Substrate cleaning apparatus and substrate cleaning method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9704728-B2
Application number	US-201314061686-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 23, 2013
Priority date	Oct 25, 2012
Publication date	Jul 11, 2017
Grant date	Jul 11, 2017

Abstract

A substrate cleaning apparatus performs scrub cleaning of a surface of a substrate with an elongated cylindrical roll cleaning member. The substrate cleaning apparatus includes a roll holder for supporting the cleaning member and rotate the roll cleaning member, a vertical movement mechanism for vertically moving the roll holder so that the roll cleaning member applies a roll load to the substrate at the time of cleaning the substrate by actuation of an actuator having a regulating device, a load cell for measuring the roll load, and a controller for performing feedback control of the roll load through the regulating device based on the measured value of the load cell. The substrate cleaning apparatus further includes a monitor unit for monitoring whether an operation amount of the regulating device falls outside an allowable range of a preset reference value of an operation amount corresponding to a preset roll load.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A substrate cleaning apparatus for cleaning a substrate, comprising:
a roll holder configured to support a horizontally elongated roll cleaning member and rotate said roll cleaning member;
a vertical movement mechanism having an actuator and a regulating device configured to regulate output of the actuator, said vertical movement mechanism being configured to vertically move said roll holder so that said roll cleaning member applies a roll load to the substrate at the time of cleaning the substrate by actuation of said actuator;
a load cell configured to measure said roll load;
a controller configured to perform feedback control of said roll load through said regulating device based on the measured value of said load cell, wherein said feedback control is performed so that said controller outputs an operation amount to said regulating device depending on a difference between the measured value of said load cell and a preset roll load; and
a monitor unit configured to monitor whether said operation amount outputted to said regulating device falls outside a preset allowable range of operation amount preset based on said preset roll load and configured to detect said operation amount falling outside said present allowable range, wherein said monitor unit outputs a signal when said operation amount outputted to said regulating device falls outside said preset allowable range of operation amount.

2. A substrate cleaning apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said actuator comprises an air cylinder, and said regulating device comprises an electropneumatic regulator configured to control a valve opening degree of a regulating valve for regulating a pressure of air to be supplied to said air cylinder.

3. A substrate cleaning apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said monitor unit outputs said signal to an alarm when said operation amount outputted to said regulating device falls outside said preset allowable range of operation amount, and said alarm issues an alarm in response to said signal.

Assignees

• Ebara Corp

Inventors

• Maeda Koji
• Isobe Soichi
• Shimomoto Hiroshi
• Tanaka Hideaki

Classifications

• H10P72/0412 Primary

  using mainly scrubbing means, e.g. brushes · CPC title

• H10P70/20 Primary

  Cleaning during device manufacture · CPC title

• H10P70/00

  Cleaning of wafers, substrates or parts of devices · CPC title

• H10P74/238 Primary

  comprising acting in response to an ongoing measurement without interruption of processing, e.g. endpoint detection or in-situ thickness measurement · CPC title

• H01L21/67046 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic