A material layer deposition method includes supporting a substrate in a preclean module and exposing the substrate to a preclean etchant while supported within the preclean module. The substrate is transferred to a deposition module and exposed to an adsorbate while supported within the deposition module. A material layer is the deposited onto the substrate while supported within the deposition module subsequent to exposing the substrate to the adsorbate. Semiconductor processing systems and computer program products are also described.

A system for controlling damages in cleaning a semiconductor wafer comprising features of patterned structures, the system comprising: a wafer holder for temporary restraining a semiconductor wafer during a cleaning process; an inlet for delivering a cleaning liquid over a surface of the semiconductor wafer; a sonic generator configured to alternately operate at a first frequency and a first power level for a first predetermined period of time and at a second frequency and a second power level for a second predetermined period of time, to impart sonic energy to the cleaning liquid, the first predetermined period of time and the second predetermined period of time consecutively following one another; and a controller programmed to provide the cleaning parameters, wherein at least one of the cleaning parameters is determined such that a percentage of damaged features as a result of the imparting sonic energy is lower than a predetermined threshold.

A substrate processing apparatus includes: a disk including a plurality of electrostatic chucks periodically disposed at a constant radius from a central axis; a disk support supporting the disk; a DC line electrically connected to the plurality of electrostatic chucks through the disk support; and a power supply configured to supply power to the DC line. The DC line includes: a first DC line penetrating through the disk support from the power supply; a power distribution unit configured to distribute the first DC line to connect the first DC line to each of the plurality of electrostatic chucks; and a plurality of second DC lines respectively connected to the plurality of electrostatic chucks in the power distribution unit.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a substrate state determining apparatus includes: an image capturing unit that captures an image of a substrate placed on a stage; a learning unit that executes a machine learning using training data in which information indicating a state of the substrate is attached to the image of the substrate, so as to generate a substrate state determination model in which the image of the substrate is taken as an input and a value related to the state of the substrate corresponding to the image of the substrate is taken as an output; and a determination unit that determines the state of the substrate corresponding to the image of the substrate captured by the image capturing unit, using the substrate state determination model generated by the learning unit.

A first x-y translation stage, a second x-y translation stage, and a chuck are disposed in a chamber. The chuck is situated above and coupled to the second x-y translation stage, which is situated above and coupled to the first x-y translation stage. The chuck is configured to support a substrate and to be translated by the first and second x-y stages in x- and y-directions, which are substantially parallel to a surface of the chuck on which the substrate is to be mounted. A first barrier and a second barrier are also disposed in the chamber. The first barrier is coupled to the first x-y translation stage to separate a first zone of the chamber from a second zone of the chamber. The second barrier is coupled to the second x-y translation stage to separate the first zone of the chamber from a third zone of the chamber.

A wafer separating apparatus and method are provided. The apparatus includes an electrostatic chuck, a separation structure and a control device. The electrostatic chuck electrostatically supports a wafer during wafer processing using a voltage having a polarity. The separation structure mechanically separate the wafer from the electrostatic chuck. The control device controls the electrostatic chuck to, after the wafer processing is completed, reduce a magnitude of the voltage with the polarity while the separation structure applies a force to the wafer to separate the wafer from the electrostatic chuck.

An information processing method includes obtaining information on a deformation factor of a surface of a target substrate; obtaining a surface image of the target substrate; calculating a correction coefficient for correcting an image change due to deformation of the surface, based on the information on the deformation factor of the surface; and generating a corrected image of the target substrate by correcting the surface image of the target substrate using the correction coefficient.

A substrate inspection system is provided to monitor characteristics of a substrate, while the substrate is disposed within (or being transferred into/out of) a processing unit of a liquid dispense substrate processing system. The inspection system is integrated within a liquid dispense substrate processing system and includes one or more optical sensors of a reflectometer (such as a spectrometer or laser-based transceiver) configured to obtain spectral data from a substrate. A controller is coupled to receive the spectral data from the optical sensors(s). The one or more optical sensors (or one or more optical fibers coupled to the rest of the optical sensor hardware) are coupled at locations within the substrate processing system. The controller analyzes the spectral data received from the optical sensors(s) to detect characteristic(s) of the substrate including, but not limited to, film thickness (FT), refractive index changes, and associated critical dimension (CD) changes.

A substrate processing method includes forming, by supplying a chemical liquid onto a central portion of a substrate while rotating a rotary table at a first speed, a liquid film of the chemical liquid having a first thickness; forming, by supplying the chemical liquid onto the central portion while rotating the rotary table at a second speed lower than the first speed after the forming of the liquid film having the first thickness, a liquid film of the chemical liquid having a second thickness larger than the first thickness; and heating, by heating the rotary table in a state that the rotary table is rotated at a third speed lower than the second speed or in a state that the rotating of the rotary table is stopped after the forming of the liquid film having the second thickness, the substrate and the liquid film of the chemical liquid.

Described herein is a technique capable of suppressing generation of particles by removing by-products in a groove of a high aspect ratio. According to one aspect of the technique, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus including: a process chamber in which a substrate is processed; and a substrate support provided in the process chamber and including a plurality of supports where the substrate is placed, wherein the process chamber includes a process region where a process gas is supplied to the substrate and a purge region where the process gas above the substrate is purged, and the purge region includes a first pressure purge region to be purged at a first pressure and a second pressure purge region to be purged at a second pressure higher than the first pressure.