Environmental control material holders can retain environmental control material within wafer carriers, allowing the environmental control material to protect wafers from moisture while also securing the environmental control material. The environmental control material holders may include a baseplate and tabs defining spaces to hold environmental control material, and can be configured to engage a handle of a wafer cassette. The environmental control material holders may retain one or more environmental control materials. Additionally, the environmental control material holders can be configured to also retain a humidity indicator.

Described herein is a technique capable of suppressing generation of particles and improving a throughput. According to one aspect of the technique, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus including: a loading chamber accommodating a boat; an elevator configured to elevate and lower the boat; a boat exchanging device configured move the boat on the elevator to a first stand-by region and a second stand-by region; a first clean air supplier facing an unloading region in the loading chamber where the boat placed on the elevator is accommodated; a second clean air supplier facing the first stand-by region; and a third clean air supplier facing the second stand-by region, wherein a flow volume ejected from the clean air suppliers are individually controlled so as to form a predetermined air flow in a range of height in which the boat exchanging device in the loading chamber is provided.

The present invention provides a system of processing one or more substrates with very high efficiency. The processing system in descriptions comprises a first process chamber with various features to improve efficiency and a transfer chamber that couples to the first process chamber with various features to improve efficiency. In addition, a second process chamber and load-locks may be used to improve efficiency furthermore. This system can increases number of the substrates in processing chamber, enable multiple processes and process sequences to be carried out in the same system, and provide high throughput substrate processing.

Semiconductor substrate adaptor configured to adapt a substrate of a first dimension to a second dimension, such that the substrate can be properly supported by a supporting mechanism (e.g., a wafer cassette) customized for substrates of the second dimension. The substrate adaptor may be made of quartz. The combination of the substrate adaptor and a substrate fitting therein causes no perturbation in various aspects of a semiconductor process. Therefore, the substrate adaptor conveniently enables a substrate of the first dimension to be processed in the same processing equipment and conditions as a substrate of the second dimension. A vertical substrate adaptor may have a semicircular body with a semicircular cutout for accommodating a wafer and can support a wafer vertically. A horizontal substrate adaptor may have a circular body with a circular cutout for accommodating an entire wafer and supporting the wafer horizontally.

A wafer boat is described for the plasma treatment of disc-shaped wafers, in particular semiconductor wafers for semiconductor or photovoltaic applications, which has a plurality of plates positioned parallel to each other made of an electrically conductive material, which have at least one carrier for a wafer on each side which faces another plate and define a receiving space for the wafers on the plates. The wafer boat also has a plurality of spacer elements, which are positioned between directly adjacent plates in order to position the plates parallel to each other, wherein the spacer elements are electrically conductive. Also a plasma treatment apparatus for wafers and a method for the plasma treatment of wafers is described. The apparatus has a process chamber for the reception of a wafer boat of the previously described type, means for controlling or regulating a process gas atmosphere in the process chamber and at least one voltage source, which is connectable to the plates of the wafer boat in a suitable manner, in order to apply an electrical voltage between directly adjacent plates of the wafer boat, wherein the at least one voltage source is suitable for applying at least one DC-voltage or at least one low-frequency AC-voltage and at least one high-frequency AC-voltage. In the method, during the heating phase a DC-voltage or a low-frequency AC-voltage is applied to the plates of the wafer boat in such a way that the spacer elements heat up by current flowing therethrough, and during a processing phase a high-frequency AC-voltage is applied to the plates of the wafer boat, in order to generate a plasma between the wafers inserted into them.

A wafer conveying apparatus conveying a wafer onto a supporting table in manufacturing a semiconductor. A first arm retains the wafer to move to an upper region of the supporting table, and is retracted from the upper region of the supporting table after the wafer is elevated. A second arm contacts the wafer by an opening provided in the supporting table to elevate the wafer, and lowers the wafer to place the wafer on the supporting table.

A wafer boat configured to be placed on a pedestal of a vertical batch furnace, the pedestal having a substantially flat support surface. The wafer boat comprises a support ring defining a substantially flat bottom end surface of the wafer boat, and an alignment ring substantially concentric with the support ring. Either the support surface of the pedestal, or a bottom side of the alignment ring is provided with a plurality of alignment elements respectively protruding upwards from the support surface or downwards from the alignment ring, while the other one is provided with a plurality of alignment openings configured to accommodate therein the plurality of alignment elements. The support ring downwardly protrudes beyond the alignment ring so that, when the wafer boat is placed on the pedestal, the support ring is supported on the support surface while the alignment ring is spaced from the support surface of the pedestal.

Substrate holding hand attached to hand tip portion of manipulator and configured to hold substrate having circular plate shape and placed in vertical or inclined postures, including: base plate spreading from base toward tip end sides, part of base plate located at base end side, fixed to hand tip portion, holding position at base plate; engaging claw at part of base plate located at tip end side, engaging claw configured to engage part of edge of substrate in vertical or inclined postures, part of edge located lower than center of substrate; moving portion at base end side of holding position and configured to move toward tip end side; and plurality of rotating bodies at the moving portion, being pressed by movement against edge of substrate located lower than holding position and engaged with claw, and plurality of rotating bodies pushing substrate upward holding position while rotating along edge of substrate.

A film-forming device that includes a cylindrical chamber capable of maintaining vacuum therein, a workpiece holder that is constructed to align and hold workpieces to be processed in multiple stages such that main surfaces of the workpieces are oriented in a vertical direction relative to a central axis of the chamber, a deposition material supply pipe, a modifier supply pipe, a carrier gas supply pipe, and an exhaust mechanism, wherein in a cross section of the chamber in a direction parallel to the main surfaces of the workpieces, the exhaust mechanism is located on a side opposite to an opening direction of gas outlets of the deposition, modifier, and carrier gas supply pipes, and a total gas flow from the deposition, modifier, and carrier gas supply pipes is symmetric about a centerline of the chamber.

A substrate processing apparatus includes a liquid processing tank, a movement mechanism, an ejector, and a controller. The liquid processing tank stores a processing liquid. The movement mechanism moves a plurality of substrates immersed in the liquid processing tank to a position above the liquid surface of the processing liquid. The ejector ejects a vapor of an organic solvent toward portions of the plurality of substrates that are exposed from the liquid surface. The controller changes an ejection flow rate of the vapor ejected by the ejector as the plurality of substrates are moved up.