JPH05277948A - Particulate injection processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve uniformity of processing by a method wherein stable injection is made through a nozzle in a way to prevent the occurrence of the bumping state of submicorn particles being dispersed in compressed air. CONSTITUTION:An air feed pipe 7 through which compressed air is fed is connected to the bottom part of a mixing chamber 3. A delivery pipe 12 through which submicron particles 2 mixed in compressed air from the mixing chamber 3 are delivered to an injection chamber 5 is connected to the upper part of the mixing chamber 3, and a space 31 is formed in the connection part therebetween.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fine particle jetting processing apparatus suitable for performing processing such as etching and so-called deposition on a workpiece such as a glass substrate or a semiconductor substrate.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various fine processing is required when manufacturing semiconductor integrated circuits, printed wiring circuits, and various functional elements such as magnetic heads. Therefore, advanced etching technology and thin film forming technology are required.

As such an etching technique, an ion etching method, a reactive ion etching method, a sandblast method and the like are known. However, the ion etching method has a slow processing speed, and the sandblast method has a drawback that the surface state of the surface to be processed is poor.

On the other hand, as a thin film forming technique, a sputtering method, a spraying method, a vapor phase growth method and the like are known. However, the sputtering method has a slow film forming rate, and the spraying method can form a film only on a heat resistant substrate. The vapor phase growth method has a drawback that the film forming rate is slow and only a heat resistant substrate can be used.

In order to solve the above problems, the inventors of the present invention mainly use ultrafine particles having an average particle diameter of 0.01 μm to 3 μm with respect to the surface to be processed, as described in JP-A-3-231096. We proposed a processing method of spraying the powder with a certain incident angle. According to this method, deposition processing can be performed at a high film forming speed with less restriction on the surface to be processed, and etching of fine patterns can be performed with high accuracy and at high speed.

FIG. 6 shows a schematic configuration of a processing apparatus used in the processing method proposed above. This processing device is roughly classified into an air compressor 1 for supplying compressed air, a mixing chamber 3 for mixing the compressed air sent from the air compressor 1 with the ultrafine particles 2, and the compressed air together with the ultrafine particles 2 for a workpiece 4. The jet chamber 5 for jetting and the exhaust fan 6 for collecting and sucking the ultrafine particles 2 from the jet chamber 5 are configured.

In the processing apparatus constructed as described above, the compressed air sent from the air compressor 1 is
It is divided into a first air supply pipe 7 and a second air supply pipe 8,
The compressed air divided into the first air supply pipe 7 is a filter 9 or an air outlet 10 provided at the bottom of the mixing chamber 3.
Flow into the mixing chamber 3. At this time, the compressed air passes through the ultrafine particles 2 to agitate the ultrafine particles 2 due to the air vibrator effect, and a part of the agitated particles is provided by the lower surface recess 11 a of the dust collector 11 provided in the mixing chamber 3 to the delivery pipe 12.
Are collected in the vicinity of the entrance 12a.

During this stirring, the vibrating member 13 provided on the inner bottom surface of the mixing chamber 3 also mechanically disperses the ultrafine particles 2, so that the air vibrator effect is effectively maintained. In addition, a solenoid valve 15 provided in the middle of the outlet pipe 14 connected to the dust collector 11 and a middle of the exhaust pipe 18 connected to the lid 17 of the ultrafine particle supply unit 16 above the mixing chamber 3. The electromagnetic valve 19 provided is controlled so that the open / closed states thereof are opposite to each other at regular intervals. As a result, the ultrafine particles 2 in the mixing chamber 3 are further disturbed by the pressure difference due to the opening / closing operation.

On the other hand, the compressed air divided into the second air supply pipe 8 is directly sent to the delivery pipe 12, and the negative pressure is generated by the air flow, so that the ultrafine particles 2 collected near the outlet 8a are collected. It is sucked in and mixed with compressed air in the delivery pipe 12. Then, the mixture of the compressed air and the ultrafine particles 2 passes through the delivery pipe 12 and is jetted from the nozzle 20 in the jet chamber 5 to be sprayed on the surface of the workpiece 4 to be machined. The used ultrafine particles 2 are returned to the supply unit 16 through the reaction tubes 21 and 22 connected to the injection chamber 5, and are reused.

[0010]

However, according to the processing apparatus according to the above-mentioned proposal, the ultrafine particles 2 aggregated in the shape of a dumpling are sucked from the inlet 12a of the delivery pipe 12 and mixed with the compressed air in the delivery pipe 12 so as to be mixed with the nozzle 20. Is jetted from. The ultrafine particles 2 injected at this time are in a bumping state, and this injection is repeated intermittently. When a large amount of ultrafine particles 2 are simultaneously ejected from the nozzle 20 in the bumping state in this way, the masking phenomenon occurs due to the particles, so that the work piece 4 becomes difficult to be processed. As a result, the workpiece 4 may be difficult to be processed uniformly.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is possible to stably eject ultrafine particles dispersed in compressed air from a nozzle, and improve the uniformity of processing. An object is to provide an injection processing device.

[0012]

A fine particle jetting apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises a mixing chamber 3 filled with ultrafine particles 2;
An air supply pipe 7 for supplying compressed air to the mixing chamber 3 and an injection chamber 5 connected to the mixing chamber 3 via a delivery pipe 12 for injecting the ultrafine particles 2 together with the compressed air to the workpiece 4. A fine particle jetting apparatus comprising a stirring member 33 for stirring the ultrafine particles 2 in the chamber 3, wherein an air supply pipe 7 is connected to the bottom of the mixing chamber 3 and one end of a delivery pipe 12 is placed above the mixing chamber 3. And a space 31 of a predetermined size is provided in the upper part of the mixing chamber 3 at the site to which the delivery pipe 12 is connected.

A fine particle jetting processing apparatus according to a second aspect is
It is characterized in that a plurality of stirring members are provided.

[0014]

In the fine particle jetting apparatus according to the first aspect, the space 31 having a predetermined size is provided at the connecting portion between the mixing chamber 3 and the delivery pipe 12 so that the space is lifted up by the compressed air. Only the ultrafine particles 2 dispersed in the space 3
1 to the delivery pipe 12. Then, it is mixed with compressed air in the delivery pipe 12, accelerated, and jetted from the nozzle 20. As a result, the bumping phenomenon of the ultrafine particles 2 can be prevented, and the uniformity of the processed surface is significantly improved.

In the fine particle jetting apparatus according to the second aspect, the stirring member 3 for stirring the ultrafine particles 2 in the mixing chamber 3 is provided.
By providing a plurality of three, it is possible to reduce the fluctuation of the supply amount of the ultrafine particles 2 to the delivery pipe 12 due to the rotation cycle of the stirring member 33.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the fine particle jetting processing apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic structure of an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, parts corresponding to those of the conventional example shown in FIG. 6 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted as appropriate. The feature of this embodiment is that the dust collector 11, the vibrating member 13, the outlet pipe 14, and the solenoid valve 15 in the conventional example shown in FIG. 6 are omitted, and the first air supply pipe 7 is connected to the bottom of the mixing chamber 3. The point is that one end of the delivery pipe 12 is connected to the upper portion of the mixing chamber 3 through a space 31 having a predetermined size. A motor 32 is provided above the mixing chamber 3, and a stirring member 33 that is driven to rotate by the motor 32 is mounted inside the mixing chamber 3. Further, a conical supply valve 34 that opens and closes an opening at the lower end of the supply unit 16 is attached to the lid portion 17 of the ultrafine particle supply unit 16 so as to be able to move up and down, and the supply valve 34 is opened by a coil spring 35. It is urged in the direction to close the part.

Reference numerals 36, 37 and 38 are an adjusting valve, an electromagnetic valve and an adjusting valve provided in the air supply pipes 7 and 8, respectively, and a reference numeral 39 is an exciter provided in the delivery pipe 12.
Further, reference numerals 40 and 41 are heaters for heating the supply unit 16 and the mixing chamber 3, respectively.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. The ultrafine particles 2 having an average particle diameter of 0.01 μm to 3 μm are mixed with compressed air in the delivery pipe 12, and jetted from the nozzle 20,
It is basically the same as the conventional example that the work is performed by being sprayed onto the work surface of the work 4. In this embodiment, the compressed air supplied from the first air supply pipe 7 is blown out from the air outlet 10 provided at the bottom of the mixing chamber 3 and passes through the ultrafine particles 2 through the filter 9. The air outlets 10 may be, for example, eight concentric circles having a diameter of 2 mm, and may be provided with a hole having a diameter of 2 mm at the center. The filter 9 is, for example, a SUS cermet filter or a bronze cermet filter having a mesh of 30 μm to 100 μm.

In the above state, the ultrafine particles 2 are only temporarily wound up by the compressed air. In order to maintain this state, the stirring member 33 is rotated at a constant cycle. Then, the wound ultrafine particles 2 pass through the space 31, pass through the delivery pipe 12, reach the outlet 8a of the second air supply pipe 8, and are mixed with the compressed air. At this time, if there is no space 31, as shown in FIG. 2, the ultrafine particles 2 are attracted and sucked into the connecting portion between the mixing chamber 3 and the delivery pipe 12, and become the aggregated ultrafine particles 2 in a bumping state. However, as shown in this embodiment, for example, by providing a space having an inner diameter of 30 mm and a height of 30 mm in the connecting portion, only the ultrafine particles 2 that are wound up by the compressed air and dispersed in the compressed air are sucked into the delivery pipe 12. Therefore, the bumping state does not occur as shown in FIG. Therefore, the jetting of the ultrafine particles 2 from the nozzle 20 does not occur, and the uniformity of the processed surface is significantly improved. It is particularly effective when the ultrafine particles 2 are filled in the mixing chamber 3 in a full state.

A first air supply pipe 7 is provided at the bottom of the mixing chamber 3.
When the supply pressure of the compressed air supplied via the is increased from zero, the supply amount of the ultrafine particles 2 also increases substantially in proportion as shown in FIG. Therefore, the supply amount of the ultrafine particles 2 can be arbitrarily controlled by adjusting the supply pressure.

According to this embodiment, the mixing chamber 3 and the delivery pipe 12 are
Since the space 31 is provided at the connecting portion with the, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of the bumping state of the ultrafine particles 2 ejected from the nozzle 20, and the ultrafine particles 2 dispersed in the compressed air are stably discharged from the nozzle 20. Is jetted. As a result, the processing uniformity of the workpiece 4 can be improved. Further, it is possible to prevent uneven wear of the delivery pipe 12 and the nozzle 20 due to repetition of bumping injection and normal injection.

In the above embodiment, the room 31 and the stirring member 33 are used.
However, a plurality of chambers 31 may be evenly provided above the mixing chamber 3, or a plurality of stirring members 33 may be concentrically provided. Here, the stirring member 3
The maximum amount of the ultrafine particles 2 is sent to the delivery pipe 12 when 3 comes under the space 31, but this fluctuation can be prevented by providing a plurality of stirring members 33. A curve A shows the relationship between the rotation period of the stirring member 33 and the supply amount of the ultrafine particles 2 when four stirring members 33 and three spaces 31 are provided in FIG.
Indicate. The curve B shows the case where each of the stirring member 33 and the space 31 is one. As is clear from FIG. 5, in the case of the curve A, the fluctuation of the supply amount of the ultrafine particles 2 can be greatly improved.

[0024]

As described above, according to the fine particle jetting apparatus of the first aspect, since the space is provided in the connecting portion between the mixing chamber and the delivery pipe, the bumping of the ultrafine particles ejected from the nozzle is carried out. It is possible to prevent the occurrence of the state, and the ultrafine particles dispersed in the compressed air are stably ejected from the nozzle.
As a result, the processing uniformity of the workpiece can be improved. Further, it is possible to prevent the uneven wear of the delivery pipe and the nozzle due to the repetition of the bumping injection and the normal injection.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of a fine particle jetting processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a bumping state of ultrafine particles.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a bumping elimination state according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a relationship between a compressed air supply pressure and an ultrafine particle supply amount.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a relationship between a rotation cycle of a stirring member and a supply amount of ultrafine particles.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of an example of a conventional fine particle jetting processing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Ultrafine particles 3 Mixing chamber 4 Workpiece 5 Injection chamber 7,8 Air supply pipe 12 Delivery pipe 31 Space 33 Stirring member

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A mixing chamber filled with ultrafine particles, an air supply pipe for supplying compressed air to the mixing chamber, and a delivery pipe connected to the mixing chamber to cover the ultrafine particles together with the compressed air. A fine particle injection processing device comprising an injection chamber for injecting a workpiece, and a stirring member for stirring the ultrafine particles in the mixing chamber, wherein the air supply pipe is connected to a bottom portion of the mixing chamber, While connecting one end of the delivery pipe to the upper part of the mixing chamber, a space of a predetermined size is provided in the upper part of the mixing chamber at the site where the delivery pipe is connected, 2. The fine particle jetting processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of stirring members are provided.