METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CLEANING NOZZLE IN LIQUID PROCESSING

• Main Authors: MIYAMOTO KENICHI, HIRAO TAKESHI, KOMETANI YASUYUKI, YAMAMURA KENTARO
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Korean
• Published: 23.04.2014
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CLEANING; CLEANING IN GENERAL; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PREVENTION OF FOULING IN GENERAL; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; TRANSPORTING

The purpose of the present invention is to suppress the enlargement of a liquid processing apparatus, to improve the efficiency of nozzle cleaning, and to prevent a processing liquid from drying. The apparatus comprises: a cleaning room (62) having a funnel part (65); a first solvent supply means (72) for supplying a solvent to the funnel part in the cleaning room; a second solvent supply means (72) for supplying a solvent to the upper part of the funnel part; a nozzle suction means; a moving means (44, 46) for moving a nozzle between the cleaning room and a processing liquid discharging position to a substrate; and a controller (110) for controlling the first and second solvent supply means, the suction means, and the moving means. When the nozzle is held in the cleaning room, a liquid level of a processing liquid is sucked back inside the nozzle by the suction means, and the nozzle is cleaned by supplying a solvent to the cleaning room by the first solvent supply unit and forming a vortex of the solvent, and a liquid reservoir section is formed by supplying a solvent to the cleaning room by the second solvent supply unit, and a processing liquid layer, an air layer, and a solvent layer are formed inside the front end of the nozzle by having the nozzle suck by the suction means.