CN215216822U - Process chamber and wafer cooling equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model provides a process chamber, including being used for receiving the biography piece mouth of wafer by the process chamber outside, be provided with first cooling module in the process chamber, the height that highly is less than biography piece mouth of wafer loading end of first cooling module still is provided with second cooling module in the process chamber, and second cooling module includes the second cooling plate, and second cooling module can drive the second cooling plate and rise to being higher than the height that passes the piece mouth or descend to being less than the height that passes the piece mouth. The utility model discloses well process cavity includes two cooling module that are used for cooling off the wafer, and is located the second cooling pan of the second cooling module of top and can pass piece mouth up-and-down motion to can receive respectively and deposit two wafers through two cooling module, with two wafers of cooling off simultaneously in same round wafer cooling process, practiced thrift the required time of every wafer of average cooling in a large number, improved wafer cooling efficiency. The utility model also provides a wafer cooling arrangement.

Description

Process chamber and wafer cooling equipment

Technical Field

The utility model relates to a semiconductor process equipment field specifically, relates to a process cavity and a wafer cooling arrangement.

Background

During wafer processing, it is often necessary to heat and cool the wafer according to the process requirements, wherein the cooling process generally requires placing the wafer on a water-cooled susceptor, venting the wafer into a cooling chamber to a pressure (typically, Torr level), allowing the wafer and the water-cooled susceptor to exchange heat at the pressure, and maintaining the pressure for a period of time (typically, ten seconds) to complete the cooling process.

Before the cooling process, the interior of the cooling chamber is in a vacuum state, the cooling chamber needs to be inflated during the cooling process, and after the cooling process is finished, the cooling chamber needs to be pumped into the vacuum state or inflated to the atmospheric pressure according to the direction of a wafer. When the wafer enters the vacuum chamber again, the cooling chamber needs to be pumped to a vacuum state, and the wafer is taken out by a mechanical arm at a vacuum end; the wafer needs to enter the atmosphere end, the cooling chamber is inflated to the atmosphere state, and the wafer is taken out by a mechanical arm at the atmosphere end.

For a cooling chamber, one pump down and one pump up are performed for each wafer in and out, with the pump up and pump down times being longer than the process time. For a cooling chamber communicating vacuum and atmosphere, it takes longer and the cooling efficiency is lower.

Therefore, how to provide a wafer cooling apparatus with higher efficiency is a technical problem to be solved in the art.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

The utility model aims at providing a process chamber and wafer cooling arrangement, this process chamber's wafer cooling efficiency is higher.

In order to achieve the above object, as an aspect of the present invention, a process chamber is provided, which includes a wafer transferring port for receiving a wafer outside the process chamber, a first cooling assembly is disposed in the process chamber, a height of a wafer carrying surface of the first cooling assembly is lower than a height of the wafer transferring port, and the wafer transferring port is used for receiving and cooling the wafer transferred into the process chamber from the wafer transferring port, a second cooling assembly is further disposed in the process chamber, the second cooling assembly includes a second cooling plate, the second cooling plate is located above a wafer carrying surface of the first cooling assembly, and the second cooling assembly can drive the second cooling plate to rise to a height higher than the wafer transferring port or fall to a height lower than the wafer transferring port.

Optionally, the process chamber further comprises a wafer temporary storage device, the wafer temporary storage device is fixedly arranged in the process chamber and arranged around the axis of the process chamber, the height of the wafer temporary storage device is matched with that of the wafer conveying port, the wafer temporary storage device is used for supporting wafers conveyed into the process chamber through the wafer conveying port, and the second cooling plate can lift the wafers placed on the wafer temporary storage device when the height of the second cooling plate is higher than that of the wafer conveying port.

Optionally, the wafer temporary storage device comprises a plurality of wafer supporting parts arranged around the axis of the process chamber, the heights of the plurality of wafer supporting parts are matched with the height of the wafer conveying port, and an avoidance gap exists between the second cooling plate and the projections of the plurality of wafer supporting parts in the vertical direction.

Optionally, a plurality of avoidance gaps are formed at the edge of the second cooling plate, and the plurality of wafer supporting parts can correspondingly pass through the corresponding avoidance gaps in the height direction when the second cooling plate is lifted.

Optionally, the second cooling assembly further comprises a second lifting mechanism, and the second lifting mechanism is used for driving the second cooling plate to perform lifting movement.

Optionally, the second cooling plate has a second cooling liquid channel formed therein, the second cooling liquid channel extending horizontally inside the second cooling plate, and the process chamber further includes a liquid supply assembly for supplying a cooling liquid to the second cooling liquid channel.

Optionally, the first cooling assembly includes a first cooling plate, a first lifting mechanism and a plurality of thimbles, the height of the first cooling plate is lower than the height of the sheet conveying port, the first cooling plate faces the one surface of the second cooling plate to form the wafer carrying surface of the first cooling assembly, a plurality of thimble holes penetrating through the first cooling plate along the thickness direction are formed on the first cooling plate, the first end of the thimble is connected with the first lifting mechanism, the first lifting mechanism can drive the thimbles to ascend, so that the second end of the thimble passes through the corresponding thimble hole and moves to the height of the sheet conveying port.

As a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a wafer cooling apparatus, comprising a process chamber for receiving a wafer and cooling the wafer, wherein the process chamber is the process chamber described above.

Optionally, the wafer cooling apparatus further includes a control device, and the control device is configured to control the second cooling assembly to drive the second cooling plate to rise from a height lower than the wafer transfer port to a height higher than the wafer transfer port after the first wafer enters the process chamber from the wafer transfer port and falls on the second cooling plate.

Optionally, the first cooling assembly includes a first cooling plate, a first lifting mechanism and a plurality of ejector pins, and the control device is further configured to control the first lifting mechanism to drive the plurality of ejector pins to ascend to the height of the wafer conveying port after the second cooling plate ascends to a height higher than the height of the wafer conveying port, and control the first lifting mechanism to drive the plurality of ejector pins to descend after a second wafer enters the process chamber from the wafer conveying port and falls on the plurality of ejector pins.

The utility model provides a process chamber and wafer cooling arrangement includes two cooling assembly that are used for cooling off the wafer, and the second cooling plate that is located the second cooling assembly of top can be at biography piece mouth reciprocating motion from top to can receive and deposit two wafers respectively through two cooling assembly, with two wafers of cooling off simultaneously in the wafer cooling technology including cavity pressure boost, decompression in same round, practiced thrift the required time of every wafer of average cooling in a large number, and then greatly improved wafer cooling efficiency.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention and not to limit the invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a state of motion of a wafer in a process chamber provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the process chamber of FIG. 1 illustrating the positioning of a second cooling plate relative to the wafer escrow device;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of another state of motion of a wafer in a process chamber provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

figure 4 is a cross-sectional view of another state of motion of a wafer in a process chamber according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The following detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention will be made with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that the description of the embodiments herein is for purposes of illustration and explanation only and is not intended to limit the invention.

In order to solve the above technical problem, as an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a process chamber 104, as shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2, the process chamber 104 includes a wafer transferring port 105 for receiving a wafer from the outside of the process chamber 104, a first cooling assembly is disposed in the process chamber 104, a height of a wafer carrying surface (an upward surface of the first cooling plate 301) of the first cooling assembly is lower than a height of the wafer transferring port 105, and is configured to receive and cool the wafer transferred into the process chamber 104 from the wafer transferring port 105, a second cooling assembly is further disposed in the process chamber 104, the second cooling assembly includes a second cooling plate 311, the second cooling plate 311 is located above the wafer carrying surface of the first cooling assembly, and the second cooling assembly can drive the second cooling plate 311 to rise above the wafer carrying surface of the wafer transferring port 105 or fall below the wafer transferring port 105.

The embodiment of the present invention does not specifically limit how the process chamber 104 receives the wafer from the outside, for example, as an optional implementation manner of the present invention, a wafer transportation mechanism such as a robot installed on a wafer cooling device or other process equipment to which the process chamber 104 belongs carries the wafer to pass through the wafer passing port 105 along the horizontal direction to enter and exit the process chamber 104, and the height of the wafer passing port 105 refers to the position of the height direction (i.e. the up-down direction in the figure) corresponding to the upper and lower edges of the wafer passing port 105.

The embodiment of the utility model provides an in, the process cavity includes two cooling assembly that are used for cooling off the wafer, and be located the second cooling assembly's of top second cooling plate 311 can be at the high up-and-down reciprocating motion of passing piece mouth 105, thereby can receive respectively and deposit two wafers through two cooling assembly, with including the cavity pressure boost in same round, two wafers are received and cooled off simultaneously in the wafer cooling technology of decompression, the required time of every wafer of average cooling (place two wafers and far be less than the cavity pressure boost than the wafer transmission time of placing a wafer excess, the required time of decompression and cooling wafer), and then greatly improved wafer cooling efficiency, the board productivity has been increased.

The embodiment of the present invention does not specifically limit how the second cooling module drives the second cooling plate 311 to perform the lifting movement, for example, as an optional implementation manner of the present invention, as shown in fig. 1, the second cooling module further includes a second lifting mechanism 312, and the second lifting mechanism 312 is used for driving the second cooling plate 311 to perform the lifting movement.

The embodiment of the present invention does not specifically limit the structure of the second cooling plate 311, for example, as an optional implementation manner of the present invention, as shown in fig. 1, a second cooling liquid channel is formed in the second cooling plate 311 (a cross-sectional view of the process chamber is shown in fig. 1, wherein the hollow portion in the second cooling plate 311 is a cross-section of the second cooling liquid channel), the second cooling liquid channel extends inside the second cooling plate 311 along the horizontal direction, and the process chamber further includes a liquid supply assembly for providing cooling liquid to the second cooling liquid channel.

For the stability of placing first wafer and taking this wafer away on second cooling plate 311 for wafer transport mechanism such as improvement manipulator, improve the product yield of wafer, as an preferred embodiment of the utility model, as shown in fig. 1, fig. 2, this process chamber still includes wafer temporary storage device, this wafer temporary storage device is fixed to be set up in process chamber 104, and encircle the axis setting of process chamber 104, wafer temporary storage device's height and pass piece mouth 105 highly match for support spreads the wafer that piece mouth 105 spreads into in process chamber 104 into by passing piece mouth 105, and second cooling plate 311 is by being less than passing piece mouth 105 highly rise to when being higher than passing piece mouth 105's height, can hold up the wafer that places on the wafer temporary storage device.

The embodiment of the present invention does not specifically limit the structure of the wafer temporary storage device, for example, optionally, as shown in fig. 2, the wafer temporary storage device includes a plurality of wafer supporting portions 313 arranged around the axis of the process chamber 104, the height of the plurality of wafer supporting portions 313 matches the height of the sheet passing port 105, and an avoiding gap exists between the projections of the second cooling plate 311 and the plurality of wafer supporting portions 313 in the vertical direction.

It should be noted that, the gaps formed between the plurality of wafer supporting portions 313 arranged around the wafer conveying mechanism are not enough to allow the wafer to pass through, in the embodiment of the present invention, after the wafer conveying mechanism such as the robot arm conveys the first wafer 306 to the wafer transferring port, the first wafer 306 firstly stays on the wafer temporary storage device, i.e. stays on the plurality of wafer supporting portions 313 (in the case shown in fig. 1), and then the second cooling plate 311 can be lifted from the lower side of the wafer transferring port to the upper side of the wafer transferring port, and lift up the first wafer 306.

That is, the embodiment of the utility model provides an in second cooling plate 311 accessible wafer temporary storage device indirectly receives first wafer 306 to place the wafer on to static wafer temporary storage device or by the scheme of taking off the wafer on the static wafer temporary storage device through the manipulator and replaced the scheme of carrying out the wafer between the second cooling plate 311 that directly and move and get the operation of putting, the stationarity that has improved wafer transport mechanism such as manipulator and has placed first wafer 306 and tak this wafer 306 on to second cooling plate 311, and then the stability of this wafer 306 position has been guaranteed, the product yield of wafer has been improved.

In addition, an avoidance gap exists between the projections of the second cooling plate 311 and the plurality of wafer supporting parts 313 in the vertical direction, so that the position of the wafer can be prevented from being changed by mechanical vibration generated by scraping and collision between the second cooling plate 311 and the wafer supporting parts 313, and the stability of the position of the wafer can be improved.

The embodiment of the present invention does not specifically limit the number of the wafer supporting portions 313, for example, as an optional embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 2, the wafer temporary storage device includes three wafer supporting portions 313, and the three wafer supporting portions 313 are arranged at equal intervals along the circumferential direction.

In order to improve the cooling efficiency of the first wafer 306, preferably, a plurality of avoiding notches are formed at the edge of the second cooling plate 311, and the plurality of wafer supporting portions 313 can penetrate through the plurality of avoiding notches in the height direction in a one-to-one correspondence manner when the second cooling plate 311 performs the lifting movement. That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, the area of the second cooling plate 311 may be matched with the size of the wafer, and only the corresponding position of the wafer supporting portion 313 is left with a gap, so that the contact area between the second cooling plate 311 and the first wafer 306 is ensured, and the cooling efficiency of the first wafer 306 is improved.

In order to improve the stability of placing the second wafer on the first cooling plate 301 and removing the second wafer by the wafer transportation mechanism such as the robot, and to improve the yield of the wafer, as a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 1, the first cooling module includes a first cooling plate 301, a first elevating mechanism 302 and a plurality of lift pins 303, the height of the first cooling plate 301 is lower than the height of the wafer transfer port 105 (the first cooling plate 301 may be fixedly disposed in the process chamber 104), a surface of the first cooling plate 301 facing the second cooling plate 311 is formed as a wafer carrying surface of the first cooling module, and a plurality of thimble holes penetrating through the first cooling plate 301 in the thickness direction are formed on the first cooling plate 301, a first end of the thimble 303 is connected with the first lifting mechanism 302, and the first lifting mechanism 302 can drive the plurality of thimbles 303 to ascend, so that a second end of the thimble 303 penetrates through the corresponding thimble hole and moves to the height of the sheet transfer port 105.

In the embodiment of the present invention, before the wafer transportation mechanism such as the mechanical arm transfers the second wafer 401 into the wafer transfer port 105, the plurality of pins 303 can be driven to ascend through the first elevating mechanism 302, then the second wafer 401 is transferred, and the second wafer is made to fall on the plurality of pins 303, and then the plurality of pins 303 are driven to descend through the first elevating mechanism 302, so that the second wafer 401 on the pins 303 falls on the first cooling plate 301 steadily, thereby improving the stability of placing the second wafer 401 on the first cooling plate 301 and taking away the second wafer 401 by the wafer transportation mechanism such as the mechanical arm, and further ensuring the stability of the position of the wafer 401, and improving the product yield of the wafer.

The embodiment of the present invention does not specifically limit the structure of the first cooling plate 301, for example, as an optional implementation manner of the present invention, as shown in fig. 1, a first cooling liquid channel is formed in the first cooling plate 301 (the hollow portion in the first cooling plate 301 is the cross section of the first cooling liquid channel), the first cooling liquid channel extends inside the first cooling plate 301 along the horizontal direction, and the liquid supply assembly is further used for providing cooling liquid to the first cooling liquid channel.

As a second aspect of the present invention, a wafer cooling apparatus is further provided, including a process chamber, which is used for receiving a wafer and cooling the wafer, wherein the process chamber is the process chamber 104 provided by the embodiment of the present invention.

In order to improve the efficiency of controlling the movement of each component during the process of sequentially receiving two wafers, the wafer cooling apparatus preferably further comprises a control device, which is configured to control the second cooling module to drive the second cooling plate 311 to rise from a height lower than the wafer transfer port 105 to a height higher than the wafer transfer port 105 (i.e. to change from the movement state shown in fig. 1 to the movement state shown in fig. 3) after the first wafer 306 enters the process chamber 104 from the wafer transfer port 105 and falls on the second cooling plate 311, so that the second wafer 401 introduced falls on the first cooling module.

In order to improve the smoothness of placing the second wafer 401 on the first cooling plate 301 and taking away the second wafer 401 by a wafer transportation mechanism such as a robot, preferably, in the case that the first cooling assembly includes the first cooling plate 301, the first lifting mechanism 302 and the plurality of lift pins 303, the control device is further configured to control the first lifting mechanism 302 to drive the plurality of lift pins 303 to lift up to the height of the wafer transfer port after the second cooling plate 311 is lifted up to the height of the wafer transfer port, and control the first lifting mechanism 302 to drive the plurality of lift pins 303 to lower down after the second wafer 401 enters the process chamber 104 from the wafer transfer port 105 and falls on the plurality of lift pins 303, so that the second wafer 401 on the lift pins 303 falls on the first cooling plate 301, i.e. the movement state shown in fig. 3 is converted into the movement state shown in fig. 4.

Correspondingly, after the wafers are cooled, the control device is also used for controlling the corresponding structure to move in an opposite mode in the process of sequentially transferring out the two wafers, and specifically:

the control device first controls the first lifting mechanism 302 to drive the plurality of lift pins 303 to lift so as to lift the second wafer 401 up to the wafer transfer opening (i.e. the movement state shown in fig. 4 is converted into the movement state shown in fig. 3), and then controls the first lifting mechanism 302 to drive the plurality of lift pins 303 to descend after the second wafer 401 is taken away. Then, the control device controls the second cooling unit to drive the second cooling plate 311 to descend from above the wafer transfer opening to a height lower than the wafer transfer opening (i.e., the movement state shown in fig. 3 is converted into the movement state shown in fig. 1), so that the wafer transportation mechanism such as a robot can take the first wafer 306 from the second cooling plate 311. In some embodiments of the present invention, the wafer cooling apparatus further includes a wafer temporary storage device, and after the second cooling plate 311 is lowered to a height lower than the wafer transferring opening, the wafer transportation mechanism such as a robot arm can take away the first wafer 306 from the wafer temporary storage device.

The utility model provides a wafer cooling arrangement includes two cooling module that are used for cooling off the wafer, and the second cooling pan that is located the second cooling module of top can be at the high up-and-down motion of biography piece mouth to can receive and deposit two wafers respectively through two cooling module, with two wafers of cooling off simultaneously in same round of wafer cooling technology, practice thrift the required time of every wafer of average cooling in a large number, and then greatly improved wafer cooling efficiency and board productivity.

It is to be understood that the above embodiments are merely exemplary embodiments that have been employed to illustrate the principles of the present invention, and that the present invention is not limited thereto. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and improvements can be made without departing from the spirit and substance of the invention, and these modifications and improvements are also considered to be within the scope of the invention.

Claims (10)

1. A process chamber comprises a wafer transferring port used for receiving a wafer from the outside of the process chamber, a first cooling assembly is arranged in the process chamber, the height of a wafer bearing surface of the first cooling assembly is lower than that of the wafer transferring port, and the first cooling assembly is used for receiving and cooling the wafer transferred into the process chamber from the wafer transferring port.

2. The process chamber of claim 1, further comprising a wafer buffer fixedly disposed in the process chamber and disposed around an axis of the process chamber, wherein the height of the wafer buffer matches the height of the wafer transfer port for supporting the wafer transferred from the wafer transfer port into the process chamber, and wherein the second cooling plate is capable of lifting the wafer placed on the wafer buffer when the height of the second cooling plate is increased from below the wafer transfer port to above the wafer transfer port.

3. The process chamber of claim 2, wherein the wafer buffer device comprises a plurality of wafer supporting parts arranged around the axis of the process chamber, the height of the plurality of wafer supporting parts is matched with that of the wafer conveying port, and an avoidance gap exists between the second cooling plate and the projection of the plurality of wafer supporting parts in the vertical direction.

4. The process chamber of claim 3, wherein a plurality of avoiding notches are formed at the edge of the second cooling plate, and a plurality of wafer supporting parts can penetrate through the corresponding avoiding notches in the height direction in a one-to-one correspondence manner when the second cooling plate is lifted.

5. The process chamber of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the second cooling assembly further comprises a second lift mechanism for driving the second cooling plate in a lifting motion.

6. The process chamber of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the second cooling plate has a second cooling fluid channel formed therein, the second cooling fluid channel extending horizontally within the second cooling plate, and the process chamber further comprises a liquid supply assembly for providing a cooling fluid to the second cooling fluid channel.

7. The process chamber of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first cooling assembly comprises a first cooling plate, a first lifting mechanism and a plurality of lift pins, the height of the first cooling plate is lower than that of the wafer conveying opening, one surface of the first cooling plate facing the second cooling plate is formed as a wafer carrying surface of the first cooling assembly, a plurality of lift pin holes penetrating through the first cooling plate in the thickness direction are formed in the first cooling plate, first ends of the lift pins are connected with the first lifting mechanism, and the first lifting mechanism can drive the lift pins to lift, so that the second ends of the lift pins pass through the corresponding lift pin holes and move to the height of the wafer conveying opening.

8. Wafer cooling apparatus comprising a process chamber for receiving and cooling a wafer, wherein the process chamber is a process chamber according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

9. The wafer cooling device according to claim 8, further comprising a control device for controlling the second cooling module to drive the second cooling plate to rise from a height lower than the wafer transfer port to a height higher than the wafer transfer port after the first wafer enters the process chamber from the wafer transfer port and falls onto the second cooling plate.

10. The wafer cooling apparatus of claim 9, wherein the first cooling assembly comprises a first cooling plate, a first lifting mechanism and a plurality of lift pins, and the control device is further configured to control the first lifting mechanism to drive the plurality of lift pins to lift up to the height of the wafer transfer port after the second cooling plate is lifted up to the height higher than the wafer transfer port, and to control the first lifting mechanism to drive the plurality of lift pins to lower down after a second wafer enters the process chamber from the wafer transfer port and lands on the plurality of lift pins.

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