CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority of the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-110430, filed on Jun. 13, 2019, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates to a plating apparatus.

BACKGROUND ART

Formation of a metal plating film, such as Cu, on a surface of a semiconductor device and a substrate for electronic element has been performed. For example, there may be a case where a substrate as a plating object is held to a substrate holder and the substrate is immersed in a plating tank housing a plating solution together with the substrate holder for electroplating. The substrate holder holds the substrate so as to expose a plating surface of the substrate. In the plating solution, an anode is disposed corresponding to the exposed surface of the substrate and a voltage is given between the substrate and the anode, thus ensuring forming an electroplating film on the exposed surface of the substrate.

CITATION LIST

Patent Literature

PTL 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2016-79504

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

Technical Problem

To uniformly perform the plating process on the substrate, some electroplating apparatuses include a shielding plate (also referred to as a regulation plate) to adjust an electric potential distribution on the substrate. The shielding plate is disposed between the anode and the substrate and has an opening to permit a current flowing from the anode to the substrate to pass through. To adjust the electric potential distribution near the outer periphery of the substrate, disposing the shielding plate extremely close to the substrate is desired in some cases. In the case where the shielding plate is disposed extremely close to the substrate, when the substrate holder holding the substrate is disposed in the plating tank, the substrate holder possibly collides with the shielding plate.

Therefore, a substrate holder that does not dispose a shielding plate extremely close to the substrate holder and has a function as a shielding plate has been developed. For example, PTL 1 discloses a substrate holder including a regulation ring to adjust an electric field between an anode and a substrate. Since the substrate holder includes the regulation ring projecting out in a flange shape near an outer periphery of a front surface of the substrate, the electric field extremely close to the substrate can be adjusted. However, the regulation ring has the structure of projecting out to the front surface of the substrate, and therefore the substrate holder has an intricated, complex mechanical shape. Therefore, when the substrate holder is immersed in a plating solution in a plating tank, air and air bubble possibly remain in the substrate holder and between the regulation ring and the substrate, and this causes a risk of giving a negative effect on uniform plating of the substrate. Additionally, when the substrate holder is pulled out of the plating tank, the plating solution remains in the substrate holder and between the regulation ring and the substrate in some cases. One object of this application is to solve or reduce at least some of the problems.

Solution to Problem

According to one embodiment, there is provided a plating apparatus for performing a plating process on a substrate. The plating apparatus includes a substrate holder, a shielding plate, and a moving mechanism. The substrate holder holds the substrate. The shielding plate is disposed adjacent to the substrate holder. The moving mechanism moves the shielding plate in a direction of approaching the substrate holder and a direction away from the substrate holder. The shielding plate is moved to the substrate holder by the moving mechanism to be contactable with the substrate holder.

