Fluid sprinkling – spraying – and diffusing – Combining of separately supplied fluids – At or beyond outlet
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-27
2001-08-14
Scherbel, David A. (Department: 3752)
Fluid sprinkling, spraying, and diffusing
Combining of separately supplied fluids
At or beyond outlet
C239S419000, C239S421000, C239S422000, C239S424000, C239S425000, C239S427000, C239S427500, C239S428000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06273344
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a dispensing nozzle device, and more particularly, to a dispensing nozzle device having a self-cleaning function.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In a manufacturing process of semiconductor devices or liquid crystal displays (LCDs) including wet etching, cleaning, wet spin etching, coating, and developing, various kinds of dispensing nozzles are utilized. A conventional dispensing nozzle is disclosed in
FIG. 2
of U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,487.
Referring to
FIG. 1A
, a conventional dispensing system includes a storage tank
101
for storing a processing material
100
, a delivery pipeline
102
for transporting the processing material
100
, a control valve
103
for controlling the flow of the processing material
100
, and a nozzle
104
for dispensing the processing material
100
onto a wafer (not shown) or glass substrate (not shown) to be processed.
The processing material
100
is represented by dots in
FIGS. 1A and 1B
. After the processing steps have been completed and the control valve
103
is closed, the processing material
100
remained at the dispensing nozzle
104
changes it property or gets hardened because of its contact with air. Thus, a hardened substance
105
is formed around the dispensing nozzle
104
, as shown in FIG.
1
B. The hardened substance
105
is mixed with the processing material
100
in the subsequent treatment and is dispensed onto the wafer or glass substrate. As a result, the processing material is polluted, and the wafer or the glass substrate can be damaged.
In some dispensing nozzle systems, when the function of the dispensing nozzle is disabled, a suck-back valve is employed to suck back the processing material so as to prevent the processing material from remaining at an outlet of the dispensing nozzle. However, the proper functions of the suck-back valve are disabled due to the aging thereof or the chemical reaction between the materials and the suck-back valve. As a result, the processing material gradually leaks and drops onto the wafer or the glass substrate. In this case, the product quality of the wafer or the glass substrate can be adversely affected.
Referring to
FIG. 2
, a conventional multi-nozzle device includes a body
106
and four dispensing nozzles
107
arranged in parallel for providing four kinds of processing materials. In order to let a wafer or glass substrate be processed properly, the processing materials have to be uniformly dispersed onto the wafer or glass substrate. Thus, to dispense one of the processing materials, the body
106
has to be properly positioned so as to let the corresponding dispensing nozzle
107
initially align with the center of the wafer or glass substrate and subsequently the body
106
is gradually shifted so that the processing material is uniformly distributed throughout the wafer or glass substrate.
In general, in order to prevent the processing materials from being splashed to the backside of the wafer or the glass substrate, none of the dispensing nozzles
107
is allowed to dispense the processing materials outside the wafer or glass substrate. Therefore, the shifting range of the multi-nozzle device has to be smaller than that of the single nozzle device
104
shown in FIG.
1
. In this case, some processing materials cannot be dispensed throughout the entire surface to be treated of the wafer or glass substrate. The details will be described in the following with reference to
FIGS. 3A and 3B
.
Referring to
FIG. 3A
, a to-be-treated wafer or glass substrate is represented by a substrate
110
. The processing region in which the dispensing nozzle
104
is allowed to shift is the area within a circle
111
. The maximum range in which the dispensing nozzle
104
is allowed to shift above the substrate
110
is the area within the circle
111
.
Referring to
FIG. 3B
, a to-be-treated wafer or glass substrate is designated as a substrate
110
. The processing region in which the rightmost dispensing nozzle
107
is allowed to shift is the area within a circle
111
. The maximum processing region in which the leftmost dispensing nozzle
107
is allowed to shift is the area within a circle
112
due to that the processing region in which the rightmost dispensing nozzle
107
is allowed to shift is limited by the circle
111
.
Thus, if the dispensing nozzle device shown in
FIG. 2
is used, the dispensing region is small and the movement of the dispensing nozzle cannot be easily controlled. If the dispensing nozzle device is required to dispense the processing material to the substrate center, the method for adjusting each of the dispensing nozzles
107
to the substrate center is complicated and cannot be easily completed.
Referring to
FIG. 4
, a conventional multi-nozzle device is provided with a body
108
and four dispensing nozzles
109
arranged in a circular shape. The processing materials dispensed from the dispensing nozzles
109
are directly dispensed to the center point of the wafer or the glass substrate by a proper design. As the processing materials dispensed from the dispensing nozzle are not perpendicularly impinged onto the wafer or the glass substrate, the slantingly dispensed processing material can damage the patterns on the wafer or the glass substrate. Furthermore, the slantingly dispensed processing material cannot be dispersed to deep trenches formed on the wafer or glass substrate. Thus, the quality of the product is adversely affected. Moreover, the slantingly dispensed processing material causes a lateral force that can topple the wafer or the glass substrate.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a dispensing nozzle device capable of selectively providing various kinds of processing materials and capable of preventing the processing materials from remaining at the dispensing nozzle. In addition, the dispensing nozzle device is capable of dispensing the processing materials throughout the entire surface to be treated of the wafer or glass substrate, and capable of eliminating the slantingly dispensed processing material which causes a lateral force to topple the wafer or glass substrate. This dispensing nozzle device can also provide atomized processing material such that the atomized processing material can be uniformly distributed throughout the wafer or glass substrate.
In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, a dispensing nozzle device for dispensing processing materials to an output region includes a body and a plurality of first conduits. The body is formed with a first chamber, a second chamber, a plurality of through holes in communication with the first chamber and the second chamber, and a dispensing nozzle conduit for communicating the second chamber with the output region. The plurality of first conduits are respectively in communication with the plurality of through holes and have a plurality of openings received within the second chamber. A gap is formed between each of the first conduits and corresponding one of the plurality of through holes.
In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, the dispensing nozzle device is capable of selectively providing various kinds of processing materials via a plurality of first pipelines and capable of cleaning the processing materials remained at the opening. Thus, the hardening of the processing materials remaining at the opening can be avoided.
According to a second aspect of the invention, the body in accordance with the first aspect of the invention further includes a third circular chamber substantially surrounding the second chamber, and at least two first bypass conduits substantially symmetrical to the dispensing nozzle conduit and in communication with the third circular chamber and the output region. Therefore, the lateral pushing forces as a result of slantingly dispensed processing materials on the wafer or glass substrate can be eliminated.
According to a third aspect of the invention, the body in accordance with the first aspect of the invention the body further includes a
Lin Hung C.
Nguyen Dinh Q.
Scherbel David A.
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