Cleaning and liquid contact with solids – Apparatus – With movable means to cause fluid motion
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-24
2001-08-28
Stinson, Frankie L. (Department: 1746)
Cleaning and liquid contact with solids
Apparatus
With movable means to cause fluid motion
C134S199000, C134S198000, C134S902000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06279590
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus for cleaning substrates such as glass substrates, and particularly to a cleaning method and a cleaning apparatus suitable for cleaning a large substrate having a size of not less than 400 mm×400 mm.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A liquid crystal display device has such an advantage, compared with other display devices, that the dimension of the depth (thickness) can be made significantly thinner, power consumption is low, and a full-color image can be obtained with ease, and therefore has been applied in a wide variety of fields in recent years. The liquid crystal display device generally has a structure wherein a liquid crystal layer is sandwiched between a pair of glass substrates.
With respect to the glass substrates, a transparent conductive layer, an organic high polymer film, and a thin film such as a metallic film are deposited, and by patterning of these films, switching elements such as TFT (Thin Film Transistors) and wiring for driving and controlling the switching elements are formed.
In the process of forming such films, it is required to remove particles of submicrons to several microns adhering on the glass substrates by cleaning the substrates. This is because when the thin films are formed while the particles still remain on the glass substrates, wiring defect such as breakage and leaking of wire occurs in the wiring formed by patterning the thin films. The wiring defect induces malfunctioning of the switching elements, which might cause a line defect or dot defect in the product liquid crystal display device. The same problem is also presented in manufacturing of ICs and LSIs.
In order to solve this problem, it has been a common practice to remove the particles on the substrates by cleaning the substrates such as glass substrates in a cleaning apparatus, and thereafter deposit thin films on the substrates. As such a cleaning apparatus, a cleaning apparatus of the overflow system is available, in which a cleaning liquid flows into a cleaning tank substantially uniformly. A cleaning apparatus
100
as shown in
FIG. 7
is an example of such a cleaning apparatus, which includes at least a pump
101
, a filter
102
, a cleaning tank
103
, an inflow opening
105
, releasing means
106
, and a punching plate
107
.
In this cleaning apparatus
100
, first, the particles contained in the cleaning liquid which has been forced out by the pump
101
are removed by the filter
102
. The cleaning liquid from which the particles are removed flows into the cleaning tank
103
through the inflow opening
105
provided in a flat manner on a bottom surface of the cleaning tank
103
. Above the inflow opening
105
is provided the punching plate
107
which smooths the flow of the cleaning liquid, and as a result the cleaning liquid flows into the cleaning tank
103
uniformly.
In the cleaning tank
103
, a plurality of substrates
104
(for example, glass substrates) are placed as a cleaning target, and the substrates
104
are cleaned by the cleaning liquid flowing uniformly. The cleaning liquid is released by the releasing means
106
through outflow openings (not shown) provided on the cleaning tank
103
.
As described, the inflow opening
105
is provided in a flat manner on the bottom surface of the cleaning tank
103
, and since the punching plate
107
is provided, as shown in
FIG. 8
, the cleaning liquid flows into the cleaning tank
103
uniformly. The cleaning liquid then flows from the lower portion of the cleaning tank
103
towards the upper portion where two outflow openings
108
are provided. The substrates
104
are cleaned by this flow of the cleaning liquid. Thereafter, as described above, the cleaning liquid flows out from the outflow openings
108
provided so as to contact the upper ends of the cleaning tank
103
, and is released by the releasing means
106
.
As the cleaning apparatus of the overflow system, other than the cleaning apparatus
100
as described above, the following cleaning apparatuses are available. In a cleaning apparatus
110
, as shown in
FIG. 9
, the cleaning liquid flows in the form of radial distribution into a cleaning tank
113
from inflow openings
115
provided in a flat manner on the bottom surface of the cleaning tank
113
. The cleaning liquid flowing in this manner cleans the substrates
104
and then flows out from two outflow openings
118
provided on the side surfaces of the cleaning tank
113
, contacting the upper surface.
In a cleaning apparatus
120
, as shown in
FIG. 10
, flat inflow openings
125
are provided on the upper surface of a cleaning tank
123
, and the cleaning liquid flows in uniformly from the inflow openings
125
. The cleaning liquid flowing in this manner cleans the substrates
104
and then flows out from two outflow openings
128
provided on the side surfaces of the cleaning tank
123
so as to contact the bottom surface.
Also, a cleaning apparatus in which a cleaning liquid which has flown into the cleaning apparatus flows out from a plurality of inflow openings is available. Namely, in this cleaning apparatus, the arrangement of the inflow openings and the outflow openings is opposite to that of the cleaning apparatus of the overflow system. For example, as shown in
FIG. 11
, in a cleaning apparatus
130
, the cleaning liquid flows in from inflow openings
135
provided on the side surfaces of a cleaning tank
133
, contracting the upper surface. The cleaning liquid flowing in this manner cleans the substrates
104
and then uniformly flows out from flat outflow openings
138
provided on the bottom surface of the cleaning tank
133
.
As such a cleaning apparatus of the uniform flow system, especially as a cleaning apparatus for cleaning a silicon wafer which is a circular substrate used for ICs and LSIs, for example, as shown in
FIG. 12
, a cleaning apparatus
140
including a cleaning tank
143
having a cross section of substantially semi-circular shape is available.
In this cleaning apparatus
140
, the shape of the cleaning tank
143
is set in accordance with the shape of a silicon wafer
144
provided as a cleaning target. On the upper portion of the cleaning tank
143
, there is provided a pure water supplying section
142
for supplying pure water (cleaning liquid), and inside the cleaning tank
143
are provided a plurality of shower pipes for spraying pure water onto a position corresponding to the shape of the silicon wafer
144
. Spraying of pure water by the shower pipes stirs the pure water in the cleaning tank
143
, and the particles on the silicon wafer
144
are removed. Thereafter, the pure water is uniformly flown out from outflow openings
148
so as to be released.
As another example of the cleaning apparatus having the described arrangement, a cleaning apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent publication No. 290134/1996 (Tokukaihei 8-290134) is available. In this cleaning apparatus
150
, as shown in
FIG. 13
, two inflow openings
155
are provided on the upper end of one of the side surfaces of a cleaning tank
153
having substantially a rectangular parallelopiped shape so that the inflow angles of the pure water (cleaning liquid) are different. The flows of the pure water flown from the two inflow openings
155
remove the particles on the silicon wafer
144
(cleaning target), and thereafter merge into a single flow in the vicinity of flat outflow openings
158
provided on the bottom surface of the cleaning tank
153
, thus cancelling out the flows. The pure water in which the flows have been cancelled out in this manner flows out through the outflow openings
158
so as to be released.
Meanwhile, a cleaning apparatus of the tornado system in which the cleaning liquid flown in from a plurality of inflow openings flows out from a single or plurality of outflow openings is known. As such a cleaning apparatus of the tornado system, for example, a cleaning apparatus
160
as shown in
FIG. 14
is available, in which two inflow openings
165
are provided on the side su
Hayashi Masatoshi
Matsushima Yasuhiro
Oketani Taimi
Okuda Tohru
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
Stinson Frankie L.
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