An objective of the present invention is to prevent a prewetting liquid from remaining in an edge portion of a substrate. A plating method for subjecting a substrate to a plating treatment is provided, the substrate including a part to be plated that is exposed to a plating solution and an edge portion that is an outer region of the part to be plated. The plating method includes a first sealing step of bringing a first seal body into contact with the substrate to seal the edge portion of the substrate, a prewetting step of subjecting the sealed substrate to a prewetting treatment, a first seal removing step of removing the first seal body from the prewetted substrate, a substrate holding step of holding the substrate with a substrate holder including a second seal body, and a plating step of applying the plating solution to the substrate held by the substrate holder.

According to an embodiment, a substrate holder holds a rectangular substrate and performs electrolytic plating on the substrate. The substrate holder includes a first holding member and a second holding member clamping the substrate between the first holding member and it and having a contact which contacts a peripheral part of the substrate and supplies an electric current to the substrate. The second holding member includes an opening defining a region where an electric field is formed and, at a position farther from the substrate than the opening, a shielding part protruding closer to an inner side than the opening and shielding the peripheral part of a surface of the substrate. The shielding part has a frame shape having a predetermined shielding width in the peripheral part of the substrate, and has, at a corner part thereof, a discontinuous part having a smaller shielding width than surroundings.

An apparatus and system for in-situ electropolishing and/or for in-situ electroforming a structural or functional reinforcement layer such as a sleeve of a selected metallic material on the internal surfaces of metallic tubular conduits are described. The apparatus and system can be employed on straight tubes, tube joints to different diameter tubes or face plates, tube elbows and other complex shapes encountered in piping systems. The apparatus includes components which can be independently manipulated and assembled on or near a degraded site and, after secured in place, form an electrolytic cell within the workpiece. The apparatus contains counter-electrodes which can be moved relative to the workpiece surface during the electroplating and/or electropolishing operation to provide flexibility in selecting and employing electropolishing process parameters and electroplating process parameters to design and optimize the surface roughness as well as the size, shape and properties of the electrodeposited reinforcing layer(s).

There is provided a contact structure, comprising a substrate contact including a first contact portion that is located on a leading end side of the substrate contact and that comes into contact with a substrate and a second contact portion that is located nearer to a base end side of the substrate contact than the first contact portion; a seal member configured to cover a periphery of the substrate contact and to have a sealing surface that comes into contact with the substrate to seal the substrate contact; a first pressing portion configured to elastically apply a contact pressure on the substrate to the substrate contact; and a second pressing portion configured to come into contact with the seal member and to apply a contact pressure on the substrate to the seal member independently of the first pressing portion, wherein the first contact portion adheres to the seal member, and the second contact portion is fit in the seal member to be displaceable relative to the seal member.

A method for holding a substrate on the substrate holder is provided, and in this method, the substrate holder includes a front frame, a rear frame, a clamper for clamping the front frame and the rear frame; and seals configured to come into contact with the substrate and one of the front frame and the rear frame when the front frame and the rear frame are clamped. The method includes pressing at least one of the front frame and the rear frame toward another one to press the seals against the substrate, and compressing the seals; and clamping the front frame and the rear frame by the clamper in a state that the seals are compressed. During the seals being compressed, a place where a force is applied to at least one of the front frame and the rear frame is a position closer to the clamper than the seals.

A method of processing a semiconductor wafer is provided. The method includes introducing the wafer to a main chamber via a loading port, using a transfer mechanism to transfer the wafer to a first wafer processing module in a stack so that the wafer is disposed substantially horizontally in the first wafer processing module with a front face facing upwards, and performing a processing step on the front face of the wafer in the first wafer processing module.

Exemplary substrate locking system, device, apparatus and method for chemical and/or electrolytic surface treatment of a substrate in a process fluid can be provided. For example, it is possible to provide a first element, a second element and a locking unit. The first element and the second element can be configured to hold the substrate between each other. The locking unit can be configured to lock the first element and the second element with each other. The locking unit can comprise a magnet control device and a magnet. The magnet can be arranged at or near the first element and/or the second element. The magnet control device can be configured to control a magnetic force between the first element and the second element.

A method including closing upper and lower ends of a bore with upper and lower closure element, respectively; introducing a cathode into the bore; and flowing an electrolyte through an annular space between a wall of the bore an outer surface of the cathode to provide an inner surface of the bore with a wear-resistant surface by electrolysis.

A method of forming a lithium metal film is provided. In a general embodiment, the present disclosure provides a deposition cell comprising an anode and a substrate provided within the deposition cell. A lithium ion containing electrolyte is flowed across a surface of the substrate, and a voltage is applied to the substrate to deposit a lithium metal film onto the substrate from the lithium ion containing electrolyte. The voltage is controlled to be substantially constant within a range of −3.7 to −4 volts relative to an AgCl/Ag reference electrode or a constant current is used that stabilizes within a voltage range of −3.7 to −4 volts relative to an AgCl/Ag reference electrode. The present method can advantageously form a lithium metal film that has an optically smooth surface morphology and nano-rod structures.

An apparatus for processing a front face of a semiconductor wafer is provided. The apparatus includes a main chamber, at least one loading port connected to the main chamber for introducing the wafer to the main chamber, at least one stack of wafer processing modules, and a transfer mechanism for transferring the wafer between the loading port and the processing modules. The at least one stack of wafer processing modules includes three or more substantially vertically stacked wafer processing modules, wherein adjacent wafer processing modules in the stack have a vertical separation of less than 50 cm, and each processing module is configured to process the wafer when disposed substantially horizontally therein with the front face of the wafer facing upwards, and at least one wafer processing module is an electrochemical wafer processing module.