JP2006116368A - Ultraviolet irradiator - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ultraviolet irradiator which prevents the mutual direct irradiator of the radiant heat of the heating means of a window member of a housing and the irradiation of an excimer lamp in the housing. <P>SOLUTION: In the ultraviolet irradiator equipped with the excimer lamp 2 in the housing 1, the light takeout window member 3 provided to the housing 1 and the heating means 10 for heating the window member 3, the heating means 10 is provided above the window member 3 and shield members 11 which prevents mutual direct irradiation of the radiant heat from the heating means 10 and the radiant light from the excimer lamp 2 is provided. Further, the shield members 11 are reflecting mirrors for reflecting the radiant light from the excimer lamp 2 to the window member 3. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  According to the present invention, an excimer lamp that emits excimer light by discharging between electrodes interposing a dielectric material is provided in the casing, and heating means for heating a window member that extracts ultraviolet rays from the excimer lamp to the outside of the casing is provided. The present invention relates to an ultraviolet irradiation device provided in the body, and particularly relates to an ultraviolet irradiation device that prevents irradiation light from a heating means and an excimalap from being directly irradiated to each other.

Conventionally, processing techniques such as dry cleaning and optical ashing of semiconductors and liquid crystal devices using an ultraviolet irradiation device incorporating an excimer lamp are known. In this ultraviolet irradiation device, an excimer lamp is arranged in a housing, ultraviolet light is taken out from a window member of the housing and irradiated to an object to be processed in the processing space. Reaction products such as ammonium hydrogen sulfate (NH ₄ ) HSO ₄ and ammonium sulfate (NH ₄ ) ₂ SO ₄ convect without being decomposed, and adhere to the window member.
As a result, the reaction product adhering to the window member has a problem that the ultraviolet transmittance of the window member is lowered and the ultraviolet intensity in the irradiation region becomes non-uniform. And this has been a problem that processing defects and processing unevenness of the object to be processed occur.

  In order to deal with the contamination of the window member in such an ultraviolet irradiation device, a technique for heating the window member to decompose the reaction product generated in the processing space and preventing it from adhering to the window member is proposed. Has been.

FIG. 6 is a side sectional view showing a schematic configuration of an ultraviolet irradiation device using the conventional excimer lamp.
In the figure, a plurality of excimer lamps 2 are arranged in a casing 1, and a window member 3 for taking out ultraviolet rays from the excimer lamp 2 outside the casing is provided below the casing 1. ing. A reflector 4 is provided above the excimer lamp 2, and heating means 5 comprising an incandescent bulb is disposed in the vicinity of the excimer lamp 2, and a thick film heater or a linear heater is provided on the window member 3. The heating means 6 is provided.
Note that both of the heating means 5 and the heating means 6 are not necessarily provided, and at least one of them may be provided.

However, in the ultraviolet irradiation device having the above structure, when the heating means 5 made of an incandescent lamp is provided in the vicinity of the excimer lamp 2 above the window member 3, the excimer lamp 2 is irradiated with the radiated light from the incandescent lamp. Excimer lamp 2 is heated and its light output is reduced.
Furthermore, depending on the arrangement, the ultraviolet light from the excimer lamp 2 and the ultraviolet light reflected by the reflecting plate 4 are blocked by the incandescent light bulb 5 and prevented from being effectively taken out of the housing 1 from the window member 3. It is done.
On the other hand, when the incandescent lamp 5 is irradiated with ultraviolet rays emitted from the excimer lamp 2, there is a problem that ultraviolet rays are distorted in the arc tube.

Further, when the heating means 6 made of a thick film heater or a linear heater is formed on the window member, the heater 6 blocks the ultraviolet rays from the excimer lamp 2, leading to a decrease in the transmittance of the window member 3, and taking out light. There is a problem that efficiency decreases.
JP-A-11-295500

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is that, in an ultraviolet irradiation apparatus having a window member heating means, the excimer lamp and the heating means are arranged so that the mutual irradiation light of the heating means and the excimer lamp does not directly irradiate each other. An object of the present invention is to provide an ultraviolet irradiation device that eliminates adverse effects on both.

  The present invention includes a casing, an excimer lamp disposed inside the casing, a window member that extracts ultraviolet rays emitted from the excimer lamp to the outside of the casing, and the window member provided inside the casing. In the ultraviolet irradiation apparatus comprising heating means for heating the heating means, the heating means is provided above the window member, and the emitted light from the heating means and the excimer lamp is prevented from being directly irradiated to each other. A shielding member is provided.

  The shielding member is a reflection mirror that reflects the emitted light from the excimer lamp toward the window member.

  Further, the heating means is a halogen heater, a carbon heater, or a ceramic heater.

Further, the cross-sectional center point of the excimer lamp is defined as O, the intersection of the perpendicular from the center point O to the window member and the window member is defined as a direct point P, and a peripheral point separated from the direct point P is defined as Q. Assuming that the distance between the lamp center point O and the direct point P is L and the distance between the direct point P and the peripheral point Q is W,
W = 1.6L
Because
The heating means and the shielding member are arranged above an imaginary line R connecting the lamp center point O and the peripheral point Q.

The present invention provides an ultraviolet irradiation apparatus including an excimer lamp in a housing and provided with a heating unit for heating a window member of the housing, the heating unit being provided above the window member, and the heating unit and the excimer By providing a shielding member that prevents the radiated light from the lamps from directly irradiating each other, the excimer lamp is not heated by the radiated light from the heating means, so the light output and luminous efficiency of the lamp There will be no decline.
In addition, since ultraviolet rays from the excimer lamp do not hit the arc tube such as a halogen heater or a carbon heater constituting the heating unit, the arc tube is not distorted.

  In addition, when the distance from the center point of the excimer lamp to the directly below point is L, the heating means is located above the imaginary line connecting the peripheral point separated from the immediately below point by a distance W = 1.6L and the lamp center point. Since the shielding member is disposed, the window width of the window member can be reduced within a range in which the integrated light quantity value extracted from the window member is not effectively reduced, and thus the overall size of the apparatus can be avoided.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment, in which a heating means 10 for heating the window member 3 is disposed above the window member 3 for taking out ultraviolet rays from the excimer lamp 2 in the housing 1. Has been. The heating means 10 includes a halogen heater, a carbon heater using a carbon filament as a heat source, a ceramic heater, or the like.
A shielding member 11 is disposed between the heating means 10 and the excimer lamp 2, and the excimer lamp 2 and the heating means 10 are irradiated directly with each other by the shielding member 11. It is to be prevented.

  In the second embodiment shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of excimer lamps 2, two in the drawing, are shown. In this embodiment, a heating means 10 is also provided between the excimer lamps 2, 2, and shielding members 11, 11 are also provided between the intermediate heating means 10 and the excimer lamps 2, 2. Has been. The excimer lamp 2 and the heating means 10 are not directly irradiated with each other by these shielding members 11 as in the first embodiment.

In the third embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the shielding member that cuts off the excimer lamp 2 and the heating means 10 is composed of the reflection mirror 12. The reflection mirror 12 reflects the light emitted from the excimer lamp 2 toward the window member 3.
In this embodiment, the excimer lamp 2 is light transmissive all around the arc tube, and a lamp reflecting mirror 13 is provided on the upper surface thereof.

  In the fourth embodiment shown in FIG. 4, as in the second embodiment shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of excimer lamps 2 and 2 are arranged, and a shielding member is also provided between the excimer lamps 2 and 2. Reflecting mirrors 12 and 12 are provided. Reference numeral 13 denotes a lamp reflecting mirror provided on the upper surface side of the excimer lamp 2.

  3 and 4, since the shielding member is constituted by the reflection mirror 12, the emitted light of the excimer lamp 2 is effectively emitted toward the window member 3.

In each of the embodiments shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 4, a structure in which a plurality of excimer lamps 2 and 2 are arranged is described, and the structure in which the heating means 10 is provided between the excimer lamps 2 and 2 has been described. In some cases, it is not always necessary to provide the heating means. Particularly, when the temperature drop is remarkable in the peripheral portion of the window member 3 as compared with the central portion, the heating means 10 between the excimer lamps 2 and 2 is omitted. The heating means may be provided only at a location corresponding to the peripheral portion of the window member 3.
As described above, the temperature decrease phenomenon in the peripheral portion of the window member 3 often occurs due to heat transfer to the outside through the attachment portion of the window member.

Furthermore, the window member has a different wavelength range for absorbing light emitted from the heating means, depending on the OH group content.
Therefore, in order to efficiently heat the window member, a heating unit that emits radiation light suitable for the absorption wavelength range of each window member may be used.
If the window member has an absorption peak at 2.2 μm, it is a heating means that mainly emits near infrared rays, and if the window member has an absorption peak at 5.0 μm or more, far infrared rays are emitted. Any heating means that mainly emits light may be used.

Specifically, in the case of a halogen heater, the infrared region radiated from the halogen heater is controlled by adjusting the color temperature of the filament or applying a ceramic coat to the surface of the arc tube constituting the halogen heater. To do.
In the case of a carbon heater or a ceramic heater, the input power is adjusted to control the radiated infrared region.

  Note that, in this specification, the case where the object to be irradiated is below (downward irradiation) is described. However, the window member is not limited even when the irradiation direction is upward or laterally through the window member. The direction in which the excimer lamp is arranged with reference to the above is the upper side of the window member.

In each of the above embodiments, the size of the window member 3 and the positional relationship between the heating means 10 and the shielding member 11 will be described with reference to FIG.
In FIG. 1, the intersection of the perpendicular from the center point O of the excimer lamp 2 and the window member 3 is a direct point P, and a peripheral point separated from the direct point P by a distance W is Q. FIG. 5 shows the integrated light quantity value obtained from the window by changing the distance W of the peripheral point Q.
In FIG. 5, curve X shows the one without the lamp reflecting mirror, for example the embodiment as shown in FIG. 1, and curve Y shows the one with the lamp reflecting mirror, for example as shown in FIG. An example is shown. As can be seen from FIG. 5, in both cases (X) and (Y) where there is no lamp reflecting mirror, when the width (W) of the window member is 2.5 L or more, the integrated light quantity value becomes the upper limit. When the window width (W) becomes 1.6 L, the integrated light quantity value is about 80%, and an effective and sufficient integrated light quantity can be obtained. On the other hand, if the width of the window member is increased, the entire apparatus becomes larger, so that the effective irradiation area of the irradiation light from the excimer lamp to the window member is at least W = 1.6 L from both of these conditions. It is.

From the above viewpoint, the heating means 10 and the shielding member 11 are located above the imaginary line R connecting the center point O of the excimer lamp 2 and the peripheral point Q separated from the point P immediately below by the distance W = 1.6L. It is arranged and positioned.
By doing so, the irradiation light from the excimer lamp 2 is not prevented from being effectively irradiated onto the window member 3 over a range of at least W = 1.6 L, and a sufficient integrated light quantity can be obtained effectively. And it can avoid that the window member 3 enlarges more than necessary.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the shielding member is provided between the heating means for heating the window member and the excimer lamp so that the irradiation lights of both are not directly irradiated to each other. It is possible to prevent the light output from being lowered without being heated by the heating means.

1st Embodiment of this invention is shown. 2nd Embodiment of this invention is shown. 3rd Embodiment of this invention is shown. 4th Embodiment of this invention is shown. The graph showing the window width of a window member, and the integrated light quantity value taken out. A conventional example is shown.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Case 2 Excimer lamp 3 Window member 10 Heating means 11 Shielding member O Lamp center point P Directly below point Q Peripheral point R Virtual line

Claims (4)

A casing, an excimer lamp disposed in the casing, a window member for extracting ultraviolet rays radiated from the excimer lamp to the outside of the casing, and for heating the window member provided in the casing In the ultraviolet irradiation apparatus comprising the heating means,
An ultraviolet irradiation apparatus, wherein the heating means is provided above a window member, and a shielding member is provided to prevent the radiation from the heating means and the excimer lamp from being directly irradiated to each other. 2. The purple ray irradiation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shielding member is a reflection mirror that reflects the emitted light from the excimer lamp toward the window member. 3. The ultraviolet irradiation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating means is a halogen heater, a carbon heater, or a ceramic heater. The center point of the cross section of the excimer lamp is defined as O, the intersection of the perpendicular from the center point O to the window member and the window member is defined as a direct point P, and a peripheral point separated from the direct point P is defined as Q. When the distance between the lamp center point O and the direct point P is L, and the distance between the direct point P and the peripheral point Q is W,
W = 1.6L
Because
The ultraviolet irradiation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating means and the shielding member are disposed above an imaginary line R connecting the lamp center point O and the peripheral point Q.

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