A substrate processing apparatus includes a processing tank, a holder, an organic solvent supply, a drainage port, a gas supply, and an exhaust port. The processing tank stores an aqueous layer. The holder holds a substrate. The organic solvent supply supplies an organic solvent onto the aqueous layer to form a liquid layer of the organic solvent. The drainage port discharges the aqueous layer from a bottom wall of the processing tank and causes the liquid layer of the organic solvent to descend from above the substrate to below the substrate. The gas supply supplies a gas of a water repellent agent to the liquid layer from above the processing tank while the liquid layer descends. The exhaust port is exposed on a side wall of the processing tank by the descending of the liquid layer and discharges the gas of the water repellent gas.

In one embodiment, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus includes a container to contain wafers, and supporting tables provided in the container so as to be stacked on one another, and each including a supporting face that comes into contact with a wafer to support the wafer. The apparatus further includes supporting columns to join the supporting tables together and provided at positions where the supporting columns are contained inside outer circumferences of the supporting tables. The apparatus further includes a gas feeder to feed a gas to the wafers on the supporting tables, and a gas discharger to discharge the gas fed to the wafers on the supporting tables. Each of the supporting tables includes a first upper face as the supporting face, and a second upper face provided so as to surround the first upper face at a level higher than a level of the first upper face.

A wafer supporting apparatus includes: a first fixed plate and a second fixed plate, a first upper fixing rod and a second upper fixing rod, and a lower fixing rod parallel to and below the first upper fixing rod and the second upper fixing rod. Two ends of the first upper fixing rod are fixedly connected to the first fixed plate and the second fixed plate respectively. Two ends of the second upper fixing rod are fixedly connected to the first fixed plate and the second fixed plate respectively. Two ends of the lower fixing rod are fixedly connected to the first fixed plate and the second fixed plate respectively. The first upper fixing rod and the second upper fixing rod are each provided with a plurality of limiting columns each of which including a cylindrical body and a semispherical end.

This specification describes methods for processing semiconductor wafers, methods for loading semiconductor wafers into wafer carriers, and semiconductor wafer carriers. The methods and wafer carriers can be used for increasing the rigidity of wafers, e.g., large and thin wafers, by intentionally bowing the wafers to an extent that does not break the wafers. In some examples, a method for processing semiconductor wafers includes loading each semiconductor wafer into a respective semiconductor wafer slot of a semiconductor wafer carrier, horizontally bowing each semiconductor wafer, and moving the semiconductor wafer carrier into a processing station and processing the semiconductor wafers at the processing station while the semiconductor wafers are loaded into the semiconductor wafer carrier and horizontally bowed.

The invention relates to a plate element for a wafer boat for the plasma treatment of disk-shaped wafers, in particular semiconductor wafers for semiconductor or photovoltaic applications. The plate element is electrically conductive and has at least one holding unit on each side, for holding a wafer in a wafer holding region. The plate element has at least one recess in at least one side of the plate element and/or at least one opening in the plate element, wherein the at least one recess and/or the at least one opening in the plate element lies at least partially radially outside of the wafer holding region and directly adjacent thereto. The invention further relates to a wafer boat that has a plurality of plate elements of the above type arranged parallel to each other, wherein plate elements arranged adjacent are electrically insulated from each other. The invention further relates to a wafer boat in combination with a plasma treatment device, which has a process chamber for accommodating the wafer boat, means for controlling a process gas atmosphere in the process chamber in an open-loop or closed-loop manner, and at least one voltage source, which can be connected to the electrically conductive plate elements of the wafer boat in a suitable manner in order to apply a voltage between directly adjacent wafers held in the wafer boat.

This specification describes semiconductor wafer carriers, methods for manufacturing the semiconductor wafer carriers, and methods for using the semiconductor wafer carriers. The semiconductor wafer carriers can include features for avoiding double-slotting, for preventing glove marks on semiconductor wafers, and for providing additional sitting and storage options for the wafer carrier. In some examples, a semiconductor wafer carrier includes multiple notched left-side rods that are parallel in a vertical direction and multiple notched right-side rods that are parallel in the vertical direction. The semiconductor wafer carrier includes one or more bottom rods. The left-side rods, the right-side rods, and the one or more bottom rods are joined to define semiconductor wafer slots.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes: forming a film on a substrate by performing a cycle a predetermined number of times. The cycle includes non-simultaneously performing: supplying a precursor from a first nozzle to a substrate and exhausting the precursor from an exhaust port; supplying a first reactant from a second nozzle to the substrate and exhausting the first reactant from the exhaust port; and supplying a second reactant from a third nozzle to the substrate and exhausting the second reactant from the exhaust port. A substrate in-plane film thickness distribution of the film formed on the substrate is controlled by controlling a balance between a flow rate of an inert gas supplied from the second nozzle, a flow rate of an inert gas supplied from the third nozzle, and a flow rate of an inert gas supplied from the first nozzle in supplying the precursor.

Disclosed is a substrate processing system that includes a substrate processing apparatus configured to perform a predetermined processing on a substrate accommodated in a processing container. The substrate processing system includes: a processing execution unit configured to execute a film deposition processing on the substrate; a characteristic acquiring unit configured to acquire the characteristic of the film deposited on the substrate by the film deposition processing; and an abnormality determination unit configured to determine whether the characteristic of the film includes an abnormal value based on the characteristic of the film acquired by the characteristic acquiring unit.

According to one aspect of a technique the present disclosure, there is provided a processing apparatus including: an apparatus controller including a memory storing apparatus data containing monitor data containing sensor information and an alarm indicating a failure detected based on the sensor information and an alarm analysis table containing analysis items. The apparatus controller is capable of outputting the alarm containing an alarm ID for specifying a type and an occurrence time of the alarm; specifying candidates of the analysis items from the alarm ID; acquiring monitor data corresponding to the candidates; determining a rank of the cause of the alarm according to a difference between monitor data at the occurrence time and a predetermined threshold value; and displaying a relationship between the monitor data and the threshold value. The display screen displays an occurrence history of the alarm and history of acquiring the monitor data.

A wafer cassette includes a front plate and a rear plate disposed opposite to face each other; and at least two top elongated rods, at least two middle elongated rods and at least two bottom elongated rods, each having a plurality of grooves shaped thereinto. The top elongated rods, the middle elongated rods and the bottom elongated rods each has two ends being pivotally connected to the front plate and the rear plate, respectively. The top elongated rods, the middle elongated rods and the bottom elongated rods each comprises a solid-iron rod enclosed with a cladding layer.