Plating apparatus and plating method

A plating apparatus comprising:

• a loading/unloading section configured to load and unload a cassette housing substrates;
• a sensor provided in said loading/unloading section for detecting sizes of the substrates received in the cassette;
• a plurality of tools corresponding to sizes of substrates to be plated;
• a tool stocker to store said plurality of tools;
• a plating section configured to perform at least a plating process;
• a controller configured to select a tool corresponding to a size detected by said sensor from said plurality of tools;
• and
• a transfer device configured to hold and transfer said tool selected by said controller to said plating section.

A plating method comprising:

• applying a resist on a surface of a seed layer formed on a substrate;
• ashing the resist;
• providing hydrophilicity to a surface of the substrate after said ashing process so as to perform a hydrophilic process on the surface of the substrate;
• cleaning or activating the surface of the substrate after said hydrophilic process;
• and
• bringing the surface of the substrate into a plating solution while the resist is used as a mask so as to perform a plating process to form a plated film on the surface of the substrate.

A plating apparatus comprising:

• a plating unit configured to form a plated film on a surface of a substrate while a resist is applied as a mask on a surface of a seed layer formed on a substrate;
• a resist stripping unit configured to strip and remove the resist from the surface of the seed layer;
• and
• an etching unit configured to remove an unnecessary portion of the seed layer formed on the surface of the substrate,
• wherein said plating unit, said resist stripping unit, and said etching unit are incorporated integrally with each other.