Nozzle cleaning device, nozzle cleaning method, and substrate processing apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10700166-B2
Application number	US-201313904315-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 29, 2013
Priority date	May 31, 2012
Publication date	Jun 30, 2020
Grant date	Jun 30, 2020

Abstract

A nozzle cleaning device is capable of uniformly cleaning a nozzle from a front end of the nozzle to an upper part thereof. The nozzle cleaning device includes a storage tank, a liquid discharging portion and an overflow discharging portion. The storage tank has a cylindrical inner peripheral surface and is configured to store therein a cleaning liquid that cleans a nozzle used in a substrate process. The liquid discharging portion is configured to discharge the cleaning liquid into the storage tank toward a position eccentric with respect to a central axis of the cylindrical inner peripheral surface to store the cleaning liquid within the storage tank and configured to form a vortex flow of the cleaning liquid revolving within the storage tank. The overflow discharging portion is configured to discharge the cleaning liquid that overflows the storage tank.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A nozzle cleaning device comprising:
a storage tank, having a cylindrical inner peripheral surface and an outer wall of a first height, said storage tank being configured to store a cleaning liquid and immerse a nozzle therein;
a liquid discharging portion configured to discharge the cleaning liquid into the storage tank toward a position eccentric with respect to a central axis of the cylindrical inner peripheral surface within the storage tank and configured to discharge the cleaning liquid tangentially into contact with the cylindrical inner peripheral surface to form a vortex flow of the cleaning liquid revolving within the storage tank;
a cleaning liquid supply source connected to the liquid discharging portion and configured to supply the cleaning liquid to the liquid discharging portion;
an overflow discharging portion separated from the storage tank by a barrier of a second height, said second height being lower than said first height, said overflow discharge portion being configured to discharge the cleaning liquid that overflows out of the storage tank from a top surface of the storage tank over said barrier;
a gas supply source; and
a gas injecting portion configured to inject a gas, comprising:
at least one first injecting portion that is located at a vertical position higher than the liquid discharging portion and is configured to inject the gas in a downwardly inclined direction; and
at least one second injecting portion that is located at a vertical position equal to the liquid discharging portion and is configured to inject the gas in a horizontal direction,
wherein an upstream side of the at least one second injecting portion is in fluid communication with only the gas supply source from among the gas supply source and the cleaning liquid supply source,

wherein the storage tank has a funnel-shaped bottom surface directly connected to the cylindrical inner peripheral surface, and
a vertex of the funnel-shaped bottom surface is located at a position eccentric with respect to the central axis of the cylindrical inner peripheral surface, and a discharge opening through which the cleaning liquid is discharged is arranged at the vertex.

2. The nozzle cleaning device of claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one first injecting portion and the at least one second injecting portion are plural in number.

3. The nozzle cleaning device of claim 2 ,
wherein, in the first injecting portions, one-side first injecting portions whose injection openings are arranged at one side of the nozzle and another-side first injecting portions whose injection openings are arranged at another side of the nozzle are configured to inject the gas in parallel to each other while the gas injected from the one-side first injecting portions and the gas injected from the another-side first injecting portions do not collide with each other, when viewed from the top.

4. The nozzle cleaning device of claim 1 , further comprising:
an air intake unit provided above the storage tank and configured to suction therein the gas in an amount equal to or greater than that of the gas injected from the gas injecting portion.

5. The nozzle cleaning device of claim 1 ,
wherein the cleaning liquid includes a deionized water heated at a predetermined temperature.

6. A substrate processing apparatus comprising:
a nozzle configured to discharge a fluid toward a substrate;
an arm configured to support and move the nozzle; and
the nozzle cleaning device of claim 1 .

7. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising:
a flow rate controller configured to control a flow rate of the gas injected from the gas injecting portion; and
a control unit configured to control the flow rate controller,
wherein the control unit controls the flow rate controller to allow the gas injecting portion to inject the gas at a different flow rate between when performing a cleaning process of the nozzle and when performing a drying process of the nozzle.

8. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising:
a nozzle standby unit, having an accommodating portion that accommodates therein the nozzle, configured to allow the nozzle to standby while accommodating the nozzle in the accommodating portion, the nozzle standby unit being disposed to be adjacent to the nozzle cleaning device.

9. The nozzle cleaning device of claim 1 ,
wherein the overflow discharging portion includes a vertical flow path extended in a vertical direction within the nozzle cleaning device, and
the cleaning liquid that has been overflowed from the top surface of the storage tank is discharged to outside of the nozzle cleaning device via the vertical flow path.

10. The nozzle cleaning device of claim 9 , further comprising:
a liquid collecting portion provided below the vertical flow path and configured to collect the cleaning liquid introduced from a discharge opening provided at a bottom of the storage tank and the cleaning liquid introduced from the vertical flow path.

Assignees

• Tokyo Electron Ltd

Inventors

• Kai Yoshihiro
• Ishikawa Shinya
• Kamikawa Yuji
• Nagamine Shuichi
• Shindo Naoki

Classifications

• H10P72/0414

  using mainly spraying means, e.g. nozzles · CPC title

• B08B3/102 Primary

  with means for agitating the liquid (by agitating the container B08B3/042, B08B3/044, B08B3/045, B08B3/06) · CPC title

• H10D30/668

  having trench gate electrodes, e.g. UMOS transistors · CPC title

• H10D62/8325 Primary

  Silicon carbide · CPC title

• H10P72/74

  using temporarily an auxiliary support · CPC title