CN220651968U

CN220651968U - Etching equipment

Info

Publication number: CN220651968U
Application number: CN202322318191.3U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 卫德强
Original assignee: Zhongxin North Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Beijing Co ltd; Semiconductor Manufacturing International Shanghai Corp
Current assignee: Zhongxin North Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Beijing Co ltd; Semiconductor Manufacturing International Shanghai Corp
Priority date: 2023-08-28
Filing date: 2023-08-28
Publication date: 2024-03-22
Anticipated expiration: 2033-08-28

Abstract

The application provides an etching equipment, the etching equipment includes: a reaction chamber; the air inlet pipeline is communicated with the top of the reaction cavity, and an air inlet valve is arranged on the air inlet pipeline; the exhaust pipeline is communicated with the bottom of the reaction cavity, and an exhaust valve is arranged on the exhaust pipeline; the pressure detector is arranged on the side wall of the reaction cavity and used for detecting the air pressure in the reaction cavity; and the pressure control device is in communication connection with the pressure detector, the air inlet valve and the exhaust valve and is configured to control the air inlet valve and the exhaust valve to be closed when the pressure detector detects that the air pressure in the reaction cavity is abnormal. The application provides the etching equipment, which can efficiently, reliably, simply, safely and conveniently solve the problems of pressure control of a reaction cavity of the etching equipment, filtering of process gas and emergency risk avoidance, improve the purity of the process gas of the etching equipment and improve the product yield of a mature process.

Description

Etching equipment

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of semiconductors, in particular to etching equipment.

Background

For semiconductor fabrication, the wafer is extremely tight within the reaction chamber during processing. The small airtight leakage in the etching reaction chamber can cause air in the atmospheric environment to enter the reaction chamber, so that the mixture of process gas and air is caused, and the required plasma can not meet the process requirement, thereby causing failure of the wafer process, formation of wafer defects and reduction of the yield of wafer products. Under the condition of good sealing performance of the reaction chamber, the purity and impurity rate of the process gas play a critical role in the defect rate and yield rate of wafer process manufacture, and are particularly important for mature and advanced process.

In actual wafer manufacturing processes, it is difficult to achieve absolute percent purity of the process gas, and the impurities contained therein can also cause wafer process defects. With the continuous update and development of the semiconductor technology field, more and more special gases are used in the wafer process, and the influence of the purity of the process gas on the development of new products and new processes becomes more profound. The presence of process gas impurities can also result in more toxic, hazardous, flammable, explosive, and corrosive process off-gases during the etching process. The emergency risk avoiding technology for filtering, impurity removing and pressure controlling of the existing process gas is also updated into a mature process, and even the development of the prior process has higher requirements.

Therefore, it is highly desirable to provide a technique for solving the problems of pressure control, process gas filtration and emergency risk avoidance, which is efficient, reliable, simple, safe and convenient, so as to improve the purity of the process gas and the influence on the occurrence rate and yield of wafer defects of the existing etching process equipment, and improve the product yield of the mature process.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides etching equipment, which can efficiently, reliably, simply, safely and conveniently solve the problems of pressure control of a reaction cavity of the etching equipment, filtering of process gas and emergency risk avoidance, so as to improve the purity of the process gas of the etching equipment, influence on the occurrence rate and yield of wafer defects and improve the product yield of a mature process.

The application provides an etching device, comprising: a reaction chamber; the air inlet pipeline is communicated with the top of the reaction cavity, and an air inlet valve is arranged on the air inlet pipeline; the exhaust pipeline is communicated with the bottom of the reaction cavity, and an exhaust valve is arranged on the exhaust pipeline; the pressure detector is arranged on the side wall of the reaction cavity and used for detecting the air pressure in the reaction cavity; and the pressure control device is in communication connection with the pressure detector, the air inlet valve and the exhaust valve and is configured to control the air inlet valve and the exhaust valve to be closed when the pressure detector detects that the air pressure in the reaction cavity is abnormal.

In some embodiments of the present application, the air inlet pipeline is further provided with a gas filtering device.

In some embodiments of the present application, the position of the gas filtering device on the gas inlet pipeline is located between the gas inlet valve and the reaction chamber.

In some embodiments of the present application, a gas nozzle is further disposed at a position where the gas inlet pipe communicates with the reaction chamber.

In some embodiments of the present application, the gas nozzle is in a shower shape, and the gas nozzle includes a plurality of gas pipelines inside.

In some embodiments of the present application, the narrow end of the gas nozzle is connected with the gas inlet pipeline in a sealing manner, and the wide end of the gas nozzle is connected with the top of the reaction chamber in a sealing manner.

In some embodiments of the present application, the gas inlet line is also connected to a gas supply.

In some embodiments of the present application, the exhaust line is also in communication with a central processing system.

In some embodiments of the present application, a wafer placing tray is further disposed in the reaction chamber, and the wafer placing tray is fixedly connected with an inner wall of the reaction chamber.

In some embodiments of the present application, the pressure detector is connected to a side wall of the reaction chamber through a pressure detection line.

The utility model provides an etching equipment, on the one hand carries out the filtration through gas filter equipment to process gas and removes the impurity, on the other hand passes through pressure control device control inlet valve and exhaust valve, can be high-efficient, reliable, simple and easy, safe and convenient solution etching equipment reaction chamber pressure control and process gas filtration and urgent danger prevention's problem to promote etching equipment's process gas purity and to wafer defect incidence and the influence of yield, improve the product yield of ripe manufacturing process.

Drawings

The following figures describe in detail exemplary embodiments disclosed in the present application. Wherein like reference numerals refer to like structure throughout the several views of the drawings. Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that these embodiments are non-limiting, exemplary embodiments, and that the drawings are for illustration and description purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application, other embodiments may equally well accomplish the intent of the utility model in this application. It should be understood that the drawings are not to scale. Wherein:

fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an etching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The following description provides specific applications and requirements to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the teachings of the present application. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Thus, the present application is not limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the claims.

The technical scheme of the utility model is described in detail below with reference to the examples and the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an etching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application. The etching apparatus according to the embodiments of the present application will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The present application provides an etching apparatus 100, as shown with reference to fig. 1, comprising: a reaction chamber 110; an air inlet pipeline 120 communicated with the top of the reaction chamber 110, wherein an air inlet valve 121 is arranged on the air inlet pipeline 120; an exhaust pipeline 130 communicated with the bottom of the reaction chamber 110, wherein an exhaust valve 131 is arranged on the exhaust pipeline 130; a pressure detector 140, disposed on a sidewall of the reaction chamber 110, for detecting a gas pressure in the reaction chamber 110; and a pressure control device 150 communicatively connected to the pressure detector 140, the air inlet valve 121, and the air outlet valve 131, wherein the pressure control device 150 is configured to control the air inlet valve 121 and the air outlet valve 131 to be closed when the pressure detector 140 detects that the air pressure in the reaction chamber 110 is abnormal.

With continued reference to FIG. 1, in some embodiments of the present application, the gas inlet line 120 is also in communication with a gas supply 160. The gas supply 160 is located at the front end of the gas supply section of the overall etching apparatus 100. The gas supply 160 may provide a corresponding process gas according to wafer process requirements and provide a supply of positive pressure process gas in real time.

With continued reference to FIG. 1, the intake valve 121 is located on the intake line 120 to control the opening and closing of the intake line 120 and the intake speed. In some embodiments of the present application, the air inlet valve 121 is an isolated pneumatic valve, and the air inlet valve 121 may be directly connected to the air supply 160.

With continued reference to FIG. 1, in some embodiments of the present application, a gas filtration device 122 is also provided on the intake conduit 120. In some embodiments of the present application, the position of the gas filtering device 122 on the gas inlet line 120 is located between the gas inlet valve 121 and the reaction chamber 110. In some embodiments of the present application, the gas filtering device 122 may be directly connected to the intake valve 121. The gas filtering device 122 is used for filtering and removing impurities from the process gas provided by the gas supply device 160, so as to ensure the purity requirement of the process gas.

With continued reference to fig. 1, in some embodiments of the present application, a gas nozzle 123 is further disposed at a position where the gas inlet line 120 communicates with the reaction chamber 110. In some embodiments of the present application, the gas nozzle 123 is shower-shaped, and the gas nozzle 123 includes a plurality of gas delivery lines inside. In some embodiments of the present application, the narrow end of the gas nozzle 123 is connected to the gas inlet pipe 120 in a sealing manner, and the wide end of the gas nozzle 123 is connected to the top of the reaction chamber 110 in a sealing manner. Process gas flows into the reaction chamber 110 through the gas nozzle 123.

With continued reference to FIG. 1, the reaction chamber 110 is used to provide a reaction site. The process gas generates a plasma in the reaction chamber 110 to process etch the wafer.

With continued reference to fig. 1, in some embodiments of the present application, a wafer placing tray 170 is further disposed in the reaction chamber 110, where the wafer placing tray 170 is fixedly connected to an inner wall of the reaction chamber 110, and the wafer placing tray 170 is used for placing a wafer and cooling and fixing the wafer.

With continued reference to FIG. 1, the pressure detector 140 is located at a side wall of the reaction chamber 110 and is connected to the side wall of the reaction chamber 110 through a pressure detection line 141. The pressure detector 140 is used for detecting the air pressure value in the reaction chamber 110 in real time, and transmitting the obtained data to the pressure control device 150 through a data transmission line.

With continued reference to fig. 1, the pressure control device 150 is communicatively connected to the pressure detector 140, the air inlet valve 121, and the air outlet valve 131, and can compare and calculate the pressure data obtained from the pressure detector 140, and control the opening and closing and opening angles of the air inlet valve 121 and the air outlet valve 131 according to the result, so as to control the pressure stability in the reaction chamber 110. Specifically, when the pressure in the reaction chamber 110 is abnormal, a scram closing command may be transmitted to the intake valve 121 and the exhaust valve 131 through data transmission. The anomaly includes: the gas pressure in the reaction chamber 110 exceeds 150% of the set gas pressure or is less than 50% of the set gas pressure; or the gas pressure in the reaction chamber 110 exceeds 105% of the set gas pressure or the duration of less than 95% of the set gas pressure exceeds 5 seconds.

With continued reference to fig. 1, the exhaust pipe 130 is located at the bottom of the reaction chamber 110, and is used for exhausting the process exhaust gas from the reaction chamber 110. In some embodiments of the present application, the exhaust line 130 is also connected to a central processing system, and the mixed exhaust may be delivered to the central processing system for treatment.

In some embodiments of the present application, the exhaust valve 131 is an isolated pneumatic valve.

Referring to fig. 1, when the etching apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of the present application is in operation, process gas enters the reaction chamber 110 from the gas supply device 160 through the gas inlet pipe 120 to react to etch a wafer, and exhaust gas generated after the reaction is discharged through the gas outlet pipe 130.

In the technical solution of the present application, on one hand, in order to avoid wafer process defects caused by impurities contained in the process gas and process risks caused by harmful gases, a gas filtering device 122 is added on a gas inlet pipeline 120 in the technical solution of the present application, so as to filter and remove impurities from the process gas, and improve the purity of the process gas, thereby avoiding wafer process defects and process risks.

In the technical solution of the present application, on the other hand, in order to control the air pressure in the reaction chamber 110, the technical solution of the present application provides the pressure detector 140 and the pressure control device 150, in order to avoid that the air pressure abnormality causes the process gas to flow backward into the gas supply device 160 or the waste gas to flow backward into the reaction chamber 110, and when the air pressure in the reaction chamber 110 is abnormal, the air inlet valve 121 and the air outlet valve 131 are controlled by the pressure control device 150, so as to avoid that the air pressure abnormality in the reaction chamber 110 causes the gas in the reaction chamber 110 to flow backward.

In view of the foregoing, it will be evident to those skilled in the art after reading this application that the foregoing application may be presented by way of example only and may not be limiting. Although not explicitly described herein, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present application is intended to embrace a variety of reasonable alterations, improvements and modifications to the embodiments. Such alterations, improvements, and modifications are intended to be within the spirit and scope of the exemplary embodiments of the present application.

It should be understood that the term "and/or" as used in this embodiment includes any or all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may also be present.

It will be further understood that the terms "comprises," "comprising," "includes" or "including," when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Furthermore, the present specification describes example embodiments by reference to idealized example cross-sectional and/or plan and/or perspective views. Thus, differences from the illustrated shapes, due to, for example, manufacturing techniques and/or tolerances, are to be expected. Thus, the exemplary embodiments should not be construed as limited to the shapes of regions illustrated herein but are to include deviations in shapes that result, for example, from manufacturing. Thus, the regions illustrated in the figures are schematic in nature and their shapes are not intended to illustrate the actual shape of a region of a device and are not intended to limit the scope of the exemplary embodiments.

Claims

1. An etching apparatus, comprising:

a reaction chamber;

the air inlet pipeline is communicated with the top of the reaction cavity, and an air inlet valve is arranged on the air inlet pipeline;

the exhaust pipeline is communicated with the bottom of the reaction cavity, and an exhaust valve is arranged on the exhaust pipeline;

the pressure detector is arranged on the side wall of the reaction cavity and used for detecting the air pressure in the reaction cavity;

and the pressure control device is in communication connection with the pressure detector, the air inlet valve and the exhaust valve and is configured to control the air inlet valve and the exhaust valve to be closed when the pressure detector detects that the air pressure in the reaction cavity is abnormal.

2. The etching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a gas filtering device is further provided in the gas inlet pipe.

3. The etching apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a position of the gas filtering means on the gas inlet line is located between the gas inlet valve and the reaction chamber.

4. The etching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a gas nozzle is further provided at a position where the gas inlet line communicates with the reaction chamber.

5. The etching apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the gas nozzle is shower-shaped, and the gas nozzle includes a plurality of gas lines inside.

6. The etching apparatus of claim 4, wherein a narrow end of the gas nozzle is sealingly connected to the gas inlet line and a wide end of the gas nozzle is sealingly connected to the top of the reaction chamber.

7. The etching apparatus of claim 1, wherein the gas inlet line is further connected to a gas supply.

8. The etching apparatus of claim 1, wherein the exhaust line is further in communication with a central processing system.

9. The etching apparatus of claim 1, wherein a wafer placement tray is further disposed in the reaction chamber, the wafer placement tray being fixedly connected to an inner wall of the reaction chamber.

10. The etching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pressure detector is connected to a side wall of the reaction chamber through a pressure detection line.