A substrate processing apparatus includes: a substrate holder to vertically load a plurality of substrates in multiple stages with an interval therebetween and including a plurality of partition plates vertically partitioning a region where the plurality of substrates are loaded; a process chamber to receive the substrate holder therein; protrusions protruding inward toward the outer circumferential surfaces of the partition plates from an inner circumferential wall surface within the process chamber, which faces the outer circumferential surfaces of the partition plates, to form clearances between inner circumferential surfaces formed on the protruding tip ends of the protrusions and the outer circumferential surfaces of the partition plates; and a gas supply part to supply inert gas into the clearances, which are formed between the inner circumferential surfaces of the protrusions and the outer circumferential surfaces of the partition plates, to form positive-pressure sections subjected to a pressure higher than ambient pressure.

A driving method of a vertical heat treatment apparatus having a vertical reaction container with a heating part installed includes: performing a process of loading wafers by a substrate holder support to the reaction container; performing a film forming process of storing a first gas at a storage unit and pressurizing the first gas, and alternatively performing a step of supplying the first gas to the vacuum atmosphere reaction container and a step of supplying the second gas to the reaction container; subsequently performing a purge process of unloading the substrate holder support and supplying a purge gas into the reaction container to forcibly peel off a thin film attached to the reaction container; and while the purge process is performed, performing a process of repeating storing the purge gas at the storage unit, pressurizing the gas and discharging the gas into the reaction container.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device uses a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus including a turn table allowing placement of at least first and second semiconductor substrates and being capable of moving positions of the first and the second semiconductor substrates by turning, a first film forming chamber, and a second film forming chamber. The first and the second film forming chambers are provided with an opening capable of loading and unloading the first and the second semiconductor substrates by lifting and lowering the first and the second semiconductor substrates placed on the turn table. The method includes transferring the first and the second semiconductor substrates between the first and the second film forming chambers by turning the turn fable and lifting and lowering the first and the second semiconductor substrates placed on the turn table; and forming a stack of films above the first and the second semiconductor substrates.

An apparatus for the wafer level packaging (WLP) of micro-bolometer vacuum package assemblies (VPAs), in one embodiment, includes a wafer alignment and bonding chamber, a bolometer wafer chuck and a lid wafer chuck disposed within the chamber in vertically facing opposition to each other, means for creating a first ultra-high vacuum (UHV) environment within the chamber, means for heating and cooling the bolometer wafer chuck and the lid wafer chuck independently of each other, means for moving the lid wafer chuck in the vertical direction and relative to the bolometer wafer chuck, means for moving the bolometer wafer chuck translationally in two orthogonal directions in a horizontal plane and rotationally about a vertical axis normal to the horizontal plane, and means for aligning a fiducial on a bolometer wafer held by the bolometer wafer chuck with a fiducial on a lid wafer held by the lid wafer chuck.

There is provided a technique that includes a processor configured to be capable of executing a process recipe to process a substrate; and a pressure controller configured to be capable of controlling a pressure of a process chamber, in which the substrate is processed, by adjusting an opening degree of a pressure regulating valve provided to an exhaust line of the process chamber, wherein when controlling the pressure of the process chamber, the pressure controller adjusts the opening degree of the pressure regulating valve and outputs information of the opening degree, and wherein while receiving the information of the opening degree from the pressure controller and monitoring an open/close state of the pressure regulating valve, the processor is configured to, when the information of the opening degree is a preset value, be capable of determining whether or not opening/closing of the pressure regulating valve happens.

A cooling method is a method of cooling a processed substrate in a state of being held by a substrate holder, the method including: a first cooling step of cooling the substrate by supplying a gas toward the substrate holder disposed at a reference position; a stopping step of stopping supply of the gas; and a second cooling step of cooling the processed substrate held in a lower portion of the substrate holder.

A substrate processing apparatus includes a first processing module including a first processing module, a second processing module, a first utility system adjacent to a back surface of the first processing module, and a second utility system adjacent to a back surface of the second processing module, a first exhaust box of the first utility system and a second exhaust box of the second utility system being disposed to face each other across a maintenance area located behind a part of the back surface of the first processing module that is close to the second processing module and behind a part of the back surface of the second processing module that is close to the first processing module, and a first supply box of the first utility system and a second supply box of the second utility system being disposed to face each other across the maintenance area.

A substrate processing method includes: carrying out a substrate from a substrate transfer container by a substrate transfer device; placing the substrate in a first position of a substrate holder; moving the substrate holder into a reaction container and processing the substrate in the reaction chamber; obtaining a film thickness measurement result of the substrate processed in the reaction container; creating a model from the film thickness measurement result; determining a second position where the substrate is placed in the substrate holder and a transfer position setting value obtained from the model; adjusting the first position of the substrate to the second position; calculating an eccentricity state of the substrate from a newly obtained film thickness measurement result; calculating an optimization such that the eccentricity state is minimized; and determining a third position to which a new substrate is placed from the transfer position setting value.

A heating chamber and a semiconductor processing apparatus are provided. The heating chamber includes: a heating barrel (17) disposed in the heating chamber and located above a substrate transferring window; an annular heating device (15) disposed around an inner side of the heating barrel and configured to radiate heat from a periphery to an interior of the heating barrel; a substrate cassette (14) configured to bear multiple layers of substrates and allow the multiple, layers of substrates to be arranged at intervals in an axial direction of the heating barrel; and a substrate cassette lifting device (13) configured to drive the substrate cassette to move up into an internal spare defined by the annular heating device, or move down to a position corresponding to the substrate transferring window.

A substrate processing system includes: first and second process tubes spaced apart from each other in a first axial direction to provide process spaces independent from each other; a substrate boat on which a plurality of substrates are multiply stacked and which is provided to each of process spaces of the first and second process tubes; and first and second boat elevation units provided to the first and second process tubes, respectively, to elevate the substrate boat, wherein each of the first and second boat elevation units includes an elevation shaft member disposed in a space between the first and second process tubes.