Tokyo Electron Limited

Kenji Tsutsumi

Junichi Kitano

Hideharu Kyouda

Osamu Miyahara

Taro Yamamoto

Akihiro Fujimoto

Yasushi Takiguchi

In the coating treatment apparatus, in a first treatment chamber, the front and rear surfaces of the substrate held by a transfer arm are inverted by a turning mechanism, and a coating solution is applied from a coating nozzle to the rear surface of the substrate. The substrate is transferred into a second treatment chamber, in which the coating solution on the rear surface is heated by a heating unit to cure, thereby forming a coating film on the rear surface of the substrate. The formation of the coating film by the coating treatment apparatus is performed before exposure processing, whereby the rear surface of the substrate can be flat for the exposure processing.

Substrate treatment method, coating treatment apparatus, and substrate treatment system

According to the present invention, during the photolithography processing of a substrate, exposure processing is performed immediately after removal of a coating film on the rear surface of the substrate, and a coating film is formed on the rear surface of the substrate immediately after the exposure processing. Thereafter, etching treatment and so on are performed, and a series of these treatment and processing steps are performed a predetermined number of times. The coating film has been formed on the rear surface of the substrate at the time for the etching treatment, so that even if the coating film gets minute scratches, the rear surface of the substrate itself is protected by the coating film and thus never scratched. Further, since the coating film on the rear surface of the substrate is removed immediately before the exposure processing, the rear surface of the substrate can be flat for the exposure processing.

Substrate treatment method, coating film removing apparatus, and substrate treatment system

In the present invention, a plurality of rounds of patterning are performed on a substrate. In a patterning system, the substrate on which a first round of patterning has been performed is transferred to a planarizing film forming unit, where a planarizing film is formed above the substrate. The substrate is then transferred to the patterning system and subjected to a second round of patterning. The time from the completion of the forming processing of the planarizing film to the start of the second round of patterning is managed to be constant among the substrates. According to the present invention, in the pattern forming processing of performing a plurality of rounds of patterning, a pattern with a desired dimension can be stably formed above the substrate.

Substrate processing method, substrate processing system, and computer-readable storage medium

A coating film forming apparatus includes a process section including one or more coating units and one or more thermally processing units; a pre-coating cleaning unit configured to perform cleaning on a back surface and an edge portion of a substrate; and a pre-coating check unit configured to check a state of a back surface and an edge portion of the substrate. A control section is configured to realize a sequence of cleaning the substrate by the pre-coating cleaning unit, checking the substrate by the pre-coating check unit, making a judgment based on a check result thus obtained of whether or not a state of particles on a back surface and an edge portion of the substrate is within an acceptable range, and permitting transfer of the substrate into the process section where the state of particles is within the acceptable range.

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Koshi, Japan

Kenji Tsutsumi