US 2019/0172732 A1 · DETERMINATION METHOD AND SUBSTRATE PROCESSING EQUIPMENT

Abstract

In equipment that executes a drying process of forming a liquid membrane on a top surface of a substrate W which is held horizontally and gradually enlarging a dry area from which the liquid membrane has been removed, quality of the drying process is determined. Specifically, first, the top surface of the substrate is repeatedly imaged by an imaging unit during execution of the drying process. Then, it is determined whether the dry area is in a normal state based on a plurality of captured images acquired by the imaging. Accordingly, it is possible to quantitatively determine whether a dry area is in a normal state based on a plurality of captured images.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A determination method of determining quality of a drying process in equipment that executes the drying process of forming a liquid membrane on a top surface of a substrate which is held horizontally and gradually enlarging a dry area from which the liquid membrane has been removed, the determination method comprising:

a step of a) repeatedly imaging the top surface of the substrate during execution of the drying process;
and
a step of b) determining whether the dry area is in a normal state based on a plurality of captured images acquired in the step of a).

Substrate processing equipment comprising:

a substrate holding unit configured to hold a substrate horizontally;
a liquid membrane forming unit configured to form a liquid membrane on a top surface of the substrate which is held by the substrate holding unit;
a first drying unit configured to initially form a dry area from which the liquid membrane has been removed at a predetermined position of the top surface of the substrate;
a second drying unit configured to gradually enlarge the dry area;
an imaging unit configured to repeatedly image the top surface of the substrate;
and
a determination unit configured to determine whether the dry area is in a normal state based on a plurality of captured images acquired by the imaging unit.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Determination method and substrate processing equipment

Life of this patent

Determination method and substrate processing equipment

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims24