JP2005191169A - Substrate processing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a substrate processing apparatus having a protecting tube capable of easily discharging a cleaning liquid from the protection tube even if the protection tube that is a tubule is cleaned by the cleaning liquid. <P>SOLUTION: The substrate processing apparatus 201 has a reaction tube 203 for forming space for accommodating and treating a substrate 200, and the protecting tube 50 provided on the inner or outer wall of the reaction tube 203. The protecting tube 50 is formed cylindrically and both the ends are open. By the device, the influence of surface tension in water is reduced, and the cleaning liquid remaining in the protecting tube can be easily discharged. When gas for drying is supplied from one end of the opening, the cleaning liquid remaining in the protecting tube can be discharged more easily. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing technique, and more particularly to a heat treatment technique in which a substrate to be processed is accommodated in a processing chamber and processed while being heated by a heater. For example, the present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer in which a semiconductor integrated circuit device (semiconductor device) is fabricated. The present invention relates to an apparatus that is effective for use in a substrate processing apparatus used for oxidation treatment, diffusion treatment, carrier activation after ion implantation, reflow for planarization, annealing, and film formation treatment by thermal CVD reaction.

  An example of a processing chamber structure of a conventional substrate processing apparatus, for example, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is shown in FIGS.

As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, a processing chamber 201 includes a cylindrical reaction tube 203 made of, for example, quartz having an upper end closed and an opening at the lower end, a seal cap 219 covering the lower end opening of the reaction tube 203, and the like. Is formed. A substrate 200 such as a wafer is placed in the processing chamber 201, and the substrate 200 is brought to a desired temperature by a heater 207 (not shown) for heating the substrate, and then a processing gas is supplied from a gas supply pipe (not shown) to the processing gas. By being supplied into the chamber 201, the substrate 2
The desired processing is performed at 00.

In order to measure the temperature in the processing chamber 201, the thermocouple 20 is used as a temperature detecting means. The thermocouple 20 is protected by a cylindrical protective tube 10 made of, for example, quartz and is isolated from the atmosphere in the processing chamber 201 in order to avoid the influence of corrosion due to the processing gas.

FIG. 7 shows an example in which the protective tube 10 is provided on the outer wall of the reaction tube 203. The protective tube 10 is provided on the outer wall of the reaction tube 203, and one end of the protective tube 10 is closed and the other end is opened. The thermocouple 20 is inserted into the protective tube 10 from the opening.

FIG. 8 shows an example in which the protective tube 10 is provided on the inner wall of the reaction tube 203. The protective tube 10 is provided so as to penetrate from the outside to the inside of the processing chamber 201 so that the thermocouple 20 does not contact the processing gas in the processing chamber 201. It is blocked. The end of the protective tube 10 outside the processing chamber 201 is opened, and the thermocouple 20 is inserted into the protective tube 10 from the opening.

When the substrate processing apparatus having the processing chamber 201 as described above is used to perform a film forming process or the like on the substrate, a film is formed as a by-product also on a portion such as the inner wall of the reaction tube 203 that is in contact with the processing gas. (In the processing chamber structure of FIG. 8, a film is also formed on the surface of the protective tube 10). Such by-products are
As the film thickness increases, it peels off and becomes particles, which significantly affects the performance of the semiconductor device manufactured by the substrate processing apparatus. Therefore, it is necessary to remove these by-products before they become particles and peel off.

There is a wet cleaning as a technique for removing a by-product attached to a portion in contact with the processing gas. Wet cleaning is a technique in which a component to which a by-product is attached is removed from the substrate processing apparatus and washed with a cleaning liquid.

Since the protective tube 10 shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 is fixed to the reaction tube 203, the reaction tube 203
When cleaning the protective tube 10, the protective tube 10 is also cleaned at the same time. The protective tube 10
Is a thin tube with little play (that is, the thermocouple 20 in the protective tube 10) according to the outer shape of the thermocouple 20.
The position of the is not changed). Therefore, when the reaction tube 203 is cleaned, the protective tube 10 is also cleaned at the same time, and as a result, the cleaning liquid enters the protective tube 10 as well.

As described above, since the protective tube 10 is formed as a narrow tube with one end closed,
When the cleaning liquid enters the protective tube 10, it becomes difficult to discharge the cleaning liquid due to the influence of the surface tension of water. Accordingly, the drying time of the reaction tube 203 increases and the cleaning time increases, so that the throughput of the substrate processing apparatus decreases. In addition, as the cleaning liquid,
For example, when a dangerous liquid such as hydrofluoric acid is used, if cleaning liquid remains in the protective tube 10, an operator may touch the cleaning liquid when the reaction tube 203 is attached to the substrate processing apparatus again. .

Accordingly, the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus having a protective tube that can easily discharge the cleaning liquid from the inside of the protective tube even when the protective tube, which is a thin tube, is cleaned with the cleaning liquid.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is configured as described in the claims. That is, the present invention is a substrate processing apparatus having a reaction tube that forms a space for accommodating and processing a substrate and a protective tube provided on an inner wall or an outer wall of the reaction tube, as described in claim 1, The protective tube is formed in a cylindrical shape, and the substrate processing apparatus is characterized in that both ends thereof are open.

According to the present invention, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus having a reaction tube that forms a space for accommodating and processing a substrate, and a protective tube provided on an inner wall or an outer wall of the reaction tube, wherein the protective tube is formed in a cylindrical shape. In addition, since the substrate processing apparatus is characterized in that both ends thereof are open, the influence of the surface tension of water is reduced, and the cleaning liquid remaining in the protective tube can be easily discharged. Further, if a drying gas is supplied from one end of the opening, the residual cleaning liquid in the protective tube can be discharged more easily.

An outline of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus as an example of a substrate processing apparatus to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIGS.

A cassette stage 105 is provided on the front side of the inside of the housing 101 as a holding member transfer member that transfers the cassette 100 as a substrate storage container to and from an external transfer device (not shown). Is provided with a cassette elevator 115 as an elevating means, and a cassette transfer machine 114 as a conveying means is attached to the cassette elevator 115. Further, a cassette shelf 109 as a mounting means for the cassette 100 is provided on the rear side of the cassette elevator 115 and a spare cassette shelf 110 is also provided above the cassette stage 105. A clean unit 118 is provided above the spare cassette shelf 110 so as to distribute clean air through the inside of the casing 101.

A processing furnace 202 is provided above the rear portion of the casing 101, and a boat 21 as a substrate holding unit that holds wafers 200 as substrates in multiple stages in a horizontal posture below the processing furnace 202.
A boat elevator 121 as an elevating means for elevating and lowering 7 to the processing furnace 202;
A seal cap 219 serving as a lid is attached to the tip of the elevating member 122 attached to the boat elevator 121 to support the boat 217 vertically. Between the boat elevator 121 and the cassette shelf 109, a transfer elevator 11 as an elevating means is provided.
3 is provided, and a wafer transfer machine 112 as a transfer means is attached to the transfer elevator 113. Next to the boat elevator 121, a furnace port shutter 116 is provided as a shielding member that has an opening / closing mechanism and closes the lower surface of the processing furnace 202.

The cassette 100 loaded with the wafer 200 is loaded into the cassette stage 105 from an external transfer device (not shown) in an upward posture, and rotated by 90 ° on the cassette stage 105 so that the wafer 200 is in a horizontal posture. Be made. Further, the cassette 100 is moved from the cassette stage 105 to the cassette shelf 109 or the spare cassette shelf 110 by cooperation of the raising / lowering operation of the cassette elevator 115, the transverse operation, the advance / retreat operation of the cassette transfer machine 114, and the rotation operation. Be transported.

In the cassette shelf 109, the cassette 10 to be transferred by the wafer transfer device 112.
There is a transfer shelf 123 in which 0 is stored, and the cassette 10 on which the wafer 200 is transferred.
0 is transferred to the transfer shelf 123 by the cassette elevator 115 and the cassette transfer machine 114.

When the cassette 100 is transferred to the transfer shelf 123, the transfer shelf 123 is cooperated by advancing / retreating operation, rotation operation, and lifting / lowering operation of the transfer elevator 113 of the wafer transfer machine 112.
The wafer 200 is transferred to the boat 217 in the lowered state.

When a predetermined number of wafers 200 are transferred to the boat 217, the boat 121 is inserted into the processing furnace 202 by the boat elevator 121, and the seal cap 219 is inserted.
As a result, the processing furnace 202 is hermetically closed. The wafer 200 is heated in the hermetically closed processing furnace 202 and a processing gas is supplied into the processing furnace 202 to process the wafer 200.

When the processing on the wafer 200 is completed, the wafer 200 is transferred from the boat 217 to the cassette 100 of the transfer shelf 123 by the reverse procedure of the above-described operation, and the cassette 100 is transferred to the cassette transfer machine. 114 is transferred from the transfer shelf 123 to the cassette stage 105 and is carried out of the casing 101 by an external transfer device (not shown).
The furnace port shutter 116 closes the lower surface of the processing furnace 202 when the boat 217 is in the lowered state, and prevents outside air from being caught in the processing furnace 202.

  The transport operation of the cassette transfer machine 114 and the like is controlled by the transport control means 124.

Next, CV as an example of a process performed on a substrate such as a wafer performed in the embodiment of the present invention.
A film forming process using the ALD method which is one of the D methods will be briefly described.

In the ALD method, under one film formation condition (temperature, time, etc.), two kinds (or more) of raw material gases used for film formation are alternately supplied onto the substrate one by one, and one atomic layer unit. Adsorbed with
This is a technique for performing film formation using surface reaction.

That is, the chemical reaction to be used is, for example, in the case of forming a SiN (silicon nitride) film, DC in the ALD method.
300 to 600 using S (SiH ₂ Cl ₂ , dichlorosilane) and NH ₃ (ammonia)
High quality film formation is possible at a low temperature of ℃. Further, the gas supply alternately supplies a plurality of types of reactive gases one by one. And film thickness control is controlled by the cycle number of reactive gas supply.
(For example, when the film formation rate is 1 mm / cycle, when a film of 20 mm is formed, the treatment is
Cycle. )

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of a vertical substrate processing furnace according to the present embodiment, showing a processing furnace portion in a vertical section, and FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration of a vertical substrate processing furnace according to the present embodiment. It is a figure and shows a processing furnace part in a cross section. A reaction tube 203 is provided as a reaction vessel for processing the wafer 200 as a substrate inside a heater 207 as a heating means, and the lower end opening of the reaction tube 203 is an O-ring as an airtight member by a seal cap 219 as a lid. The process furnace 202 is formed by at least the heater 207, the reaction tube 203, and the seal cap 219. A boat 217 as a substrate holding means is erected on the seal cap 219 via a quartz cap 218, and the quartz cap 218 serves as a holding body for holding the boat. Then, the boat 217 is inserted into the processing furnace 202. A plurality of wafers 200 to be batch-processed are stacked on the boat 217 in a horizontal posture in multiple stages in the tube axis direction. The heater 207 heats the wafer 200 inserted into the processing furnace 202 to a predetermined temperature.

The processing furnace 202 is provided with two gas supply pipes 232a and 232b as supply pipes for supplying a plurality of types, here two types of gases. Here, the first gas supply pipe 232a
From the first mass flow controller 241a which is a flow control means and the first which is an on-off valve.
The reaction gas is supplied to the processing furnace 202 through a valve chamber 237 formed in the processing furnace 202, which will be described later, and the second gas supply pipe 232b is a second flow control means. A mass flow controller 241b, a second valve 243b which is an on-off valve,
A reactive gas is supplied to the processing furnace 202 via a gas reservoir 247 and a third valve 243c which is an on-off valve, and further via a gas supply unit 249 described later.

The processing furnace 202 has a fourth valve 24 by a gas exhaust pipe 231 which is an exhaust pipe for exhausting gas.
It is connected to a vacuum pump 246 which is an evacuation means through 3d, and is evacuated. The fourth valve 243d is an open / close valve that can open and close the valve to stop evacuation / evacuation of the processing furnace 202, and further adjust the valve opening to adjust the pressure.

The arc-shaped space between the inner wall of the reaction tube 203 constituting the processing furnace 202 and the wafer 200 is a gas dispersion space along the loading direction of the wafer 200 on the inner wall above the lower portion of the reaction tube 203. A buffer chamber 237 is provided, and the wafer 2 in the buffer chamber 237 is provided.
A first gas supply hole 248a, which is a supply hole for supplying gas, is provided at the end of the wall adjacent to 00. The first gas supply hole 248 a opens toward the center of the reaction tube 203. The first gas supply holes 248a have the same opening area from the lower part to the upper part, and are provided at the same opening pitch.

At the end of the buffer chamber 237 opposite to the end where the first gas supply hole 248a is provided, a nozzle 233 is also disposed along the stacking direction of the wafer 200 from the bottom to the top of the reaction tube 203. Has been. The nozzle 233 is provided with a second gas supply hole 248b which is a supply hole for supplying a plurality of gases. When the differential pressure between the buffer chamber 237 and the processing furnace 202 is small, the second gas supply hole 248b may have the same opening area and the same opening pitch from the upstream side to the downstream side. When the pressure is large, the opening area is increased from the upstream side toward the downstream side, or the opening pitch is reduced.

In the present invention, by adjusting the opening area and opening pitch of the second gas supply holes 248b from the upstream side to the downstream side, first, there is a difference in the gas flow velocity from each of the second gas supply holes 248b, but the flow rate is A gas of approximately the same amount is ejected. Then, the gas ejected from each of the second gas supply holes 248b is ejected into the buffer chamber 237 and once introduced, and the flow velocity difference of the gas is made uniform.

That is, in the buffer chamber 237, the gas ejected from each second gas supply hole 248b is ejected from the first gas supply hole 248a to the processing furnace 202 after the particle velocity of each gas is reduced in the buffer chamber 237. During this time, the gas ejected from each second gas supply hole 248b is
When ejected from each first gas supply hole 248a, a gas having a uniform flow rate and flow velocity could be obtained.

Further, a first rod-like electrode 2 that is a first electrode having an elongated structure is provided in the buffer chamber 237.
69 and the second rod-shaped electrode 270 that is the second electrode are disposed to be protected by the electrode protection tube 275 that is a protection tube that protects the electrode from the upper portion to the lower portion, and the first rod-shaped electrode 269 or the second electrode One of the rod-shaped electrodes 270 is connected to the high-frequency power source 273 via the matching unit 272, and the other is connected to the ground that is the reference potential. As a result, plasma is generated in the plasma generation region 224 between the first rod-shaped electrode 269 and the second rod-shaped electrode 270.

The electrode protection tube 275 has a structure in which the first rod-shaped electrode 269 and the second rod-shaped electrode 270 can be inserted into the buffer chamber 237 while being isolated from the atmosphere of the buffer chamber 237. Here, if the inside of the electrode protection tube 275 has the same atmosphere as the outside air (atmosphere), the first rod-shaped electrode 269 and the second rod-shaped electrode 270 inserted into the electrode protection tube 275 are oxidized by the heating of the heater 207. It will be. Therefore, the inside of the electrode protection tube 275 is filled or purged with an inert gas such as nitrogen to keep the oxygen concentration sufficiently low to prevent oxidation of the first rod-shaped electrode 269 or the second rod-shaped electrode 270. A gas purge mechanism is provided.

Further, a gas supply unit 249 is provided on the inner wall of the reaction tube 203 that is rotated about 120 ° from the position of the first gas supply hole 248a. The gas supply unit 249 is a supply unit that shares the gas supply species with the buffer chamber 237 when a plurality of types of gases are alternately supplied to the wafer 200 one by one in the film formation by the ALD method.

Similarly to the buffer chamber 237, the gas supply unit 249 also has third gas supply holes 248c, which are supply holes for supplying gas at the same pitch, at a position adjacent to the wafer, and a second gas supply pipe 232b is provided at the lower part. It is connected.

When the differential pressure between the buffer chamber 237 and the processing furnace 202 is small, the third gas supply hole 248c may have the same opening area and the same opening pitch from the upstream side to the downstream side.
When the differential pressure is large, it is preferable to increase the opening area or reduce the opening pitch from the upstream side to the downstream side.

A boat 217 for mounting a plurality of wafers 200 in multiple stages at the same interval is provided at the center of the reaction tube 203. The boat 217 can enter and exit the reaction tube 203 by a boat elevator mechanism (not shown). It has become. In order to improve processing uniformity, boat 2
A boat rotating mechanism 267 that is a rotating means for rotating the boat 17 is provided, and the boat 217 held by the quartz cap 218 is rotated by rotating the boat rotating mechanism 267.

The controller 121, which is a control means, includes first and second mass flow controllers 241a.
, 241b, first to fourth valves 243a, 243b, 243c, 243d, heater 20
7, a vacuum pump 246, a boat rotation mechanism 267, a boat elevating mechanism (not shown), a high frequency power supply 273, and a matching unit 272, and are connected to the first and second mass flow controllers 241a.
, 241b flow rate adjustment, opening and closing operation of the first to third valves 243a, 243b, 243c,
Opening and closing of the fourth valve 243d and pressure adjustment operation, temperature adjustment of the heater 207, vacuum pump 24
6, the rotation speed adjustment of the boat rotating mechanism 267, the lifting operation control of the boat lifting mechanism, the power supply control of the high frequency power supply 273, and the impedance control by the matching unit 272 are performed.

Next, an example of film formation by the ALD method will be described using an example of forming an SiN film using DCS and NH ₃ gas.

First, a wafer 200 to be deposited is loaded into a boat 217 and loaded into a processing furnace 202. After carrying in, the following three steps are sequentially executed.

[Step 1]
In Step 1, NH ₃ gas that requires plasma excitation and DC that does not require plasma excitation.
Flow along with S gas. First, the first valve 243a provided in the first gas supply pipe 232a.
And the fourth valve 243d provided in the gas exhaust pipe 231 are both opened, and the NH ₃ gas whose flow rate is adjusted by the first mass flow controller 243a is supplied from the first gas supply pipe 232a to the second gas supply of the nozzle 233. It is ejected from the hole 248b to the buffer chamber 237, and high-frequency power is applied between the first rod-shaped electrode 269 and the second rod-shaped electrode 270 from the high-frequency power source 273 via the matching unit 272 to excite and activate NH _3. The gas is exhausted from the gas exhaust pipe 231 while being supplied to the processing furnace 202 as a seed. When flowing NH ₃ gas as an active species by plasma excitation, the pressure in the processing furnace 202 is adjusted to 10 to 100 P by appropriately adjusting the fourth valve 243d.
a. The supply flow rate of NH ₃ controlled by the first mass flow controller 241a is 100.
0-10000 sccm. The time for which the wafer 200 is exposed to the active species obtained by plasma excitation of NH ₃ is 2 to 120 seconds. At this time, the temperature of the heater 207 is set to be 300 to 600 ° C. for the wafer. Since NH ₃ has a high reaction temperature, it does not react at the above-mentioned wafer temperature. Therefore, the NH ₃ is flowed as an active species by plasma excitation, so that the wafer temperature can be kept in a set low temperature range.

When NH ₃ is supplied as an active species by plasma excitation, the second valve 243b on the upstream side of the second gas supply pipe 232b is opened, and the third valve 243c on the downstream side is opened.
To close the DCS. Thus, the second and third valves 243b and 243c
DCS is stored in a gas reservoir 247 provided therebetween. At this time, the gas flowing in the processing furnace 202 is an active species obtained by plasma exciting NH ₃ , and DCS does not exist.
Therefore, NH ₃ does not cause a gas phase reaction, NH ₃ became active species excited by plasma is base film and the surface reaction on the wafer 200.

[Step 2]
In Step 2, the first valve 243a of the first gas supply pipe 232a is closed, and NH ₃
However, the supply to the gas reservoir 247 is continued. The gas reservoir 247 has a predetermined pressure,
When a predetermined amount of DCS is accumulated, the second valve 243b on the upstream side is also closed, and the DCS is confined in the gas reservoir 247. Further, the fourth valve 243 d of the gas exhaust pipe 231 is kept open, and the processing furnace 202 is exhausted to 20 Pa or less by the vacuum pump 246, and residual NH ₃ is removed from the processing furnace 202. At this time, if an inert gas such as N ₂ is supplied to the processing furnace 202, the effect of eliminating residual NH ₃ is further enhanced. The pressure in the gas reservoir 247 is 20000.
DCS is accumulated so that it may become Pa or more. In addition, the apparatus is configured such that the conductance between the gas reservoir 247 and the processing furnace 202 is 1.5 × 10 ⁻³ m ³ / s or more. Considering the ratio between the volume of the reaction tube 203 and the volume of the necessary gas reservoir 247 for this, in the case of the reaction tube 203 volume of 100 l (liter), it is preferably 100 to 300 cc. The reservoir 247 is preferably 1/1000 to 3/1000 times the volume of the reaction chamber.

[Step 3]
In step 3, when the exhaust of the processing furnace 202 is finished, the fourth valve 2 of the gas exhaust pipe 231 is used.
43d is closed and exhaust is stopped. The third valve 243 on the downstream side of the second gas supply pipe 232b
Open c. As a result, the DCS stored in the gas reservoir 247 is supplied to the processing furnace 202 at once. At this time, since the fourth valve 243d of the gas exhaust pipe 231 is closed, the pressure in the processing furnace 202 is rapidly increased to about 931 Pa (7 Torr). The time for supplying DCS is set to 2 to 4 seconds, and then the time for exposure to the increased pressure atmosphere is set to 2 to 4
Seconds were set for a total of 6 seconds. The wafer temperature at this time is 300 as in the case of supplying NH _3.
~ 600 ° C. By supplying DCS, NH ₃ and DCS on the base film react with each other on the surface,
A SiN film is formed on the wafer 200. After the film formation, the third valve 243c is closed, the fourth valve 243d is opened, and the processing furnace 202 is evacuated to remove the gas after contributing to the film formation of the remaining DCS. At this time, when an inert gas such as N ₂ is supplied to the processing furnace 202,
Further, the effect of removing the gas after contributing to the film formation of the remaining DCS from the processing furnace 202 is enhanced. Also, the second valve 243b is opened to start supplying DCS to the gas reservoir 247.

Steps 1 to 3 are defined as one cycle, and this cycle is repeated a plurality of times to form a SiN film having a predetermined thickness on the wafer.

In the ALD apparatus, the gas is adsorbed on the surface of the base film. The amount of gas adsorption is proportional to the gas pressure and the gas exposure time. Therefore, in order to adsorb a desired amount of gas in a short time, it is necessary to increase the gas pressure in a short time. In this respect, in the present embodiment, the DCS stored in the gas reservoir 247 is instantaneously supplied after the fourth valve 243d is closed, so the DCS pressure in the processing furnace 202 is rapidly increased. The desired amount of gas can be instantaneously adsorbed.

Further, in the present embodiment, while DCS is stored in the gas reservoir 247, NH ₃ gas, which is a necessary step in the ALD method, is excited as plasma to be supplied as active species and the processing furnace 202 is exhausted. As a result, no special steps are required to store the DCS.
In addition, since the NH ₃ gas is removed by evacuating the inside of the processing furnace 202, DCS is flowed, so that they do not react on the way to the wafer 200. The supplied DCS can be effectively reacted only with NH ₃ adsorbed on the wafer 200.

  Next, a protective tube to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIGS.

1 and 2 are simplified views of the processing chamber 201 shown in FIGS. Although overlapping with the above description, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a cylindrical reaction tube 203 made of, for example, quartz having a closed upper end and an opening at the lower end, and the lower end opening of the reaction tube 203 are covered. Seal cap 21
The processing chamber 201 is formed from 9 and the like. A substrate 200 such as a wafer is placed in the processing chamber 201, and the substrate 200 is brought to a desired temperature by a heater 207 (not shown in FIGS. 1 and 2) for heating the substrate, and then a supply pipe (not shown) Then, the processing gas is supplied into the processing chamber 201 so that a desired processing is performed on the substrate 200.

In order to measure the temperature in the processing chamber 201 and control the output of the heater 207 based on this temperature information, the thermocouple 20 is used as a temperature detecting means. The thermocouple 20 is protected by a cylindrical protective tube 50 made of, for example, quartz and is isolated from the atmosphere in the processing chamber 201 in order to avoid the influence of corrosion due to the processing gas.

FIG. 1 shows an example in which the protective tube 50 is provided on the outer wall of the reaction tube 203. The protective tube 50 is provided on the outer wall of the reaction tube 203, and both ends of the protective tube 50 are opened. The thermocouple 20 is inserted into the protective tube 10 from the opening.

FIG. 2 shows an example in which the protective tube 50 is provided on the inner wall of the reaction tube 203. The protective tube 50 allows the protective tube 50 to penetrate from the outside of the processing chamber 201 to the inside so that the thermocouple 20 does not come into contact with the processing gas in the processing chamber 201, and again penetrates from the inside of the processing chamber 201 to the outside. Is provided. Therefore, both ends of the protective tube 50 are installed outside the processing chamber 201. Moreover, the edge part of the both ends of the said protective tube 50 is opened, and the thermocouple 20 is inserted in the said protective tube 10 from the said opening. In addition, since both the openings of the protective tube 50 are provided outside the processing chamber 201,
The thermocouple 20 installed in the protective tube 50 does not touch the processing gas.

As described above, since both ends of the protective tube 50 for protecting the thermocouple 20 are formed in an opening shape, the protective tube 50 is matched with the outer shape of the thermocouple 20 to form a thin tube shape with little play, and a cleaning liquid is contained in the protective tube 50. Even if water enters, the influence of the surface tension of water is small, and the cleaning liquid that has entered the protective tube 50 is quickly discharged. Further, as shown by reference numeral 40, if a gas such as air or inert gas is supplied from one opening of the protective tube 50, the cleaning liquid remaining in the protective tube 50 can be pushed out and discharged quickly, and the protection A drying operation in the tube 50 can also be performed. Accordingly, the cleaning operation (cleaning time) of the reaction tube 203 can be shortened, and the throughput of the substrate processing apparatus can be improved. Even when a dangerous liquid such as hydrofluoric acid is used as the cleaning liquid, the cleaning liquid in the protective tube 50 can be completely removed. The possibility of touching the cleaning solution is eliminated.

In addition, in embodiment of this invention, although the protective tube 50 which protects the thermocouple 20 was demonstrated, it is not limited to this. For example, the electrode protection tube 2 that isolates the first rod-shaped electrode 269 and the second rod-shaped electrode 270 shown in FIG. 6 from the atmosphere in the processing chamber 201 (in the buffer chamber 237).
You may apply to 75. That is, since the first rod-shaped electrode 269 and the second rod-shaped electrode 270 generate plasma in the buffer chamber 237 and need to be provided in the buffer chamber 237, the central portion of the protective tube as shown in FIG. May be provided in the processing chamber and both end portions may be provided outside the processing chamber.

Schematic showing a protective tube to which the present invention is applied (1) Schematic (2) which shows the protective tube with which this invention is applied The oblique view which shows the substrate processing apparatus of this invention. Sectional drawing which shows the substrate processing apparatus of this invention. It is a schematic structure figure of the vertical type substrate processing furnace concerning an embodiment of the invention, and is a figure showing the processing furnace part in the longitudinal section. It is a schematic structure figure of a vertical type substrate processing furnace concerning an embodiment of the invention, and is a figure showing a processing furnace part in a cross section. Schematic explaining a conventional protective tube (1) Schematic explaining a conventional protective tube (2)

Explanation of symbols

10 protection tube 20 thermocouple 50 protection tube 200 wafer 201 processing chamber 203 reaction tube 207 heater 217 boat 219 seal cap 232a first gas supply tube 232b second gas supply tube 237 buffer chamber 246 vacuum pump 248a first gas supply Hole 248b Second gas supply hole 248c Third gas supply hole 249 Gas supply portion 269 First rod-shaped electrode 270 Second rod-shaped electrode

Claims (1)

A reaction tube that forms a space for accommodating and processing the substrate;
A substrate processing apparatus having a protective tube provided on an inner wall or an outer wall of the reaction tube,
The substrate processing apparatus, wherein the protective tube is formed in a cylindrical shape, and both ends thereof are open.

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