Apparatus and method for wet cleaning or etching a flat substrate
AssigneeImec Vzw
InventorsMarc Meuris, Paul Mertens, Marc Heyns
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for wet cleaning or etching of flat substrates comprising a tank with an inlet opening and outlet opening for said substrates. Said tank contains a cleaning liquid and is installed in a gaseous environment. At least one of the openings is a slice in a sidewall of the tank and is present below the liquid-surface. In the tank there may be a portion above the liquid filled with a gas with a pressure being lower than the pressure within said environment. The method comprises the step of transferring a substrate through the cleaning or etching liquid at a level underneath the surface of said liquid making use of said apparatus.
Claims25
An apparatus for wet cleaning or etching a flat substrate, comprising:
- a tank containing at least one cleaning or etching liquid and being installed in an environment, said environment consisting essentially of a gas or of a mixture of gases;
- an opening in said tank, said opening being below the liquid surface;
- and
- means to prevent said liquid from flowing through said opening out of said tank into said environment.
A method of wet cleaning or etching a flat substrate in a tank filled with at least one cleaning or etching liquid, said method comprising the steps of:
- loading from within a gaseous environment said substrate through an inlet opening in said tank, said inlet opening being at a level underneath the surface of said liquid;
- and
- unloading said substrate out of the tank into said gaseous environment while preventing said liquid from flowing out of said tank.
A method of wet cleaning or etching a flat substrate comprising the step of transferring said substrate through a tank filled with a liquid, said substrate being introduced into said tank through an inlet opening and taken out of said tank through an outlet opening underneath the liquid-surface, wherein said substrate is introduced into the tank from a gaseous environment and transferred at a uniform speed through said liquid, thereby exposing each part of said substrate to said liquid for essentially the same time period.
An apparatus for wet cleaning or etching a flat substrate, comprising:
- a tank containing at least one cleaning or etching liquid and being installed in an environment, said environment consisting essentially of a gas or of a mixture of gases;
- an opening in said tank, said opening being below the liquid surface and configured to prevent said liquid from flowing through said opening out of said tank into said environment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.