Patent ID: 11862485
Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
Field: Semiconductors (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 8:
9. An operation method of a liquid processing apparatus, comprising:
discharging a processing liquid, which is to be solidified by being dried, from a nozzle onto a front surface of a substrate held by a substrate holder;
allowing the nozzle to stand by in a nozzle accommodation unit having an inner circumferential surface formed to surround a leading end portion of the nozzle, the nozzle accommodation unit being provided with a drain opening facing a discharge opening of the nozzle;
draining the processing liquid from the drain opening facing the discharge opening by discharging the processing liquid from the discharge opening of the nozzle which stands by in the nozzle accommodation unit; and
forming a liquid layer of a solvent within the nozzle with the solvent by discharging the solvent from a solvent discharge opening formed within a height range of the inner circumferential surface of the nozzle accommodation unit so that the discharged solvent is guided along the inner circumferential surface of the nozzle accommodation unit,
wherein the nozzle accommodation unit has, in a region above the drain opening where the solvent discharged from the solvent discharge opening falls down as a swirling flow, a diameter reducing portion having a first inner circumferential surface and a second inner circumferential surface as the inner circumferential surface such that an inner diameter of the diameter reducing portion becomes smaller toward the drain opening, the first inner circumferential surface and the second inner circumferential surface having different angles with respect to a center line of the nozzle accommodation unit, and
in the forming of the liquid layer of the solvent, the nozzle is disposed such that an intersection point of two straight lines extending along two opposite portions of the first inner circumferential surface is located above the discharge opening of the nozzle on a cross section cut along the center line of the nozzle accommodation unit to include the center line,
wherein the solvent discharge opening is formed above the diameter reducing portion or within a height range of the first inner circumferential surface.