Plating apparatus and plating method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11066755-B2
Application number	US-201916434874-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 7, 2019
Priority date	Jun 21, 2018
Publication date	Jul 20, 2021
Grant date	Jul 20, 2021

Abstract

A substrate holder holds a polygonal substrate Wf. A plating bath accommodates the anode holder and the substrate holder. The anode and the substrate are immersed in a plating solution in the plating bath. A control device controls a current flowing between the anode and the substrate. The substrate holder has power feed members placed along respective sides of the polygonal substrate, and there are a plurality of groups of the sides, each group including at least one side, at least one side being different between the groups. The control device can control, on a group-by-group basis, a current to be supplied to the power feed members.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A plating apparatus comprising:
an anode holder configured to hold an anode;
a substrate holder configured to hold a polygonal substrate;
a plating bath configured to accommodate the anode holder and the substrate holder and immerse the anode and the substrate in a plating solution; and
a control device configured to control a current flowing between the anode and the substrate; wherein
the substrate holder has power feed members placed along respective sides of the polygonal substrate,
there are a plurality of groups of the sides, each group including at least one of the sides, at least one of the sides being different between the groups, and
the control device is configured to be capable of controlling a current to be supplied to the power feed members, on a group-by-group basis, during plating.

2. The plating apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein there is no side included in both of arbitrary two groups among the plurality of groups.

3. The plating apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the number of the sides is an even number, and
when serial numbers are assigned to the even number of the sides so that adjacent sides have successive numbers, the group including the odd-numbered side and the group including the even-numbered side are present.

4. The plating apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
one of the plurality of groups includes a plurality of the sides, and at least one other group different from the one group includes only some of the sides included in the one group.

5. The plating apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the group including the side on which the power feed members to which the current is supplied by the control device when starting plating are placed is different from the group including the side on which the power feed members to which the current is supplied during subsequent plating by the control device are placed.

6. The plating apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the control device is configured to be capable of controlling the current so that a current value when plating is started and a current value during subsequent plating are different.

7. The plating apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the control device is configured to be capable of controlling the current to be supplied to the power feed members so that a ratio which is calculated for each of the sides by dividing the sum of lengths of the power feed members to be supplied with the current, in a side direction in which the power feed members are placed, by a length of the side on which the power feed members are placed differs during the subsequent plating compared to the ratio when the plating is started.

8. The plating apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the plating apparatus comprises an electric field shield mask provided between the anode holder and the substrate holder,
the electric field shield mask has a polygonal opening along an external shape of the polygonal substrate, and
the polygonal opening when the plating is started and the polygonal opening during the subsequent plating differ in at least one of shape and size.

9. A plating method for plating a polygonal substrate by passing a current between an anode and the polygonal substrate, the plating method comprising:
a step of bringing power feed members into contact with respective sides of the polygonal substrate;
a step of immersing the anode and the polygonal substrate in a plating solution; and
a step of controlling a current to be supplied to the power feed members, wherein
there are a plurality of groups of the sides, each group including at least one of the sides, at least one of the sides being different between the groups, and
in the step of controlling the current, the current to be supplied to the power feed members is controlled, on a group-by-group basis, during plating.

10. A plating apparatus comprising:
an anode holder configured to hold an anode;
a substrate holder configured to hold a polygonal substrate;
a plating bath configured to accommodate the anode holder and the substrate holder and immerse the anode and the polygonal substrate in a plating solution; and
a control device configured to control a current flowing between the anode and the polygonal substrate, wherein
the substrate holder has power feed members placed along respective sides of the polygonal substrate, and
the control device is configured to pass a current independently to a first power feed member placed along a first side of the polygonal substrate and to a second power feed member placed along a second side different from the first side, during plating.

11. The plating apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein
the polygonal substrate is a rectangular substrate,
the first power feed members are placed along two opposing sides of the rectangular substrate, and
the second power feed members are placed along other two sides orthogonal to the two opposing sides on which the first power feed members are placed.

12. The plating apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the control device is configured to pass the current to the first power feed member during plating, and to pass the current to the second power feed member after a predetermined time has elapsed.

13. The plating apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein the control device is configured to stop supplying the current to the first power feed member while the current is passed to the second power feed member.

14. The plating apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein the control device is configured to continue to supply the current to the first power feed member while the current is passed to the second power feed member.

15. The plating apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the control device is configured to increase the current to be supplied to at least either of the first power feed member or the second power feed member, during plating.

16. The plating apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein a ratio of a length of a portion of the first side in contact with the first power feed member to a length of the first side is different from a ratio of a length of a portion of the second side in contact with the second power feed member to a length of the second side.

17. A plating method for plating a polygonal substrate by passing a current between an anode and the polygonal substrate, the plating method comprising:
a step of bringing power feed members into contact with respective sides of the polygonal substrate; and
a step of immersing the anode and the polygonal substrate in a plating solution, wherein
during plating, a current is independently passed to a first power feed member placed along a first side of the polygonal substrate and to a second power feed member placed along a second side different from the first side.

18. The plating method according to claim 17 , wherein the current is passed to the first power feed member, and after a predetermined time has elapsed, the current is passed to the second power feed member.

19. The plating method according to claim 18 , further comprising a step of placing an electric field shield mask with an opening portion to partially shield an electric field between the anode and the polygonal substrate, wherein
the current is passed to the first power feed member while shielding a region of the polygonal substrate along the first side by the electric field shield mask, and after a predetermined time has elapsed, the opening portion is changed in shape and the current is passed to the second power feed me

Assignees

• Ebara Corp

Inventors

• Shimomura Naoki
• Nagai Mizuki

Classifications

• H10P14/47

  Electrolytic deposition, i.e. electroplating; Electroless plating · CPC title

• H10W20/043

  for electroplating · CPC title

• C25D5/022 Primary

  using masking means · CPC title

• C25D17/005 Primary

  Contacting devices · CPC title

• C25D21/10

  Agitating of electrolytes; Moving of racks · CPC title