Coating apparatus – Interfacing control of plural operations
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-19
2001-03-20
Edwards, Laura (Department: 1734)
Coating apparatus
Interfacing control of plural operations
C118S696000, C118S320000, C118S500000, C118S503000, C414S416060, C414S937000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06203617
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing unit such as a coating and developing unit for performing a coating process and a developing process for a substrate such as a glass substrate. The present invention also relates to a conveying unit for use with such a substrate processing unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a unit that performs a coating process and a developing process for glass substrates used for liquid crystal displaying units (referred to as LCDS), the glass substrates are accommodated in a cubic or rectangular parallelopiped one-side opened accommodating cassette (referred to as carrier cassette) in such a manner that the glass substrates are horizontally arranged and kept in parallel. A conveying mechanism conveys a glass substrate from the carrier cassette to a coating unit or a developing unit.
FIG. 17
is a perspective view showing the relation between the conveying mechanism and the carrier cassette.
Referring to
FIG. 17
, a conveying mechanism
100
can be traveled in for example Y and Z directions and rotated in 2 direction. The traveling mechanism
100
has a pair of tweezers
101
. The tweezers
101
can be traveled in X direction.
First, the conveying mechanism
100
is traveled. The conveying mechanism
100
is stopped in front of the carrier cassette C. The conveying mechanism
100
is traveled in Z direction so that the tweezers
101
are aligned to the height of a lower space of a relevant glass substrate G (see FIG.
17
(
1
)). In this state, the tweezers
101
are inserted between the glass substrate G and a glass substrate G on the lower adjacent stage (see FIG.
17
(
2
)).
Next, the tweezers
101
are upwardly traveled so as to pick up the glass substrate G (see FIG.
17
(
3
)). The tweezers
101
that have picked up the glass substrate G are extracted from the carrier cassette C. Thus, the glass substrate G is extracted from the carrier cassette C (see FIG.
17
(
4
)). The conveying mechanism
100
transfers the glass substrate G to a main arm (not shown) that conveys the glass substrate G to the next processing unit.
When such a coating and developing unit processes glass substrates G with different thickness, one carrier cassette accommodates glass substrates G with different thickness.
However, when the conveying mechanism
100
conveys glass substrates with different thickness to the carrier cassette C, the following problems may take place.
As a first problem, since the sizes of LCD glass substrates G are relatively large, the glass substrates G tend to flex. However, when the glass substrates G have different thickness, the flexure amounts thereof vary. Thus, corresponding to the thickness of the glass substrate G, the access position of the tweezers
101
should be designated. To do that, for example, a means that detects the thickness of each glass substrate G accommodated in the carrier cassette C is required.
As a second problem, before the unit is shipped, the tweezers
101
have been adjusted so that they are inserted into the center position of a space formed between two adjacent glass substrates G. However, when the unit is installed on site, the relation between the positions of the conveying mechanism
2
and the carrier cassette C deviates. Thus, after the unit has been installed, the access position should be corrected. However, when the glass substrates G have different thickness, the access position should be changed for each glass substrate G. Thus, the installing operation for the unit becomes complicated. In particular, since a conventional processing unit has a plurality of carrier cassettes C, the access position should be adjusted for each carrier cassette C and for each glass substrate G that has different thickness. Thus, the installing operation for the unit becomes complicated.
In addition, when one carrier cassette C accommodates glass substrates G with different thickness or when a carrier cassette C accommodating glass substrates C with different thickness is conveyed from the outside to the unit, the conveying position or the processing conditions of each processing portion in the unit should be changed. Since it takes a long maintenance time to change the access position, the yield of the unit deteriorates. In addition, if a processing condition is incorrectly set, a glass substrate G may collide with the casing of the unit or a carrier cassette C. Thus, the carrier cassette C may be damaged. Consequently, the yield of the unit deteriorates. If a processing condition in the processing portion is incorrectly set, due to the incorrect processing condition, the yield of the unit deteriorates.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made from the above-described point of view. An object of the present invention is to provide a conveying unit that smoothly loads a raw substrate to an accommodating cassette and unloads a raw substrate therefrom in a simple structure even if the accommodating cassette accommodates different types of raw substrates. Another object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing unit that sets processing conditions corresponding to the types of raw substrates.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a conveying unit whose teaching operation and installation operation are simplified even if one accommodating cassette accommodates different types of raw substrates.
A first aspect of the present invention is a conveying unit, comprising a cassette stock portion for stocking a plurality of accommodating cassettes, each of the accommodating cassettes horizontally accommodating a plurality of raw substrates, a conveying mechanism for horizontally loading and unloading each of the raw substrates to and from one of the accommodating cassettes, and a controlling mechanism for separating the plurality of raw substrates into a plurality of groups corresponding to the thickness of the raw substrates, assigning identifiers to the raw substrates corresponding to the groups, and causing the conveying mechanism to convey each of the raw substrates corresponding to the identifiers or controlling the vertical traveling amount of each of the accommodating cassettes. Thus, without need to use a means for detecting the thickness of each of raw substrates accommodated in an accommodating cassette, each of the raw substrates can be smoothly loaded to the accommodating cassette and unloaded therefrom in a simple structure. In addition, since what raw substrate has been loaded to what processing chamber and unloaded from what processing chamber corresponding to an assigned identifier, processing conditions for a processing portion can be easily set for each of raw substrates. Thus, the yield of the unit can be improved.
A second aspect of the present invention is a conveying unit, comprising a cassette stock portion for stocking an accommodating cassette, the accommodating cassette horizontally accommodating a plurality of types of raw substrates, a conveying mechanism for horizontally loading and unloading each of the raw substrates to and from the accommodating cassette, a storing means for storing the relative relation of loading/unloading positions of the plurality of types of the raw materials, a setting means for setting the loading/unloading position of at least one type of the raw substrates, a determining means for determining the loading/unloading position of other types of the raw substrates corresponding to the relation of the relative positions and the loading/unloading position that has been set by the setting means, and a controlling mechanism for causing the conveying mechanism to convey each of the raw substrates or controlling the vertical traveling amount of the accommodating cassette corresponding to the set results of the setting means and the determined results of the determining means. Since the access positions of raw substrates other than those whose access positions have been set and stored are determined corresponding to the relation of the access positions of the raw
Araki Shinichiro
Iwasaki Tatsuya
Kamada Eiichiro
Tanoue Shinya
Edwards Laura
Rader Fishman & Grauer
Tokyo Electron Limited
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