Granted Patent B2

US 9,691,648 · App. 14/636,349 · Granted Jun 27, 2017

Abstract

Claims (13)

1. A particle supply device comprising:

a housing to seal a space between a substrate carry-out port provided in a FOUP and a substrate carry-in port provided at a load port of a substrate processing device;

a particle supplier to supply particles to an inside of the housing; and

a particle recoverer to recover the particles supplied to the inside of the housing.

2. The device according to claim 1 , further comprising a particle concentration measurer to measure a particle concentration inside the housing.

3. The device according to claim 1 , further comprising a particle concentration controller to control a supply amount of the particles from the particle supplier in such a manner that the particle concentration inside the housing becomes a predetermined value.

4. The device according to claim 3 , wherein the predetermined value is an average value or a maximum value of the particle concentration in a space utilized by the FOUP.

5. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the particles are standard particles having a uniform particle diameter.

6. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the particles are PLS particles.

7. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the housing has an opening part on a front surface and is disposed in such a manner that the opening part comes in contact with the load port.

8. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the housing forms a sealed space including the FOUP.

9. The device according to claim 1 , further comprising a cleaning device to clean the inside of the housing.

10. The device according to claim 1 , further comprising a fan to generate an air current in a predetermined direction inside the housing.

Assignments (6)