Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.

Kyocera Corporation

Screen Holdings Co., Ltd.

Kenji Sugimoto

Tsuyoshi Mitsuhashi

Katsushi Yoshioka

Yoshiteru Fukutomi

Kaoru Aoki

Mitsumasa Kodama

Masakazu Sanada

Minobu Matsunaga

Seiichiro Okuda

Satoshi Yamamoto

Moritaka Yano

Takashi Nagao

Yukihiko Inagaki

Kenji Kamei

Mitsuhiro Fujita

Toshio Hiroe

Masami Ohtani

Kazuhito Shigemori

Yoshihisa Yamada

Hiroaki Sugimoto

Kenji Hashinoki

Hideki Hayashi

Shigeru Sasada

Yukio Morita

Masaru Kitagawa

Hidekazu Inoue

Tadashi Maegawa

Takashi Ito

Nobuyasu Hiraoka

Osamu Tamada

Hiroshi Yoshii

Takeo Okamoto

Noriaki Yokono

Akihiko Hidaka

Tadahiro Suhara

Tamihiro Bun

Kinya Murata

A wiring board () includes an insulating substrate () having a cutout () opened in a main surface and a side surface of the insulating substrate (), and an inner electrode () formed on an inner surface of the cutout (). The inner electrode () includes a plurality of metal layers. The inner electrode () includes, as an intermediate layer, at least one metal layer () selected from the group consisting of a nickel layer, a chromium layer, a platinum layer, and a titanium layer, and includes a gold layer as an outermost layer (). The metal layer () is exposed at an outer edge portion of the inner electrode ().

Wiring board, electronic device, and electronic module

A joint nozzle that delivers a developer, a rinsing liquid and nitrogen gas is disposed adjacent the spin center of a substrate in plan view. A controller operates electromagnetic switch valves to continue supply of the developer, while spinning the substrate, in a developing process, and to start supply of the rinsing liquid in a rinsing process, immediately after the supply of the developer ends, thereby achieving a shortened period of the developing process. A switching is made to a drying process by starting supply of the nitrogen gas immediately after completion of the rinsing process. Thus, even if the substrate has a large angle of contact, formation of droplets of the rinsing liquid is inhibited to prevent post-develop defects.

Developing apparatus and developing method

After an exposure process in an exposure part, the exposure part transmits an exposure completion signal to a main controller. At time (t12) which is a predetermined time interval (T12) later than an exposure completion time (t11), the main controller transmits a substrate transport signal to a heating part, to cause the transport of a substrate from a temporary substrate rest part to a heating plate and the start of a heating process by the heating plate. This provides substantially the same length of the time interval between the completion of the exposure process and the start of the heating process in the heating part, if there are variations in the time at which each substrate is placed on the temporary substrate rest part of the heating part.

Substrate processing apparatus

A substrate treating apparatus is provided for eliminating wasteful consumption of a treating solution in a treating mode in which the treating solution is delivered in a strip form to a substrate from a treating solution delivery nozzle sweeping over the substrate. In a first aspect of the invention, collecting vessels are arranged around a developing cup surrounding a wafer supported by a wafer holder. The collecting vessels collect part of a developer delivered from a discharge opening of a developer delivery nozzle outwardly of a surface of the wafer. In a second aspect of the invention, collecting vessels are arranged below a developer delivery nozzle, with collecting openings of the collecting vessels opposed to a discharge opening or openings of the delivery nozzle. The collecting vessels are moved longitudinally of the discharge openings according to a position of the developer delivery nozzle relative to the wafer.

Substrate treating method and apparatus

A controller is connected to a substrate processing apparatus and an exposure apparatus. A pilot substrate subjected to a series of processing as preprocessing is transported to an inspection unit. An inspection result determination part compares inspection results received from the inspection unit with substrate condition data so that a condition change instruction part changes the processing condition of each processing unit when no requirement is satisfied. This operation is so repeated that a processing control part executes actual processing according to recipe data when the inspection results satisfy the requirement. Thus, the efficiency a step of changing the processing condition of each processing part in response to the inspection results in the inspection part is improved in preprocessing executed in the substrate processing apparatus.

Substrate processing apparatus control system and substrate processing apparatus

A substrate treating apparatus disclosed herein realizes improved throughput. The substrate treating apparatus according to this invention includes an antireflection film forming block, a resist film forming block and a developing block arranged in juxtaposition. Each block includes chemical treating modules, heat-treating modules and a single main transport mechanism. The main transport mechanism transports substrates within each block. Transfer of the substrates between adjacent blocks is carried out through substrate rests. The main transport mechanism of each block is not affected by movement of the main transport mechanisms of the adjoining blocks. Consequently, the substrates may be transported efficiently to improve the throughput of the substrate treating apparatus.

Substrate treating apparatus

A series of substrate transport paths for transporting substrates is arranged on upper and lower stories. Substrates are transferable between the substrate transport path on the first story and the substrate transport path on the second story. The paths include a going-only path for transporting the substrates forward, and a return-only path for transporting the substrates in the opposite direction, these paths being arranged on the upper and lower stories. An indexer connects one end of the substrate transport path on one story to one end of the substrate transport path on the other story. An interface connects the other end of the substrate transport path on one story to the other end of the substrate transport path on the other story. This construction efficiently reduces a waiting time due to interference between the substrates transported along the going-only path and the substrates transported along the return-only path.

Substrate treating apparatus and method

A substrate processing apparatus includes a coating section, a developing section, a heat-treating section and a transport mechanism. The coating section has first processing units each for performing a coverage process to supply a photoresist solution to a substrate and cover a surface of the substrate with the photoresist solution, a second processing unit for spinning the substrate, after the coverage process, at high speed to make the photoresist solution into a film, dry the photoresist film, and clean the substrate. All substrates are processed with the same coating conditions to suppress differences in quality among the substrates. The first and second processing units perform the respective processes concurrently to improve the throughput of substrate processing.

A substrate developing method and apparatus for improving uniformity of a developing process by adjusting a temperature gradient of a developer spread over the surface of a substrate. The developer is delivered to a central region of the substrate surface and spread over the surface. The developer in this state has activity diminishing, and thereby lowering the developing rate, gradually from center to edge of the substrate. With a gas flowing down around the edge of the substrate during the developing process, the developer vaporizes from peripheral regions of the substrate at an increased rate, thereby lowering the developer temperature in the peripheral regions. This increases the developing rate gradually from edge to center of the substrate. The uniformity of the developing process is improved by balancing the gradient of developing rate due to the temperature variation of the developer against the gradient of developing rate due to the lowering of developer activity.

Substrate developing method and apparatus

The substrate processing apparatus comprises at least one chemical liquid bath for processing the substrate with a chemical liquid, and a multi-function processing bath for performing at least two of chemical liquid processing, cleaning with water and drying on the substrate which is processed with a chemical liquid within the chemical liquid bath.

Substrate transfer and bath apparatus

A velocity adjusting plate is provided above a substrate processing part in the interior of a substrate processing apparatus which is isolated from the external air. Thus, a downflow which is formed by conditioned air in the interior of the apparatus is separated into downflows having high and low velocities to be supplied to the substrate processing part and the periphery of the substrate processing part respectively. Consequently, the former downflow has a velocity which is suitable for controlling the temperature-humidity on the substrate surface and preventing the substrate from adhesion of particles and fine grains of a processing solution scattered from the substrate, while the latter downflow is suppressed to the minimum velocity which is necessary for preventing dusts and particles from creeping up by dispersion. Thus, it is possible to reduce consumption of air which is adjusted in temperature-humidity while isolating the interior of the apparatus from the external air.

Substrate processing apparatus and air supply method in substrate

A baffle is placed in a position opposed to discharge openings of a treating solution supply nozzle and between the discharge openings and the surface of a substrate. The baffle intercepts a treating solution discharged from the discharge openings, whereby the treating solution is supplied evenly to the surface of the substrate by flowing over a surface of the baffle and falling from an edge of the baffle to the substrate, instead of falling from the discharge openings directly to the substrate. No microbubbles are formed in the treating solution on the substrate, which would cause an unevenness of treatment. The discharge openings may be defined by a plurality of circular bores formed in the supply nozzle. Each circular bore may have a diameter at least equal to a spacing between an adjacent pair of circular bores.

Substrate spin treating method and apparatus

A substrate spin coating apparatus for forming a coating film on the upper surface of a spinning substrate includes a spin chuck for supporting and spinning the substrate while holding same substantially in horizontal posture. A scatter preventive cup surrounds lateral and lower regions of the spin chuck, and defines an opening in an upper central region thereof for allowing entry of air flows. An exhaust vent is provided for downwardly exhausting the air flows, and a nozzle is provided for supplying a coating solution through the opening of the scatter preventive cup to the upper surface of the substrate. The scatter preventive cup includes an air passage formed in a bottom region thereof and opening toward a lower surface of the substrate. An air flow adjusting unit is connected to the air passage for adjusting an air flow to a predetermined temperature and supplying the adjusted air flow to the air passage.

Substrate spin coating apparatus

A method of processing a substrate includes the steps of developing a substrate having a photo-sensitive resin film formed on its surface; washing the substrate by supplying washing liquid to the surface of the substrate, and rotating the substrate on a perpendicular axis in a horizontal plane and thereby drying the surface of the substrate, and atmosphere in which the substrate is placed is adjusted to be at a pressure lower than the atmospheric pressure in the step of drying the surface of the substrate. Instead of or in addition to this, washing liquid in which prescribed gas is dissolved may be used in the step of washing the substrate. In this case, in the step of drying the surface of the substrate, washing liquid supplied to the surface of the substrate is preferably supersaturated with gas. A substrate processing apparatus including a controller for implementing such a method is also disclosed.

Growing community of inventors

Kyoto, Japan

Kenji Sugimoto