An apparatus may include a clamp to clamp a substrate wherein the clamp is arranged opposing a back side of the substrate; and an illumination system, disposed to direct radiation to the substrate, when the substrate is disposed on the clamp, wherein the radiation comprises a radiation energy, equal to or above a threshold energy to generate mobile charge in the substrate, where the illumination system is disposed to direct radiation to the back side of the substrate.

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.

A maintenance device has a cover and a fixing member. The cover is in a vacuum atmosphere during substrate processing, is formed to have a size corresponding to a boundary line between a first part and a second part of a processing container, which can be separated into the first part and the second part, or an opening surface separating the first part and the second part, and has airtightness, and visual transparency at least in a part. The fixing member fixes in an airtight manner the cover along the boundary line between the first part and the second part of the processing container or to the opening surface separating the first part and the second part.

A focus ring placement table includes an annular ceramic heater on which a focus ring is placed, a metal base, an adhesive element bonding the metal base and the ceramic heater, an inner-peripheral-side protective element disposed between the metal base and the ceramic heater and bonded to an inner peripheral portion of the adhesive element, and an outer-peripheral-side protective element disposed between the metal base and the ceramic heater and bonded to an outer peripheral portion of the adhesive element. A coefficient of thermal expansion of the adhesive element is equal to or smaller than a coefficient of thermal expansion of the inner-peripheral-side protective element and is equal to or greater than a coefficient of thermal expansion of the outer-peripheral-side protective element.

A clamping device for clamping silicon wafers of different sizes and cleaning same includes a main body and a plurality of clamping mechanisms. The surface of the main body defines a plurality of receiving grooves. Separate circular and concentric rows of clamping mechanisms are radially disposed around a central axis of the main body. The clamping mechanism includes first and second clamping members each received in one of the receiving grooves and are adjustable in respect of working height above or flush with the carrying surface of the main body. The first clamping member is closer to the center axis with respect to the second clamping member. A cleaning device with the clamping device is also disclosed.

A cutting apparatus includes a cassette table on which a first cassette in which a frame unit, ring-shaped frame and wafer are housed, and a second cassette in which a simple wafer is housed. A first conveying unit having a first frame holding part holds the ring-shaped frame of the frame unit withdrawn from the first cassette and conveys the frame unit to a chuck table. A first wafer holding part holds the simple wafer withdrawn from the second cassette and conveys the simple wafer to the chuck table. A cutting unit cuts the wafer, and a second conveying unit conveys the frame unit from the chuck table to a cleaning unit. A second wafer holding part holds the cut simple wafer and conveys it from the chuck table to the cleaning unit.

Methods and apparatus for supporting a substrate are provided herein. In some embodiments, a substrate support to support a substrate having a given diameter includes: a base ring having an inner diameter less than the given diameter, the base ring having a support surface configured to contact a first surface of the substrate and to form a seal between the support surface and the first surface of the substrate, when disposed atop the base ring; and a clamp ring having an inner diameter less than the given diameter, wherein the clamp ring includes a contact surface proximate the inner diameter configured to contact an upper surface of the substrate, when present, and wherein the clamp ring and the base ring are further configured to provide a bias force toward each other to clamp the substrate in the substrate support.

A plasma processing apparatus comprising: a plasma processing chamber; a substrate support disposed in the plasma processing chamber, and including a lower electrode, an electrostatic chuck, and an edge ring disposed to surround a substrate mounted on the electrostatic chuck; a driving device; an upper electrode disposed above the substrate support. In an example, the apparatus further comprises a source RF power supply; a bias RF power supply configured to supply bias RF power to the lower electrode; at least one conductor; a DC power supply; an RF filter electrically; and a controller configured to control the driving device and the at least one variable passive element, and adjust an incident angle of an ion in the plasma with respect to an edge area of the substrate mounted on the electrostatic chuck.

A wafer processing method includes a polyolefin sheet providing step of positioning a wafer in an inside opening of a ring frame and providing a polyolefin sheet on a back side or a front side of the wafer and on a back side of the ring frame, a uniting step of heating the polyolefin sheet as applying a pressure to the polyolefin sheet to thereby unite the wafer and the ring frame through the polyolefin sheet by thermocompression bonding, a dividing step of applying a laser beam to the wafer to form shield tunnels in the wafer, thereby dividing the wafer into individual device chips, and a pickup step of applying an ultrasonic wave to the polyolefin sheet, pushing up each device chip through the polyolefin sheet, and picking up each device chip from the polyolefin sheet.

A device for detecting whether a wafer is present on a clamping jaw and detecting whether the wafer is parallel to a bottom of the clamping jaw. The device for detecting a wafer comprises: a wafer parallel measuring unit arranged in a CMP cleaning and drying device, and used for emitting a parallel measuring laser beam parallel to the bottom of the clamping jaw and receiving the parallel measuring laser beam; a wafer detection unit used for emitting a wafer detecting laser beam to the wafer and receiving the wafer detecting laser beam; and a detection processing unit electrically connected to the wafer parallel measuring unit and the wafer detection unit, and used for determining whether the wafer is present on the clamping jaw and whether the wafer is parallel to the bottom of the clamping jaw according to the received wafer detecting laser beam and parallel measuring laser beam.