1. Field
Embodiments relate to an ionizer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In manufacturing and assembling of an electronic component, e.g., a semiconductor substrate, if a mechanism or the like for handling electronic components is charged with static electricity, particles such as dust may be attached to the electronic component, or a circuit in the electronic component may be damaged due to discharge.
In order to solve such a problem, a static electricity removing device called an ionizer is used to neutralize an object to be processed by emitting ionized air onto the object charged with static electricity. The ionizer has ionizer electrodes that inject, into a neutralization region, positive or negative ions generated by corona discharge when a high voltage is applied to the ionizer electrodes. As a result, static electricity included in the neutralization region is removed by the positive or negative ions.
DC or AC corona discharge is generally used to generate the ionized air. For example, a corona discharge type ionizer generates corona discharge by respectively applying high positive and negative voltages with about ±20 kV to positive and negative needle-type electrodes. Thus, air around the electrodes is ionized into positive and negative ions, and the ionized ions are carried with the flow of indoor air, so that electric charges charged to a charged body are neutralized into reverse polarity ions in the air.
The ionizer can be used for a wafer mounting or substrate transfer process in a semiconductor fabricating process. However, the ionizer electrodes may be corroded due to corona discharge thereof, and particles may be generated due to the occurrence of whitening. In this case, particle elements become a major source of the particles generated in a space inside a frame. Therefore, the particle elements have bad influence on a wafer and cause a failure of the wafer.