JP2000054147A - Substrate treating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make simply removable products adhered to an exhaust port in a treating vessel in a short time. SOLUTION: In a CVD device, a gas after film forming treatment passes through an exhaust port 15 and is exhausted to an exhaust port 16 in a vacuum tank body 2. Though, in this exhaust gas, an unreacted gas or the like is contained, and, products are easy to adhere to the exhaust port 16 and an exhaust flange 17 of low temp., the inner wall faces of the exhaust port 16 and the exhaust flange 17 are coated with a cover 18, and, therefore, the products adhere to the cover 18. As for the removal of the products, when the exhaust flange 17 is detached from the vacuum tank body 2, the cover 18 is also detached together with the exhaust flange 17, so that only the cover 18 adhered with the products may be exchanged with a new cover 18.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus for performing processing such as film formation on a substrate such as a glass substrate or a semiconductor wafer, and more particularly to a substrate capable of easily removing a product attached to an exhaust port. It relates to a processing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional substrate processing apparatus, for example, a plasma CVD apparatus for performing a film forming process, a reactive gas supplied in a vacuum chamber is excited by plasma discharge to form a thin film on a substrate. Is exhausted out of the vacuum chamber. As shown in FIG. 3, for example, the exhaust path of the vacuum chamber has an exhaust port 32 formed on the bottom wall of the vacuum chamber 31 and an exhaust flange 33 connected to the exhaust port 32.
A vacuum pump or the like is connected to 3 via an exhaust pipe not shown.

A product (reaction product) due to an unreacted gas or the like adheres to the inner wall surface of the vacuum chamber 31 as the film is formed, and as the number of times of film formation increases, the adhered substance (film) gradually increases. Increase. In particular, the exhaust port 32 and the exhaust flange 33
Since the temperature is lower and the exhaust gas density is higher than in the vacuum chamber 31, the amount of adhered products is large. When the amount of adhered products to the exhaust port 32 and the inner wall surface of the exhaust flange 33 increases, the conductance of the exhaust system decreases, and the exhaust capacity decreases. Therefore, the operation of removing the products adhered to the exhaust port 32 and the exhaust flange 33 is periodically performed.
In this removal operation, the exhaust flange 33 bolted to the vacuum chamber 31 is removed, and the product attached to the exhaust port 32 is scraped from below (outside) the vacuum chamber 31 using a scraper or the like.

[0004]

However, since various parts (such as the elevating and lowering parts of the lower electrode) are installed in the vicinity of the lower part of the exhaust port 32, the area around the exhaust port 32 is narrow, so that the product adhering to the exhaust port 32 is not confined. The scraping operation was difficult and took a long time (the operation time per vacuum tank was about 40 minutes). For this reason, the downtime of the device was long. In addition, the exhaust port 3
When the removal operation is performed from above (inside of the vacuum chamber 31), the operation cannot be performed unless the lower electrode, the heater, and the like are removed, and the operation becomes more extensive.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and has as its object to provide a substrate processing apparatus capable of easily removing a product attached to an exhaust port of a processing container in a short time. With the goal.

[0006]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate by supplying a processing gas into a processing container. A removable cover for covering the inner wall surface is provided at an exhaust port for exhausting the gas after processing formed in the above.

[0007] Along with processing such as film formation, products such as unreacted gas adhere to the cover covering the inner wall surface of the exhaust port.
When the amount of adhered product exceeds a predetermined amount, the product is removed. In this case, an exhaust pipe such as an exhaust flange connected to the exhaust port may be removed, a cover to which the product of the exhaust port adheres may be removed, and a new cover may be replaced. Alternatively, after the removed cover is washed, it is attached to the exhaust port again. The cover preferably covers at least the entire inner wall surface of the exhaust port, and is preferably attached without any gap to the inner wall surface of the exhaust port.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of an exhaust port portion in a plasma CVD apparatus as a substrate processing apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the entire plasma CVD apparatus of FIG. The plasma CVD apparatus according to this embodiment has a two-chamber structure in which a processing chamber is divided into an inner tank and an outer tank. Efficiency is improved, and adhesion of products to the inner wall surface of the processing chamber is limited to the inner tank.

In FIG. 1 or FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a vacuum tank forming an outer tank, and the vacuum tank 1 comprises a vacuum tank main body 2 and an upper lid 3 covering an upper opening thereof. The upper lid 3 also constitutes an upper wall of an inner tank in the vacuum tank 1, and the inner tank includes an upper lid 3, an inner tank side wall 4 fixed to the upper lid 3, and an inner tank lower wall provided to be able to move up and down. 5 and a holder 6 fixed to the upper portion of the inner tank lower wall 5 and provided in contact with the lower surface of the inner tank side wall 4.

A central portion of the upper lid 3 is formed so as to protrude upward, and a cathode 8 is provided horizontally on the lower surface side of the central portion of the upper lid 3 via an insulator 7 made of quartz or the like. The cathode 8 has a built-in heater (not shown). A communication hole 8a is formed in the center of the cathode 8, and the communication hole 8a
Is connected to a gas introduction pipe 9 provided through the center of the upper lid 3 so that a reaction gas is introduced into the inner tank. Further, a high-frequency power supply 10 is connected to the gas introduction pipe 9, and a high frequency is supplied to the cathode 8 through the gas introduction pipe 9. A shower plate 11 having a large number of gas dispersion holes (not shown) is provided below the cathode 8, and the reaction gas introduced from the gas introduction pipe 9 is dispersed in a shower and installed below the cathode 8. The substrate 12 is supplied on the substrate 12.

An anode 13 is provided below the inner tank so as to face the cathode 8. Anode 13 is holder 6
The anode 13 has a built-in heater (not shown). Susceptor 1 on anode 13
A substrate 12 such as a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display is mounted on the susceptor 14. The holder 6 is provided with a plurality of vents 6a for guiding the gas after performing the film forming process on the substrate 12 to the bottom of the inner tank. Also,
A tubular exhaust port 15 for introducing gas from the ventilation port 6 a to a plurality of exhaust ports 16 formed on the bottom wall of the vacuum tank body 2 extends downward from the inner tank lower wall 5. Is provided. As shown in FIG. 2, even when the inner tank lower wall 5 is raised to form the inner tank, the lower end of the exhaust port 15 is inserted into the exhaust port 16. Is prevented from adhering to the inner wall surface of the outer tank.

An exhaust flange 17 is hermetically connected to an exhaust port 16 on the bottom wall of the vacuum vessel main body 2. Exhaust flange 1
7 is detachably attached to the vacuum chamber main body 2 by bolts. The exhaust port 16 is provided with a cover 18 that penetrates the exhaust port 16 and is further inserted into the exhaust flange 17. The outer diameter of the cover 18 is substantially the same as the diameter of the exhaust port 16 so that the inner wall surface of the exhaust port 16 can be covered with the cover 18 closely. Aluminum and stainless steel are preferable as the material of the cover 18 in consideration of its workability. Although not shown, an exhaust pipe is connected to the exhaust flange 17 using bolts, clamps, and the like, and the exhaust pipe is connected to a vacuum pump or the like.

An elevating rod 19 for elevating the inner tank lower wall 5 is provided through the bottom wall of the vacuum tank body 2. A bellows 20 is provided between the vacuum chamber main body 2 and the elevating rod 19 to hermetically seal the vacuum chamber 1 while allowing the elevating rod 19 to move up and down. An anode lifting mechanism 21 that lifts and lowers the anode 13 together with the inner tank lower wall 5 via a lifting rod 19 is provided below the vacuum chamber 2.

A reaction gas introduced from a gas inlet 9 is supplied in a shower form from a shower plate 11, and a high-frequency voltage is applied to a cathode 8 to generate a plasma of a low-pressure reaction gas to form a thin film on a substrate 12. I do. The gas after the film forming process passes through the vent 6 a of the holder 6, passes through the exhaust port 15, and is exhausted to the exhaust 16 of the vacuum chamber main body 2. This exhaust gas contains unreacted gas and the like, and products (reaction products) tend to adhere to the exhaust port 16 and the exhaust flange 17 which are lower in temperature than the inner tank side. Then, the exhaust port 16 and the exhaust flange 1
Since the inner wall surface of 5 is covered with the cover 18, the product adheres to the cover 18.

When the amount of product adhered to the cover 18 becomes equal to or more than a predetermined amount, maintenance for product removal is performed. At this time, if the exhaust flange 17 is detached from the vacuum chamber main body 2, the cover 18 also comes off together with the exhaust flange 17, so that the cover 18 to which the product is attached is replaced with a new cover 18, and then the new cover 18 is inserted. The exhaust flange 17 in the set state may be attached again to the exhaust port 16 in an airtight manner. As described above, in the present embodiment, since the products attached to the exhaust port 16 and the exhaust flange 17 are attached to the cover 18, the products can be removed only by replacing the cover 18. Around the lower part of the exhaust port 16 is provided with an anode elevating mechanism 21 and the like, and there is not enough working space. Since the work of scraping with a tool or the like is not necessary, maintenance can be performed easily and quickly (in the past, a maintenance time of about 40 minutes per vacuum chamber was reduced to about 4 minutes).
Minutes.) Therefore, downtime of the substrate processing apparatus can be significantly reduced, and productivity can be improved.

In the above embodiment, a plasma CVD apparatus has been described as an example of a substrate processing apparatus. However, a product adheres to an exhaust port of a processing vessel as well as other CVD apparatuses such as a thermal CVD apparatus. To various types of substrate processing apparatuses. Further, in the above embodiment, the cover to which the product adhered was replaced with a new cover. However, the removed cover may be washed and then used again.

[0017]

In summary, according to the present invention, since the detachable cover for covering the inner wall surface is provided at the exhaust port of the processing container, the product adhered to the exhaust port adheres to the cover. The product can be removed simply by replacing the cover. Therefore, the time and labor for the removal operation can be significantly reduced, the downtime of the apparatus can be reduced, and the productivity can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a plasma C as a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view of an exhaust port portion of a vacuum chamber, showing a VD device.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the entire plasma CVD apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of an exhaust port of a conventional plasma CVD apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vacuum tank (processing container) 2 Vacuum tank main body 3 Top lid 4 Inner tank side wall 5 Inner tank lower wall 6 Holder 8 Cathode 9 Gas introduction pipe 10 High frequency power supply 11 Shower plate 12 Substrate 13 Anode 14 Susceptor 15 Exhaust port 16 Exhaust port 17 Exhaust Flange 18 Cover 19 Lifting rod 21 Anode lifting mechanism

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate by supplying a processing gas into a processing container, wherein an exhaust port formed in the processing container for exhausting the processed gas is detachably covered with an inner wall surface thereof. A substrate processing apparatus provided with a simple cover.