Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.

Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho

Other

Kobe Steel, Ltd.

Ikuo Mizobata

Kimitsugu Saito

Yusuke Muraoka

Ryuji Kitakado

Yoshihiko Sakashita

Katsumi Watanabe

Hisanori Oshiba

Yoichi Inoue

Tomomi Iwata

Shogo Sarumaru

Masahiro Yamagata

Takashi Miyake

Takahiko Ishii

Nobuyuki Kawakami

Minobu Matsunaga

Tetsuya Yoshikawa

Jun Munemasa

Masahiro Mimasaka

Eiji Fukatsu

Kaoru Masuda

Katsuyuki Iijima

Hiroyuki Ueno

Takashi Gama

Yasuo Okuyama

Disclosed is a high pressure processing method for subjecting a processing object to a high pressure processing using a high pressure fluid. In this method, the high pressure fluid is brought into collision with the surface of the processing object placed in a high pressure processing chamber, and then distributed along the surface of the processing object in an outward direction beyond the processing object.

High pressure processing method and apparatus

After subjected to a developing process, a rinsing process and a replacing process in this order in a developing unitA,B, a substrate W wet with an anti-drying solution is wet-transported to a supercritical drying unitby a primary transport robot. The supercritical drying unitperforms a high-pressure drying process (supercritical drying process) in a dedicated manner. Accordingly, by virtue of the presence of the anti-drying solution, the substrate W is effectively prevented from becoming air-dry during the transportation of the substrate W.

Substrate processing method, substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing system

A high-pressure processing apparatus includes a processing vessel including a processing chamber formed therein to perform a certain process onto an object in the processing chamber; fluid feeding means which feeds a high-pressure fluid into the processing chamber; fluid discharging means which discharges the high-pressure fluid from the processing chamber; an agitating unit which is arranged in the processing chamber and is operative to flow the high-pressure fluid over the object by relative rotation to the processing vessel; a communicating channel which is formed in the processing vessel to communicate inside and outside of the processing chamber; a rotary driving member which is coupled to the agitating unit via a shaft portion provided in the communicating channel; and a sealing portion which is provided between the shaft portion and the processing vessel to disconnect the processing chamber from the rotary driving member. The fluid discharging means includes a fluid discharging port formed in a certain position of the communicating channel closer to the processing chamber than the sealing portion to discharge the high-pressure fluid.

High pressure processing method

When the hatch of a substrate washing chamberis opened to receive a substrate, certain valves are closed, and a valve is opened, supply COto purge the substrate washing chamberto and exclude air. When the hatch is closed, another valve is opened to vent substrate washing chamberso that the COexpels any gas and unwanted air from the substrate washing chamberand the conduits. Thereafter, super critical COis used to wash the substrate and clean the circulation line. The flow of supercritical COis sent to the substrate washing chamber. After flowing through the circulation line, including a circulation channel, it passes through a bypass channelto a decompressor. Any chemicals or organic substances left in the circulation line are continuously sent to a separation/recover bathtogether with the flow.

High pressure processing apparatus and method

When the hatch of a substrate washing chamberis opened to receive a substrate, certain valves are closed, and one valve is opened, to supply COto purge the substrate washing chamberto and exclude air. When the hatch is closed, another valve is opened to vent substrate washing chamberso that the COexpels any gas and unwanted air from the substrate washing chamberand the conduits. Thereafter, supercritical COis used to wash the substrate and clean the circulation line. The flow of supercritical COis sent to the substrate washing chamber. After flowing through the circulation line, including a circulation channel, it passes through a bypass channelto a decompressor. Any chemicals or organic substances left in the circulation line are continuously sent to separation/recovery bathtogether with the flow.

High pressure processing apparatus and high pressure processing method

A high-pressure processing apparatus for removing unnecessary matters on objects to be processed by bringing a high-pressure fluid and a chemical liquid other than the high-pressure fluid into contact with the objects to be processed in a pressurized state is provided with a plurality of high-pressure processing chambers, a common high-pressure fluid supply unit for supplying the high-pressure fluid to each one of the high-pressure processing chambers, a common chemical liquid supply unit for supplying the chemical liquid to the each high-pressure processing chambers, and a separating unit for separating gaseous components from a mixture of the high-pressure fluid and the chemical liquid discharged from the high-pressure processing chambers after the objects are processed. Thus, a high-pressure processing apparatus which has such a compact construction as to be partly installable in a clean room and can stably perform a high-pressure processing can be provided.

High pressure processing apparatus

With respect to any one of processing units, a main transportation path, a developing unit, a dedicated transportation robot and a high-pressure processing unit are disposed linearly in this order in a direction. Hence, even if a processing fluid adhering to a substrate or an evaporant of the processing fluid moves toward the main transportation path while the high-pressure processing unit transports the substrate wet with the processing fluid, there are the processing units located which the processing fluid or its evaporant must arrive at before reaching the main transportation path.

Substrate processing apparatus equipping with high-pressure processing unit

A method and system for processing a substrate includes performing a wet process by supplying a working liquid to a substrate in a wet processing apparatus, transferring the substrate in a non-dry state from the wet processing apparatus to a drying apparatus, and subjecting the substrate to a supercritical drying by a supercritical fluid in the drying apparatus.

Method and system for processing substrate

Liquid for prevention of substrate drying is supplied into a processing chamber so that a pool of the liquid is created as an anti-drying atmosphere in advance inside a processing chamber, and substrates, as they are dipped in the pool, are kept on stand-by in a substrate board. In this manner, air drying of the substrates which are kept on stand-by is prevented. When the number of the substrates in the substrate board reaches a certain number, the anti-drying atmosphere is removed from the processing chamber, which is followed by introduction of an SCF into the processing chamber and supercritical drying (high pressure drying) of all of the plurality of substrates inside the processing chamber, namely, batch supercritical drying.

High-pressure drying apparatus, high-pressure drying method and substrate processing apparatus

Uneconomical use of resist liquid is prevented by reducing resist liquid discharging time. Discharging time calculating means calculates a proper resist liquid discharging time, based on a first and a second rotation angular speeds of a supporting pedestal and a discharged flow quantity discharged from resist liquid discharging nozzle per unit time. When the proper resist liquid discharging time has elapsed from the start of discharging of the resist liquid by means of a pump, discharging of the resist liquid is stopped.

Growing community of inventors

Kyoto, Japan

Ikuo Mizobata