Tokyo Electron Limited

Naofumi Kishita

Tsunenaga Nakashima

Kouji Fujimura

Nobuhiro Ogata

Hiroichi Inada

Shuichi Nagamine

Koji Takayanagi

Yoshitaka Hara

Shinichi Hatakeyama

Yoshitomo Sato

Kazuyuki Tashiro

Gouichi Iwao

Yasushi Takiguchi

Hideki Kajiwara

Satoshi Biwa

Tohru Azuma

Yuji Sakai

Masahiro Abe

Yuichiro Miyata

Disclosed is a liquid processing apparatus including: a plurality of substrate placement regions; a nozzle that supplies a processing liquid to a substrate from each processing position; a nozzle placement region provided behind a row of the substrate placement regions; an arm that detachably holds the nozzle at one end side; a driving unit that horizontally pivots the arm around a pivot axis; and a controller that outputs a control signal to convey the nozzle from the nozzle placement region to a standby position corresponding to a processing position of a conveyance destination, cause the nozzle to stand by at the standby position, and then, convey the nozzle to the processing position. The standby position is outside the substrate placement regions and is located between the processing position and the nozzle placement region when viewed in a front-and-rear direction.

Liquid processing apparatus, liquid processing method, and storage medium

A liquid processing apparatus includes multiple substrate holding units each configured to horizontally hold a substrate and arranged in a left/right direction; a moving unit that is spaced from an arrangement of the substrate holding units in a forward/backward direction and is moved in the left/right direction; a nozzle standby unit, provided between a movement path of the moving unit and the arrangement of the substrate holding units, at which a nozzle that supplies a processing liquid to the substrate held by the substrate holding unit is on standby; and a rotatable arm having one end at which a nozzle holding unit that detachably holds the nozzle and the other end rotatably provided at the moving unit. The nozzle is transferred between the nozzle standby unit and a supply position where the processing liquid is supplied to the substrate together by the moving unit and the rotatable arm.

In one embodiment, a cleaning member has an annular part and an opening positioned radially inside the annular part, and can be moved up and down between a first position and a second position relative to a cleaning nozzle. For cleaning of the back surface of the wafer, the cleaning member is placed at its first position that allows a cleaning liquid to reach the back surface of the substrate through the opening of the cleaning member. For cleaning of the cup structure, the cleaning member placed at its second position higher than the first position is being rotated, and a cleaning liquid discharged from the cleaning nozzle collides with an annular part of the cleaning member and is guided to the inner surface of a cup structure.

Liquid treatment apparatus

There is provided a periphery coating method of coating a coating liquid on a periphery region of a substrate. The method includes performing a scan-in process of moving the coating liquid nozzle from an outside of an edge of the substrate to a position above the periphery region of the substrate while rotating the substrate and discharging the coating liquid from the coating liquid nozzle; and performing a scan-out process of moving the coating liquid nozzle from the position above the periphery region of the substrate to the outside of the edge of the substrate while rotating the substrate and discharging the coating liquid from the coating liquid nozzle. Further, in the scan-out process, the coating liquid nozzle is moved at a speed lower than a speed at which the coating liquid is moved to a side of an edge of the substrate.

Periphery coating apparatus, periphery coating method and storage medium therefor

A periphery coating unit performs a scan-in process of moving a resist liquid nozzlefrom an outside of an edge Wb of a wafer W to a position above a periphery region Wc of the wafer W while rotating the wafer W and discharging a resist liquid from the resist liquid nozzleand a scan-out process of moving the resist liquid nozzlefrom the position above the periphery region Wc of the wafer W to the outside of the edge Wb of the wafer W while rotating the wafer W and discharging the resist liquid from the resist liquid nozzleFurther, in the scan-out process, the resist liquid nozzleis moved at a speed vlower than a speed vat which the resist liquid is moved to a side of the edge Wb of the wafer W.

A wet processing apparatus for wet-processing substrates can suppress the reduction of throughput when some component part thereof becomes unserviceable. The wet processing apparatus includes a first nozzle unit and a second nozzle unit. When the wet processing apparatus operates in a normal mode, a substrate carrying mechanism is controlled so as to deliver substrates alternately to processing units of a first group and those of a second group so that the substrates are processed sequentially in order. When the processing units of the first group (the second group) are unserviceable due to the inoperativeness of the substrate holders, a processing liquid supply system or a nozzle support mechanism, the nozzle unit for the processing units of the second group (the first group) is moved to process substrates by the serviceable ones of the first group (the second group).

Wet processing apparatus, wet processing method and storage medium

Disclosed is a liquid processing apparatus capable of increasing the number of arranged substrate retainers without increasing the total exhaust amount of the liquid processing apparatus. A N-number (N is an integer identical to or greater than three) of cup bodies are inhaled and exhausted in total exhaust amount E through a plurality of separate exhaustion passage each having a first damper, and through a common exhaustion passage connected in common downstream of the separate exhaustion passages. The first dampers are configured such that an external air is received from the cup body in a first intake amount of external air Efor one of the cup bodies where a chemical liquid nozzle is placed at a setting location facing a wafer, and an external air is received from each of the other cup bodies in a second intake amount of external air Eless than the first amount Eand the intake amount of external air from both each of the other cup bodies and each of branched passages equals (E&#x2212;E)/(n&#x2212;1).

Liquid processing apparatus, liquid processing method and storage medium

The invention includes a lower guide unit which obliquely extends downward to an outside from a position closely opposed to a peripheral edge portion of a rear surface of the substrate held on the substrate holding unit, and is formed in an annular shape in a circumferential direction of the substrate; and an upper guide unit which has an upper end surface located at a substantially same height as a front surface of the substrate held on the substrate holding unit, forms a lower annular flow path between the upper guide unit and the lower guide unit for guiding downward together with a gas flow a treatment solution scattering from the substrate, is formed in an annular shape opposed to the lower guide unit to surround an outside lower region of the substrate, and has an inner peripheral surface having a longitudinal-sectional shape curved to bulge outward and extending downward.

Solution treatment apparatus, solution treatment method and resist coating method

A liquid treatment apparatus treating a surface of a substrate held generally horizontally on a stage in a housing by supplying a treating liquid to said surface from a supply nozzle. The liquid treatment apparatus includes a cup body provided so as to surround the substrate held in the substrate holding part laterally, the cup body being mounted detachably to a base inside the housing from an upward direction thereof; a cup body holding part holding the cup body detachably; and an elevating mechanism moving the cup body holding part up and down between a first position at which the cup body is mounted upon the base body and a second position located above the first position.

Liquid treatment apparatus, mounting and dismounting method of a cup body, and storage medium

Coater cup

Dislocation of processing liquid pouring nozzles is prevented, smooth carrying of the processing liquid pouring nozzles is achieved, and the positional accuracy of the processing liquid pouring nozzles, processing accuracy and yield are improved. A substrate processing apparatus includes a spin chuck () for holding and rotating a wafer (W), a plurality of processing liquid pouring nozzles () for pouring processing liquids on a surface of the wafer (W), a solvent bath () for holding the processing liquid pouring nozzles at their home positions, and a nozzle-carrying arm () for detachably gripping desired one of the processing liquid pouring nozzles () held on the solvent bath () and carrying the desired processing liquid pouring nozzle () to a working position above the wafer (W). The processing liquid pouring nozzles () are held in alignment with straight lines (L) extending between the center (C) of the spin chuck () about which the spin chuck () rotates and nozzle holding openings () formed at suitable intervals in the solvent bath (), respectively, and flexible supply tubes () connecting the processing liquid pouring nozzles () to processing liquid sources are arranged on extensions of the straight lines (L) respectively.

Growing community of inventors

Koshi, Japan

Naofumi Kishita