Ebara Corporation

Japan As Represented by Director General of Agency of Industrial Science

Masashi Shimoyama

Jumpei Fujikata

Yasuyuki Masuda

Mizuki Nagai

Shao Hua Chang

Yuji Araki

Ryuya Koizumi

Mitsuhiro Shamoto

Kazuhito Tsuji

Ryosuke Hiwatashi

Takashi Kishi

Tsutomu Nakada

Fumio Kuriyama

Yoshitaka Mukaiyama

Kunio Oishi

Yohei Wakuda

Yoichi Nakagawa

Toshio Yokoyama

Masaki Tomita

Yoshio Minami

Toshiki Miyakawa

Takashi Mitsuya

Ryu Miyamoto

Kentaro Ishimoto

Masamichi Tamura

Hiroshi Yokota

Masaya Seki

Naoki Tsuchiya

Nobutoshi Saito

Shingo Yasuda

Masashi Obuchi

Yusuke Tamari

Hideharu Aoyama

Masayuki Fujiki

Rei Kiumi

Akira Yabe

Kazuo Kinoshita

Hiroyuki Niino

Tohru Fukatsu

An object is to enhance the accuracy of porosity and/or the flexibility in adjustment of the porosity in each portion of a plate. There is provided a plate that is placed between a substrate and an anode in a plating tank. The plate comprises a pore forming area in which a plurality of pores are formed, wherein the pore forming area includes a center portion, a middle portion located on an outer side of the center portion, and an outer circumferential portion located on an outer side of the middle portion, the center portion and the outer circumferential portion of the pore forming area have a plurality of oblong pores, and the middle portion of the pore forming area has a plurality of circular pores.

Plate, apparatus for plating, and method of manufacturing plate

A technique capable of preventing bubbles from being accumulated on a lower surface of an electric field shield plate is provided. A plating apparatus includes: a plating tank in which a plating solution is retained, and an anode is arranged: a substrate holder that is arranged above the anode, and holds a substrate serving as a cathode such that a surface to be plated of the substrate faces the anode; a diaphragm that partitions an inside of the plating tank into an anode region where the anode is arranged, and a cathode region where the substrate is arranged; and a supporting member that is in contact with a lower surface of the diaphragm and supports the diaphragm, and includes a plurality of beam components extending over regions between the anode and the substrate along the lower surface of the diaphragm, the beam components including bubble guide paths for guiding bubbles from the regions between the anode and the substrate to an outside.

Plating apparatus

To improve uniformity of a plating film-thickness formed on a substrate. A plating moduleincludes a plating tankfor housing a plating solution, a substrate holderfor holding a substrate Wf, an anodehoused within the plating tank, an anode maskarranged between the substrate Wf held by the substrate holderand the anodeand provided with an openingin a center, and an ionically resistive elementarranged at an interval from the anode maskbetween the substrate Wf held by the substrate holderand the anode maskand provided with a plurality of holes.

Plating apparatus and plating method

In a plating apparatus including a shielding member, an ionically resistive element is disposed to be close to a surface to be plated of a substrate to improve uniformity of a distribution of plating film-thickness. A plating apparatus includes: a plating tankconfigured to house a plating solution; a substrate holderconfigured to hold a substrate Wf with a surface to be plated Wf-a facing downward; an anodedisposed in the plating tank; an ionically resistive elementdisposed between the substrate Wf and the anodeand including an opposed surface-opposed to the surface to be plated Wf-a, the opposed surface-including a first opposed surface-and a second opposed surface-apart from the surface to be plated Wf-a more than the first opposed surface-; and a shielding memberdisposed in a depressed region β of the ionically resistive element, the depressed region β being formed by the second opposed surface-. The shielding memberis for shielding an electric field.

A specific portion of a substrate is allowed to be shielded at a desired timing, and making a plating film-thickness uniform is improved. A plating module includes: a plating tankfor housing a plating solution; an anodedisposed in the plating tank; a substrate holderfor holding a substrate Wf with a surface to be plated Wf-a facing downward; a rotation mechanismconfigured to rotate the substrate holderin a first direction and a second direction opposite to the first direction; and a shielding mechanismconfigured to move a shielding memberinto between the anodeand the substrate Wf depending on a rotation angle of the substrate holder

A plating apparatus that allows shielding a specific portion of a substrate at a desired timing is achieved. The plating apparatus includes a plating tankfor housing a plating solution, an anodearranged in the plating tank, a substrate holderfor holding a substrate Wf with a surface to be plated facing downward, a rotation mechanismfor rotating the substrate holder, and a shielding mechanismmoving a shielding memberbetween the anodeand the substrate Wf depending on a rotation angle of the substrate holder

A plating method capable of saving a substrate in an event of a failure of a transporter, a plating tank, or other component when the substrate is being plated is disclosed. The plating method includes: transporting a plurality of substrates to a plurality of plating tanks, respectively, with a transporter; immersing the plurality of substrates in a plating solution held in the plurality of plating tanks to plate the plurality of substrates; detecting a failure that has occurred in the transporter or a post-processing tank; and replacing the plating solution in the plurality of plating tanks with a preservative liquid to thereby immerse the plurality of substrates in the preservative liquid.

Plating method and plating apparatus

There is provided a method of adjusting a plating module, wherein the plating module comprises a substrate holder configured to hold a substrate, an anode placed to be opposed to the substrate holder, and a plate placed between the substrate holder and the anode to serve as an ionically resistive element. The method comprises: providing a plating module of initial setting, which is initially set in such a state that a porosity in an outer circumferential portion of the plate is adjusted to reduce a plating film thickness in an outer circumferential portion of the substrate to be smaller than a film thickness in another portion; and adjusting a distance between the substrate holder and the plate so as to flatten a distribution of plating film thickness of the entire substrate by adjustment of the distance between the substrate holder and the plate such as to increase a film thickness in the outer circumferential portion of the substrate according to a film thickness distribution of the substrate that is plated in the plating module.

Method of adjusting plating module

Provided is a technique that ensures the suppressed deterioration of plating quality of a substrate due to air bubbles that remain on a surface to be plated of the substrate. A plating apparatusincludes a plating tank, a substrate holder, a rotation mechanism, and an elevating mechanism. The plating tankis configured to accumulate a plating solution and include an anodearranged inside the plating tank. The substrate holderis arranged above the anode and configured to hold a substrate as a cathode such that a surface to be plated of the substrate faces downward. The substrate holder includes a ringprojecting below an outer peripheral edge of the surface to be plated of the substrate. The rotation mechanismis configured to rotate the substrate holder. The elevating mechanismis configured to elevate the substrate holder. The ring has a lower surface, and at least one protrusionprojecting toward a lower side is arranged on a part of the lower surface.

Plating apparatus and air bubble removing method of plating apparatus

A technique that ensures suppressing deterioration of a plating quality of a substrate caused by air bubbles accumulated on a lower surface of a membrane is provided. An air bubble removing method of a plating apparatus is an air bubble removing method for removing air bubble in an anode chamberin a plating apparatusincluding a plating tankand a substrate holder. The air bubble removing method includes: supplying a plating solution Ps from at least one supply portdisposed in an outer peripheral portionof the anode chamber to the anode chamber and causing at least one discharge portdisposed in the outer peripheral portion of the anode chamber so as to face the supply port to suction the supplied plating solution to form a shear flow Sf of the plating solution along a lower surface on the lower surfaceof a membranein the anode chamber.

Air bubble removing method of plating apparatus and plating apparatus

A paddle capable of reducing an influence of blocking the electric field and capable of improving its mechanical strength is disclosed. The paddle, which is configured to agitate a processing liquid in a processing tank by moving in the processing tank, includes a plurality of agitating beams that form a honeycomb structure. The honeycomb structure has a plurality of hexagonal through-holes formed by the plurality of agitating beams.

Paddle, processing apparatus having the paddle, and method of producing the paddle

A plating support system is provided and includes a simulator that predicts an in-plane uniformity value of a plating film formed on a substrate based on assumed conditions for an electroplating treatment of the substrate; a numerical analysis data storage unit that stores numerical analysis data in which each assumed condition is associated with the in-plane uniformity value for plural assumed conditions; a regression analysis unit that estimates a model that the in-plane uniformity value is an objective variable and variables of assumed conditions are explanatory variables by regression analysis based on the numerical analysis data; and an implement condition search unit that uses the estimated model to search for implement conditions that are recommended values of the assumed conditions related to the in-plane uniformity of the plating film formed in the electroplating treatment of the substrate to be plated.

Plating support system, plating support device, and recording medium

Provided is a plate that is arranged between a substrate and an anode in a plating tank. This plate has a plurality of circular pores on each one of at least three reference circles that are concentric with each other and that are different from each other in diameter. The plurality of circular pores include three circular pores that are arranged respectively on adjacent three of the at least three reference circles, and that have centers which are out of alignment with each other on an arbitrary radius on the plate.

Plate, plating apparatus, and method of manufacturing plate

A paddle for agitating a plating solution by reciprocating parallel to a surface of a substrate is disclosed. The paddle includes a plurality of vertically-extending agitation rods. Each agitation rod includes: a planar portion perpendicular to a reciprocating direction of the paddle; two slope surfaces extending from side ends of the planar portion in directions closer to each other, the two slope surfaces being symmetric with respect to a center line of the agitation rod, the center line being perpendicular to the planar portion; and a tip portion connected with the two slope surfaces.

Paddle, plating apparatus equipped with the paddle, and plating method

A plating device includes: an anode; a substrate holder which holds a substrate; a substrate contact which comes into contact with a peripheral edge portion of the substrate; a resistor which is disposed in a way of facing the substrate holder between the anode and the substrate holder, and is used for adjusting ion movement; and a rotation driving mechanism which causes the resistor and the substrate holder to relatively rotate. The resistor includes: a shielding region which forms an outer frame and shields the ion movement between the anode and the substrate; and a resistance region which is formed on the radially inner side of the shielding region, and has a porous structure allowing the passage of an ion. An outer diameter of the resistance region has an amplitude centering on an imaginary reference circle, and has a wave shape which is periodic and annularly continuous.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Masashi Shimoyama