A method and apparatus for processing a substrate are described herein. The methods and apparatus described enable the raising and lowering of a shadow ring within a process chamber either simultaneously with or separately from a plurality of substrate lift pins. The shadow ring is raised and lowered using a shadow ring lift assembly and may be raised to a pre-determined height above the substrate during a radical treatment operation. The shadow ring lift assembly may also raise and lower the plurality of substrate lift pins to enable both the shadow ring and the substrate lift pins to be raised to a transfer position when the substrate is being transferred into or out of the process chamber.

A substrate processing apparatus includes a holder configured to hold a substrate; a driving unit configured to rotate the holder; an inner cup body provided in the holder to surround the substrate held by the holder; a mist guard, surrounding the holder and the inner cup body, configured to be moved up and down; a cleaning liquid supply configured to supply a cleaning liquid; and a controller. The controller is configured to perform: supplying a processing liquid to the substrate from a processing liquid supply, in a state that the substrate is held by the holder and the mist guard is raised; and dispersing, after the supplying of the processing liquid, the cleaning liquid supplied from the cleaning liquid supply to an entire inner peripheral surface of the mist guard, in a state that the substrate is carried out from the holder and the mist guard is raised.

There is provided a system for processing a substrate under a depressurized environment. The system comprises: a processing chamber configured to perform desired processing on a substrate; a transfer chamber having a transfer mechanism configured to import or export the substrate into or from the processing chamber; and a controller configured to control a processing process in the processing chamber. The transfer mechanism comprises: a fork configured to hold the substrate on an upper surface; and a sensor provided in the fork and configured to measure an internal state of the processing chamber. The controller is configured to control the processing process in the processing chamber on the basis of the internal state of the processing chamber measured by the sensor.

Systems and techniques for providing for semiconductor processing chambers configured for use with two concentric edge rings with dual-lift mechanisms are disclosed. The dual-lift mechanisms may each have a first lifter structure and a second lifter structure which may be each at least partially independently actuatable. The first lifter structure may be used to move a lower edge ring of the edge rings between two or more vertically offset positions, and the second lifter structure may be used to raise and lower an upper edge ring of the edge rings. The dual-lift mechanism may be interfaced to the chamber housing of the semiconductor processing chamber.

According to one aspect of the technique of the present disclosure, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus including: a process chamber in which a substrate is accommodated; a substrate mounting table provided in the process chamber and heated by a heater; and a substrate mounting table cover arranged on an upper surface of the substrate mounting table and configured such that the substrate is placed on an upper surface of the substrate mounting table cover, wherein the substrate mounting table cover is made of silicon carbide and is provided with a silicon oxide layer of a first thickness at least on the upper surface of the substrate mounting table cover where the substrate is placed.

The present invention relates to a susceptor including a substrate including a carbon material and having one main surface on which a silicon water is to be placed, and another main surface facing the one main surface, in which an entire surface of the substrate is covered with a thin film including silicon carbide, the one main surface has an emissivity variation of 3% or less, and a ratio of an average emissivity between the one main surface and the another main surface facing the one main surface is from 1:1 to 1:0.8.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, includes attaching a first susceptor to a film forming apparatus, measuring a magnitude of a warp of the first susceptor, setting a first initial film formation condition as a film formation condition of the film forming apparatus in accordance with the measured magnitude of the warp of the first susceptor, and placing a plurality of first wafers on the first susceptor and forming a first film on the plurality of first wafers under the film formation condition. The setting of the first initial film formation condition includes reading the first initial film formation condition from a recording medium storing a database. The database includes a plurality of pieces of data in which magnitudes of warps of susceptors are associated with initial film formation conditions for forming the first film.

A substrate housing container (1) includes (i) a container body (10) having one end that is provided with an opening (11) and another end that is provided with a mount element (12) on which substrates (W) are stacked, the mount element 12 facing the opening (11), and (ii) a cover (20) to cover the opening (11), wherein the cover (20) includes a lid portion (21) to cover the opening (11) and at least two holding members (22) disposed on the lid portion (21), the holding members (22) being configured to swing in a central direction of the lid portion (21) and to press outer sides of the substrates (W) accommodated in the container body (10) with the substrates (W) stacked, the container body (10) has guide grooves (13) to make tips (22a) of the holding members (22) move from an outer side of the mount element (12) to an inner sides of the mount element (12) to guide the tips (22a) of the holding members (22) to positions at which the holding members (22) press the outer sides of the substrates (W), and the guide grooves (13) are formed as a dent on surfaces of the mount element (12).

A method deposits an epitaxial layer on a front side of a semiconductor wafer having monocrystalline material. The method includes: providing the semiconductor wafer; arranging the semiconductor wafer on a susceptor; heating the semiconductor wafer to a deposition temperature using thermal radiation directed to the front side and to the rear side of the semiconductor wafer; conducting a deposition gas over the front side of the semiconductor wafer; and selectively reducing an intensity of a portion of the thermal radiation that is directed to the rear side of the semiconductor wafer, as a result of which first partial regions at an edge of the semiconductor wafer, in the first partial regions a growth rate of the epitaxial layer is greater than in adjacent second partial regions given uniform temperature of the semiconductor wafer owing to an orientation of the monocrystalline material, are heated more weakly.

A controller for adjusting a height of an edge ring in a substrate processing system includes an edge ring wear calculation module configured to receive at least one input indicative of one or more erosion rates of the edge ring, calculate at least one erosion rate of the edge ring based on the at least one input, and calculate an amount of erosion of the edge ring based on the at least one erosion rate. An actuator control module is configured to adjust the height of the edge ring based on the amount of erosion as calculated by the edge ring wear calculation module.