JP2003133387A - Vacuum treatment apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vacuum treatment and a vacuum treatment apparatus capable of realizing high production efficiency. SOLUTION: A vacuum treatment apparatus comprises a cassette table 2 for keeping a substrate in a placed cassette 1 in horizontal manner, a first conveying apparatus 13 disposed accessably on a plurality of cassettes 1 on the cassette table 2 and a substrate-receiving chamber 5 or a substrate-removing chamber 6 respectively, a conveying chamber 16 adapted for connecting a plurality of vacuum treatment chambers 11 therearound, together with the substrate- receiving chamber 5 and the substrate-removing chamber 6, and a second conveying apparatus, disposed accessably to all of the substrate-receiving chamber 5 and the substrate-removing chamber 6 provided in the conveying chamber 16, and the plurality of the vacuum treatment chambers 11.

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vacuum processing apparatus, and more particularly to a transfer system for a vacuum processing apparatus having a plurality of vacuum processing chambers. 2. Description of the Related Art In a vacuum processing apparatus such as a dry etching apparatus, a CVD apparatus or a sputtering apparatus, a plurality of predetermined substrates to be processed are stored in a substrate cassette as one unit (generally called a lot). A general vacuum processing apparatus generally puts the processed substrate into a unit, collects the processed substrates in a substrate cassette in the same unit, and collects the substrates, thereby increasing the production efficiency. However, in the above vacuum processing apparatus, particularly in an apparatus utilizing a reaction by an active gas such as a dry etching apparatus and a CVD apparatus, a reaction product adheres and accumulates in a processing vessel as the processing is performed. Often, problems such as deterioration of vacuum performance, increase in dust, and decrease in the level of an optical monitor signal occur, and in order to avoid such problems, the inside of the processing container is regularly cleaned. Cleaning operations include so-called wet cleaning, which wipes off deposits with an organic solvent, etc., and dry cleaning, which uses active gas or plasma to decompose the deposits. From the viewpoint of workability and efficiency, dry cleaning is superior. These features are becoming essential as production lines become more automated. An example of a vacuum processing apparatus having such a function is the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 63-127125. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0005] For example,
In the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 127125, a dummy wafer housed in a vacuum preparatory chamber in advance is loaded into the processing chamber when performing plasma cleaning of the processing chamber. It has been made to return. For this reason, the vacuum spare chamber for accommodating the dummy wafer requires a large volume and requires a transfer mechanism dedicated to the dummy wafer, resulting in a problem that the apparatus is complicated. Further, in order to continue the normal processing after the dummy wafer used for the plasma cleaning is returned to the vacuum preliminary chamber again, the used dummy wafer and the normal processing from the dummy wafer are received in the vacuum preliminary chamber. The unprocessed wafers to be mixed are mixed, which is not preferable from the viewpoint of product contamination. An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems,
Eliminate product contamination due to garbage and residual gas,
An object of the present invention is to provide a transfer system for a vacuum processing apparatus that realizes high production efficiency and high product yield. According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention is connected to a plurality of vacuum processing chambers for vacuum processing a substrate to be processed one by one in a horizontal state. And a plurality of cassettes capable of accommodating a plurality of substrates to be processed, processed substrates, or dummy processed substrates are placed in the atmosphere. A plurality of cassette tables and any one of the vacuum chambers connected to the transfer chamber, and a load lock chamber for loading the substrate between the vacuum chamber and any one of the vacuum processing chambers through the transfer chamber. An unload lock chamber for unloading the substrate to and from the processing chamber, and transferring the substrates one by one between the cassette in the atmosphere and both the load lock chamber and the unload lock chamber. Atmosphere transfer device
The load lock chamber and the unload lock chamber are provided on the atmosphere side and the vacuum side, respectively, and are opened and closed each time the load lock chamber and the unload lock chamber are carried in and out to switch the load lock chamber and the unload lock chamber to the atmosphere atmosphere or the vacuum atmosphere. And an isolation valve. According to the present invention, the load-lock chamber for unloading a substrate to be processed into any one of the vacuum processing chambers, and the processed substrate being loaded from any one of the vacuum processing chambers through the transfer chamber. There is an unload lock chamber for unloading the processed substrate to the cassette in the atmosphere, and a substrate to be processed or a processed substrate is loaded and unloaded to switch the load lock chamber and the unload lock chamber to the atmosphere or vacuum atmosphere. And an isolation valve that is opened and closed each time the operation is performed. Then, between the load lock chamber and the unload lock chamber in the atmosphere and the cassette in the atmosphere,
Each of the substrates to be processed or the substrates to be processed is loaded and unloaded one by one, and the substrates to be processed or the substrates to be processed are loaded one by one between the load lock chamber and the unload lock chamber in a vacuum atmosphere and any of the vacuum processing chambers. Carry in and out. [0010] Therefore, the time during which the vacuum processing chamber and the load lock chamber or the unload lock chamber are in conduction with the loading / unloading of the substrate is short. Therefore, the amount of dirt and residual gas adhering to the processed substrate brought into the load lock chamber and the unload lock chamber is reduced, thereby eliminating the generation of dirt and contamination of the product due to the residual gas, etc., resulting in high production efficiency and high product yield. Can be provided. An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an application of a vacuum processing apparatus according to the present invention to an apparatus for performing a dry etching process on a semiconductor wafer. The apparatus is provided with a plurality of units for supplying an object to be processed to the apparatus in a state in which unprocessed wafers (substrates) are stored, and storing and collecting the processed wafers (substrates) in the original position again. A plurality of cassettes 1a, 1b, and 1c capable of storing (usually 25) wafers (substrates), the cassettes 1a, 1b, and 1c are mounted, and the positions and positions for determining the positions of introduction / payout to the apparatus. Equipped with cassette tables 2a, 2b, 2c always fixed at a fixed position on a horizontal or nearly horizontal plane without changing the posture, a vacuum exhaust device and a gas introducing device (not shown), and introduce the wafer into a vacuum atmosphere. Load lock chamber (substrate receiving chamber) 5,
Similarly, an unload lock chamber (substrate unloading chamber) 6 for taking out the wafer into the atmosphere, an etching 11 for performing an etching process on the wafer, an isolation valve 12 capable of separating them in an airtight manner, and a load lock chamber (substrate receiving chamber). Chamber) 5 / unload lock chamber (substrate unloading chamber) 6 and a load lock chamber (substrate receiving chamber) provided with a robot having X, Y, Z, and θ axes disposed between cassettes 1a, 1b, and 1c. 1) 5 / a first transfer device 13 for exchanging wafers (substrates) between the unload lock chamber (substrate unloading chamber) 6 and the cassettes 1a, 1b, 1c. The operation of the apparatus is as follows. First, cassettes 1a and 1b containing unprocessed wafers (substrates) are supplied from a stocker (not shown) to the apparatus by a robot or an operator, and placed on the cassette tables 2a and 2b. Is done. At this time, since the cassette tables 2a and 2b are on the same horizontal plane, the cassette supply operation can be simplified, and it is easy to respond to automation of the production line. on the other hand,
A cassette 1c containing dummy wafers is placed on the cassette table 2c. The apparatus is capable of recognizing the production information given to the cassette by itself, based on information sent from a higher-level control device, or by a command input by an operator.
The wafer can be processed by any of the methods. An unprocessed wafer (substrate) 20 stored in the cassette 1a is extracted by the first transfer device 13, and a load lock chamber (substrate receiving device) disposed on the opposite side of the first transfer device 13 from the cassette 1a. To chamber 5) Isolation valve 12a
Carry in through. At this time, the wafer (substrate) 20
It may be stored in any place in the cassette 1a. After the wafer (substrate) 20 enters the load lock chamber (substrate receiving chamber) 5 from the isolation valve 12a and exits the unload lock chamber (substrate unloading chamber) 6 from the isolation valve 12b, the atmosphere outside the apparatus is completely complete. Is in a state of being cut off,
A partition is provided between the isolation valves 12a and 12b, and the cassette tables 2a and 2b and the cassettes 1a and 1b mounted thereon are provided.
In addition, only the first transfer device 13 can be placed in a clean room having high cleanliness, and the remaining portion can be placed in a maintenance room having low cleanliness. After closing the isolation valve 12a, the load lock chamber (substrate receiving chamber) 5 is evacuated to a predetermined pressure by an exhaust device (not shown).
The isolation valve 12b is opened, and the wafer (substrate) 20 is transferred to the etching chamber 11 (11a, 11b, 11c) by a vacuum transfer device (not shown) installed in the transfer chamber 16, and the sample table 8 (8a, 8b). , 8c). The wafer (substrate) 20 carried into the etching chamber 11 is subjected to an etching process under predetermined conditions. During this time, the load lock chamber (substrate receiving chamber) 5 is closed with the isolation valves 12a and 12b closed.
Is returned to the atmospheric pressure, and the second wafer (substrate) is carried in by the first transfer device 13 from the opened isolation valve 12a in the same manner as the first wafer, and is again evacuated to a predetermined pressure by the exhaust device. Is done. When the etching process of the first wafer 20 is completed, the isolation valve 12c is opened, and the processed wafer (substrate) 20 is carried out to the unload lock chamber (substrate unloading chamber) 6, and then the isolation valve 12c is opened.
c is closed, the isolation valve 12b is opened, the second wafer (substrate) is loaded from the load lock chamber (substrate receiving chamber) 5, and after the isolation valve 12b is closed, the etching process is started. The processed wafer (substrate) 20 carried out to the unload lock chamber (substrate unloading chamber) 6 returns to the atmospheric pressure in the unload lock chamber (substrate unloading chamber) 6, and then passes through the isolation valve 12d to the first wafer. It is taken out into the atmosphere by the transport device 13 and returned to the original position in the cassette 1a that was initially stored. By repeating the above operation, the processing of the unprocessed wafers stored in the cassette 1a is completed, and when the wafers are stored again in the original position, the cassette 1a can be collected.
The apparatus is replaced with a cassette containing another unprocessed wafer, but the apparatus continues to process the unprocessed wafers in the cassette 1b, and another unprocessed wafer is processed before processing of all the wafers in the cassette 1b is completed. If a cassette containing wafers is supplied, the apparatus can always be operated continuously. At this time, since the cassette 1a and the cassette 1b are on the same horizontal plane, the operation of collecting the cassette 1a and the operation of supplying the cassette containing another unprocessed wafer can be performed by accessing the cassette 1b by the first transfer device 13. Can be done without impact. In the etching chamber 11, the reaction product adheres to and accumulates on the inner wall surface as the processing is repeated. Therefore, it is necessary to remove the adhered substance by plasma cleaning and restore the original state. In the embodiment, the dummy wafers 30 stored in the cassette 1c are extracted by the first transfer device 13, and after that, the processing is performed in the same manner as in the case of the processing target wafer 20, and then the dummy wafers 30 are removed from the cassette 1c. The dummy wafer 30 is always stocked in the cassette 1c. When all of the dummy wafers 30 in the cassette 1c are used for plasma cleaning or when the use of the dummy wafers 30 becomes defective after several uses, all of the dummy wafers 30 are replaced together with the cassette 1c. Therefore, it is not necessary to treat the plasma cleaning as a special processing sequence, the plasma cleaning can be performed as a series of operations by incorporating the cleaning into a normal etching process, and the cleaning cycle can be arbitrarily set. is there. There is no need for a special mechanism for plasma cleaning from the hardware of the apparatus, and the dummy wafer 30 is mounted on one of the plurality of cassette tables (2c in this example).
It is only necessary to install a cassette (1c in this example) in which a wafer (substrate) 20 is stored. It is needless to say that the production can be performed more efficiently by installing the set cassette. Further, the dummy wafer once used for the plasma cleaning is returned to the original cassette in the atmosphere again, so that the used dummy wafer and the normal processing are to be processed in the vacuum chamber. Unprocessed wafers are not mixed, and there is no concern about product contamination. Furthermore, since used dummy wafers are returned to their original positions in the cassette, confusion between used dummy wafers and unused dummy wafers or infrequently used dummy wafers and high-use dummy wafers can be prevented, and plasma cleaning can be performed. To enable the dummy wafer,
And it can be used without inconvenience. As described above, according to the present invention,
Eliminate product contamination due to garbage and residual gas,
There is an effect that it is possible to provide a transfer system for a vacuum processing apparatus that realizes high production efficiency and high product yield.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view of a dry etching apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Description of Signs] 1 ... substrate cassette, 2 ... cassette table, 5 ... load lock chamber (substrate receiving chamber), 6 ... unload lock chamber (substrate unloading chamber), 8 ... sample table, 11 ... etching chamber, 12 ... Isolation valve, 13: first transfer device, 16: transfer chamber, 20: wafer (substrate), 30: dummy wafer.

   ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page    (72) Inventor Tsunehiko Tsubone             794 Kudamatsu, Higashitoyoi, Yamaguchi Prefecture Stock Association             Inside the Kasado Plant of Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Inventor Atsushi Ito             794 Kudamatsu, Higashitoyoi, Yamaguchi Prefecture Stock Association             Inside the Kasado Plant of Hitachi, Ltd. F term (reference) 5F031 CA02 CA11 DA01 FA01 FA07                       FA11 FA12 GA47 GA48 GA49                       MA32 NA05 NA07 PA06

Claims (1)

Claims: 1. An isolation valve connected to a plurality of vacuum processing chambers for performing vacuum processing of a substrate to be processed in a horizontal state one by one, and separating each of the chambers from the vacuum processing chamber. A transfer chamber consisting of a single chamber, a plurality of cassette tables on which a plurality of cassettes capable of storing a plurality of substrates to be processed, processed substrates, or dummy processed substrates are placed in the atmosphere; and A load lock chamber for carrying the substrate in and out of the vacuum processing chamber through the transfer chamber and a load lock chamber for carrying the substrate in and out of the vacuum processing chamber through the transfer chamber; An unload lock chamber; an atmospheric transfer device that transfers the substrates one by one between the cassette in the atmosphere and both the load lock chamber and the unload lock chamber; and the load lock chamber and the unload lock chamber. Large load lock room And an isolation valve that is provided on each of the side and the vacuum side and that is opened and closed each time the load lock chamber and the unload lock chamber are loaded and unloaded in order to switch the load lock chamber and the unload lock chamber to an atmospheric atmosphere or a vacuum atmosphere. Vacuum processing equipment.