Apparatus for plating and method of plating

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2023146732-A1
Application number	US-202217895558-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 25, 2022
Priority date	Nov 5, 2021
Publication date	May 11, 2023
Grant date	—

Abstract

One object of the present disclosure is to improve the accuracy of detection of an abnormality of various devices, and/or to advance the timing of detection of an abnormality. There is provided an apparatus for plating a substrate, comprising: an anode placed to be opposed to the substrate; an electric field regulating member placed between the substrate and the anode, provided with an opening, and equipped with an opening adjustment member configured to change a dimension of the opening; a motor configured to drive the opening adjustment member; and a control device configured to obtain an electric current value or a load factor of the motor, to calculate an amount of change in the load factor of the motor per unit time from the obtained electric current value or the obtained load factor of the motor, and to detect an abnormality of the electric field regulating member when it is detected that the amount of change in the load factor of the motor per unit time exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus for plating a substrate, comprising:
an anode placed to be opposed to the substrate; an electric field regulating member placed between the substrate and the anode, provided with an opening, and equipped with an opening adjustment member configured to change a dimension of the opening; a motor configured to drive the opening adjustment member; and a control device configured to obtain an electric current value or a load factor of the motor, to calculate an amount of change in the load factor of the motor per unit time from the obtained electric current value or the obtained load factor of the motor, and to detect an abnormality of the electric field regulating member when it is detected that the amount of change in the load factor of the motor per unit time exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

2 . The apparatus for plating according to claim 1 ,
wherein the control device detects an abnormality of the electric field regulating member at start of operation of the opening adjustment member that is a time period from a start of an increase in electric current of the motor to saturation of the electric current of the motor.

3 . The apparatus for plating according to either claim 1 ,
wherein the control device detects that the amount of change in the load factor of the motor per unit time exceeds the predetermined threshold value, based on the electric current value of the motor, and detects an abnormality of the electric field regulating member, before the load factor of the motor exceeds a predetermined reference value in middle of operation after a start of the operation of the opening adjustment member to change the dimension of the opening.

4 . The apparatus for plating according to claim 1 , comprising:
a plurality of plating cells, each having the anode and the electric field regulating member, wherein the control device specifies a plating cell that is to be used to process the substrate by a plating process, starts driving the opening adjustment member of the electric field regulating member prior to placement of the substrate into the specified plating cell, and when it is detected that the amount of change in the load factor of the motor per unit time exceeds the predetermined threshold value with regard to the specified plating cell, stops the placement of the substrate into the specified plating cell.

5 . The apparatus for plating according to claim 4 ,
wherein the control device determines whether there is another plating cell that is usable for placement of the substrate, which is stopped to be placed into the specified plating cell, and when there is another plating cell that is usable for placement of the substrate, places the substrate into the another plating cell.

6 . The apparatus for plating according to claim 4 ,
wherein the control device performs changing the dimension of the opening of the electric field regulating member multiple times with regard to the plating process for one substrate, and every time changing the dimension of the opening of the electric field regulating member is performed, the control device performs a process of detecting an abnormality of the electric field regulating member, based on the amount of change in the load factor of the motor per unit time.

7 . The apparatus for plating according to claim 6 ,
wherein the control device performs changing the dimension of the opening of the electric field regulating member after a start of the plating process of the substrate, continues the plating process of the substrate when an abnormality of the electric field regulating member is detected with regard to the specified plating cell, and subsequently sets the specified plating cell to be unused or unusable.

8 . The apparatus for plating according to claim 1 ,
wherein the electric field regulating member is an anode mask placed between the substrate and the anode to be located at a position closer to the anode than the substrate.

9 . A method of plating a substrate, comprising:
driving an opening adjustment member by a motor, wherein the opening adjustment member is configured to change a dimension of an opening provided in an electric field regulating member that is placed between the substrate and an anode; and obtaining an electric current value or a load factor of the motor, calculating an amount of change in the load factor of the motor per unit time from the obtained electric current value or the obtained load factor of the motor, and detecting an abnormality of the electric field regulating member when it is detected that the amount of change in the load factor of the motor per unit time exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

10 . A storage medium configured to store a program that causes a computer to perform a method of detecting an abnormality of an electric field regulating member of a plating apparatus, wherein the program causes the computer to perform:
driving an opening adjustment member by a motor, wherein the opening adjustment member is configured to change a dimension of an opening provided in an electric field regulating member that is placed between the substrate and an anode; and obtaining an electric current value or a load factor of the motor, calculating an amount of change in the load factor of the motor per unit time from the obtained electric current value or the obtained load factor of the motor, and detecting an abnormality of the electric field regulating member when it is detected that the amount of change in the load factor of the motor per unit time exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

Assignees

• Ebara Corp

Inventors

• Ideguchi Kazuma
• Wakabayashi Hideki
• Koizumi Ryuya

Classifications

• C25D17/001 Primary

  Apparatus specially adapted for electrolytic coating of wafers, e.g. semiconductors or solar cells · CPC title

• C25D17/04

  External supporting frames or structures · CPC title

• C25D21/06

  Filtering {particles other than ions (filtering ions C25D21/22)} · CPC title

• C25D7/123

  Semiconductors first coated with a seed layer or a conductive layer · CPC title

• C25D5/02

  Electroplating of selected surface areas · CPC title