Patents by Inventor Tsunehiko Tsubone

Tsunehiko Tsubone 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).

  • Vacuum processing apparatus and operating method therefor
    Patent number: 6463676
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for transferring a substrate that includes a cassette table capable of holding a plurality of cassettes, wherein the cassettes are capable of receiving a plurality of substrates. An atmospheric loader is arranged between the plurality of cassettes and two lock chambers, and an atmospheric transferring device is provided for transferring one of the plurality of substrates to or from a substrate process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2002
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shigekazu Kato, Kouji Nishihata, Tsunehiko Tsubone, Atsushi Itou
  • Vacuum processing apparatus
    Patent number: 6460270
    Abstract: A vacuum processing apparatus which includes a means for transferring wafer cassettes from a transferring chamber to a lock chamber. The wafer cassettes are mounted within a cassette table in a vertical direction and a first transferring means carries a wafer to and from the cassette tables. The vacuum processing apparatus further includes lock chambers into which the wafers are carried my the first transferring means. A second transferring means carries the wafers to either of the lock chambers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2002
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shigekazu Kato, Kouji Nishihata, Tsunehiko Tsubone, Atsushi Itou
  • Vacuum processing apparatus
    Patent number: 6457253
    Abstract: A wafer conveyor system for use in a vacuum processing apparatus wherein the conveyor structure is provided with a transfer structure and a robot apparatus is arranged on the transfer structure. The robot provides for rotation of the wafer horizontally from a position in a cassette to an opposite position of the cassette.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2002
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shigekazu Kato, Kouji Nishihata, Tsunehiko Tsubone, Atsushi Itou
  • Plasma processing apparatus and method
    Publication number: 20020134510
    Abstract: A plasma is generated by feeding an antenna with radio-frequency electric power generated by a radio-frequency power source, and one end of the antenna is grounded to the earth through a capacitor of variable capacitance. A Faraday shield is electrically isolated from the earth, and the capacitance of the variable capacitor is determined to be such a value that the voltage at the two ends of the antenna may be equal in absolute values and inverted to reduce the partial removal of the wall after the plasma ignition. At the time of igniting the plasma, the capacitance of the capacitor is adjusted to a larger or smaller value than that minimizing the damage of the wall.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 7, 2002
    Publication date: September 26, 2002
    Inventors: Hideyuki Kazumi, Tsutomu Tetsuka, Ryoji Nishio, Masatsugu Arai, Ken Yoshioka, Tsunehiko Tsubone, Akira Doi, Manabu Edamura, Kenji Maeda, Saburo Kanai
  • Plasma processing apparatus and method
    Publication number: 20020125828
    Abstract: The main purpose of the present invention is to suppress deposition of byproducts on an inner wall of a vacuum chamber during wafer processing using plasma generated by an inductive coupling antenna and an electrostatic capacitive coupling antenna which are connected in series at a connection point. Deposition of byproducts on the inner wall of the vacuum chamber can be suppressed by grounding the connection point of the inductive coupling antenna and the electrostatic capacitive coupling antenna via a variable-impedance load and varying an impedance of the variable-impedance load, thereby controlling a ratio of plasma produced in the chamber by electrostatic capacitive coupling discharge.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 14, 2002
    Publication date: September 12, 2002
    Inventors: Akira Doi, Ken Yoshioka, Manabu Edamura, Hideyuki Kazumi, Saburou Kanai, Tsutomu Tetsuka, Masatsugu Arai, Kenji Maeda, Tsunehiko Tsubone
  • Plasma processing apparatus and method
    Publication number: 20020124963
    Abstract: A plasma is generated by feeding an antenna with radio-frequency electric power generated by a radio-frequency power source, and one end of the antenna is grounded to the earth through a capacitor of variable capacitance. A Faraday shield is electrically isolated from the earth, and the capacitance of the variable capacitor is determined to be such a value that the voltage at the two ends of the antenna may be equal in absolute values and inverted to reduce the partial removal of the wall after the plasma ignition. At the time of igniting the plasma, the capacitance of the capacitor is adjusted to a larger or smaller value than that minimizing the damage of the wall.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 7, 2002
    Publication date: September 12, 2002
    Inventors: Hideyuki Kazumi, Tsutomu Tetsuka, Ryoji Nishio, Masatsugu Arai, Ken Yoshioka, Tsunehiko Tsubone, Akira Doi, Manabu Edamura, Kenji Maeda, Saburo Kanai
  • Vacuum processing apparatus
    Patent number: 6446353
    Abstract: A vacuum processing apparatus which includes a cassette mount table for holding a cassette, a conveying structure for transferring a wafer from the held on the cassette mount table, a robot, and a vacuum loader. The vacuum loader is provided with a vacuum conveyor chamber and a conveying structure which further include an additional robot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2002
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shigekazu Kato, Kouji Nishihata, Tsunehiko Tsubone, Atsushi Itou
  • Method of holding substrate and substrate holding system
    Publication number: 20020108574
    Abstract: A method and system of holding a substrate where foreign substances on the back surface can be decreased. The substrate holding system comprises a ring-shaped leakage-proof surface having a smooth surface on the specimen table corresponding to the periphery of the substrate, a plurality of contact holding portions within the periphery of the substrate, and electrostatic attraction means for fixing the substrate by contacting the back surface of the substrate to the ring-shaped leakage-proof surface and the contact holding portions. The substrate contacts to the cooling surface at the ring-shaped leakage-proof surface and the contact holding portion placed on a position inside the ring-shaped leakage-proof surface. The back surface of the substrate and the cooling surface do not contact to each other in the large portion of the remaining area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2002
    Publication date: August 15, 2002
    Inventors: Naoyuki Tamura, Kazue Takahashi, Youichi Ito, Yoshifumi Ogawa, Hiroyuki Shichida, Tsunehiko Tsubone
  • Method of holding substrate and substrate holding system
    Publication number: 20020104618
    Abstract: A method and system of holding a substrate where foreign substances on the back surface can be decreased. The substrate holding system comprises a ring-shaped leakage-proof surface having a smooth surface on the specimen table corresponding to the periphery of the substrate, a plurality of contact holding portions within the periphery of the substrate, and electrostatic attraction means for fixing the substrate by contacting the back surface of the substrate to the ring-shaped leakage-proof surface and the contact holding portions. The substrate contacts to the cooling surface at the ring-shaped leakage-proof surface and the contact holding portion placed on a position inside the ring-shaped leakage-proof surface. The back surface of the substrate and the cooling surface do not contact to each other in the large portion of the remaining area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2002
    Publication date: August 8, 2002
    Inventors: Naoyuki Tamura, Kazue Takahashi, Youichi Ito, Yoshifumi Ogawa, Hiroyuki Shichida, Tsunehiko Tsubone
  • Method of holding substrate and substrate holding system
    Publication number: 20020096116
    Abstract: A method and system of holding a substrate where foreign substances on the back surface can be decreased. The substrate holding system comprises a ring-shaped leakage-proof surface having a smooth surface on the specimen table corresponding to the periphery of the substrate, a plurality of contact holding portions within the periphery of the substrate, and electrostatic attraction means for fixing the substrate by contacting the back surface of the substrate to the ring-shaped leakage-proof surface and the contact holding portions. The substrate contacts to the cooling surface at the ring-shaped leakage-proof surface and the contact holding portion placed on a position inside the ring-shaped leakage-proof surface. The back surface of the substrate and the cooling surface do not contact to each other in the large portion of the remaining area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2002
    Publication date: July 25, 2002
    Inventors: Naoyuki Tamura, Kazue Takahashi, Youichi Ito, Yoshifumi Ogawa, Hiroyuki Shichida, Tsunehiko Tsubone
  • Plasma processing apparatus and method
    Publication number: 20020084035
    Abstract: A plasma is generated by feeding an antenna with radio-frequency electric power generated by a radio-frequency power source, and one end of the antenna is grounded to the earth through a capacitor of variable capacitance. A Faraday shield is electrically isolated from the earth, and the capacitance of the variable capacitor is determined to be such a value that the voltage at the two ends of the antenna may be equal in absolute values and inverted to reduce the partial removal of the wall after the plasma ignition. At the time of igniting the plasma, the capacitance of the capacitor is adjusted to a larger or smaller value than that minimizing the damage of the wall.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2002
    Publication date: July 4, 2002
    Inventors: Hideyuki Kazumi, Tsutomu Tetsuka, Ryoji Nishio, Masatsugu Arai, Ken Yoshioka, Tsunehiko Tsubone, Akira Doi, Manabu Edamura, Kenji Maeda, Saburo Kanai
  • Plasma processing apparatus and method
    Patent number: 6388382
    Abstract: The main purpose of the present invention is to suppress deposition of byproducts on an inner wall of a vacuum chamber during wafer processing using plasma generated by an inductive coupling antenna and an electrostatic capacitive coupling antenna which are connected in series at a connection point. Deposition of byproducts on the inner wall of the vacuum chamber can be suppressed by grounding the connection point of the inductive coupling antenna and the electrostatic capacitive coupling antenna via a variable-impedance load and varying an impedance of the variable-impedance load, thereby controlling a ratio of plasma produced in the chamber by electrostatic capacitive coupling discharge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2002
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Akira Doi, Ken Yoshioka, Manabu Edamura, Hideyuki Kazumi, Saburou Kanai, Tsutomu Tetsuka, Masatsugu Arai, Kenji Maeda, Tsunehiko Tsubone
  • Method of holding substrate and substrate holding system
    Publication number: 20020046706
    Abstract: A method and system of holding a substrate where foreign substances on the back surface can be decreased. The substrate holding system comprises a ring-shaped leakage-proof surface having a smooth surface on the specimen table corresponding to the periphery of the substrate, a plurality of contact holding portions within the periphery of the substrate, and electrostatic attraction means for fixing the substrate by contacting the back surface of the substrate to the ring-shaped leakage-proof surface and the contact holding portions. The substrate contacts to the cooling surface at the ring-shaped leakage-proof surface and the contact holding portion placed on a position inside the ring-shaped leakage-proof surface. The back surface of the substrate and the cooling surface do not contact to each other in the large portion of the remaining area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2001
    Publication date: April 25, 2002
    Inventors: Naoyuki Tamura, Kazue Takahashi, Youichi Ito, Yoshifumi Ogawa, Hiroyuki Shichida, Tsunehiko Tsubone
  • Substrate changing-over mechanism in vacuum tank
    Publication number: 20020032972
    Abstract: This invention relates to a vacuum processing apparatus having vacuum processing chambers the insides of which must be dry cleaned, and to a method of operating such an apparatus. When the vacuum processing chambers are dry-cleaned, dummy substrates are transferred into the vacuum processing chamber by substrates conveyor means from dummy substrate storage means which is disposed in the air atmosphere together with storage means for storing substrates to be processed, and the inside of the vacuum processing chamber is dry-cleaned by generating a plasma. The dummy substrate is returned to the dummy substrate storage means after dry cleaning is completed. Accordingly, any specific mechanism for only the cleaning purpose is not necessary and the construction of the apparatus can be made simple.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2001
    Publication date: March 21, 2002
    Inventors: Shigekazu Kato, Kouji Nishihata, Tsunehiko Tsubone, Atsushi Ito
  • Vacuum processing apparatus and operating method therefor
    Patent number: 6339887
    Abstract: This invention relates to a vacuum processing apparatus having vacuum processing chambers the insides of which must be dry cleaned, and to a method of operating such an apparatus. When the vacuum processing chambers are dry-cleaned, dummy substrates are transferred into the vacuum processing chamber by substrates conveyor means from dummy substrate storage means which is disposed in the air atmosphere together with storage means for storing substrates to be processed, and the inside of the vacuum processing chamber is dry-cleaned by generating a plasma. The dummy substrate is returned to the dummy substrate storage means after dry cleaning is completed. Accordingly, any specific mechanism for only the cleaning purpose is not necessary and the construction of the apparatus can be made simple.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2002
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shigekazu Kato, Kouji Nishihata, Tsunehiko Tsubone, Atsushi Itou
  • Method of holding substrate and substrate holding system
    Patent number: 6336991
    Abstract: In a method of holding a substrate and a substrate holding system, the amount of foreign substances on the back surface of the substrate can be decreased, and only a small amount of foreign substances transferred from a mounting table to the substrate. For this purpose, the substrate holding system has a ring-shaped leakage-proof surface providing a smooth support surface on the specimen table corresponding to the periphery of the substrate, a plurality of contact holding portions which bear against the substrate on the specimen table between the corresponding position to the periphery of the substrate and the corresponding position to the center of the substrate, and electrostatic attraction means for fixing the substrate by contacting the back surface of the substrate to the ring-shaped leakage-proof surface and the contact holding portions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2002
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Naoyuki Tamura, Kazue Takahashi, Youichi Ito, Yoshifumi Ogawa, Hiroyuki Shichida, Tsunehiko Tsubone
  • Vacuum processing apparatus
    Patent number: 6332280
    Abstract: This invention relates to a vacuum processing apparatus having vacuum processing chambers the insides of which must be dry cleaned, and to a method of operating such an apparatus. When the vacuum processing chambers are dry-cleaned, dummy substrates are transferred into the vacuum processing chamber by substrates conveyor means from dummy substrate storage means which is disposed in the air atmosphere together with storage means for storing substrates to be processed, and the inside of the vacuum processing chamber is dry-cleaned by generating a plasma. The dummy substrate is returned to the dummy substrate storage means after dry cleaning is completed. Accordingly, any specific mechanism for only the cleaning purpose is not necessary and the construction of the apparatus can be made simple.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2001
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shigekazu Kato, Kouji Nishihata, Tsunehiko Tsubone, Atsushi Itou
  • Vacuum processing and operating method
    Patent number: 6330755
    Abstract: This invention relates to a vacuum processing apparatus having vacuum processing chambers the insides of which must be dry cleaned, and to a method of operating such an apparatus. When the vacuum processing chambers are dry-cleaned, dummy substrates are transferred into the vacuum processing chamber by substrates conveyor means from dummy substrate storage means which is disposed in the air atmosphere together with storage means for storing substrates to be processed, and the inside of the vacuum processing chamber is dry-cleaned by generating a plasma. The dummy substrate is returned to the dummy substrate storage means after dry cleaning is completed. Accordingly, any specific mechanism for only the cleaning purpose is not necessary and the construction of the apparatus can be made simple.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2001
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shigekazu Kato, Kouji Nishihata, Tsunehiko Tsubone, Atsushi Itou
  • Vacuum processing apparatus and operating method therefor
    Patent number: 6330756
    Abstract: This invention relates to a vacuum processing apparatus having vacuum processing chambers the insides of which must be dry cleaned, and to a method of operating such an apparatus. When the vacuum processing chambers are dirty-cleaned, dummy substrates are transferred into the vacuum processing chamber by substrates conveyor means from dummy substrate storage means which is disposed in the air atmosphere together with storage means for storing substrates to be processed, and the inside of the vacuum processing chamber is dry-cleaned by generating a plasma. The dummy substrate is returned to the dummy substrate storage means after dry cleaning is completed. Accordingly, any specific mechanism for only the cleaning purpose is not necessary and the construction of the apparatus can be made simple.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2001
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shigekazu Kato, Kouji Nishihata, Tsunehiko Tsubone, Atsushi Itou
  • Vacuum processing equipment configuration
    Patent number: D453402
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2002
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shigekazu Kato, Kouji Nishihata, Tsunehiko Tsubone, Atsushi Itou