US 4,974,375 AGranted

Ice particle forming and blasting device

AssigneeMitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorsMasuo Tada, Takaaki Fukumoto, Toshiaki Ohmori

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Abstract

A solid surface cleaning device utilizes a jet of ice particles of ultrapure water for removing contaminants from a surface of a solid such as a semiconductor wafer. The electrical resistivity of ultrapure water stored in a tank is reduced by means of a gas such as dry air or carbon dioxide evolving into the water from a bubble tube disposed in the tank. The water whose resistivity is thus reduced is sprayed from a nozzle into an ice-making container which is refrigerated by the vaporization of a refrigerant discharged into the container. The fine ice particles that are thus generated in the container are sprayed and blasted from a jet spray nozzle onto the surface of the cleaned solid supported within a jet spray chamber. The air inside the chamber is exhausted by a blower together with the ice particles that have been ejected from the jet spray nozzle.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A solid surface cleaning device for removing contaminating materials attached to a surface of a solid body comprising:

a tank for storing a liquid whose electrical resistivity is adjusted and reduced to a predetermined level;
frozen particle generating means, coupled to said tank, for freezing liquid supplied from the tank to generate ultra-fine frozen particles of said liquid;
a cleaning housing containing therein a jet spray chamber within which a cleaned solid body is accommodated;
jet spray means, disposed in said jet spray chamber and coupled to said frozen particle generating means, for spraying the frozen particles supplied from said frozen particle generating means onto a surface of said cleaned solid body, thereby removing contaminating materials attached to the cleaned solid surface;
and
exhaust means, coupled to said jet spray chamber, for rapidly exhausting a gas within the jet spray chamber together with the ice particles that have been sprayed from the jet spray nozzle onto the cleaned solid surface.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.