Described is a technique capable of optimizing a timing of a maintenance process. According to one aspect, there is a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including: (a) transferring a substrate to a process chamber, and performing substrate processing; (b) receiving maintenance reservation information of the process chamber; (c) continuously performing the substrate processing related to the received maintenance reservation information, stopping a next substrate from being transferred into the process chamber after the substrate processing is completed, and thereafter setting the process chamber to the maintenance enable state; (d-1) receiving an instruction of advancing or delaying the maintenance timing within a predetermined range; and (d-2) starting the next substrate processing without setting the process chamber to the maintenance enable state when the instruction of delaying the maintenance timing is received in (d-1), and terminating the substrate processing when the instruction of advancing the maintenance timing is received in (d-1).

A lithography includes a storage tank that stores process chemical fluid, an anti-collision frame, and an integrated sensor assembly. The storage tank includes a dispensing port positioned at a lowest part of the storage tank in a gravity direction. The anti-collision frame is coupled to the storage tank. An integrated sensor assembly is disposed on at least one of the anti-collision frame and the storage tank to measure a variation in fluid quality in response to fluid quality measurement of fluid.

A semiconductor device inspection method including: depositing a dielectric material over a substrate to form an interconnect-level dielectric (ILD) layer; patterning the ILD layer to form via structures in the ILD layer; depositing an electrically conductive material to form an inspection layer on the ILD layer and in the via structures; imaging the inspection layer to generate image data; and detecting any defects in the via structures by analyzing the image data.

Disclosed is a substrate treating apparatus. All treating units are each arranged such that a treatment chamber, a chemical piping space, and an exhaust chamber are located side by side along a transportation space, the chemical piping space is located on a first side of the treatment chamber, and the exhaust chamber faces the chemical piping space across the treatment chamber when seen from the transportation space. The exhaust chamber faces the chemical piping space across the treatment chamber, leading to prevention of obstruction of a passage for passing a pipe, configured to supply a chemical to a substrate held by a holding rotator, by an exhaust pipe. Moreover, a single type of treating units is enough for the substrate treating apparatus instead of two types of treating units currently used. This results in sharing of components by all the treating units.

A miniaturized semiconductor manufacturing system including: a housing, a lifting mechanism, a processing chamber and a transportation mechanism. The housing includes an inner space and an opening communicated with the inner space. The lifting mechanism is disposed in the inner space and includes a holder configured for a substrate to be placed thereon. The holder is movable in a first direction relative to the opening between a first position and a second position. The processing chamber is disposed in the inner space and includes a holding portion configured for the substrate to be placed thereon. The transportation mechanism is disposed between the lifting mechanism and the processing chamber and is movable in a second direction. Wherein an aspect ratio value of the housing is between 1 to 6.

Disclosed are an apparatus and a method for liquid-treating a substrate. An apparatus for treating a substrate includes a liquid treatment chamber that supplies a liquid onto the substrate to liquid-treat the substrate, a drying chamber that removes the remained liquid on the substrate, and a transfer unit that transfers the substrate between the liquid treatment chamber and the drying chamber, wherein the transfer unit includes a hand that supports the substrate, and a weight measuring unit that measures a weight of the remained liquid on the substrate. A weight of a remained liquid on a substrate may be measured by measuring a weight of the substrate while the substrate is transferred.

A substrate processing apparatus includes: a processing chamber in which a substrate is processed with a processing liquid; a nozzle having a discharge port from which the processing liquid is discharged, the discharge port being formed in a distal end portion of the nozzle; a nozzle bath including an accommodation chamber formed therein, wherein the distal end portion of the nozzle is accommodated in the accommodation chamber at a standby time at which the processing liquid is not supplied to the substrate; a circulation line configured to return the processing liquid, which is discharged from the nozzle to the nozzle bath, to the nozzle; and a first restraint part configured to restrain a gas from flowing between an outside of the nozzle bath and the processing liquid present inside the nozzle bath when the processing liquid discharged from the nozzle to the nozzle bath is circulated to the nozzle.

Provided is a method of preventing a sudden increase in the number of particles detected on wafer surfaces even when cleaning of a wafer is performed repeatedly using a single-wafer processing wafer cleaning apparatus. The method uses a single-wafer processing wafer cleaning apparatus including a rotatable stage; chemical solution supply nozzles; pure water supply nozzles; a chemical solution supply line for supplying chemical solutions to the chemical solution supply nozzles; a pure water supply line for supplying pure water to the pure water supply nozzles; and a waste liquid line. The method includes a pipe cleaning step of introducing pure water containing micro-nano bubbles into the pure water supply line, and cleaning the pipe of the pure water supply line.

Disclosed herein is an apparatus and method for annealing semiconductor substrates. In one example the method of annealing substrates in a processing chamber includes loading a plurality of substrates into an internal volume of the processing chamber. The method includes flowing a processing fluid through a gas conduit into the internal volume. The method further includes measuring a temperature of the gas conduit at one or more position utilizing one or more temperature sensors. The processing fluid in the gas conduit and the internal volume are maintained at a temperature above a condensation point of the processing fluid.

A method of forming a high-κ dielectric cap layer on a semiconductor structure formed on a substrate includes depositing the high-κ dielectric cap layer on the semiconductor structure, depositing a sacrificial silicon cap layer on the high-κ dielectric cap layer, performing a post cap anneal process to harden and densify the as-deposited high-κ dielectric cap layer, and removing the sacrificial silicon cap layer.