SINGLE-WAFER LOAD LOCKING DEVICE AND SUBSTRATE CLEANING METHOD

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a single-wafer load locking device capable of rapidly removing particles and maintaining a substrate clean. SOLUTION: This device has an injection nozzle 40 for blowing off gas from the center of a flange 25 with a nozzle toward the outer periphery of the substrate 1. The spacing between the substrate and a flange inside wall 41 with the nozzle at the outer peripheral part of the substrate 1 is <=3 mm. The device has a discharge port 29A at the center of a substrate table 24. The substrate 1 is inserted into a small chamber formed by the substrate table 24 for hermetically closing the aperture disposed in the upper part of a vacuum vessel 21 from the inner side of the vacuum vessel 21 and the flange 25 with the nozzle for hermetically closing the aperture from the outer side of the vacuum vessel 21. The substrate table 24 descends and normal discharge is executed after the rough evacuation of the small chamber.