Embodiments of substrate carriers and method of making the same are provided herein. In some embodiments, a substrate carrier includes a substantially planar body; and a plurality of holding elements arranged on a surface of the substantially planar body, wherein the plurality of holding elements are configured to hold a plurality of substrates on the surface of the substantially planar body, and wherein the plurality of holding elements includes at least three holding elements disposed around a corresponding position of each of the plurality of substrates.

One or more embodiments described herein generally relate to drying environments within semiconductor processing systems. In these embodiments, substrates are cleaned and dried within a drying environment before returning to the factory interface. However, due to an opening between the factory interface and the drying environment, air flows from the factory interface into the drying environment, often reducing the effectiveness of the drying processes. In embodiments described herein, the air flow is blocked by a sliding door that raises up to the closed position when a substrate enters the drying portion of the dryer located within the drying environment. After the substrate exits the dryer and before the substrate enters the factory interface, the sliding door lowers to the opened position such that the substrate can enter the factory interface. As such, these processes allow for multiple substrates to dry quickly and consistently within the system, improving throughput.

A substrate processing apparatus includes a substrate holder, and a discharge head for peripheral area from which a fluid is discharge toward a surface peripheral area of the substrate held on the substrate holder. The discharge head for peripheral area includes multiple nozzles, and a support part that supports the nozzles integrally. The nozzles include a processing liquid nozzle from which a processing liquid is discharged toward the surface peripheral area, and a gas nozzle from which gas is discharged toward the surface peripheral area. The gas nozzle is placed upstream of a rotative direction of the substrate relative to the processing liquid nozzle.

In some embodiments, the present disclosure relates to a method that includes aligned a first wafer with a second wafer. The second wafer is spaced apart from the first wafer. The first wafer is arranged on a first electrostatic chuck (ESC). The first ESC has electrostatic contacts that are configured to attract the first wafer to the first ESC. Further, the second wafer is brought toward the first wafer to directly contact the first wafer at an inter-wafer interface. The inter-wafer interface is localized to a center of the first wafer. The second wafer is deformed to gradually expand the inter-wafer interface from the center of the first wafer toward an edge of the first wafer. The electrostatic contacts of the first ESC are turned OFF such that the first and second wafers are bonded to one another by the inter-wafer interface.

A processing device and method for safely processing a wafer having bumps formed on a surface thereof. A processing device is provided with: a chuck capable of holding a bump region of a wafer; a support ring having a support surface for supporting a bend region which extends from the bump region to an outer peripheral region and in which a film is bent, the support ring capable of supporting the outer peripheral region of the wafer; and a chuck table in which the chuck is housed substantially centrally and the support ring is housed around the chuck.

Carrier rings with radially-varied plasma impedance are provided herein. In some embodiments, a carrier ring may include an outer ring that holds a removable inner ring. The outer ring may be formed of a dielectric material such as ceramic. The inner ring may be formed of a metal such as aluminum to provide a desired impedance. In some other embodiments, a carrier ring is formed from a single piece with radially-varying impedances.

Substrate tables and methods of manufacturing substrate supports for substrate tables. In one arrangement, a plurality of holes are formed through a base member. A burl formation member is joined to the base member. A plurality of burl structures are formed in the burl formation member. Each burl structure includes a distal surface that contacts, in use, a substrate being supported. Each burl structure has an opening to at least one of the holes formed through the base member.

According to one aspect of the technique of the present disclosure, there is provided a method of displaying substrate arrangement data, including: (a) setting each of a transport parameter for determining at least an arrangement of substrates to be loaded into a substrate retainer and carrier information of a carrier storing the substrates to be loaded into the substrate retainer; (b) creating the substrate arrangement data of a case where the substrates are loaded into the substrate retainer based on the transport parameter and the carrier information set in (a); and (c) displaying the substrate arrangement data at least comprising data representing the arrangement of the substrates in a state where the substrates are loaded in the substrate retainer.

Exemplary substrate processing systems may include a transfer region housing defining a transfer region fluidly coupled with a plurality of processing regions. A sidewall of the transfer region housing may define a sealable access for providing and receiving substrates. The systems may include a plurality of substrate supports disposed within the transfer region. The systems may also include a transfer apparatus having a central hub including a first shaft and a second shaft counter-rotatable with the first shaft. The transfer apparatus may include an eccentric hub extending at least partially through the central hub, and which is radially offset from a central axis of the central hub. The transfer apparatus may also include an end effector coupled with the eccentric hub. The end effector may include a plurality of arms having a number of arms equal to the number of substrate supports of the plurality of substrate supports.

Systems, method and related apparatuses for adjusting support elements of a support apparatus to approximate a surface profile of a wafer. The support apparatus may include a group of mutually lateral adjacent support elements, each mutually lateral adjacent support element is configured to independently move at least vertically and comprising an upper surface. The support apparatus may further include a thermal energy transfer device operably coupled to each of the mutually lateral support elements, and an actuator system operably coupled to each of the support elements to selectively move one or more of the mutually lateral support elements vertically.