Screen Holdings Co., Ltd.

Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.

Ryo Muramoto

Sei Negoro

Yasuhiko Nagai

Koji Hashimoto

Toyohide Hayashi

Ichiro Mitsuyoshi

Michinori Iwao

Keiji Iwata

Tsutomu Osuka

Kenji Kobayashi

Hiroshi Abe

Manabu Okutani

Takashi Ota

Toru Sato

Mitsukazu Takahashi

Nobuaki Okita

Hiroaki Ishii

Takayuki Nishida

Wataru Sakai

Akio Shiomi

Takaaki Ishizu

Kazuhiro Shoji

Yoshihiro Nishina

Shuhei Nemoto

This invention includes a substrate holder provided rotatably about an axis of rotation extending in a vertical direction while sucking and holding a central part of a lower surface of a substrate, a rotating mechanism for outputting a rotational driving force for rotating the substrate holder, a processing mechanism for processing the substrate by supplying a processing liquid to the substrate held by the substrate holder, and a rotating cup provided rotatably about the axis of rotation while surrounding an outer periphery of the rotating substrate and configured to collect liquid droplets of the processing liquid scattered from the substrate. The rotating mechanism includes a power transmitter for transmitting a part of the rotational driving force as a cup driving force to the rotating cup, and simultaneously rotates the substrate holder and the rotating cup by the rotational driving force.

Substrate processing apparatus

A substrate processing method includes a liquid film forming step of forming a liquid film, a liquid film heat retaining step of keeping the liquid film warm, a gas phase layer forming step of forming a gas phase layer which holds the processing liquid on a center portion of the liquid film, an opening forming step of forming an opening in the center portion of the liquid film by excluding the processing liquid held by the gas phase layer, a substrate rotating step of rotating the substrate around a rotation axis, and an opening expanding step of expanding the opening, while a state in which the gas phase layer is formed on an inner circumferential edge of the liquid film is maintained, by moving the irradiation region toward a circumferential edge portion of the substrate while the liquid film heat retaining step and the substrate rotating step are performed.

Substrate processing method and substrate processing apparatus

A substrate holding apparatus is used for a substrate processing apparatus for supplying the processing liquid to a substrate. The substrate holding apparatus includes a holding member, a ring member, and a rotation mechanism. The holding member holds the substrate in a horizontal attitude. The ring member is in a shape of a ring surrounding a peripheral edge of the substrate held by the holding member, and has an upper surface level with or positioned below a front surface of the substrate. The rotation mechanism rotates the holding member and the ring member about a rotation axis at rotation speeds different from each other and/or in rotational directions different from each other, the rotation axis being a vertical axis passing through the substrate held by the holding member.

Substrate holding apparatus and substrate processing apparatus

A transfer path is provided which is extended so as to be passed on a lateral side of a processing portion that processes a substrate. The substrate transferred between a container held by a holding unit and the processing portion passes through the transfer path. A first transfer robot carries the substrate into and out of the container held by the holding unit, and accesses a reception/delivery region arranged within the transfer path. A second transfer robot receives and delivers the substrate from and to the first transfer robot in the reception/delivery region, and carries the substrate into and out of the processing portion. A second transfer robot raising/lowering unit which raises and lowers the second transfer robot is arranged within the transfer path. The reception/delivery region and the second transfer robot raising/lowering unit are located between the first transfer robot and the second transfer robot.

A substrate rotation mechanism rotates the substrate holder about a central axis. A top plate opposes the upper surface of the substrate and rotates about the central axis. A gas supply part supplies a treatment atmospheric gas to a radial central part of a lower space that is a space below the top plate. An ion generator generates and supplies ions to the treatment atmospheric gas supplied from the gas supply part. Then, in a state in which the top plate is positioned lower than when the substrate is transported into the apparatus, the treatment atmospheric gas that contains the ions is supplied to the lower space to form an ion stream that spreads radially outward from the radial central part of the lower space while rotating the substrate holder and the top plate. Accordingly, charges can be dissipated from the top plate with a simple structure.

Substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing method

A protective disk is disposed between a spin base and a substrate W and is capable of being raised and lowered between a separated position which is separated downward from the substrate W and a near position which is nearer to the substrate than the separated position. An upper surface of the protective disk has an inner surface which is provided on an inner side of a plurality of holding pins in a radial direction and a flat surface which is provided on an outer side of the inner surface in the radial direction and is provided above the inner surface. The flat surface faces a lower surface of a part on an inner side of an outer circumferential end in the radial direction, in a circumferential edge portion of the substrate.

The substrate holding/rotating device includes a plurality of movable pins each having a support portion in contact with a peripheral edge portion of the substrate to support the substrate, and a rotation unit which rotates the plurality of movable pins around the rotation axis, a support portion of each of the movable pins included in a first pin group is disposed so as to move between a first hold position included hold positions, the first hold position close to a rotation axis and a second hold position included the hold positions, the second hold position far apart from the first hold position to one in a circumferential direction and also so as to move between the first and second hold positions and an open position far apart from the rotation axis.

Substrate holding/rotating device, substrate processing apparatus including the same, and substrate processing method

A top plate when located at a first position is held by an opposing-member holder, and the top plate when located at a second position is held by a substrate holder and rotated along with the substrate holder. In a substrate processing apparatus, a first processing liquid nozzle located at a supply position inside a to-be-held part of the top plate supplies a first processing liquid through an opposing-member opening to a substrate and is moved from the supply position to its retracted position, and a second processing liquid nozzle is moved from its retracted position to the supply position and supplies a second processing liquid through the opposing-member opening to the substrate. This configuration suppresses or prevents mixture of multiple types of processing liquids, as compared with the case where multiple types of processing liquids are sequentially supplied from a single processing liquid nozzle.

Substrate processing apparatus, substrate processing system, and substrate processing method

A first transfer robot carries a substrate into and out of a container. A second transfer robot receives and delivers the substrate from and to the first transfer robot, and carries the substrate into and out of a first processing portion through a first exit/entrance port. A third transfer robot receives and delivers the substrate from and to the second transfer robot, carries the substrate into and out of a second processing portion through a second exit/entrance port, and carries the substrate into and out of a third processing portion through a third exit/entrance port.

Substrate processing device

A pair of guide parts of a substrate inverting device comes in contact with the peripheral edge portion of a substrate on both sides in the width direction of the substrate. The switching mechanism changes a state of contact between the pair of guide parts and the substrate by switching the positions of the pair of guide parts between a first contact position and a second contact position. Each of the pair of guide parts has a first contact region and a second contact region. The second contact region is located at a position different in the up-down direction and the width direction from the position of the first contact region. The substrate inverting device is capable of switching regions of the guide parts that come in contact with the substrate between the first contact regions and the second contact regions in accordance with the state of the substrate.

Substrate inverting device, substrate processing apparatus, and substrate supporting device, and substrate inverting method, substrate processing method, and substrate supporting method

A substrate processing apparatus includes a heater having an infrared lamp and a housing for heating an upper surface of a substrate held by a substrate holding mechanism with the heater in opposed relation to the upper surface. A heater cleaning method includes locating the heater at a position above a lower nozzle in opposed relation to a first spout of the lower nozzle, the lower nozzle being in opposed relation to a lower surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding mechanism, and a lower cleaning liquid spouting step of supplying a cleaning liquid to the lower nozzle to spout the cleaning liquid upward from the first spout with no substrate being held by the substrate holding mechanism to thereby supply the cleaning liquid to an outer surface of the housing of the heater located at the heater cleaning position.

Heater cleaning method

A substrate processing apparatus has a labyrinth around a processing liquid nozzle above a nozzle gap, and a seal gas is supplied to the labyrinth to seal the nozzle gap from an external space. Consequently, the entry of the atmosphere of the external space into a processing space through the nozzle gap can be suppressed. An opposing-member flange part of a top plate has a first uneven part on the upper surface, and a holder body of an opposing-member moving mechanism has a second uneven part on the lower surface. The labyrinth is formed by raised portions of one of the first and second uneven parts being disposed within recessed portions of the other of the first and second uneven parts with a gap therebetween only when the top plate is located at a second position (i.e., the processing space is created). This achieves flattening of the substrate processing apparatus.

A substrate treatment apparatus is used for treating a major surface of a substrate with a chemical liquid. The substrate treatment apparatus includes: a substrate holding unit which holds the substrate; a chemical liquid supplying unit having a chemical liquid nozzle which supplies the chemical liquid onto the major surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit; a heater having an infrared lamp to be located in opposed relation to the major surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit to heat the chemical liquid supplied onto the major surface of the substrate by irradiation with infrared radiation emitted from the infrared lamp, the heater having a smaller diameter than the substrate; and a heater moving unit which moves the heater along the major surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit.

Substrate treatment apparatus

Substrate processing apparatus and heater cleaning method

A substrate processing apparatus includes a substrate processing section that processes a plurality of substrates assuming a vertical posture in a batch manner; a first traversing mechanism that laterally moves a first traverse holding portion along a first traversing path between a substrate transfer position and a substrate delivery position; a second traversing mechanism that laterally moves a second traverse holding portion along a second traversing path disposed below the first traversing path between the substrate transfer position and the substrate delivery position; an elevation mechanism that raises and lowers an elevation holding portion in the substrate transfer position; and a main transfer mechanism that conveys a plurality of substrates assuming a vertical posture in a batch manner between the substrate delivery position and the substrate processing section, the first and second traverse holding portions, and the elevation holding portion each holds a plurality of substrates assuming a vertical posture in a batch manner.

Growing community of inventors

Kyoto, Japan

Ryo Muramoto