Method of and apparatus for cleaning workpiece
AssigneeEbara Corporation
InventorsToshiro Maekawa, Koji Ono, Manabu Tsujimura
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of and an apparatus for cleaning a thin disk-shaped workpiece that is required to have a high degree of cleanliness, e.g., a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate, a liquid crystal display, or the like. The method of cleaning the workpiece includes a plurality of cleaning steps, and comprises the steps of holding a workpiece, and performing a liquid jet cleaning of a surface of the workpiece in a first portion of plural cleaning steps. The method further comprises the step of performing a liquid jet cleaning of the surface of the workpiece in a latter portion of the plural cleaning steps.
Claims18
A method of cleaning a disk-shaped workpiece by performing thereon a plurality of cleaning steps, said method comprising:
- performing a first cleaning step comprising ejecting from a nozzle onto a surface of said workpiece at least one first jet in the form of a cavitation jet of cleaning liquid having cavitation therein;
- then performing a second cleaning step comprising contacting said surface with a cleaning member and thereby scrubbing said surface;
- and
- then performing a third cleaning step comprising ejecting from a nozzle onto said surface at least one second jet in the form of an ultrasonic jet of cleaning liquid having ultrasonic vibrational energy.
A method of cleaning a disk-shaped workpiece by performing thereon a plurality of cleaning steps, said method comprising:
- performing a first cleaning step comprising ejecting from a nozzle onto a surface of said workpiece at least one first jet in the form of an ultrasonic jet of cleaning liquid having ultrasonic vibrational energy;
- then performing a second cleaning step comprising contacting said surface with a cleaning member and thereby scrubbing said surface;
- and
- then performing a third cleaning step comprising ejecting from a nozzle onto said surface at least one second jet in the form of a cavitation jet of cleaning liquid having cavitation therein.
An apparatus for cleaning a disk-shaped workpiece by performing thereon a plurality of cleaning steps, said apparatus comprising:
- means for performing a first cleaning step by ejecting onto a surface of the workpiece at least one first jet in the form of a cavitation jet of cleaning liquid having cavitation therein;
- cleaning member means operable to be brought into contact with the surface to thereby then perform a second cleaning step by scrubbing the surface;
- and
- means for then performing a third cleaning step by ejecting onto the thus scrubbed surface at least one second jet in the form of an ultrasonic jet of cleaning liquid having ultrasonic vibrational energy.
An apparatus for cleaning a disk-shaped workpiece by performing thereon a plurality of cleaning steps, said apparatus comprising:
- means for performing a first cleaning step by ejecting onto a surface of the workpiece at least one first jet in the form of an ultrasonic jet of cleaning liquid having ultrasonic vibrational energy;
- cleaning member means operable to be brought into contact with the surface to thereby then perform a second cleaning step by scrubbing the surface;
- and
- means for then performing a third cleaning step by ejecting onto the thus scrubbed surface at least one second jet in the form of a cavitation jet of cleaning liquid having cavitation therein.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.