JP3172331B2 - Vacuum 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 vacuum processing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Along with the miniaturization and integration of semiconductor devices, various measures have been taken for semiconductor manufacturing equipment. A multi-chamber system called a cluster tool or the like has been developed so as to shorten the time.

As a vacuum processing apparatus employing such a method, for example, a multi-stage vacuum isolation processing apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 19252/1991 is known. The processing apparatus includes a plurality of vacuum processing chambers for performing processes such as etching and deposition, a transfer robot station for transferring an object to be processed in each of the selected vacuum processing chambers, and a transfer robot station. And a pre-processing and a post-processing for each of the above-described vacuum processes.
And a second intermediate processing chamber, and a buffer robot chamber for transferring an object to be processed between the intermediate processing chamber and the load lock chamber. When processing an object to be processed, as described above, each of the chambers and the robot station is evacuated to each stage, and each process is performed under vacuum.

[0004]

In the above-described apparatus, the first
Since the first and second intermediate processing chambers are dedicated to the pre-processing and the post-processing, respectively, the object before the processing is the first intermediate processing chamber, and the object after the processing is the second intermediate processing chamber. Since the atmospheres of the transfer robot station and the buffer robot chamber are different, the atmosphere is switched in the intermediate processing chamber. For example, when the workpiece to be processed is loaded from the cassette before the processing, the vacuum processing is performed. In unloading the processed object from the chamber, there is a problem in that the standby time of the object is increased, the throughput is reduced, and the purpose of reducing the total processing time of the multi-chamber cannot be sufficiently achieved. .

The present invention has been made under such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to suppress the introduction of impurities into a vacuum processing chamber in a vacuum processing apparatus having a plurality of vacuum processing chambers, and to achieve a high processing efficiency. The goal is to gain throughput.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided the following:
And a plurality of vacuum processing chambers are respectively connected to the common transfer chamber and the first transfer means in the loader chamber. The object to be processed is transferred to the first or second preliminary vacuum chamber, and the vacuum processing chamber is moved by the second transfer means in the transfer chamber.
In a vacuum processing apparatus for transferring an object to be processed between the first and second preliminary vacuum chambers, heating means for heating the object to be processed before processing is provided in both the first and second preliminary vacuum chambers ; place
Cooling means for cooling the processed object,
Of an object to be used exclusively when heating the object
A fixture and dedicated for cooling the object to be processed by the cooling means.
A vacuum processing apparatus , comprising: a mounting member for an object to be processed .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the object to be processed before and after the processing is placed respectively.
The mounting device is provided in two stages .

[0008]

The object to be processed is preheated in a vacuum to remove impurities such as moisture adhering to the surface of the object to be processed, and the object to be processed is vacuum-processed with the surface being cleaned. Also, the wafer can be raised in advance to near the processing temperature,
Since the object to be processed is taken out after being cooled, the chemical reaction of the surface of the object to be processed by the atmosphere can be suppressed. Further, the wafer can be immediately transferred to the resin wafer carrier. Since the first and second preliminary vacuum chambers each have a heating and cooling function, the degree of freedom in combining passage paths of the object in these preliminary vacuum chambers is large. Then, for example, by providing a two-stage mounting device in the preliminary vacuum chamber, the object to be processed held by the first and second transfer means is transferred to one of the mounting devices, and then is transferred to the other mounting device. Since the object to be processed can be received, high throughput can be obtained.

[0009]

1 and 2 are a plan view and a perspective view, respectively, showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a first transfer chamber, and gate valves G1 and G2 are provided on both sides of the transfer chamber 1, respectively.
The first cassette chamber 2A and the second cassette chamber 2B are connected via G2. These cassette chambers 2A, 2B
Corresponds to a carry-in / out port of the vacuum processing apparatus of the present embodiment, and includes a cassette stage 21 which can be moved up and down.

The first transfer chamber 1 and the cassette chamber 2A,
Reference numeral 2B denotes an airtight structure, which constitutes the loader chamber 10. Gate chambers G3, G4 are provided in the cassette chambers 2A, 2B so as to open and close with the outside (atmosphere of the working room).
Are provided, and a carry-in / out robot 23 (see FIG. 2) having a U-shaped holding member is provided. As shown in FIG. 2, the loading / unloading robot 23 is configured to load the cassette 22 set externally forward into the cassette chambers 2A and 2B and set the cassette 22 horizontally. After being carried into the chambers 2A and 2B, it is pushed up by the cassette stage 21 and rises to a predetermined position. As shown in FIG. 2, the first transfer chamber 1 and the cassette chambers 2A and 2B are filled with an inert gas such as N2.
A gas supply pipe 20 for supplying gas is connected to each of the first transfer chamber 1 and the cassette chambers 2A and 2B by an unillustrated pressure regulator. Is done.

In the first transfer chamber 1, a first transfer means 11 comprising, for example, an articulated arm, and a rotary stage 12 for aligning the center of the wafer W and an orientation flat (orientation) are arranged. The rotary stage 12 forms a positioning unit together with a light emitting / receiving unit (not shown). The first transfer means 11 is for transferring a wafer between the cassette 22 in the first and second cassette chambers 2A and 2B, the rotary stage 12, and a preliminary vacuum chamber described later. In addition, suction holes 11a for vacuum-sucking the wafer W are formed on both sides of the tip of the arm which is the wafer holding unit. The suction hole 11a is connected to a vacuum pump (not shown) via a suction path (not shown).

A first auxiliary vacuum chamber 3A and a second auxiliary vacuum chamber 3B are connected to the rear side of the first transfer chamber 1 via gate valves G5 and G6, respectively.
The second preliminary vacuum chambers 3A and 3B have the same structure as shown in FIG. The preliminary vacuum chamber 3A (3B) is a preliminary vacuum chamber main body 32 on which a quartz glass plate 31 is disposed on the upper surface.
A heating means provided on the quartz glass plate 31, for example, the heating device 4, a cooling means provided in the preliminary vacuum chamber main body 32, a cooling stage 33 having a wafer jacket, and a preliminary vacuum chamber main body 32; It has wafer placement devices 51 and 52 which rise and fall inside and are provided in two stages vertically.

The heating device 4 is constructed by mounting, for example, eight heating lamps 42, for example, halogen lamps along a horizontal circumference in a lamp case 41, and providing a mirror 43 so as to surround the lamp group. . As shown in FIG. 4, the wafer mounting members 51 and 52 are arranged in a ring such that three holding claws 54 made of, for example, quartz or ceramic are equally divided in the circumferential direction to hold the peripheral portion of the wafer. The ring 53 is detachably attached to the elevating shaft portion 55.

The elevating shaft 55 is provided with the auxiliary vacuum chamber main body 32.
Is moved up and down by the lifting mechanism 56 below. The ring 53 is formed to be slightly larger than the outer peripheral surface of the cooling stage 33, and the wafer placed on the upper mounting device 51 is heated by the heating lamp 42 at the upper limit position of the mounting device 52. At the same time, the wafer placed on the lower mounting member 52 is transferred to the cooling stage 33 by the ring 53 descending along the outer peripheral surface of the cooling stage 33.

The first and second preliminary vacuum chambers 3A, 3B
In order to make the room a vacuum atmosphere,
A, 34B are connected and these exhaust pipes 34A,
34B is a common vacuum pump 3 via valves V1 and V2.
5 is connected, and the sequence is set such that the one and the second preliminary vacuum chambers 3A and 3B are alternately evacuated by the single vacuum pump 35. In the auxiliary vacuum chambers 3A and (3B), a gas supply pipe 36 for making the chamber an inert gas such as an atmospheric pressure, for example, a nitrogen gas atmosphere.
Is connected.

The first and second preliminary vacuum chambers 3
A second transfer chamber 6 is connected to the rear side of A and 3B via gate valves G7 and G8.

In the second transfer chamber 6, first and second transfer chambers 6 are provided.
Preliminary vacuum chambers 3A and 3B and three vacuum processing chambers 7A to be described later.
A second transfer unit 61 composed of, for example, an articulated robot for transferring the wafer W between the first and the second wafers 7C is disposed.

Three vacuum processing chambers 7A to 7C are connected to the second transfer chamber 6 via gate valves G9 to G11 on the left, right and rear sides, respectively. Vacuum processing chamber 7A
Is, for example, 400 to 400 μm on a wafer on which a fine pattern is formed.
The vacuum processing chamber 7B is for forming a tungsten layer in, for example, a fine pattern by CVD at a temperature of 500 ° C., and the vacuum processing chamber 7C is for forming a tungsten layer by sputtering at a temperature of 500 ° C. It is for etching back the layer. That is, in this example, continuous processing is performed on the wafer W by the vacuum processing chambers 7A to 7C. However, the vacuum processing chambers 7A to 7C may be configured to perform the same processing, for example, CVD.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described. First, the cassette 22 containing, for example, 25 wafers W is loaded into the first cassette chamber 2 by the loading / unloading robot 23 (see FIG. 2).
A is placed on the cassette stage 21 in A with the opening surface facing the first transfer chamber 1 side. Subsequently, the gate door G3 is closed, the inside of the first cassette chamber 2A is set to an inert gas atmosphere of atmospheric pressure, and the cassette 2 is moved by the cassette stage 21.
2 rises to a predetermined position.

Next, the gate valve G1 is opened, and the cassette 2 is opened.
The wafer W in 2 is vacuum-adsorbed to the arm of the first transfer means 41 and is carried by the first transfer means 11 into the first transfer chamber 1 in an inert gas atmosphere in advance. Further, the vacuum suction is released and transferred to the rotating stage 12 which is a part of the positioning means, where orientation flat and center positioning are performed.

Thereafter, the wafer W is carried into the first preliminary vacuum chamber 3A which is previously set in an inert gas atmosphere of atmospheric pressure, and is mounted on the upper mounting member 51, and the gate valve G5 is turned on. Close, for example, 10-3 to 10 in the preliminary vacuum chamber 3A.
-6 Torr and a pressure of, for example, 30-60
Preheat to 500 ° C. in seconds. Another wafer W
Is similarly carried into the second preliminary vacuum chamber 3B and preheated.

After the preliminary heating, the gate valve G7 is opened to allow communication between the second transfer chamber 6, which has been previously reduced to a vacuum of 10 @ -7 to 10 @ -8 Torr, and the preliminary vacuum chamber 3A. the first processed wafer W is the second transfer means 61
After being placed on the lower mounting member 52 of the preliminary vacuum chamber 3A, the pre-heated upper wafer W is taken out of the first preliminary vacuum chamber 3A by the second transfer means 61. Then, it is carried into the first vacuum processing chamber 5A. The second
The transfer of the wafer W between the preliminary vacuum chamber 3B and the second transfer means 61 is performed in the same manner.

Here, the loading and unloading of the wafer W into and out of the preliminary vacuum chambers 3A and 3B, and the movement of the mounting members 51 and 52 will be described with reference to FIG. First, the wafer W before processing
(Shown by a dotted line) as shown in FIG.
1 and then as shown in FIG.
1 rises immediately below the heating device 4 and rises to a position (transfer position) where the wafer on the lower mounting member 52 is transferred by the transfer means 11 or 61. At this time, the cooling stage 33
The processed wafer W cooled in
This wafer W is carried out to the first transfer chamber 1 side by the transfer means 11.

The gate valve G on the first transfer chamber 1 side
After closing (G6), the pre-vacuum chamber 3A (3B) is depressurized to a predetermined degree of vacuum, and the wafer W is pre-heated by the heating lamp 42 (see FIG. 3). Open the gate valve G7 (G8) and, as shown in FIG.
The processed wafer W is placed on the lower mounting member 52 from the transfer chamber 6 side. Next, as shown in (d), the upper mounting device 51 descends to the transfer position and is carried out by the second transfer means 61, and thereafter, as shown in (e), the mounting devices 51 and 52 are lowered. The wafer W on the lower mounting device 52
Is placed on the cooling stage 33. The wafer W is placed on the cooling stage 33, and is placed under an arbitrary pressure, for example, 10
Cooled in Torr for 30 sec.
After the inside of B) is switched to an atmosphere of an inert gas at atmospheric pressure, the mounting devices 51 and 52 are raised to the position shown in FIG.

The pre-heated wafer W is first formed with a titanium film by, for example, sputtering in a vacuum processing chamber 5A, and then is sequentially loaded into the vacuum processing chamber 5B and the vacuum processing 5C, where each wafer is formed by CVD as described above. The tungsten film is formed and etch-back is performed. Thereafter, as described in the description of the loading of the wafer W, the preliminary vacuum chamber 3A is formed.
(Or 3B) is mounted on the lower mounting device and cooled. The cooled wafer W is stored in the cassette 22 in the second cassette chamber 2B by the first transfer means 11, and
Thereafter, the cassette 22 is operated by the operation reverse to the above-described loading operation.
Is carried out by the carry-in / out robot 23.

According to the above-described embodiment, since the wafer W is preheated in a vacuum, impurities such as moisture adhering to the surface of the wafer W can be removed, and the wafer W can be removed in the vacuum processing chamber. The time for raising the temperature can be shortened. Further, since the wafer W is stored in the cassette 22 after being cooled, the chemical reaction of the wafer surface due to the atmosphere can be suppressed after the wafer W is carried out. In addition, since the heating lamp is used, preliminary heating can be performed in a short time, and since the heating lamp can be heated from outside the preliminary vacuum chamber main body 32, the space in the preliminary vacuum chamber main body 32 can be narrowed. And the first and second preliminary vacuum chambers 3A and 3B
And the cooling stage 33, the degree of freedom of the combination of the passage paths of the first and second preliminary vacuum chambers 3A and 3B is large. For example, the wafer W is alternately loaded into the preliminary vacuum chambers 3A and 3B. Or one of the preliminary vacuum chambers 3A (3
B), the other preliminary vacuum chamber 3B (3
For example, the mode can be switched to the mode for passing through A). Therefore, a flexible response can be taken according to the timing of the vacuum processing, and the wafer can be transferred at a high throughput. In addition, since the pre-vacuum chambers 3A and 3B are provided with the two-stage mounting tools 51 and 52, the transfer means 11 (6
After the wafer W before the processing (after the processing) is transferred to one mounting device 51 (52) according to 1), the other mounting device 52 (5) is transferred.
1) The upper wafer W can be received, and thus the throughput is high.

Further, since the mounting members 51 and 52 can be exchanged with respect to the elevating shaft portion 56, it is possible to handle wafers of various sizes, for example, wafers of 3 to 8 inches. Since the common vacuum pump 35 is used for the preliminary vacuum chambers 3A and 3B, the cost is low, and the vacuum exhaust can be performed in a short time by alternately performing the vacuum exhaust. However, in the present invention, the preliminary vacuum chambers 3A and 3B may be evacuated simultaneously.

Further, according to such an embodiment, since the area where the cassette 22 and the first transfer means 41 are placed is partitioned from the outside, a clean atmosphere is provided inside the area so that the vacuum with the incorporation of impurities into the process chamber 7 a to 7 in C can be suppressed as much as possible, by utilizing the vacuum suction can transfer the wafer W since the the atmosphere an inert gas atmosphere at atmospheric pressure, Accordingly, it is possible to prevent the wafer W from being displaced or falling off, and to carry out the transfer reliably. Since the atmosphere is an inert gas atmosphere, the wafer W after the vacuum processing does not need to be immediately brought into contact with the atmosphere, and thus a chemical reaction on the wafer surface can be suppressed.

In the present invention, the first transfer chamber 1 has a first transfer chamber 1.
And the configuration in which the second cassette 22 is disposed and the configuration in which only one preliminary vacuum chamber is provided. The transfer of wafers between the cassette 22, the first transfer chamber 1 and the preliminary vacuum chamber is performed in a vacuum atmosphere. May be performed. However, as an atmospheric gas in the case of performing the above in a gas atmosphere at a pressure higher than the atmospheric pressure, for example, dry air from which moisture is sufficiently removed may be used in addition to the inert gas. When an inert gas is used, an argon gas or a carbon dioxide gas may be used in addition to the nitrogen gas. The number of vacuum processing chambers may be two or four or more, and the object to be processed may be an LCD substrate or the like. Further, examples of the vacuum processing in the vacuum processing chamber include various processing such as sputtering, CVD, etching, ashing, oxidation, and diffusion.

[0030]

According to the present invention, a first preparatory vacuum chamber and a second preparatory vacuum chamber having both heating means and cooling means are provided between a loader chamber and a transfer chamber. Therefore, the object to be processed can be pre-heated in a vacuum, and vacuum treatment can be performed after removing impurities such as moisture adhering to the surface of the object to be processed, and the processed object to be processed can be performed. Is cooled and taken out to the outside, so that a chemical reaction due to the atmosphere on the wafer surface can be suppressed. Further, a first pre-vacuum chamber and a second pre-vacuum chamber are used for an object to be processed and an object to be processed. Can be passed, so that an appropriate transfer mode can be set according to the timing of the vacuum processing and the like, so that the transfer can be performed at a high throughput. Further, the object to be processed is heated in the preliminary vacuum chambers 3A and 3B during heating.
A special mounting device for mounting the object and the object to be processed during cooling
That since the a dedicated placement base, a first transfer means and second transfer means, the held workpiece to one placement base to receive passes to the other of the mounting on置具from Can be loaded and unloaded at a high throughput.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing a main part of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a main part of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a mounting device in a preliminary vacuum chamber according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 1st transfer chamber 10 Loader room 11 1st transfer means 22 Cassette 3A 1st preliminary vacuum chamber 3B 2nd preliminary vacuum chamber 32 Preliminary vacuum chamber main body 33 Cooling stage 42 Heating lamp 51 1st mounting Tool 52 Second mounting tool 6 Second transfer chamber 61 Second transfer means 7A to 7C Vacuum processing chamber

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Masao Kubodera 2381 Kita-Shimojo, Fujii-machi, Nirasaki-shi, Yamanashi Prefecture Inside Tel Varian Co., Ltd. Hei 4-286143 (JP, A) Actually open Hei 4-46539 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01L 21/68 H01J 37/317 H01L 21/265 H01L 21 / 3065

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A first pre-vacuum chamber and a second pre-vacuum chamber are air-tightly connected to a common transfer chamber, and a plurality of vacuum processing chambers are connected to the transfer chamber, respectively. The object to be processed is transferred to the first or second preparatory vacuum chamber by the first transfer means, and the vacuum processing chamber, the first or second preparatory work is transferred by the second transfer means in the transfer chamber. In a vacuum processing apparatus for transferring a target object between vacuum chambers, the target object is added to both the first and second preliminary vacuum chambers.
Heating means for heating and cooling means for cooling the object to be processed;
Used exclusively for heating the object to be processed by the heating means
A mounting member for the object to be processed, and cooling of the object to be processed by the cooling means.
A vacuum processing apparatus , comprising: a mounting member for an object to be processed which is exclusively used at the time of rejection . 2. An object to be processed during heating and an object to be processed during cooling
The vacuum processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the mounting tools for mounting each of them are provided in two stages .