Cleaning and liquid contact with solids – Apparatus – With plural means for supplying or applying different fluids...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-10-05
2002-12-10
Stinson, Frankie L. (Department: 1746)
Cleaning and liquid contact with solids
Apparatus
With plural means for supplying or applying different fluids...
C134S105000, C134S108000, C134S113000, C134S200000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06491045
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus and a cleaning method, by which objects to be processed, such as semiconductor wafers and glass substrates for a LCD (liquid crystal display) unit etc., are immersed and cleaned in chemical and subsequently dried.
For example, in a cleaning treatment of a manufacturing process for a semiconductor device, such as LSI etc., various cleaning apparatuses are employed for removing contaminants on the surfaces of the semiconductor wafers, such as particles, organic contaminants, metallic impurities and so on, and for etching the surface of the wafer. Note, in this specification, the semiconductor wafer(s) will be called the wafer(s) for short, hereinafter. Above all, a cleaning apparatus of “wet” type comes into wide use on the grounds that the above contaminants can be removed effectively, the etching can be done and a batch processing can be accomplished to enhance the throughput in the cleaning process.
In such a wet type of cleaning apparatus, the wafers to be cleaned are subjected to a chemical cleaning process (e.g. ammonia treatment, hydrogen fluoride treatment, sulfuric acid treatment etc.), a washing cleaning process using pure water etc., and a drying process using isopropyl alcohol [(CH
3
)
2
CHOH] or the like. Note, the isopropyl alcohol will be referred the IPA, hereinafter. Further, the cleaning apparatus is so constructed to supply the chemicals, the pure water and the IPA to processing baths in processing order and a drying room, respectively. Thus, with the above arrangement, a batch processing method where the wafer in blocks of e.g. 50 sheets are successively immersed in the processing baths and dried in the drying room, comes into wide use.
However, the provision of the processing baths and the drying room for each process causes the apparatus to be large-sized undesirably. In addition, because of a lot of opportunities for transporting the wafers in the apparatus, in other words, being exposed to atmosphere, there is a great possibility of the particles' sticking to the wafers.
Therefore, in e.g. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (kokai) No. 64-81230 and the same No. 6-326073 etc., there are proposed cleaning apparatuses in each of which the processing baths and the drying room are formed in one body, so that the above-mentioned chemical process and drying process are carried out in one chamber.
FIG. 1
shows one example of the cleaning apparatuses in the publications, representatively.
The shown cleaning apparatus comprises a chamber
200
and chemical (liquid)
202
stored in a lower portion
201
of the chamber
200
. In processing, a wafer W is firstly immersed in the chemical
202
. Thereafter, the wafer W is pulled up from the chemical
202
and then subjected to the drying process using the IPA etc. at an upper portion
203
of the chamber
200
.
In the above-mentioned drying process while heating, however, there is a possibility that chemical atmosphere remaining in an upper area of the chamber
200
exerts a bad influence on the wafer W during the drying process. Furthermore, since there is a need to meet respective requirements of the chemical and drying processes simultaneously, the degree of freedom is restricted in design of the cleaning apparatus. Therefore, it is difficult to adopt various ideas to realize a high-speed cleaning process, a miniaturization of the chamber and so on. Meanwhile, in the drying process using the above IPA etc., it is generally executed to decompress the chamber by using a vacuum pump or the like. However, since the chamber in the cleaning apparatus constructed above, in which the chemical treatment etc. and the sequent drying process are executed together, has to have a large capacity volume to a certain extent, there are problems to be solved that it is necessary to increase a wall thickness of the chamber in order to ensure the pressure tightness and a high power vacuum pump is also required.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning apparatus and a cleaning method, by which an object to be processed is not subjected to a bad influence from the chemical process during the drying process.
It is the other object of the present invention to provide a cleaning apparatus which has a high degree of freedom in design thereby to clean the objects rapidly and miniaturize the apparatus itself, and a cleaning method realized by using the cleaning apparatus.
It is the further object of the present invention to provide a cleaning apparatus which is capable of reducing a capacity of the chamber thereby to decrease a wall thickness of the chamber and an output required for the vacuum pump, and a cleaning method realized by using the cleaning apparatus.
It is the other object of the present invention to provide a cleaning apparatus and a cleaning method, by which it is possible to execute the drying process more effectively.
It is the other object of the present invention to provide a cleaning apparatus which is capable of preventing an occurrence of water marks on surfaces of the object.
It is the other object of the present invention to provide a cleaning apparatus in which a processing bath and a drying section are separated from each other thereby to prevent mist etc. of treatment liquids from entering into a drying chamber thereby to accomplish a stable drying performance of the apparatus, and a cleaning method realized by using the cleaning apparatus.
As a first feature of the present invention, the above-mentioned mentioned objects described above can be accomplished by a cleaning apparatus for cleaning an object to be processed, the apparatus comprising:
a processing bath for storing processing liquid in which the object is immersed;
a drying chamber arranged above the processing bath and provided with an opening which is disposed between a body of the drying chamber and the processing bath and through which the object is transported, the opening being capable of closing;
transporting means for transporting the object between the processing bath and the drying chamber through the opening;
introducing means for introducing inert gas into the drying chamber in order to prevent an atmosphere in the processing bath from moving to the drying chamber; and
filling means for filling the drying chamber with an atmosphere of organic solvent.
As a second feature of the present invention, the above-mentioned objects described above can be also accomplished by a cleaning apparatus for cleaning an object to be processed, the apparatus comprising:
a processing bath for storing processing liquid in which the object is immersed;
a drying chamber arranged above the processing bath and provided with an opening which is disposed between a body of the drying chamber and the processing bath and through which the object is transported, the opening being capable of closing;
transporting means for transporting the object between the processing bath and the drying chamber through the opening;
screening means for screening the opening by a current of inert gas; and
filling means for filling the drying chamber with an atmosphere of organic solvent.
As a third feature or the present invention, the above-mentioned objects described above can be also accomplished by a cleaning apparatus for cleaning an object to be processed, the apparatus comprising:
a processing bath for storing processing liquid in which the object is immersed;
a drying chamber arranged above the processing bath and provided with an opening which is disposed between a body of the drying chamber and the processing bath and through which the object is transported, the opening being capable of closing;
transporting means for transporting the object between the processing bath and the drying chamber through the opening;
filling means for filling the drying chamber with an atmosphere of organic solvent; and
screening means for screening the opening by a current of inert gas;
wherein the screening means includes a pair of
Kamikawa Yuji
Nakashima Satoshi
Ueno Kinya
Smith , Gambrell & Russell, LLP
Stinson Frankie L.
Tokyo Electron Limited
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