Substrate treatment apparatus with elongating treatment liquid supply pipe

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9630200-B2
Application number	US-201414539475-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 12, 2014
Priority date	Mar 30, 2009
Publication date	Apr 25, 2017
Grant date	Apr 25, 2017

Abstract

A substrate treatment apparatus includes: a substrate holding unit which horizontally holds a substrate; a substrate rotating unit which rotates the substrate held by the substrate holding unit about a vertical axis; a treatment liquid supplying unit which supplies a treatment liquid to an upper surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit; an opposing member to be located in opposed spaced relation to the upper surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit in contact with a film of the treatment liquid formed on the upper surface of the substrate so as to receive a lift force from the liquid film; a support member which supports the opposing member; and an opposing member holding mechanism which causes the support member to hold the opposing member in a vertically relatively movable manner.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A substrate treatment apparatus comprising:
a substrate holding unit that is configured to hold a substrate horizontally;
a substrate rotating unit that is configured to rotate the substrate held by the substrate holding unit about a vertical axis;
a treatment liquid pipe including an outlet pipe portion having an outlet port to be opposed to a lower surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit so as to spout a treatment liquid to form a liquid film of the treatment liquid on the lower surface of the substrate, the treatment liquid pipe extending downward along the vertical axis from the outlet port, and having an inside space through which the treatment liquid to be supplied to the outlet port flows;
an opposing member fixed to an upper end part of the outlet pipe portion and having an opposing surface configured to oppose to the lower surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit;
a pipe elongating mechanism that is configured to elongate the treatment liquid pipe so as to move the outlet pipe portion upward by a pressure of the treatment liquid to cause the treatment liquid pipe to have a greater pipe length when the treatment liquid flows through the treatment liquid pipe than when the treatment liquid does not flow through the treatment liquid pipe such that in response to such pressure, the opposing member moves up to an adjacent position where the opposing surface is close to the lower surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit and contacts the liquid film of the treatment liquid formed on the lower surface of the substrate so as to maintain the liquid film between the opposing surface and the lower surface of the substrate; and
a guide cylinder that guides an outer peripheral surface of the outlet pipe portion which is moved up and down by the pipe elongating mechanism.

2. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the pipe elongating mechanism includes a bellows provided in an intermediate pipe wall portion of the treatment liquid pipe.

3. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the opposing member includes a bar-shaped substrate opposing portion that is configured to oppose to the lower surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit and that extends radially about a rotation center of the substrate rotated by the substrate rotating unit.

4. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the bar-shaped substrate opposing portion includes a round-shaped substrate opposing surface, in a cross sectional view.

5. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the round-shaped substrate opposing surface includes an oval surface that has a major axis which extends horizontally and a minor axis which extends vertically, in the cross sectional view.

6. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the opposing member includes a round-shaped substrate opposing portion that is configured to oppose to the lower surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit and that has a round shape which has a smaller radius than a rotation radius of the substrate rotated by the substrate rotating unit.

7. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the pipe elongating mechanism is disposed at an intermediate of the treatment liquid pipe, the treatment liquid pipe includes a lower portion that is stationarily disposed below the pipe elongating mechanism,
the pipe elongating mechanism is configured such that the opposing member moves up with respect to the lower portion of the treatment liquid pipe in accordance with the elongating of the pipe length of the treatment liquid pipe.

8. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the pipe elongating mechanism is configured such that the opposing member moves up and moves down, in accordance with the elongating and a contracting of the pipe length of the treatment liquid pipe, between the adjacent position and a spaced position where the opposing surface is separated from the liquid film of the treatment liquid formed on the lower surface of the substrate.

9. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an elongating restriction member that is configured to restrict the elongating of the pipe length of the treatment liquid pipe by the pipe elongating mechanism.

10. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a treatment liquid supplying unit that is configured to supply the treatment liquid to the treatment liquid pipe.

11. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a chemical liquid supplying unit that is configured to supply a chemical liquid as the treatment liquid to the treatment liquid pipe,
wherein the treatment liquid pipe is formed of a material which has a resistance against the chemical liquid.

12. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the opposing member is formed of at least one material selected among a quartz, a carbon, and a fluororesin.

13. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the treatment liquid pipe includes a body pipe provided in a static state, the outlet pipe is interpolated to the body pipe in a vertically movable manner, the outlet pipe has a lower end part which has a contact surface that contacts with the treatment liquid that flows through an inside space of the body pipe, and
the pipe elongating mechanism includes an elastic member disposed between the opposing member and the body pipe.

14. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the guide cylinder is configured to regulate the upward movement of the outlet pipe.

15. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an elongating restriction member that is configured to restrict the elongating of the pipe length of the treatment liquid pipe by the pipe elongating mechanism, wherein the elongating restriction member is disposed outside a treatment liquid flow path of the treatment liquid pipe.

16. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an elongating restriction member that is configured to restrict the elongating of the pipe length of the treatment liquid pipe by the pipe elongating mechanism, wherein
the treatment liquid pipe includes a single pipe that integrally includes the outlet pipe portion and penetrates the guide cylinder, and
the elongating restriction member is disposed outside a treatment liquid flow path of the single pipe of the treatment liquid pipe.

17. The substrate treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an elongating restriction member that is configured to restrict the elongating of the pipe length of the treatment liquid pipe by the pipe elongating mechanism, and a sealing member that sealingly partitions a space where the elongating restriction member is disposed and a treatment liquid flow path of the treatment liquid pipe.

Assignees

• Screen Holdings Co Ltd

Inventors

• Hashimoto Koji

Classifications

• H10P72/7626

  characterised by the construction of the shaft · CPC title

• H10P72/0448

  Apparatus for applying a liquid, a resin, an ink or the like · CPC title

• H10P72/0424

  using mainly spraying means, e.g. nozzles · CPC title

• H10P72/0414 Primary

  using mainly spraying means, e.g. nozzles · CPC title

• H10P72/0402

  Apparatus for fluid treatment (H10P72/0441, H10P72/0448 take precedence) · CPC title