JP2003300023A - Cleaning apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cleaning apparatus which can prevent the particles once removed from the top surface of a glass substrate from being stuck again to the top surface of the glass substrate. <P>SOLUTION: A box unit 29 provided with a high-pressure jet injector 2 and vacuum nozzles 3, 3 is arranged in a high-pressure jet cleaning part 24 of this substrate cleaning apparatus. Receiving parts 29b of the unit 29 and the nozzles 3, 3 are arranged on the upstream and downstream sides of the injector 2 in the substrate conveying direction, respectively. The particles on the top surface of the glass substrate 1 are removed by a cleaning liquid jetted from the injector 2. The cleaning liquid containing the particles is made to flush into any of the parts 29b of the unit 29 by the injection from the injector 2, which is then sucked by the nozzles 3, 3 and removed from the part 24. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning device used for cleaning a substrate such as a semiconductor substrate, a liquid crystal display panel glass substrate, a photomask glass substrate or the like as an article to be cleaned. In particular, the present invention relates to measures for preventing re-adhesion of particles removed from an object to be cleaned.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a surface cleaning process for a semiconductor substrate, a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display panel, etc., a cleaning process for removing dirt such as particles adhering to the upper surface of the substrate has been known. As the cleaning process, shower cleaning, high-pressure jet cleaning, ultrasonic cleaning, scrub cleaning, and the like are used.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic configuration of an apparatus for cleaning a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display panel as one of cleaning the glass substrate. As shown in this figure, the cleaning apparatus includes a loader 21 that accommodates a cassette 28a that accommodates a glass substrate (object to be cleaned) 1, a scrub cleaning unit 22 that includes a cleaning brush 10, an ultrasonic oscillator 11, and a cleaning liquid supply nozzle. The ultrasonic cleaning unit 23 including 12; the high pressure jet cleaning unit 24 including the high pressure jet injector 2; the drying unit 25 that removes the cleaning liquid by the air knife 13 and the like to dry the substrate surface; and the cleaned glass substrate 1 An unloader 26 accommodating a cassette 28b for accommodating is provided. Also, the loader 2
1 and the unloader 26 are provided with a plurality of rollers 27, 2
Are provided, and the glass substrate 1 is configured to be conveyed in the horizontal direction by the rollers 27, 27 ,.

In the cleaning operation of this cleaning device, first, the glass substrate 1 loaded from the loader 21 is conveyed to the scrubbing cleaning section 22 for cleaning by the brush 10, and the rotating brushes 10 provided above and below are rotated. The brush 10 is pressed against the glass substrate 1 while applying the cleaning liquid to the glass substrate 1 to clean the front and back surfaces of the glass substrate 1. Next, in the ultrasonic cleaning section 23, a gap between the ultrasonic oscillator 11 and the cleaning liquid supply nozzle 12 which are provided at a predetermined interval in the direction orthogonal to the transport direction of the glass substrate 1 (vertical direction in the drawing). Glass substrate 1 is transferred to the
Particles having a size of m or more are removed. Next, in the high-pressure jet cleaning unit 24, cleaning is performed by the high-pressure jet injector 2 that sprays a cleaning liquid under high pressure onto the upper surface of the glass substrate 1 to remove particles having a size of 3 μm or less attached to the upper surface of the glass substrate 1. Done. Then, the glass substrate 1 is conveyed to the drying unit 25,
The substrate surface is dried by the air knife 13 and the like, and after drying, the substrate is housed in the cassette 28b of the unloader 26, and a series of cleaning steps is completed.

[0005]

As described above, in the high pressure jet cleaning section 24, the cleaning liquid to which high pressure is applied is sprayed from the nozzle 4 (see FIG. 6) of the high pressure jet injector 2 toward the glass substrate 1. Thus, particles with a size of 3 μm or less are temporarily removed from the surface of the glass substrate 1. However, the particles are suspended in the cleaning liquid collected on the upper surface of the glass substrate 1.

In this state, the high pressure jet cleaning unit 24 shown in FIG.
The glass substrate 1 is transported in the horizontal direction, so that the glass substrate 1 is sprayed from the nozzle 4 of the high-pressure jet injector 2 to the upstream side (the right side in the figure) in the transport direction.
Since the cleaning liquid A accumulated in (1) is cleaned and removed as the glass substrate 1 is conveyed, there is no particular problem. However, the cleaning liquid B that has flowed to the downstream side (the left side in the drawing) in the transport direction from the high-pressure jet injector 2 flows on the upper surface of the glass substrate 1 as it is, and some of the particles in the cleaning liquid are on the upper surface of the glass substrate 1. There is a possibility of redeposition.
In addition, the cleaning liquid scattered around the glass substrate 1 due to the jetting operation of the high-pressure jet injector 2 adheres to the inner wall of the cleaning tank and becomes droplets, which are dropped on the upper surface of the glass substrate 1 and again This will cause the top surface of the substrate 1 to become dirty.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is that particles once removed from the upper surface of a glass substrate (object to be cleaned) are reattached to the upper surface of the glass substrate. An object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device capable of preventing the above.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention removes particles on an object to be cleaned by spraying a cleaning liquid on the object to be cleaned, and then removing the particles. The cleaning liquid containing the subsequent particles is collected in the receiving portion provided on at least one of the upstream side and the downstream side in the transport direction of the object to be cleaned, sucked and removed to prevent reattachment of particles. There is.

-Solution means-Specifically, it is premised on a cleaning device for spraying a cleaning liquid onto the upper surface of the object to be cleaned. This cleaning device is provided with cleaning liquid suction means (having a vacuum nozzle) for sucking and removing the cleaning liquid stored in the receiving portion provided on at least one of the upstream side and the downstream side in the conveying direction of the object to be cleaned. .

More specifically, a high pressure jet injector (having a spraying nozzle) for spraying a cleaning liquid onto the upper surface of the object to be cleaned is provided, and a cleaning liquid suction means is provided with a vacuum nozzle, and a high pressure jet injector is provided. And the vacuum nozzle is arranged in one housing.

Then, the cleaning liquid is sprayed from the high-pressure jet injector onto the upper surface of the cleaning object while conveying the cleaning object in the horizontal direction, and the cleaning liquid that vigorously flows from the upper surface of the cleaning object is provided in the housing. The vacuum nozzle collects the cleaning liquid stored in the receiving part.

According to this specific matter, particles (for example, particles having a size of 3 μm or less) on the upper surface of the object to be cleaned are removed by the cleaning liquid sprayed from the high pressure jet injector. The cleaning liquid containing the removed particles will stay in the receiving portion provided in the housing due to the pressure of the high-pressure jet injector, and the cleaning liquid accumulated in the receiving portion will be sucked by the vacuum nozzle together with the particles. . Therefore, it is possible to prevent the once removed particles from reattaching to the object to be cleaned.

Further, the receiving portion is provided with a protrusion so that the cleaning liquid once stored does not flow back and flow toward the object to be cleaned.

Further, the high-pressure jet injector, the vacuum nozzle, and the receiving portion are extended in the width direction of the object to be cleaned which is substantially orthogonal to the conveying direction of the object to be cleaned, and the lengths of these parts are different from each other. It is set to be equal to or larger than the dimension across both ends in the object width direction. According to this, the cleaning liquid is uniformly sprayed over the entire width direction of the object to be cleaned, the cleaning liquid flowing vigorously is stored in the receiving portion, and it is possible to remove particles by sucking with the vacuum nozzle. Redeposition can be prevented over the entire object to be cleaned. still,
The vacuum nozzle and the receiving portion are provided on both the upstream side and the downstream side in the conveyance direction of the object to be cleaned with respect to the position where the high pressure jet injector is disposed. The cleaning liquid sprayed from the high-pressure jet injector flows so as to spread from the spraying position to both the upstream side and the downstream side in the transport direction. In this case, according to the present solving means, both the upstream side and the downstream side cleaning liquid can be collected in the receiving portion and sucked by the vacuum nozzle, and the redeposition of particles on the object to be cleaned can be more reliably avoided. be able to.

In addition, since the cleaning liquid sprayed from the high-pressure jet injector onto the upper surface of the object to be cleaned is prevented from being scattered around by accommodating all of them in one housing, The situation where the cleaning liquid scattered around the object to be cleaned adheres to the inner wall of the cleaning tank due to the jetting operation of the high-pressure jet injector, and it becomes droplets that drop on the object to be cleaned and particles reattach. Can be avoided.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a schematic structure of a cleaning apparatus according to this embodiment, FIG. 2 is a side view showing a high-pressure jet cleaning section 24 in the apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the high-pressure jet cleaning section 24. 4 is a perspective view of the high-pressure jet cleaning unit 24.

As shown in these drawings, the cleaning apparatus includes a loader 21 containing a cassette 28a for containing a glass substrate (object to be cleaned) 1, a scrubbing cleaning section 22 provided with a cleaning brush 10, an ultrasonic oscillator 11 and Cleaning liquid supply nozzle 12
An ultrasonic cleaning unit 23, a high pressure jet cleaning unit 24,
A drying unit 25 that removes the cleaning liquid by the air knife 13 and the like to dry the substrate surface, and an unloader 26 that accommodates a cassette 28b that accommodates the cleaned glass substrate 1 are provided. Further, a plurality of rollers 27, 27, ... Are arranged between the loader 21 and the unloader 26, and the rollers 27, 27 ,. .

A feature of this embodiment is that the high-pressure jet cleaning unit 24 is housed in a casing 29, and the vacuum nozzle 3,
3 is provided. An opening that is slightly larger than the high-pressure jet injector 2 is provided in a part of the bottom plate of the housing 29. Further, the bottom plate is provided with protrusions 29a, 29a, and a receiving portion 29b for accumulating the cleaning liquid, 29b, a receiving cover 29 for dropping the splashed cleaning liquid on the receiving portion 29b.
c, 29c are formed. In addition, in order to reduce the weight of the housing 29, transparent PVC is used.

Next, the vacuum nozzle 3 is arranged in the casing 29 in the vicinity of the high pressure jet injector 2 on the upstream side and the downstream side in the glass substrate transport direction with respect to the high pressure jet injector 2. There is. Further, the vacuum nozzle 3 has a suction port that opens downward, and the suction port is arranged so as to closely face and face the upper surface of the cleaning liquid receiving portion 29b provided in the housing 29. That is, a negative pressure is generated in the suction port by driving the vacuum nozzle 3, and the cleaning liquid accumulated in the receiving portion 29b is sucked.

In the cleaning operation by this cleaning device, first, the glass substrate 1 loaded from the loader 21 is conveyed to the scrub cleaning section 22 for cleaning by the brush 10, and the rotating brush 10 provided above and below is rotated. The brush 10 is pressed against the glass substrate 1 while applying the cleaning liquid to the glass substrate 1 to clean the front and back surfaces of the glass substrate 1. Next, in the ultrasonic cleaning section 23, a gap between the ultrasonic oscillator 11 and the cleaning liquid supply nozzle 12 which are provided at a predetermined interval in the direction orthogonal to the transport direction of the glass substrate 1 (vertical direction in the drawing). Glass substrate 1 is transferred to the
Particles having a size of m or more are removed.

Next, in the high pressure jet cleaning section 24,
A high-pressure jet injector 2 which sprays a high-pressure cleaning liquid from a nozzle 4 in a direction perpendicular to the upper surface of the glass substrate 1.
The cleaning liquid having a high pressure is sprayed in an atomized state to remove particles having a size of 3 μm or less. By performing this cleaning, the particles are removed from the upper surface of the glass substrate 1, but the removed particles are suspended in the cleaning liquid after cleaning. Therefore, with respect to the high-pressure jet injector 2 on the upper surface of the glass substrate 1, the removed particles are in contact with the upper surface of the glass substrate 1 in a state where the removed particles are suspended in the cleaning liquid accumulated before and after the transport direction.

Therefore, when flowing down on the upper surface of the glass substrate 1, floating particles tend to reattach to the upper surface of the glass substrate 1. However, in the present embodiment, the cleaning liquid sprayed at high pressure hits the receiving portions 29b of the casing 29 provided on both sides of the high-pressure jet injector 2, hits the glass substrate 1 and is vigorously flown, and the protrusions are formed. It goes over 29a and accumulates in the receiving portion 29b. The accumulated cleaning liquid is the protrusion 2
9a prevents the glass substrate 1 from returning to the upper surface. Then, the vacuum nozzle 3 provided on the upper side of the receiving portion 29b.
By sucking the accumulated cleaning liquid, it is possible to prevent reattachment to the upper surface of the glass substrate 1. That is, the cleaning liquid that has vigorously flowed from the spraying position of the cleaning liquid from the high-pressure jet injector 2 to both the upstream side and the downstream side in the transport direction is accumulated in the receiving portion 29b of the casing 29, and the upstream side and the downstream side of the cleaning portion Particles which are sucked by the vacuum nozzles 3 and 3 arranged on both sides and are suspended in the cleaning liquid are also removed. Further, the cleaning liquid flowing in a direction orthogonal to the substrate transport direction hits a plate on the side surface of the housing 29 larger than the width of the glass substrate 1 and flows down as it is, so that the cleaning liquid should reattach to the upper surface of the glass substrate 1. There is no.

As shown in FIG. 3, the lengthwise dimensions of the high pressure jet injector 2, the vacuum nozzle 3, and the receiving portion 29b of the housing 29 are set to be equal to or larger than the width of the glass substrate 1. As a result, the cleaning liquid can be sucked up to the entire width and both end surfaces of the glass substrate 1. In addition, the receiving portion 29b of the housing 29 is provided on both sides of the high-pressure jet injector 2.
The positions at which the receiving cover 29c and the vacuum nozzles 3 are arranged are set according to conditions such as the pressure of the high-pressure jet injector 2 and the height of the nozzle 4. That is, the bounce position when the cleaning liquid hits the glass substrate 1 changes depending on various conditions. Therefore, regarding the positions of the receiving portion 29b and the receiving cover 29c of the housing 29 and the vacuum nozzles 3 and 3, the high-pressure jet is previously prepared. Optimal conditions for the injector 2 are determined, and the injector 2 is attached according to the bounce position determined at that time. Further, by providing the high-pressure jet injector 2 in the housing 29, it also serves as a cover for preventing the cleaning liquid sprayed from the high-pressure jet injector 2 onto the upper surface of the glass substrate 1 from splashing around. As a result, it is possible to avoid a situation in which the cleaning liquid scattered around the glass substrate 1 adheres to the inner wall of the cleaning tank or the like, becomes droplets, drops on the glass substrate 1, and particles reattach. Further, the cleaning liquid is stored in the receiving portion 29b of the housing 29, and suction is performed by the vacuum nozzles 3 to reduce the amount of the cleaning liquid accumulated on the upper surface of the glass substrate 1, so that the high-pressure jet injector 2 performs cleaning. It is possible to reduce the amount of cleaning liquid scattered inside the tank. Also by this, as in the case described above, the cleaning liquid scattered around the glass substrate 1 adheres to the inner wall of the cleaning tank or the like, becomes droplets, and drops onto the glass substrate 1 to reattach particles. Such a situation can be avoided.

The glass substrate 1 for which the cleaning operation in the high-pressure jet cleaning section 24 has been completed in this manner is conveyed to the drying section 25 and dried by the air knife 13 or the like. At this time, due to the suction effect of the vacuum nozzles 3 in the high pressure jet cleaning unit 24, which is the previous step, the glass substrate 1
Since the amount of the cleaning liquid remaining on the upper surface of is smaller than that in the conventional cleaning operation, the drying time can be shortened. And
After drying the glass substrate 1, the cassette 2 of the unloader 26
8b, and a series of cleaning steps are completed.

As described above, in this embodiment, the high-pressure jet injector 2 in the high-pressure jet cleaning unit 24 is installed in the housing 29, and the housing is provided on both sides (the upstream side and the downstream side in the transport direction of the glass substrate 1). By providing the receiving portion 29b of 29 and the vacuum nozzles 3 and 3, the receiving portion of the housing 29 receives the cleaning liquid that spreads from the spraying position of the cleaning liquid from the high-pressure jet injector 2 to both the upstream side and the downstream side in the transport direction. The particles are stored in 29b and sucked by the vacuum nozzles 3 respectively to remove particles floating in the cleaning liquid. For this reason, it is possible to reliably prevent particles once removed from the upper surface of the glass substrate 1 from reattaching to the upper surface of the glass substrate 1, and to realize a good cleaning operation.

-Other Embodiments- In the above embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to an apparatus for cleaning the glass substrate 1 has been described. The present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to various types of cleaning devices for objects to be cleaned.

Further, the receiving positions 29b of the casing 29 and the vacuum nozzles 3 are not limited to the positions on both sides of the high-pressure jet cleaning unit 24, but may be on only one side.
In this case, it is particularly preferable to provide it on the downstream side in the glass substrate transport direction in which particles are likely to be reattached.

[0029]

As described above, in the present invention, the cleaning liquid is sprayed onto the object to be cleaned to remove the particles on the object to be cleaned, and then the cleaning liquid containing the particles after the removal is applied to the receiving portion of the housing. At the same time that the liquid is stored, it is sucked and removed by the cleaning liquid suction means. For this reason, it is possible to prevent the particles, which have been once removed, from reattaching to the object to be cleaned, and to realize a good cleaning operation for the object to be cleaned. Further, in the case of performing the drying operation of the cleaning object after the cleaning operation of the cleaning object, the cleaning liquid remaining on the cleaning object can be reduced by the suction operation, and the time required for the drying process can be shortened. Can be achieved.

Further, when the receiving portion of the housing and the vacuum nozzle are provided both upstream and downstream in the conveying direction of the object to be cleaned with respect to the position where the high pressure jet injector is arranged, the particle Redeposition on the object to be cleaned can be more reliably avoided.

Further, by disposing the high-pressure jet injector in the housing, the high-pressure jet injector serves as a cover for preventing the cleaning liquid sprayed on the upper surface of the object to be cleaned from scattering around. Avoid the situation where the cleaning liquid scattered around the object to be cleaned adheres to the inner wall of the cleaning tank due to the spraying operation of the container and becomes a droplet, which drops on the object to be cleaned and reattaches particles. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of a cleaning device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a cleaning unit in the cleaning device.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a cleaning unit in the cleaning device.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a cleaning unit in the cleaning device.

FIG. 5 is a view corresponding to FIG. 1 showing a conventional cleaning device.

FIG. 6 is a view corresponding to FIG. 2 showing a conventional cleaning unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 glass substrate (object to be cleaned) 2 High-pressure jet injector 3 Vacuum nozzle (cleaning liquid suction means) 4 nozzles 29 housing 29a protrusion 29b Receiver

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) // C03C 23/00 C03C 23/00 A

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning device for conveying an object to be cleaned horizontally and cleaning it in a single-wafer manner, a nozzle for spraying a cleaning liquid having a high pressure on the upper surface of the object to be cleaned, an upstream side in the conveying direction of the object to be cleaned, and A cleaning device comprising: a receiving portion provided on at least one of the downstream sides for storing the cleaning liquid; and a vacuum nozzle for sucking the cleaning liquid stored therein. 2. The cleaning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a protrusion is provided on the receiving portion side between the nozzle and the vacuum nozzle so that the cleaning liquid flowing to the receiving portion does not flow back to the surface of the object to be cleaned again. A characteristic cleaning device. 3. The cleaning device according to claim 2, wherein the nozzle, the vacuum nozzle, and the projection on the receiving portion side extend in the width direction of the cleaning target substantially orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the cleaning target, and A cleaning device, wherein the length dimension of the nozzle, the vacuum nozzle, and the protrusion on the receiving portion side is set to be equal to or greater than the dimension across both ends in the width direction of the object to be cleaned. 4. The cleaning apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the nozzle, the vacuum nozzle, and the receiving portion are all housed in a single housing.