JPH118289A - Substrate processing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To prevent a bad influence of suction on a suction surface, thereby suppressing a warpage at the time of conveyance and preventing a pattern and a substrate from being damaged. SOLUTION: The operation of a vacuum pump 19 is stopped, an operation three-way valve 17 is switched to the atmosphere side, and a suction passage 1b is set to substantially atmospheric pressure, and then the operation valve 15 is closed. Next, the transport mechanism 2
3 is moved immediately below the substrate W and raised, and the support surface 23c
The pressing mechanism 21 is operated until the substrate W comes into contact with the substrate.
Thereby, the pressure of the suction passage 1b is made higher than the atmospheric pressure,
The flow path resistance of the suction passage 1b can be extremely reduced. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a suction force from being generated on the suction surface 1a, and to prevent the substrate W from being warped and damaged.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a developing solution and a photoresist for a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate for a photomask, a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display, a substrate for an optical disk (hereinafter simply referred to as a substrate), and the like. Liquid, polyimide resin, SOG (Spin On Glas
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus that performs processing by supplying a processing liquid such as s,) liquid, and more particularly to a technique of performing processing while sucking and holding a substrate by vacuum suction, releasing the suction, and then transporting the substrate.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional substrate processing apparatus of this type includes, for example, a rotatable vacuum suction type spin chuck and a transfer arm for transferring a substrate to and from the spin chuck. Things. The device configured as described above operates, for example, as follows.

[0003] That is, a suction passage communicating with a suction surface formed in a vacuum suction type spin chuck is sucked to hold a substrate by suction, and a processing liquid such as a photoresist solution is supplied while rotating the substrate. Then, after performing a process of forming a photoresist film having a constant film thickness on the upper surface, the rotation of the spin chuck is stopped to stop the suction in the suction passage, and the pressure in the suction passage is returned to substantially the atmospheric pressure. Next, the transfer arm having a C-shaped support portion is advanced below the substrate, and the transfer arm is raised to a position higher than the suction surface of the spin chuck while abutting and supporting the lower edge of the substrate. The processed substrate is transported to the transport arm while being separated from the spin chuck while maintaining the parallelism between the lower surface and the suction surface of the spin chuck. After that, the processed substrate supported by the transfer arm is stored in a carrier that stores and stacks the substrates, or is transferred to another device to be subjected to the next processing.

[0004]

However, the prior art having such a structure has the following problems. That is, when the substrate is transferred from the spin chuck to the transfer arm, although the vacuum suction is stopped and the pressure in the suction passage is almost at atmospheric pressure, the flow path resistance in the suction passage is large, and Because the transfer arm is raised while maintaining the parallelism between the lower surface and the suction surface of the spin chuck, the suction surface is depressurized and the central portion of the substrate is sucked. Therefore, only the peripheral portion of the substrate rises together with the transfer arm, and the central portion of the substrate is attracted to the suction surface of the spin chuck. That is, a phenomenon occurs in which the substrate is greatly warped at the time of transport, though temporarily. As is well known, usually, various fine patterns are formed on the surface of a substrate through a number of processes, and if such a large warpage occurs many times, the fine patterns may be destroyed or the worst case may occur. In this case, there is a problem that the substrate itself cannot withstand the warpage and is damaged.

Incidentally, in the recent semiconductor manufacturing field, a substrate having a diameter of 8 inches (about 200 mm) has a diameter of 300 mm.
While the diameter has increased to about 1.5 times as the diameter of the substrate has increased, the thickness is only about 1.07 times, and the ratio of the thickness to the diameter is extremely small. As a result, the strength itself against the warpage of the substrate has been greatly reduced. Further, since the diameter of the spin chuck also increases with an increase in the diameter of the substrate, the area of the suction surface in the above-described reduced pressure state increases, and the suction force on the substrate increases. Therefore, the above-mentioned inconvenience is extremely likely to occur due to a decrease in strength against warpage of the substrate itself and an increase in suction force to the substrate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and by suppressing the adverse effect of suction on a suction surface, warpage during transport is suppressed to prevent pattern destruction and substrate destruction. It is an object of the present invention to provide a substrate processing apparatus that can perform the processing.

[0007]

The present invention has the following configuration in order to achieve the above object. In other words, the substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 performs a process while sucking and holding the substrate by sucking the suction passage communicating with the suction surface formed in the substrate holding means, and stopping the suction of the suction passage. In the substrate processing apparatus, the substrate is separated from the substrate holding unit and transferred to the transfer unit by relatively moving the transfer unit to a position higher than the suction surface after the transfer.
A pressurizing means for increasing the pressure in the suction passage is provided, and the pressurizing means is operated when the transfer means is relatively moved to a position higher than the suction surface. .

[0008] Further, the substrate processing apparatus according to claim 2 is
The suction passage communicating with the suction surface formed in the substrate holding means is suctioned to perform processing while holding the substrate by suction, and after the suction of the suction passage is stopped, the transfer means is relatively moved to a position higher than the suction surface. In the substrate processing apparatus that separates the substrate from the substrate holding unit and transports the substrate to the transport unit, the substrate processing apparatus further includes a parallelism canceling unit that cancels the parallelism between the lower surface of the substrate and the suction surface of the substrate holding unit. When the transport means is relatively moved to a position higher than the suction surface, the parallelism canceling means is operated.

Further, the substrate processing apparatus according to claim 3 is
The suction passage communicating with the suction surface formed in the substrate holding means is suctioned to perform processing while holding the substrate by suction, and after the suction of the suction passage is stopped, the transfer means is relatively moved to a position higher than the suction surface. In the substrate processing apparatus that separates the substrate from the substrate holding unit and transports the substrate to the transport unit, the substrate processing unit contacts the substrate that is sucked and held by the substrate holding unit, and is positioned relative to the suction surface of the substrate holding unit. After temporarily stopping the suction of the suction passage, the substrate placed on the substrate holding unit is transferred to the temporary support unit, and the temporary support unit and the transport unit are moved relative to each other. The substrate is moved up and down to transport the substrate.

[0010]

The operation of the first aspect of the invention is as follows. When the suction of the suction passage of the substrate holding means holding the substrate by suction is stopped and the transport means is moved up and down relative to the suction surface of the substrate holding means, the pressure means is operated to reduce the pressure in the suction passage. Enhance. As a result, it is possible to reduce the flow path resistance in the suction passage, and to prevent the suction force from being generated on the suction surface of the substrate holding means even if the transport means is vertically moved while maintaining the parallelism between the substrate and the suction surface. Can be prevented.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the suction of the suction passage of the substrate holding means holding the substrate by suction is stopped, and the transport means is moved up and down relative to the suction surface of the substrate holding means. At this time, the parallelism canceling means is operated to cancel the parallelism between the lower surface of the substrate and the suction surface of the substrate holding means. As the parallelism canceling means, for example, there is a means for slightly inclining the substrate by the transfer means or slightly inclining the substrate holding means to cancel the parallelism. Thereby, the close contact between the lower surface of the substrate and the suction surface can be released, the flow path resistance of the suction passage can be reduced, and the suction force is generated on the suction surface of the substrate holding unit even when the transport unit is relatively moved up and down. Can be prevented.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the suction of the suction passage of the substrate holding means for holding the substrate by suction is stopped, and the substrate is transferred from the substrate holding means to the temporary supporting means. At this time, a suction force acts on the suction surface of the substrate holding means, but since the temporary support means abuts and supports the substrate, there is almost no warpage due to the influence of suction. Next, the substrate is transported by moving the temporary support means and the transport means relatively up and down.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. <First Embodiment> (Invention of Claim 1) FIG. 1 is a view showing a schematic configuration of a rotary substrate coating apparatus which is an example of a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. It is a time chart shown.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a suction-type spin chuck which sucks and holds a substrate W by vacuum suction, and a rotating shaft 3 is attached to a lower surface thereof. The rotating shaft 3 is connected to the electric motor 5 and is driven to rotate around a vertical axis. The rotating shaft 3 rotates the substrate W together with the suction-type spin chuck 1 in a horizontal plane. The suction type spin chuck 1 has a suction surface 1 a formed on the upper surface thereof, and the suction surface 1 a communicates with a suction passage 1 b formed in the rotating shaft 3. In addition,
The suction type spin chuck 1 described above corresponds to the substrate holding means of the present invention.

Around the suction type spin chuck 1, a processing liquid such as a photoresist liquid supplied to the substrate W from the nozzle 7 at a supply position shown by a solid line in the drawing is scattered. A scatter prevention cup 9 is provided to prevent scatter. The scattering prevention cup 9 is also configured to be able to move up and down freely, and a retreat position (two-dot chain line in the figure) located below the suction-type spin chuck 1 and a processing position surrounding the suction-type spin chuck 1 (see FIG. (Solid line in the middle).

The rotating shaft 3 protrudes from the lower surface of the electric motor 5, and its lower end is connected to a suction pipe 13 via a rotating bearing 11. This suction pipe 13
Vacuum pump 1 via operation valve 15 and operation three-way valve 17
9, the operation valve 15 is opened, and the operation three-way valve 17 is switched to the vacuum pump 19 side to suck the suction passage 1b through the suction pipe 13.
The substrate W is vacuum-sucked to the suction surface 1a of the suction-type spin chuck 1.

A pressurizing mechanism 21 corresponding to the pressurizing means of the present invention is provided at one portion of the suction pipe 13.
The pressurizing mechanism 21 includes a cylinder portion 21a communicating with the suction pipe 13, a piston portion 21b slidable in the cylinder portion 21a, a compression coil spring 21c for urging the piston portion 21b upward, and an upper portion. And a solenoid 21d for driving the biased piston portion 21b downward. The operation of the solenoid 21d is normally OF
When the operation is turned ON, the piston portion 21b urged upward is driven downward, and the air in the cylinder portion 21a is sent into the suction pipe 13 to pressurize the inside thereof. Operate.

Incidentally, the volume of the cylinder portion 21a and the spring coefficient of the compression coil spring 21c which regulates the moving speed of the piston portion 21b by the solenoid 21d are determined by the pressing mechanism 2
It is preferable that the setting is made so that the substrate W does not greatly jump upward from the suction surface 1a when the pressure is applied by the pressure of 1. In this embodiment, the pressure at the time of pressurization and the weight of the substrate W are balanced so that the substrate W is set so as not to be lifted.

On the side of the scattering prevention cup 9, a transfer mechanism 23 configured to be able to move up and down and move forward and backward is provided for transferring the substrate W to and from the suction-type spin chuck 1. A front surface of a base 23a driven up and down by a lifting means (not shown) and driven forward and backward is provided in a plan view C
A support portion 23b having a U-shape is provided.
A support surface 23c is formed on the upper portion of 3b so as to be inclined downward to contact and support the lower edge of the substrate W. For convenience of description, a position where the substrate W abuts on the support surface 23c when the substrate W is abutted and supported will be referred to as a support point 23d. Note that the transport mechanism 23 corresponds to a transport unit in the present invention.

The movement of the nozzle 7 and the supply of the processing liquid, the raising and lowering of the scattering prevention cup 9, the rotation of the electric motor 5, the opening and closing of the operation valve 15 and the operation three-way valve 17, the vacuum pump 19, and the transfer mechanism The ascent / descent and forward / backward driving of the program 23 define a processing procedure (so-called recipe).
Is read from the memory 25 and executed by the control unit 27. The elevation of the transport mechanism 23 is controlled by the control unit 27. The height of the support point 23d is moved between L2 and L3. That is, the unprocessed substrate W
Is transferred to the suction-type spin chuck 1 and rises to a height L3 located above the height L1 of the suction surface 1a, and then descends to a height L2 lower than the height L1 of the suction surface 1a. As a result, the substrate W is placed on the suction surface 1a and withdrawn. When receiving the processed substrate W from the suction spin chuck 1, on the contrary, the processed substrate W enters the height L 2 and rises to the height L 3, whereby the processed substrate W is removed from the suction spin chuck 1. It is designed to leave and leave.

Next, referring to the time chart of FIG.
The operation of the device configured as described above will be described.
It is assumed that the processing on the unprocessed substrate W has already been completed, the nozzle 7 has already been raised to the retracted position indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 1, and the scattering prevention cup 9 has been lowered. Further, a point in time when a fixed time (about several seconds) has elapsed from the point in time when the rotation of the electric motor 5 is stopped is set as the origin of the time chart, and the description will be made from this point.

As shown in FIG. 2A, the height of the support point 23d of the transport mechanism 23 is set to a height L2 located below the height of the suction surface 1a.
As shown in (b), when the rotation of the electric motor 5 is stopped, the electric motor 5 is turned from ON to OFF, and the suction force gradually decreases to almost “0” at time t ₁ . Then, at time t ₁ when the suction force becomes substantially “0”, the operation three-way valve 17 is switched from the suction pipe 13 side to the atmosphere side. As a result, the inside of the suction pipe 13 communicates with the atmosphere, and the inside of the suction passage 1b is set to substantially the atmospheric pressure, so that the suction force of the suction surface 1a to the substrate W becomes substantially "0".

[0023] Operation three-way valve 17 is then switched to the atmosphere side, closes the suction passage 1b and the suction pipe 13 closes the operating valve 15 at t ₂ time. Then, the transport mechanism 23 is moved to the height L.
It is assumed that the vehicle has been entered at 2 and the movement has been completed immediately below the substrate W at time t ₄ . Next, begin to rise toward the height L3 of the conveying mechanism 23 from a height L2 in t ₅ the time, which the turns ON the solenoid 21d simultaneously. Then, the pressurizing mechanism 21 operates, and the pressure of the suction pipe 13 and the suction passage 1b closed by the lower surface of the substrate W and the operation valve 15 is made higher than the atmospheric pressure.

[0024] When the support point 23d at time t ₆ and the transport mechanism 23 is started to be raised to contact the substrate W, the substrate W to pressure and own weight of pressurization is balanced, the flow path of the suction passage 1b by pressure Due to the reduced resistance, the sheet is easily separated from the suction surface 1a by being pushed upward, and is transferred to the support surface 23c of the transport mechanism 23. Therefore, in the case of merely opening to the atmosphere as in the conventional example, the suction surface 1a
The substrate W can be prevented from being warped due to the suction force generated in the step (a). Therefore, inconveniences such as damage to the fine pattern formed on the surface of the substrate W through many processes and damage to the substrate W can be prevented, and improvement in yield can be expected.

The transport mechanism 23 is raised to a height L3 at t ₇ point and exits in a state of mounting the processed substrate W. Thereafter, the operation valve 15 is opened at t ₈ time.

[0026] In the above description, the transfer mechanism 23 is to actuate the pressure-applying mechanism 21 at time t ₅ that initiated the elevated, if the timing is a t ₆ before the substrate W is brought into contact with the supporting point 23d Any setting may be made. For example, it may be a time (t ₃ ) before the rising start time t _{5 or a} contact time t ₆ .

The pressing mechanism 21 may be configured as shown in FIG. That is, a pressure pipe 31a branched from the suction pipe 13, an operation valve 31b that is opened / closed by the control unit 27, and one end side connected to the operation valve 31b,
The other end is constituted by a regulator 31c communicated with the atmosphere. Thus, when the operation valve 31b is opened, the pressure of the suction pipe 13 is adjusted to be constant through the pressurizing pipe 31a. Note that a gas supply source for supplying a gas such as air or nitrogen may be connected to the regulator 31c.

In the case of the above configuration, for example,
The operation may be performed as shown in the time chart of FIG.
That is, after the operation valve 15 is closed at the time point t ₁ when the suction force becomes substantially “0” due to the stop of the vacuum pump 19, the operation valve 31 b is opened at the time point t _{2 and} the air of a constant pressure is supplied through the regulator 31 c. And suction pipe 1
3 is pressurized. According to such a configuration, it is not necessary to open the inside of the suction pipe 13 to the atmosphere by the operation three-way valve 17 as in the device having the configuration described in detail. The same effect as that of the above configuration can be obtained.

<Second Embodiment> (Invention of Claim 2) In the first embodiment, the suction mechanism 13 pressurizes the suction pipe 13 to prevent the suction surface 1a from adhering to the substrate W. Although the warpage of the substrate W is prevented, in this embodiment, the suction is prevented by releasing the parallelism between the suction surface 1a and the substrate W to make the degree of adhesion rough. Hereinafter, the configuration and operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 7, but the same components as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 5, the suction type spin chuck 1 is tilted together with the electric motor 5 on the outer peripheral surface of the lower part of the electric motor 5 to release the parallelism between the suction surface 1a and the substrate W to reduce the degree of adhesion. A tilt mechanism 33 for lowering is provided.
The tilting mechanism 33 corresponding to the parallelism canceling means of the present invention includes an electric motor 33a horizontally fixed to the apparatus frame, a screw shaft 33b interlocked with a rotation axis of the electric motor 33a,
The movable member 33d has a vertically elongated hole 33c and is screwed to the screw shaft 33b at a lower portion, and a regulating pin 33e provided on the electric motor 5 side and loosely inserted into the elongated hole 33c. Also,
On the opposite side of the electric motor 33a, a swing base 33g fixed to the device frame and having an upwardly arc-shaped swing hole 33f, and a swing hole 33f provided in the electric motor 5 are provided.
Swinging pin 33h loosely inserted into

The tilting mechanism 33 constructed as described above
Normally, as shown in FIG. 5, while the rotating shaft 3 is held substantially vertically, when the processed substrate W is carried out, the electric motor 33a is driven to move the moving member 33d to the electric motor 5d. Move to the side. Then, the lower end of the electric motor 5 attempts to move horizontally to the left, but the swing pin 33h
Is regulated by the arc-shaped swing hole 33f,
The lower end of the electric motor 5 swings like a pendulum and moves toward the left side of the figure while the regulating pin 33e moves down the elongated hole 33c. Accordingly, the right end of the suction surface 1a swings about the swing fulcrum A at the left end of the suction surface 1a so as to descend from the lower surface of the substrate W, so that the parallelism between the substrate W and the suction surface 1a is released. Operate. With this operation, the electric motor 5
At the same time, the suction pipe 13 moves toward the left side, and the flexible pipe 13a absorbs the contracted amount by moving. Due to this contraction, the volume in the suction pipe 13 is slightly reduced, and a secondary action of oscillating and pressurizing occurs.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIGS. After the processing on the substrate W is completed and the rotation is stopped and the operation three-way valve 17 is switched to the atmosphere side, the transport mechanism 23 enters immediately below the substrate W as shown by a solid line in FIG. Then, the electric motor 33a is driven at a low speed,
As shown by a two-dot chain line in the figure, the right end of the suction surface 1a is slowly lowered around the swing fulcrum A. When the lower surface on the right side of the substrate W abuts on the support surface 23c on the tip side of the support portion 23b, only the substrate W is restricted from being lowered.

When the driving of the electric motor 33a is further continued, as shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 7, the suction surface 1a is gradually separated from the lower surface of the substrate W from its right end, and the parallelism with the substrate W is gradually released. It is being done. At this time, since the suction surface 1a is separated from the substrate W so that the suction cup attached to the glass surface is turned from the end, the degree of adhesion is extremely low, and the flow path resistance becomes extremely small. As a result, the substrate W is greatly warped. Thus, it is possible to prevent the pattern of the substrate W from being damaged and the substrate W itself from being damaged. Further, as described above, the tilt mechanism 3
When the suction surface 1a is separated from the substrate W, the flexible pipe 13a acts like a pump and pressurizes the suction passage 1b, though slightly. It can be further suppressed.

In the present embodiment, the parallelism is released by inclining the suction type spin chuck 1 together with the electric motor 5, but various modifications can be made as a configuration for releasing the parallelism. For example, suction spin chuck 1
May be configured so that minute pins protrude upward from a part of the suction surface 1a of the suction-type spin chuck 1 without tilting, and the parallelism may be released by tilting the substrate W with the pins. .

After the transport mechanism 23 is moved directly below the substrate W, the substrate W is brought into contact with the support surface 23c, and the support portion 23b of the transport mechanism 23 is slightly rotated around the longitudinal axis. Alternatively, a step or a projection may be formed on the support surface 23c so as to be inclined when the substrate W is placed on the support surface 23c. The parallelism can be released by these methods.

In the first and second embodiments described above, the height of the suction-type spin chuck 1 is fixed and the transport mechanism 23 is moved up and down. The suction spin chuck 1 may be moved up and down while the height of the mechanism 23 is fixed.

<Third Embodiment> (Invention of Claim 3) In each of the above-described embodiments, the suction surface 1
Although the suction force in FIG. 8A is released, the substrate W is separated in the embodiment shown in FIG. 8 while keeping the suction force unchanged. It is to be noted that the same reference numerals are given to the components common to the above-described embodiments, and the detailed description will be omitted.

Below the suction-type spin chuck 1, a temporary support mechanism 35 corresponding to the temporary support means of the present invention is provided. The temporary support mechanism 35 is configured to move up and down the support member 37 having an annular shape in plan view by three actuators 39 (only one is shown) attached to the side surface of the electric motor 5. The support member 37 is formed in a mountain-shaped cross section in order to minimize the contact area with the substrate W, and the support point 37a has a height L4 lower than the height L1 of the suction surface 1a and a support of the transport mechanism 23. Height L3 of point 23d
It is raised and lowered over a height L5 located above.

It is preferable that the inner diameter is set to be slightly larger than the outer diameter of the suction spin chuck 1 so that the support member 37 is located as close to the center of the substrate W as possible. By positioning the substrate W in the center side of the substrate W in this manner, when the substrate W is lifted, the substrate W is relatively moved in relation to the downward suction force generated on the suction surface 1a.
Can be made smaller.

The operation of the above-configured device will be described with reference to FIGS. It is assumed that the vacuum pump 19 has already been turned off and the operation three-way valve 17 has been switched to the atmosphere side.

The temporary support mechanism 35 is operated to raise the support member 37 located below the processed substrate W from the height L4 to the height L5. As a result, the substrate W
Although it is transferred from the suction type spin chuck 1 to the temporary support mechanism 35, the suction side 1a is supported because the center side is supported by contact.
Of the substrate W due to the suction force acting on the substrate W.

Next, as shown in FIG.
Enters below the substrate W transferred to the temporary support mechanism 35, and lowers the temporary support mechanism 35 from the height L5 to the height L4 as shown in FIG. It is transferred to the support surface 23c. As a result, the processed substrate W is transferred from the suction spin chuck 1 to the transfer mechanism 23.
Will be transported.

As described above, when the substrate W is transferred from the suction-type spin chuck 1 to the transfer mechanism 23, the transfer is performed via the temporary support mechanism 35 so that the suction force generated on the suction surface 1a is not released. Warpage can be suppressed. As a result, damage to the pattern formed on the substrate W and destruction of the substrate W can be prevented.

In the above <Third Embodiment>, the height of the suction type spin chuck 1 is fixed and the temporary support mechanism 35 is moved up and down. May be fixed, and the suction-type spin chuck 1 may be moved up and down.

In the first, second, and third embodiments, the vacuum pump 19 is employed for sucking the substrate W. However, the utility is provided in a clean room instead. A suction source may be used.

In each of the above embodiments, the rotary substrate coating apparatus has been described as an example. However, the present invention is applicable to any apparatus for processing a substrate that holds a substrate by vacuum suction. It goes without saying that it can be done.

[0047]

As is clear from the above description, according to the first aspect of the present invention, by applying pressure, the flow path resistance in the suction passage can be reduced, and the parallelism between the substrate and the suction surface can be reduced. Even if the transfer means is relatively moved up and down while maintaining the degree, the suction force of the suction surface of the substrate holding means can be prevented from being generated, so that the substrate can be prevented from warping. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the minute pattern formed on the substrate from being broken or the substrate itself from being broken.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the flow path resistance of the suction passage can be reduced by releasing the close contact between the lower surface of the substrate and the suction surface. Also, it is possible to prevent a suction force from being generated on the suction surface of the substrate holding means, and therefore, it is possible to suppress the warpage of the substrate. Therefore, the same effect as that of the first aspect is obtained.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the substrate is abutted and supported by the temporary support means, it is possible to prevent warping due to the influence of suction during the transfer from the substrate holding means to the temporary support means. Therefore, the substrate is transferred from the substrate holding means to the transfer means via the temporary support means.
The same effect as described above can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing a schematic configuration of a rotary substrate coating apparatus according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a time chart showing the operation of each unit.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a modification of the pressing mechanism.

FIG. 4 is a time chart illustrating an operation of a modified example.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a schematic configuration of a rotary substrate coating apparatus according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram provided for explanation of operation.

FIG. 7 is a diagram provided for explanation of operation.

FIG. 8 is a view showing a schematic configuration of a rotary substrate coating apparatus according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram provided for explanation of operation.

FIG. 10 is a diagram provided for explanation of operation.

FIG. 11 is a diagram provided for explanation of operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 W ... Substrate 1 ... Suction type spin chuck (substrate holding means) 1a ... Suction surface 1b ... Suction passage 5 ... Electric motor 7 ... Nozzle 21 ... Pressure mechanism (pressurization means) 21a ... Cylinder 21b ... Piston 21c ... Compression Coil spring 21d Solenoid 23 Transport mechanism (transport means) 33 Inclination mechanism (parallelism release means) 33a Electric motor 33b Screw shaft 33d Moving member 33g Swing base 35 Temporary support mechanism (temporary support means) 37: Supporting member 37a: Supporting point 39: Actuator

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H01L 21/30 569C

Claims (3)

[Claims] A suction passage communicating with a suction surface formed on the substrate holding means, performing processing in a state where the suction means holds the substrate, and stopping the suction of the suction path, and then moving the transfer means from the suction surface. In a substrate processing apparatus for moving a substrate away from the substrate holding unit by relatively moving the substrate to a high position and transferring the substrate to the transfer unit, the substrate processing apparatus includes a pressurizing unit that increases a pressure in the suction passage; A substrate processing apparatus, wherein the pressurizing means is actuated when relatively moving to a higher position. 2. A process is performed in a state in which a suction passage communicating with a suction surface formed in a substrate holding means is sucked and a substrate is sucked and held, and after the suction in the suction passage is stopped, the transfer means is moved from the suction surface. In a substrate processing apparatus for moving a substrate away from the substrate holding unit by relatively moving to a high position and transferring the substrate to the transfer unit, the parallelism for releasing the parallelism between the lower surface of the substrate and the suction surface of the substrate holding unit A substrate processing apparatus, comprising: a release unit; and operating the parallelism release unit when the transport unit is relatively moved to a position higher than the suction surface. 3. A process is performed in a state where the suction passage communicating with the suction surface formed in the substrate holding means is sucked and the substrate is sucked and held. After the suction in the suction passage is stopped, the transfer means is moved from the suction surface. In a substrate processing apparatus that separates a substrate from the substrate holding unit and transports the substrate to the transport unit by relatively moving the substrate to a high position, the substrate processing unit contacts the substrate that is suction-held by the substrate holding unit,
A temporary support unit that moves up and down relative to the suction surface of the substrate holding unit; after stopping the suction of the suction passage, the substrate placed on the substrate holding unit is transferred to the temporary support unit; The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the substrate is transported by moving the temporary support means and the transport means relatively up and down.