JP2002057199A - Substrate processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a wafer processor capable of easily and accurately detecting various wafer surface states such as film thickness without stopping conveying or processing while conveying or processing a wafer not to lower a throughput. SOLUTION: In the wafer processor for conveying or processing a wafer W in the state of holding the wafer W with a robot hand 40 while having the robot hand 40 for holding the wafer W, the robot hand 40 is provided with a sensor S for measuring the film thickness of the wafer W and on the basis of a signal detected by this sensor S while conveying or processing the wafer W, the film thickness of the wafer W is measured. Thus, the metal film thickness of the wafer W can be measured without stopping/interrupting a wafer processing process and while providing a high throughput, the film thickness can be made constant.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to various substrate processing apparatuses such as a substrate plating apparatus and a substrate polishing apparatus, and more particularly to a substrate processing apparatus suitable for detecting a substrate surface state such as a film thickness of a substrate to be processed. Things.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a substrate processing step of forming a film on a substrate or shaving a film, the thickness of the film is made constant,
It is required to increase the reliability of substrate processing, for example, by controlling the thickness to an arbitrary value. In particular, the film thickness of a semiconductor wafer is about several tens nm to several μm, and the film thickness must be controlled at such a fine level. From such a viewpoint, a film thickness measuring device is installed in the substrate processing apparatus, and in a CMP device (chemical mechanical polishing device), a film thickness measuring sensor is embedded in a turntable for polishing a substrate, Measuring the film thickness during polishing has been performed.

However, when a film thickness measuring device is installed in a substrate processing apparatus, the substrate is moved to the film thickness measuring device during the substrate processing step to measure the film thickness. And there is a problem that the throughput is reduced. Further, in order to provide a film thickness measuring device in addition to various devices for processing a substrate, it is necessary to secure a space for the film thickness measuring device.

In a CMP apparatus in which a film thickness measuring sensor is embedded in a turntable to measure a film thickness, a mechanism for embedding the sensor in a turntable for polishing is complicated, and furthermore, the sensor is used in a sensor. There is a problem that the slurry often adheres and the measurement becomes difficult.

The above problems are not limited to sensors for measuring metal film thickness, but sensors for detecting insulating film thickness (oxide film thickness), sensors for detecting the presence or absence of a metal thin film, sensors for detecting the presence or absence of particles on a substrate, The same applies to other sensors for detecting the surface state of various substrates, such as the sensor for pattern recognition formed above.

[0006] In general, in a substrate processing apparatus, it is required not only to improve the quality but also to improve the throughput from the viewpoint of productivity. Therefore, in order to meet requirements from both aspects of quality and productivity, it is necessary to detect the substrate surface state such as the film thickness in a series of steps in the process so as not to lower the throughput.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object to reduce the throughput without stopping the transfer or processing during the transfer or processing of the substrate. An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus capable of easily and accurately detecting various substrate surface states such as a film thickness and the like.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has a substrate holding means for holding a substrate, and carries or transfers a substrate while holding the substrate with the substrate holding means. In the processing apparatus, a sensor for detecting a substrate surface state such as a metal film thickness is provided in the substrate holding means, and the state of the substrate surface is detected based on a signal detected by the sensor during the transfer or processing of the substrate. And As a result, the substrate surface state such as the metal film thickness of the substrate can be detected without stopping or interrupting the substrate processing process, and the substrate surface state can be detected while realizing high throughput.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus having substrate holding means for holding a substrate, wherein the substrate is transferred or processed while the substrate is held by the substrate holding means. Alternatively, a sensor for detecting the state of the substrate surface is installed at a predetermined position where the substrate approaches during processing, and the state of the surface of the substrate is detected based on a signal detected by the sensor when the substrate approaches the sensor. And Here, the sensor is preferably movable, and it is desirable that the distance between the substrate and the sensor can be set arbitrarily according to the detection purpose.

Further, the present invention comprises a substrate holding means for holding a substrate, and a substrate processing module for processing the substrate, wherein the substrate held by the substrate holding means is carried in and out of the substrate processing module. In the substrate processing apparatus, a sensor for detecting a surface state of the substrate is provided near the substrate loading / unloading port of the substrate processing module or near a position where the substrate is processed in the substrate processing module, and the substrate is loaded or unloaded into the substrate processing module. When unloading or processing the substrate in the substrate processing module, the state of the substrate surface is detected based on a signal from the sensor.

Here, the sensors are not limited to sensors for measuring metal film thickness, but sensors for detecting insulating film thickness (oxide film thickness), sensors for detecting the presence or absence of metal thin films, and sensors for detecting the presence or absence of particles on a substrate. Other various sensors for detecting the surface state of the substrate, such as a sensor for pattern recognition formed on the substrate, can be used.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The present invention is applicable to all substrate processing apparatuses that carry and process a substrate. Here, a case where the present invention is applied to a copper plating apparatus and a CMP apparatus used for forming a wiring of a semiconductor substrate for film thickness measurement will be described. I do.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of a plating apparatus to which the present invention is applied. This plating apparatus includes two wafer cassettes 10 and 10 for accommodating a plurality of substrates therein, a transfer robot 14 for taking out and transferring a substrate from the wafer cassettes 10 and 10, and a sequence of washing, drying and plating of the substrate. And two plating modules (substrate processing modules) 12 and 12 that perform the plating process in a single unit. Reference numeral 18 denotes a liquid supply facility having a plating liquid tank 16.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a main part of the plating module 12. As shown in FIG. The plating module 12 can perform a series of processes of plating, cleaning, and drying. That is, the substrate W is A, B,
C is held in three positions. Then, after the substrate W is loaded and placed at the position A, the cathode electrode 23 is connected near the outer periphery of the substrate W at the position B, and a plating solution is supplied onto the surface to be processed. Electroplating is performed by contacting with a plating solution and applying a voltage. After the plating, the plating solution on the substrate W is sucked by a nozzle (not shown), cleaning water is supplied at a position C instead, and the cleaning water is spread over the entire substrate W by rotating the substrate holding unit 21 to perform cleaning. Do. After the cleaning, the supply of the cleaning water is stopped, and the rotation speed of the substrate W is increased to spin off the cleaning water and spin dry. If necessary, for example, a precoating process of applying a surfactant may be performed before plating, or the cleaning may be performed in multiple stages by changing the type of cleaning solution. The present invention is not limited to the plating module 12 having the above structure. That is, for example, the plating tank may be another cup type or a closed type, and in that case, a cleaning tank and a dryer may be separately provided.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 1, the transfer robot 14 is provided with a robot hand 40 at the tip of an arm 41.

Next, the operation of the entire plating apparatus will be described. First, the robot hand 40 takes out the unprocessed substrate W from any of the wafer cassettes 10 and places it on the substrate holding portion 21 of any of the plating modules 12. Thus, the plating module 12 performs a series of plating processes as described above and dries it. The dried substrate W is returned to one of the wafer cassettes 10 by the robot hand 40 again.

Since the substrate W before processing and the substrate W after processing pass around the transfer robot 14, both substrates W
In order to measure the film thickness of the substrate W, in the following embodiment, the substrate W before processing and the substrate W after processing pass through the film thickness sensor S as in the transfer robot 14 itself or its periphery or inside the plating module 12. In a location where
Embodiments of the installation location and the installation state of the film thickness sensor S will be collectively described below, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

That is, if the film thickness sensor S is installed at these positions, the film thickness of the substrate W before and after the processing (the total film thickness of the multilayer metal film formed on the substrate W) can be measured in a series of processes. Measurement can be performed without performing unnecessary operations during the operation. Specifically, for example, when the substrate W passes the film thickness sensor S for the first time, the film thickness of the substrate W with the seed layer on the surface before plating is measured, and the substrate W When passing through the sensor S, the thickness of the substrate W is measured with the metal film plated on the seed layer. Then, by taking the difference between the two, the plated metal film thickness can be measured. The thickness of the seed layer is in the range of approximately several tens nm to several hundreds of nm, and the thickness of the plated metal is generally about several μm.

The signal input from the film thickness sensor S is sent to a computer, where it is subjected to arithmetic processing such as taking a difference or taking a moving average to measure the film thickness. The arithmetic processing device and method can be arbitrarily selected as appropriate for the arrangement of the film thickness sensor S, the detection method, and the like.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an example of a CMP apparatus to which the present invention is applied. The CMP apparatus includes a wafer cassette 31 for loading and unloading, a cleaning machine 33 for cleaning a substrate, two transfer robots 14a and 14b, reversing machines 39 and 39, Polishing units (substrate processing modules) 41, 41 are provided.

There are various flows of the substrate W. For example, the flow is as follows. First, the transfer robot 14a takes out the unprocessed substrate W from any of the load wafer cassettes 31 and transfers it to any of the reversing machines 39. Transfer robot 14
“a” simply rotates without moving from the illustrated position, and is installed at a position where the substrate W can be transferred from the wafer cassette 31 to the reversing device 39. The substrate W is turned over from the upper side to the lower side by the reversing device 39, and then transferred to the other transfer robot 14b, where the transfer robot 1
4b transfers the substrate W to one of the polishing units 41, and a predetermined polishing is performed. The polished substrate W is transported by the transport robot 14b to any of the cleaning machines 35 to perform primary cleaning. The substrate W after the primary cleaning is transported to any of the reversing machines 39 by the transport robot 14b, and after the surface to be processed is reversed upward, is transported to any of the secondary cleaning machines 33 by the transport robot 14a. After the next cleaning is completed, the wafer is again stored in the unloading wafer cassette 31 by the transfer robot 14a.

Therefore, in the case of this CMP apparatus, the substrate W before processing and the substrate W after processing pass near the transfer robots 14a and 14b and the reversing devices 39 and 39, so that both substrates W
In order to measure the film thickness of the substrate W, in the following embodiment, the film thickness sensor S is positioned at a position where the substrate W before processing and the substrate W after processing pass, such as the transfer robots 14a and 14b themselves or the periphery thereof. It was decided to install it.

That is, if the film thickness sensor S is installed at these positions, the film thickness of the substrate W before and after the processing can be measured without performing useless operations during a series of processing operations. Specifically, for example, the film thickness of the substrate W before polishing is measured for the first time,
By measuring the film thickness of the substrate W after polishing for the second time, if the difference between the two is obtained, the amount of polishing can be measured. If an optical sensor is used, the thickness of the metal film or the insulating film can be directly measured without taking a difference.

In some CMP apparatuses, the transfer robots 14a and 14b can move in the direction of arrow A shown in FIG. 1, but the present invention can be applied to either case.

FIG. 4 shows plating and CMP to which the present invention is applied.
It is a figure showing an apparatus. This plating and CMP apparatus is different from the CMP apparatus shown in FIG. 3 in that the plating module 12 shown in FIG. 2 is stored in place of the one washer 33 and the spin dryer 34 is used in place of the other washer 33. It is the point that was installed.

The flow of the substrate W is, for example, as follows. First, the transfer robot 14a takes out the unprocessed substrate W from any of the wafer cassettes 31 for loading, performs plating on the plating module 12, and then transfers the substrate W to any of the reversing machines 39. After the surface to be processed is turned downward, the other transfer robot 1
4b. The transfer robot 14b transfers the substrate W to any one of the polishing units 41, and performs predetermined polishing. The polished substrate W is taken out by the transfer robot 14b, washed by one of the washing machines 35, transferred to the other polishing unit 41 and polished again, and then transferred to the other washing machine 35 by the transfer robot 14b. To be washed. Substrate W after cleaning
Is transferred by the transfer robot 14b to the other reversing device 39, the surface to be processed is turned upward, and then transferred by the transfer robot 14a to the spin dryer 34 for spin drying, and then unloaded again by the transfer robot 14a. In the wafer cassette 31 for use.

Therefore, in the case of this plating and CMP apparatus as well, the film thickness is set at a position where the substrate W before processing and the substrate W after processing pass, such as the transfer robots 14a and 14b themselves and their surroundings, and inside the plating module 12. The sensor S was installed.

Next, a specific embodiment of the film thickness measuring sensor S installed in the plating apparatus or the CMP apparatus will be described.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the transfer robot 14 shown in FIG. 1 and the transfer robots 14a and 14b shown in FIGS. FIG. 6 shows the transfer robot 14 (14).
FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams showing a robot hand 40 attached to the robot hand, and FIG. 1A is a plan view and FIG. 1B is a side sectional view.

The transfer robot 14 (14a, 14b)
Two arms 4 mounted on the upper part of the robot body 43
Robot hands 40, 40 are attached to the tips of the robot hands 1, 41, respectively. Both robot hands 40, 4
Numerals 0 are arranged so as to overlap with each other via a predetermined gap. The expansion and contraction of the arm 41 allows the substrate W placed on the robot hand 40 to be transported in the front-rear direction. In addition, the rotation and / or movement of the robot body 43 enables the transfer of the substrate W in an arbitrary direction.

Then, as shown in FIG.
At 0, four film thickness sensors S are directly embedded and attached. As the film thickness sensor S, any sensor can be used as long as it can measure the film thickness, but an eddy current sensor is preferably used. The eddy current sensor generates an eddy current, and the substrate W
The film thickness is measured by detecting the frequency or loss of the current returned by conducting the current, and is used in a non-contact manner. Further, as the film thickness sensor S, an optical sensor is also suitable. The optical sensor irradiates the sample with light and can directly measure the film thickness from the information of the reflected light.It can measure not only metal film but also oxide film and other insulating film. It is. The installation position of the film thickness sensor S is not limited to the one shown in the figure, and an arbitrary number is attached to a position to be measured. The robot hand 40 includes a dry hand for handling a dry substrate W and a wet hand for handling a wet substrate W, and the film thickness sensor S can be attached to both. However, when the transfer robot 14 is used in a plating apparatus as shown in FIG. 1, it is necessary to first measure the thickness of the substrate W with only the seed layer attached. First, it is necessary to measure the thickness of the substrate W in the dry state where it is placed. Therefore, it is desirable to attach the film thickness sensor S to the dry hand.

The signal detected by the film thickness sensor S is sent to an arithmetic unit, which performs an operation such as taking a difference between the film thickness of the substrate W before processing and the film thickness of the substrate W after processing. Is output to a predetermined display or the like. The calculation method may be any method as long as the film thickness can be measured appropriately.

According to the present embodiment, since the film thickness can be measured while the robot hand 40 is transporting the substrate W, there is no need to separately provide a film thickness measurement step during the substrate processing step, and the throughput is reduced. The effect of not causing it to be obtained is obtained. The robot hand 40 has a film thickness sensor S
The space saving can be realized because of mounting.

FIG. 7 is a view showing the transfer robots 14, 14a and 14b shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 to which the second embodiment of the present invention is applied. FIG. 7 (a) is a schematic plan view and FIG. b) is a schematic side view. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
Three film thickness sensors S are attached. That is, a disc-shaped mounting plate 4 having substantially the same size as the substrate W is provided below the robot hand 40.
5 and five film thickness sensors S on the mounting plate 45.
Attach. The mounting plate 45 is fixed to the robot body 43, but may be fixed to another member.

By mounting each film thickness sensor S at a position that does not overlap the robot hand 40 as shown in the figure,
The film thickness can be measured in a wide area of the entire substrate W. In addition, according to this embodiment, space can be saved, and measurement can be performed in an extremely short time. By stopping the substrate W on the mounting plate 45, it is possible to measure the film thickness at the fixed point of the substrate W. On the other hand, the substrate W on the robot hand 40 passes over the mounting plate 45 without stopping. This will enable measurements while scanning. Further, since the film thickness sensor S is integrated with the robot body 43, stable detection can be performed. When the mounting plate 45 is fixed to another member instead of the robot body 43, the distance between the substrate W and the sensor can be adjusted by arbitrarily changing the height of the robot hand.

The point that the signal after detection is sent to the arithmetic unit and the film thickness is measured is the same as in the embodiment shown in FIG. However,
In the case of measurement while scanning, since the measurement point changes with the passage of time, it is preferable to calculate the film thickness by performing calculation using the moving average method.

FIGS. 8A and 8B show a third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8A is a schematic plan view and FIG. 8B is a schematic side view. In the embodiment shown in the figure, three film thickness sensors S are installed above the entrance 50 of the substrate W of the plating module 12 shown in FIGS. That is, a rectangular mounting plate 51 is installed above the entrance 50, and three film thickness sensors S are mounted in series on the lower surface of the mounting plate 51. The mounting plate 51 may be fixed to the plating module 12, may be fixed to the robot body 43 of the transfer robot 14 (not shown), or may be fixed to other members.

With this configuration, the film thickness sensor S scans the substrate W both when the substrate W is put into the plating module 12 and when the substrate W is taken out, so that it is suitable for scan measurement. By arranging several rows of the film thickness sensors S as in this embodiment, an arbitrary point on the substrate W can be scanned and measured. The distance between the substrate W and the sensor can be adjusted by arbitrarily changing the height of the robot hand.

The signal detected by the film thickness sensor S is calculated by an arithmetic unit. In the case of scan measurement, the arithmetic processing by the moving average method is suitable as in the second embodiment.

When this embodiment is applied to a CMP apparatus, the film thickness sensor S may be installed near the entrance through which a substrate W is inserted into and removed from the polishing unit (substrate processing module) 41 shown in FIGS. . When the substrate W is loaded into the polishing unit 41, the surface to be processed of the substrate W faces downward. Therefore, it is preferable to install the film thickness sensor S below the place where the substrate W is loaded into the polishing unit 41 (of course). Even if the film thickness sensor S is provided on the upper side, the film thickness can be measured, but the lower side has higher accuracy.) After the polishing is completed, the surface to be processed of the substrate W is in a wet state. However, if a film thickness sensor capable of measuring even in the wet state is used, the film thickness can be measured in the same manner as in the case of the plating module 12.

FIG. 9 is a schematic front view showing the vicinity of a reversing machine 39 to which the fourth embodiment of the present invention is applied, and FIG.
It is a top view of three parts. As shown in both figures, the reversing arm 5
Reference numerals 3 and 53 have a function of sandwiching and holding the outer periphery of the substrate W from both left and right sides thereof and inverting the substrate W by rotating it 180 °. Then, a circular mounting table 55 is installed directly below the reversing arms 53, 53 (reversing stage).
A plurality of film thickness sensors S are provided thereon. The mounting table 55 is configured to be vertically movable by a driving mechanism 57.

At the time of reversing the substrate W, the mounting table 55 is waiting at the position indicated by the solid line below the substrate W, and before or after the reversing, the mounting table 55 is raised to the position shown by the dotted line and the film thickness sensor S is moved. The substrate is held close to the reversing arms 53 and 53, and its film thickness is measured.

According to the present embodiment, since there is no restriction such as the arm 41 of the transfer robot 14, the film thickness sensor S can be installed at an arbitrary position on the mounting table 55. In addition, since the mounting table 55 is configured to be vertically movable, it is possible to adjust the distance between the substrate W and the sensor during measurement. Further, it is also possible to attach a plurality of types of sensors according to the detection purpose and change the distance between the substrate W and each sensor for each measurement of each sensor. However, since the mounting table 55 moves up and down,
The measurement time is slightly longer.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view of a main part of a plating module 12 to which a fifth embodiment of the present invention is applied. The plating module 12 shown in FIG.
The only difference is that a mounting table 59 to which the film thickness sensor S is mounted is provided immediately below a portion (plating stage) of the substrate holding unit 21 that holds the substrate W. The film thickness sensor S can be installed at any position on the mounting table 59.

In this embodiment, since the film thickness sensor S is provided immediately below the plating stage, it is possible to measure the film thickness in real time while plating. Therefore, if the measurement result is fed back in real time and reflected on the plating, extremely accurate plating can be performed.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications are possible within the scope of the claims and the technical idea described in the specification and the drawings. Is possible. That is, for example, in the above-described embodiment, the embodiment in which the sensor is used as a sensor for detecting the film thickness (the thickness of the metal film or the insulating film) is described.
The present invention is not limited to this sensor, and by selecting a sensor and a calculation means according to various purposes,
A sensor for detecting the presence or absence of a metal thin film, a sensor for detecting the presence or absence of particles on a substrate, a sensor for recognizing a pattern formed on a substrate, and other sensors for detecting various surface states of the substrate may be used. Good. It should be noted that any shape or material not directly described in the specification and the drawings is within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention as long as the effects and effects of the present invention are exhibited.

[0047]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, various substrate surface states such as the metal film thickness of the substrate can be detected without stopping or interrupting the substrate processing process, thereby realizing high throughput. The surface state of the substrate can be detected, and the reliability and speed of substrate processing such as plating and polishing can be improved.

Further, since the substrate processing conditions can be quickly adjusted by feeding back the measurement results, the substrate processing such as plating and polishing can be quickly performed under the optimum processing conditions.

Further, if a light and small sensor is used as the detection sensor, it can be easily attached to a robot hand of a plating apparatus, and the above-mentioned effect can be realized while saving space.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of a plating apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of the plating module 12.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an example of a CMP apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a plating and CMP apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the transfer robot 14 (14a, 14b).

FIG. 6 is a view showing a robot hand 40 attached to the transfer robot 14 (14a, 14b), wherein FIG. 6 (a) is a plan view and FIG. 6 (b) is a side sectional view.

FIG. 7 is a transfer robot 1 to which the second embodiment of the present invention is applied.
4 (14a, 14b), wherein FIG. 4 (a) is a schematic plan view and FIG. 4 (b) is a schematic side view.

FIG. 8 is a view showing a third embodiment of the present invention, wherein FIG. 8 (a) is a schematic plan view and FIG. 8 (b) is a schematic side view.

FIG. 9 is a schematic front view of the vicinity of a reversing device 39 to which a fourth embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 10 is a plan view of a reversing arm 53;

FIG. 11 is a sectional view of a main part of a plating module 12 to which a fifth embodiment of the present invention is applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Wafer cassette 12 Plating module (substrate processing module) 14 Transfer robot W Substrate 14a, 14b Transfer robot 21 Substrate holding part S Film thickness sensor (sensor) 31 Wafer cassette 33, 35 Washer 39 Inverter 41 Polishing unit (Substrate processing module) ) 40 Robot hand (substrate holding means) 41 Arm 43 Robot body 45 Mounting plate 50 Doorway 51 Mounting plate 53 Reversing arm 55 Mounting table 57 Drive mechanism 59 Mounting table

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Norio Kimura 11-1 Haneda Asahimachi, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ebara Corporation (72) Inventor Koji Mishima 11-1 Asahi-cho Haneda, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ebara Corporation (72) Inventor Makino Natsuki 11-1 Haneda Asahimachi, Ota-ku, Tokyo Ebara Corporation (72) Inventor Tetsuro Matsuda 8 Shinsugita-cho, Isogo-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Pref. Inventor Naofumi Kaneko 8 Shinsugita-cho, Isogo-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa F-term (reference) 5F031 CA02 FA01 FA07 FA12 FA20 GA03 GA10 GA13 GA36 GA40 GA47 GA48 GA49 HA24 HA46 HA48 HA52 HA58 HA59 JA01 JA02 JA06 JA13 JA13 JA14 JA17 JA32 JA51 MA03 MA22 MA25

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A substrate processing apparatus having substrate holding means for holding a substrate, wherein the substrate holding means holds or holds the substrate to transfer or process the substrate. A substrate processing apparatus provided with a sensor, wherein a state of a substrate surface is detected based on a signal detected by the sensor during transport or processing of the substrate. 2. A substrate processing apparatus having substrate holding means for holding a substrate, wherein the substrate is transferred or processed while the substrate is held by the substrate holding means, wherein the substrate is transferred or processed by the substrate holding means. A substrate surface state detection sensor is installed at a predetermined position where the substrate approaches the substrate, and a substrate surface state is detected based on a signal detected by the sensor when the substrate approaches the sensor. Processing equipment. 3. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said sensor is movable. 4. A substrate having substrate holding means for holding a substrate, and a substrate processing module for processing the substrate, wherein the substrate held by the substrate holding means is configured to be carried in and out of the substrate processing module. In the processing apparatus, a sensor for detecting a substrate surface state is provided near a substrate loading / unloading port of the substrate processing module or near a position of processing a substrate in the substrate processing module, and when loading or unloading a substrate to or from the substrate processing module. Alternatively, the substrate processing apparatus detects a state of a substrate surface based on a signal from the sensor when processing the substrate in the substrate processing module. 5. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sensor is a sensor for measuring a film thickness.