JPH0244522Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] <Industrial application field> This invention is a method for placing thin substrates such as semiconductor substrates and liquid crystal substrates in a processing liquid tank containing a developing solution, an etching solution, a resist stripping solution, a cleaning solution, etc. This invention relates to a draining device for a hook for transporting cassettes used in an immersion-type substrate processing apparatus that processes substrates by sequentially dipping them.

<Prior Art> As the above-mentioned immersion type substrate processing apparatus, the one shown in FIG. 4, for example, is conventionally known.
This apparatus is equipped with a plurality of cassette transport devices 3 called cassette transport robots as shown in FIG. 31, the cassette 2 is conveyed, raised and lowered, and sequentially immersed in each processing tank 4 to perform an integrated process up to drying.

By the way, in such an immersion type substrate processing apparatus, it is said that it is undesirable for the processing liquid from the previous process adhering to the cassette 2 or the hook 31 to mix into the processing liquid for the subsequent process, but unless it cannot be ignored, , an acceptable process, for example, a chemical treatment process 42
- 46 are provided with one cassette transport device 3a, and one cleaning tank 4 is provided so that the cassette transport hooks 31 can be cleaned as necessary.
1 is provided. In addition, another cassette transport device 3b is provided for the processing tanks 46 to 49, and a pre-stage washing tank 47 is provided between the last chemical processing tank 46 and an ultrapure water washing tank 48 storing highly purified water. In order to prevent water droplets from dripping from the hook 31 and adhering to the substrate when the cassette 2 that has undergone the final chemical treatment is pre-washed in this pre-stage cleaning tank 47 or when the cassette 2 is taken out from the rinser dryer 49. In addition, a liquid draining device provided in the front-stage cleaning tank 47 is configured to blow away water droplets from the hook 31.

As a liquid draining device provided in the cleaning tanks 41 and 47, the one shown in FIG.
Publication No. 153340).

The air knives 10 are arranged in two sets corresponding to a pair of cassette conveying hooks 31 in the cleaning tank 4.
5, and after jet cleaning with the cleaning nozzle 128, water droplets adhering to the hook 31 are blown away with the air knife 105 while the hook 31 is raised.

Moreover, in this conventional example, the air knife 105
The air outlet of the hook 31 is connected to the side arm 31b of the hook 31.
is opened in the axial direction, and while the hook 31 is raised, water droplets adhering to the swinging vertical arm 31a of the hook 31 are blown away, and the raising of the hook 31 is stopped at the position shown by the solid line in FIG. It is configured to blow away water droplets adhering to the portion 31b to drain the liquid.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> However, the above conventional example still has a problem in that the effect of removing water droplets adhering to the hanging side arm portion 31b is not sufficient.

Although the invention of the above-mentioned prior application is useful, it is recognized that there are still some disadvantages. This is because water droplets of a certain size are immediately blown away from the hook 31 by the impact of air blowing.
Small water droplets are difficult to separate from the surface of the hook 31,
The disadvantage is that it is difficult to blow away. That is, even if the water droplets are small, the water droplets adhering to the swinging vertical arm portion 31 of the hook 31 are blown downward when the hook 31 is raised, and are blown away as large water droplets that gather together. However, fine water droplets adhering to the hanging side arm part 31b are easily removed by an air knife 105 which has a large number of air blowing holes opening in the axial direction of the hanging side arm part 31b. There are disadvantages in that the liquid cannot be blown away and the liquid cannot be drained sufficiently.

Furthermore, since the conventional device described above blows out expensive air such as inert gas from a large number of air blowing holes, the amount of air consumed is large, resulting in high running costs.

The present invention aims to solve these problems.

<Means for Solving the Problems> In order to achieve the above object, the liquid draining device according to the present invention is configured as follows.

That is, in a liquid draining device for a cassette transport hook, which is configured to include at least one set of gas nozzles in a cleaning tank and to remove cleaning liquid adhering to the cassette transport hook, the gas nozzle is attached to the side arm of the hook. It is characterized by comprising movable nozzles that are arranged to face each other and are horizontally movable, and configured to blow away the cleaning liquid attached to the hanging side arm part along the side arm part. be.

<Operation> The hook stops rising when the hanging side arm of the hook is at a height corresponding to the moving nozzle, and the moving nozzle is moved along the hook's hanging side arm while blowing gas to the corresponding side arm. As a result, the cleaning liquid adhering to the side arm is blown away along the side arm, blown toward the leeward side of the side arm, and blown away from one end of the side arm. This provides a sufficient flow-off effect and saves on air consumption.

<Embodiment> Hereinafter, one embodiment of a liquid draining device for a cassette transport hook according to the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional front view showing the inside of a cleaning tank equipped with a liquid draining device of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional side view thereof.

The liquid draining device of this embodiment has a pair of swinging vertical arms 3 of a pair of hooks 31, 31 of a double cassette conveying device 3.
1a, a pair of fixed nozzles 5, 5, 5, 5, and a pair of hooks 31, 31, each holding side arm part 31b, 31b located below these fixed nozzles. The nozzle is provided with a pair of moving nozzles 10, 10 and 10, 10, which are provided so as to face each other and to be horizontally movable.

As shown in FIG. 2, each fixed nozzle 5 includes an air pipe 6 whose both ends are horizontally supported by fixing devices 8, 8, and which is protruded from the air pipe 6 and extends toward the swinging vertical arm portion 31a. The first air blowing device 7 is provided with a plurality of air blowing devices 7 provided to blow air diagonally downward, and is disposed below the main body of the cleaning device.
Ni gas is supplied by a gas supply valve 21 .

In addition, two pairs of moving nozzles 10, 10.1
0, 10, each pair 10, 10 is goniohead 1
Square pipe 1 installed vertically so that the angle can be adjusted by 3
2, 12, and air blowing devices 11, 11 fixedly installed at the upper ends of the square pipes 12, 12 so as to blow air toward the side arm portion 31b of the hook 31, the fixed nozzle 5, the second
Nitrogen gas is supplied by a nitrogen gas supply valve 22.

The pair of goniometer heads 13, 13 are fixed to a support frame 15 via intermediate support members 14, 14, respectively, and the support frame 15 is fixed to the upper end of a movable frame 16 provided horizontally movably by an air cylinder 17. , movable nozzles 10, 10, 1 by telescopically driving the air cylinder 17 with the three-position switching valve 18.
It is configured to horizontally move 0 and 10 at the same time.

An air supply path 24 is connected to the fixed nozzle 5 via an air relay 23 provided on the front surface of the processing tank 4, and an air supply path 24 is connected to the movable nozzle 10 via an air relay 25 provided on the movable plate 16. The air supply path 26 is connected, and by switching and operating the air supply valves 21 and 22, the fixed nozzle 5 and the movable nozzle 10 are sequentially connected.
It is configured to switch and supply air.

The air blowing device 11 of the movable nozzle 10 has an air blowing hole opened at a slight angle toward the exhaust duct 40, which will be described later, rather than facing forward in the axial direction of the horizontal arm portion 31b of the hook 31. When air is blown while moving the movable nozzles 10, 10 along the side arm part 31b of the hook, the side arm part 3
The cleaning liquid adhering to 1b is blown away along the side arm portion 31b.

In addition, the reference numeral 28 in the figure is a cleaning liquid spray nozzle that sprays cleaning liquid onto the hook, and is connected to the cassette conveying device 3.
While inserting the hook 31 into the cleaning tank 4 by lowering it, the valve 28a is opened to spray cleaning liquid to clean the hook 31, and the cleaning liquid is discharged from the drain 29 extending from the lower wall of the cleaning tank 4. It's becoming like that.

Next, the operation of the apparatus of the above embodiment will be explained.

The hook 31 to which the cleaning liquid has adhered after cleaning is
It is at the lower limit position shown by the imaginary line in the figure. While raising the cassette transfer device 3, open the gas supply valve 21 and supply air from the fixed nozzle 5 to the vertical arm 3 of the hook 31.
When the cleaning liquid is ejected toward 1a, the cleaning liquid adhering to the vertical arm portion 31a flows down along the vertical arm portion 31a. Next, the side arm portion 31b of the hook 31
The hook 31 stops rising when it has risen to the position shown by the solid line in FIGS. If necessary, raise the side arm 31b of the hook 31 above the solid line position,
After the droplets adhering to the vertical arm portion 31a have completely flowed down, the horizontal arm portion 31b may be lowered again to the solid line position and stopped. In this state, air cylinder 1
7 is extended, then air cylinder 1
By retracting the air cylinder 7, the movable nozzle 10 is moved horizontally along the side arm 31b of the hook 31. When the air cylinder 17 is retracted, the gas supply valve 22 is opened to supply nitrogen from the movable nozzle 10. Gas is blown toward this side arm portion 31b. Then, the cleaning liquid adhering to the side arm part 31b is blown away along the side arm part 31b, blown toward the leeward side, and then blown away from one end thereof. Note that the reference numeral 40 is an exhaust duct that extends from the front wall of the cleaning tank 4 so as to correspond to the leeward side of the movable nozzle 10.

The above-mentioned example device has been described as a type in which no cleaning liquid is stored in the cleaning tank 4, that is, a type in which only the hook is cleaned (for example, 41 in Fig. 4), but it is also possible to clean the entire cassette. It can also be applied to a cleaning tank (for example, 47 in FIG. 4). In this case, each set of fixed nozzles 5,
5, the inner nozzle is provided rotatably to the position shown by the imaginary line in FIG. 1, and is configured to be retracted to a position where it does not get in the way when inserting the cassette, and a movable nozzle 10 is provided so as to be movable as appropriate.

Furthermore, the fixed nozzle 5 is not necessarily required depending on the type of cleaning liquid. In other words, the vertical arm 3
If the cleaning liquid attached to 1b is of a nature that tends to flow down naturally (for example, alcohol, etc.), this fixed nozzle 5 can be omitted. Further, the hook for transporting the cassette is not limited to the above-mentioned pair of clamping type hooks, but the liquid draining device according to the present invention can also be applied to a single hook that can be hooked. Further, in the above embodiment, the gas blown out from the fixed nozzle 5 and the movable nozzle 10 was nitrogen gas, but air may be used, and the type of gas is not limited.

<Effects of the invention> According to the invention, the cleaning liquid adhering to the hanging side arm of the hook is blown away along the side arm of the hook by the movable nozzle provided in the cleaning tank so as to be able to move approximately horizontally, while cleaning the cleaning liquid on the leeward side. The structure is such that the liquid is blown towards the end of the hook and then blown away from one end of the hook, so it has an excellent liquid draining effect. Further, since a large number of air blowing holes are not required and expensive gas such as inert gas is not wasted, running costs can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional front view showing the inside of a cleaning tank equipped with a liquid draining device according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional side view thereof, Figs. 3 to 5 are related to a conventional example, and Fig. 3 is a FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a continuous cassette conveying device, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an immersion type substrate processing device, and FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional front view showing a conventional example of a liquid draining device. 4...Cleaning tank, 5...Fixed nozzle, 10...Moving nozzle, 17...Air cylinder, 21...First
gas supply valve, 22...second gas supply valve, 28
. . . Cleaning liquid supply valve, 31 . . . Cassette transport hook, 31 a .

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] 1. In a draining device for a cassette transport hook, which is configured to include at least one set of gas nozzles in a cleaning tank and remove cleaning liquid adhering to the cassette transport hook, the gas nozzle is attached to the hook. The movable nozzle is arranged so as to be horizontally movable and is arranged to face the side arm of the hanger, and is configured to blow away the cleaning liquid adhering to the side arm of the hanger along the side arm. A liquid draining device for a hook for transporting a cassette. 2. The gas nozzle includes at least one set of fixed nozzles arranged to face the swinging joint of the hook, and the gas is sequentially switched and supplied to the fixed nozzle and the movable nozzle via a gas supply valve. A liquid draining device for a hook for transporting a cassette as set forth in claim 1 of the registered utility model claim.