A wafer cleaning apparatus provided by the present invention comprises a rotary shaft, a chuck arranged on the top of the rotary shaft for retaining the wafer, a fixed shaft coaxially passed through the rotary shaft, and an upper end cover and a lower end cover that block the top and bottom of the fixed shaft respectively. Wherein, the fixed shaft is a hollow shaft with at least one circle of exhaust holes provided on the wall of the fixed shaft. The lower end cover is arranged with a gas inlet port, through which a protective gas is provided to the interior of the fixed shaft. The protective gas forms a positive pressure in the annular space between the fixed shaft and the rotary shaft through the at least one circle of exhaust holes. The present invention provides positive pressure protective gas to the spacing between the fixed shaft and the rotary shaft by opening exhaust holes on the wall of the fixed shaft. A gas seal is formed to prevent contaminants, such as particles and metals, generated in the bottom area of the rotary shaft from diffusing to the back side of the wafer through the annular space between the fixed shaft and the rotary shaft, thereby improving the cleanliness of the back side of the wafer after cleaning.

An electrostatic chuck is provided. Implemented according to an embodiment of the present invention is an electrostatic chuck comprising: a silicon nitride sintered body; a surface modification layer covering at least a portion of the external surface of the silicon nitride sintered body and having corrosion resistance and plasma resistance; and an electrostatic electrode laid inside the silicon nitride sintered body. Therefore, the electrostatic chuck includes a ceramic sintered body of silicon nitride, and thus has excellent plasma resistance, chemical resistance, and thermal shock resistance while exhibiting an equivalent or similar level of heat dissipation performance compared to ceramic sintered bodies of aluminum nitride that have been conventionally widely used, so that the electrostatic chuck can be widely used in semiconductor processes.

A positioning device for positioning a stage relative to a tool mounted on a carrier device includes two intersecting linear axes disposed one above the other for pre-positioning the stage. A first magnetic levitation unit is configured to support the stage on one of the linear axes, the stage being actively movable for fine positioning in six degrees of freedom. A measuring head and first and second 6-DOF encoders are configured to determine a position of the stage relative to the carrier device. The measuring head is mounted on the other linear axis. The first 6-DOF encoder is disposed between the carrier device and the measuring head and the second 6-DOF encoder is disposed between the measuring head and the stage. A second magnetic levitation unit disposed on the other linear axis is configured to actively move the measuring head in the six degrees of freedom.

An apparatus and method for debonding a pair of bonded wafers are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the debonding apparatus, comprises: a wafer chuck having a preset maximum lateral dimension and configured to rotate the pair of bonded wafers attached to a top surface of the wafer chuck, a pair of circular plate separating blades including a first separating blade and a second separating blade arranged diametrically opposite to each other at edges of the pair of bonded wafers, wherein the first and the second separating blades are inserted between a first and a second wafers of the pair of bonded wafers, and at least two pulling heads configured to pull the second wafer upwardly so as to debond the second wafer from the first wafer.

An adjustable joint for insertion into a linkage of a substrate handler utilized for substrate processing. The adjustable joint allows for adjusting the pitch and roll of an attached link. Such adjustment may permit aligning a pickup surface of an end effector to a desired plane. Once adjusted, the joint may be fixed to maintain the desired orientation of the attached link. The adjustable joint allows for correcting deflection of a pickup surface of an end effector relative to a desired pickup plane due to, for example, drooping caused by high temperature usage, mechanical tolerances and/or installation errors.

A system includes a robot configured to transfer either one of a substrate and an edge ring within a substrate processing system, a substrate aligner configured to adjust a rotational position of either one of the substrate or the edge ring relative to an end effector of the robot, and a carrier plate configured to support the edge ring. The robot is configured to retrieve the carrier plate with the end effector, retrieve the edge ring using the carrier plate supported on the end effector, and transfer the carrier plate and the edge ring to the substrate aligner.

Exemplary integrated cluster tools may include a factory interface including a first transfer robot. The tools may include a wet clean system coupled with the factory interface at a first side of the wet clean system. The tools may include a load lock chamber coupled with the wet clean system at a second side of the wet clean system opposite the first side of the wet clean system. The tools may include a first transfer chamber coupled with the load lock chamber. The first transfer chamber may include a second transfer robot. The tools may include a thermal treatment chamber coupled with the first transfer chamber. The tools may include a second transfer chamber coupled with the first transfer chamber. The second transfer chamber may include a third transfer robot. The tools may include a metal deposition chamber coupled with the second transfer chamber.

A method for securing a support ball in a substrate support, a tool for forming a capture lip in a substrate support, and a substrate support having a substrate support ball captured in an opening of the substrate support are provided. In one example, a method for securing a support ball in a substrate support includes pressing a support ball into an opening formed in a first surface of the substrate support which is configured to support a substrate in a vacuum processing chamber, forming a capture lip in the opening which protrudes into the opening a distance sufficient to retain the support ball in the opening support ball, and setting an exposure height that the support ball projects above the first surface the substrate support.

A substrate treating apparatus includes a batch-type processing unit configured to perform treatment on a plurality of substrates, a single-wafer-type processing unit configured to perform treatment on one substrate of the substrates at a time, a posture turning unit configured to turn and change the orientation of the substrates to be processed by the batch-type processing unit, while the substrates are wetted with deionized water, a first transport unit that transports the substrates, processed by the batch-type processing unit, to the posture turning unit, a second transport unit that transports the substrates turned horizontally by the posture turning unit to enable them to be subjected to treatment with the hand unit and a cleaning and drying unit configured to perform cleaning and drying treatment at the hand unit.

Various embodiments of the present technology may provide a system and apparatus for a lift pin assembly. The lift pin assembly may include a lift pin and a weight attached to and surrounding a portion of the lift pin. The weight may include a first member and a second member that attach to each other by a screw. Each member may have a channel. The channels of each member may form a through-hole to receive the lift pin.