ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,331,420, issued on June 17, was assigned to EBARA Corp. (Tokyo).
"Plating apparatus and plating method" was invented by Masashi Shimoyama (Tokyo), Yasuyuki Masuda (Tokyo) and Ryosuke Hiwatashi (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A specific portion of a substrate is allowed to be shielded at a desired timing, and making a plating film-thickness uniform is improved.A plating module includes: a plating tank 410 for housing a plating solution; an anode 430 disposed in the plating tank 410; a substrate holder 440 for holding a substrate Wf with a surface to be plated Wf-a facing downward; a rotation mechanism 447 configured to rotate the su...