Patents by Inventor Hiroki Tsujikawa

Hiroki Tsujikawa 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: 11521865
    Abstract: A substrate processing method includes a liquid discharging step of discharging liquid through a nozzle toward a predetermined supply region on the main surface of a substrate held on a substrate holding unit within a chamber, a humidified gas supplying step of supplying humidified gas with a humidity higher than the humidity within the chamber onto the main surface of the substrate to remove electrical charges carried on the substrate, and a spin-drying step of rotating the substrate about a predetermined rotational axis after the liquid discharging step to spin off the liquid component from the main surface of the substrate. The humidified gas supplying step is started before the start of the liquid discharging step and ended at a predetermined termination timing after the start of the liquid discharging step and before the spin-drying step.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Inventors: Hiroki Tsujikawa, Masato Tanaka, Tsuyoshi Okumura, Atsuyasu Miura, Makoto Takaoka, Nobuyuki Miyaji, Kazuhiro Fujita, Naoki Sawazaki, Takashi Akiyama, Yuya Tsuchihashi
  • Publication number: 20220347641
    Abstract: A chemical liquid preparation method of preparing a chemical liquid for treating a film formed on a substrate, including a gas dissolving process in which an oxygen-containing gas and an inert-gas-containing gas are dissolved in the chemical liquid by supplying the oxygen-containing gas which contains oxygen gas and the inert-gas-containing gas which contains an inert gas to a chemical liquid, wherein in the gas dissolving process, a dissolved oxygen concentration in the chemical liquid is adjusted by setting a mixing ratio between the oxygen-containing gas and the inert-gas-containing gas supplied to the chemical liquid as a mixing ratio corresponding to a predetermined target dissolved oxygen concentration.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 19, 2022
    Publication date: November 3, 2022
    Applicant: SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hajime NISHIDE, Takashi IZUTA, Takatoshi HAYASHI, Katsuhiro FUKUI, Koichi OKAMOTO, Kazuhiro FUJITA, Atsuyasu MIURA, Kenji KOBAYASHI, Sei NEGORO, Hiroki TSUJIKAWA
  • Patent number: 11439967
    Abstract: A chemical liquid preparation method of preparing a chemical liquid for treating a film formed on a substrate, including a gas dissolving process in which an oxygen-containing gas and an inert-gas-containing gas are dissolved in the chemical liquid by supplying the oxygen-containing gas which contains oxygen gas and the inert-gas-containing gas which contains an inert gas to a chemical liquid, wherein in the gas dissolving process, a dissolved oxygen concentration in the chemical liquid is adjusted by setting a mixing ratio between the oxygen-containing gas and the inert-gas-containing gas supplied to the chemical liquid as a mixing ratio corresponding to a predetermined target dissolved oxygen concentration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2022
    Assignee: SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hajime Nishide, Takashi Izuta, Takatoshi Hayashi, Katsuhiro Fukui, Koichi Okamoto, Kazuhiro Fujita, Atsuyasu Miura, Kenji Kobayashi, Sei Negoro, Hiroki Tsujikawa
  • Patent number: 10786836
    Abstract: A substrate processing method includes a chemical liquid supplying step of supplying a chemical liquid to a substrate, an elapsed period measuring step of measuring an after-the-end elapsed period, a recovery step of controlling the switching unit to be in a recovery guiding state, when, at a start of the chemical liquid supplying step, the after-the-end elapsed period is less than a predetermined first period, and a draining step of controlling the switching unit to be in a drain guiding state, in which the liquid led to the recovery space is led to the drain line, when, at the start of the chemical liquid supplying step, the after-the-end elapsed period is not less than the predetermined first period and then switching to the recovery guiding state based on establishment of a predetermined draining ending condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2020
    Assignee: SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Atsuyasu Miura, Kazuhiro Fujita, Hiroki Tsujikawa, Yuya Tsuchihashi, Kenji Takemoto
  • Patent number: 10658203
    Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus includes a guard that catches liquid scattered outward from a spin chuck, a cup defining a liquid receiving groove to catch liquid that is guided downward by the guard, a guard elevating/lowering unit that moves the guard in an up/down direction, a cleaning liquid supplying unit that supplies cleaning liquid, discharged from a cleaning liquid nozzle, to the liquid receiving groove via the spin chuck and the guard, a cleaning liquid draining unit that drains the cleaning liquid in the liquid receiving groove, and a controller that controls the cleaning liquid supplying unit and the cleaning liquid draining unit to accumulate cleaning liquid in the liquid receiving groove and controls the guard elevating/lowering unit to cause a lower end portion of the cylindrical portion to be immersed in the cleaning liquid in the liquid receiving groove.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroki Tsujikawa, Masahide Ikeda, Atsuyasu Miura, Kazuhiro Fujita, Yuya Tsuchihashi
  • Publication number: 20200144081
    Abstract: A substrate processing method includes a liquid discharging step of discharging liquid through a nozzle toward a predetermined supply region on the main surface of a substrate held on a substrate holding unit within a chamber, a humidified gas supplying step of supplying humidified gas with a humidity higher than the humidity within the chamber onto the main surface of the substrate to remove electrical charges carried on the substrate, and a spin-drying step of rotating the substrate about a predetermined rotational axis after the liquid discharging step to spin off the liquid component from the main surface of the substrate. The humidified gas supplying step is started before the start of the liquid discharging step and ended at a predetermined termination timing after the start of the liquid discharging step and before the spin-drying step.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2018
    Publication date: May 7, 2020
    Inventors: Hiroki TSUJIKAWA, Masato TANAKA, Tsuyoshi OKUMURA, Atsuyasu MIURA, Makoto TAKAOKA, Nobuyuki MIYAJI, Kazuhiro FUJITA, Naoki SAWAZAKI, Takashi AKIYAMA, Yuya TSUCHIHASHI
  • Patent number: 10639683
    Abstract: A recover piping cleaning method is a method of cleaning a recovery piping into which a chemical liquid used for processing of a substrate is led via a processing cup, the recovery piping being arranged to lead the led chemical liquid into a predetermined chemical liquid recovery piping, the method including a piping cleaning step of cleaning the interior of the recovery piping by using a cleaning liquid by, while supplying the cleaning liquid to the recovery piping, leading the liquid led into the recovery piping into a drain piping which is different from the chemical liquid recovery piping, and a cleaning chemical liquid supplying step of, supplying the cleaning chemical liquid from a cleaning chemical liquid supply piping connected to the recovery piping to the recovery piping while leading the liquid led into the recovery piping into the drain piping.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2020
    Assignee: SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yuya Tsuchihashi, Atsuyasu Miura, Hiroki Tsujikawa, Kazuhiro Fujita, Masahide Ikeda
  • Patent number: 10622225
    Abstract: The controller of a substrate processing apparatus carries out a liquid column forming step in which cleaning liquid is discharged through a lower surface nozzle when a spin chuck is not holding a substrate, to form a liquid column extending upward from the lower surface nozzle, and, in parallel with the liquid column forming step, a first dropping portion cleaning step in which an upper surface nozzle is reciprocated horizontally between a first position where a dropping portion of the upper surface nozzle does not contact the liquid column and a second position where the dropping portion of the upper surface nozzle does not contact the liquid column, so as to cause the upper surface nozzle to pass through a first middle position where the upper discharge port of the upper surface nozzle overlaps with the liquid column in a plan view.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2020
    Assignee: SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Atsuyasu Miura, Masahide Ikeda, Hiroki Tsujikawa, Kazuhiro Fujita, Yuya Tsuchihashi
  • Patent number: 10290511
    Abstract: A substrate treatment method is used for removing a resist from a front surface of a substrate. A substrate treatment apparatus includes a substrate holding unit which holds the substrate, and a sulfuric acid ozone/water mixture supplying unit which supplies a sulfuric acid ozone/water mixture to the front surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit, the sulfuric acid ozone/water mixture being a mixture which is prepared by a method including mixing water with sulfuric acid ozone prepared by dissolving ozone gas in sulfuric acid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignee: SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd
    Inventors: Keiji Iwata, Hiroki Tsujikawa, Shotaro Tsuda, Seiji Ano
  • Publication number: 20190091640
    Abstract: A chemical liquid preparation method of preparing a chemical liquid for treating a film formed on a substrate, including a gas dissolving process in which an oxygen-containing gas and an inert-gas-containing gas are dissolved in the chemical liquid by supplying the oxygen-containing gas which contains oxygen gas and the inert-gas-containing gas which contains an inert gas to a chemical liquid, wherein in the gas dissolving process, a dissolved oxygen concentration in the chemical liquid is adjusted by setting a mixing ratio between the oxygen-containing gas and the inert-gas-containing gas supplied to the chemical liquid as a mixing ratio corresponding to a predetermined target dissolved oxygen concentration.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 28, 2018
    Publication date: March 28, 2019
    Applicant: SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hajime NISHIDE, Takashi IZUTA, Takatoshi HAYASHI, Katsuhiro FUKUI, Koichi OKAMOTO, Kazuhiro FUJITA, Atsuyasu MIURA, Kenji KOBAYASHI, Sei NEGORO, Hiroki TSUJIKAWA
  • Patent number: 10199243
    Abstract: A substrate processing method is a substrate processing method which applies sequentially common etching processing which is common to each of a plurality of substrates. The common etching processing has an etching step and a high-temperature liquid discharge step. The substrate processing method further includes a piping heating step in which, of the plurality of common etching processings applied to the plurality of substrates, before the initial common etching processing, the pipe wall of the common piping is raised in temperature up to a predetermined second liquid temperature higher than a first liquid temperature and in each of the common etching processings, after each of high-temperature liquid discharge steps and before each of next etching steps, there is not performed a step in which the pipe wall of the common piping is lowered in temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Fujita, Atsuyasu Miura, Hiroki Tsujikawa, Yuya Tsuchihashi, Akihiko Taki
  • Publication number: 20180158698
    Abstract: A substrate processing method is a substrate processing method which applies sequentially common etching processing which is common to each of a plurality of substrates. The common etching processing has an etching step and a high-temperature liquid discharge step. The substrate processing method further includes a piping heating step in which, of the plurality of common etching processings applied to the plurality of substrates, before the initial common etching processing, the pipe wall of the common piping is raised in temperature up to a predetermined second liquid temperature higher than a first liquid temperature and in each of the common etching processings, after each of high-temperature liquid discharge steps and before each of next etching steps, there is not performed a step in which the pipe wall of the common piping is lowered in temperature.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 5, 2017
    Publication date: June 7, 2018
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Fujita, Atsuyasu Miura, Hiroki Tsujikawa, Yuya Tsuchihashi, Akihiko Taki
  • Publication number: 20180085795
    Abstract: A recover piping cleaning method is a method of cleaning a recovery piping into which a chemical liquid used for processing of a substrate is led via a processing cup, the recovery piping being arranged to lead the led chemical liquid into a predetermined chemical liquid recovery piping, the method including a piping cleaning step of cleaning the interior of the recovery piping by using a cleaning liquid by, while supplying the cleaning liquid to the recovery piping, leading the liquid led into the recovery piping into a drain piping which is different from the chemical liquid recovery piping, and a cleaning chemical liquid supplying step of, supplying the cleaning chemical liquid from a cleaning chemical liquid supply piping connected to the recovery piping to the recovery piping while leading the liquid led into the recovery piping into the drain piping.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2017
    Publication date: March 29, 2018
    Inventors: Yuya TSUCHIHASHI, Atsuyasu MIURA, Hiroki TSUJIKAWA, Kazuhiro FUJITA, Masahide IKEDA
  • Publication number: 20180061678
    Abstract: The controller of a substrate processing apparatus carries out a liquid column forming step in which cleaning liquid is discharged through a lower surface nozzle when a spin chuck is not holding a substrate, to form a liquid column extending upward from the lower surface nozzle, and, in parallel with the liquid column forming step, a first dropping portion cleaning step in which an upper surface nozzle is reciprocated horizontally between a first position where a dropping portion of the upper surface nozzle does not contact the liquid column and a second position where the dropping portion of the upper surface nozzle does not contact the liquid column, so as to cause the upper surface nozzle to pass through a first middle position where the upper discharge port of the upper surface nozzle overlaps with the liquid column in a plan view.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 7, 2017
    Publication date: March 1, 2018
    Inventors: Atsuyasu MIURA, Masahide IKEDA, Hiroki TSUJIKAWA, Kazuhiro FUJITA, Yuya TSUCHIHASHI
  • Publication number: 20180029089
    Abstract: A substrate processing method includes a chemical liquid supplying step of supplying a chemical liquid to a substrate, an elapsed period measuring step of measuring an after-the-end elapsed period, a recovery step of controlling the switching unit to be in a recovery guiding state, when, at a start of the chemical liquid supplying step, the after-the-end elapsed period is less than a predetermined first period, and a draining step of controlling the switching unit to be in a drain guiding state, in which the liquid led to the recovery space is led to the drain line, when, at the start of the chemical liquid supplying step, the after-the-end elapsed period is not less than the predetermined first period and then switching to the recovery guiding state based on establishment of a predetermined draining ending condition.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 21, 2017
    Publication date: February 1, 2018
    Inventors: Atsuyasu MIURA, Kazuhiro FUJITA, Hiroki TSUJIKAWA, Yuya TSUCHIHASHI, Kenji TAKEMOTO
  • Publication number: 20180025922
    Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus includes a guard that catches liquid scattered outward from a spin chuck, a cup defining a liquid receiving groove to catch liquid that is guided downward by the guard, a guard elevating/lowering unit that moves the guard in an up/down direction, a cleaning liquid supplying unit that supplies cleaning liquid, discharged from a cleaning liquid nozzle, to the liquid receiving groove via the spin chuck and the guard, a cleaning liquid draining unit that drains the cleaning liquid in the liquid receiving groove, and a controller that controls the cleaning liquid supplying unit and the cleaning liquid draining unit to accumulate cleaning liquid in the liquid receiving groove and controls the guard elevating/lowering unit to cause a lower end portion of the cylindrical portion to be immersed in the cleaning liquid in the liquid receiving groove.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 13, 2017
    Publication date: January 25, 2018
    Inventors: Hiroki TSUJIKAWA, Masahide IKEDA, Atsuyasu MIURA, Kazuhiro FUJITA, Yuya TSUCHIHASHI
  • Publication number: 20170162400
    Abstract: A substrate treatment method is used for removing a resist from a front surface of a substrate. A substrate treatment apparatus includes a substrate holding unit which holds the substrate, and a sulfuric acid ozone/water mixture supplying unit which supplies a sulfuric acid ozone/water mixture to the front surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit, the sulfuric acid ozone/water mixture being a mixture which is prepared by a method including mixing water with sulfuric acid ozone prepared by dissolving ozone gas in sulfuric acid.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2017
    Publication date: June 8, 2017
    Inventors: Keiji IWATA, Hiroki TSUJIKAWA, Shotaro TSUDA, Seiji ANO
  • Publication number: 20140045339
    Abstract: A substrate treatment apparatus is provided which is used for removing a resist from a front surface of a substrate. The apparatus includes a substrate holding unit which holds the substrate, and a sulfuric acid ozone/water mixture supplying unit which supplies a sulfuric acid ozone/water mixture to the front surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit, the sulfuric acid ozone/water mixture being a mixture which is prepared by mixing water with sulfuric acid ozone prepared by dissolving ozone gas in sulfuric acid.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 30, 2013
    Publication date: February 13, 2014
    Inventors: Keiji IWATA, Hiroki TSUJIKAWA, Shotaro TSUDA, Seiji ANO
  • Publication number: 20130014787
    Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus supplies a resist stripping solution, formed by mixing sulfuric acid and a hydrogen peroxide solution, to a surface of a substrate. The substrate processing apparatus includes a nozzle that discharges the resist stripping solution toward the substrate, a hydrogen peroxide solution supply passage through which the hydrogen peroxide solution flows toward the nozzle, a plurality of sulfuric acid supply passages respectively connected to a plurality of mixing positions along the hydrogen peroxide solution supply passage that differ in flow passage length to the nozzle, and a sulfuric acid supply passage selecting unit that introduces the sulfuric acid from a sulfuric acid supply source to a sulfuric acid supply passage selected from among the plurality of sulfuric acid supply passages.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 9, 2012
    Publication date: January 17, 2013
    Inventors: Shingo URATA, Akihiko TAKI, Hiroki TSUJIKAWA, Eri FUJITA, Yoshiyuki FUJITANI
  • Patent number: 7422641
    Abstract: A soft spray nozzle discharging a cleaning mist is vertically directed and fixed to an arm. A rinse nozzle discharging rinsing deionized water for suppressing obstruction is vertically fixed to the arm at a prescribed distance from the soft spray nozzle. During cleaning, it follows that both nozzles discharge detergents while keeping relative layout relation. Therefore, the discharged cleaning mist and rinsing deionized water do not interfere with each other before reaching the substrate but the used detergents are entirely horizontally splashed and recovered in a cup. Thus, the cleaning mist is prevented from scattering and adhering to the periphery.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2002
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2008
    Assignee: Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuo Nakajima, Masanobu Sato, Hiroaki Sugimoto, Akio Hashizume, Hiroki Tsujikawa