Cleaning and liquid contact with solids – Apparatus – With heating – cooling or heat exchange means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-30
2004-03-30
Gulakowski, Randy (Department: 1746)
Cleaning and liquid contact with solids
Apparatus
With heating, cooling or heat exchange means
C134S110000, C134S155000, C134S186000, C134S902000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06712081
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for placing an object to be processed in contact with a supercritical fluid, a subcritical fluid or a liquefied gas within a pressure vessel to process the same.
2. Discussion of the Background
A hot isotropic pressure press processing (hereinafter, referred to as “HIP”) is the processing which is carried out, when an inconvenience such as pores occurs within a cast article, a sintered article or the like, for the purpose of removing the pores, with respect to the aforesaid articles, and in which the object to be processed is put into a cylindrical pressure vessel interior of which forms a processing chamber, and a pressure gas atmosphere in excess of hundreds of atmospheric pressure in inactive gas such as argon is exposed thereto.
A supercritical gas extraction method applies a specific characteristic of a substantially middle state between gas and liquid having a state in excess of a critical point (a critical temperature, a critical pressure) peculiar to a material (a density is dose to liquid, and a diffusion coefficient and a viscosity are close to gas). There are characteristics that since extraction can be made under the gentle temperature condition, deterioration and decomposition of unstable objects to be processed can be avoided, that there is no possible residue of solvent in the objects to be processed, and that the solvent has a low viscosity and high diffusion properties, and is high in extraction separation speed.
The critical point of a carbon dioxide used as the solvent is pressure of 73 atm, and a temperature of 31° C. Therefore, the device constituting the supercritical gas extraction device has to withstand the use at high pressure.
On the other hand, also in the liquefied gas extraction, the liquefied carbon dioxide is, for example, 60 atm at a room temperature of 20° C, and the device need likewise be withstand the use at high pressure.
In such a pressure processing device, particularly where a specimen is a solid, it is necessary to open and close a lid of an extraction tank in taking in and out of the specimen to an extraction tank in which a supercritical gas or a liquefied gas comes in contact with the specimen.
The simplification of the closing operation of the lid, and the positive closing properties under the high pressure at the extraction operation (at the pressure processing) are required.
Recently, these pressure processing devices have various uses, and are being applied also to the process for manufacturing semiconductors and electronic parts. That is, typical applied examples include the way of pressure burying for eliminating pores formed in a metal wiring in the HIP processing, and the washing and drying of minute structures of semiconductors and electronic parts as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 9-232271 in the supercritical processing.
In these uses, particularly a device which is free from occurrence of dust or the like is necessary. For example, in the processing of semiconductors such as a silicon wafer, in a process, the adhesion of large dusts less than 1 micron called particles to an object to be processed impairs soundness of an electronic circuit pattern formed on the wafer surface, thus requiring a device which realizes particle-free in which is free from or hard to produce such dusts as described.
In the pressure processing devices so far proposed, a seal construction of a lid closing part as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. Hei 3-135402 and 8-141307 Publications has been used for simplifying the closing operation of a lid.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 3-135402 discloses a device characterized in that an inner tube of a pressure vessel is inserted into an outer tube of a pressure vessel, a closing means for both the tubes while enabling insertion is provided, and either inner tube or outer tube is slidably moved to take in and out material from an opening part provided in the circumferential part of the inner tube.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-141307 discloses a device characterized in that filters are secured integrally to an upper lid and a lower lid, respectively, of a pressure vessel.
However, in these devices, a so-called “shaft seal construction” in which an O-ring or the like is mounted on the cylindrical surface which is positive in high pressure seal has been used. However, in the shaft seal construction, since a guide function for registration of shafts resulting from the closing is imparted to a fixing part in which an O-ring is mounted when the lid is opened and closed, worn refuse of the O-ring caused by the sliding movement of the O-ring forms dust.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been accomplished in view of the problem noted above, and has its object to provide a pressure processing device which is useful as compared with the conventional devices.
One of specific objects is to provide a pressure processing device capable of carrying out processing which is free from particles.
In the semiconductor industry of an integrating circuit or the like, particularly, the productivity is very important, but in the conventional techniques, the temperature control accuracy and the temperature control reactiveness which are essential to the enhancement of the productivity were difficult to enhance. Accordingly, in the conventional pressure processing device such as a supercritical extraction tank for placing an object to be processed in contact with supercritical gas, a subcritical gas or a liquefied gas to process the same, no consideration has been made to the point of the particle-free, posing a problem that the conventional device fails to deal with the case where processing in the very clean atmosphere such as an integrating circuit is necessary. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a pressure processing device capable of enhancing the temperature control accuracy and the temperature control reactiveness which are essential to the enhancement of the productivity.
Further, since the aforementioned shaft seal construction employs the construction to fit the lids, the moving distance when a vessel is opened and closed is long, and it takes time. It is therefore a further object of the present invention to provide a pressure processing device having a lid construction having a lid construction which enables take-in and take-out by a simple method, without employing the fitting construction, and which has positive closing properties and free from occurrence of dust resulting from the closing of the lid.
Incidentally, the conventional extraction tank is generally of the flange type of an autoclave, which requires fastening using many bolts, thus being not efficient. Accordingly, there has been desired an extraction tank.
Devices for carrying out the closing operation of a pressure vessel relatively simply without requiring fastening using a number of bolts proposed so far include, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 64-7905, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 3-135402, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Sho 63-1182, and the like.
Also in both the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 64-7905 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 3-135402, plugs (corresponding to lids) are detachably fitted into upper and lower parts of the pressure vessel, and a crossing pin was made detachable in the state that a through-hole bored in a diametrical direction of the plug and a through-hole bored in a diametrical direction of the pressure vessel are registered in holes.
Therefore, the axial force exerting in the axial direction of the vessel during the pressure processing is borne by the pressure vessel through the crossing pin, and not only the shearing force exerts on the crossing pin but also the bending force or the like exerts thereon, thus posing a problem in positiveness, and posing a problem also in durability.
Further, when the crossing pin is moun
Kanda Takeshi
Nishimoto Takeo
Sakashita Yoshihiko
Uehara Katsuhiro
(Kobe Steel, Ltd.)
Gulakowski Randy
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Perrin Joseph
LandOfFree
Pressure processing device does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Pressure processing device, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Pressure processing device will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3221079