Ebara Corporation

Ebara Research Co., Ltd.

Kajima Corporation

National Aerospace Laboratory

Tokyo Electron Limited

Katsuhide Watanabe

Hozumi Yasuda

Makoto Fukushima

Yoichi Kanemitsu

Itsuki Kobata

Yoichi Shiokawa

Takahide Haga

Nobuyuki Takahashi

Satoru Yamaki

Keita Yagi

Osamu Nabeya

Keisuke Namiki

Shinichi Moriyama

Yoichi Kobayashi

Hirokuni Hiyama

Taro Takahashi

Toru Maruyama

Ichiju Satoh

Naoji Hiraki

Koichi Takeda

Atsushi Nakajima

Hisanori Matsuo

Shingo Togashi

Kuniaki Yamaguchi

Noburu Shimizu

Hiroaki Shibue

Mutsumi Tanikawa

Chikara Murakami

Takeshi Iizumi

Takahiro Shimano

Kenichi Yano

Yuji Yagi

Atsushi Abe

Yoshinori Jouno

Satoshi Inanaga

Akira Nakamura

Hiroyuki Shinozaki

Mamoru Suzuki

Mitsuru Miyazaki

Yukio Ikeda

Atsushi Ando

Junji Kunisawa

Takayuki Mizuno

Yu Ishii

Nobuyuki Takada

Masaki Kinoshita

Ryuichi Kosuge

Soichi Isobe

Tsuneo Torikoshi

Kunio Oishi

Masayoshi Imai

Takamasa Nakamura

Akira Ogata

Katsuhiko Tokushige

Shinpei Tokunaga

Suguru Ogura

Fumihiko Sakata

Keisuke Sakata

Masakazu Ihara

Yoichi Kanemitu

Ryuta Katamura

Akio Yanai

Yasuhiro Takada

An eddy current sensor has an exciting coil and a detection coil. A holding circuit holds reference data indicating a characteristic of an output signal output from the detection coil at a reference state and outputs the reference data at a state other than the reference state. A pseudo signal generating circuit generates and outputs a balance coil pseudo signal corresponding to the output signal output from the detection coil at the reference state from the reference data output from the holding circuit. A bridge circuit, at the state other than the reference state, receives the output signal output from the detection coil and the balance coil pseudo signal and outputs a bridge output signal corresponding to a difference between the output signal and the balance coil pseudo signal as a bridge output signal.

Output signal processing apparatus for eddy current sensor

The eddy current sensor for measuring the film thickness of a conductive film formed on a substrate includes a core made of a magnetic material that has a base portion, and outer legs provided to the base portion at both end portions in a first direction of the base portion respectively, an excitation coil that is arranged on the core and forms an eddy current in the conductive film, and a detection coil that is arranged on the core and detects the eddy current formed in the conductive film. The length of the base portion in the first direction is not less than the length of the base portion in a second direction that is substantially orthogonal to the first direction.

Eddy current sensor

An object of the present invention is to improve a substrate processing apparatus using the CARE method. The present invention provides a substrate processing apparatus for polishing a processing target region of a substrate by bringing the substrate and a catalyst into contact with each other in the presence of processing liquid. The substrate processing apparatus includes a substrate holding unit configured to hold the substrate, a catalyst holding unit configured to hold the catalyst, and a driving unit configured to move the substrate holding unit and the catalyst holding unit relative to each other with the processing target region of the substrate and the catalyst kept in contact with each other. The catalyst is smaller than the substrate.

Substrate processing apparatus, substrate processing system, and substrate processing method

A local polishing system comprises: a particle estimation unit () for estimating the film thickness distribution of a wafer; a local polishing region setting unit () for setting a local polishing region on the wafer based on the film thickness distribution; a polishing head selection unit () for selecting a polishing head based on the size of the local polishing region; a model storage () holding a recipe generating model that defines the relation between an input node and an output node, the input node being an attribute of the local polishing region, the output node comprising a recipe for a polishing process; a polishing recipe generator () that puts an attribute of the local polishing region set by the local polishing region setting unit () into the input node of the recipe generating model and determines a polishing recipe for polishing the local polishing region; and a polishing recipe transmitter () for transmitting data of the polishing recipe to a local polishing module () that performs local polishing.

Substrate processing control system, substrate processing control method, and program

A polishing head system capable of precisely controlling a film-thickness profile of a workpiece, such as a wafer, substrate, or panel, is disclosed. The polishing head system includes a polishing head having a plurality of piezoelectric elements configured to apply pressing forces to a workpiece, and an operation controller configured to determine instruction values of voltages to be applied to the plurality of piezoelectric elements.

Polishing head system and polishing apparatus

To measure thickness in a polishing treatment more efficiently. A substrate polishing apparatus comprises a rotatably configured polishing table provided with a sensor that outputs a signal related to a thickness, a rotatably configured polishing head that faces the polishing table, a substrate being attachable to a face of the polishing head that faces the polishing table, and a controller. The controller acquires a signal from the sensor when the sensor passes over a surface to be polished of the substrate, specifies an orbit of the sensor with respect to the substrate on a basis of a profile of the signal, calculates a thickness of the substrate at each point on the orbit on a basis of the signal, and creates a thickness map on a basis of the calculated thickness at each point on a plurality of orbits of the sensor.

Substrate polishing apparatus, method of creating thickness map, and method of polishing a substrate

A magnetic element for strengthening a magnetic field formed in an object and an eddy current sensor using the magnetic field are provided. The eddy current sensor includes a bottom face portion which is a magnetic body, a magnetic core portion provided at the middle of the bottom face portion and a peripheral wall portion provided on the periphery of the bottom face portion. The eddy current sensor further includes an excitation coil disposed on an outer periphery of the magnetic core portion and capable of generating a magnetic field and an excitation coil disposed on an outer periphery of the peripheral wall portion and capable of generating a magnetic field.

Magnetic element and eddy current sensor using the same

A polishing head system capable of precisely controlling a pressing force of a retainer member, such as a retainer ring, against a polishing pad. The polishing head system includes: a polishing head including an actuator configured to apply a pressing force to the workpiece, a retainer member arranged outside the actuator, and piezoelectric elements coupled to the retainer member; and a drive-voltage application device configured to apply voltages independently to the piezoelectric elements.

One object is to provide a polishing machine and a polishing method capable of improving a processing accuracy on the surface of an object. A method of polishing an object is provided. Such a method comprises: a first step of polishing an object by moving the object and a first polishing pad having a smaller dimension than that of the object relative to each other while the first polishing pad is made to contact the object, a second step of polishing the object, after the first step of polishing, by moving the object and a second polishing pad having a larger dimension than that of the object relative to each other while the second polishing pad is made to contact the object, and a step of detecting the state of the surface of the object before the first step of polishing.

Polishing machine and a polishing method for a substrate

A substrate processing apparatus includes a polisher configured to polish a substrate using a polishing liquid, a first cleaner configured to clean the substrate polished by the polisher using sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide water, a second cleaner configured to clean the substrate cleaned by the first cleaner using a basic chemical liquid and hydrogen peroxide water, and a drier configured to dry the substrate cleaned by the second cleaner.

Substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing method

A polishing method capable of obtaining a stable film thickness without being affected by a difference in measurement position is disclosed. The polishing method includes: rotating a polishing table that supports a polishing pad; pressing the surface of the wafer against the polishing pad; obtaining a plurality of film-thickness signals from a film thickness sensor during a latest predetermined number of revolutions of the polishing pad, the film thickness sensor being installed in the polishing table; determining a plurality of measured film thicknesses from the plurality of film-thickness signals; determining an estimated film thickness at a topmost portion of the raised portion based on the plurality of measured film thicknesses; and monitoring polishing of the wafer based on the estimated film thickness at the topmost portion of the raised portion.

Polishing method

A polishing apparatus capable of achieving a highly-precise polishing result is disclosed. The polishing apparatus includes an in-line film-thickness measuring device configured to measure a film thickness of the substrate in a stationary state, and an in-situ spectral film-thickness monitor having a film thickness sensor disposed in a polishing table, the in-situ spectral film-thickness monitor being configured to subtract an initial film thickness, measured by the in-situ spectral film-thickness monitor before polishing of the substrate, from an initial film thickness, measured by the in-line film-thickness measuring device before polishing of the substrate, to determine a correction value, add the correction value to a film thickness that is measured when the substrate is being polished to obtain a monitoring film thickness, and monitor a progress of polishing of the substrate based on the monitoring film thickness.

Polishing apparatus and polished-state monitoring method

A polishing apparatus includes a table rotating motor configured to rotate a polishing table about its own axis, a top ring rotating motor configured to rotate a top ring about its own axis, a dresser configured to dress a polishing pad, and a pad-height measuring device configured to measure a height of the polishing pad. The polishing apparatus also includes a diagnostic device configured to calculate an amount of wear of the polishing pad from the height of the polishing pad and to determine the end of a life of the polishing pad based on the amount of the wear of the polishing pad, the torque or current of the table rotating motor, and the torque or current of the top ring rotating motor.

Polishing apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Katsuhide Watanabe