Substrate processing apparatus

Details Substrate processing apparatus Substrate processing apparatus

2003-04-30

2004-06-22

Rutledge, D. (Department: 2851)

Photography

Fluid-treating apparatus

Heating, cooling, or temperature detecting

C396S578000, C396S611000, C034S284000, C414S416060

Reexamination Certificate

active

06752543

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus comprising a plurality of processing parts processing a semiconductor substrate, a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display, a glass substrate for a photomask or a substrate for an optical disk (hereinafter referred to as “substrate”) and supplying temperature-controlled air thereto.
2. Description of the Background Art
As well known in the art, a product such as a semiconductor device or a liquid crystal display is manufactured by performing a series of processing such as cleaning, resist coating, exposure, development, etching, formation of an interlayer dielectric film, thermal processing and dicing on the aforementioned substrate. A substrate processing apparatus including a plurality of processing units performing resist coating processing, development processing and subsequent thermal processing, for example, for circularly transporting a substrate between the processing units by a transport robot thereby performing a series of photolithographic processing on the substrate is widely employed as the so-called coater & developer.
Such a substrate processing apparatus removes fine particles through an ULPA filter, for example, while removing a chemical substance such as ammonia through a chemisorption filter for supplying clean air to the peripheries of the processing units and the transport robot and maintaining the same in a clean atmosphere. In particular, the substrate processing apparatus supplies air controlled in temperature and humidity to the coating processing unit coating the substrate with resist since the temperature and the humidity of the atmosphere influence the thickness of the formed resist film.
In general, the substrate processing apparatus supplies the clean air controlled in temperature and humidity from an air conditioning unit to the respective processing units. For example, such an air conditioning unit is arranged immediately above the processing units requiring clean air controlled in temperature and humidity, thereby eliminating ducts hard to arrange and improving supply efficiency for the clean air.
Following the recent increase of the diameter of the substrate, the processing units and the transport robot have also been increased in size, and the footprint (plane area occupied by the apparatus) of the overall substrate processing apparatus also tends to be increased. In view of effective utilization of the space of a clean room requiring a considerable cost for maintaining environment, it is necessary to suppress increase of the footprint of each substrate processing apparatus to the minimum, and a countermeasure of vertically stacking the processing units in multiple stages is studied for this purpose.
If the air conditioning unit is arranged immediately above the processing units vertically stacked in multiple stages, however, the height of the overall apparatus is excessively increased. On the other hand, each process following pattern refinement increasingly requires strict quality control, and it is necessary to completely control the temperature and humidity of the air supplied to the processing units, particularly the coating processing unit or the like whose processing result is remarkably influenced by the atmosphere.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a substrate processing apparatus comprising
n
(n: natural number of at least two) processing parts processing a substrate.
According to the present invention, the substrate processing apparatus comprises a temperature-controlled air supply part adjusting the temperature of air and delivering the temperature-controlled air, a manifold formed by branching a common pipe into
n
distributing pipes for communicatively connecting the common pipe to the temperature-controlled air supply part while communicatively connecting the
n
distributing pipes to the
n
processing parts in one-to-one correspondence and
n
correction temperature control parts provided in one-to-one correspondence to the
n
distributing pipes for temperature-controlling air passing through the distributing pipes.
The correction temperature control part can supply temperature-controlled air to the processing parts with sufficient accuracy while it follows that the manifold distributes the air delivered from the temperature-controlled air supply part and supplies the same to the processing parts, whereby the height of the overall apparatus can be inhibited from remarkable increase also when vertically stacking the processing parts in multiple stages.
Preferably, the substrate processing apparatus further comprises a first temperature measuring element provided on the common pipe for measuring the temperature of air passing through the common pipe and
n
second temperature measuring elements provided in one-to-one correspondence to the
n
distributing pipes for measuring the temperature of air passing through the distributing pipes, while the temperature-controlled air supply part performs temperature control one the basis of a result of measurement of the first temperature measuring element to set the air passing through the common pipe to a first target temperature and each of the
n
correction temperature control parts performs temperature control on the basis of a result of measurement of the second temperature measuring element provided on the distributing pipe corresponding to the correction temperature control part to set the air passing through the distributing pipe to a second target temperature.
Each distributing pipe can efficiently obtain air of the second target temperature.
More preferably, the first temperature measuring element measures the temperature of air passing through a branch point of the manifold, and each of the
n
second temperature measuring elements measures the temperature of air passing through a joint between the distributing pipe corresponding to the second temperature measuring element and the processing part communicatively connected with the distributing pipe.
The substrate processing apparatus can perform temperature control in consideration of disturbance of the common pipe and the distributing pipes, thereby stably supplying temperature-controlled air to the processing parts with sufficient accuracy.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus capable of inhibiting the height of the overall apparatus from remarkable increase also when vertically stacking processing parts in multiple stages and supplying temperature-controlled air to the processing parts with sufficient accuracy.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5937223 (1999-08-01), Akimoto et al.
patent: 4-139345 (1992-05-01), None
patent: 9-445611 (1997-02-01), None
patent: 10-154644 (1998-09-01), None
English translation of Abstract for Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. JP-10-154644.
English translation of Abstract for Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. JP-4-139345
English translation of Abstract for Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. JP-9-445611.

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