Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Other

Seiko Instruments Inc

Masashi Ohmori

Naohiko Fujino

Hiroshi Tanaka

Satoru Kotoh

Hiroshi Sasai

Isamu Karino

Akira Nishimoto

Masatoshi Yasutake

Shigeru Wakiyama

Yoshiaki Yamada

Masaki Kuzumoto

Makoto Miyamoto

Seiji Noda

Tatsuo Kataoka

Junji Iwasaki

Izumi Oya

Masahiro Sekine

Junji Kobayashi

Hiroshi Kurokawa

Nobuyoshi Hattori

Kouichirou Tsutahara

Osamu Wada

Akihiro Washitani

Kazuo Kuramoto

Toru Yamaguchi

Youichi Midou

Shinji Nakajima

Fusami Soeda

Yoshitsugu Nakagawa

Koichiro Hori

An apparatus for removing a photoresist film includes a substrate cassette for fixing a substrate having a surface covered with a photoresist film, an ozone feed tube for supplying ozone, a liquid feed tube for supplying a liquid photoresist film removing solution, and a processing tank for recovering and processing at least one of ozone and the liquid photoresist film removing solution, wherein the liquid photoresist film removing solution is supplied through the liquid feed tube as a liquid or mist, at least one of ozone and the photoresist film removing solution being continuously supplied.

Apparatus for removing photoresist film

A method of removing photoresist film with high efficiency of removal and friendliness with the environment while reducing the material consumption and the cost for the ventilation facility, and an apparatus used for the method are provided. Particularly the present invention provides a method of removing a photoresist film provided on a surface of a substrate, comprising steps of in a sealed system, disposing the substrate surface having the photoresist film to contact with a photoresist film removing solution, making ozone exist in gas phase and/or solution phase in the vicinity of the liquid surface of the photoresist film removing solution, and changing a relative position between the surface of the substrate and the liquid surface of the solution to decompose or remove the photoresist film from the substarate, characterized in that the relative position is changed continuously or intermittently within a range between a position where a bottom edge of the substrate is present above the liquid surface of the solution, and another position where a top edge of the substrate is present below the liquid surface of the solution. The present invention also provides an apparatus used for the method.

Method of removing photoresist film

To enable observation, analysis and evaluation of minute foreign substances by adopting a method for enabling performance of linkage between equipment coordinates of a particle examination equipment and apparatus coordinates of an analyzing apparatus such as SEM which is not a particle examination equipment with a precision higher than that with which coordinate linkage is performed between conventional equipment and apparatus coordinates. An analyzing method for analyzing minute foreign substances comprises the steps of determining the position of a minute foreign substance on the surface of a sample in a particle examination equipment, transferring the sample to a coordinate stage of an analyzing apparatus and inputting the position of the minute foreign substance determined by the particle examination equipment to thereby analyze the contents of this minute foreign substance. It is characterized by linking the equipment coordinates adopted by the particle examination equipment with the apparatus coordinates adopted by the analyzing apparatus by use of the same coordinate system based on the configurations of the sample.

Analyzing method and apparatus for minute foreign substances, and manufacturing methods for manufacturing semiconductor device and liquid crystal display device using the same

To provide a minute foreign matter analysis method and device wherein the observation, analysis and estimation of minute foreign matter is permitted by linking the device coordinate of a particle inspection device and those of other analysis devices with by far higher accuracy. A minute foreign matter analysis method comprising the steps of: determining the position of a minute foreign substance on the surface of a sample in a particle test unit; transferring said sample onto a coordinate stage of an analysis unit; inputting the position determined by said particle test unit for the minute foreign substance to the coordinate stage of the analysis unit; and analyzing the contents of the relevant minute foreign substance wherein at least one of the unit coordinate to be employed in said particle test unit and the unit coordinate to be employed in said analysis unit is previously corrected using a standard wafer which has a scale on the surface so that coordination systems of said particle test unit and said analysis unit can be linked each other.

Method for analyzing minute foreign substance elements

To enable observation, analysis and evaluation of minute foreign substances by adopting a method for enabling performance of linkage between equipment coordinates of a particle examination equipment and apparatus coordinates of an analyzing apparatus such as SEM which is not a particle examination equipment with a precision higher than that with which coordinate linkage is performed between conventional equipment and apparatus coordinates. An analyzing method for analyzing minute foreign substances includes the steps of determining the position of a minute foreign substance on the surface of a sample in a particle examination equipment, transferring the sample to a coordinate stage of an analyzing apparatus and inputting the position of the minute foreign substance determined by the particle examination equipment to thereby analyze the contents of this minute foreign substance. It is characterized by linking the equipment coordinates adopted by the particle examination equipment with the apparatus coordinates adopted by the analyzing apparatus by use of the same coordinate system based on the configurations of the sample.

Analyzing method and apparatus for minute foreign substances, and

A semiconductor cleaning apparatus includes a cassette loader/unloader for moving a cassette; a product loader/unloader for loading a wafer into and unloading a wafer from a cassette; a cleaner for cleaning a wafer; a water cleaner for cleaning with water a wafer that has been cleaned in the cleaner; a dryer for drying the wafer that has been cleaned with water in the water cleaner; and a conveyance having a wafer grasping hand for directly holding a wafer unloaded from a cassette and sequentially conveying the wafer held by the wafer hand to the cleaner, the water cleaner, and the dryer.

Semiconductor cleaning apparatus and wafer cassette

Method for detecting and examining a slightly irregular surface state is provided which includes the steps of: illuminating a surface of a sample with light beam for detecting the slightly irregular surface state; observing a variation of the light beam occurring due to the slightly irregular surface state to specify the location of the slightly irregular surface state in an x-y plane of the sample; making the location of a probe needle of a scanning probe microscope and the location of the slightly irregular surface state on the sample coincide with each other; and measuring a three-dimensional image of the slightly irregular surface state by means of the scanning probe microscope. The scanning probe microscope for use in the aforementioned method and a method for fabricating a semiconductor device or a liquid crystal display device which utilizes the aforementioned method are also provided.

Method for detecting and examining slightly irregular surface states,

A semiconductor processing method includes the steps of carrying a case containing semiconductor wafers and to which an ID card is attached into semiconductor processing equipment at a first side of the semiconductor processing equipment; removing the ID card from the case; taking the semiconductor wafers out of the case; carrying the semiconductor wafers taken out of the case into a processing means on a second side, opposite to the first side, of the semiconductor processing equipment; processing the semiconductor wafers in the processing means; attaching the ID card corresponding to the semiconductor wafers to the case; taking the processed semiconductor wafers out of the processing means at the first side of the semiconductor processing equipment; putting the processed semiconductor wafers into the case to which the ID card is attached; and carrying the case outside the semiconductor equipment at the first side of the semiconductor equipment.

Semiconductor device processing method

A semiconductor cleaning apparatus having: a loader/unloader portion for injecting/ejecting a product cassette which accommodates a wafer; a product injecting/ejecting portion for injecting/ejecting the wafer from the product cassette; a cleaning portion for cleaning the wafer; a water cleaning portion for, with water, cleaning the wafer which has been cleaned in the cleaning portion; a drying portion for drying the wafer which has been cleaned with water in the water cleaning portion; and a conveyance portion having a wafer hand for directly holding the wafer ejected from the product cassette in the product injecting/ejecting portion and sequentially conveying the wafer held by the wafer hand to the cleaning portion, the water cleaning portion and the drying portion.

A device for analyzing fine particles in a sample gas includes a light source for emitting light, a convergent device for converting the light emitted by the light source into a convergent light beam having a light focus point and an energy density sufficient to dissociate the fine particles to be analyzed. The device also includes a transparent analyzer tube having a window for admitting the convergent light beam and a throat located at the light focus point of the convergent light beam, the analyzer tube receiving the sample gas and passing the sample gas through the throat. The device includes a light collecting device for collecting, through the analyzer tube, light emitted from dissociated fine particles, dissociated by the convergent light beam in the throat of the analyzer tube, and an analyzing device for analyzing the light from the dissociated fine particles collected by the collecting device.

Fine particle analyzing device

Semiconductor processing equipment includes an ID-card removing robot, an ID-card stocking device, and an ID-card attaching robot so that the management of ID cards is performed inside the equipment. Thus, the present invention makes it possible to reduce equipment size and achieve highly efficient factory automation. Furthermore, in a semiconductor processing equipment module according to the present invention, each item of semiconductor processing equipment has its own ID-card stocking device. As a result, the number of case carriers can be reduced and a space reduction with increased factory automation can be easily realized.

Semiconductor processing apparatus and module

A cleaning apparatus and a cleaning method effectively clean the entire surface of a substrate to be cleaned by uniformly irradiating ultrasonic waves to the substrate. Ultrasonic waves generated by an ultrasonic oscillator provided on the side wall of an outer tank are transmitted through an ultrasonic wave transmission medium provided between the outer tank and an inner tank, for example, water, and are irradiated on a substrate to be cleaned, for example, a semiconductor wafer, in the inner tank through a cleaning chemical in the inner tank. By irradiating the ultrasonic waves from the side of the cleaning apparatus, a support base blocks the least amount of ultrasonic waves from reaching the substrate. This is effective to uniformly clean the substrate.

Cleaning apparatus

In a method of manufacturing semiconductor devices by using a semiconductor wafer having a circuit area in which a circuit pattern is to be formed and a character printing area in which a lot number pattern for recording characters used for product management is to be formed, etching the surface of the semiconductor wafer to form the lot number pattern in the character printing area, forming a metallic layer over the surface of the semiconductor wafer, and selectively removing the portion of the metallic layer located on the circuit area but not used as the circuit pattern and the portion of the metallic layer located on the character printing area simultaneously.

Growing community of inventors

Itami, Japan

Masashi Ohmori