The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 23, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 12, 1998
Tokyo Electron Limited, , JP;
Abstract
A cleaning and drying apparatus includes a cleaning bath for collecting cleaning liquid and also discharging the liquid, a drying chamber arranged above the cleaning bath and a wafer boat for conveying semiconductor wafers W between the cleaning bath and the drying chamber . Dry gas nozzles for ejecting dry gas are provided in the drying chamber . A shutter is arranged between the cleaning bath and the drying chamber , for insulating the cleaning bath from the drying chamber . A central processing unit controls respective operations of the dry gas nozzles and a driving unit for the shutter . With the arrangement, after the wafers W have been cleaned in the cleaning bath , the cleaning liquid is discharged through a bottom of the bath , while the dry gas is supplied from the dry gas nozzles to contact with surfaces of the wafers W and the cleaning liquid in a first drying process. Next, a second drying process is carried out due to condensation of the cleaning liquid on the wafers and the dry gas. In this way, the improvement in drying efficiency and the reduction of consumed dry gas can be accomplished.