To provide a wire electric discharge machine capable of suitably and simply performing thermal displacement correction on upper and lower guides. Provided are a storage unit that stores temperatures of machine elements and actual values for relative positions of upper and lower guides to be associated with each other as associated data; and a relational expression calculation unit that infers and calculates a relational expression between the temperature of the machine element and the relative positions of the upper and lower guides by way of machine learning with this associated data as training data. Additionally provided are a position estimation unit that substitutes temperatures of the machine element into the relational expression and calculates an estimated value for the relative position of the upper and lower guides; and a correction amount calculation unit that calculates a correction amount for the upper and lower guides, based on the estimated value for the relative position. Further provided is a correction execution unit that performs correction of the relative position of the upper and lower guides based on this correction amount.

Disclosed is a substrate processing apparatus and method which facilitate to improve uniformity of thin film material and also facilitate to control quality of thin film by the use of plasma forming space and source gas distributing space separately provided from each other, wherein the substrate processing apparatus includes a process chamber; a substrate support for supporting a plurality of substrates, the substrate support rotatably provided inside the process chamber; and an electrode unit arranged above the substrate support and provided with the plasma forming space and the source gas distributing space, wherein the plasma forming space is spatially separated from the source gas distributing space.

An apparatus for depositing a thin film on a substrate is described. The apparatus includes a substrate support having an outer surface for guiding the substrate along a surface of the substrate support through a first vacuum processing region and at least one second vacuum processing region, a first deposition sources corresponding to the first processing region and at least one second deposition source corresponding to the at least one second vacuum processing region. The apparatus further includes one or more vacuum flanges providing at least a further gas outlet between the first deposition source and the at least one second deposition source.

A plasma power supply system for a plasma processing system is provided. The plasma processing system includes a first plasma source and a second plasma source in adjacent sections of a plasma chamber. The plasma processing system is configured in such a way that in different sections different materials are deposited. A substrate is processed by a plasma in the plasma chamber. The power supply system includes a first power supply configured to supply a first AC power to the first plasma source, a second power supply configured to supply a second AC power to the second plasma source, a first sensor for monitoring a plasma process parameter of the first plasma source, a control unit configured to determine a first operating data related to the plasma process parameter, and control the second power supply based on the first operating data in order to decrease crazing on the substrate.

An Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma processing apparatus used for Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma processing of substrates, comprises a radio-frequency generator and two electrode plates disposed vertically and opposing each other. The two electrode plates have two surface opposing to each other, one of which is a flat surface, and the other is a stepped surface, such that a gap is provided between the two electrode plates and said gap comprising a narrower gap part at an upper side and a wider gap part at a lower side. The radio-frequency generator is connected to the two electrode plates, and applies radio-frequency signals to the two electrode plates so as to generate plasma within the gap.

Oxide growth of a gate dielectric layer that occurs between processes used in the fabrication of a gate dielectric structure can be reduced. The reduction in oxide growth can be achieved by maintaining the gate dielectric layer in an ambient effective to mitigate oxide growth of the gate dielectric layer between at least two sequential process steps used in the fabrication the gate dielectric structure. Maintaining the gate dielectric layer in an ambient effective to mitigate oxide growth also improves the uniformity of nitrogen implanted in the gate dielectric.

An apparatus includes a substrate support having an outer surface for guiding the substrate through a first vacuum processing region and at least one second vacuum processing region. First and second deposition sources correspond to the first processing region and at least one second deposition source corresponds to the at least one second vacuum processing region, wherein at least the first deposition source includes an electrode having a surface that opposes the substrate support. A processing gas inlet and a processing gas outlet are arranged at opposing sides of the surface of the electrode. At least one separation gas inlet how one or more openings, wherein the one or more openings are at least provided at one of opposing sides of the electrode surface such that the processing gas inlet and/or the processing gas outlet are provided between the one or more openings and the surface of the electrode.

A plasma generator, a plasma annealing device, a deposition crystallization apparatus and a plasma annealing process are disclosed. The plasma generator includes: a gas chamber; a gas intake member configured to introduce a gas into the gas chamber; a cathode and an anode that are configured to apply an electric field to the gas introduced into the gas chamber to ionize the gas into plasma; a cooling water circulation member configured to control a temperature of the plasma generator; and a plasma beam outlet disposed on a top face of the gas chamber. The plasma annealing device including the plasma generator can generate a plasma beam, which can be used in annealing to amorphous silicon and crystallize the amorphous silicon to polycrystalline silicon.

Methods and systems for transferring an alkali metal film, for example, a lithium film or a sodium film, from a flexible carrier substrate, for example, a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate onto a metallic-containing substrate, for example, a copper foil, is provided. The methods and systems utilize atmospheric plasma in combination within a roll-to-roll process to facilitate the transfer of the alkali metal film while etching away residue from a release layer or reaction layer formed during high-temperature deposition of the lithium film. The resulting pristine lithium surface can then be passivated. The methods and systems are especially useful for applications in lithium-ion batteries and other energy storage devices.

Oxide growth of a gate dielectric layer that occurs between processes used in the fabrication of a gate dielectric structure can be reduced. The reduction in oxide growth can be achieved by maintaining the gate dielectric layer in an ambient effective to mitigate oxide growth of the gate dielectric layer between at least two sequential process steps used in the fabrication the gate dielectric structure. Maintaining the gate dielectric layer in an ambient effective to mitigate oxide growth also improves the uniformity of nitrogen implanted in the gate dielectric.