JPH038326A - Solid surface cleaning apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent contaminant from readhering to a material to be cleaned and to clean the surface of a relatively soft material without damage by employing both a fine ice particle injection nozzle and a superpure water spray nozzle. CONSTITUTION:Fine ice particles 4 are generated, and injected to a wafer 6 by using an injection nozzle 5. The particles 4 are injected from the nozzle 5 to the surface of the wafer 6, and superpure water is simultaneously sprayed from a spray nozzle 9 to the surface of the wafer 6. This superpure water is controlled by a temperature controller 10. The particles 4 to be injected from the nozzle 5 are scanned by moving the nozzle 5 of the wafer 6, and contaminants on the wafer 6 is removed. Thus, the contaminants are prevented from being readhered to a material to be cleaned, and the surface of a relatively soft material can be cleaned without damage.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention generates ultrafine ice particles used as abrasive grains, abrasives, etc. for surface treatments such as blasting and cleaning, and The present invention relates to a solid surface cleaning device for spraying and cleaning the surface of a solid surface.

[Prior Art] Fig. 4 shows a conventional solid surface cleaning device of this type, in which liquid nitrogen (2) for cooling is supplied to an ice making section (1) for producing fine frozen particles. (3) is a spray nozzle that sprays pure water. The generated fine frozen particles (4) are passed through a nozzle (5) to an object to be cleaned (6) such as a semiconductor wafer.
is sprayed towards the surface. (7) is an auto valve, (
8) is a blower.

With the above configuration, the ice making section (1) is cooled by evaporating the refrigerant (2) such as liquid nitrogen within the ice making section (1) surrounded by the heat insulating material. After sufficiently cooling, ultrapure water is slightly sprayed from the spray nozzle (3) to obtain @fine ice particles (4). The fine ice particles (4) thus obtained are sent to the nozzle (5) by a one-way ejector using a jet of gas,
High-purity N2 gas or the like is used as a carrier gas and is injected onto the surface of the object (6) to be cleaned, such as a semiconductor wafer, to remove contaminants attached to the surface. At this time, the nozzle (5) serving as the spraying means or the solid surface is scanned so that the fine ice particles (4) are sprayed onto the entire solid surface of the object to be cleaned (6).

[Problem to be solved by the invention] The conventional solid surface cleaning device as described above uses high-purity gas (
Only fine ice particles were injected using Nt, etc.) as a carrier gas. Therefore, although the contaminants on the solid surface are once removed by the fine ice particles, the contaminants move or re-deposit on the solid surface to which the fine ice particles have not been sprayed, reducing the cleaning efficiency.

Further, there is a problem in that the surface of the object to be cleaned may be damaged depending on the material (for example, aluminum material).

This invention was made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is possible to quickly wash away contaminants once removed by fine ice particles, without causing them to re-adhere to the solid surface.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a solid surface cleaning device that does not cause damage even to objects made of relatively soft materials such as aluminum.

[Means for Solving the Problems] A solid surface cleaning device according to the present invention is provided with a nozzle for spraying ultrapure water in addition to a nozzle for spraying fine ice particles, and sprays fine ice particles and ultrapure water from different directions. It is designed to be sprayed onto solid surfaces at the same time.

[Function] In this invention, the ultrapure water injected from the spray nozzle has the effect of washing away the solid surface, preventing the re-adhesion of contaminants removed by fine ice particles, and the ultrapure water sprayed from the spray nozzle. Damage to the solid surface is eliminated by the appropriate temperature of the water and the water belly attached to the solid surface.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which a spray nozzle (9) sprays ultrapure water onto the surface of an object to be cleaned (6), and a temperature controller (10) ) controls the temperature of ultrapure water.

Other than that, the same reference numerals as in Fig. 4 indicate the same parts.
The explanation will be omitted.

Next, the operation will be explained. The steps from generating fine ice particles (4) to injecting the fine ice particles (4) onto the wafer (6) using the injection nozzle (5) are the same as in the prior art. Here, fine ice particles (4) are sprayed onto the wafer (
6) At the same time as spraying onto the surface, use the spray nozzle (
9) Spray ultrapure water onto the surface of the wafer (6).

This ultrapure water is controlled at 0°C to 60°C by a temperature controller (10). An example of a method for spraying fine ice particles (4) and ultrapure water is shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The fine ice particles (4) sprayed from the spray nozzle (5) can By moving the wafer (6), the wafer (6) is scanned in the direction of the arrow shown, and contaminants on the surface of the wafer (6) are removed. In FIG. 2, ultrapure water was sprayed over the entire surface of the wafer from a spray nozzle (9) from above.

In FIG. 3, ultrapure water was locally sprayed onto the wafer surface from the spray nozzle (9) from above and scanned in the same manner. Also, in this case, a high-pressure pump (
11) was introduced and a means for spraying as a high-pressure jet of ultrapure water or an ultrasonic nozzle (9a) was used.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, by using the fine ice particle injection nozzle and the ultrapure water spray nozzle together,
It prevents contaminants from re-adhering to the object to be cleaned, quickly flushes the contaminants away from the object, and has the effect of cleaning relatively soft surfaces without damaging them. be.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic vertical sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are perspective views of essential parts showing the operation of the device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a conventional solid surface cleaning device. FIG. (1) Ice making section, (4) Fine ice particles, (5) Spray nozzle, (6) Object to be cleaned, (9) Spray nozzle. In each figure, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A solid body comprising an ice making unit that makes ultra-fine ice particles from ultra-pure water, a spray nozzle that sprays the ultra-fine ice particles onto the surface of an object to be cleaned, and a spray nozzle that sprays ultra-pure water onto the surface. Surface cleaning equipment.