Cleaning and liquid contact with solids – Apparatus – Sequential work treating receptacles or stations with means...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-28
2003-06-17
Coe, Philip R. (Department: 1746)
Cleaning and liquid contact with solids
Apparatus
Sequential work treating receptacles or stations with means...
C134S902000, C156S345220
Reexamination Certificate
active
06578588
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus of fabricating a liquid crystal display, and more particularly to a unified strip/cleaning apparatus wherein a strip device is unified with a cleaning device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, since a liquid crystal display (LCD) has the advantages of small size, thin thickness and low power consumption, it has been used for a notebook personal computer, office automation equipment and audio/video equipment, etc. Particularly, an active matrix LCD using thin film transistors (TFT's) as switching devices is suitable for displaying a dynamic image.
An active matrix LCD displays a picture corresponding to a video signal such as a television signal on a picture element or pixel matrix having pixels arranged at each intersection between gate lines and data lines. Each pixel includes a liquid crystal cell controlling a transmitted light amount in accordance with a voltage level of a data signal from the data line. The TFT is installed at each intersection between the gate lines and the data lines to switch the data signal to be transmitted to the liquid crystal cell in response to a scanning signal from the gate line.
FIG. 1
shows a TFT formed on a substrate
18
. A process of fabricating the TFT will be described below. First, a gate electrode
20
and a gate line is deposited on the substrate
18
with a metal such as Al, Mo, Cr or their alloy, etc. and thereafter is patterned by the photolithography. A gate insulating film
22
made from an organic material such as SiN
X
or SiO
X
, etc. is deposited on the substrate
18
provided with the gate electrode
20
. Then, a semiconductor layer
24
made from an amorphous silicon (a-Si) layer and an ohmic contact layer
26
made from an a-Si doped with n+ ions are continuously deposited on the gate insulating film
22
. A source electrode
28
and a drain electrode
30
made from a metal such as Mo or Cr, etc. are formed on the ohmic contact layer
26
. The source electrode
28
is patterned integrally with the data line. The ohmic contact layer
26
exposed through an opening between the source electrode
28
and the drain electrode
30
is eliminated by dry etching or wet etching. A protective film
32
made from SiN
X
or SiO
X
is entirely deposited on the substrate
18
to cover the TFT. Subsequently, a contact hole is formed in the protective film
32
. A pixel electrode
34
made from an indium tin oxide (ITO) is coated so as to be connected, via the contact hole, to the drain electrode
30
. Such a TFT fabricating process includes a photoresist pattern formation step, an etching step and a photoresist pattern strip step, etc. upon the patterning of the electrode layers
20
,
28
and
30
or upon the formation of the contact hole.
FIG. 2
shows a conventional strip and cleaning apparatus. Referring to
FIG. 2
, the conventional strip and cleaning apparatus includes a loader
40
for loading a cassette (not shown) received with a substrate, a strip line for removing a photo-resistor (PR) of the substrate transported from the cassette, a cleaning line for cleaning the stripped substrate, a dry module
54
for drying the substrate cleaned by means of the cleaning line, and a unloader
56
for loading the substrate dried by means of the dry module
54
into the cassette that is arranged in an inline type. The loader
40
carries the substrate received in the cassette (not shown) into a first strip module
42
using a conveyor or a robot. The substrate from the loader
40
in which the PR formed on the TFT is removed by a pipe shower at the first strip module, is conveyed into a second strip module
44
. A stripper made from a mixture of H
3
PO
4
, CH
3
COOH and HNO
3
is used to remove the PR on the substrate. The second strip module
44
removes residual PR film that has not been removed at the first strip module
42
using a brush. The substrate having the PR film removed by physical cleaning is carried into a third strip module
46
. The third strip module
46
injects the stripper at a high pressure by a cavitation jet (CJ) system to remove the residual PR film on the substrate that has not been removed at the first and second strip modules
42
and
44
. The substrate stripped at the third strip module
46
is carried into an isopropyl alcohol (IPA) injecting module
48
. The IPA injecting module
48
removes minute alien substances and cleans the stripper using an IPA liquid. If the stripper and de-ionized water are mixed at a specific composition ratio, OH is produced to corrode aluminum (Al) formed on the surfaces of the source, drain and gate electrodes. Thus, the stripper is diluted with the IPA liquid so as to prevent the corrosion of aluminum. The substrate cleaned with the IPA liquid by means of the IPA injecting module
48
is carried into a first cleaning module
50
. The first cleaning module
50
cleans the substrate by a pipe shower using de-ionized water and thereafter carries it into a second cleaning module
52
. The second cleaning module
52
injects de-ionized water at a high pressure by the CJ system to clean the substrate. The substrate cleaned at the second cleaning module
52
is carried into a dry module
54
. The dry module
54
rotates the substrate using a centrifugal force of 1800 to 2200 rpm to remove the de-ionized water. The substrate dried at the dry module is received into the cassette on the unloader
56
.
Such conventional strip/cleaning equipment requires a wide installation space of 10840×1800 mm.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a unified strip/cleaning apparatus wherein a strip line is integrated with a cleaning line to minimize the installation space.
In order to achieve these and other objects of the invention, a unified strip/cleaning apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a strip line for removing resin on a substrate; and a cleaning line provided under the strip line to clean and dry the substrate.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5177514 (1993-01-01), Ushijima et al.
patent: 5568821 (1996-10-01), Ohmori et al.
patent: 5701627 (1997-12-01), Matsumura et al.
patent: 6230721 (2001-05-01), Miyasako
Coe Philip R.
LG.Phillips LCD Co., Ltd.
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