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AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsHiroshi Shimoda, Masahiro Kanai, Hirokazu Ohtoshi, Tadashi Hori, Koichiro Moriyama
Estimating the term…
A substrate-processing apparatus comprising at least a substrate delivery chamber, a substrate-processing chamber and a substrate takeup chamber, wherein in said substrate delivery chamber, a web substrate and an interleaf are delivered from a delivery bobbin comprising said web substrate and said interleaf alternately wound while said web substrate delivered is transported into said substrate-processing chamber to process said web substrate therein and said interleaf delivered is wound on an interleaf takeup bobbin; in said substrate takeup chamber, said web substrate transported from said substrate-processing chamber and an interleaf delivered from an interleaf delivery bobbin are alternately wound in a roll form on a substrate takeup bobbin, characterized in that said substrate-processing apparatus is provided with a mechanism for detecting transport abnormality of the interleaf at least either in the substrate delivery chamber or in the substrate takeup chamber in order to previously prevent occurrence of trouble(s) due to transport abnormality of the interleaf during the processing of the web substrate, whereby the web substrate can be efficiently processed as desired.
A substrate-processing apparatus comprising at least a substrate delivery chamber and a substrate-processing chamber, said substrate delivery chamber having a substrate delivery bobbin and an interleaf takeup bobbin provided therein, said substrate delivery bobbin having a roll comprising a web substrate and an interleaf alternately wound thereon, wherein in said substrate delivery chamber, said web substrate and said interleaf are delivered from said delivery bobbin while said web substrate delivered is transported into said substrate-processing chamber and said interleaf delivered is wound on said interleaf takeup bobbin, said web substrate transported into said substrate-processing chamber is subjected to desired processing in said substrate-processing chamber,
A substrate-processing apparatus comprising at least a substrate-processing chamber for processing a web substrate therein and a substrate takeup chamber having a substrate takeup bobbin and an interleaf delivery bobbin provided therein, wherein said web substrate processed in said from said substrate-processing chamber is transported into said substrate takeup chamber where said web substrate and an interleaf delivered from said interleaf delivery bobbin are alternately wound in a roll form on said substrate takeup bobbin, characterized in that said substrate-processing apparatus is provided with a mechanism for detecting transport abnormality of the interleaf in the substrate takeup chamber.
A substrate-processing apparatus comprising at least
A substrate-processing method comprising at least
A substrate-processing method comprising at least:
A substrate-processing method comprising at least
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Backward citations are indexed for grants only.
Apparatus specially adapted for continuous coating: for coating elongated substrates
Irradiation devices: with provision for relative movement of beam source and object to be irradiated
The devices comprising amorphous semiconductor material: continuous treatment of the devices, e.g. roll-to roll processes or multi-chamber deposition
Thin semiconductor films on metallic or insulating substrates: the films including only Group IV materials
Term end not estimated
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for processing a substrate for use in the production of a semiconductor device (the apparatus for processing a substrate will be hereinafter occasionally referred to as “substrate-processing apparatus” and the method for processing a substrate will be hereinafter occasionally referred to as “substrate-processing method” for simplification purpose). More particularly, the present invention relates an improvement in the substrate-processing apparatus and substrate-processing method in which a substrate for a semiconductor device is wound in a roll form together with an interleaf before or after said substrate is treated. The substrate-processing apparatus includes a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) apparatus including a plasma CVD apparatus and the substrate-processing method includes a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method including a plasma CVD method.
The present invention also relates an apparatus and process for producing a photovoltaic element by way of CVD including plasma CVD.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an inside constitution of an example of a substrate takeup chamber as a part of a substrate-processing apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an inside constitution of an example of a substrate delivery chamber as a part of a substrate-processing apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a schematic view illustrating an example of a rotation system of an interleaf bobbin used in a substrate-processing apparatus according to the present invention.
The present invention eliminates the foregoing problems found in the prior art and attain the above described objects.
As previously described, the present invention typically provides a substrate-processing apparatus comprising a substrate delivery chamber having a substrate delivery means having a web substrate (that is, a belt-like shaped long substrate) and an interleaf alternately wound and an interleaf takeup means which are provided therein, a substrate processing chamber (of a single- or multi-chambered system), and a substrate takeup chamber having a substrate takeup means and an interleaf delivery means having an interleaf wound thereon which are provided therein, wherein said substrate web and said interleaf are continuously delivered from said substrate delivery means where said interleaf delivered is continuously wound on said interleaf takeup means and said web substrate delivered is continuously transported into a substrate-processing chamber through a steering roller where said web substrate is subjected to desired processing, the web substrate processed in the substrate-processing chamber is continuously transported into said substrate takeup chamber where the web substrate is wound through a steering roller on said substrate takeup means together with an interleaf delivered from said interleaf delivery means such that the web substrate and the interleaf are alternately wound on the substrate takeup means, wherein said substrate-processing apparatus is provided with a mechanism to detect transport abnormality of the interleaf in the substrate delivery chamber or/and the substrate takeup chamber whereby preventing the interleaf from suffering adhesion to the web substrate and also preventing the interleaf from being taken into the substrate processing chamber together with the web substrate.
As previously described, this substrate-processing apparatus makes it possible that a web substrate is continuously transported from the substrate delivery chamber into the substrate processing chamber while preventing the web substrate from being contacted with an interleaf which is delivered together with the web substrate where desired processing such as film formation is efficiently performed on the web substrate which is moving, and the substrate web thus processed in the substrate processing chamber is successively transported into the substrate takeup chamber where the web substrate is wound on the substrate takeup means while the processed surface of the web substrate being covered by an interleaf which is separately delivered without being contacted with the web substrate. Thus, there can be effectively obtained a rolled product comprising a web substrate having a processed surface (or having a deposited film formed thereon) and an interleaf which are alternately wound such that the processed surface (or the deposited film-bearing surface) of the web substrate is covered by the interleaf. This situation enables to efficiently and continuously form not only a high quality functional deposited film having satisfactory characteristics but also a high quality photovoltaic element (solar cell) having satisfactory characteristics on a web substrate at an improved yield.