PLATING APPARATUS AND PLATING METHOD

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a plating apparatus which has a plating tank with an opened top and can refresh a plating solution with a different stirring method from that of using a stirring rod. SOLUTION: This plating apparatus has an assembly 10 for introducing the plating solution and simultaneously straightening the flow, which is arranged between an anode electrode 7 and a semiconductor wafer 9 in a vertical direction in the plating tank 1. The assembly 10 for introducing the plating solution and simultaneously straightening the flow has a structure comprising: a plating solution introduction plate 12 having a through hole 16 and a plating solution introduction hole 17; first and second flow-straightening plates 13 and 14 having a number of micropores therein installed on both faces of the introduction plate 12; and an electric field masking shield 15 having a through hole 23 installed on the external surface of the first flow-straightening plate 13. Most parts of the plating solution 22 which has been introduced into the through hole 16 of the plating solution introduction plate 12 are discharged in a transverse direction to the tank and perpendicular direction to the first flow-straightening plate 13 through the micropores of the first flow-straightening plate 13 to abut with the surface of the semiconductor wafer 9. It is also possible to make the plating tank 1 into a sealed structure and to make a plurality of the flow-straightening plates horizontally stacked. COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT