Tokyo Electron Limited

Kentaro Yamamura

Kousuke Yoshihara

Hirofumi Takeguchi

Junji Nakamura

Kenichi Miyamoto

Fumiko Iwao

Takeshi Hirao

Yasuyuki Kometani

Masashi Enomoto

Masahide Tadokoro

Toshiki Naeki

A substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate to be measured by a film thickness measurement device, includes: a heat treatment part configured to heat-treat a substrate coated with a coating film; and a fluid supply part configured to supply a fluid, which suppresses variations in a film thickness over time until the film thickness is measured by the film thickness measurement device, to the substrate during or after the heat-treatment by the heat treatment part.

Substrate processing apparatus, substrate processing method and storage medium

A substrate processing apparatus which processes includes a thermal processor that performs thermal processing on the substrate; an imager that images the substrate; and a controller that executes adjustment processing of adjusting conditions of processing on the substrate. The adjustment processing includes: controlling the imager to image an unexposed adjustment substrate on which a resist film is formed; controlling the thermal processor to perform the thermal processing on the adjustment substrate subjected to uniform exposure processing of exposing each region of a substrate surface with a fixed exposure amount after the pre-exposure imaging; controlling the imager to image the adjustment substrate after the thermal processing; estimating an in-plane temperature distribution of the adjustment substrate in the thermal processing based on the pre-exposure imaging result and the post-heating imaging result; and deciding processing conditions of the thermal processing based on an estimation result of the in-plane temperature distribution.

Substrate processing apparatus and processing condition adjustment method

A cleaning and drying-preventing method including: positioning a nozzle in a container such that a funnel-like inner circumferential surface of the container is located around a periphery of a distal end of the nozzle; sucking a liquid in the nozzle to retract a level of the liquid to a side of a supply passage; supplying a solvent into the container to form a swirl flow of the solvent turning around the distal end of the nozzle, and cleaning the nozzle by the swirl flow; supplying a solvent into the container to form a liquid pool of the solvent; and further retracting the level of the liquid in the nozzle to the side of the supply passage. A liquid layer, an air layer, and a solvent layer are formed in the nozzle in this order from the side of the supply passage, to prevent drying of the liquid in the nozzle.

Cleaning and drying-preventing method, and cleaning and drying-preventing apparatus

A cleaning method of cleaning a surface of a substrate that is processed by a developing process. The method includes pouring a cleaning liquid onto a central part of the substrate. A dry area that is not wetted with the cleaning liquid is created in a central part of the substrate by stopping pouring the cleaning liquid or by shifting a cleaning liquid pouring position to which the cleaning liquid is poured from the central part while the substrate holding device is rotating. The dry area is expanded outward from the central part of the substrate by rotating the substrate holding device at a rotating speed not lower than 1500 rpm without pouring the cleaning liquid onto the dry area. The cleaning liquid is poured onto an outer area contiguously surrounding the dry area on the surface of the substrate.

Substrate cleaning method and developing apparatus

A cleaning method highly effectively cleans a surface of a semiconductor wafer by removing a dissolution product, produced when a surface of a semiconductor wafer is processed by a developing process that develops an exposed film formed on the semiconductor wafer by wetting the exposed film with a developer, from the surface of the semiconductor wafer. A cleaning liquid is poured through a cleaning liquid pouring nozzle onto a central part of a rotating wafer processed by a developing process to spread the cleaning liquid in a film over the surface of the wafer. Then, the cleaning liquid pouring nozzle is shifted to create a dry area in a central part of the wafer and the wafer is rotated at 1500 rpm to expand the dry area. The cleaning liquid pouring nozzle is moved at a nozzle moving speed high enough to keep the cleaning liquid pouring position ahead of the margin of the dry area and pouring the cleaning liquid is stopped upon the arrival of the cleaning liquid pouring nozzle at a predetermined position at 80 mm from the center of the wafer or at 5 mm above toward the center of the wafer from the peripheral edge of the wafer. The cleaning liquid may be poured through another cleaning liquid pouring nozzle disposed beforehand at the predetermined position and pouring the cleaning liquid through the cleaning liquid pouring nozzle may be stopped immediately before the margin of the dry area reaches a part onto which the cleaning liquid is poured through the cleaning liquid pouring nozzle. Preferably, a gas is blown instantaneously against the central part of the wafer to form a core fore the dry area.

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Koshi, Japan

Kentaro Yamamura