CN111725102A

CN111725102A - Furnace tube in semiconductor process equipment and semiconductor process equipment

Info

Publication number: CN111725102A
Application number: CN202010560988.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 韩子迦; 杨慧萍; 杨帅
Original assignee: Beijing Naura Microelectronics Equipment Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Naura Microelectronics Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-06-18
Filing date: 2020-06-18
Publication date: 2020-09-29
Anticipated expiration: 2040-06-18
Also published as: CN111725102B

Abstract

The application discloses a furnace tube in semiconductor process equipment and the semiconductor process equipment. The furnace tube comprises: the pipe comprises a pipe body, wherein the pipe orifice of the pipe body is arranged at the bottom end of the pipe body, an exhaust port is formed in the upper portion of the pipe body, an air inlet is formed in the lower portion of the pipe body, an air inlet ring is arranged in the pipe cavity of the pipe body and communicated with the air inlet, the air inlet ring is located in the lower portion of the pipe cavity and extends along the circumferential direction of the pipe cavity, and a plurality of air outlets facing the pipe cavity are formed in the air inlet ring. By using the gas inlet ring, uniform process gas atmosphere can be formed in the furnace tube, so that the wafer packaging and repairing yield is improved.

Description

Furnace tube in semiconductor process equipment and semiconductor process equipment

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of semiconductors, in particular to a furnace tube in semiconductor process equipment. The application also relates to semiconductor processing equipment comprising the furnace tube.

Background

The polyamide argon film is used as an insulating material, and is widely applied to packaging of chips or wafers due to high temperature resistance, high dielectric property, radiation resistance and adhesiveness. In the chip or wafer packaging process, after the polyamidoamine liquid is heated and cured in vacuum, a chip or wafer packaging repair device is generally used to repair the damage of the polyamidoamine film and to reinforce the adhesion.

The chip or wafer package repair apparatus is generally a vertical furnace using a furnace tube in which a wafer to be processed is disposed. The chip or wafer package can then be repaired by supplying the furnace with the corresponding process gases (e.g., nitrogen and oxygen) to create the desired atmosphere within the furnace.

In the prior art, the furnace tube is usually configured to intake air from the top and exhaust air from the bottom, which tends to cause uneven distribution of gas in the furnace tube, and thus even poor package repair of chips or wafers.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a furnace tube in semiconductor processing equipment. Semiconductor processing equipment using the furnace tube is also provided.

The furnace tube in the semiconductor processing equipment according to the first aspect of the invention comprises: the pipe comprises a pipe body, wherein the pipe orifice of the pipe body is arranged at the bottom end of the pipe body, an exhaust port is formed in the upper portion of the pipe body, an air inlet is formed in the lower portion of the pipe body, an air inlet ring is arranged in the pipe cavity of the pipe body and communicated with the air inlet, the air inlet ring is located in the lower portion of the pipe cavity and extends along the circumferential direction of the pipe cavity, and a plurality of air outlets facing the pipe cavity are formed in the air inlet ring.

In one embodiment, the plurality of air outlets are circumferentially spaced at the same central angle.

In one embodiment, the air outlet is provided on a top wall of the air inlet ring, and an axis of the air outlet is directed obliquely toward an upper portion of the tube body.

In one embodiment, a cleaning opening is further provided in the bottom wall of the air inlet ring offset from the air outlet.

In one embodiment, the gas inlet ring is disposed against an inner wall of the lumen.

In one embodiment, the cross section of the air inlet ring is polygonal, and the side wall of the air inlet ring, which is attached to the inner wall, is matched with the inner wall.

In one embodiment, the pipe comprises a pipe orifice, and the pipe orifice is provided with a flange structure, and at least part of the inner pipe is fixedly attached to the flange structure.

In one embodiment, the furnace tube further comprises an exhaust channel, the exhaust channel is arranged outside the tube body, an inlet of the exhaust channel is communicated with the air outlet, and an outlet of the exhaust channel is positioned at the lower part of the tube body.

In one embodiment, the outlet of the exhaust channel is at the same height as the inlet.

A semiconductor processing apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention is characterized by comprising: the crystal boat, the heat-preservation barrel and the furnace tube are used for accommodating the crystal boat and the heat-preservation barrel.

In one embodiment, the heat-insulating barrel can rotate relative to the furnace tube and drive the wafer boat to rotate relative to the furnace tube.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following beneficial effects: when the furnace tube is applied to semiconductor processing equipment, process gas enters the tube cavity from the lower part of the furnace tube, and waste gas is discharged from the top of the furnace tube. This facilitates the process gas to completely purge or replace the inside environment of the tube cavity before repair, thereby forming a good process gas atmosphere in the tube cavity, and thus facilitating high-quality repair of the packaging film of the chip or wafer. In addition, a plurality of gas outlets are formed on the gas inlet ring, which facilitates rapid formation and maintenance of a uniform process gas atmosphere within the tube cavity, thereby further facilitating high-quality repair of the packaging film of the chip or wafer.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the application and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the application and together with the description serve to explain the application and not to limit the application. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a furnace tube in a semiconductor processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 schematically shows the structure of the furnace tube in a sectional view.

Fig. 3 schematically shows the structure of the furnace tube in a top view.

Figure 4 schematically shows the structure of the inlet ring.

Fig. 5 schematically shows the positional relationship of the intake ring and the flange.

Figure 6 schematically illustrates semiconductor processing equipment according to one embodiment of the invention.

Figure 7 schematically illustrates gas flow paths within semiconductor processing equipment.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the technical solutions of the present application will be described in detail and completely with reference to the following specific embodiments of the present application and the accompanying drawings. It should be apparent that the described embodiments are only some of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

Fig. 1 schematically illustrates a furnace tube 1 in a semiconductor processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 1, the furnace tube 1 includes a tube body 100, and an air inlet ring 200 installed in a lumen 101 of the tube body 100. The nozzle 110 of the tube body 100 is disposed at the bottom end of the tube body 100. An exhaust port 102 is provided at the upper part of the pipe body 100, an intake port 103 is provided at the lower part of the pipe body 100, and the intake ring 200 communicates with the intake port 103. The air inlet ring 200 is located at a lower portion of the lumen 101 and extends along a circumferential direction of the lumen 101. The air inlet ring 200 is provided with a plurality of air outlets 201 facing the cavity 101.

The tube body 100 is generally cylindrical, and when the furnace tube 1 is used in a semiconductor processing apparatus 2 according to the present invention (as shown in FIG. 6), the furnace tube 1 is installed in an upright manner, i.e., with the upper portion (or exhaust port 102) of the tube body 100 facing upward and the lower portion (or inlet port 103 or nozzle 110) facing downward. Wafers to be processed, etc. are introduced into the interior of the tube body 100 through the nozzle 110. Thus, when the semiconductor processing apparatus 2 is used to perform a repair process (in which the wafer is in the chamber 101 of the furnace 1), a process gas (e.g., nitrogen or oxygen) enters the chamber 101 from the lower portion of the furnace 1 through the gas inlet 103, the gas inlet ring 200, and the gas outlet 201, and an exhaust gas (e.g., a mixed gas including a plurality of organic compounds) is exhausted from the top of the furnace 1 through the gas outlet 102. This helps the process gas to completely purge or replace the environment inside the lumen 101 before the repair is performed, thereby forming a good process gas atmosphere inside the lumen 1, thereby helping to achieve a high quality repair. In addition, a plurality of gas outlets 201 are formed on the gas inlet ring 200, which facilitates rapid formation and maintenance of a uniform process gas atmosphere within the lumen 101, thereby further facilitating an improvement in repair quality.

In one embodiment, an air inlet adapter 120 is also provided at the air inlet 103 to facilitate connection with other equipment.

The tube 100 is preferably made of quartz. Thus, the pipe body 100 has excellent properties such as high temperature resistance, light transmittance, and chemical stability, and is particularly suitable for an environment requiring heating. More preferably, the inlet ring 200 is also of quartz. Thus, the material of the air inlet ring 200 is the same as that of the pipe body 100, so that the air inlet ring 200 is not firmly mounted or damaged due to the difference in thermal expansion coefficient after being mounted in the pipe body 100. In a particular embodiment, the gas inlet ring 200 may be welded to the tubular body 100, such as by welding the gas inlet ring 200 against the inner wall 104 of the lumen 101. Since the material of the gas inlet ring 200 is the same as that of the pipe body 100, the welding is easy, and the gas inlet ring 200 and the pipe body 100 can be firmly connected during the use of the furnace tube 1.

In one embodiment, the plurality of air outlets 201 are circumferentially spaced at the same central angle. As shown in fig. 4, the central angles α between the adjacent air outlets 201 are the same. For example, if the number of the air outlets 201 is four, the central angle α is 90 degrees; if the number of the air outlets 201 is six, the central angle α is 60 degrees, which is not listed here. The inventors have found that such a distribution of the plurality of gas outlets 201 contributes to uniformity of gas flow, and a uniform process gas atmosphere is rapidly formed and maintained in the chamber 101, thereby contributing to improvement of repair yield.

The number of outlet openings 201 may be determined as practical, for example, for an inlet ring 200 having a diameter of 345mm, the outlet openings 201 may have a diameter of 9mm to 10mm and a number of 4. Considering the total amount of inlet air, the size of the aperture of the outlet 210, the diameter of the inlet ring 200, and other factors, the number of the outlets 201 may be further increased or decreased, and will not be described herein.

Preferably, as shown in fig. 4, the air outlet 201 is on the top wall of the air inlet ring 200 and the axis of the air outlet 201 is obliquely directed toward the upper portion of the tube body 100. The inventors have found that when the process gas is substantially ejected from the plurality of gas outlets 201, the process gas moves in a spiral direction within the chamber 101 toward the gas outlet 102. This prolongs the stroke of the process gas in the chamber 101, so that the process gas is more fully contacted with the chip or the wafer, and the process gas can also participate in the reaction more effectively, thereby further improving the repair yield. In addition, the helical motion of the process gas also helps to create a more uniform atmosphere within the lumen 101, which also helps to improve repair yield.

As also shown in fig. 4, a cleaning port 202 is further provided on the bottom wall of the air inlet ring 200 offset from the air outlet 201, the axis of the cleaning port 202 being directed toward the lower portion of the tubular body 100. The inventors have found that the exhaust gas generated during the remediation process contains a variety of organic matter. These organics are gaseous at high temperature and partially turn into an oil at room temperature. Therefore, after the furnace tube 1 is used for a certain period of time, it is necessary to clean it with the chemical solution. After the cleaning process is finished, the cleaning opening 202 can rapidly discharge the liquid medicine entering the air inlet ring 200. In addition, the inventors have unexpectedly found that, due to the provision of the cleaning port 202 with the downward outlet, during the process, the process gas may generate a vertically downward gas flow through the cleaning port 202, so that the density of the process gas at the bottom of the cavity 101 is higher than that at the top of the cavity 101, which is equivalent to forming a process gas isolation layer at the bottom of the cavity 101, thereby helping to maintain the atmosphere in the cavity 101, and further helping to improve the repair yield.

Preferably, the aperture of cleaning port 202 is smaller than the aperture of gas outlet 201 to avoid adversely affecting the amount of gas output from gas outlet 201 and thus adversely affecting the atmosphere of lumen 101. The number of the cleaning ports 202 can be multiple, which can be determined according to the actual situation and is not described in detail herein.

As shown in fig. 2 and 3, the gas inlet ring 200 is disposed against the inner wall 104 of the lumen 101, e.g., the gas inlet ring 200 is welded to the inner wall 104 of the lumen 101. It should be understood that the air inlet ring 200 may also be secured within the lumen 101 in other ways, such as riveting, bolting, etc., and will not be described in detail herein. To achieve that the air inlet ring 200 conforms to the inner wall 104 of the lumen 101, the cross-section of the air inlet ring 200 is configured to be polygonal (e.g., may be rectangular, square, triangular, etc.), and the mounting surface of the air inlet ring 200 (i.e., the surface that contacts the inner wall 104) is adapted to the inner wall 104 of the lumen 101, or is conformably varied. For example, the mounting surface of the inlet ring 200 and the inner wall 104 have the same curvature to ensure intimate contact therebetween. Thus, the contact surface of the air inlet ring 200 with the inner wall 104 of the lumen 101 is large, which contributes to stable mounting of the air inlet ring 200. Taking the cross-sectional configuration of the air inlet ring 200 as a rectangle as an example, the size of the air inlet ring 200 may be 15 × 50mm, and the size of the air inlet ring 200 may be flexibly adjusted according to different application requirements.

As also shown in fig. 2 and 5, the pipe body 1 further includes a flange structure 300 provided at the nozzle 110, and at least a portion of the air inlet ring 200 is fixedly attached to the flange structure 300. Specifically, as shown in fig. 5, an inner surface 301 of the flange structure 300 forms a portion of the inner wall 104 of the lumen 101 such that at least a portion of the intake ring 200 can be fixedly attached to the flange structure 300. In the case of welding the gas inlet ring 200 to the pipe body 100, it is more advantageous to provide the flange structure 300 because the thickness of the flange structure 300 is greater than the thickness of the pipe wall of the pipe body 100, thereby ensuring the welding quality and making the installation of the gas inlet ring 200 on the pipe body 100 more secure.

Returning to FIG. 1, furnace tube 1 also includes a vent passage 400. The exhaust passage 400 is provided on the outer side (e.g., outer surface) of the tube body 100, and an inlet of the exhaust passage 400 communicates with the exhaust port 102 and an outlet of the exhaust passage 400 is at the lower portion of the tube body 100. Thus, even if the organic matter in the exhaust gas condenses into oil due to the temperature decrease, it flows to the outlet of the exhaust passage 400 by gravity and is then discharged. Thus, the oily substances can be effectively prevented from blocking the pipeline. In a preferred embodiment, the vent passage 400 may communicate with the vent 102 through an adapter cap 420, the adapter cap 420 being disposed on the top surface of the tube 100 and covering the vent 102. The inlet of the exhaust passage 400 may be provided on the sidewall of the adaptor cap 420, thereby achieving communication between the inlet of the exhaust passage 400 and the exhaust port 102. Specifically, the adapter cap 420 is installed in a cylinder, the axial section of the adapter cap is rectangular, the specific size of the adapter cap can be 60 × 42mm, and similarly, the size of the adapter cap can be flexibly adjusted according to different application requirements. In a preferred embodiment, the outlet of the exhaust channel 400 (or the nipple 410 connected to the outlet) is at the same height as the inlet 103 of the inlet ring 200 (or the inlet nipple 120). In this way, when the furnace tube 1 is assembled into the semiconductor process equipment 2, it is only necessary to collectively construct a plurality of interfaces corresponding to the furnace tube 1 at a certain height position of the semiconductor process equipment 2, which makes the structure of the semiconductor process equipment 2 more compact and makes the assembly easier.

Fig. 6 schematically illustrates a semiconductor processing apparatus 2 that may be used for wafer package repair, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 6, the semiconductor processing equipment 2 includes the furnace tube 1 as described above, and further includes a thermal insulation barrel 500 and a wafer boat 600 disposed on the thermal insulation barrel 500, both of which are disposed in the furnace tube 1, wherein the wafer boat 600 is above the gas inlet ring 200. The wafer boat 600 may be made of quartz. The wafer boat 600 is used for bearing wafers (not shown) to be packaged and repaired, the heat preservation barrel 500 not only can keep the temperature in the wafer boat, but also can be used for separating the wafer boat 600 from the gas inlet ring 200 for a certain distance, so that the problem that the repair is poor due to the fact that process gas is directly blown to the wafers can be avoided, and the wafers are in a more uniform process gas atmosphere, so that the repair yield is further improved.

Preferably, the thermal insulation barrel 500 can rotate relative to the furnace tube 1, and drives the boat 600 to rotate relative to the furnace tube 1. In one specific embodiment, the semiconductor processing equipment 2 comprises a motor 501, and the motor 501 is arranged below the furnace tube 1 and is connected with the heat-preserving container 500. Thus, the thermal insulation barrel 500 and the boat 600 will find rotation under the driving of the motor 501. Along with the rotation of the heat-preserving container 500 and the wafer boat 600, the wafers or chips are heated more uniformly, thereby being beneficial to improving the wafer packaging and repairing yield. In addition, the rotation of the thermal bucket 500 and the boat 600 also rotates the process gas in the chamber 101, so that the process gas rises from the lower portion to the upper portion of the chamber 101 in a spiral manner (as indicated by spiral arrow 700 in fig. 7). This allows the process gas to flow longer through the lumen 101, and to contact the wafer or chip more sufficiently, so that the process gas can also participate in the reaction more effectively, thereby further improving the yield of the repaired wafer package. In addition, the spiral motion of the process gas also helps to create a more uniform atmosphere within the chamber 101, which also helps to improve the yield of repairing wafer packages. It should be noted that, in this case, the rotation directions of the thermal bucket 500 and the boat 600 should coincide with the orientations of the air outlets 201 so that the rotation actions of the two with respect to the air flow are mutually promoted. It should also be understood that the process gas may be spirally rotated only by the rotation of the thermal insulating bucket 500 and the boat 600.

The above description is only an example of the present application and is not intended to limit the present application. Various modifications and changes may occur to those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present application should be included in the scope of the claims of the present application.

Claims

1. A furnace tube in semiconductor processing equipment is characterized by comprising:

a pipe orifice of the pipe body is arranged at the bottom end of the pipe body, an exhaust port is arranged at the upper part of the pipe body, an air inlet is arranged at the lower part of the pipe body, an air inlet ring is arranged in a pipe cavity of the pipe body and is communicated with the air inlet,

the air inlet ring is arranged at the lower part of the tube cavity and extends along the circumferential direction of the tube cavity, and a plurality of air outlets facing the tube cavity are arranged on the air inlet ring.

2. The furnace tube of claim 1, wherein the plurality of gas outlets are circumferentially spaced at the same central angle.

3. The furnace tube of claim 2, wherein the gas outlet is disposed on a top wall of the gas inlet ring, and an axis of the gas outlet is obliquely directed toward an upper portion of the tube body.

4. The furnace tube of any of claims 1-3, wherein a cleaning opening is further provided in the bottom wall of the gas inlet ring offset from the gas outlet.

5. The furnace tube of any of claims 1-3, wherein the gas inlet ring is disposed against an inner wall of the lumen.

6. The furnace tube of claim 5, wherein the cross section of the gas inlet ring is polygonal, and the side wall of the gas inlet ring attached to the inner wall is matched with the inner wall.

7. The furnace tube of any of claims 1-3, further comprising a flange structure disposed at the tube orifice, at least a portion of the gas inlet ring being fixedly attached to the flange structure.

8. The furnace tube of any of claims 1-3, further comprising a vent channel disposed outside the tube body, wherein an inlet of the vent channel is in communication with the gas outlet, and wherein an outlet of the vent channel is in a lower portion of the tube body.

9. The furnace tube of claim 8, wherein the outlet of the vent channel is at the same elevation as the gas inlet.

10. A semiconductor processing apparatus, comprising: a wafer boat, a thermal insulating bucket, the furnace tube of any of claims 1-9 for housing the wafer boat and the thermal insulating bucket.