Patent ID: 8302637
Filing Date: 2012-11-06
Classification: H01L

Abstract:
1. A method of processing an object in a container, the container being a storage container which has a substantially box-like main body and a lid, the main body being capable of containing an object inside and having an opening in one face, the lid being detachable from the main body and closing the opening to create an airtight space together with the main body, the object to be contained being put in and taken out of the storage container by detaching the lid from the storage container and thus opening the opening, the object to be contained receiving given processing outside the storage container, the method comprising: placing the opening directly opposite from a substantially rectangular opening portion, which is provided in a wall constituting a mini-environment where particles are controlled; holding the lid with a door, which substantially closes the opening portion; pivoting the door holding the lid by a given angle about a horizontal axis, which is below the opening portion and parallel to the wall, to move the lid into the mini-environment and put the door in an evacuation posture, and driving the door kept in the evacuation posture vertically downward to open the opening portion; putting in and taking out the object to be contained through the opening and the opening portion; driving the door in the evacuation posture vertically upward to return the door to a stop position where the door has been in after pivoting by the given angle, and then pivoting the door by the given angle in a reverse direction to close the opening with the lid; and releasing the lid from the hold of the door, wherein a gas curtain can be formed by given gas flowing from a top side to bottom side of the opening portion, wherein the method further comprises purging an interior of the storage container by bringing the gas curtain into contact with the lid held by the door while the door is maintaining the evacuation posture after stopping pivoting, thereby redirecting the flow of the given gas forming the gas curtain toward the interior of the storage container, and wherein a rectangular area which is formed extending horizontally outward away from the wall between a top side of the opening portion and a top side of the lid when the door is maintained in the evacuation posture is set within an area in the curtain nozzle for forming the gas curtain, in which the nozzle openings are formed.