JPH10340851A - Clean bench for substrate treatment equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To supply clean air to a wafer treatment equipment which removes alkali components, such as ammonia and the like, generated in the treatment equipment and cleaning the air without the use of chemical filters. SOLUTION: Air, recovered from an equipment for treating resist, is taken from an intake 111 and flows from down to up in an air flow path. A first impurity removal section 130 and a second impurity removal section 150 are arranged above and below in a multistage. Pure water from spray nozzles 131a and 151a is sprayed uniformly to distribution mats 132 and 152 via air- water contact spaces M1 and M2 , and seeps uniformly into the distribution mats 132 and 152. The recovered air makes contact with the pure water in the distribution mats 132 and 152 and the air-water contact spaces M1 and M2 , and impurities such as alkali component and the like are removed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus for a substrate processing apparatus for supplying clean air to a predetermined space in a substrate processing apparatus for performing a predetermined processing on a substrate to be processed in a predetermined space. The present invention relates to an air supply device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a resist processing step in a semiconductor manufacturing process, a resist liquid is applied to a surface of a substrate to be processed such as a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as "wafer") to form a resist film, and a predetermined pattern is formed. After the exposure, development processing is performed with a developer. In performing such a series of processing, a coating and developing apparatus has conventionally been used.

A conventional general coating / developing apparatus of this type is provided with a plurality of processing units for performing different processes in an aggregated form, which is also called a coating / developing processing system. In the above, various kinds of processing in the resist processing step are performed for each wafer.

[0004] Such a coating and developing apparatus is installed in a clean room. However, it is necessary to carry out each processing in a cleaner atmosphere and not to contaminate the clean room with an atmosphere of an organic solvent generated in the processing unit. The periphery and upper portion of the coating and developing device are further surrounded by a suitable casing and panel, and a cleaning air supply unit such as a fan filter unit (FFU) is provided at the upper portion of the coating and developing device. Each of the processing units,
It is located below the downflow of purified air from this FFU. In order to remove an alkali component such as ammonia in the atmosphere in the coating and developing apparatus, a chemical filter is further provided on the upstream side of the cleaning air supply unit such as the above-mentioned FFU.

[0005]

By the way, in order to cope with miniaturization of the line width of a pattern with high integration of a semiconductor device, a so-called chemically amplified resist material is used as a resist material today. When this chemically amplified resist material reacts with ammonia in the atmosphere, a hardly soluble or insoluble neutralizing layer is formed on the surface of the substrate to be processed, which is not preferable for subsequent processing. For this reason, it is necessary to minimize the amount of alkali components such as ammonia in the atmosphere in the coating and developing treatment apparatus as much as possible. Can be prevented.

In this regard, in the case of a chemical filter installed in a conventional coating and developing apparatus, the amount of humidity and alkali components in the coating and developing apparatus, and the flow rate of air passing through the chemical filter per unit time The lifespan was affected by Also, due to the nature of the chemical filter, the performance of the filter decreases with the operating time of the apparatus, but there is also a problem that it is difficult to predict when the filter should be replaced when the filter has deteriorated. Further, since it is necessary to stop the entire coating and developing apparatus at the time of replacement, it cannot be denied that the throughput is reduced as a result. Moreover, chemical filters are expensive, leading to high running costs.

In order to improve such a point, the present inventors use an impurity removing liquid such as pure water instead of the above-mentioned chemical filter, and contact the impurity removing liquid and the air collected from the coating and developing processing apparatus in a so-called gas-liquid contact. Then, it was tried to remove the alkali component, and then returned to the coating and developing apparatus again.

[0008] However, simply by gas-liquid contact,
The efficiency of removing impurities such as alkali components and organic components contained in the atmosphere in the coating and developing apparatus is low, and it is difficult to achieve a predetermined cleanliness. Further, the running cost of an impurity removing liquid such as pure water used for gas-liquid contact cannot be ignored.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and basically, air collected from a substrate processing apparatus such as a coating and developing processing apparatus is cleaned by gas-liquid contact with an impurity removing liquid, and the substrate is processed again. Although a configuration for supplying to the apparatus is adopted, the efficiency of removing impurities is good, it is easy to achieve a predetermined cleanliness, and the cost required for the impurity removing liquid used in removing impurities can be reduced. It is an object of the present invention to provide a clean air supply device for a substrate processing apparatus.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a clean air supply apparatus for a substrate processing apparatus.
A channel for collecting at least a part of air in a space for performing a predetermined process on the substrate to be processed, and passing the collected air upward from below, and an impurity removing unit provided in the channel. And The impurity removing unit is a mat-shaped dispersion mat made of a woven or non-woven fabric, and a nozzle that sprays an impurity removing liquid from a position spaced apart from the dispersion mat from a downstream side in the flow path. And a filter for removing liquid droplets, which is located on the downstream side of the nozzle and has a fiber diameter smaller than that of the dispersion mat, made of a woven or nonwoven fabric.

According to the clean air supply apparatus for a substrate processing apparatus having such a feature, first, the impurity removing liquid sprayed from the nozzle is once trapped by the dispersion mat, and then drops down in the dispersion mat. Since the mat is in the form of a mat made of a woven fabric or a nonwoven fabric, the impurity removing liquid is uniformly dropped while being dispersed. Therefore, when the recovered air first passes through the dispersion mat, it comes into contact with the impurity removing liquid to remove impurities in the air. At this time, since the impurity removing liquid is evenly dispersed in the dispersion mat, the air passing through any part is evenly removed.
Then, the air that has passed through the dispersion mat comes into contact with the liquid particles of the impurity removing liquid sprayed by the nozzles to remove impurities. In other words, the impurity removing liquid sprayed by the nozzle is effectively used. Therefore, the impurity removal efficiency of the recovered air is good.

The air that has passed through the nozzle contains such liquid particles, but when passing through a droplet removing filter made of a woven or nonwoven fabric having a downstream fiber diameter smaller than that of the dispersion mat. The liquid particles are trapped by the filter for removing liquid droplets by inertial collision. Therefore, the air after passing through the droplet removing filter is very clean air with almost no liquid particles, and the temperature and humidity can be easily adjusted thereafter.

[0013] In the clean air supply apparatus for a substrate processing apparatus having such a feature, as described in claim 2, the dispersion mat is passed below the dispersion mat in each impurity removing section, that is, upstream of the air. A storage portion for storing the droplets dropped and formed is provided, and in this storage portion, a passage hole for allowing the recovered air to pass upward from below is formed, and further above the passage hole, the passage hole is covered. A cap may be provided.

By providing the storage section in this manner, it becomes easy to collect the impurity removing liquid dropped from the dispersion mat, and the presence of the passage holes allows the collected air to flow upward from below. Can be done. In addition, it is preferable that the passage holes are uniformly dispersed. And since the cap is arranged above the passage hole, the impurity removing liquid dropped from the dispersion mat does not fall from the passage hole as it is, while the collected air collides with this cap and is diffused around. . Therefore, the air when passing through the dispersing mat uniformly passes through the dispersing mat without being locally concentrated. As a result, impurities are removed from the recovered air to be treated uniformly without bias.

In the clean air supply apparatus for a substrate processing apparatus having the above-described structure, the impurity removing units may be arranged in series in upper and lower stages along the flow of the recovered air. And higher impurity removal ability can be obtained. In this case, the droplet removing filter may be disposed downstream of the uppermost impurity removing section, and need not be provided in each of the impurity removing sections.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, when at least a portion of the impurity removing liquid sprayed from the nozzle in the impurity removing section is obtained by collecting the impurity removing liquid after passing through the dispersion mat, That is, when reused, the impurity removing solution can be effectively used, and the consumption can be reduced.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for supplying purified air to a predetermined space of a substrate processing apparatus for performing processing on a substrate to be processed in a predetermined space, wherein the predetermined space is provided. A channel that collects at least a part of the air inside and allows the collected air to pass in the horizontal direction, and an impurity removing unit provided in the channel, and the impurity removing unit includes A mat-shaped dispersion mat installed in parallel with the flow and made of a woven or non-woven fabric, and a nozzle for spraying an impurity removing liquid in a direction perpendicular to the flow of the collected air from a position spaced a predetermined distance from the dispersion mat; Clean air for a substrate processing apparatus, comprising: a filter for removing a droplet made of a woven or nonwoven fabric having a fiber diameter smaller than the dispersion mat, which is located downstream of the nozzle. Supply equipment is provided .

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a clean air supply apparatus for a substrate processing apparatus, wherein the recovered air flowing in the flow path is brought into gas-liquid contact with an impurity removing liquid sprayed from a nozzle and dropped from a dispersion mat. The impurities in the air are removed by gas-liquid contact with the impurity removing liquid. The liquid particles present in the air from which the impurities have been removed are collected by the droplet removing filter located on the downstream side. Further, the temperature and humidity of the air after passing through the droplet removing filter can be easily adjusted.

In the above-described clean air supply device for each of the substrate processing apparatuses according to the first to fifth aspects, a cooling device for cooling the recovered air in the flow path may be further added as described in the sixth aspect. Good. Then, the air to be treated is cooled, and the efficiency of removing impurities is improved. It should be noted that the impurity removing effect can be reduced by cooling the impurity removing liquid itself to, for example, 6 ° C. to 8 ° C., particularly around 7 ° C., and spraying it from the nozzle together with or instead of such a cooling device. It can be higher.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 1 to 3 show that clean air is supplied by a clean air supply device for a substrate processing apparatus according to the present embodiment. 1 is a plan view, FIG. 2 is a front view, and FIG. 3 is a view from the back side of the coating and developing system 1 as a substrate processing apparatus.

The coating and developing system 1 is used for loading or unloading a cassette C containing a plurality of wafers W as substrates to be processed, for example, in units of 25 wafers, into or out of the system. A cassette station 10, a processing station 11 in which various processing apparatuses for performing predetermined processing on wafers W one by one in a coating and developing processing step are arranged at predetermined positions in multiple stages, and provided adjacent to the processing station 11. An interface unit 12 for transferring a wafer W to and from an exposure processing apparatus (not shown) is integrally connected.

In the cassette station 10, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of cassettes C, for example, four cassettes C are connected to the processing station 1 at the positions of the positioning projections 20a on the cassette mounting table 20 serving as the mounting portion.
A wafer carrier 21 that is placed in a line toward one side and is movable in the cassette arrangement direction (X direction) and the wafer arrangement direction (Z direction; vertical direction) of the wafers W stored in the cassette C. It is movable along the transport path 21a, and each cassette C can be selectively accessed.

Further, the wafer transfer body 21 is rotatable in the θ direction.
So that the access to the third processing multi-stage unit alignment unit belonging to the unit ALIM device group G ₃ and extension unit EXT side.

As shown in FIG. 1, the processing station 11 is provided with a vertical transfer type main wafer transfer means 22 at the center thereof, around which various processing apparatuses are multi-stage integrated over one or a plurality of sets. They are arranged to form a processing device group. The coating and developing processing system 1 has a configuration in which five processing device groups G ₁ , G ₂ , G ₃ , G ₄ , G ₅ can be arranged, and the first and second processing device groups G ₁ , G ₂ The third processing unit group G ₃ is disposed adjacent to the cassette station 10, the fourth processing unit group G ₄ is disposed adjacent to the interface unit 12, and is indicated by a broken line. the processing unit group G ₅ of the fifth has a positionable on the rear side.

As shown in FIG. 2, the first processing apparatus group G ₁ includes a spinner type processing apparatus for performing a predetermined liquid processing on the wafer W in the processing chamber CP, for example, a resist coating apparatus C
OT ₁ and COT ₂ are stacked in two stages from the top. The second processing unit group G ₂ developing device DEV _1, DEV ₂
Are stacked in two stages from the top.

As shown in FIG. 3, the third processing unit group G ₃
Here, an oven-type processing apparatus that performs a predetermined process by placing a wafer W on a mounting table (not shown), for example, a cooling device COL that performs a cooling process, an adhesion device AD that performs a hydrophobic process, and an alignment device that performs positioning ALI
M, an extension device EXT, a pre-baking device PREBAKE for performing a heating process before the exposure process, and a post-baking device POB for performing a heating process after the exposure process
AKEs are stacked in, for example, eight stages in order from the bottom.

[0027] In the fourth processing unit group G _4, oven-type processing units, for example, a cooling unit COL, extension and cooling unit EXTCOL, extension unit EXT, a cooling unit COL, the pre-baking unit PREBAKE, and post-baking unit POBAKEs are stacked in order from the bottom, for example, in eight layers.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a portable pickup cassette CR and a stationary buffer cassette BR are arranged in two stages at the front of the interface unit 12, and the peripheral exposure is performed at the rear. An apparatus 23 is provided, and a wafer carrier 24 is provided at the center. The wafer transfer body 24 moves in the X direction and the Z direction (vertical direction) to access the cassettes CR and BR and the peripheral exposure device 23. Further, the wafer transfer member 24 also move in the rotational and Y directions in the θ direction is configured to be freely, the processing station 11 side of the fourth processing unit group G ₄ belonging extension device E
The XT and the wafer delivery table of the adjacent exposure processing apparatus (not shown) can be accessed.

In the coating and developing system 1,
Wherein the cassette mounting table 20, the conveyance path 21a, the first to fifth processing unit group G ₁ ~G ₅ of the wafer transfer body 21, with respect to the interface unit 12, downflow clean air is formed from above As shown in FIG. 2, a high-performance filter 3 such as an ULPA filter
1 corresponds to the three zones (cassette station 10,
It is provided for each processing station 11 and interface section 12). Then, the air supplied from the upstream side of the high-performance filter 31 is purified when passing through the high-performance filter 31, and a clean downflow is formed as shown by the solid arrows and the dashed arrows in FIG. Is done. In particular, as shown in FIG. 4, duct pipes are appropriately provided to the resist coating devices COT ₁ and COT ₂ so that a clean down flow is independently formed inside the resist coating devices COT ₁ and COT ₂ .

As shown in FIG. 4, the periphery of the coating and developing system 1 is surrounded by side plates 61, 62, etc., and a space is formed between a top plate 63 at the upper part and a vent plate 64 at the lower part. A bottom plate 65 is provided via P. A wall duct 66 is formed on one side of the system, and communicates with a ceiling chamber 67 formed on the lower surface of the top plate 63.

An exhaust port 68 is formed in the bottom plate 65, and the lower atmosphere in the system recovered through the vent plate 64 is evacuated by an exhaust pipe 69 connected to the exhaust port 68. It is led to the lower space 70 in the double floor structure of the clean room partitioned by 52.

On the other hand, a part of the recovered air is introduced into the clean air supply device 101 by the introduction pipe 71 connected to the exhaust pipe 69. The exhaust destination of the exhaust pipe 69 may be configured to communicate with a centralized exhaust system such as a factory. The ratio of the air introduced into the clean air supply device 101 described later and the air exhausted into the centralized exhaust system can be adjusted by dampers 72 and 73 interposed in the exhaust pipe 69 and the introduction pipe 71, respectively. .

The air from which alkaline components such as ammonia have been removed by gas-liquid contact in the clean air supply device 101 is sent out to the wall duct 66 through a sending pipe 74, and a high-performance filter installed below the ceiling chamber 67. It is blown out as a down flow into the system via 51.

Since a part of the air exhausted from the processing station 11 is exhausted to the centralized exhaust system of the factory or the like as described above, the upper space 75 in the double floor structure of the clean room is supplemented to compensate for the exhaustion. Is introduced into the clean air supply device 101 through the air supply pipe 76.

Regarding the resist coating device COT ₁ in the first processing device group G ₁ installed inside the processing station 11, a separate sub-chamber 83 is formed at an upper portion in a casing 82 constituting an outer wall thereof. This sub-chamber 83 is in communication with the wall duct 66 of the system. Therefore, the purified air flowing through the wall duct 66 is discharged as a downflow into the casing 82 via the high-performance filter 84 installed below the sub-chamber 83. The downflow from the ceiling chamber 67 may be introduced into the casing 82 without providing the sub-chamber 83. The atmosphere in the casing 82 is exhausted from a separately provided exhaust pipe 86 to the space P below the ventilation hole plate 64.

The resist coating device COT ₂ has the same configuration as the resist coating device COT _1, and a sub-chamber 93 is separately formed in the upper part of the casing 92.
This sub-chamber 93 communicates with the wall duct 66.
Therefore, the clean air in the wall duct 66 is discharged as a downflow into the casing 92 through the high-performance filter 94 installed below the sub-chamber 93. In this case, the sub-chamber 93 is also provided.
, The downflow from the ceiling chamber 67 may be directly introduced into the casing 92. The atmosphere in the casing 92 is exhausted from the exhaust pipe 86 to the space P below the vent plate 64.

Incidentally, for example, a resist coating device COT ₁ , C
Such as OT _2, in each type of processing apparatus as a unit incorporated in the coating and developing treatment system 1, who sets the wind speed and the like in some cases each preferred process conditions can be obtained. Therefore separately provided such as a small fan or a variable damper inside the sub-chamber 93 inside and the resist coating device COT ₂ subchambers 83 of the resist coating device COT _1, the casing 82 and the casing 92, each separate clean downflow May be formed.

Next, the configuration of the clean air supply device 101 according to this embodiment will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 5, the clean air supply device 101 includes an introduction unit 110, a first impurity removal unit 130, a second impurity removal unit 150, a delivery unit 170, and an impurity removal liquid circulation formed in the exterior panel. It can be roughly divided into a section 190.

The air introduced into the clean air supply device 101 by the introduction pipe 71 is first introduced into the space S from an introduction port 111 provided in the introduction section 110. Introduction 1
Below the first impurity removing section 130 and the second
Drain pan 112 for storing a part of the impurity removing liquid such as pure water used in the impurity removing section 150 of FIG.
Is provided. The impurity removing liquid such as pure water stored in the drain pan 112 is discharged by a drain pipe 114 to, for example, a centralized waste liquid system in a factory.

A spray device having a spray nozzle 131a for spraying pure water in the form of fine mist onto a dispersion mat 132 described later through the gas-liquid contact space M1 in the _first impurity removing section 130. 131 are provided. _On the lower side of the gas-liquid contact space M1, while trapping pure water sprayed from the spray nozzle 131a, disperse the pure water and drop it evenly. A mat 132 is provided.

A pan 13 for collecting pure water dropped from the dispersion mat 132 is provided below the dispersion mat 132.
3 is disposed, and the pan 133 is provided with air to be processed, which rises from the space S below,
A ventilation pipe 133a as a passage hole for passing the dispersion mat 132 is vertically provided. The ventilation pipe 133a also has a function of guiding pure water overflowing the pan 133 to the drain pan 112 described above.

Above the ventilation pipe 133a, there is provided a cap 13 having a form that covers the opening of the ventilation pipe 133a with a gap.
4 are provided. With this cap 134, the pure water from the dispersion mat 132 does not directly drop onto the drain pan 112, and the air from the space S is
After colliding with the dispersion mat 1
It rises to 32.

The pure water stored in the pan 133 is supplied to the pump 1
It is sent to the spraying device 131 again by 36 and sprayed from the spray nozzle 131a. That is, it is designed to be recycled and reused.

The second impurity removing section 150 is disposed above the first impurity removing section 130 having the above-described configuration, and its configuration is basically the same as that of the first impurity removing section 130. That is, a pan 153 having a ventilation pipe 153a is provided at the lowermost portion, and a cap 154 is provided above the ventilation pipe 153a. Also above the cap 154 is disposed dispersed mat 152, further Above the dispersion mat 152, via the gas-liquid contact space M _2,
A spray device 151 having a spray nozzle 151a is provided. Above the spray device 151, that is, on the most downstream side in the second impurity removing section 150, a droplet removing filter 155 made of a nonwoven fabric or the like having a smaller diameter than the fibers constituting the dispersion mat 152 is disposed.

The pure water stored in the pan 153 is supplied to the pump 1
Water is taken in by 56 and heat is exchanged in the heat exchanger 157. In the clean air supply device 101 according to the present embodiment, the heat is exchanged (cooled) by the refrigerant from the refrigerator 161 installed in the device, and the temperature is adjusted to, for example, 7 ° C. Thereafter, the pure water set to 7 ° C. is sent to the spraying device 151 again, sprayed from the spray nozzle 151a, and reused.

In this embodiment, the first impurity removing section 1
As described above, the second impurity removing unit 150 and the second impurity removing unit 150 are arranged in the upper and lower stages, and are used in the second impurity removing unit 150 arranged on the upper side. Of the pure water that has been drained, the overflowed portion falls to the first impurity removing section 130 disposed below, but in this embodiment, new pure water is replenished from the pure water replenishment source 162. The amount corresponding to the replenishment falls to the first impurity removing unit 130 and is collected to the drain pan 114. Note that three or more impurity removing units may be arranged in multiple stages.

The air from which impurities have been removed by the first and second impurity removing units 130 and 150 are sent to an outlet, that is, an outlet 172 by a blower 171 installed in the sending unit 170. Led to. The relatively clean air in the upper space 75 is supplied to another blower 17.
3, and is mixed with the clean air from which impurities have been removed by the first impurity removing unit 130 and the second impurity removing unit 150. The temperature and humidity of the mixed air are adjusted by the heating mechanism 174 and the humidifying mechanism 175, and then the air is sent out by the outlet 172. For example, air adjusted to a temperature of 23 ° C. and a relative humidity of 40% is sent out from the outlet 172.

The clean air supply device 1 according to the present embodiment
01 is configured as described above. Next, the operation of the coating and developing system 1 will be described.
, The wafer carrier 21 accesses the cassette C containing the unprocessed wafers W on the cassette mounting table 20 and takes out one wafer W from the cassette C.
After that, the wafer transfer body 21 first moves the processing station 1
Moves to the alignment device ALIM disposed on one side the third processing unit group G _3, the alignment device A
The wafer W is transferred into the LIM.

When the alignment and the centering of the wafer W are completed in the alignment device ALIM, the wafer transfer device 34 of the main wafer transfer means 22
The alignment-completed wafer W is received, moved to the front of the adhesion device AD located at the lower stage of the alignment device ALIM in the _third processing device group G3, and the wafer W is loaded into the device. , A predetermined resist liquid coating process or the like is performed on the wafer W.

During processing of each processing apparatus in the coating and developing system 1, a predetermined airflow velocity, for example, 0.35 m / s to
A purified downflow of 0.5 m / s is formed. With this downflow, particles, organic components, ions, alkali components, and the like generated in the system are transported downward, and the vent plate 64 is formed. Through the space P and into the inlet 111 of the clean air supply device 101.

The recovered air introduced from the inlet 111 is
It is led to the dispersion mat 132 via the ventilation pipe 133a penetrating through the pan 133. At this time, since pure water is sprayed on the dispersion mat 132 by the spray nozzle 131a, impurities such as particles, organic components, ions, and alkali components contained in the recovered air are removed from the pure mat in the dispersion mat 132. Removed by contact with water.
The air was further passed through the dispersion mat 132, in the gas-liquid contact space M _1, the gas-liquid contact in direct contact with pure water mist state from the spray device 131, further impurities are removed. Thus, in the dispersion mat 132,
So to speak to the air after being prefiltration, again, in order to perform the impurity removing the gas-liquid contact space M _1, removal efficiency has become extremely high.

In such a case, when the collected air flows upward from below, it is diffused by the cap 134 and then flows, and the dispersion mat 132 is evenly impregnated with the sprayed pure water. Therefore, the removal of impurities from the collected air to be treated is uniformly and evenly removed.

The air from which impurities have been removed in the gas-liquid contact space M ₁ passes through the ventilation pipe 153 a penetrating through the pan 153, and the dispersion mat 152 in the second impurity removing section 150, in the contact space M _2, the impurity removal process is performed by further vapor-liquid contact. In this case, since the pure water sprayed from the spray nozzle 151a in the second impurity removing unit 150 has higher cleanness than the first impurity removing unit 130, a higher impurity removing process is performed. You. By repeating the impurity removal in two stages in this manner, air with extremely high cleanliness can be created. In addition, since the temperature of the pure water used is set at 7 ° C. by the heat exchanger 157, the impurity removal rate is higher.

The air from which impurities have been removed in two stages is subjected to mist removal by the droplet removal filter 155,
Although the air is blown to the outlet 172 by the blower 171, the mist is removed at the same time as the mist is removed in the droplet removing filter 155.
The cleanliness of the air blown to is extremely high. In addition, the temperature and humidity of the clean air to be sent out can be controlled by the heating mechanism 174 and the humidifying mechanism 175 before sending out from the outlet 172.

When the amount of new pure water replenished from the pure water replenishment source 162 is increased, the ability to remove impurities of pure water used for the gas-liquid contact is increased. This can be addressed by increasing the amount of replenishment.

As described above, with the use of the clean air supply device 101 according to the present embodiment, the air collected from the coating and developing system 1 is purified by gas-liquid contact with pure water, and the coating and developing system 1 is again used. And a processing device as an individual unit, for example, a resist coating device COT ₁ ,
It can be supplied to COT ₂ and it is easy to achieve a predetermined cleanliness without using a chemical filter. Further, since the pure water used for removing the impurities is circulated and reused, the running cost can be reduced. In addition, temperature and humidity control can be performed. Therefore, in the present embodiment, a mechanism for removing impurities (for example, a chemical filter) and a mechanism for controlling temperature and humidity are conventionally performed by individual controllers based on individual device configurations. According to the clean air supply device 101 according to the above, it is easy to perform such removal of impurities and control of temperature and humidity under collective management based on one device configuration.

According to the verification by the inventors, it has been confirmed that, when impurities are removed by gas-liquid contact, an impurity removing solution, for example, pure water, has a high removing ability if its temperature is set at about 7 ° C. As a result, the temperature of the pure water as the impurity removing liquid used in the clean air supply device 101 according to the embodiment was adjusted to 7 ° C. by the heat exchanger 157. Instead of this, even with the use of the clean air supply device 201 according to the other embodiment shown in FIG. 6, operation with high removal efficiency is possible. In FIG. 6, members, devices, mechanisms, and the like denoted by the same reference numerals as those cited in the embodiment denote the same members, devices, mechanisms, and the like as the clean air supply device 101 according to the embodiment. I have.

That is, in this clean air supply apparatus 201, instead of adjusting the temperature of pure water by a heat exchanger, the refrigerant from the refrigerator 161 is installed in the space S as shown in FIG. Then, the air itself introduced from the inlet 111 is cooled, and the atmosphere of the first impurity removing unit 130 and the second impurity removing unit 150 is cooled to set the atmosphere to be easily condensed. It was made. Even with such a configuration, the efficiency of removing impurities by gas-liquid contact with pure water in the first impurity removing unit 130 and the second impurity removing unit 150 is high.

In each of the above embodiments, the structure in which the impurity removing sections are arranged in two stages, upper and lower, is replaced with the first impurity removing section 230, as shown in FIG.
The second impurity removing section 250 may be arranged continuously in the horizontal direction. That is, the flow path N through which the recovered air Q flows is set in the horizontal direction, and the dispersion mats 232 and 252 in the first impurity removing section 230 and the second impurity removing section 250 are each horizontally positioned at the center in the flow path N. Install in the direction. Then, spray devices 231 and 251 having spray nozzles 231a and 251a for spraying the impurity removing liquid onto the dispersion mats 232 and 252 are respectively provided with the corresponding dispersion mats 232 and 251.
It is installed above 252. In addition, the droplet removing filter 260
Is installed on the downstream side of the second-stage second impurity removing section 250 and on the upstream side of the blower 261 at right angles to the flowing direction of the recovered air Q. That is, it is installed so as to close the flow path N.

As described above, even when the first impurity removing section 230 and the second impurity removing section 250 are arranged in multiple stages in a horizontal direction, the recovered air Q flowing in the flow path N is sprayed. Nozzle 231a, 251a gas-liquid contact with sprayed impurity removing liquid, and dispersion mat 232,
The impurities in the recovered air Q are removed by gas-liquid contact with the impurity removing liquid dropped from the liquid 252. The liquid particles present in the air from which impurities have been removed are collected by the droplet removal filter 260 located on the downstream side, so that the blower 261 can be operated without any trouble.
Further, the temperature and humidity of the air after passing through the droplet removing filter 260 can be easily adjusted.

In the above-described embodiment, the air collected from the coating and developing system 1 for performing a series of resist coating and developing processes on the wafer W is cleaned and supplied to the coating and developing system 1 again. Although the apparatus is configured as an apparatus, it is needless to say that the air collected from each processing apparatus as a processing unit may be purified and supplied to each processing apparatus. The present invention also provides an apparatus for performing a film forming process on a wafer under a predetermined thermal atmosphere,
For example, the present invention can be applied to a film forming apparatus used for forming an oxide film, and the substrate to be processed is not limited to a wafer, and may be, for example, a glass substrate for LCD.

[0062]

The use of the clean air supply device for a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention makes it possible to clean the processing air by gas-liquid contact with an impurity removing liquid and supply it to the substrate processing apparatus again. It is not necessary to use a chemical filter. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a conventional chemical filter, so that operations such as maintenance and replacement of a filter member are not required, and the running cost can be reduced. Moreover, the impurity removal efficiency is good, it is easy to achieve a predetermined cleanliness, and the cost required for the impurity removal liquid used for removing the impurities can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating a coating and developing system using a clean air supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram viewed from the front of the coating and developing system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the coating and developing treatment system of FIG. 1 as viewed from the back.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of a longitudinal section showing the inside of the coating and developing processing system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of a vertical section showing the inside of the clean air supply device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of a longitudinal section showing the inside of a clean air supply device according to another embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a main part of a clean air supply device according to another embodiment in which impurity removing units are arranged in multiple stages in the horizontal direction.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Coating / developing processing system 101 Clean air supply device 111 Inlet 130 First impurity removing unit 131, 151 Spray device 131a, 151a Spray nozzle 132, 152 Dispersion mat 133, 153 Pan 133a, 153a Vent pipe 134, 154 Cap 150 No. 2 impurity removal unit 155 Droplet removal filter 171, 173 Blower COT ₁ , COT ₂ resist coating device M ₁ , M ₂ Gas-liquid contact space N flow path W wafer

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Takayuki Katano 650 Mitsuzawa, Hosakacho, Nirasaki, Yamanashi Pref. Tokyo Electron Limited Process Technology Center

Claims (6)

[Claims] An apparatus for supplying purified air to a predetermined space of a substrate processing apparatus that performs processing on a substrate to be processed in a predetermined space, wherein at least the air in the predetermined space is provided. It has a flow path for recovering a part and passing the recovered air upward from below, and an impurity removing section provided in the flow path, and the impurity removing section is made of woven or non-woven fabric. A mat-shaped dispersion mat, a nozzle for spraying an impurity removing liquid from a position spaced apart from the dispersion mat from a downstream side in the flow path, and a fiber diameter located on the downstream side of the nozzle, A clean air supply device for a substrate processing apparatus, comprising: a filter for removing droplets made of a woven or nonwoven fabric having a smaller diameter than the dispersion mat. 2. A storage section for storing droplets passing through the dispersion mat is provided below the dispersion mat in the impurity removing section, and a vertical through-hole is formed in the storage section to allow the recovery air to pass therethrough. The clean air supply device for a substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a cap having a form covering at least the passage hole is disposed above the passage hole. 3. The impurity removing section is provided in series in upper and lower stages along the flow of the recovered air, and the droplet removing filter in the impurity removing section is arranged downstream of the uppermost impurity removing section. The clean air supply device for a substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least a part of the impurity removing liquid sprayed from the nozzle in the impurity removing section is obtained by collecting the impurity removing liquid after passing through the dispersion mat. Or a clean air supply device for a substrate processing apparatus according to item 3. 5. An apparatus for supplying purified air to a predetermined space of a substrate processing apparatus that performs processing on a substrate to be processed in a predetermined space, wherein at least the air in the predetermined space is supplied. A flow path for collecting a part of the collected air and passing the collected air in a horizontal direction, and an impurity removing section provided in the flow path, wherein the impurity removing section is provided in parallel with the flow of the collected air. A mat-shaped dispersion mat made of woven or non-woven fabric, a nozzle for spraying an impurity removing liquid in a direction perpendicular to the flow of the recovered air from a position spaced apart from the dispersion mat, and downstream of the nozzle. And a droplet removing filter made of a woven or non-woven fabric having a fiber diameter smaller than that of the dispersion mat. 6. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a cooling device for cooling the recovered air in the flow path.
A clean air supply device for a substrate processing apparatus according to any one of the above.