Patents by Inventor Masashi Enomoto

Masashi Enomoto has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240096656
    Abstract: An etching control system includes a prediction device and an etching control device. The prediction device includes an updating unit configured to update, to optimize a model indicating a relationship between distribution of an etching amount within a surface of a substrate and a process parameter, which is a parameter of controlling operations of multiple nozzles configured to etch the substrate, a parameter of the model; a calculator configured to calculate the process parameter corresponding to distribution of a designated etching amount by using the model whose parameter has been updated by the updating unit; and a provider configured to provide the process parameter calculated by the calculator. The etching control device includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire the process parameter; and an operation controller configured to control the operations of the multiple nozzles by using the process parameter acquired by the acquisition unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 18, 2023
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Inventors: Toyohisa Tsuruda, Hiroshi Marumoto, Suguen Lee, Masashi Enomoto
  • Publication number: 20240096657
    Abstract: An etching control system includes a prediction device and an etching control device. The prediction device includes a calculator configured to calculate, by using a model indicating a relationship between distribution of an etching amount within a surface of a substrate and a process parameter, which is a parameter of controlling operations of multiple nozzles configured to etch the substrate, the process parameter corresponding to distribution of a designated etching amount. The etching control device includes an updating unit configured to update a process recipe, which is information including a discharge time, a discharge position, and a moving speed of each of the multiple nozzles, based on the process parameter; and an operation controller configured to control the operations of the multiple nozzles according to the process recipe updated by the updating unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 18, 2023
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Inventors: Toyohisa Tsuruda, Hiroshi Marumoto, Suguen Lee, Masashi Enomoto
  • Publication number: 20240096658
    Abstract: An etching control device includes an updating unit configured to update, to optimize a model indicating a relationship between distribution of an etching amount within a surface of a substrate and a process parameter, which is a parameter of controlling operations of multiple nozzles configured to etch the substrate, a parameter of the model; a calculator configured to calculate the process parameter corresponding to distribution of a designated etching amount by using the model whose parameter has been updated by the updating unit; and an operation controller configured to control the operations of the multiple nozzles by using the process parameter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2023
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Inventors: Toyohisa Tsuruda, Hiroshi Marumoto, Suguen Lee, Masashi Enomoto
  • Patent number: 11876022
    Abstract: A substrate treatment method includes: generating, for each of layers constituting a stacked film on a substrate, a captured image of the substrate after a treatment regarding a relevant layer; and acquiring information indicating a feature amount estimated based on the captured image for each of a plurality of layers including an outermost layer of the stacked film on the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2024
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Masashi Enomoto, Hiroshi Nakamura, Toyohisa Tsuruda
  • Patent number: 11809091
    Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus which processes includes a thermal processor that performs thermal processing on the substrate; an imager that images the substrate; and a controller that executes adjustment processing of adjusting conditions of processing on the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Masahide Tadokoro, Masashi Enomoto, Kentaro Yamamura
  • Publication number: 20230314960
    Abstract: An apparatus includes: an capturing part that captures a peripheral edge portion of a substrate including a reference substrate and a workpiece substrate, so as to acquire captured images of the reference and workpiece substrates; a first calculation part that calculates a theoretical peripheral edge position of the reference substrate in the captured image of the reference substrate with reference to a center thereof, a second calculation part that calculates a theoretical peripheral edge position of the workpiece substrate in the captured image of the workpiece substrate based on the theoretical peripheral edge position of the reference substrate and the captured image of the workpiece substrate; a setting part that sets processing parameters for the peripheral edge portion of the substrate based on the theoretical peripheral edge position of the workpiece substrate; and a processing part that processes the peripheral edge portion of the substrate based on the processing parameters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2021
    Publication date: October 5, 2023
    Inventors: Masashi ENOMOTO, Hideaki KASHIWAGI, Naoto NAKAMURA
  • Publication number: 20230214984
    Abstract: An analyzing device 10 includes an imaging unit 11 configured to image a substrate surface; a defect range estimation unit 131 configured to estimate a defect range, which is a range in which a defect exists on the substrate surface, based on an imaging result of the imaging unit 11; a gray value acquisition unit 132 configured to acquire multiple gray values in the defect range when light is radiated to the substrate surface; and a defect type determination unit 133 configured to determine a defect type in the defect range based on the gray value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 3, 2023
    Publication date: July 6, 2023
    Inventor: Masashi Enomoto
  • Patent number: 11637031
    Abstract: Camera images may be utilized to detect substrate edges and provide information regarding the centering of the substrate within the fluid dispense system. Camera images may also be utilized to monitoring the location of a cup within the fluid dispense system. The signal processing techniques utilized may include data smoothing, analyzing only certain wavelengths of reflected energy, transforming the data (in one embodiment utilizing a Fourier transform), and/or analyzing a sub-set of the collected pixels of data. The camera image data collected herein may be combined with a wide variety of other data so as to better monitor, characterize and/or control a substrate processing process flow.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Michael Carcasi, Joshua Hooge, Mark Somervell, Hiroyuki Iwaki, Masahide Tadokoro, Masashi Enomoto, Joel Estrella, Yuichiro Kunugimoto
  • Publication number: 20230085325
    Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus includes: an imaging portion configured to acquire a surface image of a film formed on a surface of a substrate; an optical property estimation portion configured to estimate an optical property of the film based on process information acquired during formation of the film; and a film thickness estimation portion configured to estimate a film thickness of the film based on the surface image and an estimation result of the optical property.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2022
    Publication date: March 16, 2023
    Inventors: Hirokazu KYOKANE, Hidefumi MATSUI, Toshiyuki FUKUMOTO, Satoshi ITOH, Masashi IMANAKA, Toyohisa TSURUDA, Masashi ENOMOTO, Masahiro YANAGISAWA
  • Patent number: 11604415
    Abstract: A substrate processing method includes: forming a coating film on a substrate by supplying a resist liquid which is photosensitive to extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light to a surface of the substrate; forming a semi-solidified film by volatilizing a solvent contained in the coating film without heating the solvent; irradiating the semi-solidified film with EUV light thereby exposing the semi-solidified film with EUV light; and supplying a developer to the substrate after the exposure of the semi-solidified film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2023
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Takashi Yamauchi, Shinichiro Kawakami, Masashi Enomoto
  • Patent number: 11594424
    Abstract: A substrate processing method is a method of processing a substrate on which a metal-containing liquid for a film below a resist is applied, wherein prior to a heating process of performing a heat treatment on the substrate applied with the metal-containing liquid, the substrate processing method includes: a deprotection promoting process of promoting deprotection of functional groups in a material for the film included in the substrate on which the metal-containing liquid has been applied; a solvent removing process of removing a solvent included in the metal-containing liquid on the substrate; and a moisture absorbing process of bringing a surface of the substrate into contact with moisture.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2023
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Takahiro Shiozawa, Masashi Enomoto
  • Publication number: 20230042982
    Abstract: A technique for suppressing a metal component from remaining at a bottom of a mask pattern when the mask pattern is formed using a metal-containing resist film. A developable anti reflection film 103 is previously formed below a resist film 104. Further, after exposing and developing the wafer W, TMAH is supplied to the wafer W to remove a surface of the antireflection film 103 facing a bottom of the recess pattern 110 of the resist film 104. Therefore, the metal component 105 can be suppressed from remaining at the bottom of the recess pattern 110. Therefore, when the SiO2 film 102 is subsequently etched using the pattern of the resist film 104, the etching is not hindered, so that defects such as bridges can be suppressed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 20, 2022
    Publication date: February 9, 2023
    Inventors: Takashi YAMAUCHI, Shinichiro KAWAKAMI, Masashi ENOMOTO
  • Publication number: 20220398708
    Abstract: A substrate inspection device for inspecting a substrate, includes: a setting part configured to define a group according to a basic state that is not dependent on a presence or absence of a defect in a substrate and set the defined group for each inspection target substrate; an inspection part configured to perform a defect inspection based on a captured image of the inspection target substrate and an inspection recipe corresponding to the defined group to which the inspection target substrate belongs and including a reference image; a recipe creation part configured to create the inspection recipe for each group; and a determination part configured to perform a determination as to whether a group-setting target substrate, for which the group is set by the setting part, belongs to the group defined by the setting part.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 6, 2022
    Publication date: December 15, 2022
    Inventors: Masashi ENOMOTO, Masato HOSAKA
  • Patent number: 11508580
    Abstract: A technique for suppressing a metal component from remaining at a bottom of a mask pattern when the mask pattern is formed using a metal-containing resist film. A developable anti reflection film 103 is previously formed below a resist film 104. Further, after exposing and developing the wafer W, TMAH is supplied to the wafer W to remove a surface of the anti-reflection film 103 facing a bottom of the recess pattern 110 of the resist film 104. Therefore, the metal component 105 can be suppressed from remaining at the bottom of the recess pattern 110. Therefore, when the SiO2 film 102 is subsequently etched using the pattern of the resist film 104, the etching is not hindered, so that defects such as bridges can be suppressed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Takashi Yamauchi, Shinichiro Kawakami, Masashi Enomoto
  • Publication number: 20220269177
    Abstract: A method of processing a plurality of substrates includes loading a substrate onto a coating track, moving the substrate into a module of the coating track, performing a process to modify a film formed over the substrate, and obtaining, at a controller, optical sensor data from an optical sensor. The optical sensor data includes a measurement of a property of the film. The method includes determining a drying metric based on the property of the film, and adjusting a process parameter of the process based on the determined drying metric.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 23, 2021
    Publication date: August 25, 2022
    Inventors: Michael Carcasi, Joshua Hooge, Masashi Enomoto, Masahide Tadokoro, Kazuhiro Shiba
  • Publication number: 20220252992
    Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus which processes a substrate, includes: a thermal processor configured to perform thermal processing on the substrate; an imager configured to image the substrate; and a controller, wherein: the controller is configured to execute adjustment processing of adjusting conditions of processing on the substrate; and the adjustment processing includes: a pre-exposure imaging step of controlling the imager to image an unexposed adjustment substrate on which a resist film is formed; a thermal processing step of controlling the thermal processor to perform the thermal processing on the adjustment substrate subjected to uniform exposure processing of exposing each region of a substrate surface with a fixed exposure amount after the pre-exposure imaging step; a post-heating imaging step of controlling the imager to image the adjustment substrate after the thermal processing step; a temperature distribution estimation step of estimating an in-plane temperature distribution of the adjustmen
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2020
    Publication date: August 11, 2022
    Inventors: Masahide TADOKORO, Masashi ENOMOTO, Kentaro YAMAMURA
  • Patent number: 11287798
    Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus includes a film-forming device that forms a photosensitive film on a front surface of a substrate, a warping data acquisition device that acquires measured warping data of the substrate, a roughening process device that applies roughening process on a back surface of the substrate, and a control device including circuitry that controls the warping data acquisition device such that after the photosensitive film is formed on the front surface of the substrate, the warping data acquisition device acquires the measured warping data before the photosensitive film on the substrate undergoes exposure process, and control the roughening process device such that before the photosensitive film on the substrate undergoes the exposure process, the roughening process device applies the roughening process on the back surface of the substrate based on the measured warping data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2022
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Teruhiko Kodama, Masashi Enomoto
  • Publication number: 20210387224
    Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus includes a periphery removal unit configured to remove a peripheral portion of a film formed on a surface of a substrate; a profile acquisition unit configured to acquire a removal width profile indicating a relationship between a position in a circumferential direction of the substrate and a width of a portion of the substrate from which the film is removed; and a factor estimation unit configured to output factor information indicating a factor of an error in the width based on the removal width profile.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2021
    Publication date: December 16, 2021
    Inventors: Hiroshi Nakamura, Masahide Tadokoro, Masashi Enomoto
  • Publication number: 20210318618
    Abstract: A substrate treatment method of treating a treatment object substrate includes before applying a resist solution for forming a resist film onto a base film formed on a substrate surface of the treatment object substrate, performing a treatment of decreasing a polarity of the base film when the polarity of the base film is higher than a polarity of the resist solution, and performing a treatment of increasing the polarity of the base film when the polarity of the base film is lower than the polarity of the resist solution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 21, 2019
    Publication date: October 14, 2021
    Inventors: Satoru SHIMURA, Soichiro OKADA, Masashi ENOMOTO, Hidetami YAEGASHI
  • Publication number: 20210285822
    Abstract: Various embodiments of systems and methods for monitoring thermal characteristics of substrates, substrate processes and/or substrate processing module components are disclosed herein. More specifically, the present disclosure provides various embodiments of a thermal imaging sensor within various substrate processing modules (e.g., a liquid dispense module, a baking module or combined bake module, an interface block, a wafer inspection system (WIS) module, a plating dispense module or another processing module) of a substrate processing system. By positioning the thermal imaging sensor at various locations within the substrate processing system, the present disclosure enables thermal data to be remotely collected from the substrate surface, a liquid dispensed onto the substrate surface, a processing space surrounding the substrate, or a component included within a substrate processing module (e.g.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2021
    Publication date: September 16, 2021
    Inventors: Michael Carcasi, Kazuhiro Shiba, Masahide Tadokoro, Masashi Enomoto, Toyohisa Tsuruda