Patent ID: 7033463

Claim:
An apparatus for plating a surface of a substrate to fill a wiring recess in the surface with a metal, said apparatus comprising: a frame; a load/unload unit on which the substrate is held; a transfer mechanism disposed in said frame; and a plurality of processing units disposed in said frame so as to surround said transfer mechanism, said processing units including: an electroless plating unit for performing an electroless plating process to form an initial layer on the substrate; and an electrolytic plating unit for performing an electrolytic plating process to fill the wiring recess with the metal while the initial layer serves as a feeding layer, wherein said electroless plating unit includes: a seal packing to be brought into contact with the substrate; a plating cell for forming a hermetically sealed space with the substrate and said seal packing, the hermetically sealed space having a volume sufficient for receiving a minimum amount of an electroless plating liquid required for the electroless plating process; and a turntable for holding the substrate so that the substrate is cleaned and dried after the electroless plating process.