Spin coating apparatus with an independently spinning enclosure
OwnerDanny C. Swaininventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improved spin coating apparatus (10) having a spin tub (28) surrounding a chuck (14), the chuck (14) being adapted for hold a workpiece (16) for coating. The chuck (14) and the spin tub (28) are spun coaxially and independently such that the chuck (14) may be stopped while the spin tub (28) remains spinning. The spin tub (28) defines a frustum of a cone with a plurality of outlet slots (60) distributed at a large end (52) thereof such that centrifugal force will direct contaminants out of the spin tub (28) through the outlet slots (60). A plurality of fan vanes (62) create an air stream (88) through the spin tub (28) which pulls contaminants through the outlet slots (60) and into a plenum chamber (72) where they are expelled therefrom through a vent tube (64).
Claims19
An improved spin coating device for applying a fluid coating to a workpiece, comprising:
- a housing;
- a chuck for holding the workpiece, said chuck being rigidly affixed to a chuck shaft, the chuck shaft being rotatably attached to said housing such that said chuck and the workpiece can be spun about the chuck shaft in relation to said housing;
- a chuck rotating means for causing said chuck to spin;
- a spin tub at least partially surrounding said chuck, said spin tub being rigidly affixed to a spin tub shaft, the spin tub shaft being coaxial with the chuck shaft and free to spin independently of the chuck shaft;
- and
- a spin tub rotating means for causing said spin tub to spin.
A spin coating device for spin coating a substrate with a fluid, comprising:
- a fluid application means for applying a fluid to said substrate;
- and
- a substrate spinning means for holding the substrate and spinning the substrate for applying the coating thereto;
- and
- an enclosure at least laterally enclosing the substrate such that excess fluid spun from the spinning substrate is flung toward said enclosure;
- and
- enclosure spinning means for causing said enclosure to spin coaxially with the substrate spinning means and the substrate, said enclosure spinning means being independent from said substrate spinning means such that said enclosure can be caused to spin continuously while the spinning of the substrate is selectively stopped and restarted.
In a spin coating device wherein a fluid is coated upon a spinning workpiece, the improvement comprising:
- an enclosure at least partially surrounding the workpiece, said enclosure being rotatably affixed to the spin coating device said enclosure being caused to spin independently of the workpiece.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.