Maintenance assembly for an inkjet head, maintenance method for an inkjet head and apparatus for processing a substrate including a maintenance assembly for an inkjet head
AssigneeSemes Co., Ltd.
InventorsWon-Yong Jin, Hosang Lee, Jiyun Ahn, Jae-Duck Lee, Suk-Won Jang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A maintenance assembly for an inkjet head may include a housing having an upper face facing a nozzle face on which nozzles for discharging a chemical liquid on a substrate are arranged, and an atmosphere generating part for providing an atmosphere including humidity around the nozzles and the nozzle face such that a humidity of the nozzles and a humidity of the nozzle face are adjusted to a set humidity if the humidity of the nozzles and the humidity of the nozzle face are different from the set humidity.
Claims19
A maintenance assembly for an inkjet head, the maintenance assembly comprising:
- a housing having an upper face that faces a nozzle face of the inkjet head, the nozzle face including nozzles, and the nozzles being configured to discharge a chemical liquid;
- and
- an atmosphere generating part configured to adjust humidity around the nozzles and the nozzle face, wherein
- in response to a humidity of the nozzles and a humidity of the nozzle face being different from a first humidity, the atmosphere generating part is configured to adjust the humidity of the nozzles and the humidity of the nozzle face to the first humidity, and
- the atmosphere generating part includes a receiving part in fluid communication with the upper face of the housing and configured to receive a humidity control agent, a supply line configured to provide the humidity control agent into the receiving part from an external humidity control agent source, and a discharge line configured to discharge the humidity control agent from the receiving part to an outside.
A maintenance method of a maintenance assembly for an inkjet head, the maintenance method comprising:
- measuring a humidity of nozzles configured to discharge a chemical liquid and a humidity of a nozzle face including the nozzles,
- wherein the inkjet head includes the nozzle face and the maintenance assembly includes a housing having an upper face that faces the nozzle face;
- and
- adjusting the humidity of the nozzles and the humidity of the nozzle face to a first humidity in response to the measured humidity of the nozzles and the measured humidity of the nozzle face being different from the first humidity,
- wherein the maintenance assembly includes an atmosphere generating part that is configured to adjust the humidity of the nozzles and the humidity of the nozzle face, and the atmosphere generating part includes a receiving part in fluid communication with the upper face of the housing and configured to receive a humidity control agent, a supply line configured to provide the humidity control agent into the receiving part from an external humidity control agent source, and a discharge line configured to discharge the humidity control agent from the receiving part to an outside.
An apparatus comprising:
- an inkjet head having a nozzle face, the nozzle face including nozzles and the nozzles being configured to discharge a chemical liquid;
- and
- a maintenance assembly configured to perform a maintenance of the inkjet head, the maintenance assembly comprising,
- a housing having an upper face that faces the nozzle face;
- and
- an atmosphere generating part configured to adjust a humidity of the nozzles and a humidity of the nozzle face to a first humidity by controlling humidity around the nozzles and the nozzle face using a humidity control agent, such that the humidity of the nozzles and a humidity of the nozzle face being adjusted in response to the humidity of the nozzles and the humidity of the nozzle face being different from the first humidity,
- wherein the atmosphere generating part includes,
- a receiving part in fluid communication with the upper face of the housing and configured to receive the humidity control agent,
- a supply line configured to provide the humidity control agent into the receiving part from an external humidity control agent source, and
- a discharge line configured to discharge the humidity control agent from the receiving part to an outside.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.