Substrate processing apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10777404-B2
Application number	US-201715422858-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 2, 2017
Priority date	Feb 19, 2016
Publication date	Sep 15, 2020
Grant date	Sep 15, 2020

Abstract

A substrate processing apparatus includes a driving magnet that is disposed correspondingly to a movable pin and that has a predetermined polar direction with respect to a radial direction of a rotary table, a pressing magnet that has a magnetic pole that gives an attractive magnetic force or a repulsive magnetic force between the driving magnet and the pressing magnet and that presses a support portion against a peripheral edge of a substrate by urging the support portion toward a contact position by means of the attractive magnetic force or the repulsive magnetic force, and a pressing-force changing unit that changes a magnitude of a pressing force against the peripheral edge of the substrate pressed by the support portion while keeping the magnitude higher than zero in response to rotation of the rotary table.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A substrate processing apparatus comprising:
a substrate rotation holding device including a rotary table that is rotatable around a rotational axis along a vertical direction, and a plurality of support pins to support a substrate horizontally, the plurality of support pins disposed to rotate around the rotational axis together with the rotary table,
wherein the plurality of support pins includes a movable pin that has a support portion disposed movably between a contact position at which the support pin comes into contact with a peripheral edge of the substrate and an open position that is more distant from the rotational axis than the contact position;
the substrate processing apparatus further comprising:
a driving magnet that is coupled to the movable pin and that has a predetermined polar direction with respect to a radial direction of the rotary table;
a pressing magnet that has a magnetic pole and is arranged for applying an attractive magnetic force or a repulsive magnetic force between the driving magnet and the pressing magnet so as to press the support portion against the peripheral edge of the substrate by urging the support portion toward the contact position by means of the attractive magnetic force or the repulsive magnetic force;
a rotating/driving unit that rotates the rotary table together with the plurality of support pins and the driving magnet coupled to the movable pin around the rotational axis; and
a pressing-force changing unit that changes a magnitude of a pressing force against the peripheral edge of the substrate pressed by the support portion in response to rotation of the rotary table around the rotational axis while keeping the magnitude of the pressing force higher than zero; wherein
the pressing-force changing unit comprises
a magnetic-force generating magnet that is a magnet differing from the pressing magnet, that is arranged on an opposite side of the driving magnet from the pressing magnet, for acting on the driving magnet oppositely to the pressing magnet, and that has a magnetic pole that gives an attractive magnetic force or a repulsive magnetic force between the driving magnet and the magnetic-force generating magnet to urge the support portion toward the open position,
the magnetic-force generating magnet including a first magnetic-force generating magnet and a second magnetic-force generating magnet both of which have mutually different polar directions with respect to the radial direction of the rotary table, the first magnetic-force generating magnet and the second magnetic-force generating magnet being alternately disposed in a circumferential direction around the rotational axis, the magnetic-force generating magnet and the rotary table relatively rotating with respect to each other when the rotary table is in rotation;
a magnet drive unit that drives the magnetic-force generating magnet; and
a pressing-force changing control unit that controls the magnet drive unit so as to place the magnetic-force generating magnet at a first position at which an attractive magnetic force or a repulsive magnetic force is generated between the driving magnet and the magnetic-force generating magnet with a smaller magnitude thereof than an attractive magnetic force or a repulsive magnetic force generated between the driving magnet and the pressing magnet, thereby changing the magnitude of the pressing force applied by the support portion while keeping the magnitude of the pressing force higher than zero when the rotary table together with the plurality of support pins are in rotation around the rotational axis so that the driving magnet and the magnetic-force generating magnet placed at the first position are relatively rotating around the rotation axis.

2. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the magnet drive unit includes a magnet moving unit that moves the magnetic-force generating magnet between the first position and a second position at which a magnetic field is not generated between the driving magnet and the magnetic-force generating magnet.

3. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a processing liquid supply unit that supplies a processing liquid to an upper surface of the substrate supported by the plurality of support pins rotated together with the rotary table by the rotating/driving unit.

4. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the movable pin includes a lower shaft portion coupled to the rotary table and an upper shaft portion formed on an upper end of the lower shaft portion, the movable pin is rotatable around a pin-rotational axis coaxial to a central axis of the lower shaft portion with respect to the rotary table, and the upper shaft is disposed eccentric from the pin-rotational axis.

5. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the magnetic-force generating magnet is provided non-rotatable around the rotational axis.

6. A substrate processing apparatus comprising:
a substrate rotation holding device including a rotary table that is rotatable around a rotational axis along a vertical direction, and a plurality of support pins to support a substrate horizontally, the plurality of support pins disposed to rotate around the rotational axis together with the rotary table,
wherein the plurality of support pins includes a movable pin that has a support portion disposed movably between a contact position at which the support pin comes into contact with a peripheral edge of the substrate and an open position that is more distant from the rotational axis than the contact position;
the substrate processing apparatus further comprising:
a driving magnet that is disposed correspondingly to the movable pin to rotate around the rotational axis together with the rotary table, and that has a predetermined polar direction with respect to a radial direction of the rotary table;
a pressing magnet that has a magnetic pole that gives an attractive magnetic force or a repulsive magnetic force between the driving magnet and the pressing magnet and that presses the support portion against the peripheral edge of the substrate by urging the support portion toward the contact position by means of the attractive magnetic force or the repulsive magnetic force;
a rotating/driving unit configured to rotate the rotary table together with the plurality of support pins and the driving magnet around the rotational axis; and
a pressing-force changing unit that changes a magnitude of a pressing force against the peripheral edge of the substrate pressed by the support portion while keeping the magnitude of the pressing force higher than zero in response to rotation of the rotary table around the rotational axis; wherein
the pressing-force changing unit comprises
a magnetic-force generating magnet that is a magnet differing from the pressing magnet and that has a magnetic pole that gives an attractive magnetic force or a repulsive magnetic force to urge the support portion toward the open position between the driving magnet and the magnetic-force generating magnet, the magnetic-force generating magnet including a first magnetic-force generating magnet and a second magnetic-force generating magnet both of which have mutually different polar directions with respect to the radial direction of the rotary table, the first magnetic-force generating magnet and the second magnetic-force generating magnet being alternately disposed in a circumferential direction around the rotational axis, the magnetic-force generating magnet and the rotary table relatively rotating with respect to each other when the rotary table is in rotation;
a magnet drive unit that drives the magnetic-force generating magnet and a control unit which controls the rotating/dri

Assignees

• Screen Holdings Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kaba Hiromichi
• Taki Akihiko
• Iwata Tomomi
• Edo Toru
• Yamada Kunio

Classifications

• H10P72/0411

  for wet cleaning or washing · CPC title

• H10P72/00

  Handling or holding of wafers, substrates or devices during manufacture or treatment thereof · CPC title

• H10P70/15 Primary

  by wet cleaning only (H10P70/52 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H10P72/7626

  characterised by the construction of the shaft · CPC title

• H10P72/7608 Primary

  characterised by a plurality of separate clamping members, e.g. clamping fingers · CPC title