Patent ID: RE42566

Claim:
A wet treatment liquid feed apparatus for subjecting an object to a wet treatment therein, the wet treatment liquid feed apparatus comprising: a nozzle assembly including: an introducing pipe having an introducing port to introduce the wet treatment liquid at an end thereof; a discharging pipe having a discharging port at an end thereof to discharge the wet treatment liquid to outside the discharging pipe after the object has been subjected to the wet treatment; a crossing section comprising a ceiling formed by connecting another end of said introducing pipe and an other end of said discharging pipe, respectively , the ceiling thereby providing a lateral spacing between the other end of the introducing pipe and the other end of the discharging pipe ; and an opening section provided at a bottom of said crossing section and open to the object to be subjected to the wet treatment; and a pressure controller to control a difference between a pressure of the wet treatment liquid in contact with the object to be wet-treated and an atmospheric pressure to prevent the wet treatment liquid in contact with the object to be subjected to the wet treatment via said opening section from flowing to outside said discharging pipe , and an ultrasonic mechanism to impart an ultrasonic wave to the wet treatment liquid, the ultrasonic mechanism operating at a frequency of at least 19 KHz, wherein the pressure controller controls the pressure of the wet treatment liquid, including a surface tension of the wet treatment liquid on the object to be wet-treated, such that the pressure of the wet treatment liquid, including the surface tension of the wet treatment liquid on the object to be wet-treated, is substantially equal to the atmospheric pressure .