Tokyo Electron Limited

Tokyo Electron Kyushu Limited

Tokyo Electron Saga Limited

Shori Mokuo

Hiroshi Tanaka

Teruomi Minami

Kenji Yokomizo

Naoki Shindo

Shigenori Kitahara

Yoichi Deguchi

Yuuji Kamikawa

Mitsuo Nishi

Yoshio Kumagai

Keiji Taguchi

Shinji Tadakuma

A substrate processing apparatus of a simplified structure, which is capable of decreasing an amount of a process liquid to be used, and of restraining change in temperature of the process liquid is provided. The substrate processing apparatus includes: a processing unit that holds one substrate and processes the substrate held by the processing unit; a processing bath capable of simultaneously accommodating a plurality of substrates, the processing bath storing a process liquid into which a substrate is immersed so as to be processed, the process liquid being circulatingly supplied to the processing bath; and a transfer unit that simultaneously transfers substrates whose number is less than the number of substrate that can be accommodated in the processing bath. The transfer unit transfers, at least, to the processing bath in which the process liquid is stored. A substrate is processed with the use of at least one of the processing unit and the processing bath.

Substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing method

A method for heating a wafer to a predetermined temperature, the wafer being held by a holding unit and being accommodated in a processing container equipped with a heater. The wafer is heated to a processing temperature while positioning the wafer at an adjacent position that results form making the wafer approach the heating surface of the heater. After heating the wafer to the predetermined temperature, the wafer is separated from the flat bottom surface of the container body to a processing position. In this state, a processing chamber of the processing container is supplied with a processing fluid, while the holding unit and the heater are relatively moved close to and apart from each other intermittently or continuously. Accordingly, it is possible to quickly heat the substrate to a processing temperature while supplying the substrate with the processing fluid uniformly. This improves throughout and the homogenization in processing.

Substrate processing method and apparatus

Apparatus and method for correctly detecting the level of a processing liquid such as HPM in a processing tank in the event that any drift occurs in a detector is disclosed. A liquid level detecting apparatus ( ) comprises a pressure sensor ( ) operable to generate an output signal S which is maintained at a constant signal level until the level of HPM reaches a predetermined position M in the tank and rises in the signal level as the liquid level rises in the tank after reaching the predetermined position M, a determination circuit ( ) for determining whether the liquid level reaches the predetermined position M and a liquid level detecting circuit ( ) for detecting the liquid level. The output signal S from the pressure sensor is input to an amplifier ( ). The liquid level detecting circuit ( ) comprises a low-pass filter ( ) which receives the amplified signal and generates an output pressure signal S The liquid level detecting circuit ( ) is operable to calculate any difference between the output signal S from the low-pass filter and a correction signal &Dgr;S generated by a signal holding circuit ( ).

Method and apparatus for detecting liquid level

A liquid processing apparatus includes a liquid processing unit for supplying objects to be processes, such as wafers W, with a processing liquid for liquid processing, a processing-liquid supplying unit for supplying heated processing liquids to the liquid processing unit and a heating unit for heating the liquids up to a predetermined temperature. The heating unit has a heater for heating the liquids , a power supply circuit for supplying the heater with electricity, a temperature sensor and a temperature regulator both forming an output control unit for controlling an output from a power source to the heater , a solid state relay for switching on/off the operation of the power supply circuit by signals from the temperature regulator , and failure detecting units. The failure detecting units include a contact monitor for monitoring an ON/OFF contact in a power switch , a primary-side signal detecting monitor for detecting ON/OFF signals from the temperature regulator to the solid state relay , and a secondary output voltage detecting monitor for detecting secondary-side ON/OFF signals of the solid state relay , providing a heating device capable of determining the cause of failure finely and also the liquid processing apparatus using the heating device, which is used for applying a designated liquid processing to various kinds of substrates, for example, semiconductor wafers, LCD substrates, etc.

Heating device, liquid processing apparatus using the heating device and method of detecting failure thereof

A substrate transferring device including a pair of support arms for supporting LCD substrates substantially horizontally, expandable multi-joint link mechanisms for moving the support arms in a horizontal plane, a first motor for extending and retracting the link mechanisms, a rotary base on which the link mechanisms are mounted, and a second motor for rotating the rotary base, wherein one of the support arms is provided so that an LCD substrate supported by the support arm is, at least partially, overlapped with an LCD substrate supported by the other support arm when the link mechanism is retracted.

Substrate transferring device

Disclosed is an ultrasonic cleaning device including a cleaning tank containing a semiconductor wafer W and pure water, and a plurality of vibrating plates provided with the cleaning tank. The vibrating plates are electric distortion transducers. By controlling the output phases of oscillators that vibrate the plates with a single oscillating source, the output phases of the oscillation sources can be matched. This enables uniform sound pressure distribution. Consequently, ultrasonic interference between vibrating plates can be eliminated. Uniform sound pressure distribution makes it possible to obtain a uniform particle removal rate, thereby improving cleaning efficiency.

Ultrasonic cleaning device

A substrate washing and drying apparatus comprising a processing section for holding wafers, to which process solution to wash and vapor for drying the wafers are introduced, a supply/discharge port for introducing solution to the process section, and discharging the solution from the process section, a solution supply mechanism for selecting one from a plurality of kinds of solution, a drying vapor generation section having a heater for generation vapor for drying, a discharging solution mechanism having an opening for rapidly discharging the solution from the processing section, resistivity detecting means for detecting a resistivity value of the process solution, and a controller for controlling the supply of solution to the process section based on the resistivity value detected by the resistivity detecting means.

Substrate washing and drying apparatus, substrate washing method, and

A substrate drying apparatus includes a process bath having an object containing region for containing an object to be treated, a treatment liquid containing region for containing a volatile treatment liquid, and heating member for evaporating the treatment liquid, a receiving container, provided below the object containing region, for receiving water removed from the object with use of the evaporated treatment liquid, an exhaust pipe, attached to the container, for exhausting the water from the container to the outside of the process bath, and a cooling device, provided above the object containing region of the process bath, for condensing the evaporated treatment liquid, wherein the exhaust pipe has a valve and a branch pipe branched from the exhaust pipe such that the branch pipe is closer to the container than the valve is.

Substrate drying apparatus and substrate drying method

A communication system used in a semiconductor device manufacturing equipment includes a master side transmission unit having a master transmitting logic module for transmitting information in an inverted two-successive transmission mode in which information having non-inverted information and inverted information of the non-inverted information as one pair is transmitted and a master receiving logic module, and a plurality of slave side transmission units respectively mounted on a plurality of process units of a cleaning apparatus of the semiconductor device manufacturing equipment and each having a slave transmitting logic module and a slave receiving logic module which receives the non-inverted information and inverted information, for fetching the information when the contents of the non-inverted information and inverted information coincide with each other.

Communication system used in semiconductor device manufacturing equipment

A semiconductor wafer-detecting apparatus is provided with a main support body formed of synthetic resin. A pair of substantially-parallel longitudinal channels and a plurality of substantially-parallel transverse channels are formed in the main support body. The longitudinal channels are located away from each other by a predetermined distance, and the transverse channels are arranged at intervals corresponding to the intervals at which wafers are arranged. Between the adjacent transverse channels, a plurality of pairs of holding portions are defined such that each pair is associated with the longitudinal channels. A pair of light-emitting elements and a pair of light-receiving elements are alternately arranged with reference to the holding portions. The light-emitting elements of each pair have their light-emitting faces oriented in opposite directions; likewise, the light-receiving elements of each pair have their light-receiving faces oriented in opposite directions. The light-emitting elements of each pair and associated light-receiving elements jointly constitute respective optical sensors. The presence or absence of a wafer is determined by detecting whether or not light is shielded between the light-emitting and light-receiving elements of each optical sensor.

Apparatus and method using optical sensors recessed in channel walls for

A substrate detector device comprises a boat or chuck for holding substrates, a light emitting section having a plurality of light emitting elements, arranged side by side, for respectively applying light beams to the substrates, a light receiving section, facing the light emitting section and having a plurality of light receiving elements, for receiving light beams passed through the substrates, the light receiving elements arranged side by side so as not face the light emitting elements, a polarization filter provided on optical axes of the respective optical beams incident on the light receiving elements, a memory for storing, as reference data, an amount of light received by a receiving element which has been measured in advance when a light beam is applied to a substrate in a state where no other substrate is present on either side of the substrate, and controller for discriminating the presence, the number, and the state of arrangement of the substrates on the holding means based on the reference data and measured data based on the amount of light received by the light receiving elements after a light beam scattered by the substrate to be detected and a light beam wraparound substrates adjacent thereto are removed by the polarization filter.

Substrate detector with light emitting and receiving elements arranged

A detector for detecting the presence, number and arrangement of semiconductor wafers arranged face to face comprising a light emitting unit having a light emitting element for shooting light beam to each of the wafer, a light receiving unit having a light receiving element for receiving the light beam which have passed through each of the wafers, and a controller for finding the state of each of the wafers while comparing data obtained from the light beams received with reference data stored to thereby determine how each of the wafers to be processed, wherein said light emitting and receiving elements are alternately positioned corresponding to spaces each defined between a pair of the wafers.

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Tosu, Japan

Shori Mokuo