Patents by Inventor Akihiro Hisai

Akihiro Hisai 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).

  • Patent number: 6913781
    Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus is provided with five inspection devices that perform inspections of different kinds to a substrate. Among the five kinds of inspections, the film quality is measured after resist coating, and before post-coating heat-treatment. As the film quality, the amount of solvent remaining in a resist film is measured. The film thickness is measured after heat-treatment following resist coating and before exposure. Meanwhile, the line width and the superposition precision are measured and macroscopic defect inspection is performed after post-development heat-treatment and before the substrate is returned to an indexer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2005
    Assignee: Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Koji Kaneyama, Akihiro Hisai
  • Patent number: 6736206
    Abstract: A thermal processor comprises a thermal processing plate employing a heat pipe structure, a heater heating a working fluid and a cooling plate for reducing the temperature of the thermal processing plate. In order to reduce the temperature of the thermal processing plate, a cooling water supply part supplies cooling water to the cooling plate, for reducing the temperature of the thermal processing plate at a high speed. Then, a compressed air supply part supplies compressed air to the cooling plate, for reducing the temperature of the thermal processing plate at a low speed. Thus, a thermal processor capable of quickly reducing the temperature of a thermal processing plate to a set level without exerting bad influence on a result of processing a substrate is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2004
    Assignee: Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Akihiro Hisai
  • Publication number: 20030192686
    Abstract: A heating unit having a heat pipe structure includes a heater and a cooling pipe disposed in an inner space of a holding table. The holding table and the cooling pipe are thermally insulated by a heat-insulating member, so that it is possible to prevent direct heat transfer from the cooling pipe to the holding table. Therefore, it is possible to rapidly perform a cooling processing while keeping the evenness of the temperature distribution of the mounting face and the temperature distribution of the substrate mounted on the mounting face, and consequently to appropriately keep the evenness of the film thickness and the line width of a wiring layer formed on the substrate upon heat processing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2003
    Publication date: October 16, 2003
    Applicant: Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihiro Hisai, Junichi Yoshida
  • Publication number: 20030155077
    Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus performing prescribed processing on a substrate is provided with a CD measuring unit serving as an inspection unit, an asher unit serving as a regenerative processing unit and a cleaning unit performing cleaning. After the substrate processing apparatus performs resist coating, exposure, development and the like on the substrate and terminates the development, a transport robot transfers the substrate to the CD inspection unit so that the CD inspection unit inspects whether or not the line width of a resist film formed through the development is within the range of a prescribed value. The transport robot transfers a substrate having a line width deviating from the prescribed value to the asher unit so that the asher unit regenerates the substrate by removing the resist film, the cleaning unit cleans the substrate and thereafter the substrate processing apparatus performs prescribed processing again.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2003
    Publication date: August 21, 2003
    Applicant: Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihiro Hisai, Tsuyoshi Matsuka, Koji Kaneyama
  • Publication number: 20020192358
    Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus is provided with five inspection devices that perform inspections of different kinds to a substrate. Among the five kinds of inspections, the film quality is measured after resist coating, and before post-coating heat-treatment. As the film quality, the amount of solvent remaining in a resist film is measured. The film thickness is measured after heat-treatment following resist coating and before exposure. Meanwhile, the line width and the superposition precision are measured and macroscopic defect inspection is performed after post-development heat-treatment and before the substrate is returned to an indexer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2002
    Publication date: December 19, 2002
    Applicant: Dainippon Screen Mfg. co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Koji Kaneyama, Akihiro Hisai
  • Publication number: 20020139523
    Abstract: A thermal processor comprises a thermal processing plate employing a heat pipe structure, a heater heating a working fluid and a cooling plate for reducing the temperature of the thermal processing plate. In order to reduce the temperature of the thermal processing plate, a cooling water supply part supplies cooling water to the cooling plate, for reducing the temperature of the thermal processing plate at a high speed. Then, a compressed air supply part supplies compressed air to the cooling plate, for reducing the temperature of the thermal processing plate at a low speed. Thus, a thermal processor capable of quickly reducing the temperature of a thermal processing plate to a set level without exerting bad influence on a result of processing a substrate is provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2002
    Publication date: October 3, 2002
    Applicant: Dainippon Screen Mfg.Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Akihiro Hisai
  • Patent number: 6080969
    Abstract: A substrate thermal processing apparatus easily changes a set temperature at which a substrate is set while thermally processed. A heating plate of the substrate thermal processing apparatus comprises a substrate supporting plate which supports a substrate, an auxiliary heating portion and a main heating portion, and a cooling Peltier element and a water cooling jacket. For heating a substrate, heat which is generated at the main heating portion which comprises a heater portion is transmitted to the substrate supporting plate through the auxiliary heating portion which comprises a Peltier element, so that the substrate is heated up. When the temperature of the substrate supporting plate is to be decreased, the auxiliary heating portion and the cooling Peltier element guide the heat of the substrate supporting plate to the water cooling jacket, and the heat is discharged outside by cooling water.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 1998
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2000
    Assignees: SMC Corporation, Dainippon Screen Mfg., Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroyasu Goto, Akihiro Hisai, Minobu Matsunaga, Hiroshi Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 5927077
    Abstract: In a substrate thermal processing device, a temperature of a substrate can be precisely controlled within a short time by means of a hot plate oven. The substrate thermal processing device includes a substrate supporting plate for supporting the substrate, an auxiliary heating/cooling section for heating or cooling the substrate and having a Peltier effect element and disposed on a lower surface of the substrate supporting plate, and a main heating section for heating the substrate and disposed below the substrate supporting plate and the auxiliary heating/cooling section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 27, 1999
    Assignee: Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihiro Hisai, Minobu Matsunaga, Hiroshi Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 5514215
    Abstract: A plurality of nozzles and treating liquid supplying tubes are supported by rigid support arms forming part of temperature control piping for contacting the tubes to maintain treating liquids in the tubes to a constant temperature. The support arms are pivotable about a pivot axis located sideways from a substrate, such that the nozzles are movable between a dispensing position and a standby position displaced from above the substrate. A drive arm engages and swings a selected one of the support arms to move the nozzle attached to the selected support arm, between the dispensing position and standby position. With this construction, a nozzle selected from the plurality of nozzles is reliably moved in a predetermined posture to a predetermined position, while allowing sufficient temperature control of treating liquids by the temperature controlling piping, and avoiding inadvertent dripping of the treating liquids due to deformations of the treating liquid supplying tubes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 1994
    Date of Patent: May 7, 1996
    Assignee: Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuhisa Takamatsu, Akihiro Hisai, Hiroshi Kato, Masami Ohtani