Substrate liquid treatment apparatus, method of cleaning substrate liquid treatment apparatus and non-transitory storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10037901-B2
Application number	US-201514713275-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 15, 2015
Priority date	May 16, 2014
Publication date	Jul 31, 2018
Grant date	Jul 31, 2018

Abstract

A substrate liquid treatment apparatus includes: at least one processing unit that processes a substrate with a treatment liquid; a storage tank that stores the treatment liquid; a circulation line through which the treatment liquid discharged from the storage tank into the circulation line is returned to the storage tank; a branch supply line that is branched from the circulation line to supply the treatment liquid to the processing unit; a recovery line that returns to the storage tank the treatment liquid having been supplied to the substrate in the processing unit; a distribution line connecting the circulation line and the recovery line; and a shutoff valve, provided on the distribution line, that is opened when cleaning of the recovery line is performed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A substrate liquid treatment apparatus comprising:
a plurality of processing units, each of the plurality of processing units configured to process a substrate with a treatment liquid;
a storage tank that stores the treatment liquid;
a circulation line through which the treatment liquid discharged from the storage tank into the circulation line is returned to the storage tank;
a plurality of branch supply lines, each branch supply line of the plurality of branch supply lines being connected to the circulation line to supply the treatment liquid to a respective processing unit of the plurality of processing units;
a plurality of liquid discharging lines, each discharging line of the plurality of discharging lines being connected to a respective processing unit of the plurality of processing units to discharge the treatment liquid from the respective processing unit of the plurality of processing units;
a recovery line connected to the liquid discharging lines at connection points on the recovery line adapted to allow the treatment liquid having been supplied to the substrates in the processing units to return to the storage tank;
a distribution line having an upstream end thereof connected to the circulation line and a downstream end thereof connected to an upstream end of the recovery line, the upstream end of the recovery line being positioned at or upstream of the most upstream one of the connection points, the distribution line failing to pass through any one of the processing units; and
a shutoff valve, provided on the distribution line, that is opened when cleaning of the recovery line is performed.

2. The substrate liquid treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a control unit that controls opening and closing operation of the shutoff valve,
wherein the control unit closes the shutoff valve when a substrate is being processed in a respective processing unit of the plurality of processing units, while the control unit opens the shutoff valve to cause the treatment liquid to flow through the recovery line and the circulation line, thereby to clean the recovery line and the circulation line, when the substrate is not being processed in the respective processing unit.

3. The substrate liquid treatment apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising a heater,
wherein the control unit controls the shutoff valve and the heater in such a manner that the treatment liquid, when the shutoff valve is opened to cause the treatment liquid to flow through the recovery line and the circulation line, has a higher temperature than the temperature of the treatment liquid when the shutoff valve is closed and the substrate is being processed in the respective processing unit.

4. The substrate liquid treatment apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the heater is provided on the circulation line at a position upstream of a position where the distribution line is connected to the circulation line.

5. The substrate liquid treatment apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a drain line that drains the treatment liquid from the storage tank; and
a treatment liquid supplying line that supplies the treatment liquid from a treatment liquid source into the storage tank,
wherein the cleaning of the recovery line and the circulation line is performed after draining the treatment liquid from the storage tank and after supplying the treatment liquid from the treatment liquid supplying line into the storage tank.

6. The substrate liquid treatment apparatus according to claim 3 , further comprising:
a drain line that drains the treatment liquid from the storage tank; and
a treatment liquid supplying line that supplies the treatment liquid from a treatment liquid source into the storage tank,
the shutoff valve being adapted to be opened to drain treatment liquid from the distribution line into the storage tank.

7. The substrate liquid treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a flow control valve that controls flow rate of the treatment liquid flowing from the circulation line into the recovery line;
a control unit that controls the shutoff valve and the flow control valve,
wherein, when a substrate is being processed in a respective processing unit of the plurality of processing units, the control unit opens the shutoff valve, and also controls an opening degree of the flow control valve within a range ensuring that feeding of the treatment liquid from the circulation line into the recovery line does not affect a flow rate of the treatment liquid supplied to the respective processing unit.

8. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the upstream end of the distribution line is connected to the circulation line at a position upstream of a connection area of the circulation line, to which connection area the plurality of branch supply lines are connected.

Assignees

• Tokyo Electron Ltd

Inventors

• Koyama Kazuya
• Kiyose Hiromi
• Matsuki Katsufumi
• Takahashi Shuhei
• Nishimura Hideki
• Uno Takashi
• Maruyama Hirotaka

Classifications

• H10P72/0404

  for general liquid treatment, e.g. etching followed by cleaning · CPC title

• H10P72/0402 Primary

  Apparatus for fluid treatment (H10P72/0441, H10P72/0448 take precedence) · CPC title

• H01L21/67023

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L21/67017 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• B08B9/032

  by the mechanical action of a moving fluid, e.g. by flushing (B08B9/04 takes precedence {; by fluid jets mounted on cleaning devices B08B9/0433}) · CPC title