JPH06112188A - Plasma spin dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To completely remove and dry organic waste by moisture splashing due to centrifugal force and ashing it by the use of plasma without using warm water by providing a plasma excitation chamber equipped with a gas passage hole on a movable lid of a plasma processing chamber. CONSTITUTION:A movable lid 22 is moved to open a plasma processing chamber 4, and an object 16 to be dried is mounted on a support member 3 and an attaching member 20. Then the object 16 is spun to splash moisture to have the object 16 dried. Subsequently, the plasma processing chamber 4 is evacuated to a regulated vacuum pressure, and by supplying oxygen and applying high frequency to an electrode 24 at the same time, plasma is excited below the electrode 24 in the plasma processing chamber 4. Thus fine organic waste on the object is ashed by excitation gas blown from a gas passage hole 27 to the object 16, and most part of the ashed object becomes CO2, which is to be exhausted outside from vacuum suction ports 17, 17'. Thus fine organic waste can be removed, and re-deposition of contaminant can be prevented.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention, without using CFCs,
The present invention relates to a plasma spin dry device required for a drying process for an exposure mask, a semiconductor substrate, a liquid crystal substrate, etc., which requires precision cleaning and drying.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional precision cleaning / drying apparatus which does not use chlorofluorocarbon is constructed as shown in FIG. That is, the frame A
A warm water tank B is installed inside, and city water is made pure water by a pure water device C and stored in a tank D. The pure water is sucked by a pump D and heated to about 85 ° C. by a heater H to make warm water. Send to hot water tank B. An overflow pipe E is provided in the hot water tank B to return the overflowed hot water to the tank D, and a filtration device F is provided in the middle of the circulation pipe G to filter the hot water. Further, a drying chamber I is provided above the hot water tank B, and a condensing pipe J is provided on the inner periphery of the hot water tank B to condense and liquefy the vapor from the hot water tank B, and a saucer K provided below receives water droplets and discharges it to the outside. To do. An exhaust port L is provided at the upper end.

The material to be dried M is washed with an organic solvent, which has been conventionally used in the previous step, and a washing step with a detergent.
After being rinsed with pure water, it is held by the transport hook N, and the transport hook N is lowered to immerse the material to be dried M in the warm water in the warm water tank B to heat it, and it is dried at a slight speed of about 140 mm / sec. The material M is pulled up, and the moisture adhering to the surface of the material M to be dried is dried by the thermal energy obtained in warm water.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, since the hot water is constantly maintained at a temperature of about 85 ° C., the hot water evaporates, and the amount of the evaporated water is heated to expensive pure water. Must be supplied to the warm water tank. In addition, pure water is replenished in the hot water tank by the pure water device C so that the material to be dried enters one after another and a small amount of dirt attached to the material to be dried does not accumulate in the hot water tank. Although it is overflowing from the overflow pipe E, there is a limit to zero accumulation of sewage because it is not allowed to ripple on the hot water surface of the hot water tank, so reattachment of sewage to the material to be dried occurs. To do.

Although the hot water is filtered by the filter F, it is impossible to reduce the amount of dirt in the hot water to zero due to the limit of filtration, and reattachment to the material to be dried occurs. Furthermore, since the water that evaporates from the hot water surface contains filth in hot water,
Soil may reattach to the material to be dried at high temperature.

Therefore, in the present invention, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus capable of completely removing and drying contaminants by scattering water by centrifugal force and ashing organic contaminants by plasma without using warm water. To do.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has a plasma excitation chamber having a gas passage hole in a movable cover that covers the opening of the plasma processing chamber.
A plasma spin dry apparatus having an electrode capable of introducing oxygen is constructed.

Further, a plasma spin dry apparatus is provided in which a rotatable rotary frame for holding an object to be dried is provided at a position facing the electrode of the plasma processing chamber.

Further, a plasma spin dry apparatus is provided in which a heater is provided on the outer periphery of the plasma processing chamber.

Further, a plurality of vacuum suction ports are opened in the upper part of the plasma processing chamber, and a ring-shaped water invasion preventing material is provided on the inner circumference of the vacuum suction port to form a plasma spin dry apparatus.

[0011]

The present invention is configured as described above, and after attaching the object to be dried to the rotary frame, the plasma processing chamber is covered with the movable lid, and the rotary frame is rotated to remove the moisture adhering to the object to be dried. It is scattered and evaporated by heating with a heater. At this time, the vacuum pump is actuated to suck the water evaporated from the vacuum suction port.

When the specified vacuum pressure is reached, oxygen is supplied to the plasma excitation chamber and a high frequency is applied to the electrodes to generate oxygen plasma, which is sprayed onto the material to be dried, and the organic waste adhering to the material is ashed. It is gasified, gasified, and discharged from the vacuum suction port to the outside.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. A support ring 2 is provided on the inner peripheral surface at the upper end of the frame body 1, a support material 3 is fixed to the upper surface of the center side of the support ring 2, and a plasma processing chamber 4 is fixed to the lower surface thereof. The plasma processing chamber 4 is formed in a piece shape in cross section, a mountain-shaped projecting portion 5 is provided at the center of the lower end, and a circular water droplet retention groove 7 is formed in the connecting portion between the protrusion portion 5 and the inclined surface 6. A drain 8 is provided in the groove 7. A heater 9 is attached to the back surface of the inclined surface 6. Further, the heat insulating material 10 is provided on the entire back surface of the plasma processing chamber 4 so that the temperature inside the chamber can be maintained. Further, a bearing 11 is vertically attached to the center of the protruding portion 5, a lower end of a rotating shaft 12 rotatably supported by the bearing 11 is connected to a motor 13, and the upper end of the rotating shaft 12 is rotated via a mounting member 14. The frame 15 is attached, and the object to be dried 16 is rotated by the rotary frame 15.
To support.

Further, vacuum suction ports 17, 17 ', ... Are opened at a plurality of positions at the upper end of the plasma processing chamber 4, and are connected to a vacuum pump (not shown) by a ring-shaped vacuum conduit 18. In addition, a ring-shaped water intrusion prevention material 19 parallel to the plasma processing chamber 4 is provided on the inner circumference of the vacuum suction ports 17, 17 ', ....
Is fixed to the inner circumference of the support member 3 via the mounting member 20, thereby preventing moisture from entering the vacuum suction ports 17, 17 ', ... And forming a passage 21 to suck air into the vacuum suction port 17 , 17 ', ...

On the other hand, an electrode 24 is attached to a movable lid 22 that seals the plasma processing chamber 4 via an insulator 23.
That is, the electrode 24 is fixed to the insulator 23 by the hollow shaft 25, the gas manifold portion 26 is provided under the electrode 24, and a large number of gas vent holes 27 are provided on the dried object 16 side of the gas manifold portion 26 to make it hollow. Oxygen gas conduit 28 from above shaft 25
It is designed to release the oxygen introduced in. Incidentally, FIG.
The middle 29 is a high-frequency oscillator, which is connected to the hollow shaft 25 and the protrusion 5.

This embodiment is constructed as described above,
In FIG. 1, the movable lid 22 is lifted by a drive device (not shown) as shown by the chain line, and then horizontally moved to the right, for example, to open the plasma processing chamber 4. Next to be dried 1
6 is attached to the rotary frame 15, and the movable lid 22 is horizontally moved and then lowered to be placed on the support material 3 and the attachment material 20.

Thereafter, the motor 13 is driven to drive the rotary frame 15
The material to be dried 16 is rotated through the above to disperse the water adhering to the material to be dried 16 and adhere to the inner wall of the plasma processing chamber 4, but a part of the water flows down to the water drop retention groove 7 at the bottom, Drain from drain 8. Water attached to the inner wall is evaporated by heating the heater 9.

At this time, the motor 13 is stopped at a predetermined timing, the valve of the drain 8 is closed, and a vacuum pump (not shown) is operated to suck from the vacuum suction ports 17, 17 ', ... When the specified vacuum pressure is reached, oxygen is supplied from the oxygen gas conduit 28, and at the same time a high frequency is applied to the electrode 24 by the high frequency oscillator 29, plasma excitation is performed below the electrode 24 in the plasma processing chamber 4. The excited gas sprayed from the gas vents 27 onto the material 16 to be dried is ashed by the chemical reaction of the fine organic filth adhering to the material 16 to be dried, and mostly becomes a gaseous state of CO ₂ , The vacuum suction port 17, 17 by the suction force of the vacuum pump
It is discharged from the ´…. Next, the operation of the vacuum pump is stopped to return to normal pressure as shown in FIG. 2, the movable lid 22 is raised and horizontally moved to open, and the material 16 to be dried is taken out from the rotary frame 15.

[0019]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION Since the present invention has the above-described structure and operation, there is no dirt that remains in the plasma processing chamber,
Further, since fine organic contaminants can be removed by oxygen plasma, there is a drying effect more than using a CFC organic solvent, and it is also possible to remove fine organic contaminants that are difficult to do with water-soluble cleaning. There is no reattachment. In addition, since a ring-shaped moisture invasion preventive material is provided inside the vacuum suction port, moisture does not enter the vacuum suction port, and the moisture invasion preventive material forms a passage. CO
₂ Can guide the discharge of gas.

[0020]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an embodiment of a plasma spin dry apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory view.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Frame 2 Support ring 3 Support material 4 Plasma processing chamber 5 Projection part 6 Inclined surface 7 Water droplet retention groove 8 Drain 9 Heater 10 Heat insulating material 11 Bearing tool 12 Rotating shaft 13 Motor 14 Mounting member 15 Rotating frame 16 Dried material 17 Vacuum suction port 17 'Vacuum suction port 18 Vacuum conduit 19 Moisture intrusion prevention material 20 Mounting material 21 Passage 22 Movable lid 23 Insulator 24 Electrode 25 Hollow shaft 26 Gas manifold part 27 Gas passage hole 28 Oxygen gas conduit 29 High frequency transmitter A frame Body B Hot water tank C Pure water device D Tank E Overflow pipe F Filtration device G Circulation pipe H Heater I Drying room J Condensing pipe K Saucepan L Exhaust port M Dried material N Conveying hook P Pump

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plasma, characterized in that a movable lid that covers the opening of the plasma processing chamber has a plasma excitation chamber having a gas passage hole and an electrode into which oxygen can be introduced is attached. Spin dry device. 2. The plasma spin dry apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a rotatable rotary frame for holding an object to be dried is provided at a position facing the electrode of the plasma processing chamber. 3. The plasma spin dry apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a heater is provided on the outer periphery of the plasma processing chamber. 4. A plurality of vacuum suction ports are opened in the upper part of the plasma processing chamber, and a ring-shaped water invasion blocking material is provided on the inner circumference of the vacuum suction port to form a passage. 2. The plasma spin dry device described in 2.