JPH0684876A - Supply / exhaust control method for cleaning equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To provide a method for controlling the air supply and exhaust of a cleaning device, which can ensure the safety of an operator and can secure the cleanliness in the chamber with a minimum required air supply and exhaust amount. A chamber 6 in which an object to be cleaned is placed, an air supply unit 7 installed above the chamber 6, and a chamber 6
In the method of controlling the air supply / exhaust of the cleaning device 1, the clean air blown from the air supply unit 7 is exhausted from the exhaust unit 10 to the outside through the chamber 6. The amount of air supplied from the air supply unit 7 and the amount of exhaust gas from the exhaust unit 10 are made variable in response to changes in the air flow in the chamber 6 depending on the usage conditions.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus, and more particularly to a method for controlling supply / exhaust of a cleaning apparatus having a supply / exhaust function for forming a clean space in a chamber in which an object to be cleaned is placed. Is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some conventional cleaning apparatuses include a chamber in which an object to be cleaned is placed, and an air supply unit and an exhaust unit for forming a clean space in the chamber. The cleanliness in the chamber is greatly affected by the amount of air supplied from the air supply unit and the amount of exhaust air from the exhaust unit. Therefore, in the past, the system was operated assuming a situation where the cleanliness in the chamber is reduced. Previously, the amount of air supplied from the air supply unit and the amount of air discharged from the exhaust unit were adjusted and set. In this adjustment, the supply / exhaust amount of each unit is set to a large value in advance so that the air flow in the chamber is not disturbed even if the usage situation changes during the operation of the apparatus. After that, the cleanliness in the chamber is ensured by controlling the air supply amount and the exhaust amount set as described above to be constant.

[0003]

By the way, the air flow in the chamber is, for example, whether the chemical solution is contained in the cleaning tank installed in the chamber, or whether the tank lid provided at the upper part of the cleaning tank is open. It changes depending on the usage status of the cleaning device, such as whether the cleaning device is closed, or whether the work window provided on the front surface of the device is open or closed. However, the above-described conventional air supply / exhaust control method has the following problems because the inside of the chamber is always cleaned with a constant air supply / exhaust amount regardless of the usage status of the cleaning device. (1) When the air supply amount from the air supply unit is set to be large, there is a risk that the chemical solution mist boiled from the cleaning tank is blown out to the worker side by opening the work window. (2) The air flow in the chamber is disturbed by the blowing of air from the work window and the boiling of the chemical liquid mist, and the cleanliness in the chamber is reduced. (3) Depending on the usage of the apparatus, energy is wasted that the inside of the chamber is cleaned with an unnecessarily large amount of air supply and exhaust.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and provides a cleaning device which can ensure the safety of the operator and the cleanliness of the chamber with a necessary minimum supply / exhaust amount. It is an object to provide a supply / exhaust control method.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to achieve the above object, and includes a chamber in which an article to be cleaned is placed, an air supply unit installed above the chamber, and a chamber. In a method of controlling the air supply and exhaust of a cleaning device, which comprises an exhaust unit installed below, and in which clean air blown from the air supply unit is exhausted from the exhaust unit to the outside through the chamber, The amount of air supplied from the air supply unit and the amount of exhaust gas from the exhaust unit are made variable in response to changes in the air flow.

[0006]

In the method for controlling the air supply and exhaust of the cleaning device of the present invention, the air supply amount from the air supply unit and the air exhaust amount from the air exhaust unit can be changed according to the change in the air flow in the chamber depending on the usage status of the cleaning device. Therefore, by appropriately setting the supply / exhaust balance, the air flow in the chamber can be made into a laminar flow state with the necessary minimum supply / exhaust amount, and the cleanliness can be maintained.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. 1 is a side sectional view showing an example of a cleaning apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an overall perspective view thereof. First, the configuration of the illustrated cleaning apparatus 1 will be described. This apparatus is composed of, for example, four stations as shown in FIG. 2, and the wafer, which is the object to be cleaned, stored in the wafer carrier 2 is transferred by the transfer robot 3. It is designed to be transported to the station. A carrier chuck 5 is attached to the arm 4 of the transfer robot 3, and the wafer carrier 2 is attached to the carrier chuck 5.
Is retained.

A chamber 6 is provided inside the cleaning apparatus 1, and the transfer robot 3 is placed in the chamber 6.
A wafer (not shown) transported by is placed. An air supply unit 7 is installed above the chamber 6.
The air supply unit 7 includes a high-performance filter 8 and a blower 9, and the rotation of the blower 9 blows clean air from the high-performance filter 8 into the chamber 6. on the other hand,
An exhaust unit 10 is installed below the chamber 6. The exhaust unit 10 is composed of a duct 11 and a damper 12, and is for exhausting the air in the chamber 6 to the outside of the apparatus.

Further, a work window 13 is provided on the front surface of the cleaning apparatus 1, and a worker can perform a predetermined work in the chamber 6 through the work window 13. The work window 13 is of a slide type and is closed except when it is necessary to perform work. In addition, the chamber 6
A cleaning tank 14 is installed in the lower part of the tank, and an openable / closable tank lid 15 is attached to the upper end opening of the cleaning tank 14. A chemical liquid (not shown) for cleaning the wafer to be cleaned is stored in the cleaning tank 14 thus installed.

In the cleaning apparatus 1 having such a configuration, the clean air supplied from the air supply unit 7 is exhausted to the outside from the exhaust unit 9 through the chamber 6 as shown by the arrow in the figure, whereby the chamber is discharged. The cleanliness within 6 is maintained.

Here, in the cleaning device 1 described in this embodiment, an inverter is used as a drive motor for rotating the blower 9, and thereby the rotation speed of the blower 9 can be adjusted steplessly. Incidentally, in the present embodiment, the rotation speed of the blower 9 is set in three stages so that the air supply from the air supply unit 7 can be switched to strong wind, medium wind, or weak wind. Further, in the cleaning device 1, the duct 1
The amount of exhaust from 1 can be adjusted by the opening degree of the damper 12. A drive motor is attached to the damper 12, and the damper 11 is based on the drive amount of this motor.
The degree of opening can be adjusted steplessly, and in this embodiment, the opening degree can be switched between two steps of full opening and half opening.

Here, the control system of the cleaning apparatus 1 will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. First, the control unit 20 includes, for example, an arithmetic unit and a sequencer.
The use status of the cleaning device 1 is input to 0 as a signal from various sensors 21. In the present embodiment, as the usage status of the cleaning device 1, three items are set: the opening / closing state of the work window 13, the presence / absence of a chemical solution in the cleaning tank 14, and the opening / closing state of the tank lid 15 in the cleaning tank 14, and each item is set. The usage status of each is detected by the various sensors 21.

The control unit 20 makes a predetermined determination based on the input signals from the various sensors 21, and sends operation signals to the air supply unit drive unit 22 and the exhaust unit drive unit 23 according to the determination results. In response to this operation signal, the air supply unit drive unit 22 controls the rotation speed of the blower 9 in the air supply unit 7, and the exhaust unit drive unit 22 controls the opening degree of the damper 12 in the exhaust unit 10.

Next, a specific example of the air supply / exhaust control method for the cleaning apparatus 1 according to the present invention will be described based on Table 1.

[Table 1] First, No. In the usage situation of 1, that is, the chemical solution (existing), the tank lid (open), and the work window (closed), the chemical solution mist boiled up so strongly that the air supply unit 7 supplies air with a strong wind. The exhaust in the exhaust unit 10 is fully opened by driving the damper 12. As a result, the boiling up of the chemical solution mist from the cleaning tank 14 is suppressed by the air flow, and at the same time, the air flow in the chamber 6 becomes a laminar flow state and the cleanliness is maintained.

Next, No. In the usage situation of 2, that is, the chemical solution (with), the tank lid (closed), and the work window (closed), the effect of the chemical solution mist is small because the tank lid 15 of the cleaning tank 14 is closed. Even if the air supply from the unit 7 is switched to medium air, the air flow in the chamber 6 becomes a laminar flow state and the cleanliness is maintained.

Then, No. Under the conditions of use of No. 3, that is, chemical liquid (with), tank lid (open or closed), and working window (open), the air supply from the air supply unit 7 is set to a weak wind and the exhaust air from the exhaust unit 10 is exhausted. Fully open. With this setting, since the air in the chamber 6 is sucked into the exhaust unit 10 side regardless of whether the tank lid 15 is opened or closed, there is no danger of the chemical mist being blown out to the operator side through the work window 13, and the chamber The air flow in 6 becomes a laminar flow state and the cleanliness is maintained.

Then, No. Under the conditions of use of 4, ie, chemical liquid (none), tank lid (open or closed), work window (open),
And No. In the usage conditions of 5, ie, the chemical liquid (none), the tank lid (closed or closed), and the work window (closed), there is no influence of the chemical liquid mist, so the air supply in the air supply unit 7 should be weak. Even if the exhaust air from the exhaust unit 10 is opened halfway, the air flow in the chamber 6 becomes a laminar flow state and the cleanliness is maintained.

As described above, in the air supply / exhaust control method of the present embodiment, the air supply amount from the air supply unit 7 and the air supply from the exhaust unit 10 corresponding to the change in the air flow in the chamber 6 depending on the usage state of the cleaning apparatus 1. Since the displacement and the
By setting the air supply / exhaust balance as described above, the air flow in the chamber 6 can be made a laminar flow state with the minimum necessary air supply / exhaust amount, and the cleanliness can be maintained.

In the above description of the embodiment, the amount of air supplied from the air supply unit 7 can be switched to three levels, and the amount of exhaust air from the exhaust unit 10 can be switched to two levels. Without being limited, if the supply air amount and the exhaust amount can be switched more finely, a more suitable supply / exhaust balance can be realized. Also, the usage status of the cleaning device 1 is not limited to the above-described items, and, for example, the temperature of the chemical solution may be added to a new item, and the supply / exhaust amount may be changed according to each status.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the amount of air supplied from the air supply unit and the amount of air discharged from the exhaust unit are changed in response to changes in the air flow in the chamber due to the usage status of the cleaning device, the supply / exhaust balance between them should be set appropriately. As a result, the air flow in the chamber can be made into a laminar flow state with the necessary minimum supply / exhaust amount, and the cleanliness can be maintained. As a result, the blowing of the chemical solution mist from the work window is blocked, and the safety of the worker is ensured. Further, since the air flow in the chamber is maintained in a laminar flow state, improvement in cleanliness can be expected. further,
Since the cleanliness inside the chamber can be maintained with the necessary minimum supply / exhaust amount, waste of energy is eliminated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing an example of a cleaning apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall perspective view of a cleaning device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Cleaning device 6 Chamber 7 Air supply unit 10 Exhaust unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A chamber provided with an object to be cleaned, an air supply unit installed above the chamber, and an exhaust unit installed below the chamber, and blown out from the air supply unit. In a method of controlling air supply and exhaust of a cleaning device, in which clean air is exhausted from the exhaust unit to the outside through the chamber, the air supply from the air supply unit in response to a change in air flow in the chamber depending on a usage state of the cleaning device. A supply / exhaust control method for a cleaning apparatus, wherein an amount and an exhaust amount from the exhaust unit are varied.