JPS63213925A - Boat loader system for semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable easily correcting the gap between the center of a quartz boat and the quartz tube in a heat treatment furnace by driving a supporter which supports a quartz rod which pushes the quartz boat in the direction of inserting the quartz boat and in a perpendicular direction. CONSTITUTION:If a gap exceeding a tolerance occurs when a quartz boat 3 is inserted in a quartz tube 6, the gap is detected by screening the transmitted light of transmission type sensors 2a-2h by a semiconductor wafer 8. When the gap is detected, a quartz rod supporter 5 is moved in the direction in which the gap is made, the tip of the quartz boat 8 is moved to the opposite direction of the quartz rod supporter 5 and the gap is corrected. When the gap is corrected and the light of projectors 2a-2h arrives at the light receivers 2a'-2h' of the transmission type sensors, a correction operation is finished and the quartz rod supporter 5 is moved to the middle point between an original position and a corrected position by a quartz rod supporter drive unit 1. During the correction operation, the insertion of the quartz boat 3 is continued, but if the gap of the quartz boat 3 is not corrected and the other transmission type sensors detect the gap, the quartz boat 3 is drawn out after stop.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a boat loader system for inserting and pulling out a boat loaded with semiconductor wafers into a semiconductor wafer/heat treatment furnace.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in this boat loader system for a semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace, when inserting a semiconductor wafer into a heat treatment furnace, the semiconductor wafer is loaded onto a quartz hoard, and one end of the boat is pushed using a boat loader. A semiconductor wafer was inserted into a heat treatment position.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the conventional boat loader system for semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnaces described above, due to thermal deformation of the quartz rods and the quartz boat, distortion of the drive shaft of the boat loader, and inadequate adjustment, the quartz boat loaded with semiconductor wafers and the inside of the furnace were damaged. Because the centers of the quartz tubes do not match, the quartz boat may be inserted at an angle within the quartz tube. If the quartz boat's angle exceeds the full angle, the quartz boat may fall and crack the wafer. It causes. ]llu of the boat loader system is
The quartz bowl 1-' is inserted into the heat treatment furnace, and the quartz boat is adjusted to its position in order to minimize the inclination and center deviation within the quartz tube.The drawback is that this adjustment takes a lot of time. be.

In addition, quartz jigs such as quartz boats, quartz tubes, and quartz rods used in heat treatment furnaces need to be cleaned regularly, so the above-mentioned position adjustment needs to be done every time they are cleaned.
As a result, there is a drawback that the downtime for adjustment in the semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace becomes long.

The purpose of the invention is to prevent a total of 16 deviations between the center of the quartz boat and the quartz tube inside the heat treatment furnace when the boat loaded with semiconductor wafers is inserted into and pulled out of the semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace.
An object of the present invention is to provide a boat loader system for a semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace that can stably insert and pull out a quartz boat loaded with semiconductor wafers.

[Means for solving problems]

The boat loader system for a semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace of the present invention not only drives a quartz boat loaded with semiconductor wafers in the insertion direction, but also drives the entire supporting portion of the quartz rod that pushes the quartz boat in a direction perpendicular to the insertion direction of the quartz boat. It has a mechanism. Note that the above-mentioned deviation can be minimized by adding a mechanism for detecting the deviation between the center of the quartz boat and the center of the quartz tube in the heat treatment furnace.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to all the drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a front view of FIG. 1. In FIGS. 1 and 2, the original 2 transmission sensors 2a to 2h are located between the quartz plate 9 and the quartz tube 60 at an equal distance from the central line of the quartz tube 6, so that 9 is transmitted vertically. They are arranged with the casting and party parts in a square shape, and multiple pieces of these are installed at intervals. The mounting distance is set to 1 straight, which is the radius of the semiconductor wafer 8 and the permissible 1 straight as a range in which the quartz boat does not fall.

When the quartz boat 3 is inserted into the quartz tube 6, if a deviation exceeding the measurement range occurs, the deviation is detected by blocking the transmission source of the transmission type sensors 2a to 2h with the semiconductor wafer 8. When a misalignment is detected, the quartz rod support 5 is moved in the same direction as the misalignment, causing the tip of the quartz boat 8 loaded with semiconductor wafers to move in the opposite direction to the quartz bar support 5, thereby detecting the misalignment. Correct. When the misalignment of the quartz boat 3 is corrected and the sources of the light projecting parts 2a to 2h reach the transmission type sensor receiving parts 2a/ to 2h', the correction movement fil:'e is completed and the quartz rod support part 5 is The drive unit 1 moves it to an intermediate point between the original position and the corrected position. During the correction operation, the quartz boat 3 is inserted idM, but if the displacement of the quartz boat 3 is not corrected by one bit and another transmission type sensor detects the displacement, the quartz boat 3 is stopped and then pulled out.

Through these series of operations, the center of the quartz boat 3 and the quartz "
The quartz boat can be inserted into the quartz tube 6 in the heat treatment furnace while keeping the center shift of #6 to a minimum.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of another embodiment of the invention.

When a quartz boat 3 loaded with semiconductor wafers is inserted into a quartz tube 6 in a heat treatment furnace, the displacement of the quartz boat 3 with respect to the quartz tube 6 is detected as a pressure difference between pressure sensors 1o attached to both left and right sides of a quartz rod 4. , the quartz rod support part 5 is driven and controlled so that the pressure difference is suppressed to a certain value or less. In this embodiment, since the entire force applied to the quartz rod support portion 5 is detected, there is an advantage that displacement of the quartz boat can be quickly detected and corrected.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention is capable of loading all semiconductor wafers into a boat loader system for a semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace, and then driving the quartz rod support in the insertion direction of the quartz boat and at right angles to the insertion direction. Any misalignment of the quartz tube in the furnace can be easily corrected, allowing stable insertion.

By adding the entire quartz boat and the quartz tube and driving the quartz boat while monitoring the quartz tube, we can correct the misalignment between the center of the quartz boat and the center of the quartz tube in the heat treatment furnace, and remove all the semiconductor wafers in the boat loader system. More stable insertion of loaded quartz boats can be achieved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an embodiment of a boat loader system for a semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a plan view of a conventional boat loader system for a semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace. ]...Quartz rod support part drive part, 2...Optical transmission type sensor, 2a to 2h...Transmission type sensor throwing part, 2a
'~2h/... Transmissive sensor receiver 9 part, 3... Quartz boat, 4... Quartz rod, 5... Quartz rod support part, 6...
...Quartz tube, 7...Boat station, 8...Semiconductor wafer, 9...Boat loader pivoting part, 10...
・Pressure sensor, 11...transmission '7t, Motomachi.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a boat loader system that inserts and pulls out semiconductor wafers into a semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace,
A boat loader system for a semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace, characterized in that when a boat loaded with semiconductor wafers is inserted, a quartz rod support part can be driven not only in the boat insertion direction but also in a direction perpendicular to the boat insertion direction. (2) The boat loader system for a semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace according to claim (1), further comprising a displacement detection mechanism for detecting a displacement between the centers of the quartz boat and the quartz tube.