Patents Examined by Nathan K Ford
  • Patent number: 11600472
    Abstract: There is provided a vacuum processing apparatus in which at least one of the processing units includes a lower member and an upper member mounted on the lower member to be attachable and detachable that configure the vacuum container, a turning shaft member which is attached to an outer circumferential part of the base plate between the work space and the vacuum container, and has a turning shaft that moves from above the base plate when the turning shaft is connected to the lower member and the lower member turns around the connected part, and a maintenance member including an arm which is disposed above the turning shaft member and turns in a horizontal direction as the upper member is suspended, and in which the lower member is configured to be fixable at the position at a predetermined angle within a range of an angle at which the lower member is capable of turning around the shaft, and to be vertically movable as the arm of the maintenance member fixes the position above a center portion of the lower mem
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Assignee: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ryoichi Isomura, Yuusaku Sakka, Kouhei Satou, Takashi Uemura, Satoshi Yamamoto, Hiromichi Kawasaki
  • Patent number: 11527426
    Abstract: A substrate processing device includes a transfer chamber configured to transfer a substrate under an atmospheric atmosphere and a plurality of processing units each including at least one processing chamber for processing the substrate under a vacuum atmosphere and at least one load-lock chamber connected to the processing chamber to switch an inner atmosphere thereof between the atmospheric atmosphere and the vacuum atmosphere. The transfer chamber includes a connection unit configured to connect the transfer chamber and the load-lock chamber such that each of the processing units is detachably attached. The connection unit includes an opening that allows the transfer chamber to communicate with the load-lock chamber, and an opening/closing mechanism configured to open and close the opening portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Norihiko Tsuji, Atsushi Kawabe, Hiroki Oka
  • Patent number: 11408075
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to a batch processing chamber that is adapted to simultaneously cure multiple substrates at one time. The batch processing chamber includes multiple processing sub-regions that are each independently temperature controlled. The batch processing chamber may include a first and a second sub-processing region that are each serviced by a substrate transport device external to the batch processing chamber. In addition, a slotted cover mounted on the loading opening of the batch curing chamber reduces the effect of ambient air entering the chamber during loading and unloading.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Adib Khan, Shankar Venkataraman, Jay D. Pinson, II, Jang-Gyoo Yang, Nitin Krishnarao Ingle, Qiwei Liang
  • Patent number: 11398372
    Abstract: A plasma processing apparatus that performs plasma processing to a substrate held on a transport carrier including a frame and a holding sheet that covers an opening of the frame includes: a transport mechanism that transports the transport carrier; a position measuring section that measures a position of the substrate to the frame; a plasma processing section that includes a plasma processing stage on which the transport carrier is loaded and a cover that covers the frame and a part of the holding sheet loaded on the plasma processing stage, and has a window section for exposing a part of the substrate; and a control section that controls the transport mechanism such that the transport carrier is loaded on the plasma processing stage to satisfy a positional relationship between the window section and the substrate based on the position information of the substrate to the frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2022
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shogo Okita, Hiromi Asakura, Syouzou Watanabe, Noriyuki Matsubara, Mitsuru Hiroshima, Toshihiro Wada
  • Patent number: 11393704
    Abstract: A semiconductor processing device includes a first etching chamber, a second etching chamber, and an etching module. The etching module is adapted to interchangeably contain the first etching chamber or the second etching chamber for wafer etching. A semiconductor process using the semiconductor processing device is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2022
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yii-Cheng Lin, Chih-Ming Sun, Pinyen Lin
  • Patent number: 11387084
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a dual-station vacuum processor that pumps uniformly, comprising two vacuum processing chambers that may act as a process processing chamber, and an offset-pumping port and a vacuum pump which are common to and communicate with the two vacuum processing chambers, wherein a damper having a set thickness in a vertical direction is provided in a region proximal to the offset-pumping port in each vacuum processing chamber, so as to lower a pumping rate of gas at the pumping port proximal end and balance the pumping rate with the pumping rate of the gas at the pumping port distal end, thereby ameliorating the impact of chamber offset on the uniformity process processing. The present invention may further provide, in a rib as the damper, a channel in communication with the atmospheric environment outside of the chamber, so as to facilitate connection between a cable pipeline in the chamber and the outside.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: ADVANCED MICRO-FABRICATION EQUIPMENT INC. CHINA
    Inventors: Yuejun Gong, Rason Zuo, Tuqiang Ni, Dee Wu, Ning Zhou, Kelvin Chen
  • Patent number: 11342200
    Abstract: Provided is an exhaust system of a wafer treatment device, and the main purpose thereof is to prevent secondary contamination of a wafer by not allowing foreign substances such as process gases and fumes and the like floating in the wafer treatment device to make contact with the wafer in a side storage. The wafer treatment device comprises: a cleaning device for removing foreign substances remaining on a wafer; and an exhaust device comprising first and second main bodies at the lower side of a main body of the wafer treatment device. By not allowing foreign substances such as process gases and fumes and the like floating in the wafer treatment device to make contact with a wafer in a side storage, secondary contamination of the wafer is prevented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: PICO & TERA CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Bum Je Woo
  • Patent number: 11183405
    Abstract: A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus includes an air distributor inside a chamber. The air distributor includes a first annular plate and a second annular plate disposed in an interior volume of the chamber, and an inner surface of the first annular plate and an inner surface of the second annular plate are connected to each other. A hollow region is defined by the first annular plate and the second annular plate. A gas through hole is extended from an outer surface of the first annular plate to the inner surface of the first annular plate. A plurality of ditches are between the inner surface of the first annular plate and the inner surface of the second annular plate, wherein the ditches are connected with the gas through hole and extended from the gas through hole to the hollow region to blow gas toward the hollow region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2021
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD.
    Inventors: Chao-Tzung Tsai, Tzu Ken Lin, I-Chang Wu, Ching-Lun Lai, Li-Jia Liou
  • Patent number: 11162173
    Abstract: Disclosed is apparatus for atomic layer deposition including a frame, an injector head with longitudinal slots supplying gases to deposition spaces confined by the longitudinal slots and a substrate. The slots are transverse to a movement in a first direction of the substrate, a subframe suspending the injector head; a movable carrier supporting the substrate for movement in the first direction; and gas pads at the subframe outside the injector head between the subframe and the moveable carrier, bearing the subframe on the carrier for the movement in the first direction. Actuators suspend the injector head from the subframe, and a control device connected to the actuators controls the actuators to adjust a working distance between a reference plane of the injector head and the surface of the substrate corresponding to a predetermined distance and to adjust an orientation of the injector head corresponding to an orientation of the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: SMIT THERMAL SOLUTIONS B.V.
    Inventors: Wiro Rudolf Zijlmans, Martin Dinant Bijker, Ernst Dullemeijer, Guido Lijster
  • Patent number: 11118265
    Abstract: A film deposition method includes steps of: placing a substrate in a substrate receiving area of a susceptor provided in a vacuum chamber; evacuating the vacuum chamber; alternately supplying plural kinds of reaction gases to the substrate in the substrate receiving area from corresponding reaction gas supplying parts thereby to form a thin film on the substrate; supplying plasma including a chemical component that reacts with second reaction gas adsorbed on the substrate from a plasma generation part to the substrate when the thin film is being formed, thereby to alter the thin film on the substrate; and changing plasma intensity of the plasma supplied to the substrate, at a predetermined point of time to a different plasma intensity of the plasma that is generated and supplied to the substrate by the plasma generation part before the predetermined point of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2021
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Shigenori Ozaki, Hitoshi Kato, Takeshi Kumagai
  • Patent number: 11066740
    Abstract: A system includes a computational system to receive a design of an integrated computational element (ICE) including specification of substrate and layers. Additionally, the system includes a deposition source to provide a deposition plume having a plume spatial profile, and a support having a cylindrical surface. The cylindrical surface of the support is spaced apart from the deposition source and has a shape that corresponds to the plume spatial profile in a particular cross-section orthogonal to a longitudinal axis of the cylindrical surface of the support, such that, when the substrate support, with the supported instances of the substrate distributed over the cylindrical surface of the substrate support, is translated relative to the deposition plume along the longitudinal axis of the cylindrical surface of the substrate support, thicknesses of instances of each of the deposited layers are substantially uniform across the plurality of instances of the ICE.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventors: David L. Perkins, Robert Paul Freese, Christopher Michael Jones, Richard Neal Gardner
  • Patent number: 11037762
    Abstract: A plasma processing apparatus includes at least one asymmetry member that causes a non-uniformity of plasma density around the high frequency electrode; and a plasma density distribution controller that is arranged depending on arrangement of the at least one asymmetry member to suppress the non-uniformity of plasma density around the high frequency electrode in the azimuthal direction. The plasma density distribution controller includes a first conductor which has first and second surfaces facing opposite directions to each other and is electrically connected with the rear surface of the high frequency electrode with respect to the first high frequency power; and a second conductor which includes a first connecting portion(s) electrically connected with a portion of the second surface of the first conductor and a second connecting portion electrically connected with a conductive grounding member electrically grounded around the high frequency electrode with respect to the first high frequency power.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Yohei Yamazawa, Naohiko Okunishi, Hironobu Misawa, Hidehito Soeta
  • Patent number: 11031252
    Abstract: A chamber door, such as an etch chamber door may be heated during etch processing to, e.g., prevent etching by-products from adhering to the etch chamber door. Such heating of the etch chamber door, however, can impact the processing parameters and result in non-uniform processing, such as non-uniform etching characteristics across a semiconductor wafer, for instance. An insulator, such as an insulating film covering surfaces of the heated door, can reduce or eliminate transmission of heat from the door to a work piece such as a semiconductor wafer and this reduce or eliminate the non-uniformity of the process results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Compant, Ltd.
    Inventors: Meng-Je Chuang, Wan-Chun Kuan, Yi-Wei Chiu, Tzu-Chan Weng
  • Patent number: 11004663
    Abstract: Embodiments described herein provide an apparatus for improving deposition uniformity by improving plasma profile using a tri-cut chamber liner. The apparatus also includes a lid assembly having a split process stack for reducing downtime and a bottom heater support for more efficient heating of chamber walls.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez, Dale R. Du Bois, Amit Kumar Bansal
  • Patent number: 11003080
    Abstract: A method and apparatus disclosed herein apply to processing a substrate, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for improving photolithography processes. The apparatus includes a chamber body, a substrate support disposed within the chamber body, and an electrode assembly. The substrate support has a top plate disposed above the substrate support, a bottom plate disposed below the substrate support, and a plurality of electrodes connecting the top plate to the bottom plate. A voltage is applied to the plurality of electrodes to generate an electric field. Methods for exposing a photoresist layer on a substrate to an electric field are also disclosed herein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Kartik Ramaswamy, Srinivas D. Nemani
  • Patent number: 10998174
    Abstract: A dry etching equipment includes a topography simulator and a control section. The topography simulator controls an amount of deposition species incident upon a sidewall to be processed in accordance with a wafer opening ratio and a solid angle of a local pattern, the deposition amount being represented by a product of a reaction product flux and the solid angle. The control section compares a database obtained by the topography simulator with an actual measured value detected from an etching condition during dry etching to calculate a correction value for etching process, and indicates the correction value to an etching chamber in the dry etching equipment. The dry etching equipment corrects in real time a parameter for the etching process conducted in the etching chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Assignee: Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Kuboi, Tetsuya Tatsumi
  • Patent number: 10934622
    Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus includes a heat storage part on which a substrate is mounted, a tray including the heat storage part, a substrate transfer part including a rotary shaft and a rotating plate supported by the rotary shaft and being configured such that the tray can be mounted on the rotating plate, a plurality of bases arranged circumferentially around the rotary shaft; and a heater provided for each of the bases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: KOKUSAI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Teruo Yoshino, Naofumi Ohashi, Tadashi Takasaki, Shun Matsui
  • Patent number: 10916456
    Abstract: A substrate liquid processing apparatus includes a placing unit which places thereon a substrate; a liquid processing unit which processes the substrate by immersing the substrate in a processing liquid with a posture in which a plate surface of the substrate is perpendicular to a horizontal direction; a transfer unit which transfers the substrate between the placing unit and the liquid processing unit; and a rotating unit which rotates the substrate, after being subjected to a first processing by the liquid processing unit, around an axis perpendicular to the plate surface, and in a direction different from that when the first processing is performed. Further, the transfer unit transfers the substrate, after being subjected to the first processing, to the rotating unit and transfers the rotated substrate to the liquid processing unit. The liquid processing unit performs a second processing by immersing the rotated substrate in the processing liquid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2021
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventor: Hironobu Hyakutake
  • Patent number: 10847391
    Abstract: A transfer chamber for semiconductor device manufacturing includes (1) a plurality of sides that define a region configured to maintain a vacuum level and allow transport of substrates between processing chambers, the plurality of sides defining a first portion and a second portion of the transfer chamber and including (a) a first side that couples to two twinned processing chambers; and (b) a second side that couples to a single processing chamber; (2) a first substrate handler located in the first portion of the transfer chamber; (3) a second substrate handler located in the second portion of the transfer chamber; and (4) a hand-off location configured to allow substrates to be passed between the first portion and the second portion of the transfer chamber using the first and second substrate handlers. Method aspects are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2020
    Assignee: APPLIED MATERIALS, INC.
    Inventors: Nir Merry, Michael Robert Rice, Sushant S. Koshti, Jeffrey C. Hudgens
  • Patent number: 10832926
    Abstract: An ion implantation apparatus, system, and method are provided for transferring a plurality of workpieces between vacuum and atmospheric pressures, wherein an alignment mechanism is operable to align a plurality of workpieces for generally simultaneous transportation to a dual-workpiece load lock chamber. The alignment mechanism comprises a characterization device, an elevator, and two vertically-aligned workpiece supports for supporting two workpieces. First and second atmospheric robots are configured to generally simultaneously transfer two workpieces at a time between load lock modules, the alignment mechanism, and a FOUP. Third and fourth vacuum robots are configured to transfer one workpiece at a time between the load lock modules and a process module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2020
    Assignee: Axcelis Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Joseph Ferrara, Robert J. Mitchell