JP4714620B2 - Ozone gas decomposition apparatus and treatment system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an ozone gas decomposing apparatus for decomposing ozone gas and a treatment system equipped with the ozone gas decomposing apparatus, and in particular, to reduce oxygen to oxygen by causing thermal decomposition reaction and catalytic reaction to the introduced ozone gas. The present invention relates to a configured ozone gas decomposing apparatus and a processing system including the ozone gas decomposing apparatus.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, as disclosed in Patent Document 1 and the like, various decomposition apparatuses that decompose ozone gas discharged as unreacted gas when modifying a metal oxide film formed on the surface of a substrate using ozone gas, for example. Various types are known.

  As a general decomposition method of ozone gas, as shown in Patent Document 1, ozone gas flowing in a pipe is heated to, for example, about 400 ° C. by a heater, and this ozone gas is subjected to a pyrolysis reaction in the pipe. Thus, a method of reducing the ozone gas to oxygen is used. Further, in this case, when the pipe is made of metal, a catalytic reaction can be additionally performed on ozone gas on the inner side surface of the pipe, and the thermal decomposition reaction can be further promoted. It becomes like this. The gas heated by the heater in the pipe is cooled to, for example, room temperature by a cooler provided at the rear stage of the heater.

JP 2000-24456 A

  However, in the conventional ozone gas decomposing apparatus as described above, when the flow rate of the introduced ozone gas is large, it takes time to heat the ozone gas by the heater, and it is possible to secure a sufficient pyrolysis reaction time for the ozone gas. There is a problem that it is difficult.

  In addition, when ozone gas containing impurities such as metal oxide and silicon oxide is introduced into the conventional ozone gas decomposing apparatus as described above, the impurities contained in this ozone gas when the ozone gas decomposing apparatus is used for a long period of time. May accumulate in the piping. When impurities are deposited in the pipe, the inner surface of the pipe is covered with deposits (deposits), and the catalytic reaction to ozone gas cannot be performed in the pipe. In this case, only the thermal decomposition reaction can be performed on the ozone gas, which makes it difficult to perform desired decomposition of the ozone gas.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and an ozone gas decomposing apparatus capable of reliably and sufficiently removing the introduced ozone gas even when used for a long period of time, and the ozone gas decomposing apparatus It aims at providing the processing system provided with.

The present invention includes a heating unit that heats the introduced ozone gas, a storage unit that is connected to the heating unit and stores gas sent from the heating unit, and is connected to the storage unit and is sent from the storage unit. A cooling unit that cools the gas, and the storage unit causes a catalytic reaction to ozone gas and is detachable from the heating unit and the cooling unit. A tank made of metal and a plurality of metal partition members provided in a stacked state so as to partition the inside of the tank into a plurality of chambers, the metal tank and the metal partition member consists catalyst to perform the catalytic reaction against ozone gas by the at reservoir, the sent from the heating unit gas is dispersed in the respective chamber, et al are assembled gas passing through the respective chambers again It is ozone gas decomposition device, characterized in that is to be sent to the cooling portion Te.

  According to such an ozone gas decomposing apparatus, by providing a storage unit for temporarily storing gas, a thermal decomposition reaction time of ozone gas that could not be sufficiently ensured by the heating unit is secured in the storage unit. As a result, a sufficient thermal decomposition reaction with respect to ozone gas is performed. Moreover, since the storage unit can cause a catalytic reaction to ozone gas and is detachable, the ozone gas introduced into the heating unit contains impurities, and the impurities are contained in the heating unit and the storage unit. Even if it is deposited in, by replacing the storage part with a new one or by taking out this storage part and performing cleaning, the state in which impurities are accumulated in the storage part can be eliminated, In this storage part, it is possible to cause a catalytic reaction to ozone gas with certainty. For this reason, even when the ozone gas decomposing apparatus is used for a long time, the introduced ozone gas can be reliably and sufficiently removed.

Moreover, the contact area of the ozone gas with the tank and the partition member made of metal can be increased, and the catalytic reaction with the ozone gas can be further promoted.
Here, it is more preferable that each partition member has a corrugated shape. Thereby, the contact area of the ozone gas with respect to a partition member can be enlarged more.

  In the ozone gas decomposing apparatus of the present invention, the heating part and the storage part are connected via a first connection pipe, and the storage part and the cooling part are connected via a second connection pipe. In addition, it is preferable that the first connection pipe, the second connection pipe, and the storage portion are detachably connected to each other by a pipe joint. With such a configuration, the storage unit can be reliably removed from the heating unit and the cooling unit.

  In the ozone gas decomposition apparatus according to the present invention, the ozone gas decomposition apparatus further includes a control unit that controls the heating unit, and the second connection pipe is provided with a temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the gas in the second connection pipe. Preferably, the control unit controls the heating unit based on the temperature of the gas in the second connection pipe detected by the temperature sensor. With such a configuration, for example, it is possible to prevent a situation in which the ozone gas is not sufficiently heated in the heating unit and the ozone gas is not sufficiently decomposed.

  In the ozone gas decomposing apparatus of the present invention, it is preferable that the storage section has a heat retaining member for retaining the gas in the storage section. With such a configuration, since the temperature of the gas in the storage part is maintained by the heat-retaining member, the temperature of the gas in the storage part can be maintained at the ozone gas decomposition temperature or higher.

  In the ozone gas decomposing apparatus of the present invention, it is preferable that the capacity of the storage unit is set so that the ratio of the gas residence time in the storage unit to the gas residence time in the heating unit is ¼ or more. . According to such a configuration, since the capacity of the storage part is sufficiently secured, the thermal decomposition reaction and catalytic reaction for ozone gas can be performed in this storage part for a long period of time, and the reduction of ozone gas to oxygen can be performed. Can be promoted more.

  The present invention is a processing system comprising a processing unit for processing an object to be processed with ozone gas, a discharge port for discharging ozone gas from the processing unit, and an ozone decomposition apparatus connected to the discharge port, The ozonolysis apparatus is the above-described processing system.

  According to the ozone gas decomposing apparatus and the treatment system including the ozone gas decomposing apparatus of the present invention, the introduced ozone gas can be reliably and sufficiently detoxified even when used for a long time.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 to FIG. 5 are diagrams showing an embodiment of an ozone gas decomposing apparatus according to the present invention and a substrate processing system provided with this ozone gas decomposing apparatus.

Among these, FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an ozone gas decomposing apparatus according to the present invention incorporated in a substrate processing system, and FIG. 2 is an ozone gas in the substrate processing system shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a left side view, (b) front view, and (c) right side view of the decomposition apparatus, and FIG. 3 shows gas temperatures in the heating unit, the storage unit, and the cooling unit of the substrate processing system shown in FIG. It is a graph which shows.
4 is a front view showing the configuration of the heating unit in the substrate processing system shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of the configuration of the storage unit in the substrate processing system shown in FIG. It is.

  Hereinafter, with reference to FIG. 1 to FIG. 5, the configuration of the substrate processing system including the ozone gas decomposing apparatus of the present embodiment, the specific configuration of the ozone gas decomposing apparatus, the operation effect and the modification of the present embodiment are sequentially arranged. explain.

First, the overall configuration of the substrate processing system in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, the substrate processing system 1 includes a substrate processing chamber 2 and an ozone gas decomposition apparatus 40 provided on the downstream side of the substrate processing chamber 2.

  The substrate processing chamber 2 has a processing container 4 formed in a rectangular container shape with, for example, aluminum, and a mounting table 8 in which a heater 6 is built is installed. Then, a substrate W such as a semiconductor wafer as an object to be processed can be mounted on the upper surface of the mounting table 8. Above the mounting table 8, a shower head unit 10 made of, for example, quartz that is permeable to ultraviolet rays is installed, and a thermally decomposable reaction gas is formed from the injection holes 12 formed in the shower head unit 10. As ozone gas is supplied. This ozone gas can be generated by the ozone gas generator 5 using, for example, oxygen and nitrogen dioxide.

  The ceiling portion of the processing container 4 is airtightly provided with a transmission window 14 made of, for example, quartz, and an ultraviolet lamp 16 for irradiating the wafer with ultraviolet rays for promoting the reforming process is provided above this. The ultraviolet lamp 16 irradiates ultraviolet rays onto the substrate W through the transmission window 14. Further, a gate valve 18 for loading and unloading the substrate W is provided on the side wall of the processing container 4. An exhaust port 20 for discharging the gas in the container is provided at the bottom of the processing container 4. A plurality of, for example, four (in the illustrated example, only two) exhaust ports 20 are provided in order to exhaust the gas in the processing container 4 evenly, and each exhaust port 20 has an exhaust passage. Are connected to each other. The four exhaust pipes 22 are connected to a buffer tank 24 having a substantially rectangular cross section and having a certain capacity in order to perform equal pulling on each exhaust pipe 22.

  An exhaust main pipe 26 is connected to the buffer tank 24 as an exhaust passage, and, for example, a vacuum pump (not shown) is provided as an exhaust pump at the most downstream side, and the inside of the processing container 4 is evacuated. It can be done. The exhaust main pipe 26 is sequentially provided with a pressure regulating valve 30 for automatically controlling the pressure in the processing container 4 from the upstream side, and an ozone gas decomposition apparatus 40 according to the present invention.

Next, the configuration of the ozone gas decomposing apparatus 40 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.
As shown in FIG. 1, the ozone gas decomposition apparatus 40 includes a heating mechanism (heating unit) 41 that heats ozone gas sent from the buffer tank 24 via the pressure regulating valve 30, and a first downstream side of the heating mechanism 41. A buffer mechanism (storage part) 42 that stores gas sent from the heating mechanism 41 and is connected to the downstream side of the buffer mechanism 42 via a second connection pipe 52. And a heat exchanger (cooling unit) 43 that cools the gas sent from the buffer mechanism 42. The heat exchanger 43 is connected to a cooling panel 45 for cooling the water sent from the heat exchanger 43.
Hereinafter, details of each component of the ozone gas decomposing apparatus 40 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 2, the heating mechanism 41, the buffer mechanism 42, the heat exchanger 43, and the cooling panel 45 are all housed in the housing 40a.
The casing 40a is provided with a gas inlet 41a, a gas outlet 43a, a cooling water inlet 44 and a cooling water outlet 47, respectively.

The gas inlet 41a is connected to the exhaust main pipe 26, and ozone gas conveyed in the exhaust main pipe 26 is sent to the heating mechanism 41 via the gas inlet 41a and the inlet pipe 50.
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the heating mechanism 41 includes, for example, a pair of cylindrical heating tanks 41b and pipes 41s that are spirally provided in the heating tanks 41b and communicate with the introduction pipe 50. And a heater 41h extending along the center line of the spiral pipe 41s.

  As shown in FIG. 2 (a), the introduction pipe 50 is a branch pipe. Specifically, the ozone gas introduced from the gas introduction port 41a is bifurcated into two pipes 41s in each heating tank 41b. To send. As shown in FIG. 4, each pipe 41 s is wound in a spiral shape around the axis line along the longitudinal direction of the cylindrical heating tank 41 b. A round bar heater 41h is installed along the axis of each heating tank 41b so as to heat the ozone gas in the pipe 41s. The heater 41h is controlled by a controller 60 described later.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the heating mechanism 41 and the buffer mechanism 42 are connected by a first connection pipe 51. Specifically, one end of the first connection pipe 51 is connected to the pipe 41 s in the heating tank 41 b, and the other end is attached to a pipe joint 42 a (described later) of the buffer mechanism 42. The first connection pipe 51 is configured to send the gas heated by the heating mechanism 41 to the buffer mechanism 42.

  As shown in FIGS. 2 and 5, the buffer mechanism 42 includes a substantially rectangular parallelepiped casing 42c, a pipe 42s provided inside the casing 42c, and pipes provided at the inlet and the outlet of the pipe 42s, respectively. It has joints 42a and 42b.

  The substantially rectangular parallelepiped housing 42c is made of, for example, a heat insulating material, and has a function as a heat retaining member for keeping heat inside the housing 42c. As shown in FIG. 5, the pipe 42s is arranged to meander in the housing 42c. By arranging the pipe 42s to meander in the housing 42c, the contact area of the gas introduced into the buffer mechanism 42 with the inner surface of the pipe 42s can be increased, and the catalytic reaction described later is further promoted. Will be able to. Further, pipe joints 42a and 42b are connected to the outer surface of the casing 42c, and both ends of a pipe 42s are connected to the pipe joints 42a and 42b, respectively.

  Each of the pipe joints 42a and 42b is constituted by, for example, a threaded joint or a flange joint. The pipe joint 42a is detachably attached to the first connection pipe 51, and the pipe joint 42b is detachably attached to the second connection pipe 52. Be able to. FIG. 2B shows a state in which the first connection pipe 51 and the second connection pipe 52 are respectively attached to the pipe joints 42a and 42b. The first connection pipe 51 is connected to the pipe joint. The buffer mechanism 42 itself can be taken out of the housing 40a of the ozone gas decomposing apparatus 40 by removing the second connecting pipe 52 from the pipe joint 42b while removing it from the 42a.

  Here, the pipe 41s of the heating mechanism 41, the first connection pipe 51, the pipe 42s of the buffer mechanism 42, and the second connection pipe 52 are each made of metal such as stainless steel or nickel. Further, the total capacity of the pipe 42s in the buffer mechanism 42 (the volume obtained by multiplying the cross-sectional area of the pipe 42s and the total length) is preferably ¼ or more of the total capacity of the pipe 41s of the heating mechanism 41. The piping 42 s is designed so that it is 2 or more, more preferably substantially the same. Specifically, the total capacity of the pipe 42s in the buffer mechanism 42 is such that the residence time of the gas when the maximum flow rate gas (gas containing ozone gas) passes through the pipe 42s is at least 0.1 second or more. It is preferable that it is designed.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the second connection pipe 52 is connected to the heat exchanger 43, and the gas stored in the buffer mechanism 42 passes through the second connection pipe 52 and the heat exchanger. 43 to be sent. On the other hand, cooling water is sent from the outside to the heat exchanger 43 through the cooling water inlet 44, and the gas sent from the buffer mechanism 42 inside the heat exchanger 43 and the cooling water inlet 44. By performing heat exchange with the cooling water sent from the gas, the gas sent from the buffer mechanism 42 is cooled to, for example, room temperature. The cooled gas is discharged from the discharge pipe 53 to the outside of the housing 40a of the ozone gas decomposition apparatus 40 through the gas discharge port 43a.

  On the other hand, the cooling water sent to the heat exchanger 43 is sent to the cooling panel 45 via the cooling water connecting pipe 55. In the cooling panel 45, the cooling water heated by the heat exchanger 43 is cooled again. A cooling water discharge pipe 56 is connected to the cooling panel 45, and the cooled cooling water again passes from the cooling water discharge pipe 56 through the cooling water discharge port 47 to the outside of the housing 40 a of the ozone gas decomposition apparatus 40. Is discharged.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the second connection pipe 52 is provided with a temperature sensor 61 for detecting the temperature of the gas in the second connection pipe 52. The temperature sensor 61 is communicatively connected to a controller 60 (described later), and transmits information related to the detected gas temperature to the controller 60.

  The controller 60 controls each heater 41 h of the heating mechanism 41 based on information sent from the temperature sensor 61. Specifically, the heating temperature by each heater 41h is adjusted by performing, for example, PID control so that the temperature of the gas sent to the second connection pipe 52 becomes substantially constant.

  Next, the operation of the substrate processing system 1 and the ozone gas decomposing apparatus 40 of the present embodiment having such a configuration will be described.

First, the operation of the entire substrate processing system 1 will be described.
First, the substrate W having a metal oxide film or the like formed on the surface in the previous process is carried into the substrate processing chamber 2 and the processing container 4 is sealed. Then, the gas in the container is evacuated while introducing a mixed gas containing ozone gas and oxygen having a high concentration, for example, about 130 g / m ³ , generated in the ozone gas generator 5 into the processing container 4. The ultraviolet lamp 16 irradiates the wafer surface with ultraviolet UV. As a result, active oxygen atoms are generated to decompose and remove organic impurities contained in the metal oxide film on the wafer surface.

  During such a reforming process, a gas such as ozone gas in the processing container 4 is exhausted substantially uniformly through the exhaust pipe 22 from each exhaust port 20 provided in the bottom of the container, And then flows out through the exhaust main pipe 26. Then, ozone gas or the like is sent from the exhaust main pipe 26 to the ozone gas decomposition apparatus 40.

Next, the ozone gas decomposition operation in the ozone gas decomposition apparatus 40 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.
The ozone gas conveyed in the exhaust main pipe 26 is first sent to the heating mechanism 41 through the gas inlet 41a and the inlet pipe 50. In the heating mechanism 41, the ozone gas in the pipe 41s is heated by the heater 41h to 400 to 450 ° C., for example. Here, as shown in FIG. 3, the ozone gas is not heated immediately to 400 to 450 ° C. by the heater 41h, but gradually heated while passing through the spiral pipe 41s. Yes. Generally, when ozone gas is heated to exceed about 350 ° C. (ozone gas decomposition temperature in FIG. 3), it is reduced to oxygen by a thermal decomposition reaction, and ozone gas is rendered harmless. The ozone gas heated in the heating mechanism 41 is sent to the buffer mechanism 42 via the first connection pipe 51.

  In addition, when ozone gas contacts a metal etc. in the period when this thermal decomposition reaction is performed, reduction | restoration of the said ozone gas to oxygen will be accelerated | stimulated. In the present embodiment, the pipe 41s of the heating mechanism 41, the first connection pipe 51, the pipe 42s of the buffer mechanism 42, and the second connection pipe 52 are each made of a metal such as stainless steel or nickel. Thus, the ozone gas heated in the heating mechanism 41 is reduced to oxygen by the action of both the thermal decomposition reaction and the catalytic reaction.

  In the buffer mechanism 42, the total capacity of the pipe 42 s is ¼ or more of the total capacity of the pipe 41 s of the heating mechanism 41, so that the buffer for the gas heated by the heating mechanism 41 (mixed gas of ozone gas and oxygen) The residence time in the mechanism 42 is ¼ or more of the residence time in the heating mechanism 41. As a result, the time during which the ozone gas exceeds the ozone gas decomposition temperature (about 350 ° C.) as shown in the solid line portion of the graph in FIG. 3 is lengthened, and the ozone gas is sufficiently reduced to oxygen. Become. If the residence time of the gas heated by the heating mechanism 41 in the buffer mechanism 42 is smaller than ¼ of the residence time in the heating mechanism 41, the temperature of the gas is as shown by the dotted line in the graph of FIG. The period when the temperature is higher than the ozone gas decomposition temperature becomes very short, and the thermal decomposition reaction with respect to ozone gas may not be sufficiently performed. Further, the housing 42c of the buffer mechanism 42 is made of a heat insulating material, and this keeps the gas in the pipe 42s inside the housing 42c warm, so that the gas in the pipe 42s The temperature can be maintained at the ozone gas decomposition temperature or higher.

  The gas rendered harmless by the thermal decomposition reaction and catalytic reaction in the buffer mechanism 42 is sent to the heat exchanger 43 via the second connection pipe 52. As shown in FIG. 3, in this heat exchanger 43, the gas is cooled to, for example, room temperature by the cooling water sent from the cooling water inlet 44. The cooled gas is discharged from the ozone gas decomposition apparatus 40 through the discharge pipe 53 and the gas discharge port 43a.

  When the gas passes through the second connection pipe 52, the temperature of the gas is detected by the temperature sensor 61, and information related to the temperature of the gas is sent to the controller 60. Then, the controller 60 controls the heater 41h of the heating mechanism 41 so that the temperature of the gas becomes constant. Thus, for example, it is possible to prevent a situation in which the ozone gas is not sufficiently heated by the heater 41h and the ozone gas is not sufficiently decomposed.

  Thus, the ozone gas discharged from the substrate processing chamber 2 may contain impurities such as metal oxides. If the ozone gas decomposing apparatus 40 is used for a long time, it is included in this ozone gas. Impurities are deposited on the inner surfaces of the piping 41 s of the heating mechanism 41 and the piping 42 s of the buffer mechanism 42. When deposits (deposits) are formed on the inner surface of each pipe in this way, ozone gas passing through each pipe cannot contact the metal surface of the pipe, and the catalytic reaction against the ozone gas is hindered. It becomes. For this reason, since only thermal decomposition reaction will be performed with respect to ozone gas, the problem that the reduction | restoration of the said ozone gas to oxygen will not fully be performed arises.

  However, the pipe joints 42a and 42b of the buffer mechanism 42 are detachable from the first connection pipe 51 and the second connection pipe 52, respectively, and the first connection pipe 51 is connected to the pipe joint 42a. By removing the second connection pipe 52 from the pipe joint 42b, the buffer mechanism 42 itself can be carried out of the housing 40a of the ozone gas decomposing apparatus 40. Therefore, another new buffer mechanism 42 for replacement having the same configuration can be newly provided in the ozone gas decomposing apparatus 40, or the pipe 42s of the buffer mechanism 42 taken out is cleaned and the inner surface of the pipe 42s is cleaned. The buffer mechanism 42 can be reused by removing the deposit formed in step (b). As a result, the desired catalytic reaction can be continuously performed on the ozone gas heated by the heating mechanism 41 through the pipe 42 s of the buffer mechanism 42.

  As described above, according to the ozone gas decomposition apparatus 40 of the present embodiment, the buffer mechanism 42 that stores the gas sent from the heating mechanism 41 is provided between the heating mechanism 41 and the heat exchanger 43, and The buffer mechanism 42 causes a catalytic reaction to ozone gas and is detachable from the heating mechanism 41 and the heat exchanger 43. Thus, by providing the buffer mechanism 42 for temporarily storing the gas, it is possible to secure the thermal decomposition reaction time of the ozone gas in the buffer mechanism 42 that could not be sufficiently secured by the heating mechanism 41. It is possible to perform a sufficient thermal decomposition reaction with respect to ozone gas. In addition, since the buffer mechanism 42 can cause a catalytic reaction to the ozone gas and is detachable, the ozone gas introduced into the heating mechanism 41 contains impurities, and these impurities are heated by the heating mechanism 41. Even if it is deposited on the buffer mechanism 42, the buffer mechanism 42 is replaced with a new one, or the buffer mechanism 42 is taken out to clean the inside of the pipe 42s. In this buffer mechanism 42, the catalytic reaction can be reliably performed on the ozone gas. For this reason, even if the ozone gas decomposing apparatus 40 is used for a long period of time, the introduced ozone gas can be reliably and sufficiently removed. Moreover, the replacement frequency of the heating mechanism 41 can be reduced.

The ozone gas decomposing apparatus according to the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made.
For example, the configuration of the buffer mechanism (reservoir) is not limited to the configuration in which the gas pipe 42s meanders inside the housing 42c as shown in FIG. A pipe formed in a spiral shape, or a tank having an inner surface made of metal instead of using a pipe for gas may be used as the storage section.

Hereinafter, another configuration of the storage unit will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view showing another example of the configuration of the storage unit, and FIG. 7 is a longitudinal sectional view of the storage unit of FIG.
As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the storage section is configured by a substantially rectangular parallelepiped metal tank 42 d, and the first connection pipe 51 and the second connection are formed on the upper surface of the metal tank 42 d. Each piping 52 is detachably attached.

  A plurality of metal partition plates 42e are disposed in the tank 42d so as to be substantially parallel to the upper surface of the tank 42d. The partition plate 42e has a corrugated plate shape as shown in FIG. As a result, the tank 42d is partitioned into a plurality of chambers. Further, through holes 42f are formed in the partition plates 42e at positions immediately below the first connection pipe 51 and positions immediately below the second connection pipe 52, respectively. As a result, the ozone gas sent from the first connection pipe 51 into the tank 42d is first dispersed in each chamber through the through holes 42f formed in each partition plate 42e, and the gas that has passed through each chamber is again The gas is sent to the heat exchanger 43 from the second connecting pipe 52 through the through hole 42f and collected in the second connecting pipe 52.

  According to such a configuration of the storage unit, the contact area of the ozone gas with the metal tank 42d and the partition member 42e can be increased, and the catalytic reaction with the ozone gas can be further promoted. Further, since each partition member 42e has a corrugated plate shape, the contact area of ozone gas with the partition member 42e can be further increased.

  Further, as a matter of course, the ozone gas decomposition apparatus is not limited to one that removes the ozone gas used for the modification process on the metal oxide film on the substrate as shown in FIG. It may be one that detoxifies ozone gas used to remove or make water-soluble resist.

It is a schematic block diagram which shows one Embodiment of the ozone gas decomposing apparatus by this invention in the state integrated in the substrate processing system. It is the (a) left view, (b) front view, (c) right view of the ozone gas decomposing apparatus in the substrate processing system shown in FIG. It is a graph which shows the temperature of the gas in the heating part of the substrate processing system shown in FIG. 2, a storage part, and a cooling part. It is a front view which shows the structure of the heating part in the substrate processing system shown in FIG. It is a schematic block diagram which shows an example of a structure of the storage part in the substrate processing system shown in FIG. It is a schematic perspective view which shows the example of the other structure of the storage part in the substrate processing system shown in FIG. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the storage part of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Substrate processing system 2 Substrate processing chamber 4 Processing container 5 Ozone gas generator 6 Heater 8 Mounting base 10 Shower head part 12 Injection hole 14 Transmission window 16 Ultraviolet lamp 18 Gate valve 20 Exhaust port 22 Exhaust pipe 24 Buffer tank 26 Exhaust main pipe 30 Pressure Adjusting valve 40 Ozone gas decomposition apparatus 40a Housing 41 Heating mechanism 41a Gas inlet 41b Heating tank 41h Heater 41s Pipe 42 Buffer mechanisms 42a, 42b Pipe joint 42c Housing 42d Tank 42e Partition plate 42f Through hole 42s Pipe 43 Heat exchanger 43a Gas Discharge port 44 Cooling water introduction port 45 Cooling panel 47 Cooling water discharge port 50 Introduction pipe 51 First connection pipe 52 Second connection pipe 53 Discharge pipe 55 Cooling water connection pipe 56 Cooling water discharge pipe 60 Controller 61 Temperature sensor

Claims (7)

A heating unit for heating the introduced ozone gas;
A storage unit connected to the heating unit and storing the gas sent from the heating unit;
A cooling unit connected to the storage unit and cooling the gas sent from the storage unit;
With
The storage unit is detachable from the heating unit and the cooling unit while performing a catalytic reaction on ozone gas,
The storage section includes a metal tank, and a plurality of metal partition members provided in a stacked state so as to be partitioned into a plurality of chambers inside the tank, and the metal tank and It consists of a catalyst that causes a catalytic reaction to ozone gas by the metal partition member,
In the storage unit, the gas sent from the heating unit is dispersed in the chambers, and the gases that have passed through the chambers are gathered again and sent to the cooling unit. Disassembly equipment.   2. The ozone gas decomposing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the partition members has a corrugated plate shape. The heating unit and the storage unit are connected via a first connection pipe,
The storage unit and the cooling unit are connected via a second connection pipe,
3. The ozone gas decomposing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first connection pipe, the second connection pipe, and the storage section are detachably connected to each other by a pipe joint. 4. A control unit for controlling the heating unit;
The second connection pipe is provided with a temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of the gas in the second connection pipe,
4. The ozone gas decomposing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the control unit controls the heating unit based on the temperature of the gas in the second connection pipe detected by the temperature sensor. .   5. The ozone gas decomposing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit includes a heat retaining member for retaining the gas in the storage unit.   The capacity of the reservoir is set so that the ratio of the residence time of the gas in the reservoir with respect to the residence time of the gas in the heating unit is ¼ or more. The ozone gas decomposing apparatus according to claim 1. A processing section for processing the object to be processed with ozone gas;
A discharge port for discharging ozone gas from the processing unit;
An ozonolysis device connected to the outlet;
A processing system comprising:
The said ozonolysis apparatus is a thing as described in any one of Claims 1 thru | or 6. The processing system characterized by the above-mentioned.

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