Cleaning and liquid contact with solids – Apparatus – With heating – cooling or heat exchange means
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-02
2001-07-03
Stinson, Frankie L. (Department: 1746)
Cleaning and liquid contact with solids
Apparatus
With heating, cooling or heat exchange means
C134S105000, C134S111000, C134S902000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06253775
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus for cleaning workpieces, such as semiconductor wafers or LCD substrates.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
Generally, a cleaning apparatus is used widely in semiconductor device fabricating processes for cleaning workpieces, such as semiconductor wafers (hereinafter referred to simply as “wafers”). The cleaning apparatus transfers wafers sequentially to processing tanks respectively containing chemical liquids and rinsing liquids, and a drying unit to remove particles, organic metal contaminants or oxide films from the wafers, and to dry the wafers.
A cleaning apparatus of this kind comprises processing tanks respectively containing chemical liquids, such as HF+H
2
O (hydrogen fluoride solution), NH
4
OH+H
2
O
2
+H
2
O (ammonia hydrogen peroxide solution), HCl+H
2
O
2
+H
2
O (hydrochloric acid hydrogen peroxide solution) and rinsing solution, such as pure water, liquid supplying and discharging equipment for supplying chemical liquids and rinsing liquids into and discharging the same from those processing tanks, including pipes, chemical liquid tanks, pumps, flow stabilizing devices, filters and such, and a ventilation system for ventilating the processing tanks to discharge atmospheres containing the chemical liquids during a cleaning process. Generally, the liquid supplying and discharging equipment is disposed behind a container containing the processing tanks.
The conventional cleaning apparatus of this kind needs many pieces of piping equipment including supply pipes and discharge pipes. These pieces of piping equipment need troublesome work for installation and difficult work for maintenance. Since discharge pipes and such are arranged in a complicated arrangement of the piping equipment, troublesome work is necessary for installing pipes to construct the ventilation system, and the ventilating performance of the ventilation system is unsatisfactory. The cleaning apparatus uses cleaning liquids, such as chemical liquids. It is desired to facilitate the maintenance of filters for filtering those cleaning liquids.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the foregoing circumstances and it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning apparatus facilitating the maintenance of its components including filters, and having a ventilation system capable of easily installed and of functioning at an improved ventilation efficiency, and a method of ventilating the cleaning apparatus.
According to the present invention, a cleaning apparatus comprises: a tubular vessel defining a bottomed processing chamber, provided with a bottom plate and having a bottom wall and side walls; a processing tank placed in the processing chamber to contain a processing liquid for processing workpieces; a side ventilating duct formed by the side wall of the vessel, and a first partition wall including an upright wall standing from the bottom plate and a wall formed by extending the upright wall downward; and a bottom ventilating duct formed of the bottom wall of the vessel, and a second partition wall substantially horizontally extending from the lower end of the first partition wall, and connected to the side ventilating duct.
According to the present invention, the side ventilating duct is formed along the side wall of the tubular vessel defining the processing chamber for containing processing tanks, and the bottom ventilating duct is formed along the bottom wall of the vessel so as to be connected to the side ventilating duct. Therefore, a ventilation system can be separated from devices and pipes for supplying and discharging processing liquids. Consequently, the devices and the pipes for supplying and discharging the processing liquids can easily be arranged, and maintenance work for the maintenance of the devices and pipes is facilitate.
According to the present invention, the cleaning apparatus is characterized by a discharge opening to be connected to a discharge pipe, formed in the bottom ventilating duct.
The cleaning system according to the present invention is characterized in that at least either the side ventilating duct or the bottom ventilating duct communicates with the processing chamber by means of a connecting opening, and discharge opening to be connected to a discharge pipe is formed in the bottom wall of the vessel.
According to the present invention, the discharge opening to be connected to discharge pipe, formed in the bottom wall of the vessel facilitates the connection of the pipe of a ventilation system to the bottom ventilating duct and improves ventilation efficiency.
The cleaning apparatus according to the present invention is characterized by an airflow adjusting means disposed above an opening of the side ventilating duct formed in the vessel so as to cover a space around the opening of the side ventilating duct and the upper end of the upright wall to adjust the gap between the airflow adjusting means and the upright wall.
According to the present invention, air can be discharged outside at an optional discharge rate by adjusting the gap between the airflow adjusting means and the upright wall by the airflow adjusting means disposed above the opening of the side ventilating duct so as to cover the space around the opening of the side ventilating duct and the upper end of the upright wall.
According to the present invention the cleaning apparatus is characterized by a discharge pressure measuring means disposed between the upright wall and the airflow adjusting means.
According to the present invention, the airflow adjusting means is disposed above the opening of the side ventilating duct formed in the vessel so as to cover the space around the opening of the side ventilating duct and the upper end of the upright wall to adjust the gap between the airflow adjusting means and the upright wall, and the discharge pressure measuring means is disposed between the upright wall and the airflow adjusting means. Therefore, discharge pressure in a cleaning unit can easily be measured and the condition of a cleaning process can be monitored.
According to the present invention, the airflow adjusting means comprises a horizontal piece for covering the opening of the side ventilating duct, and a vertical piece extending downward from an end of the horizontal piece on the side of the processing tank to a position below the upper end of the upright wall, the horizontal piece is adjustably supported by a support member projecting inward from the side wall of the vessel.
The cleaning apparatus according to the present invention, is characterized by a gas-liquid separating wall uprightly provided on the bottom wall of the vessel around the discharge opening. The cleaning apparatus according to the present invention, is characterized by a draining opening formed in the bottom wall of the vessel.
According to the present invention, the gas-liquid separating wall is set in an upright position on the bottom wall of the vessel near the discharge opening so as to surround the discharge opening. Therefore, a liquid containing the chemical liquid can be separated from air to be discharged and can be collected on the bottom wall of the vessel. The liquid collected on the bottom wall can be drained outside through the draining opening formed in the bottom wall of the vessel.
The cleaning apparatus according to the present invention is characterized by a lower chamber formed below the processing tank placed in the processing chamber and having a volume greater than that of the processing liquid contained in the processing tank.
The cleaning apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that the bottom plate is inclined and a draining opening is formed in a lower end part of the inclined bottom plate.
According to the present invention, the volume of the lower chamber defined by the bottom plate and a side wall of the vessel defining the processing chamber,
Kitahara Shigenori
Taguchi Keiji
Tsuboi Hiroko
Smith Gambrell & Russell
Stinson Frankie L.
Tokyo Electron Limited
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