CN117448954A - Air inlet device and semiconductor processing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

The application discloses air inlet unit and semiconductor processing equipment, air inlet unit includes: the first gas homogenizing structure and the second gas homogenizing structure are arranged along the first direction and are respectively arranged on two opposite sides of the switching structure; a transmission channel extending along the second direction and used for communicating with the semiconductor processing equipment is arranged in the switching structure; the first air homogenizing structure is provided with a plurality of first air inlets which are arranged along a third direction and communicated with the transmission channel; the first air inlet hole comprises a first air inlet and a first air outlet, and the first air inlet hole is inclined from the first air inlet to the first air outlet towards the direction close to the process chamber; the second air homogenizing structure is provided with a plurality of second air inlets which are arranged along a third direction and communicated with the transmission channel; the second air inlet hole comprises a second air inlet and a second air outlet, and the second air inlet hole is inclined from the second air inlet to the second air outlet towards the direction close to the process chamber. The present application may improve the uniformity of gases entering a process chamber.

Description

Air inlet device and semiconductor processing equipment

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, in particular to an air inlet device and semiconductor processing equipment.

Background

In the silicon epitaxial (epixy) process, a horizontal silicon epitaxial reactor is characterized in that reaction gas (silicon source, hydrogen and the like) is parallel to the surface of a substrate and flows from one side of the substrate to the other side, the speeds and the flow rates of reactants and dopants transported to each part of the substrate in the epitaxial growth process are required to be equal, an airflow field is kept to be uniform and parallel to laminar flow, and any fluctuation, turbulence and convection vortex is avoided, so that the index requirements of thickness, resistivity, doping concentration uniformity and the like of an epitaxial growth film can be met.

Rapid thermal processing (Rapid Thermal Processing, RTP) devices are widely used in the DRAM/3D-NAND/Logic field. The main functions of the device include three types: in-situ oxidation, in-situ oxidation of water vapor, rapid heat treatment and the like. Wherein the principle of in-situ oxidation and water vapor in-situ oxidation is to introduce a process gas (O) ₂ 、H ₂ ) A dense oxide film is formed on the Si-based surface. For larger sized wafers (e.g., 12 inches), the uniformity of the gas flow field over the wafer is highly desirable, and the uniformity of the gas flow field directly affects film formation quality and performance.

An existing gas inlet structure of a process chamber of an RTP apparatus or a silicon epitaxial apparatus is shown in fig. 1, fig. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of fig. 1, and a process gas is introduced from a gas inlet 10a, flows through a gas equalizing hole 20a and is blown directly onto a bevel stopper 30a to bias, and finally enters the interior of the process chamber. In the current design, there is a large difference in the flow rate of the gas directly above the wafer, affecting the final product quality.

Disclosure of Invention

According to the technical problem, the air inlet device and the semiconductor processing equipment can solve the problems that in the prior art, after air enters a process chamber from an air inlet structure, the flow velocity is greatly different from the flow velocity right above a wafer, and the quality of a final product is affected.

To solve the above technical problem, in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an air inlet device for introducing gas into a process chamber of a semiconductor processing apparatus, the air inlet device includes: the device comprises an adapter structure, and a first gas homogenizing structure and a second gas homogenizing structure which are arranged along a first direction and are respectively arranged on two opposite sides of the adapter structure;

a transmission channel extending along a second direction and used for communicating with the semiconductor processing equipment is arranged in the switching structure;

the first air homogenizing structure is provided with a plurality of first air inlets which are arranged along a third direction and communicated with the transmission channel; the first air inlet hole comprises a first air inlet far away from the transmission channel and a first air outlet close to the transmission channel, and the first air inlet hole is inclined from the first air inlet to the first air outlet towards the direction close to the process chamber;

the second air homogenizing structure is provided with a plurality of second air inlet holes which are arranged along the third direction and communicated with the transmission channel; the second air inlet hole comprises a second air inlet far away from the transmission channel and a second air outlet close to the transmission channel, and the second air inlet hole is inclined from the second air inlet to the second air outlet towards the direction close to the process chamber;

the first direction, the second direction and the third direction are perpendicular to each other.

Optionally, the first gas homogenizing structure includes: the first inner cavity is provided with a first uniform flow cavity extending along the third direction, and a first annular cavity extending along the third direction is formed between the first outer cavity and the first inner cavity;

the first inner cavity is provided with a plurality of first air outlet holes which are used for communicating the first uniform flow cavity with the first annular cavity;

at least one first gas transmission hole is formed in the first outer cavity, and the first gas transmission hole penetrates through the first inner cavity at the same time and is used for introducing gas into the first uniform flow cavity;

the first air inlet holes are arranged on the first outer cavity.

Optionally, the first air outlet hole is disposed on a surface of the first inner cavity, which is far away from the first air inlet hole.

Optionally, the first gas delivery hole is located at one end of the first inner cavity, and distances between all adjacent two first gas outlet holes gradually decrease from being close to the first gas delivery hole to being far away from the first gas delivery hole.

Optionally, an included angle between the extending direction of the first air inlet hole and the second direction is 30-60 degrees.

Optionally, the aperture of the first air inlet hole is gradually increased from the first air inlet to the first air outlet.

Optionally, the second gas homogenizing structure includes: the second outer cavity and a second inner cavity arranged in the second outer cavity, wherein the second inner cavity is internally provided with a second uniform flow cavity extending along the third direction, and a second annular cavity extending along the third direction is formed between the second outer cavity and the second inner cavity;

the second inner cavity is provided with a plurality of second air outlet holes which are used for communicating the second uniform flow cavity with the second annular cavity;

at least one second gas transmission hole is formed in the second outer cavity, and the second gas transmission hole penetrates through the second inner cavity at the same time and is used for introducing gas into the second uniform flow cavity;

the plurality of second air inlet holes are arranged on the second outer cavity.

Optionally, all the second air outlet holes are in one-to-one correspondence with all the first air outlet holes, and the corresponding second air outlet holes and the first air outlet holes are in central symmetry, and the symmetry point is the midpoint of the connecting line of any corresponding second air outlet hole and the first air outlet hole.

Optionally, all the second air inlets are in one-to-one correspondence with all the first air inlets, the corresponding second air inlets and the first air inlets are symmetrical to each other, and the symmetry plane is a middle vertical plane of a connecting line of any corresponding second air inlet and the first air inlet.

Optionally, when a first gas transmission hole is formed in the first outer cavity, and the first gas transmission hole is located at one side of the first gas homogenizing structure facing the switching structure, a first through hole is formed in a position, opposite to the first gas transmission hole, of the second outer cavity, and the second gas transmission hole is formed in one end, far away from the first through hole, of the second outer cavity;

the switching structure further comprises a second through hole, and the second through hole is communicated with the first gas transmission hole and the first through hole.

Optionally, the switching structure includes a top plate, a first side plate, a bottom plate and a second side plate, which are sequentially connected end to form the transmission channel, the top plate and the bottom plate are arranged along the first direction, and the first side plate and the second side plate are arranged along the third direction;

the top plate is provided with a first fixing groove communicated with the transmission channel, the bottom surface of the first air homogenizing structure comprises a first protruding structure matched with the first fixing groove, and the first air inlet hole penetrates from the bottom of the first air homogenizing cavity to the bottom of the first protruding structure;

the bottom plate is provided with a second fixed slot communicated with the transmission channel, the bottom surface of the second air homogenizing structure comprises a second protruding structure matched with the second fixed slot, the second air homogenizing structure is connected with the second fixed slot from the lower part, and the second air inlet hole penetrates from the bottom of the second air homogenizing cavity to the bottom of the second protruding structure.

Optionally, the second through hole penetrates through the bottom plate, the first side plate and the top plate; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the second through hole penetrates through the bottom plate, the second side plate and the top plate.

Optionally, the top surface of the bottom plate is parallel to the bottom surface of the first bump structure.

Optionally, the switching structure further includes: a first mounting plate and a second mounting plate sandwiching the top plate, the first side plate, the bottom plate, and the second side plate from both ends of the transmission channel, the transmission channel also penetrating through the first mounting plate and the second mounting plate at the same time;

the first mounting plate is used for being connected with the process chamber, and the second mounting plate is used for being connected with the transmission device.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a semiconductor processing apparatus comprising a process chamber, and an air inlet device as described in the above embodiments coupled to the process chamber.

After entering the first gas homogenizing structure and the second gas homogenizing structure, the gas enters the transmission channel from the first air inlet hole and the second air inlet hole respectively, and then flows into the process chamber. Because the first air inlet hole and the second air inlet hole are inclined towards one side of the process chamber, air is ejected from the first air inlet hole and the second air inlet hole relatively at a certain inclined angle, part of air flows ejected obliquely can be mutually offset, the air flow advancing in refraction is reduced, at least part of air flows advancing along the second direction Y are formed, and therefore vortex generation can be reduced, and uniformity of the air entering the process chamber is improved.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the application and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the application. In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings that are needed in the description of the embodiments will be briefly described below, and it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained from these drawings without inventive effort.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an air intake structure of a prior art process chamber;

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a simulated gas flow inside the process chamber of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the distribution of gas flow velocities inside the process chamber of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of an air inlet device applied in a process chamber according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic top view of the structure of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a schematic side view of the structure of FIG. 5 (the internal structure is in perspective);

FIG. 8 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along line A-A of FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is an enlarged schematic view of portion D of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along line B-B in FIG. 7;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a first gas homogenizing structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 12 is a schematic view of the E-direction structure of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along line F-F in FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a schematic view of airflow direction of a first air homogenizing structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of a first gas homogenizing structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 16 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along line C-C of FIG. 7;

fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of a second gas homogenizing structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 18 is a schematic view of the G-direction structure of FIG. 17;

FIG. 19 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along line H-H of FIG. 18;

fig. 20 is a schematic structural diagram of a switching structure according to an embodiment of the present application.

The implementation, functional features and advantages of the present application will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings in conjunction with the embodiments. Specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in more detail. These drawings and the written description are not intended to limit the scope of the inventive concepts in any way, but to illustrate the concepts of the present application to those skilled in the art by reference to specific embodiments.

Detailed Description

Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the accompanying drawings, the same numbers in different drawings refer to the same or similar elements, unless otherwise indicated. The implementations described in the following exemplary examples are not representative of all implementations consistent with the present application. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatus and methods consistent with some aspects of the present application as detailed in the accompanying claims.

It should be noted that, in this document, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, the element defined by the phrase "comprising one … …" does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element, and furthermore, elements having the same name in different embodiments of the present application may have the same meaning or may have different meanings, a particular meaning of which is to be determined by its interpretation in this particular embodiment or by further combining the context of this particular embodiment.

It will be further understood that the terms "comprises," "comprising," "includes," and/or "including" specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements, components, items, categories, and/or groups, but do not preclude the presence, presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, items, categories, and/or groups. The terms "or," "and/or," "including at least one of," and the like, as used herein, may be construed as inclusive, or meaning any one or any combination. For example, "including at least one of: A. b, C "means" any one of the following: a, A is as follows; b, a step of preparing a composite material; c, performing operation; a and B; a and C; b and C; a and B and C ", again as examples," A, B or C "or" A, B and/or C "means" any of the following: a, A is as follows; b, a step of preparing a composite material; c, performing operation; a and B; a and C; b and C; a and B and C). An exception to this definition will occur only when a combination of elements, functions, steps or operations are in some way inherently mutually exclusive.

It should be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various information, these information should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one type of information from another. For example, first information may also be referred to as second information, and similarly, second information may also be referred to as first information, without departing from the scope herein. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, depending on the context, unless the context indicates otherwise.

It should be appreciated that the terms "top," "bottom," "upper," "lower," "vertical," "horizontal," and the like are used for convenience in describing and simplifying the present application based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, and do not indicate or imply that the apparatus in question must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and therefore should not be construed as limiting the present application.

For convenience of description, in the following embodiments, orthogonal spaces formed in horizontal and vertical directions are taken as examples, and this precondition should not be construed as limiting the present application.

As described above, in the prior art designs, there is a large difference in flow rate directly above the wafer after the gas inlet structure enters the process chamber, affecting the final product quality. The applicant has studied and analyzed that the main reason for the above problems is: (1) The flow velocity of the air outlet of the conventional air inlet structure is large, and the air flow entering the process chamber is easily refracted several times to generate vortex flow to affect the uniformity of the air inlet inside the chamber, refer to fig. 3, and fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of air flow simulation inside the process chamber of fig. 1. The pressure in the process chamber needs to be maintained at the target pressure during the process, so that the air inlet speed cannot be reduced by reducing the air supply pressure; (2) With reference to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of the distribution of the gas flow velocity inside the process chamber of fig. 1. Therefore, the influence of any one of the two factors can be reduced, and the uniformity of the air flow can be improved. Based on this, the present application provides an air intake device and a semiconductor processing apparatus.

Referring to fig. 5-9, 17 and 18, fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of an application of an air intake apparatus in a process chamber according to an embodiment of the present application, fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram in a top view of fig. 5, fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram in a side view of fig. 5 (the internal structure is perspective), fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram in a cross-section along A-A in fig. 6, fig. 9 is an enlarged schematic structural diagram of a portion D in fig. 8, fig. 17 is a schematic structural diagram of a second air homogenizing structure according to an embodiment of the present application, and fig. 18 is a schematic structural diagram in a G direction of fig. 17. The air intake device may include a switching structure 200, a first air homogenizing structure 10 and a second air homogenizing structure 20, where the first air homogenizing structure 10 and the second air homogenizing structure 20 are arranged along a first direction Z and are respectively disposed on two opposite sides of the switching structure 200.

The transfer structure 200 includes a transfer channel 201 in communication with the process chamber 300, the transfer channel 201 extending along the second direction Y.

The first air homogenizing structure 10 is provided with a plurality of first air inlet holes 112 arranged along the third direction X, and the first air inlet holes 112 are communicated with the transmission channel 201; the first air intake holes 112 include a first air intake port 1121 distant from the transfer passage 201, and a first air outlet 1122 close to the transfer passage 201, and the first air intake holes 112 are inclined from the first air intake port 1121 to the first air outlet 1122 toward a direction close to the process chamber 300. The first direction Z, the second direction Y and the third direction X are perpendicular to each other.

The second air-homogenizing structure 20 is provided with a plurality of second air inlet holes 212 arranged along the third direction X, the second air inlet holes 212 are communicated with the transmission channel 201, the second air inlet holes 212 comprise a second air inlet 2121 far away from the transmission channel 201 and a second air outlet 2122 close to the transmission channel 201, and the second air inlet holes 212 are inclined from the second air inlet 2121 to the second air outlet 2122 towards the direction close to the process chamber 300.

It should be noted that, the internal structures of the first gas homogenizing structure 10 and the second gas homogenizing structure 20, and the connection manner with the external gas source may be conventional structures in the art, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited in particular.

The working principle of the air inlet device of the embodiment is as follows: after entering the first gas distribution structure 10 and the second gas distribution structure 20, the gas enters the transfer channel 201 from the first gas inlet 112 and the second gas inlet 212, respectively, and then flows into the process chamber 300. As the first air inlet 112 and the second air inlet 212 are inclined to one side of the process chamber 300, referring to fig. 14, fig. 14 is a schematic view of the air flow direction of the first air homogenizing structure according to the embodiment of the present application, and the air flow direction of the second air homogenizing structure 20 is not repeated. The gas is relatively injected from the first and second gas inlet holes 112 and 212 at a certain inclination angle, so that a part of the gas flows injected obliquely can be offset from each other, the quantity of the gas flow proceeding in refraction is reduced, and at least a part of the gas flow proceeding in the second direction Y (horizontal direction in the drawing) is formed, thereby reducing the occurrence of vortex and improving the uniformity of the gas entering the process chamber 300.

It should be noted that, for convenience of description, the planes defined by the third direction X and the second direction Y that are orthogonal to each other in fig. 5 are all horizontal planes, and the top surface, the bottom surface, and the like of each structure are defined by this plane, and the definition of this orientation does not limit the present application.

In one embodiment, the present application provides an example of the internal structure of the first gas homogenizing structure 10, please refer to fig. 7-13, wherein fig. 10 is a schematic cross-sectional view along line B-B in fig. 7, fig. 11 is a schematic structural view of the first gas homogenizing structure provided in the embodiment of the present application, fig. 12 is a schematic structural view along line E in fig. 11, and fig. 13 is a schematic cross-sectional view along line F-F in fig. 12.

The first gas distribution structure 10 may include: a first outer cavity 11, and a first inner cavity 12 connected to the first outer cavity 11. The first inner cavity 12 has therein a first uniform flow cavity 121 extending in the third direction X, and a first annular cavity 111 extending in the third direction X is formed between the first outer cavity 11 and the first inner cavity 12. The first inner cavity 12 is provided with a plurality of first air outlet holes 122, and the first air outlet holes 122 are used for communicating the first uniform flow cavity 121 with the first annular cavity 111.

The first outer cavity 11 is provided with a plurality of first air inlet holes 112 and at least one first air delivery hole 113, the first air inlet holes 112 are used for communicating the first annular cavity 111 and the transmission channel 201, and the first air delivery holes 113 penetrate through the first inner cavity 12 at the same time and are used for introducing air into the first uniform flow cavity 121. In fig. 6, the first gas delivery hole 113 may be provided on the top surface of the first outer cavity 11, or may be provided on the bottom surface or the side surface of the first outer cavity 11, and may finally be capable of communicating with the first uniform flow chamber 121.

The first gas distribution structure 10 of this embodiment operates according to the following principle: the gas supplied from the external gas source can enter the first uniform flow cavity 121 from the first gas delivery hole 113, flow into the first annular cavity 111 from the first gas outlet hole 122 on the first inner cavity 12 after being homogenized and buffered, and flow into the transmission channel 201 from the first gas inlet hole 112 on the first outer cavity 11 after being homogenized and buffered for the second time, so as to deliver the gas to the process chamber 300. The gas flow rate from the first gas inlet 112 can be greatly reduced and the uniformity of the gas outlet can be improved by the gas flow homogenizing and buffering effects of the first uniform flow cavity 121 and the first annular cavity 111, so that the vortex generated by too high flow rate at the gas outlet of the first gas inlet 112 can be avoided, and the uniformity of the gas entering the process chamber 300 can be improved.

Preferably, the first air outlet 122 is disposed on a surface of the first inner cavity 12 away from the first air inlet 112. The gas uniformity path of the gas in the first annular chamber 111 may be increased to improve gas uniformity.

With respect to the specific structural forms of the first uniform flow chamber 121 and the first annular chamber 111 that realize the first uniform gas structure 10, the embodiments of the present application are not particularly limited. As an example, referring to fig. 15, fig. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of a first gas distribution structure provided in the embodiment of the present application, the external shape of the first outer cavity 11 is not limited, the first outer cavity 11 may include a first portion 101 and a second portion 102 assembled and matched with each other, for example, the two portions may be formed into a whole by welding, and a cavity, such as a cylindrical cavity, may be formed in the first outer cavity 11 after assembly. A pipe, i.e. the first inner cavity 12, is coaxially arranged within the cylindrical cavity, but the first inner cavity 12 may also be other than tubular, such as rectangular, etc. The first uniform flow cavity 121 is formed in the pipeline, the through hole on the pipeline wall forms a first air outlet hole 122, the part of the cylindrical cavity outside the pipeline forms a first annular cavity 111, and the first air outlet hole 122 communicates the first uniform flow cavity 121 with the first annular cavity 111. The first outer cavity 11 is provided with a first air inlet 112, which may be disposed on the bottom surface of the first portion 101 in the state shown in fig. 15 (see fig. 11 at the same time), opposite to the air outlet direction of the first air outlet 122, so as to increase the air homogenizing path, and the first air inlet 112 is used for delivering air to the process chamber 300 through the transmission channel 201. At least one first gas delivery hole 113 (see fig. 11) is formed in the first outer cavity 11, and the first gas delivery hole 113 penetrates through the first inner cavity 12 at the same time, so as to introduce gas into the first uniform flow cavity 121.

With continued reference to fig. 15, in one embodiment, the first gas delivery holes 113 are located at one end of the first inner cavity 12, and the distances between all adjacent two first gas outlet holes 122 gradually decrease from the direction close to the first gas delivery holes 113 to the direction away from the first gas delivery holes 113, that is, all the first gas outlet holes 122 are arranged from dense to sparse along the X direction shown in the figure. The uniformity of the gas entering the first annular cavity 111 can be improved by the arrangement of the first gas outlet holes 122 as the gas flow is relatively larger at the position closer to the first gas delivery hole 113.

In one embodiment, the angle between the extending direction of the first air inlet hole 112 and the sheet conveying direction (second direction Y) of the conveying channel 201 is 30-60 °. For example, the included angle may be 30 °, 45 °, 60 °. Different included angles can be designed according to different cavity structures.

Further, the first air intake holes 112 may be straight holes, i.e., the aperture remains unchanged, as shown in fig. 9. Preferably, the aperture of the first air inlet 112 is gradually increased from the first air inlet 1121 to the first air outlet 1122, and as some examples, the inner wall of the first air inlet 112 may be rounded, for example, the first air inlet 112 may be in a horn shape, and the inner wall of the first air inlet 112 may be gradually opened straight. Factors affecting the gas flow rate include the gas pressure and the cross-sectional area of the first inlet aperture 112. In this embodiment, as the gas flows from the first gas inlet 1121 to the first gas outlet 1122 of the first gas inlet 112, the aperture increases, so that the flow rate may decrease.

In one embodiment, the present application provides an example of the internal structure of the second gas homogenizing structure 20, please refer to fig. 6-8 and fig. 16-19, fig. 16 is a schematic sectional view along line C-C in fig. 7, fig. 17 is a schematic structural view of the second gas homogenizing structure 20 provided in the embodiment of the present application, fig. 18 is a schematic structural view along line G in fig. 17, and fig. 19 is a schematic sectional view along line H-H in fig. 18. The second gas distribution structure 20 includes: the second outer cavity 21 and the second inner cavity 22 connected with the second outer cavity 21, the second inner cavity 22 has a second uniform flow cavity 221 extending along the third direction X therein, and a second annular cavity 211 extending along the third direction X is formed between the second outer cavity 21 and the second inner cavity 22. The second inner cavity 22 is provided with a plurality of second air outlet holes 222, and the second air outlet holes 222 are used for communicating the second uniform flow cavity 221 with the second annular cavity 211.

The second outer cavity 21 is provided with a plurality of second air inlet holes 212 and at least one second air delivery hole 213, the second air inlet holes 212 are used for communicating the second annular cavity 211 with the transmission channel 201, and the second air delivery holes 213 penetrate through the second inner cavity 22 at the same time and are used for introducing air into the second uniform flow cavity 221. In fig. 6 and 18, the second air hole 213 is in a perspective state, please refer to fig. 19. The second gas delivery hole 213 may be provided on the bottom surface or the side surface of the second outer chamber 21, and may be eventually communicated with the second uniform flow chamber 221. The structure of the second intake holes 212 may refer to the arrangement of the first intake holes 112 in fig. 9.

Preferably, referring to fig. 8, 12 and 18, all the second air inlets 212 are in one-to-one correspondence with all the first air inlets 112, and the corresponding second air inlets 212 are symmetrical to the first air inlets 112, and the symmetry plane is a perpendicular plane of a connection line between any corresponding second air inlet 212 and the first air inlet 112. That is, in fig. 8, after the first air homogenizing structure 10 turns 180 ° around the symmetry plane, all the second air inlets 212 are overlapped with all the first air inlets 112 in one-to-one correspondence. In this embodiment, the gas injection directions of the first gas homogenizing structure 10 and the second gas homogenizing structure 20 are all at a certain included angle with the Wafer plane and face the chamber side, and the gas flows are respectively emitted from the first gas homogenizing structure 10 and the second gas homogenizing structure 20, and the laminar flow surface formed after convergence is parallel to the Wafer surface, so that the uniformity of gas speed and distribution can be further enhanced, the consistency of the process result is ensured, and the process result is improved.

As an example, please continue to refer to fig. 8, 12 and 18, all the second air outlet holes 222 are in one-to-one correspondence with all the first air outlet holes 122, and the corresponding second air outlet holes 222 are centrosymmetric with the first air outlet holes 122, and the symmetry point is the midpoint of the connection line between any corresponding second air outlet hole 222 and the first air outlet hole 122. That is, in fig. 8, after the first gas distributing structure 10 rotates 180 ° around the symmetry point, all the second gas outlet holes 222 are overlapped with all the first gas outlet holes 122 in a one-to-one correspondence manner.

As an example of an air supply scheme, referring to fig. 10, 11 and 16-19, when the first air delivery hole 113 is located on a side (i.e. a bottom) of the first air distribution structure 10 facing the adapting structure 200, a first through hole 214 is disposed at a position of the second outer cavity 21 opposite to the first air delivery hole 113, and the second air delivery hole 213 is disposed at an end of the second outer cavity 21 away from the first through hole 214. The adapter structure 200 further includes a second through hole 41, and in fig. 10, the second through hole 41 cannot be completely cut due to the inclined surface of the cut surface for cutting the first air inlet hole 112. The second through hole 41 communicates the first gas delivery hole 113 with the first through hole 214. That is, when supplying gas to the first gas distribution structure 10, the gas may sequentially pass through the first through hole 214 of the second gas distribution structure 20 and the second through hole 41 of the switching structure 200 from below, then enter the first gas transmission hole 113 of the first gas distribution structure 10, and finally enter the first gas distribution structure 10. The air supplied by the second air distribution structure 20 can be directly input through the second air delivery hole 213, see fig. 19.

As an example of a transfer structure, referring to fig. 5 to 9 and 20, the transfer structure 200 may include a top plate 30, a first side plate 40, a bottom plate 50 and a second side plate 60 connected end to enclose a transmission channel 201, the top plate 30 and the bottom plate 50 being aligned along a first direction Z, and the first side plate 40 and the second side plate 60 being aligned along the third direction X. The top plate 30 is provided with a first fixing groove 31 penetrating the transmission channel 201, the bottom surface of the first air homogenizing structure 10 includes a first protruding structure 13 matched with the first fixing groove 31, and the first air inlet 112 of the first air homogenizing structure 10 penetrates from the bottom of the first air homogenizing cavity 121 to the bottom of the first protruding structure 13 (see fig. 11). The bottom plate 50 is provided with a second fixing groove penetrating the transmission channel 201, the bottom surface of the second air homogenizing structure 20 (refer to the definition mode of the top surface/the bottom surface of the first air homogenizing structure 10) comprises a second protruding structure 23 matched with the second fixing groove 51, the second air homogenizing structure 20 is connected with the second fixing groove 51 from the lower part, and the second air inlet hole 212 penetrates from the bottom of the second air homogenizing cavity 221 to the bottom of the second protruding structure 23.

In this embodiment, the second through hole 41 of the foregoing embodiment may sequentially penetrate through the bottom plate 50, the first side plate 40, and the top plate 30 from bottom to top; when the second through hole 41 is provided at the other side, the second through hole 41 may penetrate the bottom plate 50, the second side plate 60, and the top plate 30 in order from bottom to top.

Preferably, the top surface of the bottom plate 50 (i.e., the bottom surface of the transfer channel 201) is parallel to the bottom surface of the raised structure 121. I.e. the surface of the transfer channel 201 opposite the gas distribution plate 10 is planar, the provision of the inclined stopper 30a is omitted compared to the prior art in fig. 1.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 8 and 20, the switching structure 200 may further include: the transfer path 201 also penetrates the first mounting plate 70 and the second mounting plate 80 at the same time, sandwiching the top plate 30, the first side plate 40, the bottom plate 50, and the second side plate 60 from both ends of the transfer path 201. The first mounting plate 70 is used to connect to the process chamber 300 and the second mounting plate 80 is used to connect to a transfer device that can transfer wafers to the process chamber 300 through the transfer channel 201.

It should be noted that, the switching structure 200 of each of the above embodiments may be an integrated structure, or may be assembled by two or more components.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a semiconductor processing apparatus that may include a process chamber 300, and an air inlet device as described in the embodiments above. The external conduit 400 may provide uniform gas to the process chamber 300 through the gas inlet means. The semiconductor processing apparatus may be a single chamber semiconductor processing apparatus such as an RTCVD (rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition) apparatus and a silicon epitaxial (epiaxy) apparatus.

Regarding other working principles and procedures of the semiconductor processing apparatus of this embodiment, reference is made to the description of the air inlet device in the foregoing embodiment of this application, and no further description is given here.

The foregoing has described in detail an air intake apparatus and semiconductor processing equipment provided herein, and specific examples have been presented herein to illustrate the principles and embodiments of the present application. In this application, the descriptions of the embodiments are focused on, and the details or descriptions of one embodiment may be referred to as related descriptions of other embodiments.

The foregoing is only a preferred embodiment of the present application, and therefore, the scope of the patent application is not limited, and all the technical features of the technical solution of the present application may be combined arbitrarily, so that all the possible combinations of the technical features in the foregoing embodiment are not described for brevity, and all the equivalent structures or equivalent process variations using the contents of the specification and the drawings of the present application may be applied directly or indirectly to other related technical fields, so long as the combinations of the technical features are not contradicted, and all the technical features are included in the scope of the patent protection of the present application.

Claims (15)

1. A gas inlet apparatus for introducing a gas into a process chamber of a semiconductor processing tool, the gas inlet apparatus comprising: the device comprises an adapter structure, and a first gas homogenizing structure and a second gas homogenizing structure which are arranged along a first direction and are respectively arranged on two opposite sides of the adapter structure;

a transmission channel extending along a second direction and used for communicating with the semiconductor processing equipment is arranged in the switching structure;

the first air homogenizing structure is provided with a plurality of first air inlets which are arranged along a third direction and communicated with the transmission channel; the first air inlet hole comprises a first air inlet far away from the transmission channel and a first air outlet close to the transmission channel, and the first air inlet hole is inclined from the first air inlet to the first air outlet towards the direction close to the process chamber;

the second air homogenizing structure is provided with a plurality of second air inlet holes which are arranged along the third direction and communicated with the transmission channel; the second air inlet hole comprises a second air inlet far away from the transmission channel and a second air outlet close to the transmission channel, and the second air inlet hole is inclined from the second air inlet to the second air outlet towards the direction close to the process chamber;

the first direction, the second direction and the third direction are perpendicular to each other.

2. The air intake apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first air distribution structure comprises: the first inner cavity is provided with a first uniform flow cavity extending along the third direction, and a first annular cavity extending along the third direction is formed between the first outer cavity and the first inner cavity;

the first inner cavity is provided with a plurality of first air outlet holes which are used for communicating the first uniform flow cavity with the first annular cavity;

at least one first gas transmission hole is formed in the first outer cavity, and the first gas transmission hole penetrates through the first inner cavity at the same time and is used for introducing gas into the first uniform flow cavity;

the first air inlet holes are arranged on the first outer cavity.

3. The air intake device of claim 2, wherein the first air outlet is disposed in a face of the first interior cavity that is remote from the first air inlet.

4. The air inlet device according to claim 2, wherein the first air delivery holes are located at one end of the first inner cavity, and the distance between all adjacent two of the first air outlet holes gradually decreases from being close to the first air delivery holes to being far away from the first air delivery holes.

5. The air intake device of claim 1, wherein the first air intake aperture extends at an angle of 30-60 ° from the second direction.

6. The air intake apparatus of claim 1, wherein the aperture of the first air intake hole gradually increases from the first air intake port to the first air outlet port.

7. The air intake apparatus of any one of claims 1-6, wherein the second air distribution structure comprises: the second outer cavity and a second inner cavity arranged in the second outer cavity, wherein the second inner cavity is internally provided with a second uniform flow cavity extending along the third direction, and a second annular cavity extending along the third direction is formed between the second outer cavity and the second inner cavity;

the second inner cavity is provided with a plurality of second air outlet holes which are used for communicating the second uniform flow cavity with the second annular cavity;

at least one second gas transmission hole is formed in the second outer cavity, and the second gas transmission hole penetrates through the second inner cavity at the same time and is used for introducing gas into the second uniform flow cavity;

the plurality of second air inlet holes are arranged on the second outer cavity.

8. The air inlet device according to claim 7, wherein all the second air outlet holes are in one-to-one correspondence with all the first air outlet holes, and the corresponding second air outlet holes and the first air outlet holes are in central symmetry, and the symmetry point is the midpoint of the connecting line of any corresponding second air outlet hole and the first air outlet hole.

9. The air intake device of claim 7, wherein all the second air intake holes are in one-to-one correspondence with all the first air intake holes, and the corresponding second air intake holes and the first air intake holes are mutually symmetrical, and the symmetry plane is a central vertical plane of a connecting line of any corresponding second air intake hole and the first air intake hole.

10. The air inlet device of claim 7, wherein when a first air delivery hole is formed in the first outer cavity, and the first air delivery hole is located on one side of the first air distribution structure facing the switching structure, a first through hole is formed in a position, facing the first air delivery hole, of the second outer cavity, and the second air delivery hole is formed in one end, away from the first through hole, of the second outer cavity;

the switching structure further comprises a second through hole, and the second through hole is communicated with the first gas transmission hole and the first through hole.

11. The air intake apparatus of claim 10, wherein the adapter structure comprises a top plate, a first side plate, a bottom plate, and a second side plate connected end to end in order to enclose the transmission channel, the top plate and the bottom plate being aligned along the first direction, the first side plate and the second side plate being aligned along the third direction;

the top plate is provided with a first fixing groove communicated with the transmission channel, the bottom surface of the first air homogenizing structure comprises a first protruding structure matched with the first fixing groove, and the first air inlet hole penetrates from the bottom of the first air homogenizing cavity to the bottom of the first protruding structure;

the bottom plate is provided with a second fixed slot communicated with the transmission channel, the bottom surface of the second air homogenizing structure comprises a second protruding structure matched with the second fixed slot, the second air homogenizing structure is connected with the second fixed slot from the lower part, and the second air inlet hole penetrates from the bottom of the second air homogenizing cavity to the bottom of the second protruding structure.

12. The air intake apparatus of claim 11, wherein the second through hole extends through the bottom plate, the first side plate, and the top plate; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the second through hole penetrates through the bottom plate, the second side plate and the top plate.

13. The air intake apparatus of claim 11, wherein the top surface of the base plate is parallel to the bottom surface of the first raised structure.

14. The air intake apparatus of claim 11, wherein the adapter structure further comprises: a first mounting plate and a second mounting plate sandwiching the top plate, the first side plate, the bottom plate, and the second side plate from both ends of the transmission channel, the transmission channel also penetrating through the first mounting plate and the second mounting plate at the same time;

the first mounting plate is used for being connected with the process chamber, and the second mounting plate is used for being connected with the transmission device.

15. A semiconductor processing apparatus comprising a process chamber and an air inlet device according to any one of claims 1-14 connected to the process chamber.