Patents by Inventor Toshifumi Sohara

Toshifumi Sohara 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: 8774491
    Abstract: Provided is a substrate processing apparatus that includes: a peripheral exposing unit that performs a peripheral exposing process by irradiating light to a peripheral portion of a substrate while rotating the substrate held by a substrate holding unit using a rotation driving unit; a substrate inspecting unit that performs a substrate inspecting process based on a picked up image of the substrate while moving the substrate using a movement driving unit; and a control unit. The control unit controls the predetermined substrate processing to be stopped when the peripheral exposing process is included in the predetermined substrate processing and an error occurs in the peripheral exposing unit, and controls the substrate inspecting process to be skipped when no error occurs in both of the peripheral exposing unit and a transport unit, the substrate inspecting process is included in the predetermined substrate processing and an error occurs in the substrate inspecting unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Shinichi Seki, Hiroshi Tomita, Nobutaka Fukunaga, Toshifumi Sohara
  • Publication number: 20120257813
    Abstract: Provided is a substrate processing apparatus that includes: a peripheral exposing unit that performs a peripheral exposing process by irradiating light to a peripheral portion of a substrate while rotating the substrate held by a substrate holding unit using a rotation driving unit; a substrate inspecting unit that performs a substrate inspecting process based on a picked up image of the substrate while moving the substrate using a movement driving unit; and a control unit. The control unit controls the predetermined substrate processing to be stopped when the peripheral exposing process is included in the predetermined substrate processing and an error occurs in the peripheral exposing unit, and controls the substrate inspecting process to be skipped when no error occurs in both of the peripheral exposing unit and a transport unit, the substrate inspecting process is included in the predetermined substrate processing and an error occurs in the substrate inspecting unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 3, 2012
    Publication date: October 11, 2012
    Inventors: Shinichi SEKI, Hiroshi Tomita, Nobutaka Fukunaga, Toshifumi Sohara
  • Patent number: 7676296
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method of verifying a recipe execution program. When a computer executes a recipe execution program, the computer sends instructions, which are issued based on a process recipe data defining specific operations to be performed by a substrate processing apparatus, to the substrate processing apparatus. When a computer executes a log output program, the computer outputs a log data indicating the instructions sent to the substrate processing apparatus. When a computer executes a comparing and checking program, the computer compares the log data which the process recipe data corresponding to the log data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2010
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Katsuhisa Fujii, Masato Nomura, Shuji Ohno, Toshifumi Sohara
  • Publication number: 20070141730
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method of verifying a recipe execution program. When a computer executes a recipe execution program, the computer sends instructions, which are issued based on a process recipe data defining specific operations to be performed by a substrate processing apparatus, to the substrate processing apparatus. When a computer executes a log output program, the computer outputs a log data indicating the instructions sent to the substrate processing apparatus. When a computer executes a comparing and checking program, the computer compares the log data which the process recipe data corresponding to the log data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2006
    Publication date: June 21, 2007
    Applicant: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventors: Katsuhisa Fujii, Masato Nomura, Shuji Ohno, Toshifumi Sohara