JPH09143691A - Film forming and heat treating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a film forming and heat treatment device constituted to execute a film forming treatment and heat treatment within the same treating vessel. SOLUTION: This film forming and heat treating device has the treating vessel 10 which is constituted to allow evacuation to vacuum, a stage 12 which is disposed in this treating vessel and is used to carry and hold a work W, a treating gas supplying means which supplies treating gases for film formation in the treating vessel and a heating lamp means 28 which heats the work W to a film forming temp., then heats the work W to the heat treating temp. higher than the film forming temp. in order to form a metallic film or a film contg. metal onto the work W. As a result, the film forming treatment and the heat treatment are executed continuously within the same treating vessel by switching the calorific value of the heating lamp means 28.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a film formation / heat treatment apparatus for forming a metal film or a metal-containing film on the surface of a semiconductor wafer and performing heat treatment such as annealing or reflowing on the film.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a semiconductor device manufacturing process, a metal film such as an aluminum film or a tungsten film or a metal film such as tungsten, titanium, or molybdenum is used for various electrodes such as a gate, a source, and a drain, or for wiring of a circuit. And a metal-containing film made of a silicide which is a silicon compound or a nitrogen compound of these metals is formed. In addition, recently, there is a tendency for the circuit configuration to have a multi-layer wiring structure in response to the demand for high density and high integration, and in this case, a contact hole or a via hole which is a connecting portion between a lower layer device and an upper layer aluminum wiring, etc. A metal film or a metal-containing film is also formed at the time of burying. As described above, the formation of the metal film or the metal-containing film is
Generally, sputter operation or CVD operation is carried out. However, since there is a possibility that defects etc. may occur in the film at the time of film formation, annealing may be performed by applying heat after film formation in order to eliminate this. Alternatively, if the surface irregularities of the circuit pattern are directly reflected on the film surface, it may cause the wiring to break or may adversely affect the device etc. to be laminated on the upper layer of this film. A reflow process is performed to cause viscous flow to smooth the film surface.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing this reflow treatment. For example, as shown in FIG. 6A, a film 6 such as a metal film or a metal-containing film is formed on the surface of a lower layer 4 having a recess 2 on its surface by CVD. However, the unevenness of the lower layer 4 is reflected on the surface of this film formation only by applying it by sputtering or sputtering. This phenomenon is more prominent in sputtering film formation with high directionality than in CVD film formation with good step coverage. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6B, in order to eliminate the unevenness, the entire wafer is heated to a temperature as high as the melting temperature of the film formation to form the film 6
A reflow process is performed in which a viscous flow is caused in the concave portion 2 to fill the concave portion 2 and smooth the surface of the film 6.

[0005]

Generally, the process flow as described above is as follows.
A film is formed on a semiconductor wafer by an operation, and the film-formed wafer is taken out of the film forming apparatus and transferred to the next heat treatment apparatus, where the wafer is exposed to a high temperature for annealing or reflowing. I am supposed to do it. However, in this conventional series of flows, since the wafer after film formation is exposed to the atmosphere before being transferred from the film formation apparatus to the heat treatment apparatus, for example, a natural oxide film or particles adhere to the wafer. It is not preferable because there is a risk of Moreover, there is a problem in that a film forming apparatus and a heat treatment apparatus are required respectively, and the equipment cost increases.

Further, the heat treatment such as annealing and reflow is
Since the batch method in which a plurality of wafers are processed at the same time is adopted in consideration of the processing efficiency, it is necessary to manage the time for the wafer from the film formation to the annealing operation, which is a troublesome management. The present invention has been devised in view of the above problems and effectively solving them. A first object of the present invention is to provide a film formation / heat treatment apparatus that performs film formation processing and heat treatment in the same processing container. A second object of the present invention is to provide a film formation / heat treatment apparatus which conveys a film-formed object to a heat treatment furnace without exposing it to the atmosphere.

[0007]

A first aspect of the present invention is directed to a processing container that can be evacuated, a mounting table that is provided in the processing container to hold an object to be processed, and the processing described above. Processing gas supply means for supplying a processing gas for film formation into the container, and the film after heating the object to be processed to a film forming temperature in order to form a metal film or a metal-containing film on the object. In order to perform heat treatment on the above, a heating lamp means for heating the object to be processed to a heat treatment temperature higher than the film forming temperature is provided.

A second aspect of the present invention is a cylindrical processing container which can be evacuated, a mounting table provided in the processing container for mounting and holding an object to be processed, and the mounting table for the processing container. An elevating and lowering mechanism for elevating and lowering along the height direction, a processing gas supply unit for supplying a processing gas for film formation into the processing container, and a metal film or a metal film for heating the object to be processed to a film forming temperature. A first heating unit for forming the metal-containing film, and a member provided at a position distant from the first heating unit, and the object to be processed at a temperature higher than the film formation temperature in order to perform heat treatment on the film. Second heating means for heating to a high heat treatment temperature is provided.

A third aspect of the present invention provides a single-wafer type film forming treatment furnace for forming a metal film or a metal-containing film on an object to be processed, and the object to be processed which has been subjected to film formation in the film forming processing furnace. A common transfer chamber capable of vacuuming, which has a heat treatment furnace for performing heat treatment, and a transfer means for transferring an object to be processed, and is commonly connected to the film formation processing furnace and the heat treatment furnace. And is configured to include.

According to the first aspect of the invention, the object to be processed held on the mounting table in the processing container is maintained at the temperature for the film forming process by the heating lamp means, and in this state, the object to be processed is supplied from the processing gas supply means. A processing gas for film formation is caused to flow, and a metal film or a metal-containing film is formed while maintaining a predetermined process pressure. When the film forming process is completed, the supply of the process gas is stopped, then the output of the heating lamp means is increased to maintain the object to be processed at the heat treatment temperature, and heat treatment such as reflow or annealing is performed. An aluminum film, for example, is formed as the metal film. In this case, the processing gas is liquid D having a high viscosity.
MAH (dimethyl aluminum hydride) vaporized is used. At this time, the film forming temperature is, for example, 16
The temperature is in the range of 0 ° C to 250 ° C, and the heat treatment temperature is higher than the film formation temperature, for example, in the range of 400 ° C to 800 ° C.
This makes it possible to shift from the film forming process to the heat treatment without exposing the object to be processed to the atmosphere. Further, since the temperature is increased by the heating lamp means having a large amount of heat, the temperature can be rapidly raised from the film forming temperature to the heat treatment temperature.

According to the second invention, the object to be processed held on the mounting table in the processing container is moved to the position near the processing gas supply section by moving the mounting table, and in this state, The film is formed by supplying the processing gas from the processing gas supply unit into the container while maintaining the film forming temperature by the heating means. In this case, it goes without saying that the inside of the container is maintained at a predetermined process pressure. When the film forming process is completed, the supply of the process gas is stopped, the mounting table is lowered, and the second process is performed.
It is located where the heating means is provided. The second heating means is previously energized and heated to the heat treatment temperature. Therefore, at the same time when the mounting table is lowered, the object to be film-formed is immediately transferred to the heat treatment operation. There is little loss time. Here, as an example of the film formation, the same aluminum metal film as in the first invention can be cited, and the film formation temperature and the heat treatment temperature are as described above. Also in this case, the film forming process and the heat treatment can be performed in the same chamber, and the object to be processed is not exposed to the air on the way.

According to the third aspect of the invention, first, the object to be processed is exposed to the processing gas while being heated to the film forming temperature in the film forming processing furnace to perform the film forming processing. When the film forming process is completed, the object to be processed is taken out of the film forming process furnace and carried into the heat treatment furnace through the common transfer chamber which is maintained in a vacuum state in advance. The object to be processed carried into the heat treatment furnace is heated here to the heat treatment temperature and subjected to the heat treatment as described above. Also in this case, it is possible to shift from the film forming process to the heat treatment without exposing the object to be processed to the atmosphere.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of a film forming / heat treatment apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG.
FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing a film formation / heat treatment apparatus according to the first invention, and is characterized in that film formation processing and heat treatment can be performed in the same chamber. Here, a case where an aluminum film which is a metal film is formed as a film will be described as an example.

The film formation / heat treatment apparatus 8 has a processing container 10 formed of, for example, aluminum or the like in a cylindrical shape or a box shape, and the surface of the processing container 10 is S.
A first heat insulating member as a cylindrical heat insulating column made of, for example, quartz and having a thickness of several tens of mm, in which a mounting table 12 made of carbon and having a thickness of, for example, several mm, coated with iC is provided upright from the bottom. A peripheral portion is detachably supported on 14 and installed. The semiconductor wafer W as the object to be processed is placed on the convex portion on the upper surface of the mounting table 12. On the outer circumference of the first heat insulating member 14, there is provided a second heat insulating member 16 having a cylindrical shape and made of, for example, quartz and having a thickness of several tens of millimeters with a slight gap in order to ensure the heat retaining property of the mounting table 12. They are arranged concentrically.

A relatively large opening is formed in the thick bottom of the processing container 10, and a transparent window 18 made of, for example, a transparent material convex downward is formed on the outside of this opening. Is airtightly attached. The reason why the transmissive window 18 is formed in a downward convex shape in this manner is to increase the strength by forming an arc-shaped cross section against external pressure applied toward the processing chamber in a vacuum atmosphere. Further, inside the opening, a thin plate-shaped gas straightening plate 22 made of the same transparent material, for example, quartz, having a large number of gas holes 20 is provided.

Further, below the transparent window 18, heating lamp means 28 having a large number of heating lamps 26 arranged on a water-cooled rotary table 24 is installed.
The heat ray from the lamp 26 is transmitted through the transmission window 18 and the gas rectifying plate 22 and heats the mounting table 12 from the back surface, thereby indirectly heating the wafer W. In the illustrated example, five heating lamps 26 are shown, but in practice, depending on the wafer size, for example, in the case of an 8-inch size wafer, one halogen lamp with a capacity of about 650 W is used. About 23 are provided. Each lamp 26
The lead 32 is connected to a lamp power supply 34 whose output power is variable, and supplies different power to the lamp 26 during film formation and during heat treatment such as annealing or reflowing. There is. The entire heating lamp means 28 is covered with a casing 36. Since the inside of the casing 36 becomes high in temperature, for example, cooling air is circulated in the casing for the purpose of cooling.

On the other hand, on the ceiling of the processing container 10, there is provided a shower head portion 38 as a processing gas supply means so as to be opposed to the mounting table 12 in parallel so as to supply processing gas and the like into the processing container. It is provided. The shower head portion 38 is formed of, for example, aluminum into a circular box shape, and the lower surface thereof is the gas injection surface 4
0 is a large number of gas injection holes 42 having a diameter of, for example, several mm.
Is formed, and the processing gas can be injected downward. In the shower head portion 38, one or a plurality of (two in the illustrated example) straightening plates 4 are provided.
4 and 44 are provided, and a large number of diffusion holes 46 are formed in each of the straightening plates 44 and 44. The diffusion holes 46 and the gas injection holes 42 are arranged, for example, in a zigzag pattern in the vertical direction so as not to be arranged in a straight line in the vertical direction, so that the flowing gas can be effectively rectified.

In the shower head portion 44, a raw material liquid for forming a processing gas via a gas supply passage 48, that is, DMAH (dimethyl aluminum hydride).
It is connected to a raw material liquid tank 52 that stores 50, and its tip is immersed in liquid DMAH50. This DMAH50 has a very high viscosity of 8000 cp (centipoise) at room temperature and is difficult to pump.
The whole 2 is housed in an oven 54, for example, 50 ° C.
It is heated to a certain degree to reduce its viscosity to about 2000 cp, making it easy to flow.

An opening / closing valve 56, a liquid mass flow controller 58, and a vaporizer 60 are sequentially provided in the gas supply passage 48 from the upstream side to the downstream side, and the gas is fed under reduced viscosity. Liquid DMAH vaporizer 60
Is vaporized to form a processing gas, which is introduced into the shower head portion 38. The gas supply passage 48 and the mass flow controller 58 and vaporizer 60 provided in the gas supply passage 48 are, for example, a tape heater 62.
The heating temperature is, for example, 50 ° C. and a temperature at which the processing gas does not reliquefy and is not thermally decomposed, for example, 60 ° C. to 80 ° C. The vaporizer 60 is connected via a vaporized gas pipe 64 to an H ₂ gas cylinder 66 that stores, for example, hydrogen gas as vaporized gas, and a mass flow controller 68.
The H ₂ gas whose flow rate is controlled is supplied to the vaporizer 60.

An H ₂ gas cylinder 70 in which, for example, H ₂ gas is stored as an inert gas is connected to the raw material liquid tank 52 via a pressure feed pipe 72 having an opening / closing valve 74. The introduction end is located above the liquid surface of the DMAH 50, and the DMAH 50 is applied at a pressure of 5 kg / cm ² , for example.
Is sent under pressure. The pressure feed pipe 72 is branched in the middle, and the branch pipe 76 is opened and closed in the middle.
And a vaporizer 60 via a mass flow controller 80.
It is connected to the gas supply passage 48 on the upstream side of, and supplies an inert gas to the processing container 10 during the heat treatment. Here, the pressure-feeding gas and the inert gas at the time of heat treatment are supplied from the same cylinder, but they may be supplied from different cylinders, and different kinds of inert gases such as Ar gas and nitrogen gas may be supplied. You may use it.

Returning to the processing container 10, the load lock 8 is provided on the side wall of the processing container 10 when loading and unloading the wafer W.
There is provided a gate valve 84 for opening and closing the space between and, and an exhaust port 86 connected to a vacuum pump (not shown). The exhaust port 86 may be provided at the bottom of the container to evenly exhaust the atmosphere in the processing chamber from the peripheral portion of the mounting table. A cooling jacket (not shown) for cooling the container is provided at the bottom of the container.

Now, in order to carry the wafer W into and out of the processing container 10, the wafer is raised and lowered above the mounting table,
Alternatively, it is necessary to fix the wafer on the mounting table 12. Therefore, the wafer lifter 90 having the wafer lift arm 88 and the wafer pressing arm 9 are provided on the outer peripheral side of the mounting table 12.
A wafer clamp 94 having a number 2 is provided so as to be able to move up and down through the bottom of the container. A bellows 96 is provided at each penetrating portion to allow it to move up and down while maintaining airtightness. In this case, the wafer lifter 90 and the wafer clamp 94 described above are used.
Is relatively vulnerable to heat, the heat insulation is not sufficient only by the first and second heat insulating members 14 and 16 provided around the mounting table 12. Therefore, a ring-shaped protection ring 98 is provided on the outer periphery of the second heat insulating member 16 to surround the mounting table 12 concentrically.

An injection nozzle 100 is provided at the bottom of the container so as to face the inside of the transmission window 18 from this.
The injection nozzle 100 is connected via a pipe 102 to an inert gas source 104 that stores an inert gas such as He. Further, an on-off valve 106 and a mass flow controller 108 for controlling the flow rate are interposed in the middle of the pipe 102, and He on the back side of the mounting table 12 is controlled while controlling the flow rate.
By supplying the gas, a reverse pressure is applied to the gap between the mounting table 12 and the first heat insulating member 14, the process gas is prevented from entering, and a film is formed on the gas rectifying plate 22 and the transmission window 18. It is possible to prevent the adherence of.

Next, the operation of the first invention constructed as above will be described. First, the unprocessed semiconductor wafer W carried from the load lock chamber 82 is carried into the processing container 10 through the opened gate valve 84, and heated in advance to the process temperature or lower by the heating lamp 26. The wafer lifter 90 is moved up and down to a predetermined position on the mounting table 12 and is fixed by the wafer clamp 94.

Next, the inert gas from the inert gas source 104 is supplied from below the mounting table to the space on the back side of the mounting table 12 to evacuate the processing chamber to a predetermined process pressure, for example, about 2 Torr. maintain. At the same time, the output of the heating lamp 26 is increased to raise the temperature of the wafer W to a predetermined process temperature, for example, 200 ° C., to stabilize the wafer W, and then the shower head portion 38 converts it into a processing gas, that is, a carrier gas of H _2. A predetermined amount of the DMAH vaporized gas that has been conveyed is supplied to start the formation of a metal aluminum film. The film forming temperature of the aluminum film is set in the range of 160 ° C. to 250 ° C. to maintain the electrical characteristics of the film, and the process pressure is set in the range of 0.5 Torr to 200 Torr.

When the processing gas is supplied, the oven 54
Therefore, the DMAH 50 in the raw material liquid tank 52 is always about 5
It is heated to 0 ° C. to reduce its viscosity to about 2000 cp to facilitate the flow. In this state, the mass flow controller for fluid 58 controls the flow rate and introduces it into the vaporizer 60, where it is vaporized and becomes a processing gas. As described above, it is supplied from the shower head portion 38 into the processing container 10.
Thus, if the film forming process is performed a film forming process for a predetermined time is completed, stops the supply of the processing gas, H ₂ gas through the branch pipe 76 from the same time H ₂ gas cylinder 70 It is flowed, introduced into the processing container 10, and the residual processing gas of DMAH is vacuumed and purged. Simultaneously with this purging operation, the output power of the lamp power supply unit 34 is increased to increase the power supplied to the heating lamp 26, the temperature of the wafer is raised to the heat treatment temperature, and the heat treatment is performed.

The heat treatment temperature is in the temperature range of 400 to 500 ° C. in the case of the Al film as described above.
When annealing is performed, heating is performed at a temperature close to 400 ° C., and when performing reflow for smoothing the film formation surface, 5 is used.
The Al film is made to have fluidity by heating to a temperature close to 00 ° C. The process pressure at this time may be a normal pressure while supplying an inert gas atmosphere, or may be a vacuum atmosphere of, for example, about 5 Torr, and the process pressure is not limited.

Further, the process temperature must be raised from 200 ° C. to 400 ° C. or 500 ° C. in order to shift from the film forming process to the annealing or reflow heat treatment. Here, the heating lamp means 28 is used as the heating system. Since it is used, the amount of heat supplied can be changed rapidly and significantly. For example, in order to raise the temperature from 200 ° C. to 500 ° C., it takes only about 2 minutes when the wafer size is 8 inches, and the loss of the raising time is very small. Therefore, it is possible to shift from the film forming process to the heat treatment without wasting time for raising the temperature, and the throughput can be maintained high.

When the heat treatment of the wafer is completed in this way, the pressure inside the processing container 10 is adjusted to be substantially the same as the load lock chamber, and the gate valve 84 is opened to remove the processed wafer W. Just take it out. As described above, in the first aspect of the present invention, the heating lamp means, which has a large amount of heat generation and is capable of high-speed heating, is used to form a metal film at a low temperature, and then immediately raises the temperature of the wafer and shifts to heat treatment. By doing so, it is possible to shift from the film forming process to the heat treatment with almost no waste of time, and therefore it is possible to perform the film forming process and the heat treatment in the same chamber without lowering the throughput. Further, since the wafer is not exposed to the atmosphere when the film formation process is changed to the heat treatment, it is possible to prevent the natural oxide film and particles in the atmosphere from adhering to the surface.

In the above embodiment, the case where the aluminum film is formed as the metal film has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the W (tungsten) film and the T film are used as other metal films.
It can be applied to the case of forming an i (titanium) film, and is not limited to a metal film, and can be applied to the case of forming a metal-containing film such as WSix (tungsten silicide) and TiN (inorganic and organic). Of course, you can

The film forming temperature of High Temp (high temperature) WSix is in the range of 400 ° C. to 600 ° C., preferably 5 ° C.
The deposition temperature of Low Temp (low temperature) WSix at 20 ° C. is in the range of 250 ° C. to 400 ° C., preferably 350.
C., and both heat treatment temperatures are in the range of 800.degree. C. to 900.degree. Further, the film formation temperature of inorganic TiN is 450
The film forming temperature of organic TiN is 25 ° C. to 500 ° C.
The temperature is in the range of 0 ° C. to 350 ° C., and the heat treatment temperature is up to about 500 ° C. for capacitors and up to about 700 ° C. for contacts. The same applies to the metal films other than the aluminum film and the metal-containing film in the second and third inventions described later.

Next, the second invention will be described. In the first invention described above, the heat generation amount of one heating source is switched to perform the film forming process and the heat treatment, but in the second invention described below, two heating sources are used. The film treatment and the heat treatment are performed at different places in the same chamber. 2 is an overall configuration diagram showing a film forming / heat treatment apparatus of the second invention, and FIG. 3 is an operation explanatory diagram showing the operation of the shutter plate.

The film formation / heat treatment apparatus 8 is roughly classified into a target object, for example, a film formation processing on a semiconductor wafer W,
A processing unit 110 that performs heat treatment such as annealing and reflow, and a loading / unloading unit 1 located below the processing unit 110 for loading and unloading wafers.
12, the processing unit 110 includes a heat treatment area 1 in which a film formation area 114A for the wafer and a heat treatment for the wafer W are performed.
14B. This apparatus 8 has a cylindrical processing container 116 having a ceiling and having a bottom opening, which is made of, for example, high-purity quartz, and the upper half of the processing container 116 is formed as a film forming area 114A. The side half is formed as a heat treatment area 114B. And this container 1
A mounting table 117 for mounting the wafer W in 16 is provided movably in the vertical direction as described later. A process gas introducing pipe 118 made of, for example, quartz is provided so as to penetrate through the lower end side wall of the film forming area 114A.
Is guided upward along the inner wall of the container and its tip 11
8A constitutes a processing gas supply unit 119 which is opened toward the ceiling in the container.

A gas supply passage 48 is connected to the processing gas introduction pipe 118, and the gas supply passage 4 is connected to the processing gas introduction pipe 118.
8 has a processing gas supply system similar to that shown in FIG. 1, and is capable of supplying, for example, a vaporized gas of DMAH as a processing gas. Further, an exhaust port 120 connected to a vacuum pump (not shown) is provided on the side wall of the container on the side opposite to the pipe introducing portion, so that the inside of the container can be evacuated. A planar heating element 122 is provided above the ceiling of the processing container 16 as a first heating means so as to cover the entire surface of the ceiling.
The wafer W on 17 can be heated to a film forming temperature, for example. The sheet heating element 122 is, for example, a resistance heating element such as molybdenum disilicide (MoSiO ₂ ) or Kanthal (trade name), which is an alloy wire of iron, chromium, and aluminum, wound in a spiral shape in a plane. It is composed of The planar heating element 122 and the film forming area 114A
A heat insulating material 124 made of, for example, alumina ceramic is provided so as to cover the processing container 116, and the inside thereof is kept warm.

A soaking member 126 is provided inside the planar heating element 122 so as to cover the ceiling of the container, so that heat from the planar heating element 122 is uniformly applied to the wafer W. It has become. As the heat equalizing member 126, a material such as silicon carbide (SiC) having a relatively low degree of contamination and good heat resistance is selected. Also, the processing container 1
On the upper surface side of the ceiling part 16 of the wafer W on the mounting table 117,
A plate-shaped heat quantity adjusting heat equalizer 128 is provided so as to be parallel to. This is the same material as the heat equalizing member 126,
It is made of SiC and has substantially the same diameter as that of the wafer W. The radiant heat in the region corresponding to the central part of the object to be processed is temporarily accumulated and secondary radiated, thereby forming a peripheral edge part. In comparison, the temperature in the central portion of the wafer, which tends to increase in temperature, is lowered, and the in-plane temperature of the wafer is made uniform as a whole.

A cylindrical heating element 130 is provided as a second heating means on the side wall of the processing container 116 corresponding to the heat treatment area 114B, and the wafer W located in this area is annealed or reflowed. It can be heated to the heat treatment temperature. This cylindrical heating element 130
For example, it is made of a material similar to that of the planar heating element 122, for example, a resistance heating element such as molybdenum disilicide, and is formed by winding the resistance heating element in a cylindrical shape. The entire outer periphery of the cylindrical heating element 130 is covered with a heat insulating material 132 made of alumina ceramic, for example, to keep the inside warm.

On the other hand, a cylindrical loading / unloading container 134 made of, for example, stainless steel is connected to the lower end of the processing container 116 with a flange 136, and the insides of both containers are in communication with each other. A gate valve 138 that is opened / closed when a wafer is loaded / unloaded is provided on the lower side wall of the loading / unloading container 134 so as to be opened / closed. Place the delivery table 1 in the loading / unloading container 134 in a lowered state.
It is possible to do between 17 and. Further, shutter means 140, 140 for sealing the lower part of the container 134 is provided on the upper side wall of the carry-in / out container 134. Each shutter means 140, 140 is provided on the opposite side to the center of the container, and each shutter means 140
As shown in FIG. 3, a semicircular shutter plate 142 having a semicircular recess 142A at its tip, a shutter rod 144 connected to the shutter plate 142, and a rod made of, for example, an air cylinder that allows the rod 144 to project and retract. The shutter portion 142 is composed of a driving portion 146, and both shutter plates 142 are projected and retracted from the opposite direction to the center of the container so that the shutter plate 142 serves as a boundary.
The interior of the container 4 is divided into upper and lower parts so that the upper radiant heat in the container can be prevented from being transferred downward.

Further, the insertion hole 100 is formed by combining the concave portions 142A at the tips of the two shutter plates 142 (see FIG. 3B), and the support rod 14 of the mounting table 117 is formed.
Up and down movement of 8 is allowed. In addition, each rod drive unit 14
A bellows 152 that allows the rod to project and retract while maintaining the airtightness inside the container 134 is provided on the tip end side of 6. The side wall and the flange portion 136 at the upper end of the carry-in / out container 134 are provided with a water cooling jacket 152 for flowing cooling water for cooling the carry-in / out container 134 to prevent the container from being overheated. There is.

On the other hand, the support rod 148 for holding the mounting table 117 penetrates the bottom portion 134A of the carry-in / out container 134 and is vertically movable while maintaining airtightness. It can move along the gap between the membrane area 114A and the bottom of the loading / unloading container 134. In the rod penetration part of the bottom part 134A of this container,
For example, the seal structure 154 using a magnetic fluid is adopted, and as described above, the rod 148 is allowed to move in the vertical direction while maintaining the airtightness. This support rod 14
The lower part of 8 is held by an elevating arm 156, and this arm 156 is connected by an elevating and moving mechanism 158 that is a combination of, for example, a ball screw and a nut, and moves a rod 148 up and down. Also, this support rod 14
In the lower part of 8, there is provided a pulley 162 around which a belt 160 connected to a drive motor (not shown) is wound.
The mounting table 117 can be rotated at a predetermined rotation speed during processing. It goes without saying that a drive motor (not shown) connected to the belt 160 also moves up and down following the up and down movement of the up-and-down moving mechanism 158.

Next, the operation of the second invention constructed as above will be described. First, the unprocessed semiconductor wafer W carried from the load lock chamber 82 is introduced into the loading / unloading container 134 via the opened gate valve 138, and the mounting table 117 (one point Hand it over and hold it (indicated by the dashed line). The entire inside of the container including the processing container 116 and the loading / unloading container 134 is evacuated in advance, and the first heating means 122 provided above the ceiling of the processing container 116 is energized in advance to form a film formation area. The inside of 114A is heated to a film forming temperature, for example, about 200 ° C. when forming an aluminum film.

The unprocessed wafer W loaded into the loading / unloading container 134 and transferred onto the mounting table 117 is driven by the elevating mechanism 158 to raise the support rod 148, whereby the processing container 116 is moved. Is located in the film forming area 114A which is the upper part of the. Mounting table 117 (shown by a solid line)
While the wafer W is located in the film formation area 114A, the processing pressure of, for example, the process pressure, for example, while maintaining the wafer W at the process temperature and supplying the processing gas including the vaporized gas of DMAH from the processing gas supply unit 119 to the inside of the processing container A film forming process of metallic aluminum is performed while maintaining 2 Torr. The process conditions such as temperature, pressure and processing gas at this time are the same as in the case of the first invention. The radiant heat from the planar heating element 128 uniformly heats the wafer by the action of the uniform heating member 126 and the heating adjustment uniform heating element 128, and this in-plane temperature uniformity can be guaranteed.

During the film formation process, the shutter plate 142 is moved forward by driving the two shutter means 140 provided in the carry-in / carry-out container 134 to divide the container 134 into upper and lower parts. Everywhere, upper processing container 11
The radiant heat on the 6th side is prevented from entering the lower carry-in / out section 112 as much as possible, and the temperature rise of this section is suppressed. In this way, the film forming process is performed for a predetermined time, and when the film forming process is completed, the supply of the process gas is stopped, and at the same time, an inert gas such as He gas is introduced into the process container 116. The remaining processing gas of DMAH is vacuumed and purged. At the same time as this purging operation, or after completion,
The elevating mechanism 158 is driven to move the support rod 148 slightly downward, and the mounting table 117 is moved to the heat treatment area 114B as indicated by the alternate long and short dash line, so that the wafer W is subjected to heat treatment such as annealing or reflow. In this case, the second heating means 130 has a heat treatment temperature in advance, in the case of the present embodiment,
As in the case of the first aspect of the invention, the heating is performed within the range of 400 ° C. to 800 ° C., and therefore the time required for raising the temperature is not required, so that the heat treatment can be performed simultaneously with the movement of the mounting table 117. The heat treatment conditions are the same as in the case of the first invention. Therefore, the heat treatment temperature is about 400 ° C. in the case of annealing the Al film and 5 in the case of the reflow treatment.
It will be around 00 ° C.

When the heat treatment for a predetermined time is completed, the elevating mechanism 158 is driven again with the shutter plate 142 retracted to lower the support rod 148,
The mounting table 117 is located at the lowermost end of the loading / unloading container 134. Then, the gate valve 138 whose pressure is adjusted with respect to the load lock chamber 82 is opened and the processed wafer W may be unloaded. This second invention also exhibits the same effect as the first invention, and after performing the film formation processing in the film formation area 114A, moves the wafer W to the heat treatment area 114B which is previously maintained at the heat treatment temperature. Therefore, the film formation process can be switched to the heat treatment without wasting time in the same chamber, and the throughput can be kept high. Moreover, since the two processes are performed in the same chamber, the wafer W is not exposed to the atmosphere during the transfer, and there is no fear that a natural oxide film or particles will be attached. In the second invention, resistance heating elements are used as the first and second heating means 122 and 130, but instead of this, a heating lamp similar to that of the first invention may be arranged. Good. Further, the present invention can be applied to the case of forming a metal film of Ti, W, or the like or a metal-containing film in addition to the metal film of the Al film, as in the case of the first invention.

Next, the third invention will be described. In the above-mentioned first and second inventions, the apparatus is such that the wafer is not exposed to the atmosphere by continuously performing the film forming process and the heat treatment in the same chamber.
In the invention of (1), a chamber for film formation and a chamber for heat treatment are separately provided, and these are connected by a common transfer chamber maintained in a vacuum state so that the wafer is transferred between the chambers without being exposed to the atmosphere. It is a thing. FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view showing a film forming / heat treatment apparatus of the third invention, and FIG. 5 is an overall configuration diagram showing a heat treatment furnace for performing heat treatment. As shown in the figure, this film formation / heat treatment apparatus 8 includes two film formation processing furnaces
4, 164, one heat treatment furnace 166, and a common transfer chamber 168 commonly connected to the heat treatment furnaces 166 and gate valves G1, G2, and G3, which are separate from them, and are formed into a so-called cluster tool. There is.

The common transfer chamber 168 is connected to a cassette chamber 170 which is in a hermetically sealed state via a gate valve G4, and a cassette 172 for accommodating a plurality of wafers W is placed therein. A cassette table 174 is provided so that it can be raised and lowered. The cassette chamber 170 is provided with a cassette door G5 that can be opened and closed in order to carry in and carry out the cassette 172 with the outside, and the cassette 172 can be taken in and out as needed. Further, to the cassette chamber 170, an N ₂ gas supply system 176 for supplying an inert gas such as N ₂ gas is connected to the chamber, and a vacuum exhaust system 178 having a vacuum pump (not shown) is connected. Although only one cassette chamber 170 is provided in the illustrated example, a cassette chamber for accommodating unprocessed wafers and
Two of the cassette chambers for accommodating processed wafers may be provided independently. In addition, the common transfer chamber 16
8 is provided with a transfer means 180 composed of a multi-joint arm that can be rotated and bent. By rotating and bending the arm 180, wafers in each furnace and between them and a cassette chamber are provided. W can be loaded and unloaded. An N ₂ gas supply system 1 for supplying an inert gas such as N ₂ gas to the common transfer chamber 168 as well.
82 and a vacuum exhaust system 184 having a vacuum pump interposed therebetween.

Each of the film forming treatment furnaces 164 is a device for forming a metal film or a metal-containing film on a wafer, and since it has the same structure as the film forming / heat treatment device shown in FIG. The description is omitted here. As shown in FIG. 5, this heat treatment furnace 166 is a treatment furnace for performing heat treatment such as annealing and reflow. Since this heat treatment furnace is configured substantially the same as the film forming / heat treatment apparatus shown in FIG.
The same parts as those described above are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof is omitted. However, since it is not necessary to flow the processing gas, members related thereto are not provided. That is, since it is not necessary to supply the processing gas, the shower head portion 38 (see FIG. 1) is not provided in the ceiling portion of the processing container 10, and instead, an inert gas such as He gas is used as necessary during the heat treatment.
A gas nozzle 186 for supplying gas into the container 10
This nozzle 186 is connected to an inert gas source 194 for storing He gas, for example, via a gas supply passage 192 having a mass flow controller 188 and an opening / closing valve 190 in the middle thereof. Further, since the processing gas for film formation is not used here, the processing gas invades the back surface side of the mounting table 12 and the back surface of the mounting table 12 or the transmission window 18.
Since there is no possibility that a film that reduces the thermal efficiency will adhere to the inner surface of the table, the injection nozzle 100 that supplies the backside gas to the back surface side of the mounting table 12 and the gas straightening plate 22 (see FIG. 1).
It is not necessary to provide). Also in this heat treatment furnace, the heating lamp means 28 having the heating lamp 26 is adopted in order to enable rapid temperature rise to the process temperature.

Next, the operation of the third invention configured as above will be described. First, the cassette chamber 170 is evacuated to the same pressure as the common transfer chamber 168, and when the pressure becomes the same, the gate valve G4 is opened and the unprocessed wafer W accommodated in the cassette 172 in the cassette chamber 170. Is taken out by the conveying means 180 of the multi-joint arm, and is carried into one of the film formation processing furnaces 164. When the loading of the wafer is completed, the gate valve G1 or G2 provided between the wafer and the common transfer chamber 168 is closed, and the film forming process is started. The film forming process here is performed by exactly the same operation as described in the first invention, and, for example, as a processing gas D
Supplying MAH vaporized gas, process temperature 200 ℃,
A metal aluminum film is formed while maintaining a process pressure of about 2 Torr. When the film forming process in the film forming process furnace is completed, the film-formed wafer W is taken out from the film forming process furnace by using the transfer means 180 in the common transfer chamber 168 which has been evacuated in advance. Heat treatment furnace 16 shown in FIG.
6 and is held on the mounting table 12.

In the heat treatment furnace 166, the processing container 10
The wafer W is lamp-heated by heating the wafer W by driving the heating lamp means 28 and energizing the heating lamp 26 in a state where the inside is maintained in a vacuum or the normal pressure of the inert gas, for example. The loading table may be preheated to the heat treatment temperature before the wafer is loaded. This heat treatment condition is similar to that of the first invention shown in FIG. 1, and the process temperature is, for example, about 400 ° C. in the case of annealing,
In the case of reflow, it is about 500 ° C. When the heat treatment is completed in this way, the processed wafer W may be stored in the cassette chamber 170 via the common transfer chamber 168. When the wafer is loaded into one film forming furnace 164, the wafer is carried into the other film forming furnace 164, and the film forming processes are sequentially performed with a time delay to improve the throughput. Further, the number of each processing furnace is not limited to the above, and may be increased or decreased as appropriate.

As described above, according to the third aspect of the invention, the film forming treatment furnace for performing the film forming process and the heat treatment furnace for performing the heat treatment are connected to each other through the common transfer chamber maintained in a vacuum state, and the common transfer chamber is used for the connection. Since the wafer is transferred from one furnace to the other, the wafer can be transferred without being exposed to the atmosphere, and a natural oxide film or particles can be attached to the wafer as in the first invention. It becomes possible to prevent it. In this embodiment, the single-wafer-type heat treatment furnace by lamp heating is used as the heat treatment furnace 166, but the heat treatment furnace 166 is not limited to lamp heating, and the resistance heating element used in the second invention may be used. Further, not only the single-wafer type but also a so-called batch type heat treatment furnace that simultaneously processes a plurality of wafers may be adopted. Further, as the film forming processing furnace, in addition to the lamp heating film forming processing furnace, a resistance heating type film forming processing furnace,
Needless to say, a film formation processing furnace by plasma CVD may be used. In the above description, the case where a film is formed on a semiconductor wafer as an object to be processed has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it is of course applicable to the case where a film is formed on an LCD substrate or a glass substrate. Is.

[0050]

As described above, according to the film forming / heat treatment apparatus of the present invention, the following excellent operational effects can be exhibited. According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the heat generation amount of the heating lamp means capable of high-speed heating is switched to perform the film forming process and the heat treatment, the film forming process and the heat treatment are performed in the same processing container in a timely manner. It can be performed continuously with almost no loss. Therefore, when transferring from the film forming process to the heat treatment, the object to be processed is not exposed to the atmosphere,
It is possible to prevent the natural oxide film and particles from adhering to this, and further improve the throughput. Further, since two kinds of processing are performed by one processing device, the number of devices can be reduced and the facility cost can be reduced accordingly. According to the second invention, 1
The first heating means and the second heating means are provided in one processing container, the first heating means heats the film to the film forming temperature to perform the film forming processing, and then the second heating means performs the oxidation processing temperature in advance. Since the object to be processed is immediately moved to the heated region, heat treatment is performed in the same processing container as in the first invention with almost no time loss. It can be performed continuously. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the natural oxide film and particles from adhering to the object to be processed without exposing the object to the atmosphere when shifting from the film forming process to the heat treatment, and to improve the throughput. Further, since two kinds of processing are performed by one processing device, the number of devices can be reduced and the facility cost can be reduced accordingly. According to the third invention, the film-forming treatment furnace and the heat-treatment furnace are connected to each other through the common transfer chamber capable of vacuuming. Therefore, like the first invention, when the film-forming treatment is changed to the heat treatment, It is possible to prevent the natural oxide film and particles from adhering to the processed body without exposing the processed body to the atmosphere, and it is also possible to improve the throughput.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing a film forming / heat treatment apparatus according to a first invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram showing a film forming / heat treatment apparatus according to a second invention.

FIG. 3 is an operation explanatory view showing the operation of the shutter plate.

FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view showing a film forming / heat treatment apparatus according to a third invention.

FIG. 5 is an overall configuration diagram showing a heat treatment furnace for performing heat treatment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a reflow process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 8 Film Forming / Heat Treatment Device 10 Processing Container 12 Placement Table 18 Transmission Window 26 Heating Lamp 28 Heating Lamp Means 38 Shower Head Part (Processing Gas Supply Means) 48 Gas Supply Passage 50 DMAH 52 Raw Material Liquid Tank 114A Film Forming Area 114B Heat Treatment Area 117 Mounting table 119 Processing gas supply unit 122 Sheet heating element (first heating means) 130 Cylindrical heating element (second heating means) 148 Support rod 158 Lifting and moving mechanism 164 Film forming furnace 166 Heat treatment furnace 168 Common transfer Chamber 170 cassette chamber 180 transfer means W semiconductor wafer (object to be processed)

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical indication H01L 21/324 H01L 21/26 L

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A processing container that can be evacuated, a mounting table that is provided in the processing container for mounting and holding an object to be processed, and a processing gas for film formation in the processing container. A processing gas supply unit for supplying the processing gas, and the above-described process for performing heat treatment on the film after heating the processing object to a film formation temperature in order to form a metal film or a metal-containing film on the processing object. A film forming / heat treatment apparatus comprising a heating lamp means for heating the object to be treated to a heat treatment temperature higher than the film temperature. 2. The film forming process according to claim 1, wherein the heat treatment includes an annealing treatment or a reflow treatment.
Heat treatment equipment. 3. The film is a metal aluminum film,
The film formation / heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the film formation temperature is in the range of 160 ° C to 250 ° C, and the heat treatment temperature is in the range of 400 ° C to 800 ° C. 4. A cylindrical processing container capable of being evacuated, a mounting table provided in the processing container for mounting and holding an object to be processed, and the mounting table in a height direction of the processing container. An elevating and lowering mechanism for elevating and lowering along with, a processing gas supply unit for supplying a processing gas for film formation into the processing container, and a metal film or a metal-containing film by heating the object to be processed to a film forming temperature. A first heating means for forming and a heat treatment temperature higher than the film forming temperature for subjecting the object to heat treatment to the film, which is provided at a position apart from the first heating means. A film forming / heat treatment apparatus comprising a second heating means for heating. 5. The film forming process according to claim 4, wherein the heat treatment includes an annealing treatment or a reflow treatment.
Heat treatment equipment. 6. The film is a metal aluminum film,
The film formation / heat treatment apparatus according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the film formation temperature is in the range of 160 ° C to 250 ° C, and the heat treatment temperature is in the range of 400 ° C to 800 ° C. 7. A single-wafer type film forming treatment furnace for forming a metal film or a metal-containing film on an object to be processed, and a heat treatment for the object to be film-formed in the film forming processing furnace. A heat treatment furnace for performing the heat treatment; and a common transfer chamber having a transfer means for transferring the object to be processed and commonly connected to the film formation processing furnace and the heat treatment furnace. Film-forming / heat treatment equipment characterized by 8. The film formation / heat treatment apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the film formation processing furnace forms a film of metallic aluminum on the object to be processed. 9. The film forming process according to claim 7, wherein the heat treatment includes an annealing treatment or a reflow treatment.
Heat treatment equipment.