JP2000192241A - Thin film deposition device, and its operating method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a thin film deposition device high in throughput since the annealing is indispensable in a high permittivity thin film forming device using a solution vaporizing method, but the film forming and the annealing are achieved in different chambers, the thin film must be carried after it is cooled, it takes time in the carriage, the installation area of the device must be large, and there is a possibility of an accident during the carriage. SOLUTION: In a CVD device having a shower head 22 using a solution vaporizing method, a carrying position C, a heating position B and a film forming position A are longitudinally provided in a reaction chamber 20, a wafer is moved to achieve various treatments by elevating/lowering a susceptor 26 to each position, and a cooling stage 38 for cooling the wafer is provided in other chamber than the reaction chamber. The operation is achieved in the order of reception of the water (at the carrying position), preliminary heating (at the heating position), film forming (at the film forming position), annealing (at the heating position), delivery of the wafer (at the carrying position), and cooling of the wafer (at the cooling stage). The shower head is cleaned except when the film is formed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a CVD apparatus using a solution vaporization method and an operation method. The CVD method is a method in which a gaseous raw material is sprayed on a heated substrate to cause a chemical reaction to deposit a reaction product on the substrate. This is a method for producing a polycrystalline thin film and a single crystal thin film. The substrate is heated because it involves a chemical reaction. The gas source may be one type or two types. It depends on the thin film to be produced.

When a Si thin film is formed on a Si wafer, a hydride of Si such as silane is used as a raw material. It is in a gaseous state and thermally decomposed into a Si thin film. GaAs
When attaching a GaAs thin film to the s substrate, trimethyl Ga
And bubbling an organic metal such as
A gas such as AsH ₃ is used as a raw material. When there is no source gas like Ga, the organic metal liquid is forcibly gasified and used. Since trimethyl Ga and trimethyl In become liquid at room temperature, they can be changed to gas by bubbling with an inert gas. In the CVD method, the raw material must be gas.

[0003] The degree of integration of DRAMs is increasing. DRAMs of 16 megabits and 64 megabits are manufactured and sold. The degree of integration is increasing at a rapid tempo, such as quadrupling in about three years. Since it is a memory, one unit is composed of a transistor, a capacitor, and a wiring. The capacitor (C) holds information by the presence or absence of electric charge. At present, dielectric films such as SiO ₂ and SiN are used for capacitors. To advance the integration, it is necessary to reduce the area while maintaining the capacity of each capacitor (capacitor). The capacitance of a capacitor is proportional to the area and dielectric constant and inversely proportional to the film thickness. In order to reduce the area without reducing the capacitance of the capacitor, it is necessary to reduce the film thickness or increase the dielectric constant. Since the film thickness is extremely thin, there is no room for further thinning. New high-k materials are needed.

[0004] Tantalum oxide (Ta) used as a high dielectric constant material
₂ O ₅ ) is noted. As a tantalum capacitor, a single capacitor has been used for a long time. This is DRA
It is intended to be used as an M capacitor. A tantalum oxide DRAM has been studied. Although not yet realized, it will soon be possible to produce a tantalum dielectric capacitor production device. However, the dielectric constant is still insufficient. Only one generation of one gigabit is useful.

In the next generation of 4 gigabits and 16 gigabits, even tantalum has insufficient dielectric constant. Therefore, aiming at the next next generation, barium (Ba) and strontium (S
r), titanium (Ti) oxide thin film BST ｛(Ba, S
r) capacitors using TiO _3} has been attempted. This material has a dielectric constant of several hundreds to several thousands, which is several tens times that of the current oxides and nitrides of Si. It should be possible to make capacitors with high capacitance in a small area. However, it is difficult to form a thin film with these high dielectric constant materials.

Conventionally, a vacuum deposition method or a sputtering method has been considered as a film forming means of BST. However, even if vacuum deposition or sputtering is performed using BST as an evaporation material or a target material, the composition changes and only a film having inferior properties can be formed. A dielectric film having desired properties cannot be formed by a vacuum deposition method or a sputtering method. Then the CVD method is attempted. However, since the raw material β-diketone complex is a solid raw material, it cannot be used as a raw material for the CVD method as it is.

Therefore, a method called a solution vaporization method using this solid raw material has been used in recent years. Β used in this method
A solvent for dissolving the diketone complex solid raw material is present; T
HF (tetrahydrofuran) and the like. When the solid raw material is dissolved in a solvent, a solution is obtained. Since it is a solution, it can be transported under pressure by a piping system. In the solution vaporization method, a saturated solution is transported to a position immediately before a reaction chamber using a piping system, vaporized by a vaporizer, and supplied as a gas to the reaction chamber. A vaporizer is a device for rapidly heating and vaporizing a solution. The key to the solution vaporization method is the vaporizer. Extremely sophisticated vaporizers have been devised.

For example, the vaporizer proposed by US Pat. No. 5,361,800 can be used. 99 very thin Inconel disks with through holes in the center are stacked to a thickness of 1.2 mm. A narrow gap (several μm) is formed between the 99 disks. This disc is heated. The temperature can be set with an accuracy of ± 1 ° C. from room temperature to 250 ° C. 17kg of liquid material in the center through hole
/ Cm ² and applied to the gap between the disks.

Due to the strong pressure, the liquid passes radially through the narrow gap between the disks. Since high-viscosity liquid material is passed through a narrow flow path at high speed, it is necessary to apply such a high pressure. Since there are 99 disks, the surface area of the channel is large.
The disks and the liquid come into contact with each other and can exchange heat instantaneously. When the disk reaches the outer periphery, it is vaporized by heat. The vaporized material contains a solvent and a solute, but does not separate into two phases because it vaporizes instantaneously. Since the vaporization time is short, the solution can be vaporized without phase separation.

In other words, the center of the disk group having a thickness of 1.2 mm is liquid and the outer shell is gas. In addition, the center of the disk is in a high-pressure liquid state, and the outer periphery is in a vacuum.
A liquid-to-gas state transition between disks and a pressure reduction from high pressure to vacuum are realized. It is a very clever vaporizer. The raw material vaporized by the vaporizer is supplied to the CVD reaction chamber. Another problem when producing a high dielectric constant thin film by the solution vaporization method + CVD method is that the thin film must be annealed. The present invention addresses annealing, not vaporizer. The problem of annealing will now be described.

[0011]

2. Description of the Related Art Since a solution vaporization method is a future technology that allows for a degree of integration of 1 gigabit or more, there is no conventional technology widely applied to production technology. FIG. 1 shows an apparatus for forming a thin film by a solution vaporization method which was previously manufactured by the present applicant. In this, a film forming chamber 1, a transfer chamber 2, and an annealing furnace 3 are arranged side by side. The transfer chamber 2 has a carry-in room and a carry-out room in a direction orthogonal to the flow. Here, illustration is omitted.

A thin film is formed on a substrate heated in the film forming chamber 1. The film forming chamber 1 has a lower susceptor 4 on which a substrate 5 is placed. The susceptor 4 has a heater 6 for internal heating. A shower head 7 is provided above the film forming chamber 1. This is a disk-shaped space with many holes. The shower head 7 is connected to the gas pipe 8,
The vaporizer is located upstream of the pipe 8. The raw material gas vaporized by the vaporizer passes through the inside of the gas pipe 8 and is injected downward from the fine holes of the shower head 7. This produces a thin film on the heated substrate 5. Deposition chamber 1 and transfer chamber 2
Are connected by a transport path 9. A gate valve 10 is provided in the middle of the transport path 9. The transfer chamber 2 is provided with a transfer mechanism 11 having a fork. The transfer path 2 is also connected between the transfer chamber 2 and the annealing furnace 3. A gate valve 13 is provided in the middle of the transport path 12. The annealing furnace 3 is provided with an infrared lamp 14 for lamp heating.

A wafer is inserted from a loading chamber (not shown) and is loaded on the transport mechanism 11. Transfer room 2 and film formation room 1
The gate valve 10 is opened by adjusting the degree of vacuum or the concentration of the inert gas, and the wafer is placed on the susceptor 6 in the film forming chamber 1. The substrate is heated by the heater 6 to a temperature suitable for film formation. For example, it is 500 ° C to 600 ° C. In this state, the raw material gas is sprayed from the shower head 7 and the substrate is blown with BST.
Deposit a thin film of Cooling the transport mechanism will damage the transport mechanism. After cooling, the gate valve 10 is opened, the arm of the transfer mechanism 11 is extended, and the processed wafer on the susceptor 4 is taken out. The gate valve 10 is closed.

After adjusting the degree of vacuum and the gas pressure of the annealing furnace 3 and the transfer chamber 2, the gate valve 13 is opened. Transport mechanism 1
The arm 1 is extended to the opposite side and placed on some support mechanism (not shown) in the annealing furnace 3. The transport mechanism 11 is retracted, and the gate valve 13 is closed. The wafer is heated by the infrared lamp 14 to anneal the thin film. The annealing temperature is between 700C and 900C. High dielectric constant thin films such as BST are formed by CVD (500 ° C.
(600 ° C) and then annealing at a higher temperature (700 ° C
９００900 ° C.). This is Si, Ga
This is different from the CVD method such as As and AlN. The need for annealing complicates the device structure.

[0015]

Since the entire device is spread horizontally, the installation area of the device is increased. The installation area is called the footprint. This is a disadvantage of the device. These devices need to be installed in a clean room. Clean rooms require high equipment construction costs and high operating costs to constantly circulate clean air. An apparatus that occupies a large area of the clean room is not preferable. That is, a device having a smaller footprint is desired.

Next, since there are a number of rooms in the horizontal direction, the transfer frequency is high, and a transfer trouble may occur.
After the film is formed in the film forming chamber, it must be transported to an annealing furnace in another place. In practice, there are a carry-in room and a carry-out room before and after the transfer chamber 2, so that the transfer mechanism carries out the following busy substrate transfer. The operation is as follows: carry-in room-transfer room-film formation room-transfer room-anneal furnace-transfer room-unload room.

Another problem is that the processing time is long. The wafer is reciprocated between the film forming chamber 1, the transfer chamber 2, and the annealing furnace 3, but cannot be transferred at the same temperature. Each room must be cooled and heated. It takes time. Due to low throughput.

The temperature change will be described as follows. (1) In the film forming chamber: receiving the wafer-raising the temperature-forming the film-cooling-removing the wafer from the film forming chamber (2) In the annealing furnace-receiving the wafer-increasing the temperature-annealing-cooling-removing the wafer from the annealing furnace

Although not shown, a carry-in room and a carry-out room are provided beside the transfer room. In some cases, the loading / unloading chamber has a structure that also serves as a loading / unloading chamber. A wafer is introduced from the loading chamber. The transport mechanism transports the wafer to the film forming chamber 1, where the wafer is placed on the susceptor 4. The resistance heating (heating) is performed by the heater 6. Substrate temperature 500 ℃
When the temperature reaches about 600 ° C., the raw material from the vaporizer is sprayed on the substrate to cause a CVD reaction to form a thin film on the substrate. If the temperature is high as it is, it damages the transport mechanism and is not good for the wafer, so it is cooled. This takes time. Depending on the size of the wafer and the initial temperature,
It takes about 2 to 2 hours to cool.

After cooling, the gate valve 10 is opened, and the wafer (substrate) 5 is carried out by the transfer mechanism and put into the annealing furnace 3. In an annealing furnace, the temperature must be raised from a low temperature. This also takes 30 minutes to 1 hour. This is because the annealing temperature needs to be 700 ° C. to 900 ° C. It is not possible to take it out immediately after annealing.
After being cooled to a temperature that does not impose a load on the transfer mechanism, it is taken out of the annealing furnace. The cooling takes time.

The last point to be pointed out is the frequency of cleaning the shower head. In the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, the cleaning of the shower head is performed at any time or periodically in accordance with the state of generation of particles and adhesion of deposits. Open the film forming chamber, and wipe the lower surface of the shower head with gauze or the like with acetone or the like to remove dirt. It is troublesome because it must be performed manually. In addition, there is a problem in hygiene because it contains harmful substances. It takes a long time to start up the equipment until it resumes operation after exposing the equipment to the atmosphere. I want to be able to clean the shower head more easily and more frequently.

In summary, the drawbacks of the conventional example are as follows. There are a film forming chamber and an annealing furnace on both sides of the transfer mechanism, and the apparatus becomes large. That is, the footprint is wide. Frequent transfer and high possibility of transfer trouble. This is because the substrate reciprocates between the annealing chamber and the film forming chamber. A long time is required for a temperature raising process and a cooling process before and after film formation and annealing, and throughput cannot be achieved. Cleaning the shower head is troublesome.

[0023]

According to the present invention, there is provided a thin film deposition apparatus comprising: a vertically elongated reaction chamber provided with a vacuum exhaust device;
Set the annealing position and transfer position in three stages from top to bottom,
A shower head that blows out the source gas is provided at an upper position, an annealing device is provided at a middle position so as to be able to move forward and backward in a horizontal direction, and a susceptor is provided so as to be able to move up and down these three-stage positions. Like that. Since only the substrate is moved up and down in the same device, a transfer device having an arm is not used. The susceptor is moved up and down by a vertical shaft. An advantage is that the movement of the wafer changes from a long horizontal distance to a short vertical distance.

The film formation, annealing and transport are performed in the following procedure. The substrate is transported from the transport chamber to the susceptor at the lowermost position of the reaction chamber by the transport mechanism. The susceptor is lifted to raise the substrate to the uppermost film forming position. The substrate is heated to an appropriate temperature by the resistance heater of the susceptor. A raw material gas (solution vaporized by a vaporizer) is sprayed onto the substrate from a shower head. Thereby, a thin film having a high dielectric constant is generated. The susceptor is lowered to the middle stage and the annealing device is extruded from the lateral direction. There is no need for cooling from the film forming process to the annealing process. This is because transfer by the transfer mechanism is unnecessary. So cooling and reheating can be omitted. This can significantly reduce the processing time. It is also advantageous in terms of power costs. The substrate is surrounded by an annealing device, and the substrate is further heated and annealed.

After the annealing, the susceptor is lowered to the lowermost position and cooled. After cooling to an appropriate temperature, the gate valve is opened, the arm of the transfer mechanism is extended, and the substrate is carried away. The substrate is placed on a stage or a cooling cassette of a transfer chamber or another dedicated cooling chamber, and cooled. While the first substrate is being cooled, the next substrate can be transported to the reaction chamber by the transport mechanism and formed and annealed.

At times other than the time of film formation, the electrodes are drawn out below the shower head, and plasma is generated to clean the shower head. This eliminates clogging and the like. Since the shower head is cleaned every time, there is no need to open the film forming chamber and open the atmosphere to perform cleaning.

[0027]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The construction and operation of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. A vertically long reaction chamber 20 is provided as a common space for film formation and annealing. Reaction chamber 20
Is provided outside the transfer chamber. The reaction chamber 20 is divided into three stages from the top to the bottom. The uppermost stage is a film forming position A. The middle stage is the annealing position B. The lowest position is the transfer position C. A transfer chamber 21 is provided outside the reaction chamber 20. Although FIG. 1 has three spaces, in the present invention, only two spaces are required since the annealing furnace is integrated with the film forming chamber.

The shower head 2 is located above the inside of the reaction chamber 20.
2 are provided. An external vaporizer and the shower head 22 are connected by a pipe 23. The shower head 22 is a wide disk-shaped hollow container. It has a dish-shaped cross section and has a cylindrical body 24 around it to prevent gas from scattering. Shower head 22
A pore is formed in the lower surface of the hollow container. The vaporized raw material is ejected downward through pores on the lower surface. The pores are distributed evenly on the lower surface of the head so that the source gas is sprayed uniformly on a wide substrate. The shower head 22 is located at the top of the reaction chamber 20 and is fixed.
The substrate can move up and down. What moves the substrate is an elevating shaft 25.

An elevating shaft 25 that can move up and down three positions A, B, and C is provided at the center of the reaction chamber 20.
The elevating shaft 25 can move up and down in the shaft hole 44. The elevating shaft 25 may be a shaft that can only ascend and descend. Further, a shaft that rotates in addition to ascending and descending may be used.
When the shaft 25 rotates, the film quality in the angular direction of the substrate becomes uniform. A susceptor 26 is attached to the top of the elevating shaft 25. The susceptor 26 is made of carbon (C), molybdenum (M
o) It is made of heat-resistant material. A resistance heater 27 is provided inside the susceptor 26. This is for heating the substrate 43 placed on the susceptor.

When the elevating shaft 25 is at the uppermost position, the substrate 43 undergoes a film forming process (400 ° C. to 600 ° C.). When the elevating shaft 25 is at the intermediate position, the substrate undergoes a heat treatment (annealing; 700 ° C. to 900 ° C.). When the elevating shaft is at the lowermost position, the substrate is in a transportable state.

The elevating shaft 25 has an elevating shaft flange plate 50 above, on which the susceptor 26 is fixed. In addition to the function of gripping the susceptor, the flange plate 50 also has the function of maintaining airtightness.

An intermediate position B is a heating position. At this height, the heating mechanism 28 is provided so as to be able to advance and retreat horizontally. The heating mechanism 28 has a temperature of 700 ° C.
Heating to 900 ° C. Here, a lamp heating mechanism is shown, but another heating mechanism may be used. The heating mechanism 28 is covered by a heating mechanism cover 30 and further supported by an outer wall 29. The heating mechanism 28 is a reaction chamber 2
Although it can advance on the axis of 0, usually the side evacuation room 3
3 has been evacuated. There is a heating mechanism moving device 46 for horizontally moving the heating mechanism 28 between the center (position B) of the reaction chamber 20 and the evacuation chamber 33, but details thereof are omitted. Above the outer wall 29 of the heating mechanism, there is a plasma electrode 32. This is to apply a voltage to the shower head 22 to generate plasma.

The heating mechanism 28 at the retracted position and the film forming chamber 2
A partition plate 31 is provided to isolate the inside of the partition.
If the partition plate 31 is closed, particles generated in the film forming process will not contaminate the heating mechanism. Conversely, the heating mechanism 28
Contaminants do not enter the reaction chamber.

The lowermost position C that the elevating shaft 25 can take is the transport position. On its side, there is a connecting pipe 34 which is connected to the transfer chamber 21. A gate valve 35 is provided in the communication pipe 34. A transfer mechanism 36 is provided in the transfer chamber 21.
Is provided. The transport mechanism 36 has an arm 37, on which the substrate 43 is carried. On both sides of the transfer chamber 21, there are a carry-in room and a carry-out room (not shown). The arm 37 of the transfer mechanism 36 can be extended to any of the loading chamber, the unloading chamber, and the reaction chamber to transport the substrate.

A cooling stage 38 is provided at one corner of the transfer chamber 21. This can accommodate a cassette. This is a space for cooling the substrate after film formation and annealing. The substrate is cooled not at the susceptor but at one corner of the transfer chamber 21. Therefore, the utilization efficiency of the entire apparatus is increased, and the throughput is further improved. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and another cooling chamber other than the transfer chamber may be provided and cooled there.

A gas outlet 49 is provided below the reaction chamber 20 and is evacuated. The inside of the elevating shaft 25 is also connected to the pump 40 and exhausted. In this example, the shaft hole 44 of the elevating shaft 25 ascending and descending serves as the gas discharge port 49, but is not limited thereto. A gas outlet may be separately provided on the side.

The operation of the above configuration will be described.
The reaction chamber 20 is assigned to a transfer area (transfer position) C, a heating area (annealing position) B, and a film forming area (film forming position) A from below. The substrate 43 is a Si wafer or the like.
A 6 inch to 8 inch diameter Si wafer can be used as the substrate. The substrate 43 is introduced from a loading chamber (not shown, but in contact with the transfer chamber 21). It is transferred to the transfer chamber 21 by the arm 37 of the transfer mechanism 36. In the reaction chamber 20, the elevating shaft 25 is lowered. After the transfer chamber chamber 21 is set to the same pressure as the reaction chamber 20, the gate valve 35 is opened, and the transfer mechanism 36 places the substrate 43 on the susceptor 26 at the transfer position C.

FIG. 2 shows this state. Susceptor 2
The substrate 43 is heated by energizing the resistance heater 27 in 6. Since the temperature at the time of film formation is 400 ° C. to 600 ° C., the film is heated to that temperature. The heating mechanism 28 is at the retracted position.
Since this does not get in the way, the susceptor 26 and the elevating shaft 2
5. The substrate 43 can be raised.

At this time, there are two options. There are a case where the heating mechanism 28 is not used for preheating and a case where it is used for preheating. In the case of preheating, the heating mechanism 28 protrudes laterally as shown in FIG. 3 to stand by, and the elevating shaft 25 is raised. Preheating is performed to an appropriate temperature by a heating mechanism.
Thereafter, the elevating shaft 25 and the susceptor 26 are lifted to the uppermost position A. This is the height of the substrate during film formation. If the preheating is not performed, the heating mechanism 28 is retracted to the side,
Raise the elevating shaft to the A position at a stretch.

A raw material gas is supplied to the substrate at the film forming position from the shower head 22 in the form of a spray for film formation.
The source gas is obtained by atomizing the solution with a vaporizer. The raw materials in the solution undergo a chemical reaction, and the products are deposited on the heated substrate 43. For example, a thin film of SrTiO ₃ is used. This is the film forming process shown in FIG. High dielectric constant thin film (BST, PZT, SBT, etc.) depending on the film formation process
Is formed. The substrate temperature is 400 ° C. to 60 ° C. as described above.
On the order of 0 ° C. The time for film formation varies depending on the film thickness, but is generally about 10 to 20 minutes. This completes the film forming process.

Then, the susceptor 2 was cooled without cooling the substrate.
6 is lowered and moved slightly below the annealing position B. The heating mechanism 28 comes out from the side. When the heating mechanism 28 stops at a proper horizontal position, the elevating shaft 25 is raised, and the elevating shaft flange plate 50 is pressed against the bottom surface of the outer wall 29 of the heating mechanism. Since there is a seal ring 48 therebetween, the inside of the heating mechanism 28 is shut off. Since the lamp is heated, the lamp is energized, and the substrate is heated to a desired temperature (700 ° C. to 900 ° C.) and held. This annealing step is an indispensable step in the case of a thin film having a high dielectric constant such as BST, SBT, PZT or the like. The annealing time is about 5 to 10 minutes. In the case of preheating, the heating mechanism is used twice. If preheating is not performed, the heating mechanism is used once for annealing after film formation.

When the annealing is completed, the elevating shaft 25 is lowered.
When lowered to the transfer position C in FIG. 2, the elevating shaft flange plate 50 and the reaction chamber bottom plate 51 come into contact via the seal ring 39. The gate valve 35 of the connecting pipe 34 opens. The arm 37 of the transfer mechanism 36 of the transfer chamber 21 extends to grip the substrate 43 on the susceptor 26. In practice, the substrate is often placed on some sort of tray, so that the tip of the arm grips the tray. The arm 37 of the transport mechanism 36 is
To the cooling stage 38 of the transfer chamber 21.
The substrate 43 is placed on the shelf. The substrate 43 is cooled here. For example, an aluminum cassette can be used as the cooling stage.

The transport mechanism takes in the next substrate from the loading chamber and places it on the susceptor 26 at the transport position C. From now on, the same process is repeated for a new substrate.

One of the problems of the solution vaporization method is clogging of a shower head. The raw material is originally a solid, which is forcibly dissolved by a solution and further gasified by a vaporizer. Therefore, it may be clogged in the pores of the shower head. To prevent this, the following remedial measures can be adopted. At the time other than the time of film formation, only the solution containing no raw material is supplied to the shower head. The pores are washed by passing the solution through the pores. Since the solution does not contain the raw material, the raw solid deposited on the pores can be dissolved and removed. Plasma is also generated by the solution, which also prevents clogging.

For this purpose, the plasma electrode 32 is provided at the position of the heating mechanism 28 so as to be able to advance and retreat. When the plasma electrode is located immediately below the shower head 22 as shown in FIG. 3, a voltage is applied between the plasma electrode 32 and the shower head 22 to generate a solution plasma 47. Since the plasma 47 hits the surface of the shower head and goes through the pores, clogging can be prevented. Cleaning the showerhead includes cleaning with solution and plasma.

Since the cleaning of the shower head can be performed at times other than film formation, the cleaning is performed in parallel with the susceptor up, preheating, annealing, susceptor down, unloading, and the like. FIG. 5 shows the current substrate processing step, the immediately preceding substrate processing step, and the shower head cleaning step in chronological order. The previous board is unloaded from the susceptor,
Put on the cooling stage. A substrate to be processed now is carried in and placed on a susceptor. The susceptor rises and is brought to the preheating position. The substrate that has been processed last time is cooled by the cooling stage. The shower head has undergone a cleaning process.

After the completion of the preheating, the susceptor is further raised to reach the film forming position. Source gas is blown out from the shower head, and film formation is started. The substrate from the previous process is still cooling. The shower head has stopped cleaning and is spouting the raw material. When the film formation is completed, the susceptor is lowered. Annealed at the annealing position. The shower head resumes cleaning. Further, the susceptor descends. The substrate is unloaded at the transfer position. Comparing the first and second lines, a conventional type that performs cooling on the susceptor (Fig. 1)
It can be seen that the throughput is higher than that of the above. In addition, it can be seen that the showerhead pores are not clogged even with a raw material that is easily solidified because the showerhead is constantly washed.

[0048]

[Effects of the Invention] Each process (film formation, annealing, transport)
Are vertically arranged. As a result, the size of the device can be reduced. The footprint (equipment installation area) in the clean room can be reduced.

The movement between the film forming, annealing and transport processes is performed by raising and lowering the susceptor. It is performed by the elevating motion of the susceptor in the reaction chamber, and does not depend on the transport mechanism. The frequency of transport by the transport mechanism can be reduced. Transport trouble can be reduced.

Prior to film formation, the wafer is preheated at the heating position and annealed. The time for raising the temperature for annealing can be shortened. Since the film formation and annealing are performed in the same reaction chamber, the process is stabilized.

By providing a cooling stage for cooling the wafer in a separate chamber from the reaction chamber, the susceptor occupied for cooling can be released. Since the process can be promptly moved to the next film forming process, the throughput can be increased.

In a series of processes, the shower head can be cleaned for each film formation. The need for time-consuming and time-consuming periodic maintenance is eliminated.

Immediately after the film formation, the high-temperature susceptor can be kept away from the shower plate. Therefore, the temperature rise of the shower plate due to radiant heat could be avoided. As a result, by-products due to thermal decomposition did not adhere to the shower plate.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a solution vaporization CVD apparatus once manufactured by the present applicant.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a solution vaporization CVD apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention during transportation.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram at the time of preheating and annealing of a solution vaporization CVD apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram at the time of film formation of a solution vaporization CVD apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a time-series diagram showing a substrate subjected to film formation processing, a substrate subjected to film formation processing before the processing, and processing of a shower head in time series.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 film forming chamber 2 transfer chamber 3 annealing furnace 4 susceptor 5 substrate 6 heater 7 shower head 8 pipe 9 transfer path 10 gate valve 11 transfer mechanism 12 transfer path 13 gate valve 14 infrared lamp 20 reaction chamber 21 transfer chamber 22 shower head 23 pipe 24 Shower head cylinder 25 Elevating shaft 26 Susceptor 27 Heater 28 Heating mechanism 29 Heating mechanism outer wall 30 Heating mechanism cover 31 Partition plate 32 Plasma electrode 33 Evacuation chamber 34 Communication pipe 35 Gate valve 36 Transport mechanism 37 Arm 38 Cooling stage 39 Seal ring 40 Pump 41 Intermediate plate 42 Through hole 43 Substrate 44 Shaft elevating hole 45 Seal ring 46 Heating mechanism moving device 47 Plasma 48 Seal ring 49 Exhaust port 50 Elevating shaft flange plate 51 Reaction chamber bottom plate

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Toru Matsunami Inside Nisshin Electric Co., Ltd. 47, Umezu Takaune-cho, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture F term in the company (reference) 4K030 BA18 BA42 DA02 DA06 DA09 EA01 EA06 FA03 GA02 GA04 GA12 KA04 KA11 KA23 KA26 KA30 KA46 LA01

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A vertically long reaction chamber for forming a thin film on a substrate and annealing the substrate, a transfer chamber for transferring the substrate, a communication pipe connecting the reaction chamber and the transfer chamber, and a communication pipe. A gate valve, a transfer mechanism provided inside the transfer chamber to transfer the substrate by an arm, a cooling stage provided inside the transfer chamber, and a solution obtained by dissolving a high dielectric constant material in a solution and evaporating above the reaction chamber. A shower head for blowing a gaseous raw material in a gaseous state by a vaporization method, a heating mechanism provided to be able to advance and retreat laterally at a half height of the reaction chamber, and a shower head provided to be able to advance and retreat on the heating mechanism of the reaction chamber. A plasma electrode that applies a voltage between them to turn the solution into a plasma, an elevating shaft that can be raised and lowered inside the reaction chamber, and a substrate mounted on the top of the elevating shaft should be placed A susceptor, a heater provided inside the susceptor, and a vacuum exhaust device for evacuating the inside of the reaction chamber, the substrate is transported by a transport mechanism at a position where the susceptor is lowered, and the susceptor is raised to a medium height. The substrate is preheated or annealed with the susceptor raised to the top, and a raw gas is sprayed from the shower head to produce a high dielectric constant thin film on the substrate, and the substrate is transferred to the cooling stage of the transfer chamber. A thin film deposition apparatus characterized by cooling. 2. A vertical reaction chamber for forming a thin film on a substrate and annealing the substrate, a transfer chamber for transferring the substrate, a communication pipe connecting the reaction chamber and the transfer chamber, and a communication pipe. A gate valve, a transfer mechanism provided inside the transfer chamber to transfer the substrate by an arm, a cooling stage provided inside the transfer chamber, and a solution obtained by dissolving a high dielectric constant material in a solution and evaporating above the reaction chamber. A shower head for blowing a gaseous raw material in a gaseous state by a vaporization method, a heating mechanism provided to be able to advance and retreat laterally at a half height of the reaction chamber, and a shower head provided to be able to advance and retreat on the heating mechanism of the reaction chamber. A plasma electrode that applies a voltage between them to turn the solution into a plasma, an elevating shaft that can be raised and lowered inside the reaction chamber, and a substrate mounted on the top of the elevating shaft should be placed In a thin film deposition apparatus having a susceptor, a heater provided inside the susceptor, and a vacuum exhaust device for exhausting an inside of a reaction chamber, a substrate is carried into a transport chamber by a transport mechanism, and an elevating shaft is lowered. Carry the substrate, place the substrate on the susceptor of the reaction chamber at the lower transfer position, raise the elevating shaft and lift the susceptor directly to just below the shower head, or move the heating mechanism from the side to the center of the reaction chamber and move the substrate Raise the susceptor up to just below the shower head, raise the susceptor to just below the shower head, spout vaporized raw material from the shower head, deposit a high dielectric constant thin film on the heated substrate, lower the lifting shaft, Is moved to the center of the reaction chamber, the substrate is annealed by the heating mechanism, and the substrate is returned to the transfer position by lowering the elevating shaft. Transported to the cooling stage of the transfer chamber, the substrate is cooled, the method operation of a thin film deposition apparatus is characterized in that so as to discharge the cooled substrate by the transport mechanism. 3. A solution containing no raw material is ejected from a shower head at any one or both of transport time and annealing time other than film formation time, and a voltage is applied between the shower head and a plasma electrode to generate plasma. The method for operating a thin film deposition apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the shower head is generated and the shower head is cleaned.