Multidirectional liquid sprayer used in a wet process

Details Multidirectional liquid sprayer used in a wet process Multidirectional liquid sprayer used in a wet process

2000-03-27

2002-05-21

Stinson, Frankie L. (Department: 1746)

Cleaning and liquid contact with solids

Apparatus

With movably or flexibly mounted spray or jet applying...

C134S180000, C134S181000, C239S265000, C239S237000, C239S227000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06390106

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid sprayer, and more particularly, to a multidirectional sprayer used in wet processes, such as cleaning, developing, and etching processes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Liquid sprayers are used in a variety of wet semiconductor processes, such as cleaning, developing and etching processes. A prior art wet process liquid sprayer comprises a housing shell, a transport line for moving workpieces through the housing shell, and a spray system installed above the transport line in the housing shell.
The spray system comprises a plurality of parallel horizontal rocker pipes rotatably installed in the housing shell, each rocker pipe having a plurality of parallel nozzles directed in a generally downward direction. The spray system further includes driving and linkage devices to produce synchronized oscillation (rocking) of the rocker pipes so that all nozzles spray in the same direction at any given time. Due to continuing complexity and diversity of workpieces, such as plasma display panel (PDP) substrates, a liquid sprayer that has only one-direction nozzle aiming (rocking motion) becomes increasingly inefficient. Multidirectional nozzle aiming, therefore, improves process efficiency.
Please refer to FIG.
1
and FIG.
2
.
FIG. 1
is a side view of a prior art wet process liquid sprayer.
FIG. 2
is a schematic diagram of a liquid supply system
20
and workpieces
34
,
36
. As shown in
FIG. 1
, the liquid sprayer
10
comprises a housing
12
, the liquid supply system
20
used to transfer a liquid
26
onto the workpieces
34
,
36
. A transport line
30
is used to move and support the workpieces
34
,
36
along a first horizontal direction, and a driving device (not shown) provides the spraying motion of the liquid sprayer
10
. The liquid supply system
20
comprises a plurality of supply pipes
22
installed along a second horizontal direction, and a plurality of nozzles
24
mounted on the underside of the supply pipes
22
. The transport line
30
comprises a plurality of rollers
32
to move the workpieces
34
,
36
along the first horizontal direction in the housing
12
.
The transport line
30
moves the workpieces
34
,
36
along the first horizontal direction, which is perpendicular to the orientation of the supply pipes
22
. Each supply pipe
22
is driven by the driving device and rotates in a reciprocating manner as indicated by the arrow
28
in FIG.
1
. The nozzles
24
rotate with the supply pipes
22
, and so the liquid
26
from the nozzles
24
is sprayed onto the workpieces
34
,
36
in a reciprocating manner along the first horizontal direction.
The workpieces
34
,
36
may be respectively the front and the rear glass plates of a plasma display panel. As shown in
FIG. 2
, the first workpiece
34
has parallel electrodes
35
that is parallel to the first horizontal direction. The second workpiece
36
has parallel electrodes
37
that is parallel to the second horizontal direction. The workpiece
34
moves into the housing
12
to be sprayed. Because the orientations of the parallel electrodes
35
and the motion of the nozzles
24
are both in the first horizontal direction, the residual chemical liquid on the workpiece
36
is easily washed away, making the chemical reaction more efficient. However, when the workpiece
36
moves into the housing
12
, the orientation of the parallel electrodes
37
is perpendicular to the direction of the spraying motion of nozzles
24
, and residual chemical liquid on the workpiece
36
is not easily washed away. Therefore, the workpiece
36
must remain in the spraying region for a longer period of time to ensure process completion. This increases both process time and the amount of chemical liquid used, which leads to higher process costs.
Furthermore, in the liquid sprayer
10
, the supply pipe
22
is connected to the main pipe
21
with a sealing ring (not shown). The sealing ring is required as the supply pipes
22
rotate along the direction of the arrow
28
, shown in FIG.
2
. However, the sealing ring is not perfect, and the connections
23
between the supply pipes
22
and the main pipes
21
often have some leakage.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide a multidirectional liquid sprayer to solve the above mentioned problems.
In a preferred embodiment, the present invention relates to a liquid sprayer comprising:
a housing comprising a hollow inner shell, and a transport line installed on a bottom portion of the inner shell for horizontally supporting a workpiece;
a plurality of transfer pipes vertically installed on an upper portion of the inner shell, and a nozzle installed at a lower end of each transfer pipe to spray a liquid in a downward direction;
a linking device fixed to the plurality of transfer pipes for moving the plurality of transfers pipe so that the nozzles are directed to spray in the same direction back and forth along different directions; and
a driving device fixed in the housing and used to drive the linking device in different directions so that the nozzles spray onto the workpiece in different directions with time.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the liquid sprayer drives the nozzles to spray in different directions, which improves the efficiency of the liquid sprayer.
This and further objectives of the present invention will become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, which is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.


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