JP2000223483A - Substrate processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a substrate processor which can equalize the heating of a board by enabling the heat insulation property of the heat insulation part of a heater to be equalized. SOLUTION: A heating line 2 of a heater 1 is wired, embedded in a groove made at the surface part of the inner periphery of a molded heat insulating material 3. Blanket heat insulating material 4 consisting of heat insulating material in fiber shape is wound outside the molded heat insulating material 3, and the molded heat insulating material 3 and the blanket heat insulating material 4 are stored in a metallic case 5. The molded heat insulating material 3 is one being made in cylindrical form, using a spherical heat insulating material 7 made of material such as Al2O3-SiO2 or the like, and it is of such heat insulating structure that spherical heat insulating materials 7 are stacked in lattice form. This way, it is of such a heat insulating structure that the spherical heat insulating materials 7 are arranged in lattice form, so that the heat insulating property is equalized, and this board processor can raise the equality of the temperature distribution within wafer face inside the heater 1.

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 heat treatment on a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate, and more particularly, to a substrate processing apparatus capable of achieving uniform heat insulating performance of a heater heat insulating portion.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 6 shows a conventional substrate processing apparatus, for example,
1 shows a cylindrical heater used in a vertical semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. As shown in the drawing, the heater 61 has a cylindrical molded heat insulating material 63 in which a heating wire 62 is embedded on an inner peripheral surface portion thereof.
Further, the outside of the blanket heat insulating material 64 is covered with a metal case 65.

Conventionally, as a heat insulating material (heat insulating material), Al
₂ O ₃ (alumina), SiO ₂ (silica), Na ₂ O, Fe
A fibrous material containing ₂ O ₃ or the like as a component is used. The blanket heat insulating material 64 is obtained by performing needle punching while laminating the fibrous heat insulating materials in a layered manner, thereby forming a fibrous heat insulating material into a complicated and complicated blanket shape.
The molded heat insulating material 63 is formed by dispersing a fibrous heat insulating material into an aqueous solution, sucking the aqueous solution with a pump from the center of the cylindrical net, adsorbing the fibrous heat insulating material on the net surface, and laminating in a layered manner. It was molded while doing. Each of the blanket heat insulating material 64 and the molded heat insulating material 63 has a structure in which fibrous heat insulating materials 66 are laminated as shown in a partially enlarged manner in FIG.

[0004]

However, in the blanket heat insulating material 64, a crushed portion and a non-crushed portion are formed due to the entanglement of the fibrous heat insulating material 66, and the density distribution of the fibrous heat insulating material 66 is uneven. In addition, with the molded heat insulating material 63, it is difficult to uniformly adsorb the fibrous heat insulating material 66 to the cylindrical net surface, and the density distribution of the fibrous heat insulating material 66 may be uneven. is there.

[0005] As described above, if the density distribution of the heat insulating material is uneven, the heat insulating property becomes non-uniform, and for a cylindrical heater, for example, the temperature distribution of the substrate for heating a wafer or the like has a temperature difference in the circumferential cross-sectional direction. There was a problem of doing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and provides a substrate processing apparatus capable of making the heat insulation of the heat insulating portion of the heater uniform and achieving uniform heating of the substrate. The purpose is to:

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention is a substrate processing apparatus provided with a heater having a heat-generating portion and a heat-insulating portion for shutting off heat in an external space. Further, at least a part of the heat insulating portion has a heat insulating structure in which substantially spherical heat insulating materials are assembled.

Since the heater heat-insulating portion has a heat-insulating structure in which substantially spherical heat-insulating materials are gathered, the heat-insulating materials are easily arranged in a grid or the like, and the density distribution of the heat-insulating materials is less likely to be uneven. The heat insulating performance of the heat insulating portion can be made uniform.

The substantially spherical heat insulating material is obtained by solidifying a material having good heat insulating properties (for example, Al ₂ O ₃ —SiO ₂ type material) into a substantially spherical shape such as a spherical shape or a spheroidal shape. A substantially spherical heat insulating material is used by being closely adhered and molded, or in a state of being closely and densely packed. The substantially spherical heat insulating material is not limited to a solid solid material as long as it is not easily crushed or broken, and may have a hollow structure or a porous structure. It is preferable to use substantially spherical heat insulating materials having substantially the same size (particle size) in order to achieve uniform heat insulating performance. When the substantially spherical heat insulating material is molded in close contact, for example, the spherical heat insulating material itself may be molded by fusing or pressure bonding, or the heat insulating materials may be bonded with a binder. Further, in the case where the substantially spherical heat insulating material is closely and densely packed, for example, the spherical heat insulating material is filled in a heat insulating container or the like,
What is necessary is just to cover in a state where the spherical heat insulating material is densely packed using a heat insulating cloth or the like.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, a vertical semiconductor manufacturing apparatus (C
FIG. 1 shows a partially cutaway perspective view of a heater used in a vertical semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a cylindrical heater. Although not shown, a reaction vessel (processing vessel) is provided inside the heater 1, and a processing gas is supplied into the reaction vessel and a reaction vessel is provided. The wafer installed on the boat in the container is heated by the heater 1 and subjected to processes such as film formation, diffusion, and oxidation.

The heating wire 2 of the heater 1 is made of a metal (FeCr).
Al alloy) and what the non-metallic (made of a MoSi ₂₎ things, heating wire 2 is wire embedded in the inner circumferential surface groove formed meandering portion of the molded heat insulator 3. A blanket heat insulating material 4 made of a fibrous heat insulating material of Al ₂ O ₃ —SiO ₂ system is wound around the outside of the molded heat insulating material 3, and the formed heat insulating material 3 and the blanket heat insulating material 4 are made of stainless steel or aluminum. It is housed in a case 5 made of (alumite treatment). Reference numeral 6 denotes an annular bottom plate.

The molded heat insulating material 3 is made of an Al ₂ O ₃ —SiO ₂ system.
It is molded into a cylindrical shape using a spherical heat insulating material 7 formed of a material such as SiO ₂ foamed quartz, and as shown in an enlarged view in FIG. 1, the spherical heat insulating material 7 is laminated in a lattice shape. It has a heat insulating structure. As described above, since the molded heat insulating material 3 has a heat insulating structure in which the spherical heat insulating materials 7 are arranged in a lattice and the intervals between the adjacent spherical heat insulating materials 7 are substantially equal to each other, heat insulation or heat radiation to the outside is achieved. Thus, the uniformity of the temperature distribution in the wafer surface inside the heater 1 can be improved.

The molded heat insulating material 3 is, for example, a spherical heat insulating material 7.
Are bonded by using a binder, or are adhered by pressure bonding or fusion to be molded. FIG. 2 shows a state in which the spherical heat insulating materials 7 are closely contact-molded in a point contact manner (FIG. 2 (1) is a partially enlarged view of the molded heat insulating material 3 as viewed from above, and FIG. FIG. 3 shows a state in which the spherical heat insulating materials 7 are adhered to each other in a fused manner (FIG. 3A is a partially enlarged view of the molded heat insulating material 3 as viewed from above). FIG. 3 (2) is a partially enlarged view from the side).

When the size (or diameter) of the spherical heat insulating material 7 is reduced (to a very fine particle), the molded heat insulating material 3
When the size of the spherical heat insulating material 7 is increased, the density of the molded heat insulating material 3 is reduced and the air layer is increased, so that the heat insulating property can be improved. (Note that the size or diameter of the spherical heat insulating material 7 depends on the heat insulating material used, but is 1 to 100 μm (1 μm = 1.
/ 1,000,000 mm). Therefore, the heat insulating performance of the molded heat insulating material 3 and the like can be freely determined by the size and size of the spherical heat insulating material 3, and the heater heat insulating portion having the uniform heat insulating property as designed can be reliably manufactured. On the other hand, in the case of a conventional fibrous heat insulating material, although the density is determined by the weight of the heat insulating material, density unevenness is likely to occur, and uniform heat insulating performance cannot be obtained.

The spherical heat insulating material 7 is not limited to a solid spherical body, but may have a spherical hollow structure as shown in FIG. Since the hollow heat insulating material 7 having a hollow structure has a low density, the heat insulating effect can be improved even when the heat insulating material 7 has a small particle size.

The heat insulating structure using the spherical heat insulating material 7 is not limited to the molded heat insulating material 3 in which the spherical heat insulating material 7 is molded, but may be a heat insulating structure in which the spherical heat insulating materials 7 are densely packed. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, instead of the blanket heat insulating material 4 of FIG. 1, a spherical heat insulating material 7 is filled in a heat insulating container (or partition wall) 8 formed of a molded heat insulating material or a blanket heat insulating material. It may have a heat insulation structure.

Further, in the above embodiment, an example was described in which the invention was applied to a cylindrical heater used in a vertical semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. However, the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention is not limited to this.
Of course, the present invention can also be applied to a square heater of a substrate processing apparatus for a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the heat-insulating portion of the heater has a heat-insulating structure in which substantially spherical heat-insulating materials are gathered, the density distribution of the heat-insulating material is unlikely to be uneven, and the heat insulating performance of the heat-insulating portion can be made uniform. Therefore, it is possible to improve the uniformity of the cross section of the temperature distribution in the substrate processing apparatus, and to perform good substrate processing such as the uniformity of the film pressure at the time of film formation, thereby improving the quality of products.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing one embodiment in which a substrate processing apparatus of the present invention is applied to a vertical semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, and a heater used in the vertical semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is partially cut away.

FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged view showing an example of the molded heat insulating material of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged view showing an example of the molded heat insulating material of FIG.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view, partially broken away, showing a modified example of a spherical heat insulating material.

FIG. 5 is a partially enlarged sectional view showing another embodiment of the heater heat insulating portion.

FIG. 6 is a partially broken perspective view of a heater used in a conventional vertical semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Heater 2 Heating wire 3 Mold heat insulating material 4 Blanket heat insulating material 5 Case 6 Bottom plate 7 Spherical heat insulating material 8 Container

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A substrate processing apparatus provided with a heater having a heat-generating part and a heat-insulating part for shutting off heat in an external space thereof, wherein at least a part of the heat-insulating part has a heat insulating structure in which a substantially spherical heat insulating material is assembled. A substrate processing apparatus characterized in that: