Methods and apparatus for processing a substrate are provided herein. For example, a method includes using an extended spectroscopic ellipsometer to direct a beam of electromagnetic radiation having a beam energy toward a portion of a substrate at an incident angle to produce an extended spectroscopic ellipsometry (ESE) data set from the portion of the substrate which includes a measured change of a phase and/or an amplitude of the beam of electromagnetic radiation reflecting away from the portion of the substrate relative to the beam of electromagnetic radiation directed toward the portion of the substrate. One or more properties of the portion of the substrate are then determined based at least in part on the ESE data set of the portion of the substrate.

The present disclosure relates to a contamination controlled semiconductor processing system. The contamination controlled semiconductor processing system includes a processing chamber, a contamination detection system, and a contamination removal system. The processing chamber is configured to process a wafer. The contamination detection system is configured to determine whether a contamination level on a surface of the door is greater than a baseline level. The contamination removal system is configured to remove contaminants from the surface of the door in response to the contamination level being greater than the baseline level.

Provided is a substrate-holding device capable of improving the in-plane uniformity of a wafer back surface pressure and the flatness of wafer holding, flattening not only a flat wafer but also a warped wafer, and holding a wafer in a back surface non-contact manner, and an optical inspection device including the substrate-holding device. The substrate-holding device includes a wafer chuck 102 (rotary chuck) and a clamp unit 103 that supports an edge of a substrate 101 to be rotated by the wafer chuck 102 (rotary chuck) in a radial direction and a circumferential direction of the substrate 101, in which the wafer chuck 102 is provided with a plurality of static pressure bearing pads that hold the substrate 101 in a back surface non-contact manner, the plurality of static pressure bearing pads including a plurality of gas supply ports 111 that supplies gas to the substrate 101.

A spindle apparatus may include a cover; a rotation body within the cover to be rotatable about a central axis thereof and including a first end portion exposed to the outside and a second end portion opposite to the first end portion; a cutting tool on the first end portion of the rotation body; and an electrostatic discharge (ESD) prevention device on the second end portion of the rotation body. The ESD prevention device includes a charge discharge structure in at least partial contact with the second end portion of the rotation body to discharge charges accumulated in the cutting tool to the outside; a sensor above the charge discharge structure to detect whether the charge discharge structure is in contact with the rotation body; and a driver to move the charge discharge structure so that the charge discharge structure is in contact with the rotation body.

A monitoring method includes a setting-up processing step, a capturing step, and a monitoring step. The setting-up processing step includes a step of generating, with a camera, a plurality of preliminarily captured images corresponding to a plurality of irradiation modes, a step of identifying a non-existent region indicating at least one of a shadow and a reflected image of an object included in a preliminarily captured image in a first irradiation mode, based on a difference between the plurality of preliminarily captured images, and a step of storing non-existent-region data in a storage. In the capturing step after the setting-up processing step, the camera generates a monitoring captured image while the capture region is irradiated with the illumination light in the first irradiation mode. In the monitoring step, the monitoring target object is monitored based on a region of the monitoring captured image except the non-existent region.

A substrate processing system, includes: a measurement device configured to measure errors of substrates after the substrates are subjected to processing of a first process by a first processing apparatus; a transfer device configured to transfer the substrates between apparatuses including the first processing apparatus, a second processing apparatus that performs processing of a second process after the first process, and the measurement device; a map creating device configured to create an error map indicating a distribution of the errors on the substrates; and an evaluation device configured to calculate an evaluation value indicating a degree of importance of the errors based on the error map, wherein the evaluation device instructs the transfer device on a transfer destination of the substrates subjected to the first process according to a determination result as to whether or not the evaluation value is equal to or larger than a predetermined first threshold value.

The present disclosure provides a system and method for predicting wafer fabrication defects resulting from plasma processing of wafers in a plasma processing chamber. The system and method include processing electromagnetic signals emitted from residual compounds peeled from the chamber walls during the plasma processing of the wafers to indirectly determine the likelihood that the wafers are incurring fabrication processing defects during the plasma processing.

A processing method in one embodiment includes: a step that takes an image of the end face of a reference substrate, whose warp amount is known, over the whole periphery thereof using a camera to obtain shape data of the end face of the reference substrate; a step that takes an image of the end face of a substrate over the whole periphery thereof using a camera to obtain shape data of the end face of the substrate; a step that calculates warp amount of the substrate based on the obtained shape data; a step that forms a resist film on a surface of the substrate; a step that determines the supply position from which an organic solvent is to be supplied to a peripheral portion of the resist film and dissolves the peripheral portion by the solvent supplied from the supply position to remove the same from the substrate.