JPH04239132A - Cleaning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To minimize the turbulence of the down flow in a clean room as well as the suction of the dust in a cleaning vessel. CONSTITUTION:Within the cleaning vessel 9 wherein fine frozen particles 4 are jetted over a semiconductor wafer 7, etc., to be cleaned up, an exhaust system restraining the rolling up jet stream by the ice jetting step is provided with an autodamper 12 so as to control the exhaust quantity.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for cleaning semiconductor wafers, glass substrates, disk substrates, etc.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a conventional semiconductor wafer cleaning apparatus. In the figure, 1 is an ice making section for producing fine ice particles, 2 is liquid nitrogen for cooling, 3 is an injection nozzle for finely spraying pure water, 4 is a fine frozen particle generated in the ice making section, and 5 is this This is a spray nozzle that sprays fine frozen particles 4. 6 is a holding arm for the wafer 7; 8 is a moving mechanism for moving the held wafer 7; 9 is a cleaning tank; 10
is an exhaust duct, and 11 is an exhaust blower.

Next, the operation will be explained. The ice making section 1 surrounded by a heat insulating material is cooled by evaporating a refrigerant such as liquid nitrogen 2 within the ice making section 1. After the inside of the ice making section 1 has been sufficiently cooled, ultrapure water is finely sprayed from the spray nozzle 3 to obtain fine frozen particles 4. The fine frozen particles 4 are sent to the spray nozzle 5 in the cleaning tank 9 by an ejector method using a gas jet, and are sprayed toward the wafer 7 held by the holding arm 6 to clean the surface thereof. At this time, since the fine frozen particles 4 are injected by a jet of gas, an exhaust blower 11 is installed to prevent the jet from rolling up and exhaust the air in the direction of arrow A.

0004

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Since the conventional semiconductor wafer cleaning apparatus is constructed as described above, in order to suck all the jet stream into the exhaust duct 10, a large displacement exhaust blower is required, and the Continuous exhaustion even when the equipment was not being used disturbed the downflow (laminar flow) of the clean room where the equipment was installed, causing problems such as dust contamination within the cleaning tank.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device that can reduce disturbances in the downflow of a clean room and contamination by dust in a cleaning tank.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A cleaning device according to the present invention is configured to control the exhaust amount of an exhaust blower using an automatic damper or the like.

[0007]

[Function] By controlling the exhaust volume of the exhaust blower with an automatic damper, etc., the cleaning device of the present invention can reduce disturbances in the downflow of the clean room caused by the exhaust blower, and also prevent dust from being sucked into the cleaning tank while it is stopped. to reduce contamination of the cleaning tank.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, numerals 1 to 11 are the same as those in the conventional example, numeral 12 is an auto damper disposed in the exhaust duct 10 to vary the displacement of the exhaust blower 11, and numeral 13 is a control unit that controls a series of wafer cleaning operations.

Next, the operation will be explained. The control unit 13 controls a series of wafer cleaning operations, and FIG. 2 shows a timing chart of wafer cleaning and exhaust volume. That is, the exhaust volume of the exhaust blower 11 is controlled by the automatic damper 12, so that the exhaust volume is increased during cleaning, and is controlled to be decreased during stoppage.

[0010] In the above embodiment, an auto damper 12 is provided for controlling the displacement of the exhaust blower 11, but an inverter may also be provided.

[0011]

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, since the exhaust volume of the exhaust blower can be controlled, it is possible to reduce the disturbance of the downflow in the clean room caused by the exhaust blower, and also to reduce the amount of water flowing into the cleaning tank while it is stopped. This has the effect of preventing contamination of the cleaning tank due to inhalation of dust.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a semiconductor wafer cleaning apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a timing chart of operation control according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a conventional semiconductor wafer cleaning apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Ice making section 4. Microfrozen particles 5 Injection nozzle 7 Wafer 9 Cleaning tank 11 Exhaust blower 12 Auto damper 13 Control unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: In a cleaning apparatus that sprays fine ice particles onto a semiconductor wafer or the like in a cleaning tank to clean the semiconductor wafer, the cleaning tank is configured to spray fine ice particles onto the semiconductor wafer, etc., in order to suppress swirling up of a jet stream caused by the ice spray. A cleaning device characterized in that an exhaust volume control means such as an automatic damper is installed in an exhaust system connected to the exhaust system.