JP2000216097A - Semiconductor manufacturing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make the maintenance cycle long and raise the availability, stability and reliability. SOLUTION: A clogging elimination mechanism 8 is provided at the corners of exhaust pipes 7a, 7b connecting a reactor chamber to a vacuum device. The mechanism 8 is composed of a shaft 12 rotatable from the outside of the exhaust pipe 7b and an extension 13 freely slidable along approximately the inside surface of the exhaust pipe 7a mounted on the shaft 12. Dust deposited to the exhaust pipe 7a inside can be easily removed by rotating a handle 11 coupled with the shaft 12, without disassembling the exhaust pipes 7a, 7b.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an MOCVD (Metal Organic-Chem
Technical Field The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus suitable for use in manufacturing an ical vapor deposition apparatus or the like and other semiconductor devices, and particularly relates to a mechanism for removing clogging of an exhaust system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Light emitting devices such as laser diodes and LEDs are mainly formed by epitaxially growing a thin film on a GaAs substrate. A MOCVD apparatus is well known as a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus using this epitaxial growth method, and an MBE (Molecular Beam Epitaxy) apparatus or LPE is used as other semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses.
(Liquid Phase Epitaxy) devices are generally well known.

For example, an MOCVD apparatus stores a semiconductor wafer as an object to be processed in a reaction vessel holding a vacuum,
A predetermined reaction gas is supplied into the reaction vessel while the inside of the reaction vessel is maintained at a predetermined degree of vacuum by a vacuum device, and a thin film forming process can be performed while controlling the temperature to a predetermined temperature. FIG. 5 shows a part of an exhaust system of a conventional MOCVD apparatus.

In FIG. 5, reference numeral 101 denotes an MO.
This is a reaction vessel of a CVD apparatus, and a vacuum apparatus is indicated by 102. The reaction vessel 101 and the vacuum device 102 are connected by an exhaust pipe 103. The exhaust pipe 103
Has a corner portion 104 at any point on the exhaust pipe path for miniaturization of the entire apparatus. The gas in the reaction vessel 101 after the reaction is sucked by the vacuum device 102 and moves through the exhaust pipe thus arranged as shown by an arrow in the drawing, and finally passes through the vacuum device 102. Is discharged.

[0005]

However, in the conventional MOCVD apparatus described above, the corner 104
A turbulent gas flow is generated, and dust such as decomposition products generated by the reaction in the reaction vessel adheres to the inner peripheral surface as shown by 105 in the figure. In the worst case, the exhaust pipe 103
There was a problem that clogged. Therefore, in order to deal with such a problem, in a conventional MOCVD apparatus,
Maintenance work must be performed to clear the dust clog by opening the exhaust system every short predetermined period, which requires manpower and labor, and the equipment must be stopped during the maintenance work. However, there was a problem that the operation rate was lowered.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus which can prolong a maintenance cycle and increase an operation rate, and has high stability and reliability.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention of claim 1 has a reaction container for accommodating a wafer and a discharge mechanism for discharging a reactant in the reaction container. In the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, a shaft portion is provided on a pipe route connecting the reaction vessel and the discharge mechanism, and is rotatable from an outer peripheral surface side of the pipe, and substantially inside the pipe attached to the shaft portion. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising: a clog removing mechanism including an extension portion that slides freely along a peripheral surface.

In the present invention, a clogging removal mechanism is provided at a corner on a pipe route connecting the reaction vessel and the discharge mechanism. The clogging removing mechanism includes a shaft portion rotatable from the outer peripheral surface side of the pipe, and an extended portion attached to the shaft portion and sliding freely along substantially the inner peripheral surface of the pipe. By turning the connected handle, dust adhering in the exhaust pipe is easily removed. For this reason, the maintenance cycle can be lengthened, the operation rate can be increased, and the stability and reliability of the device can be improved.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an MOCVD apparatus will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a reaction vessel, reference numeral 2 denotes a reaction gas source, and reference numeral 9 denotes a vacuum device as a discharge mechanism. As shown in FIG. 1, a reaction vessel 1 and a reaction gas source 2 are connected by an air supply pipe 3. Further, a clog removal mechanism 8 is provided between the reaction vessel 1 and the vacuum device 9, and the reaction vessel 1 and the clog removal mechanism 8 are connected by an exhaust pipe 7a.
And the vacuum device 9 are connected by an exhaust pipe 7b.

The reaction vessel 1 is made of, for example, quartz glass and has a cylindrical shape. A high-frequency coil 10 for heating is provided on the outer periphery of the reaction vessel 1. Further, a susceptor 5 made of, for example, carbon graphite or the like is provided at a central portion in the reaction vessel 1. For example, a semiconductor wafer 4 as an object to be processed is placed on the susceptor 5, and the susceptor 5 is heated by the high-frequency coil 10 and maintained at a predetermined temperature. The susceptor 5 is connected to the wafer rotating mechanism 6 via a shaft, and is configured to perform processing while rotating the semiconductor wafer 4 at a predetermined speed.

When a crystal growth process is performed by the apparatus configured as described above, a reaction gas according to the process is introduced from the reaction gas source 2. Further, the gas as a decomposed product after the treatment is discharged to the vacuum device 9 via the clog removing mechanism 8. During the processing, the degree of vacuum in the reaction vessel 1 is kept constant by operating the vacuum device 9 at all times.

FIG. 2 shows a detailed structure of the above-described clog removing mechanism 8. In FIG. 2, portions corresponding to those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals. By arranging the clogging removing mechanism 8, it is possible to remove dust such as decomposed substances adhering to the inner peripheral surface of the exhaust pipe without removing the exhaust pipes 7a and 7b.

As shown in FIG. 2, an exhaust pipe 7 on the side of the reaction vessel 1 is provided.
a has a substantially cylindrical shape and has a connecting portion 14 at its end.
have. The exhaust pipe 7b on the vacuum device 9 side and the exhaust pipe 7a are connected via the connection portion 14. As shown in FIG. 2, the exhaust pipe 7a on the vacuum device 9 side has a T-shaped cylindrical shape, and a clogging removal mechanism 8 is attached to a position facing the opening 16 on the exhaust pipe 7a side. . That is,
The clog removing mechanism 8 is attached to a corner portion on an extension of the moving direction of the gas from the inside of the reaction vessel 1 indicated by an arrow a in the figure. The gas introduced through the opening 16 is led out from the opening 17 of the exhaust pipe 7b, and moves toward the vacuum device 5 as shown by an arrow b in the drawing. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 15 denotes a seal member, and the seal member 15 maintains the degree of sealing.

The clogging removing mechanism 8 is fixed to the shaft portion 12 penetrating the outer peripheral surface of the exhaust pipe 17b, an extension portion 13 fixed to one end of the shaft portion 12, and to the other end of the shaft portion 12. And a handle 11.

FIG. 3 shows an example of an extending portion attached to the shaft portion 12. As shown in FIG. 3, the extending portion 13 is a ring 2 having a diameter slightly smaller than the diameter of the inner peripheral surface of the exhaust pipe 7a.
A plate-like member 23 connecting the rings 21 and 22
24 and 25. Specifically, the ring 21 and the ring 22 are connected by two plate members 23 and 24 arranged so as to face each other, and both ends of the U-shaped plate member 25 are joined to the ring 24. Is attached. The extending portion 13 is connected to the shaft portion 12 through the bent portion of the plate member 25.
Attached to. Therefore, when the handle 11 fixed to the other end of the shaft portion 12 is rotated as shown by an arrow, the extending portion 13 slides freely along the substantially inner peripheral surface of the exhaust pipe 7a, and Dust adhered to the inside of the pipe 7a is easily removed.

FIG. 4 shows another example of the extending portion attached to the shaft portion 12. In the case of the example shown in FIG. 4, the extending portion 13 is a plate-like member connecting the rings 31, 32 with the rings 31, 32 having a diameter slightly smaller than the diameter of the inner peripheral surface of the exhaust pipe 7 a. 34, 35, a circular flat plate 33, and a spiral member 36. Specifically, the ring 31
And the ring 32 are connected by two plate-shaped members 34 and 35 arranged so as to face each other.
A helical member 36 is attached between the 32 so as to be wound. Further, a flat plate 33 is attached to the end of the
Is attached, and the extending portion 13 is attached to the shaft portion 12 via the flat plate 33. Therefore, when the handle 11 fixed to the other end of the shaft portion 12 is rotated, the extending portion 13 slides freely along substantially the inner peripheral surface of the exhaust pipe 7a, and is shown in FIG. Dust adhered to the exhaust pipe 7a is more reliably removed than in the example.

In the above description, one embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an MOCVD apparatus has been described. However, the present invention can be easily applied to another type of semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. For example, other types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment include MBE (Molecular Beam Epitaxy) equipment that grows crystals using a technology that is an extension of the vacuum evaporation method, and melting the raw materials in a solution to lower the solution temperature. LPE (Liquid Phase Epitaxy) equipment for growing crystals, and VPE (Vapor Phase Epitaxy) for growing crystals by supplying the raw material of the epitaxial layer to the substrate as a gas
There is an apparatus or a CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) apparatus that supplies constituent elements of a generated film by gas and deposits decomposition or reaction products on a substrate to form a thin film.

In one embodiment of the present invention,
Although the case where the clogging removing mechanism is provided at the corner portion on the pipe route has been described, the present invention may be arranged such that the clogging removing mechanism is provided at the straight portion on the pipe route. In addition,
In this case, for example, an annular member is used, and is configured to slide freely and in parallel along substantially the inner peripheral surface of the pipe in conjunction with the shaft portion 12 via a gear or the like.

[0019]

According to the present invention, a clogging removal mechanism is provided on the piping path connecting the reaction vessel and the discharge mechanism, and it is possible to easily remove decomposed substances and the like attached to the piping. Therefore, according to the present invention, the maintenance cycle can be lengthened, the operation rate can be increased, and the labor can be saved and the cost can be reduced. Further, according to the present invention, clogging of the piping can be avoided, so that a process such as crystal growth can be stably performed, and the reliability of the semiconductor device can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of a blockage removing mechanism according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an example of an extended portion of the clog removing mechanism according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing another example of the extension portion of the clog removing mechanism according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram used for describing a conventional semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Reaction container, 2 ... Reaction gas source, 3 ... Air supply pipe, 7a, 7b ... Exhaust pipe, 8 ... Clogging removal mechanism, 9 ... Vacuum apparatus, 11 ... Handle, 12 ...
.Shaft part, 13 ... extension part

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Masaaki Harada 6-35 Kita Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony Corporation F-term (reference) 4K030 EA12 GA06 KA05 5F045 BB10 EC07 EG08 EG10

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising: a reaction container for accommodating a wafer; and a discharge mechanism for discharging a substance in the reaction container, wherein a semiconductor device is provided on a piping path connecting the reaction container and the discharge mechanism. And a shaft portion rotatable from the outer peripheral surface side of the pipe, and an extending portion attached to the shaft portion and slidably along substantially the inner peripheral surface of the pipe. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising a mechanism. 2. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the clogging removing mechanism is provided at a corner on the piping path. 3. The extension according to claim 1, wherein the extension of the blockage removing mechanism has a plurality of rings having a diameter slightly smaller than a diameter of an inner peripheral surface of the pipe, and a plurality of rings connecting the rings. And a plate-like member. 4. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a spiral member provided at an extension of the clogging removing mechanism.