Plating apparatus and plating method

Abstract

A substrate treating apparatus provided with a plating unit, a bevel etching unit, a cassette stage on which a cassette for accommodating a wafer and a cassette for accommodating a dummy wafer are placed, and a transport robot for transporting the wafer or the dummy wafer among the cassettes, the plating unit and the bevel etching unit. The plating unit is capable of performing a copper plating process on the wafer and the dummy wafer, and the bevel etching unit is capable of etching a peripheral edge of the wafer and etching away a copper film formed on the dummy wafer.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A plating apparatus comprising: 
 a plating unit for performing a plating process with the use of a plating liquid for plating a to-be-treated substrate with copper;    a dummy substrate container for accommodating a dummy substrate having a surface formed with an electrically conductive film;    a dummy substrate transport mechanism for transporting the dummy substrate between the plating unit and the dummy substrate container;    a substrate loading discontinuation detecting mechanism for detecting discontinuation of loading of the to-be-treated substrate in the plating unit; and    a control section which performs a control operation so as to transport the dummy substrate from the dummy substrate container into the plating unit by means of the dummy substrate transport mechanism and perform the plating process on the surface of the dummy substrate formed with the electrically conductive film in the plating unit in response to the detection of the discontinuation of the loading of the to-be-treated substrate in the plating unit by the substrate loading discontinuation detecting mechanism.    
     
     
         2 . A plating apparatus as set forth in  claim 1 , further comprising: a film removing unit for performing a copper film removing process for removing a copper film formed on the dummy substrate subjected to the plating process in the plating unit, wherein the electrically conductive film is resistant to the copper film removing process performed in the film removing unit.  
     
     
         3 . A plating apparatus as set forth in  claim 2 , wherein the electrically conductive film is composed of gold or platinum.  
     
     
         4 . A plating apparatus as set forth in  claim 1 , further comprising a cassette stage for receiving thereon a cassette capable of accommodating the to-be-treated substrate to be subjected to the plating process in the plating unit, wherein the dummy substrate container is a cassette disposed on the cassette stage.  
     
     
         5 . A plating apparatus as set forth in  claim 1 , 
 wherein the plating unit includes a plurality of plating units,    wherein the dummy substrate includes a plurality of dummy substrates whose number is greater than the number of the plating units,    wherein the dummy substrate container is capable of accommodating all the dummy substrates.    
     
     
         6 . A plating apparatus comprising: 
 a plating unit for performing a plating process with the use of a plating liquid for plating a to-be-treated substrate with copper; and    a film removing unit for performing a copper film removing process for removing a copper film formed on a dummy substrate subjected to the plating process in the plating unit.    
     
     
         7 . A plating method comprising: 
 the step of detecting discontinuation of loading of a to-be-treated substrate in a plating unit which is adapted to perform a plating process for plating the to-be-treated substrate with copper;    the step of transporting a dummy substrate having a surface formed with an electrically conductive film from a dummy substrate container into the plating unit; and    a dummy plating step of performing a dummy plating process in the plating unit for plating the surface of the dummy substrate formed with the electrically conductive film after the detecting step.    
     
     
         8 . A plating method as set forth in  claim 7 , further comprising the step of transporting the dummy substrate into a film removing unit which is adapted to perform a copper film removing process, and removing a copper film formed on the dummy substrate by the dummy plating process in the film removing unit after the dummy plating step, 
 wherein the electrically conductive film is resistant to the copper film removing process performed in the film removing unit.    
     
     
         9 . A plating method as set forth in  claim 7 , 
 wherein the plating unit includes a plurality of plating units,    wherein the dummy plating step comprises the step of performing the dummy plating process simultaneously in the respective plating units.    
     
     
         10 . A plating method comprising the steps of: 
 transporting a dummy substrate into a plating unit which is adapted to perform a plating process for plating a to-be-treated substrate with copper, and performing a dummy plating process in the plating unit for plating the dummy substrate with copper, when the plating process is not performed on the to-be-treated substrate in the plating unit; and    transporting the dummy substrate having a copper film formed by the dummy plating process into a film removing unit which is adapted to perform a copper film removing process, and removing the copper film formed on the dummy substrate in the film removing unit after the dummy plating step.