Electrochemical processing apparatus and method

Abstract

A processing apparatus electrochemically processes part of a first surface of a member having the first surface and a second surface. The processing apparatus includes a support which supports the member to expose the first surface, a first electrode which is arranged to oppose a first portion of the first surface, a second electrode which is arranged to oppose a second portion of the first surface, a third electrode which applies a potential to the member from a second surface side, and a processing bath to fill a space defined by the first and second electrodes and the member with a processing liquid.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to a processing apparatus for a member and a processing method and, more particularly, to a processing apparatus and processing method which electrochemically process part of the first surface of a member having the first and second surfaces. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Methods for obtaining a substrate which has been subjected to a target process in only the processing-target region of its entire surface can be roughly divided into two methods. According to the first method, the entire surface of the substrate is subjected to a target process, and after that the non-processing-target region of the entire surface is removed by etching or cutting. According to the second method, only the processing-target region of the entire surface is subjected to a target process, while the non-processing-target region is not processed. [0003] More specifically, according to the first method, the entire surface of the substrate is ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0018] According to the present invention, there is provided a novel technique for electrochemically processing part of a member to form a process

Problems solved by technology

This method has a drawback in that a removing process such as etching or cutting is indispensable, so that the number of steps increases to increase the cost.

With the method of forming a protective film, how to remove the protective film after the process becomes an issue.

The resist or stripping liquid, however, remains in the pores of a porous layer formed by the chemical process, and may be burned or evaporate in a later annealing process.

Then, an evaporated substance may corrode the chamber or attach to the substrate surface to increase the number of foreign substances, or cause impurity contamination in the later step.

With this method, when the seal member comes into contact with the substrate, foreign substances can undesirably attach to the substrate.

In particular, a powerful cleaning method to remove the foreign substances cannot be applied to a porous layer or plated layer that can be formed by anodizing.

This is because cleaning can damage the porous layer or plated layer.

Thus, the foreign substances which have attached as the seal member comes into contact are undesirably carried to the next process.

Also, as the seal member comes into contact with the substrate, it can damage the substrate.

As the size of the semiconductor substrate or liquid crystal panel increases, the region to be sealed also becomes large, and the problem of defective sealing becomes more conspicuous.

As the process is repeated, the function of the seal member such as an O-ring degrades due to wear or a chemical change.

Therefore, the supply amount of the processing liquid is limited, and sometimes the processing liquid accordingly degrades during the process.

Such a small gap makes it difficult to circulate the processing liquid and is thus inappropriate for uniformly processing the processing-target region.

Therefore, the actual application of the method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-246364 is supposed to be limited to simple ones such as coating removal.

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