Patent ID: 6958113
Filing Date: 2005-10-25
Classification: C25D,H01L

Abstract:
1. A plating apparatus for plating a substrate, the apparatus comprising: a cassette stage for receiving thereon a cassette which is capable of accommodating a substrate to be treated; a plating unit comprising a cathode ring having a cathode to be brought into contact with the substrate and rotatable together with the substrate kept in contact with the cathode, and a plating cup having an anode disposed therein and capable of containing a plating liquid which contains a plating accelerating additive, a plating retarding additive and chlorine as minor constituents thereof; a cleaning unit for cleaning the substrate; a substrate transport mechanism for transporting the substrate between the cassette placed on the cassette stage, the plating unit and the cleaning unit; a post-treatment agent supplying section for supplying a post-treatment agent to the cleaning unit; a minor constituent managing section comprising an analyzing section for quantitatively analyzing the plating accelerating additive, the plating retarding additive and chlorine in the plating liquid being used in the plating unit, and a minor constituent management controller for controlling the minor constituent managing section, the analyzing section comprising an analyzing cup capable of containing a part of the plating liquid to be analyzed, a plurality of reagent supply nozzles for supplying analytic liquid reagents into the analyzing cup, a reference electrode and a silver/silver chloride electrode for a titrimetric analysis, and a rotary electrode, a counter electrode and a reference electrode for a CVS analysis or a CPVS analysis; an enclosure which houses therein a substrate treating section including the plating unit, the cleaning unit and the substrate transport mechanism; and a system controller for controlling the entire apparatus; wherein the analyzing section comprises; a reagent container which contains each of the analytic reagents; a buffer cup adapted to be virtually sealed; a liquid surface sensor connected to the minor constituent management controller for providing information on a liquid surface level in the buffer cup; a first liquid transport pipe extending from the vicinity of a bottom of the reagent container to the buffer cup; a second liquid transport pipe extending from the vicinity of a bottom of the buffer cup to the analyzing cup; and an air exhaustion mechanism for exhausting air from the buffer cup; wherein the minor constituent management controller controls the air exhaustion mechanism to exhaust air from the buffer cup in response to a judgment made on the basis of an output signal of the liquid surface sensor that liquid is not present at a first level higher than an open end of the second liquid transport pipe in the buffer cup.