A substrate processing apparatus includes a liquid processing apparatus configured to form a liquid film on a surface of a substrate; a supercritical drying apparatus configured to dry the substrate by replacing the liquid film with a supercritical fluid; a first load-lock apparatus configured to switch an atmosphere around the substrate from a first one of a normal pressure atmosphere and a decompressed pressure atmosphere to a second one thereof on a transfer path of the substrate; a dry-cleaning apparatus configured to dry-clean the surface of the substrate under a decompressed pressure; and a control device configured to perform forming of the liquid film by the liquid processing apparatus, drying of the substrate by the supercritical drying apparatus, switching of the atmosphere around the substrate by the first load-lock apparatus, and dry-cleaning of the substrate by the dry-cleaning apparatus in this order.

A substrate processing apparatus, comprising a substrate support (32) provided with a support surface (34) for supporting a substrate or a substrate carrier (24) thereon and a support heater (50) constructed and arranged to heat the support surface (34). The apparatus comprises a heat shield constructed and arranged to cover and shield the substrate support (32) when no substrate or substrate carrier (24) is on the support surface.

Provided is an assembling apparatus for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. The assembling apparatus includes: a body; lift attached to the body and configured to move a reaction tube having an opening at a lower end portion thereof vertically, thereby allowing a gas supply pipe to be installed inside the reaction tube through the opening while the reaction tube is held by the lift; gas supply source configured to supply a gas into the reaction tube through the gas supply pipe while the reaction tube is held by the lift; and an exhaust mechanism including a pump configured to exhaust an inside of the reaction tube through the opening, thereby performing a leakage test of the reaction tube while the reaction tube is held by the lift.

According to one aspect of the technique, there is provided a substrate temperature sensor configured to measure a temperature of a substrate, wherein the substrate temperature sensor is provided in a protective pipe passing through a notch provided at least in a bottom plate of a substrate retainer inserted into a process chamber in a state where the substrate is mounted on the substrate retainer.

The present disclosure provides a system and method for determining condition of wafers during processing of the wafers. The system and method include detecting vibrations of a wafer transfer robot, generating signals based upon the vibrations, and processing the signals for determining a condition of the wafers held by the wafer transfer robot.

Methods to improve front-side process uniformity by back-side metallization are disclosed. In some implementations, a metal layer is deposited on the back-side of a wafer prior to performing a plasma-based process on the front side of the wafer. Presence of the back-side metal layer reduces variations in, for example, thickness of a deposited and/or etched layer resulting from the plasma-based process.

Provided are an apparatus and a method which ensure the wafers immersing in the chemical solution from one cleaning tank to the other cleaning tanks. The apparatus includes an inner tank (1001); at least one divider (1002) for dividing the inner tank (1001) into at least two cleaning tanks filled with chemical solution; a first robot (1005) equipped with at least a pair of end effectors (1051) for gripping and taking a wafer from a first cleaning tank (1011) to a second cleaning tank (1012); wherein each cleaning tank is provided with a cassette bracket (1003) in the bottom for holding wafers, and the at least one divider (1002) is provided with at least one slot (1004)< wherein the first robot (1005) grips and takes the wafer from the first cleaning tank (1011) to the second cleaning tank (1012) through the slot (1004) while keeping the wafer immersing.

A substrate processing apparatus, comprising a substrate support (32) provided with a support surface (34) for supporting a substrate or a substrate carrier (24) thereon and a support heater (50) constructed and arranged to heat the support surface (34). The apparatus comprises a heat shield constructed and arranged to cover and shield the substrate support (32) when no substrate or substrate carrier (24) is on the support surface.

In a vacuum processing device, a loading/unloading port, a normal pressure transfer chamber and a vacuum transfer chamber are arranged in that order from a front side toward a rear side, and load-lock chambers are connected to the normal pressure transfer chamber. The position in the front-rear direction in a movement range of a wafer W in the normal pressure transfer chamber overlaps with the positions in the front-rear direction of the load-lock chambers. Three vacuum processing modules are connected to each of the left and right sides of the vacuum transfer chamber. Vacuum processing units are arranged in each of the vacuum processing modules in a front-rear direction when viewed from the vacuum transfer chamber side. Wafer mounting shelves for holding wafers W in the load-lock chambers are arranged in the front-rear direction when viewed from the vacuum transfer chamber side.

A transfer device of an embodiment includes a transporter including a temperature sensor disposed thereon and configured to move between a measurement position at which a temperature of a transfer target object is measured and a standby position separated from the measurement position, and a controller configured to control an operation of the transporter, and the controller moves the transporter between the measurement position and the standby position, and transfers the transfer target object by the transporter when the temperature measured by the temperature sensor at the measurement position continues to be equal to or less than a threshold for a first time.