for rotating the curing device. 19. A disk produced by using the curing device according to claim 18. Description: