Tokyo Electron Limited

Tokyo Electron Kabushiki Kaisha

Tokyo Electron Tohoku Kabushiki Kaisha

V-tex Corporation

Yoji Iizuka

Tatsuya Yamaguchi

Teruo Asakawa

Katsumi Ishii

Towl Ikeda

Hiroshi Ohno

Mitsuaki Iwashita

Jun Hirose

Kenji Sekiguchi

Hiroaki Saeki

Ryuichi Asako

Syuji Nozawa

Hirokazu Ueda

Koji Akiyama

Reiji Niino

Hiroshi Koizumi

Hiroki Oka

Takashi Hayakawa

Keiichi Matsushima

Takeo Nakano

Naoki Umeshita

Tatsuya Nakagome

Dipak Aryal

Antonio Rotondaro

Kenichi Nakagawa

A vacuum processing apparatus includes a decompressable process container; a supply port configured to supply, to the process container, an ionic liquid that absorbs an oxidizing gas; and a discharge port configured to discharge the ionic liquid supplied to the process container. A recess is provided at a joint portion between members constituting the process container. The supply port is configured to supply the ionic liquid to the recess, and the discharge port is configured to discharge the ionic liquid supplied to the recess.

Vacuum processing apparatus and oxidizing gas removal method

There is provided a film-forming apparatus, comprising: a process container in which a vacuum atmosphere is formed; a rotary table installed in the process container, the rotary table having substrate mounting regions formed on a side of a top surface of the rotary table and configured to mount a plurality of substrates, and the rotary table including a rotary mechanism configured to rotate the substrate mounting regions around a rotary shaft; a heating mechanism configured to heat the substrates mounted on the substrate mounting regions; a gas supply part installed to face a moving region where the substrates move when the rotary table rotates and including gas discharge holes formed to cross the moving region, the gas discharge holes being configured to discharge a first film-forming gas and a second film-forming gas; and an exhaust part configured to exhaust an interior of the process container.

Film-forming apparatus and film-forming method

There is provided a substrate processing apparatus including: a chamber in which a target substrate is accommodated; a first gas supply part configured to supply a gas containing a first monomer, and a gas containing a second monomer, which forms a polymer through a polymerization reaction with the first monomer, into the chamber so as to form a film of the polymer on the target substrate; an exhaust device configured to exhaust a gas inside the chamber; a first exhaust pipe configured to connect the chamber and the exhaust device; and an energy supply device configured to supply an energy with respect to a gas flowing through the first exhaust pipe so as to cause an unreacted component of at least one of the first monomer and the second monomer contained in the gas exhausted from the chamber to be reduced in a molecular weight.

Substrate processing apparatus

There is provided a film-forming apparatus and a film-forming method. The film-forming apparatus, in a first period, sets the second heater to a temperature Tat which no film is formed on a substrate disposed on the mounting stand without supplying a precursor gas into the process container, in a second period, sets the second heater to a temperature Tat which no film is formed on the substrate and supplies a precursor gas into the process container from the precursor gas supply pipe, in a third period, sets the second heater to a film-forming temperature T, and in the first to third periods, sets the first heater to a temperature Tat which no film is formed on a periphery of a gas supply port of the precursor gas supply pipe.

Provided is a gate valve for opening and closing an aperture formed in a body of a chamber and designed so that an object is loaded into or unloaded from the chamber, comprising a lift mechanism provided on a side portion of the chamber body, a supporting portion supported by a lift mechanism for up-and-down motion, a valve plate supported by the supporting portion and movable between a closed position such as to close the aperture of the chamber body and an open position such that the valve plate is separated from the aperture to leave the aperture open as the supporting portion is moved up and down by the lift mechanism, and a separating mechanism for allowing the valve plate to move to a position ahead of the aperture so that the valve plate is separated from the aperture.

Gate valve

A relay apparatus according to the invention is provided for transferring to-be-treated objects between a transfer mechanism for carrying the objects into and out of a treatment chamber, and a cassette containing the objects. The relay apparatus comprises a transfer unit including holding portions for each holding a corresponding one of the objects from below, the transfer unit transferring the objects between the cassette and a transfer position at which the objects are transferred to the transfer mechanism, while holding the object with the holding portions, and a stopper located in the transfer position for adjusting positions of edge portions of all the objects held by the holding portions of the transfer means, thereby preventing the objects from moving horizontally relative to the holding portions.

Relay apparatus for relaying object to be treated

A cassette chamber according to the present invention comprises a housing defining a space stored with a cassette for holding a plurality of objects of treatment, a lift base having a rotatable shaft and located in the housing for up-and-down motion, an auxiliary base fixed to the shaft and inclined at a predetermined angle to the longitudinal direction of the shaft, a cassette support having a bottom support portion set on the lift base and bearing the bottom face of the cassette and a back support portion rotatably supported by the auxiliary base and bearing the back face of the cassette, a rotation mechanism for rotating the shaft as the lift base ascends or descends, thereby rotating the auxiliary base and the cassette support between a first position inside the housing and a second position outside the housing, and a support section for keeping the back support portion of the cassette support parallel to the shaft by engaging the back support portion being rotated to the second position by the rotation mechanism and causing the back support portion to rotate relatively to the auxiliary base.

Cassette chamber

There is a gap between the respective inner regions of the end face of the cylindrical side wall and the abutting portion of the top plate, which are situated inside the seal member. Even though the top plate is bent inward by atmospheric pressure when the container is decompressed to a predetermined degree of vacuum, therefore, the abutting portion thereof cannot come into contact with the inner edge of the end face of the cylindrical side wall. Thus, if decompression and exposure to atmospheric pressure are repeated to bend the cylindrical side wall repeatedly, there is no possibility of the inner edge portion of the end face of the cylindrical side wall being separated or rubbed off to produce dust. Moreover, the cylindrical side wall and top plate are joined together in the region outside the seal member. If dust is produced by the contact between the cylindrical side wall and top plate at their junctions outside the seal member, therefore, it is prevented from entering the container by the seal member. Thus, a clean atmosphere in the container cannot be contaminated by the dust.

Decompression container

A gap is defined between an inner region of an end face of a first container member of a container and an inner region of an abutting portion of a second container member, the inner regions being situated inside a seal member. The respective inner regions of the end face of the first container member and the abutting portion of the second container member, which are situated inside the seal member, are prevented from coming into contact with each other when the interior of the container is decompressed. Even though the second container member is bent inward by atmospheric pressure when the container is decompressed to a predetermined degree of vacuum, therefore, the abutting portion thereof cannot come into contact with the inner edge of the end face of the first container member. Thus, if decompression and exposure to atmospheric pressure are repeated to bend the container member repeatedly, there is no possibility of the inner edge portion of the end face of the first container member being separated or rubbed off to produce dust.

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Tokyo, Japan

Yoji Iizuka