Plating apparatus and plating method
AssigneeEbara Corporation
InventorYoshio MINAMI
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A plating apparatus allows a substrate holder to be serviced easily while ensuring easy access to the substrate holder and while a substrate is being processed in the plating apparatus. The plating apparatus includes a plating section for plating a substrate, a substrate holder for holding the substrate, a substrate holder transporter for holding and transporting the substrate holder, a stocker for storing the substrate holder, and a stocker setting section for storing the stocker therein. The stocker includes a moving mechanism for moving the stocker into and out of the stocker setting section.
Claims11
A plating apparatus comprising:
- a table for placing a substrate holder horizontally thereon, the substrate holder capable of detachably holding a substrate;
- a plating section for holding a plating solution therein for plating the substrate, held by the substrate holder, by immersing the substrate in a vertical plane in the plating solution;
- and
- a substrate holder transporter for transporting the substrate holder between the table and the plating section, the substrate holder transporter including a holding portion for holding the substrate holder,
- wherein the table has a horizontally moving mechanism which is horizontally movable while supporting a lower end of the substrate holder, and
- wherein the substrate holder transporter includes a lifting and lowering mechanism for converting an attitude of the substrate holder from a vertical state into a horizontal state or from a horizontal state into a vertical state by vertically moving the holding portion as the horizontally moving mechanism moves horizontally, with the lower end of the substrate holder being supported by the horizontally moving mechanism.
A method of converting an attitude of a substrate holder for detachably holding a substrate, the method comprising:
- holding an end of the substrate holder with a holding portion of a substrate holder transporter;
- moving the substrate holder to a position above a table by the substrate holder transporter;
- lowering the holding portion to bring another end of the substrate holder into contact with a horizontally moving mechanism of the table;
- and
- further lowering the holding portion to move the horizontally moving mechanism horizontally for thereby converting the attitude of the substrate holder from a vertical state into a horizontal state.
A plating method comprising:
- placing a substrate holder on a table by a substrate holder transporter which can hold the substrate holder;
- mounting and holding a substrate with the substrate holder placed on the table;
- holding an end of the substrate holder with a holding portion of the substrate holder transporter;
- lifting the holding portion and horizontally moving a horizontally moving mechanism on the table while the horizontally moving mechanism is supporting another end of the substrate holder to convert an attitude of the substrate holder from a horizontal state into a vertical state;
- moving the substrate holder by the substrate holder transporter to a position above a plating section holding a plating solution;
- and
- lowering the substrate holder by the substrate holder transporter to immerse the substrate in the plating solution.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.