The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 25, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 04, 1997
Kimio Motoda, Kumamoto, JP;
Kiyomitsu Yamaguchi, Kumamoto, JP;
Yoshitaka Matsuda, Kumamoto, JP;
Tetsu Kawasaki, Yamanashi-ken, JP;
Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The invention provides an apparatus for treating a substrate with resist, comprising a spin chuck for horizontally holding a substrate, a first motor for variably rotating the spin chuck, a nozzle for applying resist solution onto the upper surface of the substrate held on the spin chuck, a cup having an upper opening through which the substrate is put in or taken out of the cup and a lower opening through which extends the driving shaft of the spin chuck, the cup positioned to surround the substrate held on the spin chuck to receive liquid centrifugally separated from the substrate which is rotated about its axis, a lid to close the upper opening of the cup to define a space around the substrate, a second motor for variably rotating the cup independently of the spin chuck rotation, a liftable cylinder for relatively moving at least one of the spin chuck and cup, which are positioned apart from each other, toward each other to achieve mutual contact, and an O-ring for hermetically sealing the mutual contact portion between the cup and spin chuck when these cup and spin chuck are brought into mutual contact by the liftable cylinder. When the cup and spin chuck are brought into mutual contact by the liftable cylinder, the lower opening of the cup is closed by the spin chuck to form a hermetic space. The spin chuck and cup are rotated in synchronism by first and second motors while the chamber is kept hermetically closed.