An alkaline etchant containing a quaternary ammonium hydroxide, water, and an inhibitory substance for inhibiting contact between hydroxide ions generated from the quaternary ammonium hydroxide and objects P1 to P3 to be etched is prepared. The prepared etchant is supplied to a substrate in which the polysilicon-containing objects P1 to P3 to be etched and objects O1 to O3 not to be etched, which are different from the objects P1 to P3 to be etched, are exposed, thereby etching the objects P1 to P3 to be etched while preventing the objects O1 to O3 not to be etched from being etched.

A method and apparatus are disclosed for optimizing a rinsing and drying process in semiconductor manufacturing. The optimization seeks to maximize processing throughput while maintaining low defect counts and high device yields, and utilizes simulation and experimental data to set the optimal process parameters for the rinsing and drying process. Improved methods of rinse liquid and purge gas nozzle movement are also disclosed.

A substrate processing apparatus comprises: a liquid film former which forms a liquid film by supplying a liquid on an upper surface of the substrate W held horizontally; a cooling gas discharge nozzle which discharges cooling gas of a temperature lower than a freezing point of the liquid forming the liquid film to the liquid film; a thawing liquid discharge nozzle which discharges a thawing liquid to a frozen film formed by freezing the liquid film; a thawing liquid supplier which supplies the heated thawing liquid to the thawing liquid discharge nozzle via a pipe; and a receiver which receives the cooling gas and the thawing liquid respectively discharged from the cooling gas discharge nozzle and the thawing liquid discharge nozzle at the respective retracted position and guides the cooling gas and the thawing liquid to a common flow passage.

An ozone water production device (1) includes: flow rate controllers (4, 5) that each control a flow rate of gas which is a raw material; a flow rate meter (12) that measures a flow rate of water which is a raw material; a booster pump (13) that controls pressure of the water; an ozone water generating unit (8) that generates ozone water by mixing ozone gas and the water; and a pressure sensor (17) that measures pressure of the ozone water which is to be supplied to a use point (19). The booster pump (13) controls the pressure of the water such that the pressure of the ozone water measured by the pressure sensor (17) is constant. The flow rate controllers (4, 5) each control the flow rate of the gas in accordance with the flow rate of the water measured by the flow rate meter (12).

According to the embodiment, a substrate treating device 1 that rotates and washes a substrate, the device includes a spinning holding mechanism for holding a substrate, a treatment liquid supply nozzle for supplying a treatment liquid to the substrate, a shielding plate that is arranged opposite to the substrate held by the spinning holding mechanism and that moves in a contact/separate direction with respect to the substrate, a shielding plate rotating mechanism for rotating the shielding plate, and a control device for controlling the shielding plate rotating mechanism to rotate the shielding plate without moving the shielding plate from a standby position when the treatment liquid is supplied from the treatment liquid supply nozzle. It is possible to prevent contamination of a substrate during the treatment process.

Techniques are provided to remove the growth of colloidal silica deposits on surfaces of high aspect ratio structures during silicon nitride etch steps. A high selectivity overetch step is used to remove the deposited colloidal silica. The disclosed techniques include the use of phosphoric acid to remove silicon nitride from structures having silicon nitride formed in narrow gap or trench structures having high aspect ratios in which formation of colloidal silica deposits on a surface of the narrow gap or trench through a hydrolysis reaction occurs. A second etch step is used in which the hydrolysis reaction which formed the colloidal silica deposits is reversible, and with the now lower concentration of silica in the nearby phosphoric acid due to the depletion of the silicon nitride, the equilibrium drives the reaction in the reverse direction, dissolving the deposited silica back into solution.

Provided is a substrate processing apparatus that removes a film by supplying a processing liquid to the peripheral edge of a substrate. An ejection unit ejects the processing liquid to the peripheral edge of the substrate held and rotated by a substrate holding unit. An ejection position setting unit sets the ejection position of the processing liquid of the ejection unit to correspond to the removal width of the film included in a recipe, and a property information acquisition unit acquires property information of the film to be removed. A correction amount acquisition unit acquires the correction amount for correcting the ejection position of the processing liquid based on the property information of the film, and an ejection position correction unit corrects the ejection position of the processing liquid by the ejection unit based on the correction amount acquired by the correction amount acquisition unit.

Method of producing one or more transition metal dichalcogenide (MX.sub.2) layers on a substrate, comprising the steps of: obtaining a substrate having a surface and depositing MX.sub.2 on the surface using ALD deposition, starting from a metal halide precursor and a chalcogen source (H.sub.2X), at a deposition temperature of about 300° C. Suitable metals are Mo and W, suitable chalcogenides are S, Se and Te. The substrate may be (111) oriented. Also mixtures of two or more MX.sub.2 layers of different compositions can be deposited on the substrate, by repeating at least some of the steps of the method.

A cleaning composition for a semiconductor substrate contains a solvent, and a polymer that includes a fluorine atom, a silicon atom or a combination thereof. The content of water in the solvent is preferably no greater than 20% by mass. The cleaning composition preferably further contains an organic acid which is a non-polymeric acid. The organic acid is preferably a polyhydric carboxylic acid. The acid dissociation constant of the polymer is preferably less than that of the organic acid. The solubility of the organic acid in water at 25° C. is preferably no less than 5% by mass. The organic acid is preferably a solid at 25° C.

A substrate processing apparatus includes a driving magnet that is disposed correspondingly to a movable pin and that has a predetermined polar direction with respect to a radial direction of a rotary table, a pressing magnet that has a magnetic pole that gives an attractive magnetic force or a repulsive magnetic force between the driving magnet and the pressing magnet and that presses a support portion against a peripheral edge of a substrate by urging the support portion toward a contact position by means of the attractive magnetic force or the repulsive magnetic force, and a pressing-force changing unit that changes a magnitude of a pressing force against the peripheral edge of the substrate pressed by the support portion while keeping the magnitude higher than zero in response to rotation of the rotary table.