Abstract:
A unified strip/cleaning apparatus wherein a strip device is integrated with a cleaning device. In the apparatus, a strip line removes resin on a substrate and a cleaning line is provided under the strip line to clean and dry the substrate. Accordingly, the installation space can be minimized.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to an apparatus of fabricating a liquid crystal display, and more particularly to a unified strip/cleaning apparatus wherein a strip device is unified with a cleaning device.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0004]    Generally, since a liquid crystal display (LCD) has the advantages of small size, thin thickness and low power consumption, it has been used for a notebook personal computer, office automation equipment and audio/video equipment, etc. Particularly, an active matrix LCD using thin film transistors (TFT&#39;s) as switching devices is suitable for displaying a dynamic image.  
           [0005]    An active matrix LCD displays a picture corresponding to a video signal such as a television signal on a picture element or pixel matrix having pixels arranged at each intersection between gate lines and data lines. Each pixel includes a liquid crystal cell controlling a transmitted light amount in accordance with a voltage level of a data signal from the data line. The TFT is installed at each intersection between the gate lines and the data lines to switch the data signal to be transmitted to the liquid crystal cell in response to a scanning signal from the gate line.  
           [0006]    [0006]FIG. 1 shows a TFT formed on a substrate  18 . A process of fabricating the TFT will be described below. First, a gate electrode  20  and a gate line is deposited on the substrate  18  with a metal such as Al, Mo, Cr or their alloy, etc. and thereafter is patterned by the photolithography. A gate insulating film  22  made from an organic material such as SiN X  or SiO X , etc. is deposited on the substrate  18  provided with the gate electrode  20 . Then, a semiconductor layer  24  made from an amorphous silicon (a-Si) layer and an ohmic contact layer  26  made from an a-Si doped with n+ ions are continuously deposited on the gate insulating film  22 . A source electrode  28  and a drain electrode  30  made from a metal such as Mo or Cr, etc. are formed on the ohmic contact layer  26 . The source electrode  28  is patterned integrally with the data line. The ohmic contact layer  26  exposed through an opening between the source electrode  28  and the drain electrode  30  is eliminated by dry etching or wet etching. A protective film  32  made from SiN X  or SiO X  is entirely deposited on the substrate  18  to cover the TFT. Subsequently, a contact hole is formed in the protective film  32 . A pixel electrode  34  made from an indium tin oxide (ITO) is coated so as to be connected, via the contact hole, to the drain electrode  30 . Such a TFT fabricating process includes a photoresist pattern formation step, an etching step and a photoresist pattern strip step, etc. upon the patterning of the electrode layers  20 ,  28  and  30  or upon the formation of the contact hole.  
           [0007]    [0007]FIG. 2 shows a conventional strip and cleaning apparatus. Referring to FIG. 2, the conventional strip and cleaning apparatus includes a loader  40  for loading a cassette (not shown) received with a substrate, a strip line for removing a photo-resistor (PR) of the substrate transported from the cassette, a cleaning line for cleaning the stripped substrate, a dry module  54  for drying the substrate cleaned by means of the cleaning line, and a unloader  56  for loading the substrate dried by means of the dry module  54  into the cassette that is arranged in an inline type. The loader  40  carries the substrate received in the cassette (not shown) into a first strip module  42  using a conveyor or a robot. The substrate from the loader  40  in which the PR formed on the TFT is removed by a pipe shower at the first strip module, is conveyed into a second strip module  44 . A stripper made from a mixture of H 3 PO 4 , CH 3 COOH and HNO 3  is used to remove the PR on the substrate. The second strip module  44  removes residual PR film that has not been removed at the first strip module  42  using a brush. The substrate having the PR film removed by physical cleaning is carried into a third strip module  46 . The third strip module  46  injects the stripper at a high pressure by a cavitation jet (CJ) system to remove the residual PR film on the substrate that has not been removed at the first and second strip modules  42  and  44 . The substrate stripped at the third strip module  46  is carried into an isopropyl alcohol (IPA) injecting module  48 . The IPA injecting module  48  removes minute alien substances and cleans the stripper using an IPA liquid. If the stripper and de-ionized water are mixed at a specific composition ratio, OH is produced to corrode aluminum (Al) formed on the surfaces of the source, drain and gate electrodes. Thus, the stripper is diluted with the IPA liquid so as to prevent the corrosion of aluminum. The substrate cleaned with the IPA liquid by means of the IPA injecting module  48  is carried into a first cleaning module  50 . The first cleaning module  50  cleans the substrate by a pipe shower using de-ionized water and thereafter carries it into a second cleaning module  52 . The second cleaning module  52  injects de-ionized water at a high pressure by the CJ system to clean the substrate. The substrate cleaned at the second cleaning module  52  is carried into a dry module  54 . The dry module  54  rotates the substrate using a centrifugal force of 1800 to 2200 rpm to remove the de-ionized water. The substrate dried at the dry module is received into the cassette on the unloader  56 .  
           [0008]    Such conventional strip/cleaning equipment requires a wide installation space of 10840×1800 mm.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0009]    Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a unified strip/cleaning apparatus wherein a strip line is integrated with a cleaning line to minimize the installation space.  
           [0010]    In order to achieve these and other objects of the invention, a unified strip/cleaning apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a strip line for removing resin on a substrate; and a cleaning line provided under the strip line to clean and dry the substrate. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]    These and other objects of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 1 is a section view showing the structure of a conventional thin film transistor;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional strip and cleaning apparatus; and  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a unified strip/cleaning apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0015]    Referring to FIG. 3, there is shown a unified strip/cleaning apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention in which a strip line and a cleaning line are stacked in a two-layer configuration. The present strip/cleaning apparatus includes a loader  60  for loading a cassette (not shown) received with a substrate, a strip line for removing a photo-resistor (PR) of the substrate transported from the cassette, a cleaning line for cleaning the stripped substrate, a dry module  74  for drying the substrate cleaned by means of the cleaning line, and a unloader  76  for loading the substrate dried by means of the dry module  54  into the cassette. The loader  60  is mounted with a desired number of cassettes, each of which is received with a plurality of substrates. The loader  60  plays the role of carrying the substrates received in the cassette (not shown) into a first strip module  62  using a conveyor or a robot. The substrate carried from the loader  60  into the first strip module  62  where the PR formed on the TFT is removed by a pipe shower is then conveyed into a second strip module  64 . Then, the substrate having the PR film further removed by the physical cleaning process is carried into a third strip module  66 . The third strip module  66  injects a stripper at a high pressure by a cavitation jet (CJ) system to remove residual PR film on the substrate that has not been previously removed at the first and second strip modules  62  and  64 . The substrate stripped at the third strip module  66  is carried into an isopropyl alcohol (IPA) injecting module  68 . The IPA injecting module  68  removes minute alien substances and cleans the stripper using an IPA liquid. The substrate cleaned with the IPA liquid by means of the IPA injecting module  68  is conveyed, via an elevator  69 , into a first cleaning module  70 . The first cleaning module  70  cleans the substrate by a pipe shower using de-ionized water and thereafter carries it into a second cleaning module  72 . The second cleaning module  72  injects de-ionized water at a high pressure utilizing the CJ system to clean the substrate. The substrate cleaned at the second cleaning module  72  is carried into a dry module  74 . The substrate cleaned at the second cleaning module  72  is carried into a dry module  74 . The substrate conveyed into the dry module  74  is rotated by a centrifugal force of 1800 to 2200 rpm to remove the de-ionized water. The substrate dried at the dry module  74  is received into the cassette on the unloader  76 .  
         [0016]    As described above, the unified strip/cleaning apparatus according to the present invention is stacked to have a two-layer structure, so that the installation space can be minimized. Accordingly, the present unified strip/cleaning apparatus occupies a space of 5270×1800 mm that is equal to one-half of the space utilized in the prior art.  
         [0017]    Although the present invention has been explained by the embodiments shown in the drawings described above, it should be understood to the ordinary skilled person in the art that the invention is not limited to the embodiments, but rather that various changes or modifications thereof are possible without departing from the spirit of the invention.