JP3380652B2 - Processing equipment - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a processing apparatus for heat-treating or etching a substrate to be processed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art During a semiconductor manufacturing process, the surface of silicon of a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as "wafer") is oxidized to obtain an oxide film (insulating film), and the components of a film forming gas are vaporized. CVD (C
There is a heat treatment such as a chemical vapor deposition treatment or a dry etching in which a halogen gas is used for etching. As a heat treatment apparatus for performing heat treatment, a batch type vertical heat treatment apparatus and a single wafer type heat treatment apparatus are known.

In this vertical heat treatment apparatus, for example, a large number of wafers are arranged in a shelf shape on a holder called a wafer boat in which holding grooves are formed in multiple stages, and the wafer boat is subjected to vertical reaction in a heating furnace. The wafer is loaded in a tube and each wafer is heat-treated collectively. Further, in the single-wafer type heat treatment apparatus, a load lock chamber is connected to the vacuum chamber, one wafer W is loaded onto a mounting table in the vacuum chamber through the load lock chamber, and processing gas is supplied into the vacuum chamber. Then, for example, C
VD processing or etching is performed, and the wafers are thus heat-treated one by one.

[0004]

However, in the vertical heat treatment apparatus, since the thermal history of the wafer previously loaded into the reaction tube is different from that of the wafer subsequently loaded into the reaction tube, an extremely thin gate oxidation of, for example, several tens of angstroms is performed. When trying to obtain a film, the uniformity between the surfaces (wafers) is poor, and a high yield cannot be obtained. In addition, since the wafers overlap each other at a narrow interval, it is difficult to obtain high uniformity in the in-plane temperature of the wafers and the flow of the processing gas in the plane. There is a problem that sufficient in-plane uniformity cannot be obtained.

On the other hand, the single-wafer type heat treatment apparatus has high in-plane processing uniformity because it processes wafers one by one, but on the other hand, the throughput per wafer is low, and therefore high throughput is sought. Then, a large area is required because a large number of devices must be installed side by side.

The present invention has been made under these circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a treatment having high in-plane uniformity, which has the advantages of both the batch type apparatus and the single-wafer type apparatus. An object of the present invention is to provide a processing device that can perform high throughput.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a base frame portion having a plurality of mounting portions and one or two substrates to be processed are heat-treated or etched by a processing gas. And a plurality of single-wafer processing chamber units that are detachably provided in the mounting unit, respectively, and a plurality of single-wafer processing chamber units that are provided on the base frame side and that are detachably and airtightly connected to the processing chamber unit. It is characterized by having a dock room.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the base frame portion having a plurality of mounting portions and one or two substrates to be processed are heat-treated or etched by a processing gas. A plurality of single-wafer processing chamber units, each of which is detachably provided in the mounting portion; a gas pipe connecting portion for detachably connecting the processing chamber unit and the gas pipe on the side of the base frame; A power line connecting portion for removably connecting the chamber unit and the power line on the base frame part side to each other, and provided on the base frame part side,
A load lock chamber detachably and airtightly connected to the processing chamber unit.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, the load lock chamber is common to a plurality of processing chamber units.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a base frame portion having a plurality of mounting portions and one or two substrates to be processed are heat-treated or etched by a processing gas. A plurality of single-wafer processing chamber units, each of which is detachably provided in the mounting portion; a gas pipe connecting portion for detachably connecting the processing chamber unit and the gas pipe on the side of the base frame; A power line connection portion for detachably connecting the chamber unit and the power line on the base frame portion side to each other, and a power line connection portion provided on the base frame side and detachably and airtightly connected to the processing chamber unit. A first load lock chamber common to the processing chamber unit; and a second load lock chamber provided between the first load lock chamber and the atmosphere side. When That.

According to a fifth aspect of the invention, in the third or fourth aspect of the invention, the load lock chamber common to a plurality of processing chamber units is collectively processed with the plurality of processing chamber units. The present invention is characterized in that a transfer means capable of transferring the substrate is provided.

The invention of claim 6 is the invention of claim 1, 2, 3,
The invention of 4 or 5 is characterized in that a guide mechanism is provided in the mounting portion so that the processing chamber unit can slide with respect to the mounting portion.

[0013]

Since the single-wafer processing chamber unit performs heat treatment or etching one by one or two by one, it is possible to perform processing with high in-plane uniformity, and a plurality of processing chamber units are stacked to form one apparatus. Since it is configured as, the installation area can be small while obtaining high throughput. Since the processing chamber unit is attachable to and detachable from the base frame portion, when performing maintenance on the processing chamber unit, it is possible to remove the gas pipe and the utility line, disconnect from the load lock chamber, and detach from the base frame. In this case, it is very convenient to slide the processing chamber unit by the guide mechanism so that it can be attached to and detached from the mounting portion. Therefore, maintenance work is easy, and when a trouble occurs in one processing chamber unit in the case where the load lock chamber is shared, for example, another processing chamber unit is mounted on the mounting portion to reduce the operating rate of the apparatus. The decrease can be reduced.

[0014]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the external appearance of a processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention as viewed from the back side. This processing apparatus includes a chamber unit housing section 2 which forms a base frame portion on which a single-wafer processing chamber unit 1 is stacked and mounted in a plurality of stages, for example, a mounting shelf 10 is provided in four stages, for example. A power system unit housing 3 arranged on the front side (back side in FIG. 1) of the chamber unit housing 2 and load lock chambers 4 and 5 installed on the left and right of the chamber unit housing 2, respectively. ing.

First, the structure of the single-wafer processing chamber unit 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. The processing chamber unit 1 is a box-shaped reaction container made of, for example, quartz with left and right side surfaces open. 11 is provided, and the periphery of the reaction container 11 excluding the vicinity of both left and right ends is
The heat insulator 12 is provided so as to surround it with a gap.

A water cooling pipe 12a is provided near the outer peripheral portion of the heat insulating body 12 as shown in FIG. 3, and the inside of the reaction vessel 11 is heated on the inner peripheral surface of the heat insulating body 12 to form a soaking atmosphere. As described above, the heater 13 composed of a resistance heating wire is detachably attached by, for example, hook means.
As shown in FIG. 3, the heaters 13 are provided on the upper and lower surfaces and on the front and rear surfaces (when the load lock chambers 4 and 5 sides are left and right). In this case, for example, when a temperature higher than a predetermined heating temperature is high, The heater 13 may be selectively used for high temperature processing, and the front and rear heaters 13 may be selectively used for low temperature processing.

The left and right ends of the reaction vessel 11 are shown in FIG.
Further, as shown in FIG. 4, cap bodies 61 each formed by laminating a heat insulating layer such as alumina on the inner surface side of a metal material such as aluminum are attached. The cap body 61 is formed with a laterally elongated opening 62 which forms a wafer transfer port, and a square ring-shaped body 63 is attached to the outer surface side so as to surround the peripheral edge of the opening 62. Has been. On the other hand, opening portions 64 communicating with the load lock chambers 4 and 5 are formed on both side walls of the chamber unit housing portion 1 (see FIG. 2), and the opening portions 64 are enclosed inside the both side walls, A metal bellows 65 that expands and contracts toward the processing chamber unit 1 is provided in an airtight manner.

At the tip of the metal bellows 65, there is attached a square ring state 66 which is airtightly fitted onto the ring-shaped body 63 on the side of the cap body 61. By fitting and screwing (not shown), for example, a sealing material called an O-ring (not shown) seals airtightly. Both ring bodies 63 and 66 and the metal bellows 6
In this example, 5 is a transfer port connecting portion for airtightly and detachably connecting the wafer transfer port 62 on the processing chamber unit 1 side and the wafer transfer port 64 on the load lock chambers 3 and 4 side. .

In the reaction container 11, a wafer mounting portion 14 composed of, for example, four rod-shaped projections is provided, and
A process gas supply pipe 15 and an exhaust pipe 16 are connected to the left and right sides respectively (see FIG. 2). The processing gas supply pipe 15 and the exhaust pipe 16 are pulled out to the outside through the cap body 61, and the metal pipe 17 (the metal pipe 17 on the exhaust pipe 16 side is a glass pipe integrated with the reaction vessel 11 as shown in FIG. Hidden and invisible) is composed. These metal tubes 17
The connecting portions 15a and 16a are attached to the tip portions of the respective. On the other hand, from the plate surface 31 between the chamber unit housing portion 2 and the utility system unit housing portion 3, the connecting portion 3 is
Flexible process gas supply pipe 34 having 2, 33,
35 extends, and the connecting portions 32, 33 on the plate surface 31 side
Are the connecting portions 15a on the chamber unit housing 2 side,
16a is configured to be detachably connected.
In this example, these connection parts (32, 15a) and (3
3, 16a) correspond to the gas pipe connection. The processing gas supply pipe 34 and the exhaust pipe 35 are connected to a gas supply control unit and a vacuum pump (not shown) in the power system unit housing 3, respectively.

On the front side (the front side in FIG. 4) of the processing chamber unit 1, a connecting portion 18 of electric wiring for supplying electric power to the heater 13 and a water cooling pipe 12a for flowing cooling water (see FIG. 3) is attached. Then, from the plate surface 31 to the tip of each of the connecting portions 3,
Electrical wiring 38 and flexible water-cooled pipes 39 provided with 6 and 37 extend to connect these connection parts 36 and 37.
Is detachably connected to the connecting portions 18 and 19 on the processing chamber unit 1 side. These connecting portions (18, 38) and (19, 39) correspond to the utility line connecting portions in this example.

On the lower surface of the processing chamber unit 1,
As shown in FIG. 2, a guide mechanism provided along the front and rear, for example, a guide portion 22 guided by a guide rail 21 is attached to the mounting shelf 20, and the guide chamber 21 guides the processing chamber unit 1 to the guide rail 21. A positioning portion formed of, for example, a stopper for positioning when mounted on the mounting shelf 20 along the rail 21 is formed.

Next, the load lock chambers 4 and 5 will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. The load lock chambers 4 and 5 are load lock chambers on the loader side and the unloader side, respectively, and are for shutting off the atmosphere side atmosphere and the atmosphere inside the processing chamber unit 1. The load lock chambers 4 and 5 have the same configuration except that the load lock chamber 5 is provided with a cooling plate 40. The load lock chamber 5 on the unloader side will be described in detail below. Is provided with a transfer robot 7B for transferring a wafer between the load lock chamber 5 and the processing chamber unit 1.

The transfer robot 7B is provided on the column 71 at a height position corresponding to the four stages of wafer transfer ports 64 formed on the plate surface between the transfer unit 7 and the chamber unit housing 2.
It is provided with a stepped arm mechanism 72 and a drive unit 73 for rotating the column 71 around a vertical axis and for moving it up and down. The arm mechanism 72 includes a base 74 and an arm 75 that is movable back and forth.

The arm 75 is provided in the load lock chamber 5.
Cooling plate 76 at a position where wafers and wafers can be delivered.
And the delivery shelf 77B is installed. The cooling plate 76 is placed at a position corresponding to the height position of the arm 75.
It is provided with steps. The front and rear of the delivery shelf 77B are open,
Four steps of grooves are formed on both sides so that four wafers can be stored, and are arranged on the front side in the load lock chamber 5. This delivery shelf 77B is a lift plate 77a.
Mounted on top of the ball screw 7a.
It is configured to be able to move up and down while being guided by the guide rod 77C by the rotation of 7b. The ball screw 77b
Is a fixed plate 77d fixed to the wall of the load lock chamber 5.
And the drive unit 77e.

The load lock chamber 5 is common to the four-stage processing chamber units 1, but an arm mechanism 51 is provided between the load lock chamber 5 and the atmosphere side as shown in FIG. A small load lock chamber 52B provided is airtightly connected via a gate valve G1 (not shown because it is in an open state in FIG. 5), and a gate valve G2 is provided on the atmosphere side of the load lock chamber 52B. ing. The arm mechanism 51 has the same structure as the arm mechanism 72, but is provided with four arms 53, holds four wafers W at a time, and transfers between the transfer shelf 77B and the atmosphere side wafer cassette C. Wafers can be transferred between them. The load lock chamber 5 and 52B
Corresponds to the first load lock chamber and the second load lock chamber on the unloader side in this embodiment.

A gate valve G3 for opening and closing the transfer port 64 is provided between the first load lock chamber 5 and the chamber unit housing 2. Load lock room 5
And 52B are connected to exhaust pipes 54 and 55, and these exhaust pipes 54 and 55 are connected to a vacuum pump (not shown) via valves V1 and V2, respectively.

The load lock chambers 5 and 52 on the unloader side have been described above, but the load lock chamber 4 on the loader side has the same structure except that the cooling plate 76 is not provided. Also, with respect to the main parts relating to the load lock chambers 5 and 52, “B” is added to the end of the code,
In the load lock chamber 4 on the loader side, "A" is added to the end of the reference numerals of the parts corresponding to them.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described. First, the gate valves G1 and G3 are closed, and the first load lock chambers 4 and 5 on the loader side and the unloader side and the reaction container 11 of the processing chamber unit 1 are evacuated to a predetermined vacuum level. Second load lock chamber 52 on the loader side
A is opened to the atmosphere, the four wafers W are collectively received from the atmosphere-side cassette C by the arm 53, and loaded into the second load lock chamber 52A. This delivery can be performed by elevating the stage of the cassette C, for example. Thereafter, after closing the gate valve G2 on the atmosphere side, the load lock chamber 52A is evacuated, the gate valve G1 is opened, and the four wafers W on the arm 53 are moved to the first position.
It is collectively delivered to the delivery shelf 77A in the load lock chamber 4.

Subsequently, the transfer shelf 77A is sequentially raised to a height position corresponding to each arm 75 of the wafer transfer robot 7A, and the wafer on the transfer shelf 77A is moved to each arm 75 by one.
It is delivered one by one. Next, the support column 71 is rotated to a position where the arm 75 and the wafer transfer port 64 face each other, the gate valve G3 is opened, the arm 75 is extended, and the wafer W is transferred through the transfer ports 64 and 62 to the wafer mounting portion in the reaction container 11. Hand over 14. This delivery is performed by vertically moving the column 71.

After the wafer W is loaded into the reaction container 11 in this way, the wafer W is heated to a predetermined temperature by the heater 13 and the film forming gas is supplied from the processing gas supply pipe 15 while the gas is exhausted by the exhaust pipe 16. A CVD process is performed on the surface of the wafer W to form a predetermined thin film. In this way, after the heat treatment, for example, the CVD process is simultaneously performed by the four-stage processing chamber unit 1, the wafer transfer robot 7B in the load lock chamber 5 on the unloader side performs a reverse operation to the above-described loading operation and transfers the cassette C to the atmosphere side. Be shipped. However, the wafer W in the processing chamber unit 1 is once placed on the cooling plate 76, cooled, and then transferred to the delivery shelf 77B.

According to such an embodiment, since the heat treatment is performed one by one by the single wafer processing chamber unit 1, it is possible to perform the heat treatment with high in-plane uniformity, which is an advantage of the single wafer processing apparatus. Together with the processing chamber unit 1
Since, for example, four wafers are processed at the same time by multi-stage processing, high throughput can be obtained and the area occupied by the apparatus can be reduced. Further, since the load lock chambers 4 and 5 are made common to the processing chamber unit 1 at each stage, the exhaust system and the transfer system can be made common, and the device configuration is simplified. In this case, the common load lock chamber (the first load lock chamber 4,
5) and the atmosphere between the second load lock chambers 52A, 52
If B is provided, a large common first load lock chamber 4,
With respect to No. 5, since it is not necessary to open the wafer to the atmosphere at the time of loading and unloading the wafer, there is no fear of a decrease in throughput due to evacuation.

Each processing chamber unit 1 is attachable to and detachable from the mounting shelf 20, and is connected to the wafer transfer port on the load lock chambers 4 and 5 side, the gas pipe and the utility line on the chamber unit housing 2 side. Also can be attached and detached by the respective connecting portions, so that maintenance work of the processing chamber unit 1 is easy to perform, and, for example, when a trouble occurs in one of the four-stage processing chamber units 1, the replacement processing chamber unit 1 By replacing it, it is possible to avoid a decrease in the operating rate of the device. In this case, if the mounting shelf 20 is provided with a guide mechanism such as a guide rail and the processing chamber unit 1 is slid, the processing chamber unit 1 can be easily attached and detached.

In the above, the mounting portion of the processing chamber unit 1 is not limited to the structure that holds the lower surface of the processing chamber unit 1, but may be the structure that holds the side surface of the processing chamber unit 1, for example. In addition, a metal bellows 65 that connects the processing chamber unit 1 and the load lock chambers 4 and 5
The bellows 65 may be expanded and contracted by, for example, duplicating and supplying and extracting gas between them.

Regarding the wafer transfer robots in the load lock chambers 4 and 5 which are further shared, for example, a plurality of movable arms can be provided and the pitch (vertical pitch) within each arm can be changed. It may be configured such that a plurality of wafers in the wafer cassette are simultaneously taken out by the arms and then the pitch between the arms is widened so that the wafers can be loaded into the respective processing chamber units at the same time. Further, the load lock chamber may not be shared by the processing chamber units of each stage, and a load lock chamber may be provided for each processing chamber unit of each stage. In this case, the timing of heat treatment in each processing chamber unit is not always the same. It doesn't have to be. The substrate to be processed is not limited to a wafer and may be a liquid crystal display substrate.

Here, as the processing chamber unit 1,
As shown in FIG. 8, a plurality of reflectors 82, 83, 84 are provided in the space between the heat insulator 81 having the water cooling pipe 80 and the reaction vessel 11 so as to surround the reaction vessel 11 in the upper, lower, front and rear directions. Heaters 1 on the inner reflector 82.
You may use the thing of the structure which provided 3 detachably. Further, the single-wafer processing chamber unit 1 is not limited to processing one wafer, and a two-stage type wafer mounting portion 85 is used as shown in FIG. It may be placed on the placing portion 85 so as to overlap with each other, and the rectifying plate 86 may be provided between the wafers W.

Furthermore, the processing performed in the processing chamber unit 1 is not limited to CVD, and may be other heat treatment such as oxidation processing, or plasma etching performed by cooling the wafer. When the oxidation process is performed at normal pressure, the load lock chamber is also set to a normal pressure atmosphere. In this case, the load lock chamber is set to an inert gas atmosphere, and the atmosphere is mixed into the processing chamber unit 1 or the high temperature wafer surface is exposed. It is desirable to suppress the natural oxide film. As the processing chamber unit 1 for performing plasma etching, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, a vacuum chamber 91 having an exhaust port 90 made of aluminum is provided in a vacuum chamber 91, and a gas supply unit 92 also serving as an upper electrode and a wafer mounting unit also serving as a lower electrode. It is possible to use a device in which the mounting table 93 is disposed so as to face each other, and high-frequency power is applied between the electrodes 92 and 93 from a high-frequency power supply section to generate plasma.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to perform processing with high in-plane uniformity on a substrate to be processed, a high yield can be obtained, and a high throughput can be achieved without requiring a large area. Obtainable.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external appearance of a processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional front view showing a processing chamber unit used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a vertical side view showing a processing chamber unit used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a connection state between a processing chamber unit used in an embodiment of the present invention and a gas pipe or the like on the chamber unit housing section side.

FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view showing the inside of the processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a load lock chamber on the unloader side.

FIG. 7 is a schematic side view showing the inside of the processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a vertical sectional front view showing another example of the processing chamber unit.

FIG. 9 is a vertical sectional front view showing still another example of the processing chamber unit.

FIG. 10 is a vertical sectional front view showing still another example of the processing chamber unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Processing chamber unit 11 Reaction vessel W semiconductor wafer 2 chamber unit storage 20 shelves 3 Power system unit storage 32,15a Gas supply pipe connection 33, 16a Exhaust pipe connection 38, 18 Electrical wiring connection 39, 19 Water cooling pipe connection 4, 5 First load lock chamber 52A, 52B Second load lock chamber 63, 66 Wafer transfer port connection 7A, 7B Wafer transfer robot

Continuation of front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01L 21/205 H01L 21/02 H01L 21/3065 H01L 21/31 H01L 21/68

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A base frame part having a plurality of stages of mounting parts, and one or two substrates to be processed are heat-treated or etched by a processing gas, and are attached to and detached from the mounting parts respectively. A plurality of single-wafer processing chamber units that are freely provided; and a load lock chamber that is provided on the base frame side and is detachably and airtightly connected to the processing chamber unit. Processing equipment. 2. A base frame part having a plurality of stages of mounting parts, and one or two substrates to be processed are heat-treated or etched by a processing gas, and are attached to and detached from the mounting parts respectively. A plurality of single-wafer processing chamber units provided freely, a gas pipe connecting portion for detachably connecting the processing chamber unit and the gas pipe on the base frame side to each other, the processing chamber unit and the base A power line connecting portion for detachably connecting the power lines on the frame portion side to each other; and a load lock chamber provided on the base frame portion side and detachably and airtightly connected to the processing chamber unit. A processing device characterized by being provided. 3. The processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the load lock chamber is common to a plurality of processing chamber units. 4. A base frame part having a plurality of stages of mounting parts, and one or two substrates to be processed are heat-treated or etched by a processing gas, and are attached to and detached from the mounting parts respectively. A plurality of single-wafer processing chamber units provided freely, a gas pipe connecting portion for detachably connecting the processing chamber unit and the gas pipe on the base frame side to each other, the processing chamber unit and the base A power line connecting portion for removably connecting the power lines on the frame portion side to each other, and a power line connection portion provided on the base frame portion side and detachably and airtightly attached to the processing chamber unit, with respect to a plurality of processing chamber units. And a common first load lock chamber, and a second load lock chamber provided between the first load lock chamber and the atmosphere side. 5. A load lock chamber common to a plurality of processing chamber units is provided with a transfer means capable of collectively transferring substrates to be processed with the plurality of processing chamber units. The processing device according to claim 3, wherein the processing device is a device. 6. The processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the mounting portion is provided with a guide mechanism so that the processing chamber unit can slide with respect to the mounting portion. .