JPH11319741A - Method and apparatus for removing dust - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To remove dust efficiently by removing static electricity on the surface of an object to be treated such as a liquid crystal panel and to improve the yield and productivity of products by preventing the electrostatic attraction of dust to the object and the electrostatic destruction of the object. SOLUTION: An ionizer 14 for ionizing supplied clean air, an ultrasonic wave generator 15 for applying ultrasonic vibration to the ionized air, an ejection chamber 13 having an ejection nozzle 16 for ejecting an ionized ultrasonic air current toward an object 30 to be treated, and a suction chamber 20 which is installed in parallel with the ejection chamber 13 and arranged toward the object 30 are provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a dust removing method and a dust removing device for removing dust attached to the surface of an insulator, particularly a glass substrate for liquid crystal or an array panel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an array manufacturing process for a liquid crystal panel, there are many steps for cleaning a glass substrate and an array panel. The cleaning method includes an ultrasonic cleaning method using pure water or a cleaning liquid (wet method), and clean air. And a method of blowing off dust (dry method) is known. In particular, the latter dry method has recently been widely adopted because the time required for cleaning is short and the equipment is relatively small and simple.

For example, as a conventional dry method, there is a dust remover for a panel body described in Utility Model Registration No. 2567191 and a dust remover described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-60211. Of these, utility model registration No. 25
The dust removing device described in Japanese Patent No. 67191 has an air suction chamber and an air discharge chamber having a built-in ultrasonic generator arranged side by side, and a panel body (dust removal target) is provided from an air outlet provided in the air discharge chamber.
Ultrasonic air is blown into the air suction chamber, and the air is sucked from the air suction port of the air suction chamber. Further, the dust removing device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-60211 has an air discharge chamber formed outside the air intake chamber and
A first ejection nozzle and a second ejection nozzle for applying ultrasonic vibration to the air in the air discharge chamber are respectively disposed before and after the suction nozzle in the air suction chamber, and the ultrasonic air is removed from these nozzles in a direction approaching each other. The air is ejected toward an object, and the air is sucked from a suction nozzle.

[0004]

However, these prior arts have the following problems. First, when the object to be cleaned is an insulator, when a high-speed air stream is injected by blowing clean air to the object to be cleaned, the object to be cleaned is charged, dust is electrostatically adsorbed, and a desired dust removing action is performed. Can not be obtained. For example, in the case of a liquid crystal glass substrate before forming a thin film,
The glass substrate, which is an insulator, is easily charged, and dust may be adsorbed and deposited on the glass substrate due to static electricity, which may contaminate the glass substrate. Further, in the case of a thin-film element or an array panel after a pattern is formed, in addition to the above-described contamination due to electrostatic adsorption, a TFT is formed by electrostatic discharge (ESD).
Fatal problems such as breakage of the microelements have occurred.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a dust removing method and a dust removing device which enable highly efficient dust removal without causing electrostatic attraction and electrostatic discharge of dust.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a dust removing method, comprising: applying an ultrasonic vibration to ionized air obtained by ionizing clean air to generate an ultrasonic air flow; The air flow is jetted onto the surface of the dust removal target, and the air flow passing through the surface of the dust removal target is sucked.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a dust remover for ionizing clean air fed under pressure, an ultrasonic generator for applying ultrasonic vibration to the ionized air, and a flow of ionized ultrasonic air toward a dust removal object. The discharge chamber includes a discharge chamber provided with a discharge nozzle to be ejected, and a suction chamber having a suction nozzle provided in parallel with the discharge chamber and arranged in the direction of a dust removal target.

Here, as the ionizer in the dust removing device, for example, an ion generating device using corona discharge can be used.
Further, the distance between the tip of the discharge nozzle and the surface of the object to be neutralized is approximately 1 mm to 10 mm.
If it is in the range of mm, a desired static electricity removing effect and dust removing effect can be obtained.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a view schematically showing a main part of a dust removing apparatus 10 according to an embodiment. In the figure, reference numerals 11 and 12 denote casings forming a discharge chamber 13 and a suction chamber 20 which are separated from each other. Discharge chamber 13
Inside, clean air is positive by corona discharge, for example,
A negatively ionizing ionizer 14 is provided.
Reference numeral 14a denotes a discharge electrode (emitter) of the ionizer 14, to which a high voltage of a commercial frequency is applied. Various types of ionizers such as those using ultraviolet rays, soft X-rays, and radioactive substances other than corona discharge can be used as the ionizer.

On the bottom plate 17 of the discharge chamber 13, a narrow discharge nozzle 16 is formed with a predetermined depth in the front and back direction of the paper (the width direction of the dust removal target 30). , Wide suction nozzle 21
Are also formed with a predetermined depth in the front and back directions on the paper surface. The discharge nozzle 16 and the suction nozzle 21 are arranged in parallel with each other and also in parallel with the surface of the object 30 to be dust-removed. Here, the distance d between the tip (lower end) of the discharge nozzle 16 and the surface of the dust removal target 30 is set to 2 mm. However, if the distance d is in the range of 1 to 10 mm, the desired charge removal effect and dust removal effect are obtained. It has been confirmed that it can be obtained. Examples of the dust removal target 30 include various plate-like bodies and belt-like bodies that require dust removal, such as a liquid crystal glass substrate, an array panel, and a film liquid crystal. During the dust removal operation, the dust removal device 1
The object 30 to be removed is moved relatively to the left and right in the left-right direction in the figure.

The discharge nozzle 16 and the suction nozzle 21 are inclined so that their respective center lines approach each other, and the lower surfaces of the continuous bottom plates 17 and 22 are notched in a concave shape. It is considered that the air flow ejected from 16 is efficiently sucked into the suction nozzle 21 through the dust removal target 30.

On the upper surface of the discharge nozzle 16 in the discharge chamber 13, an ultrasonic generator 15 is arranged. The ultrasonic generator 15 is for applying ultrasonic vibration to air ejected from the discharge nozzle 16 through the inside thereof.

In the above configuration, clean air is sent from the compressed air source to the discharge chamber 13 through the HEPA filter, and the sucked dust is pressure-fed (sucked) to the suction chamber 20 by negative pressure. Although a collecting means is added, these components are not shown in the figure for convenience.

Hereinafter, the operation of the present embodiment will be described, including a comparative experiment with the prior art. The distance d in FIG. 1 is 2 m
m, and when the clean air that has passed through the HEPA filter is sent to the discharge chamber 13, positive and negative air ions are generated by the ionizer 14. When the ionized air passes through the ultrasonic generator 15, the ionized air becomes an ultrasonic air flow. The dust is ejected from the discharge nozzle 16 to the surface of the dust removal target 30. When the dust removal target 30 is charged, the positive and negative ions of the ionized ultrasonic air flow remove static electricity, and the aerodynamic dust removal force of the ultrasonic air flow is superimposed on the dust removal target 30. The dust on the surface is separated, sucked into the suction chamber 20 from the suction nozzle 21 in the vicinity, and collected.

The generation of ionized air below the discharge nozzle 16 was confirmed by a plate monitor manufactured by Hugle Electronics Co., Ltd. That is, the plate monitor, in which the plate was charged to about 1200 V in advance, was placed below the discharge chamber 16 and the ionizer was operated to eject ionized air onto the plate. As a result, the voltage of the plate dropped to 100 V or less within one second. Was observed, thereby confirming the neutralization effect of the ionized air.

Next, the contents and results of a comparative experiment between the present embodiment and the prior art will be described. The basic structure of the dust removing apparatus of the present embodiment used in this experiment is as shown in FIG. 1, and the basic structure of the conventional dust removing apparatus is as shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 40 denotes a discharge chamber, 41 denotes a discharge nozzle, 42 denotes an ultrasonic generator, 50 denotes a suction chamber, and 51 denotes a suction nozzle. This embodiment,
In both the prior arts, the size of the discharge chamber and the size of the suction chamber were the same, and the operating conditions were the same as follows. Discharge pressure: 450 mmAg Suction pressure: -370 mmAg Interval d to the dust removal target: 2 mm

A glass substrate (300 mm × 320 mm × 1.2 mm thick) on which chromium (Cr) is vapor-deposited on one side is washed in advance with a detergent and pure water, dried, and then dried with standard particles (PS).
L) was applied by a dry method, and dust was removed by both dust removers of the present embodiment and the prior art. For the counting of the standard particles, a PIP-70 glass particle counter manufactured by Hugle Electronics Co., Ltd. was used, and the measurement was performed after washing the glass (as a background), after scattering the standard particles, and after removing dust.

FIG. 3 shows a comparison result between the number of standard particles after cleaning, spraying, and dust removal according to the present embodiment and the prior art, and the dust removal rate. FIG. 4 shows the measurement data of the glass particle counter after dusting and dusting according to the present embodiment.
5 and FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 show the same measurement data after dusting and dusting according to the prior art. The measurement area on the glass substrate is 280 mm × 280 mm, and the diameters of the standard particles are size S: 4 μm, size M: 6 μm, and size L: 8 μm.
m.

As is clear from these comparison results, according to the present embodiment, the dust removal rate is significantly improved as compared with the prior art. This is because the ultrasonic air flow ejected from the discharge nozzle is made of ionized air, and the surface of the object 30 is neutralized by the ionized air, so that electrostatic attraction of dust is considerably prevented.

Although not shown, another discharge chamber having a built-in ionizer is disposed on the opposite side of the suction chamber, and an ionized ultrasonic air stream is jetted from before and after the suction chamber to form a central suction chamber. It may be configured so as to be sucked.

[0021]

As described above, according to the dust removing method of the present invention, by discharging the ionized ultrasonic air flow onto the dust removing target, the static removal of the dust removing target is quickly performed, and the electrostatic adsorption is performed. By removing the dust, the dust removal efficiency can be greatly improved, and furthermore, it is possible to prevent the destruction of elements due to electrostatic discharge. For this reason, it is possible to precisely remove dust from a liquid crystal glass substrate, an array panel, a film liquid crystal, or the like, which requires a high degree of cleanliness, thereby contributing to an improvement in product yield and productivity. Further, the dust removing device of the present invention can be provided only by providing an ionizer in the ultrasonic dust removing device, and therefore can be provided at low cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a main part of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a main part of the related art.

FIG. 3 after cleaning according to embodiments of the present invention and the prior art.
It is a figure which shows the comparison result with the standard particle number after dusting, and dust removal rate after dusting.

FIG. 4 is measurement data of a glass particle counter after dispersion of standard particles according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is measurement data of a glass particle counter after dust removal according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows measurement data of a glass particle counter after dispersion of standard particles according to a conventional technique.

FIG. 7 shows measurement data of a glass particle counter after dust removal according to a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Dust remover 11, 12 Casing 13 Discharge chamber 14 Ionizer 14a Discharge electrode 15 Ultrasonic generator 16 Discharge nozzle 17, 22 Bottom plate 20 Suction chamber 21 Suction nozzle 30 Dust removal object

Claims (4)

[Claims] An ultrasonic air flow is generated by applying ultrasonic vibration to ionized air obtained by ionizing clean air, and the ultrasonic air flow is jetted onto the surface of the object to be cleaned, and the surface of the object to be cleaned is cleaned. A dust removal method characterized by sucking a passed air flow. 2. A discharge chamber having an ionizer for ionizing cleanly-pumped clean air, an ultrasonic generator for applying ultrasonic vibration to the ionized air, and a discharge nozzle for injecting the ionized ultrasonic air flow toward the object to be dust-removed. And a suction chamber having a suction nozzle arranged in parallel with the discharge chamber and arranged in the direction of the dust removal target. 3. The dust remover according to claim 2, wherein the ionizer is an ion generator using corona discharge. 4. The dust removal apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a distance between a tip of the discharge nozzle and a surface of the object to be neutralized is approximately 1 mm to 10 mm.