A wafer processing apparatus includes a pressure applying element, a rotatable element, a control element, and a heat source. The pressure applying element includes a first pressure applying head having a first working surface and a second pressure applying head having a second working surface. The rotatable element and the pressure applying element are connected. The control element is electrically connected to the rotatable element. The heat source is disposed beside the pressure applying element.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, includes attaching a first susceptor to a film forming apparatus, measuring a magnitude of a warp of the first susceptor, setting a first initial film formation condition as a film formation condition of the film forming apparatus in accordance with the measured magnitude of the warp of the first susceptor, and placing a plurality of first wafers on the first susceptor and forming a first film on the plurality of first wafers under the film formation condition. The setting of the first initial film formation condition includes reading the first initial film formation condition from a recording medium storing a database. The database includes a plurality of pieces of data in which magnitudes of warps of susceptors are associated with initial film formation conditions for forming the first film.

An aligner system includes a motor, a rotating device, a control device, and a sensor. The motor generates a rotational drive force. The rotating device 11 is rotated by the rotational drive force generated by the motor, while supporting a wafer. The control device controls rotation of the rotating device, and performs a process of setting a rotational phase of the wafer to a predetermined value. The sensor emits a plurality of light beams traveling in different directions toward an edge of the wafer, and receives the light beams to detect a defect in the edge of the wafer.

A method is disclosed for generating a corrective film pattern for reducing wafer bow in a semiconductor wafer fabrication process. The method inputs to a neural network a wafer bow signature for a predetermined semiconductor fabrication step. The neural network generates from the input a corrective film pattern corresponding to the wafer bow signature. The neural network is trained with a training dataset of wafer shape transformations and corresponding corrective film patterns.

A controller for adjusting a height of an edge ring in a substrate processing system includes an edge ring wear calculation module configured to receive at least one input indicative of one or more erosion rates of the edge ring, calculate at least one erosion rate of the edge ring based on the at least one input, and calculate an amount of erosion of the edge ring based on the at least one erosion rate. An actuator control module is configured to adjust the height of the edge ring based on the amount of erosion as calculated by the edge ring wear calculation module.

An apparatus to determine occurrence of an anomalous plasma event occurring at or near a process station of a multi-station integrated circuit fabrication chamber is disclosed. In particular embodiments, optical emissions generated responsive to the anomalous plasma event may be detected by at least one photosensor of a plurality of photosensors. A processor may cooperate with the plurality of photosensors to determine that the anomalous plasma event has occurred at or near by a particular process station of the multi-station integrated circuit fabrication chamber.

A cleaning device includes: a plurality of rollers that hold a peripheral edge part of a substrate; a rotation driving unit that rotates the substrate by rotationally driving the plurality of rollers; a cleaning member that abuts on the substrate and cleans the substrate; a cleaning liquid supply nozzle that supplies a cleaning liquid to the substrate; a microphone that detects a sound generated when a notch of the peripheral edge part of the substrate hits the plurality of rollers; and a rotation speed calculation unit that calculates a rotation speed of the substrate on the basis of the sound detected by the microphone.

A failure analysis unit is a wafer conveyance unit configured to convey a wafer while holding the wafer in a semiconductor failure analysis apparatus, the wafer conveyance unit including: a placement table configured to fix a wafer at a predetermined observation position; and a wafer chuck configured to convey the wafer while holding the wafer to the observation position. The wafer chuck includes a plurality of holding members (protruding portions) provided so as to face a side surface of the wafer, and holds the wafer by sandwiching a peripheral portion of the wafer W with the plurality of holding members.

There is provided a method of inspecting a substrate in an etching system including an imaging device, the method comprising: (A) imaging a substrate after plasma etching with the imaging device to acquire image data; and (B) calculating, based on the image data of the substrate after plasma etching, at least one selected from a group consisting of a dimension of a pattern on the substrate after plasma etching, information on a defect on the substrate after plasma etching, a thickness of a film on the substrate after plasma etching, and information on an appearance of the substrate after plasma etching.

An operation accuracy measuring method for measuring the operation accuracy of a linear motion mechanism includes the steps of placing on a support table a measuring jig having a flat lower surface, a parallel surface opposite and parallel to the lower surface, and a slanted surface joined to the parallel surface through a straight boundary line, adjusting the position of the measuring jig to allow the white light interferometer to observe the parallel surface and the slanted surface simultaneously, capturing images of the parallel surface and the slanted surface with the white light interferometer and observing changes in interference fringes appearing in image sections of the captured images that represent the parallel surface and the slanted surface while the support table is being linearly moved, and the step of deducing the operation accuracy of the linear motion mechanism on the basis of the observed changes in the interference fringes.