KR102086539B1 - Steam generation apparatus for spraying uniform steam - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a steam generator for injecting a uniform steam, the steam generator according to an embodiment of the present invention, a liquid supply for supplying a specific liquid for the object treatment; A steam generator for generating steam by passing the liquid supplied from the liquid supply part through an induction heating path through a vapor flow path having a branched hierarchical structure; A power supply for supplying power for induction heating of the steam generator; And a controller for controlling power supply of the power supply unit.

Description

Steam generator to inject uniform steam {STEAM GENERATION APPARATUS FOR SPRAYING UNIFORM STEAM}

The present invention relates to a steam generating device for injecting uniform steam, and in particular, to form a steam flow path for uniformly injecting steam generated through induction heating in the steam generating unit steam generated evenly over the entire surface of the object The present invention relates to a steam generator for injecting uniform steam.

Surfaces of numerous workpieces such as semiconductor wafers, glass substrates of flat panel displays, metal plates, and the like will be contaminated with many residual organic materials, particles, organics, and inorganics during the manufacturing process. In a semiconductor device manufacturing process, the cleaning process which washes after forming a pattern in a wafer is repeated. The reason for cleaning the wafer is to remove organic substances such as photoresist film and polymer film, particles, and the like. Since organic matter and particles cause product defects, the importance of the cleaning process to remove them is increasing.

In industries such as semiconductors, wet cleaning methods are widely used, which are inexpensive and have proven their suitability. However, wet scrubbing mainly uses strong acids and strong bases, which are highly toxic, and are therefore restricted in use due to environmental pollution and safety. In addition, as the degree of integration of semiconductor devices is increased, it is necessary to keep the purity of the cleaning agent and ultrapure water high. In particular, wet cleaning is difficult to apply to cluster tool systems for performing continuous processes in conjunction with vacuum equipment. Dry cleaning methods have been developed and applied to supplement and solve the disadvantages of wet cleaning methods. Dry cleaning, also called gas phase cleaning, includes ultrasonic cleaning, ionozone cleaning, Excimer ultraviolet (EUV) cleaning, and plasma cleaning. Dry cleaning equipment has a disadvantage in that the configuration is complicated and the area occupied is large.

On the other hand, cleaning equipment using high temperature, high pressure steam, which is environmentally friendly and has excellent cleaning power, has been developed. Such cleaning equipment uses a heater to generate water by heating water contained in a large-capacity container, and sprays it onto a wafer to clean it.

Such cleaning equipment has a limitation in that when the outlets of steam are formed in a circular shape, steam is not uniformly sprayed when the objects are cleaned while the outlets are arranged in a line.

In addition, in the cleaning equipment, when an outlet through which steam is injected to process a flat object, such as a glass substrate, is formed in a long rod shape, steam may be uniformly sprayed according to a flow path in which the generated steam moves. Therefore, such cleaning equipment needs to improve the efficiency of the cleaning process of the flat object by spraying steam uniformly on the object.

It is an object of the present invention to form a steam flow path for uniformly injecting steam generated through induction heating in the steam generating unit, the steam generator for injecting uniform steam for injecting evenly generated steam on the entire surface of the object To provide.

The present invention provides a liquid supply unit for supplying a specific liquid for treating an object; A steam generator for generating steam by passing the liquid supplied from the liquid supply part through an induction heating path through a vapor flow path having a branched hierarchical structure; A power supply for supplying power for induction heating of the steam generator; And a controller for controlling power supply of the power supply unit.

The steam generating unit forms a liquid pool which forms a space in which the liquid drawn in each branch point of the steam flow path stays and an inclined portion that forms a flow path inclined in the left and right directions of the branch point.

The liquid pools are aligned in position on the same height from the liquid outlet formed in the steam generating section.

The path portion has a longer length as the branch point is in a higher layer.

A plurality of liquid outlets are formed, each having a stopper driven by a motor to adjust the amount of steam injection by opening and closing.

The liquid supply unit preheats the liquid using resistance heating or induction heating and supplies the liquid to the steam generator.

The liquid supply part supplies any one of pure water and an OLED material to a specific liquid.

The power supply unit supplies commercial AC power or DC power to the liquid supply, and supplies high frequency AC power to the steam generator.

The liquid outlet applies a polygon, a circle, a trench or a combination of shapes to evenly inject steam into the object.

According to the present invention, a steam flow path for uniformly injecting steam generated through induction heating may be formed inside the steam generator to spray steam generated evenly over the entire surface of the object.

In addition, the present invention can improve the cleaning or deposition efficiency by spraying uniform vapor to the flat object.

In addition, the present invention can be used as an OLED substrate deposition equipment because it can be deposited on the object after generating the vapor using the OLED light emitting material.

1 is a view of a steam generating device for injecting uniform steam according to an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a view showing a first embodiment of the AA ′ section of the steam generator of FIG. 1; FIG.
3 is a view illustrating a second embodiment of the AA ′ cross section of the steam generator of FIG. 1;
4 is a view of the stopper provided in the liquid outlet of FIG.
5 is a view showing a third embodiment of the AA ′ cross section of the steam generating unit of FIG. 1;
6 to 8 show an embodiment for a liquid outlet,
9 to 11 are views showing a steam injection method of the steam generating unit.

In order to fully understand the present invention, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiment of the present invention may be modified in various forms, the scope of the invention should not be construed as limited to the embodiments described in detail below. This embodiment is provided to more completely explain the present invention to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the shape of the elements in the drawings and the like may be exaggerated to emphasize a more clear description. It should be noted that the same members in each drawing are sometimes indicated by the same reference numerals. Detailed descriptions of well-known functions and configurations that are determined to unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention are omitted.

In the present specification, the meaning of terms will be described. Examples of the "object" include a semiconductor substrate, a glass substrate, a lens, a disk member, a precision machining member, a mold resin member, a printed circuit board (PCB), and the like, but are not limited thereto. "Treatment" is performed to an object, for example, peeling, washing | cleaning, processing, vapor deposition, etc. are mentioned, It is not limited to this.

1 is a view of a steam generating device for injecting uniform steam according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, a steam generator (hereinafter, referred to as a “steam generator”, 100) for injecting uniform steam according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a specific liquid (for example, pure water and light emitting for OLED). Materials, etc.) may be induction heated to generate steam to uniformly inject steam onto the object 50 to perform cleaning or deposition on the object 50.

The steam generator 100 includes a liquid supply unit 10, a steam generator 20, a power supply unit 30, and a controller 40. The steam generator 100 may uniformly inject the generated steam into the object 50. Here, the object 50 may be a wafer of a semiconductor process, a glass substrate of a display process, a printed circuit board (PCB), a glass substrate, a metal, a substrate, or the like.

The liquid supply unit 10 may supply a specific liquid (for example, pure water, an OLED material, etc.) to the steam generator 20 for processing an object. That is, the liquid supply unit 10 may supply pure water to the steam generator 20 for wet cleaning of the object 50, and supply OLED material to the steam generator 20 for the OLED deposition process.

Before supplying the specific liquid to the steam generator 20, the liquid supply unit 10 is configured to supply the specific liquid supplied from the outside to a temperature just before the steam is generated (for example, 85 ° C. to 95 ° C. in the case of pure water). It may be preheated and supplied to the steam generator 20. This is not to supply the specific liquid in the room temperature state directly to the steam generating unit 20, but to supply the specific liquid having the optimum temperature state just before the steam is generated in the steam generating unit 20 to the steam generating unit 20. to be. That is, the steam generator 20 omits the process of heating the specific liquid at room temperature to the temperature just before the steam is generated, so that the steam is supplied as soon as the specific liquid is supplied even if the specific liquid is not provided with a space for heating. May occur. The steam generator 20 may be designed in a compact structure because it is converted into steam as soon as a specific liquid is supplied from the liquid supply unit 10 and sprayed to the object 50.

As described above, the liquid supply unit 10 may receive a power supply from the power supply unit 30 to preheat the specific liquid by resistance heating that is heated indirectly or indirectly using electrical resistance. Here, the heating element of resistance heating may be a metal heating element (iron / chromium / aluminum type, nickel / chromium alloy, single metal, etc.), nonmetal heating element (silicon carbide, molybdenum dioxide, tantan chromite, carpon / graphite, etc.), sheath heater, Ceramic heaters and the like can be used. The liquid supply unit 10 may adjust the temperature of a specific liquid according to the strength of the power supplied from the power supply unit 30. At this time, the liquid supply unit 10 is a resistive heating of the pure water supplied from the outside in a predetermined container directly or indirectly, or a predetermined tube (for example, a zigzag tube to increase the contact area, etc.) Resistance flow can be done either directly or indirectly when flowing through.

In the steam generator 20, a coil 22 is wound around a rectangular parallelepiped body 21 made of a metal material (for example, aluminum or titanium). In this case, the steam generator 20 may generate steam by heating a specific liquid supplied from the liquid supply unit 10 by induction heating. Here, the induction heating method uses an electromagnetic induction phenomenon. When a conductive metal material is placed in a high frequency alternating magnetic field generated when a high frequency alternating current flows through a heating coil, an induction eddy current is generated on the surface of the metal material. It is a heating method using the principle that Joule heat is generated due to the skin resistance of the material.

However, since the steam generator 20 generates steam by induction heating of a specific liquid preheated by the liquid supply unit 10, instead of heating the specific liquid in a normal temperature state, the space for steam generation is generated. Even if this is not large, it is possible to heat the generated steam by generating steam as soon as a specific liquid is supplied from the liquid supply unit 10.

On the other hand, the steam generator 20 may form a structure for injecting uniform steam to the object 50 inside the body 21. Detailed description thereof will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4.

The power supply unit 30 supplies power required for each of the liquid supply unit 10 and the steam generator 20. That is, the power supply unit 30 may supply commercial AC power or DC power to the liquid supply unit 10, and supply high frequency AC power (or RF power) to the steam generator 20. In particular, the power supply unit 30 may supply the high frequency AC power to the steam generator 20 through the impedance matching network 31 for impedance matching. In this case, the power supply unit 30 may be provided in a separate configuration required for each of the liquid supply unit 10 and the steam generator 20 to supply power, or may supply power according to a condition corresponding to each in one configuration.

The controller 40 may control operations of the liquid supply unit 10 and the steam generator 20 through the power supply unit 30. Specifically, the controller 40 controls the strength of the power supplied to each of the liquid supply unit 10 and the steam generator 20 through the power supply unit 30, thereby controlling the liquid temperature heated by the liquid supply unit 10. The steam temperature generated by the steam generator 20 may be controlled. In addition, the controller 40 may control the on / off operation of the liquid supply unit 10 and the steam generator 20 through the power supply unit 30.

In addition, the control unit 40 controls the liquid supply amount of the liquid supply unit 10 by controlling the opening and closing valve 1 between the liquid supply unit 10 and the steam generating unit 20, the temperature sensor of the steam generating unit 20 (2) By measuring the temperature of the steam generating unit 20 through the frame it is possible to control the power supply amount of the power supply unit 30. In addition, although the control unit 40 is not shown in the drawing, it is possible to control them when installing an on-off valve, a pressure gauge, a thermometer, a flow meter, or the like between the components. In this case, the controller 40 may provide a user environment for checking the overall system status.

FIG. 2 is a view illustrating a first embodiment of the AA ′ cross section of the steam generator of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a view of a second embodiment of the AA ′ cross section of the steam generator of FIG. 1. 4 is a view showing a stopper provided in the liquid outlet of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a view showing a third embodiment of the AA ′ section of the steam generating unit of FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 2, the steam generator 20 may generate a steam in the body 21 to form a steam passage 23 having a branched hierarchical structure capable of uniformly injecting steam. Here, the vapor passage 23 may include a liquid inlet 23a, a liquid pool 23b, an inclined portion 23c, and a liquid outlet 23d. At this time, the liquid outlet 23d may be distributed to a plurality of liquid outlets 23d-1 to 23d-n.

The vapor flow path 23 has the same flow path distance from the liquid inlet 23a to the liquid outlet 23d. This can inject a uniform amount of vapor through each of the plurality of liquid outlets 23d-1 to 23d-n as the specific liquid supplied from the liquid supply 10 moves along the same distance flow path.

In addition, the steam flow path 23 may form a branched hierarchical structure in which branch points are formed step by step. Here, each branch point of the steam flow path 23 may include a liquid holding part 23b which forms a space in which the incoming liquid stays, and an inclined part 23c which forms a flow path inclined in the left and right directions of the branch point. . At this time, the steam passing through the steam flow path 23 may be liquefied when the temperature drops, and is collected again in the liquid pool 23b along the inclined portion 23c. That is, the liquid cannot move to the branch point of the next stage due to the liquid pool 23b and the slope 23c, and the vapor can move to the branch point of the next stage.

As such, the steam generator 20 may generate the steam by sufficiently heating the liquid supplied from the liquid supply unit 10 using the steam flow path 23 through induction heating.

Referring to FIG. 3, the steam generator 20 may arrange branch points of the steam flow path 23 at the same position. That is, the liquid pools 23b formed in the branched hierarchical structure of the vapor flow path 23 can all be aligned to the position on the same height h from the liquid outlet 23d. However, the length of the inclined portion 23c may be longer as the branch point is in the upper layer.

Referring to FIG. 4, each of the plurality of liquid outlets 23d-1-23d-n may have stoppers 25-1-25-n driven by the motor 24. Through this, the steam generator 20 may adjust the amount of steam injection due to the opening and closing of the stoppers 25-1 to 25-n.

Referring to FIG. 5, the steam generator 20 may form a hole size of the liquid outlet 23d differently according to the distance of the vapor passage 23 from the liquid inlet 23a to the liquid outlet 23d. Can be. That is, the hole size of the liquid outlet 23d increases as the distance of the vapor passage 23 from the liquid inlet 23a becomes shorter. The liquid outlet 23d-n having the largest distance from the liquid inlet 23a to the vapor passage 23 has a larger hole size than the liquid outlet 23d-1 having the minimum distance from the vapor passage 23. Since the amount of vapor injected may vary depending on the distance of the vapor flow path 23 from the liquid inlet 23a to the liquid outlet 23d, the hole size of the liquid outlet 23d to uniformly adjust the amount of vapor according to the distance. Is formed differently according to the distance of the steam flow path 23.

6-8 illustrate an embodiment of a liquid outlet.

The liquid outlet 23d may be formed in various shapes to evenly inject steam into the object 50. In one example, the liquid outlet 23d may form an outlet shape along at least one row of polygonal or circular holes (see FIG. 6), or may form an outlet shape in an elongated trench. (See FIG. 7). At this time, the liquid outlet 23d may be applied to the outlet shape alone, but may be applied in combination with each other if necessary. In addition, the liquid outlet 23d may detachably couple the vapor injection section 26 (see FIG. 8). At this time, the steam injection unit 26 may be used to replace when the material is cured to block the liquid outlet (23d) by injecting the vapor of a specific material.

9 to 11 are views showing a steam injection method of the steam generating unit.

The steam generator 20 may inject steam to the object 50 in a bottom-up or top-down manner.

Referring to FIG. 9, the steam generator 20 may be located at the lower side of the object 50 when the steam is injected to the object 50 upward. In this case, the steam generator 20 may spray steam toward the rear of the object 50.

Referring to FIG. 10, the steam generator 20 may be located at an upper side of the object 50 when injecting steam to the object 50 in a downward manner. In this case, the steam generator 20 may spray steam toward the upper surface of the object 50.

Referring to FIG. 11, the steam generator 20 may spray steam in a direction opposite to the upper surface of the object 50. In this case, the steam generating unit 20 may be equipped with a steam direction changing unit 27 to reverse the direction of the injected steam so as to spray the steam toward the upper surface of the object 50. As a result, the steam generator 20 may spray steam to the object 50 in a downward manner as in FIG. 9.

Embodiments of the present invention described above are merely exemplary, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible therefrom. Therefore, it will be understood that the present invention is not limited to the forms mentioned in the above detailed description. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the technical spirit of the appended claims. It is also to be understood that the present invention includes all modifications, equivalents and substitutions within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

10: liquid supply unit 20: steam generator
30: power supply unit 40: control unit

Claims (9)

A liquid supply for supplying a specific liquid for treating an object;
A steam generator for generating steam by passing the liquid supplied from the liquid supply part through an induction heating path through a steam channel having a branched hierarchical structure;
A power supply for supplying power for induction heating of the steam generator; And
A control unit for controlling a power supply of the power supply unit;
Including,
The steam generator,
And a liquid pool forming a space in which the liquid drawn in each branch point of the steam flow path stays and a slope forming a flow path inclined in the left and right directions of the branch point.
delete The method of claim 1,
The liquid tablets,
And a steam generator for injecting uniform steam aligned to a position on the same height from a liquid outlet formed in the steam generator.
The method of claim 3, wherein
The inclined portion,
A steam generator that injects a uniform vapor that forms a longer length as the branch point is in the upper layer.
The method of claim 4, wherein
A plurality of the liquid outlet is formed, the steam generating device for injecting a uniform steam having a stopper driven by a motor to each of them to adjust the amount of steam injection by opening and closing.
The method of claim 1,
And the liquid supply unit injects uniform steam for preheating the liquid and supplying the liquid to the steam generator using resistance heating or induction heating.
The method of claim 6,
The liquid supply unit is a steam generating device for injecting a uniform steam for supplying any one of pure water, OLED material.
The method of claim 6,
The power supply unit is a steam generator for supplying a commercial AC power or DC power supply to the liquid supply unit, the uniform steam for supplying a high frequency AC power to the steam generator.
The method of claim 3, wherein
The liquid outlet is
A steam generating device that sprays uniform steam that is applied in a polygon, circle, trench, or a combination of shapes to spray steam evenly to an object.

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