US 5,512,326 AGranted

Method and apparatus for forming monomolecular film or built-up monomolecular film

AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorsOtto Albrecht, Hiroshi Matsuda

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Abstract

A method of forming a monomolecular film capable of independently controlling the process of forming a monomolecular film and the process of removing a part of the monomolecular film which has not been used in monomolecular film formation. The method includes, in addition to spreading a material for forming a monomolecular film onto a water surface, compressing the material on the water surface thereby transforming the material into a monomolecular film, and transferring the monomolecular film on the water surface onto a substrate, storing in a first region a part of the monomolecular film which has not been transferred to the substrate. The first region is located at a distance from a second region for preparing the monomolecular film with respect to a third region for transferring part of the film to the substrate, and has a water level lower than that of the third region.

Claims5

Dependent claims

In the method for forming a monomolecular film or a built-up monomolecular film by spreading a monomolecular-film-forming material onto a water surface, compressing said material on the water surface, thereby transforming said material into a monomolecular film, and transferring said monomolecular film on the water surface onto a substrate, the improvement which comprises the steps of:

(a) providing a main tank which has a spread region for spreading said monomolecular-film-forming material, a transfer region for transferring said monomolecular film onto said substrate and a flow-rate-adjusting region for compressing said material;
(b) providing a storage tank for storing a remainder of said monomolecular film which has not been transferred to said substrate;
(c) storing water in said main tank and said storage tank wherein the water level of said main tank is higher than the water level of said storage tank;
(d) moving said monomolecular-film-forming material spread on the water surface from said spread region to said transfer region, and from said transfer region to said flow-rate-adjusting region by generating water or air flow to the water surface;
(e) transferring said monomolecular film onto said substrate by dipping said substrate into water in said transfer region;
(f) moving said a remainder of said monomolecular film which has not been transferred to said substrate to said storage tank;
(g) removing said remainder of said film in said storage region;
and
(h) circulating said water in said storage tank through a return passage to said main tank.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.