JP2000021797A - Single-wafer processing type heat treating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently heat treat and carry a substrate to be treated for improving the throughput. SOLUTION: A cassette chamber 11 for housing cassettes and a heat treating furnace 1 for performing specified heat treatment, after lifting and carrying substrates W to be treated from a throat 3 by a liftable substrate holder 2 one by one are provided around a carrying chamber 39 having a carrying arm, a shutter chamber 5 having a heat insulation shutter 4 for thermally shielding the throat 3 to cool the substrates W lowered and carried out of the heat treating furnace 1 to a temp. low enough to carry, and a substrate cooling chamber for cooling the substrates W to a temp. sufficiently low to house in the cassette are provided, the wafers W are taken out of the cassette in the cassette chamber 5 and transferred to the substrate holder 2 in the shutter chamber 5 through the carrying arm, and the treated wafers W are taken from the substrate holder 2 and returned to the cassette through the substrate cooling chamber after the heat treatment.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a single-wafer heat treatment apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a semiconductor device manufacturing process, various heat treatment apparatuses are used to perform processes such as oxidation, diffusion, film formation, and annealing on a semiconductor wafer to be processed. As this heat treatment apparatus, there are known a batch heat treatment apparatus capable of heat treating a large number of wafers at a time, and a single wafer heat treatment apparatus for heat treating wafers one by one. In particular, a single-wafer heat treatment apparatus can be relatively easily used for uniform heat treatment in a wafer surface and heat treatment that requires rapid temperature rise and fall, and thus is often used in conjunction with the increase in wafer size and miniaturization of semiconductor elements. It is becoming.

This single-wafer heat treatment apparatus is provided with a heat treatment furnace for carrying out a predetermined heat treatment by ascending and carrying wafers one by one from a lower furnace port by a vertically movable substrate holder. In addition, the lower part of the heat treatment furnace is heat-shielded to cool the wafer after the heat treatment descended and unloaded from the furnace port to a predetermined temperature, for example, a temperature at which the wafer can be transferred. A shutter room having a heat shield shutter that can be opened and closed is provided.

[0004]

Since a plurality of wafers are stored in advance in a cassette, which is a plastic container for transportation, the heat treatment apparatus takes out wafers one by one from the cassette and performs heat treatment. And it is desirable to return the processed wafer after the heat treatment to the original cassette. In this case, in order to return the processed wafer to the cassette, it is necessary to further cool the wafer to a temperature at which the wafer can be stored in the cassette in order to prevent thermal deformation of the cassette.

As described above, in order to take out wafers one by one from the cassette and heat-treat them, and cool the processed wafers in two stages and return them to the cassette, heat treatment and transfer of the wafers can be performed efficiently. Configuration is required to improve throughput.

An object of the present invention is to provide a single-wafer heat treatment apparatus capable of efficiently performing heat treatment and transport of a substrate to be processed and improving throughput.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a single-wafer heat treatment apparatus in which a plurality of substrates to be processed are housed around a transfer chamber having a transfer arm for transferring the substrates to be processed. And a heat treatment furnace for carrying out a predetermined heat treatment by loading and unloading substrates to be processed one by one from a furnace port by a substrate holding unit that can be raised and lowered, and a processing object dropped and discharged from the furnace port. A shutter chamber having a heat shielding shutter for thermally shielding the furnace port to cool the substrate to a temperature at which the substrate can be transported, and a substrate cooling chamber for cooling the substrate to be processed to a temperature at which the substrate to be processed can be stored in a cassette, are provided by the transport arm. The substrate to be processed is taken out of the cassette in the cassette chamber and transferred to the substrate holding part in the shutter chamber. After the heat treatment, the processed substrate is received from the substrate holding part and returned to the cassette via the substrate cooling chamber. Characterized in that the sea urchin configuration.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the single-wafer heat treatment apparatus of the first aspect, the transfer chamber is configured to be controllable at the same pressure as the processing pressure in the heat treatment furnace. Features.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the single-wafer heat treatment apparatus according to the first aspect, further comprising an ejector for performing an initial evacuation before evacuation by a vacuum pump in an evacuation system of the heat treatment furnace. It is characterized by having.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a single-wafer heat treatment apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the heat treatment furnace has a double tube structure of an inner tube and an outer tube, and a gas inlet is provided at a top portion. The inner pipe is divided into an upper part and a lower part.

Preferably, the heat treatment furnace is configured to be capable of performing oxidation, diffusion, film formation, and annealing.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a main part of a single-wafer heat treatment apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view schematically showing the entire configuration of the single-wafer heat treatment apparatus of FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a plan view schematically showing the entire configuration of the single-wafer heat treatment apparatus, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of an inner tube of the heat treatment furnace,
5 is a sectional view showing a heat treatment furnace in which the upper portion of the inner tube is replaced, FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a shutter chamber, FIG. 7 is a plan view showing the movement of a shutter plate in the shutter chamber, and FIG.
FIG. 2 is a sectional view schematically showing a substrate cooling chamber.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a heat treatment furnace of a single-wafer heat treatment apparatus adapted to perform a predetermined heat treatment, for example, an oxidizing treatment on a substrate to be processed, for example, a semiconductor wafer W. In the lower part of the heat treatment furnace 1, the heat treatment is carried out by ascending and descending into the heat treatment furnace 1 from the lower furnace port 3 by a vertically movable substrate holding part (also referred to as a wafer holder) 2, and the heat treatment is carried down from the furnace port 3. The temperature of the subsequent wafer W is set to a predetermined temperature, specifically, a temperature at which the wafer W can be transferred, for example, 60
In order to cool the furnace port 3 to 0 ° C. or lower, a shutter chamber 5 having an openable / closable heat shielding shutter 4 for thermally shielding the furnace port 3 is provided.

The heat treatment furnace 1 comprises a reaction tube which is a cylindrical processing vessel made of quartz with an upper end closed and an open lower end. The heat treatment furnace 1 preferably has a double-pipe configuration of an outer pipe 6 and an inner pipe 7 arranged concentrically. A gas introduction nozzle 8 for introducing a processing gas or the like between the outer tube 6 and the inner tube 7 is provided at a lower portion of the outer tube 6. A pipe leading to a gas source such as a processing gas is connected to the gas introduction nozzle 8 (not shown). It is preferable that a gas purge unit 9 for purging oxygen (O2) gas to suppress or prevent heavy metal contamination from a heater 14 to be described later to the wafer W is formed integrally with the outer tube 6 so as to cover the surface. .

A gas inlet 1 is provided at the top (upper end) of the inner pipe 7.
0 is formed, and a gas exhaust nozzle 11 for exhausting a processing gas or the like is provided below the inner pipe 7 through the outer pipe 6. The gas exhaust nozzle 11 has a heat treatment furnace 1
An exhaust system (exhaust pipe) 55 equipped with a vacuum pump VP capable of evacuating and decompressing the pressure in the range of, for example, 50 to 760 Torr is connected to the inside for decompression processing, slight decompression processing, or normal pressure processing.

The exhaust system 55 includes a vacuum pump V
An initial exhaust system 57 including an ejector 56 for performing initial exhaust before the exhaust by P is branched and connected. The initial exhaust system 57 exhausts a corrosive gas such as HCl from the inside of the heat treatment furnace 1 by injecting a pressure gas such as a nitrogen (N 2) gas into the ejector 56 to generate an exhaust force. It is considered as a measure against corrosion of the vacuum pump VP. The ejector 56 is preferably made of a material having corrosion resistance, for example, Teflon. FIG.
, V1 and V2 are valves, and PS is a pressure sensor.

The inner tube 7 is placed so as to communicate with the furnace port 3 formed on the upper surface of the shutter chamber 5 and is fixed by a flange retainer 12. The outer tube 6 is placed on the upper surface of the flange holder 12 of the inner tube 7 and is fixed by the flange holder 13. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the inner pipe 7 is vertically divided into two parts, that is, an upper part 2a and a lower part 2b so that the upper part 2a can be replaced. The lower portion 2b of the inner tube 2 is preferably made of opaque quartz in order to suppress or prevent transmission of radiant heat.

A flange 2 removably fitted to the lower peripheral edge of the upper portion 2b of the inner pipe 2 is fitted to the upper peripheral edge of the lower portion 2b of the inner pipe 2.
c is formed. Depending on the type of heat treatment, for example, FIG.
The upper portion 2a having a circular gas inlet 10 at the top as shown in FIG. 5, or the upper portion 2a having a porous (shower head) gas inlet 10 at the top as shown in FIG. The upper portion 2a can be appropriately replaced with the common lower portion 2b.

The heat treatment furnace 1 has a heater 14 for heating the wafer W at its upper part. This heater 14
Is a main heating element 15 composed of a resistance heating element arranged in a plane above the heat treatment furnace 1 so as to face the wafer W, and an auxiliary heating element composed of a resistance heating element arranged to surround the periphery of the wafer W. And a body 16. The main heating element 15 includes a plurality of concentric heating elements, for example, a central heating element 15a and a peripheral heating element 15b.
The main heating element 15 and the auxiliary heating element 16 are individually controlled, so that the wafer W can be uniformly heated in the plane.

For example, when a wafer W is heated to 1050 ° C. in a process area in the heat treatment furnace 1 uniformly in a plane,
The central heating element 15a of the main heating element 15 is 1200 ° C., the peripheral heating element 15b is 1500 ° C., and the auxiliary heating element 16 is 1300.
It is preferable to control to ° C. The main heating element 15 and the auxiliary heating element 16 are preferably made of, for example, molybdenum disilicide which generates a large amount of heat.

The heater 14 has a cylindrical heat insulating material 17 which is covered with the heat treatment furnace 1 and whose upper part is closed.
The main heating element 1 is provided on a ceiling portion and an inner peripheral upper portion of the heat insulating material 17.
5 and an auxiliary heating element 16 are attached. A heat equalizing wall 18 made of, for example, silicon carbide (SiC) is provided inside the heat insulating material 17 in order to suppress or prevent heavy metal contamination from the heating elements 15 and 16 to the wafer W and to achieve heat uniformity. Is preferred. The outside of the heat insulating material 17 is
It is covered with a cooling jacket (not shown). The heater 14 is supported above the flange holder 13 of the outer tube 6 via an annular heat insulator 19, and is connected to and fixed to the flange holder 12 of the inner tube 7 by bolts 20.

The shutter chamber 5 is formed of a metal material, for example, an aluminum alloy. The exposed portion in the shutter chamber 5 is coated with a coating material having corrosion resistance in order to prevent corrosion due to contact with corrosive gas (not shown). For example, it is preferable that the inner wall surface of the shutter chamber 5 (including the inner wall surface of an auxiliary chamber described later) is coated with Teflon as a coating material. In addition, a portion where mechanical accuracy is required, such as a portion where the rotating shaft of the heat-insulating shutter 4 is in sliding contact and a fitting portion of the shutter chamber 5 are required.
SiO ₂ coating, CrO ₃ , AlO as coating material
_3. It is preferable that a coat mainly composed of SiO ₂ , that is, a ceramic coat (ceramic coating) made of a composite ceramic based on hard chromium oxide is applied.

The thickness of the ceramic coat film can be formed, for example, in the range of 30 to 100 μm. Since this film is inorganic, corrosive liquid or gas permeates into the base material side of the shutter chamber. It does not cause troubles such as corrosion of the base material and peeling of the coating. In addition, it has high hardness (for example, Vickers hardness is 1200 to 2000), high bonding force between particles (for example, 800 kg / cm ² or more), and high adhesion.

The wall of the shutter chamber 5 is provided with a heating means for heating the inner wall surface to a predetermined temperature, for example, about 120 ° C. in order to prevent dew condensation of corrosive gas adhered to the inner wall surface. A heat medium passage 21 is provided for circulating a heat medium controlled at a predetermined temperature by a chiller as a control device, for example, Galden (trade name). As shown in FIG. 6, the shutter chamber 5 has three main members, the upper member 5a, the center member 5b, and the lower member 5c. It is preferable to divide them and join them by brazing.

The substrate holding unit 2 is formed of, for example, quartz in a shape capable of horizontally mounting the wafer W, and a lowering shaft made of, for example, quartz is provided below a heat shield plate 22 made of, for example, opaque quartz. 23 are connected. At the bottom (lower member 5c) of the shutter chamber 5, there is provided an auxiliary chamber 24 for accommodating the heat shield plate 22 of the substrate holding unit 2 which has been carried down from the heat treatment furnace 1. The elevating shaft 23 vertically penetrates the bottom of the base 24 so as to be able to move up and down.

[0026] the bottom of the auxiliary chamber 24, the shaft sealing member 25 made of an inert gas seal, for example N ₂ or the like for sealing the through-section of the elevator shaft 23 is provided. The shaft seal member 25 can be purged with N ₂ or the like, and its temperature is controlled at, for example, 90 to 120 ° C. Further, in order to improve the sealing performance, the shaft sealing member 25 and the lifting mechanism 2
Preferably, a bellows (not shown) is provided between the lifting arm 27 and the lifting arm 27 so as to cover the lifting shaft 23. The lower end of the elevating shaft 23 is connected to an elevating arm 27 of an elevating mechanism 26 composed of a ball screw and a linear guide, whereby the substrate holding unit 2 is raised and lowered.

The heat-insulating shutter 4 is provided in the shutter chamber 5 so as to be horizontally rotatable around a rotating shaft 28 at one end so as to open and close the furnace port 3 in a non-contact manner. This rotating shaft 28
Penetrates the bottom of the shutter chamber 5 rotatably,
A shaft seal member 29 made of, for example, a magnetic fluid seal is provided at the bottom of the shutter chamber 5 to seal a penetrating portion of the rotation shaft 28. A turning mechanism 30 such as a motor is connected to the turning shaft 28.

In order to cool the heat shield 4 to a predetermined temperature, for example, about 100 to 150 ° C., a heat medium passage 31 for circulating a heat medium is provided over the entire surface of the heat shield shutter 4. Have been. This heat medium passage 3
In order to provide 1, the heat shielding shutter 4 may be divided into two in the thickness direction, the heat medium passage 31 may be formed on the divided surface, and the two may be joined by brazing. The shutter room 5
The heat medium supplied to the heat medium passage 21 and the heat medium supplied to the heat medium passage 31 of the heat shielding shutter 4 are individually temperature-controlled by, for example, an individual or common chiller. . For example, a ceramic coat or the like is applied to the surface of the heat shielding shutter 4 for heat resistance and corrosion resistance.

The heat shielding shutter 4 has a heat shielding body 32 covering the furnace port 3 on the upper surface. The heat shield shutter 4 and the heat shield 32 are preferably formed larger than the diameter of the furnace port 3 in order to block the sub heat shielding incident on the wafer W from the furnace port 3. The heat shield 32 has a plurality of thin heat shields 33 made of a material which is excellent in heat resistance and corrosion resistance and does not transmit radiant heat, for example, opaque quartz having a large number of air bubbles therein, And a spacer member 34 for supporting the layers 33 at appropriate intervals in the vertical direction. The heat shield 32 is detachably attached to the upper surface of the heat shield 4 for maintenance such as cleaning and replacement.

On the side (one side) of the shutter chamber 5, an opening 35 for maintenance and a lid 36 for closing the opening 35 are provided. The heat shielding shutter 4
As shown by the phantom line in FIG. 3, it is possible to protrude from the opening 35 to the outside during maintenance, so that maintenance such as replacement of the heat shield 32 can be easily performed. That is, the heat shield shutter 4 is opened and closed between the closed position A immediately below the furnace port 3 by the rotating shaft 28 and the open position B retracted sideways from the furnace port 3, and further from the closed position A. It is configured to be pivoted outward and pivoted to a maintenance position C protruding from the opening 35. The lid 3
6 is detachably attached by screws or the like so that it can be easily removed during maintenance.

In addition, on the side (other side) of the shutter chamber 5, the substrate holding unit 2 is lowered into the shutter chamber 5, and with the heat shielding shutter 4 closed, the substrate holding unit 2 is placed from the side. Loading / unloading port 3 for transferring wafers W to / from
A transfer chamber 39 internally provided with a transfer arm 38 composed of an articulated arm for transferring the wafer W is connected to the transfer port 37 via a gate valve 40 (FIGS. 2 and 3). reference). Around the transfer chamber 39,
In addition to the shutter chamber 5, a cassette chamber 41 for air-tightly storing and setting a cassette (not shown) accommodating a plurality of, for example, about 25 wafers W, and cooling to a temperature at which the shutter chamber 5 can carry the cassette W Processed wafer W
Is further provided with a cooling chamber (substrate cooling chamber) 42 for cooling the substrate to a temperature that can be stored in a cassette, for example, about 100 ° C.

The cassette chamber 41 has a cassette entrance with a door for loading and unloading a cassette from the outside, a gate valve for opening and closing the cassette with the transfer chamber 39, a lifting mechanism for raising and lowering the cassette when loading and unloading wafers, and an atmospheric pressure or an internal pressure. A pressure control section for reducing the pressure and an inert gas supply section for supplying an atmosphere gas such as an inert gas are provided inside (not shown).
As shown in FIG. 8, the substrate cooling chamber 42 is connected to a side of the transfer chamber 39 via a gate valve 49.

At the lower portion of the substrate cooling chamber 42, there is provided a cooling platen 50 which is cooled to a predetermined temperature, for example, about 30 ° C. by a water cooling passage or the like. A support pin 51 for supporting the wafer W through a gap, for example, a gap of about 0.2 mm, and a vertically movable pin 52 for transferring the wafer W between the transfer arm 38 are provided. . Further, the substrate cooling chamber 42 is provided with a gas supply pipe 53 for supplying an inert gas such as a heat medium gas, for example, nitrogen (N 2) gas from the top into the substrate cooling chamber 42, and the inside of the substrate cooling chamber 42 is depressurized. An exhaust pipe 54 for exhausting air is connected.

The shutter chamber 5, the substrate cooling chamber 42, and the cassette chamber 41 are arranged around the transfer chamber 39 so as to transfer the wafer W efficiently. Then, the transfer arm 38 of the transfer chamber 39 takes out the unprocessed wafer W from the cassette in the cassette chamber 41 and transfers the unprocessed wafer W to the substrate holding unit 2 of the shutter chamber 5. It is configured to receive W and return it to the cassette via the substrate cooling chamber 42. In this case, while the wafer W is being cooled in the substrate cooling chamber 42, an unprocessed wafer W is taken out from the cassette in the cassette chamber 41 and transferred onto the substrate holding unit 2 in the cassette chamber 5. Is preferable for improving the throughput.

An inert gas supply unit (not shown) for supplying an atmosphere gas such as an inert gas into the transfer chamber 39 is connected to the transfer chamber 39 and has the same pressure as the processing pressure in the heat treatment furnace 1. A transport / exhaust system 58 that can be controlled to a pressure is connected. The transfer exhaust system 58 may be connected to the exhaust system 55 of the heat treatment furnace 1. In FIG. 3,
Reference numeral 43 denotes an opening 35 for maintenance of the shutter chamber 5.
It is a maintenance area provided in front of. In the conventional heat treatment apparatus, the rear and side directions must be secured as maintenance areas. However, in the heat treatment apparatus of the present invention, maintenance can be easily performed in only one direction. A gas unit for supplying a processing gas or the like, a control box, a heat medium control and distribution unit including a chiller, and the like are provided so as to surround the maintenance area 43 (not shown). In FIG. 1, reference numeral 47 denotes a heat medium supply / discharge port for supplying / discharging the heat medium to / from the heat medium passage 21 of the shutter chamber 5, and reference numeral 48 denotes a heat medium for supplying / discharge the heat medium to / from the heat medium passage 31 of the heat shielding shutter 4. It is a supply / discharge port.

Next, the operation of the single-wafer heat treatment apparatus having the above configuration will be described. First, the transfer arm 3 of the transfer chamber 39
8 takes out an unprocessed wafer W from the cassette in the cassette chamber 41, carries it into the shutter chamber 5 through the gate port 40 through the loading / unloading port 37, and transfers the wafer W onto the substrate holding unit 2 waiting in the shutter chamber 5. . Next, the gate valve 40
Is closed to seal the shutter chamber 5, and the heat shield shutter 4 is rotated horizontally from the closed position A to the open position B to open the furnace port 3
Is lifted, the elevating mechanism 26 raises the substrate holding unit 2, and lifts and carries the wafer W placed on the substrate holding unit 2 from the furnace port 3 to a predetermined process area in the heat treatment furnace 1. Heat treatment, for example, oxidation treatment is performed. As the processing gas, for example, oxygen (O2) gas, H2O gas, HCl and H2
A mixed gas of O, a gas obtained by adding NH3 to these gases, or the like is used. As a cleaning gas in the heat treatment furnace 1, for example, HCl gas is used.

The process area in the heat treatment furnace 1 is previously heated to a predetermined process temperature, for example, about 1050 ° C., by a main heating element 15 and an auxiliary heating element 16 of a heater 14, and a predetermined processing gas is supplied from a gas introduction nozzle 8. The wafer W is subjected to a heat treatment for a predetermined time, for example, about 60 seconds while being introduced and depressurized and exhausted from the gas exhaust nozzle 11 at a predetermined pressure. When the heat treatment is completed, the wafer W is carried down from the heat treatment furnace 1 into the shutter chamber 5 by the elevating mechanism 26,
The heat shielding shutter 4 is rotated to the closing position A to close the furnace port 3 and cool the wafer W for a predetermined time, for example, about 60 seconds until the wafer W can be transported. During this time, the inside of the heat treatment furnace 1 is exhausted under reduced pressure while being replaced with an inert gas such as nitrogen (N2) gas.

When the cooling of the wafer W is completed, the gate valve 40 is opened, and the wafer W processed by the transfer arm 38 is unloaded from the substrate holding section 2 in the shutter chamber 5 and loaded into the substrate cooling chamber 42. The wafer W is forcibly cooled for a predetermined time, for example, about 60 seconds until the temperature of the wafer W can be stored in the cassette. The wafer W is transferred from the shutter chamber 5 to the transfer chamber 39.
When the heat treatment furnace 1 is carried out or carried into the shutter chamber 5 from the transfer chamber 39, the inside of the transfer chamber 39 is controlled to the same pressure as that in the heat treatment furnace 1 by the transfer exhaust system 58.

The wafer W processed in the substrate cooling chamber 42
While the transfer arm 38 is being cooled,
The unprocessed wafer W is taken out from the cassette, and is carried into the shutter chamber 5 in the same manner as described above, and the wafer W is further carried into the heat treatment furnace 1 to start the heat treatment. Substrate cooling chamber 42
Is completed, the transfer arm 38 unloads the wafer W from the substrate cooling chamber 42 and returns it to the cassette in the cassette chamber 41.
Is successively performed one by one.

According to the single-wafer heat treatment apparatus thus constructed, the cassette chamber 41, the shutter chamber 5 having the heat treatment furnace 1, and the substrate cooling chamber 42 are provided around the transfer chamber 39, The wafer W is taken out of the cassette in the cassette chamber 41 by the transfer arm 38 in the chamber 39 and is transferred to the substrate holding section 2 in the shutter chamber 5 after the heat treatment.
From the substrate cooling chamber 42
, The heat treatment and transfer of the wafer W can be performed efficiently, and the throughput can be improved. The transfer chamber 39 is provided in the heat treatment furnace 1.
Since it is configured to be controllable to the same processing pressure as the internal pressure, for example, after slightly decompressing or depressurizing, the wafer W can be transferred without returning the inside of the heat treatment furnace 1 to atmospheric pressure once,
Throughput can be improved.

Further, since the exhaust system 55 of the heat treatment furnace 1 is provided with an ejector 56 for performing initial exhaust before exhausting by the vacuum pump VP, when exhausting corrosive gas, the ejector 56 is first used. By performing the main evacuation with the vacuum pump VP after performing the initial evacuation, the vacuum pump VP can be protected from corrosive gas, and the durability can be improved. Further, the heat treatment furnace 1 has a double pipe structure of an inner pipe 7 and an outer pipe 6, and the inner pipe 7 having a gas inlet 10 at the top is divided into an upper part 7a and a lower part 7b. The upper part 7a having the different shape 10 can be changed according to the heat treatment, the lower part 7b can be used in common,
Cost can be reduced.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various design changes and the like can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. Is possible. For example, the substrate to be processed is not limited to a semiconductor wafer.
It may be a CD substrate or the like. The oxidation treatment can be applied to a dry HCl process, a wet HCl process, a normal pressure process, and a reduced pressure process. Further, the heat treatment furnace constituting the present invention is capable of forming a film by oxidation, nitridation, CVD, etc.
It is sufficient that at least one of the diffusion and annealing processes is configured to be possible.

[0043]

In summary, according to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) According to the single-wafer heat treatment apparatus of the first aspect, a cassette chamber, a shutter chamber having a heat treatment furnace above, and a substrate cooling chamber are provided around the transfer chamber. The substrate to be processed is taken out of the cassette in the cassette chamber by the transfer arm and transferred to the substrate holding section in the shutter chamber. After the heat treatment, the processed substrate is received from the substrate holding section and returned to the cassette via the substrate cooling chamber. With such a configuration, heat treatment and transfer of the substrate to be processed can be efficiently performed, and throughput can be improved.

(2) According to the single-wafer heat treatment apparatus of the second aspect, the transfer chamber is configured to be controllable at the same pressure as the processing pressure in the heat treatment furnace. In addition, the substrate to be processed can be transferred without returning the inside of the heat treatment furnace to the atmospheric pressure, and the throughput can be improved.

(3) According to the single-wafer heat treatment apparatus of the third aspect, since the exhaust system of the heat treatment furnace is provided with an ejector for performing initial evacuation before evacuation by a vacuum pump, corrosiveness is reduced. When exhausting the processing gas, the initial exhaust is first performed by the ejector, and then the main exhaust is performed by the vacuum pump, so that the vacuum pump can be protected from corrosive gas, and the durability can be improved.

(4) According to the single-wafer heat treatment apparatus of the fourth aspect, the heat treatment furnace has a double-pipe structure of an inner pipe and an outer pipe, and the inner pipe having a gas inlet at the top is provided vertically. Since the gas inlet is divided, the upper portion having a different shape of the gas inlet can be changed according to the heat treatment, and the lower portion can be used in common, so that the cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a main part of a single-wafer heat treatment apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view schematically showing the entire configuration of the single-wafer heat treatment apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view schematically showing an overall configuration of the single-wafer heat treatment apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a structure of an inner tube of the heat treatment furnace.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a heat treatment furnace in which an upper portion of an inner tube is replaced.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view illustrating a configuration of a shutter chamber.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing movement of a shutter plate in the shutter chamber.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view schematically showing a substrate cooling chamber.

[Explanation of symbols]

 W Semiconductor wafer (substrate to be processed) 1 Heat treatment furnace 2 Substrate holding unit 3 Furnace opening 4 Heat shielding shutter 5 Shutter chamber 7 Inner tube 7a Upper 7b Lower 10 Gas inlet 38 Transfer arm 39 Transfer chamber 41 Cassette chamber 42 Substrate cooling chamber VP Vacuum pump 55 Exhaust system 56 Ejector

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Tsukasa Haraoka 1-2-141 Machiya, Shiroyama-cho, Tsukui-gun, Kanagawa Prefecture F-term in the Sagami Plant, Tokyo Electron Tohoku Co., Ltd. 5F031 BB01 BB09 CC12 EE01 EE11 EE12 GG10 KK03 KK07 KK08 LL02 LL03 LL05

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A substrate chamber is provided around a transfer chamber having a transfer arm for transferring a substrate to be processed, and a cassette chamber for accommodating a cassette containing a plurality of substrates to be processed, and a substrate holding portion capable of moving up and down. A heat-insulating shutter that has a heat treatment furnace that carries out a predetermined heat treatment while being lifted and loaded one by one from the furnace port, and heat-shields the furnace port to cool the substrate to be processed that has been lowered and carried out of the furnace port to a transportable temperature. A shutter chamber having
A substrate cooling chamber for cooling a substrate to be processed to a temperature at which the substrate can be stored in a cassette; a substrate to be processed taken out of the cassette in the cassette chamber by the transfer arm and transferred to a substrate holding part in a shutter chamber; A single-wafer heat treatment apparatus configured to receive a processed substrate from a unit and return the substrate to a cassette via the substrate cooling chamber. 2. The single-wafer heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transfer chamber is configured to be controllable at the same pressure as the processing pressure in the heat treatment furnace. 3. The single-wafer heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an ejector for performing an initial evacuation before evacuation by a vacuum pump in an evacuation system of the heat treatment furnace. 4. The heat treatment furnace according to claim 1, wherein the heat treatment furnace has a double tube structure of an inner tube and an outer tube, and an inner tube having a gas inlet at a top portion is divided into an upper portion and a lower portion. Single wafer heat treatment equipment. 5. The single-wafer heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heat treatment furnace is configured to perform oxidation, diffusion, film formation, and annealing processes.