Embodiments are disclosed for reducing substrate breaks which result from inadequate de-chucking. Contaminants are removed from the surface of a chuck by exposing the chuck to a plasma process that comprises a hydrogen (H)-containing plasma. The chuck is subjected to the hydrogen-based plasma when no substrate is on the chuck. In one embodiment, the plasma is a hydrocarbon-based plasma. Hydrogen in the hydrocarbon plasma may react with and remove the contaminants. The process may further include an additional plasma step for removal of any newly formed materials that may result from the hydrocarbon plasma. The removal step may be, for example, a subsequent plasma ash step. In one embodiment, the chuck is an electrostatic chuck and the contaminants comprise fluorine. By removing contaminants from the chuck surface, improved substrate de-chucking occurs. This improvement correspondingly leads to less substrate breakage when removing substrates from the chuck.

Dry development or dry removal of metal-containing extreme ultraviolet radiation (EUV) photoresist is performed in atmospheric conditions or performed in process tools without vacuum equipment. Dry removal of the metal-containing EUV photoresist may be performed under atmospheric pressure or over-atmospheric pressure. Dry removal of the metal-containing EUV photoresist may be performed with exposure to an air environment or with non-oxidizing gases. A process chamber or module may be modified or integrated to perform dry removal of the metal-containing EUV photoresist with baking, wafer cleaning, wafer treatment, or other photoresist processing function. In some embodiments, the process chamber for dry removal of the metal-containing EUV photoresist includes a heating assembly for localized heating of a semiconductor substrate and a movable discharge nozzle for localized gas delivery above the semiconductor substrate.

Methods for pre-cleaning substrates having metal and dielectric surfaces are described. A substrate comprising a surface structure with a metal bottom, dielectric sidewalls, and a field of dielectric is exposed to a dual plasma treatment in a processing chamber to remove chemical residual and/or impurities from the metal bottom, the dielectric sidewalls, and/or the field of the dielectric and/or repair surface defects in the dielectric sidewalls and/or the field of the dielectric. The dual plasma treatment comprises a direct plasma and a remote plasma.

Provided is a processing chamber configured to contain a semiconductor substrate in a processing region of the chamber. The processing chamber includes a remote plasma unit and a direct plasma unit, wherein one of the remote plasma unit or the direct plasma unit generates a remote plasma and the other of the remote plasma unit or the direct plasma unit generates a direct plasma. The combination of a remote plasma unit and a direct plasma unit is used to remove, etch, clean, or treat residue on a substrate from previous processing and/or from native oxide formation. The combination of a remote plasma unit and direct plasma unit is used to deposit thin films on a substrate.

In a substrate processing apparatus (1), an enlarged sealed space (100) is formed by bringing a cup part (161) that forms a lateral space (160) around the outer periphery of a chamber (12) into contact with a chamber lid part (122) separated from a chamber body (121). A scan nozzle (188) is attached to the cup part (161) in the lateral space (160) and supplies a chemical solution onto a substrate after moving to above the substrate through an annular opening (81). During processing for cleaning the substrate and processing for drying the substrate, the scan nozzle (188) is housed in the lateral space (160) and an upper opening of the chamber body (121) is closed by the chamber lid part (122) to isolate the chamber space (120) from the lateral space (160) and seal the chamber space (120). Thus, the chamber space (120) can be isolated from the scan nozzle (188). This consequently prevents a mist or the like of the chemical solution supplied from the scan nozzle (188) from adhering to the substrate.

A substrate processing apparatus includes a processing chamber; a susceptor provided in the processing chamber, wherein the susceptor is configured to support a substrate; a first plasma generator disposed on one side of the processing chamber; and a second plasma generator disposed on another side of the processing chamber, wherein the second plasma generator is configured to generate plasma by simultaneously supplying a sinusoidal wave signal and a non-sinusoidal wave signal to the susceptor. By using a substrate processing apparatus, a signal source device, and a method of processing a material layer according to the inventive concept, a smooth etched surface may be obtained for a crystalline material layer without a risk of device damage by RDC.

Methods and an apparatus for removing particles or photoresist on substrates. In an embodiment, a method comprises the following steps: transferring one or more substrates into a DIO.sub.3 solution accommodated in a DIO.sub.3 bath; after the one or more substrates are processed in the DIO.sub.3 bath, taking the one or more substrates out from the DIO.sub.3 bath and transferring the one or more substrates into a SPM solution accommodated in a SPM bath; after the one or more substrates are processed in the SPM bath, taking the one or more substrates out from the SPM bath and rinsing the one or more substrates; and transferring the one or more substrates to one or more single chambers to perform single substrate cleaning and drying process. The method combines DIO.sub.3 and SPM in one cleaning sequence, which can remove particles or photoresist, especially remove photoresist treated by medium dose or high dose of ion implantation.

The inventive concept provides a substrate treating apparatus. The substrate treating apparatus includes a first process treating unit configured to treat a substrate in a single-type method; a second process treating unit configured to treat a substrate in a batch-type method; and a posture changing unit provided between the first process treating unit and the second process treating unit and configured to change a posture of the substrate between a vertical posture and a horizontal posture, and wherein the substrate is loaded to and unloaded from the first process treating unit.

A method for cleaning semiconductor process equipment and a system thereof are provided. The method is adapted to apply to an object with at least one pollutant thereon and includes steps of providing multi-channel optical tweezers to irradiate the pollutant and locations where the pollutant is neighbor to, in order to let the optical tweezers generate a resultant force to the pollutant; and providing an airflow to the object. The resultant force is greater than a maximum static friction between the pollutant and the object so as to remove the pollutant.

A method for cleaning a substrate includes the following: exposing the substrate to a cleaning agent to remove impurities on a surface of the substrate; exposing the substrate to a dewetting chemical agent in a liquid phase to remove the cleaning agent on the surface of the substrate; solidifying the dewetting chemical agent in the liquid phase remaining on the surface of the substrate to obtain the dewetting chemical agent in a solid phase; and sublimating and removing the dewetting chemical agent in the solid phase.