A method and an apparatus for cleaning semiconductor devices, in which water droplets are completely eliminated after the wafer is cleaned in the course of the semiconductor manufacturing process. In the method and apparatus, after the thin film is cleaned, a cut off valve cuts off the supply of cleaning solution to a cleaning container. At the same time, a first drain valve, second drain valve, and third drain valve respectively open a first drain path, a second drain path, and third drain path in serial order, with a predetermined time interval between each stage, thereby slowly draining the cleaning solution from the container. The cleaning solution is easily and nearly completely separated from the wafer due to the surface tension of the cleaning solution, and no large drops of the cleaning solution are left on the wafer.

A new drying method and apparatus is provided for drying a semiconductor device substrate, a liquid crystal panel substrate, or the like, which can reduce the possibility of contamination during drying, reduce facility costs and the area required for setting the facilities, and can perform drying in batches. Of the four sides of the upper end of the pull-up bath 10, two of the sides that oppose each other have a smaller height than the remaining two sides, and form overflow portions 10a where water in the pull-up bath overflows into a drainage bath 20. A rod-shaped heater 11 is mounted to the inside of the pull-up bath 10, and a heater cover 12 is disposed above the heater 11, with a pair of exhaust tubes 13 being led out to a location above the pull-up bath 10 so as to allow discharge of gas to the outside therefrom. A water supply tube 14 is connected to the bottom surface of the pull-up bath 10 to allow ultra-pure water to be supplied from a water supply system to be described later. A drainage tube 21 is connected to the lower portion of the drainage bath 20, as well as to a water supply control device 22, composed of a circulating pump, a change-over valve, or the like.

The present invention provides a medical instrument cleaning method and apparatus suitable for thoroughly cleaning medical instruments, particularly instruments used in dental treatment and with strongly adhesive deposits such as cement and the like. The instrument cleaning process according to the present invention comprising a boiling step of boiling instruments with deposits thereon in a boiling vessel, allowing water to soak into the deposits, a drying step of drying the boiled instruments with hot air in a drying vessel to dry the water-soaked deposits, and a washing step of washing the dried instruments in a washing vessel to remove the dried deposits. Thus, the instruments with deposits thereon are boiled in the boiling step, in which water soaks into the deposits, then the boiled instruments are dried in the drying step, whereby the water soaked into the deposits is evaporated to weaker the adhesive force of the deposits, and subsequently the dried instruments are washed in the washing step, whereby the deposits which have been made less adhesive are removed from the instruments. In this way the instruments with deposits can be cleaned to a satisfactory extent.

Deionized water is supplied into a rinsing bath from its bottom portion and overflows from the upper portion of the rinsing bath to form an upflow of deionized water in the rinsing bath. A substrate is rinsed by being immersed in the upflow of deionized water. After rinsing, the substrate is removed from deionized water, and at this tim the surroundings of the substrate are supplied with vapor of an organic solvent soluble in water which serves to lower surface tension of deionized water to the substrate. Thereafter, the substrate is dried in a sealed chamber that is evacuated and the surroundings of the substrate are reduced in pressure. As a result, during drying the substrate surface after rinsing same with deionized water, it is possible to reduce adhesion of particles to the substrate surface, and to dry the substrate surface rapidly without heating the substrate.

A material to be dried, such as a semiconductor substrate during manufacturing a semiconductor device, is loaded into a process chamber fitted at a loading opening with a lid which is closed from above. The inner side wall surface of the process chamber has a first surface formed in the lower part thereof and is substantially in parallel with the inner wall surface of the lid, and a second surface extending from the upper end part of the first surface and bent outwards to face the inner wall surface of the lid. A processing solution vapor is fed through a steam supply port in the second surface into the process chamber and flowed downwardly over the material to be dried. The processing solution vapor is condensed and recovered below the material to be dried.