JP2005340281A - Substrate treatment device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a substrate treatment device in which self-cleaning can more securely be performed. <P>SOLUTION: Self-cleaning in a device forming a high dielectric constant film of Al<SB>2</SB>O<SB>3</SB>, HfO<SB>2</SB>or Ta<SB>2</SB>O<SB>5</SB>is performed by supplying Cl<SB>2</SB>gas into a treatment furnace 202 from a Cl<SB>2</SB>supply line 232f. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus, and more particularly to a substrate processing apparatus for forming a film by an ALD (Atomic layer Deposition) method used when manufacturing a Si semiconductor device.

First, a film forming process using the ALD method will be briefly described.
In the ALD method, under a certain film formation condition (temperature, time, etc.), two types (or more) of source gases used for film formation are alternately supplied onto the substrate one by one and adsorbed in units of one atomic layer. This is a technique for performing film formation by utilizing surface reaction.

That is, for example, when an Al ₂ O ₃ (aluminum oxide) film is formed, TMA (Al (CH ₃ ) ₃ , trimethylaluminum) and O ₃ (ozone) are alternately supplied using the ALD method. Enables high-quality film formation at a low temperature of 250 to 450 ° C. Thus, in the ALD method, film formation is performed by alternately supplying 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, assuming that the film formation rate is 1 mm / cycle, when a film of 20 mm is formed, the film forming process is performed 20 cycles.

As such an ALD apparatus for forming an Al ₂ O ₃ film, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-293953 proposes a vertical batch type apparatus that stacks and processes a plurality of substrates.
Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-293953

In such a film forming apparatus, self-cleaning is performed by flowing a gas containing fluorine such as ClF ₃ gas into the reaction container in order to remove the Al ₂ O ₃ film adhering to the inner wall surface of the processing container.

However, in self-cleaning using a gas containing fluorine such as ClF ₃ gas, a film residue of the Al ₂ O ₃ film adhering to the inner wall surface of the processing container is generated.

  Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus that can perform self-cleaning more reliably.

According to the present invention, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus characterized in that self-cleaning is performed using Cl ₂ .

Preferably, the apparatus further includes a mechanism for introducing atomic hydrogen separated by exciting the hydride gas into the processing container of the substrate processing apparatus. By providing this mechanism, atomic chlorine adhering to the inner wall surface of the processing container of the substrate processing apparatus can be desorbed. As this mechanism, a remote plasma generation mechanism is preferably used. As the hydride gas, H ₂ gas is preferably used. It is also preferable to use NH ₃ gas as the hydride gas.

In addition, preferably, a mechanism for exciting the rare gas plasma with irradiation of Cl ₂ is further provided. Ar is preferably used as the rare gas. It is also preferable to use He. In order to irradiate Cl ₂ with rare gas plasma, a remote plasma mechanism is preferably used.

The substrate processing apparatus is preferably a film forming apparatus for forming a film on a substrate. The film to be formed is preferably a high dielectric constant film. Suitable examples of the high dielectric constant film include Al ₂ O ₃ , HfO _{2 and} Ta ₂ O ₅ .

  In addition, according to the present invention, a cleaning method using the substrate processing apparatus is provided.

  Moreover, according to this invention, the manufacturing method of the device using the said substrate processing apparatus is provided.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the substrate processing apparatus which can perform self-cleaning more reliably is provided.

  Next, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In this embodiment, self-cleaning is performed using Cl ₂ . At the end of self-cleaning, residual chlorine is removed from the quartz surface or stainless steel surface of the reaction vessel by atomic hydrogen separated by exciting the hydrogen gas.

When a device having a high dielectric constant film such as Al ₂ O ₃ or HfO ₂ adhered to the inner wall surface of the processing vessel is self-cleaned with a fluorine-based gas, the generated Al fluorine compound or Hf fluorine compound has a sublimation temperature or boiling point. Is high and remains as a solid on the inner wall of the processing vessel.

On the other hand, the sublimation temperature of the chlorine compound of Al or the chlorine compound of Hf generated when performing self-cleaning using Cl ₂ can be eliminated in a gas state since the sublimation temperature is 600 ° C. or lower. Table 1 shows the sublimation temperature of each compound.

In addition, when Cl ₂ is used as a cleaning gas, atomic chlorine remains on the stainless steel surface of the reaction vessel, and when the air enters the reaction vessel, the atomic chlorine reacts with moisture and corrodes the stainless steel surface. End up. In order to prevent this, at the final stage of the cleaning step, atomic hydrogen is supplied to form HCl having a binding energy larger than the binding energy of each metal element constituting the stainless steel and chlorine (see Table 2). Residual chlorine is discharged in the state.

Next, a more detailed description will be given with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a vertical substrate processing furnace according to the present embodiment, showing a processing furnace portion in a vertical cross section, and FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a vertical substrate processing furnace according to the present embodiment. Yes, the processing furnace part is shown in cross section. FIG. 3 is a view for explaining the nozzle 233 of the vertical substrate processing furnace in the substrate processing apparatus of the present embodiment, FIG. 3A is a schematic view, and FIG. 3B is a partially enlarged view of part A of FIG. 3A. is there.

  A reaction tube 203 is provided inside the heater 207 as a heating means as a reaction vessel for processing the wafer 200 as a substrate, and a manifold 209 made of, for example, stainless steel is engaged with the lower end of the reaction tube 203. The lower end opening is hermetically closed by a seal cap 219 as a lid through an O-ring 220 as an airtight member, and at least the heater 207, the reaction tube 203, the manifold 209, and the seal cap 219 form a processing furnace 202. doing. The manifold 209 is fixed to holding means (hereinafter referred to as a heater base 251).

  An annular flange is provided at each of the lower end portion of the reaction tube 203 and the upper opening end portion of the manifold 209, and an airtight member (hereinafter referred to as an O-ring 220) is disposed between these flanges. Has been.

  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 217. 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.

  Three gas supply pipes 232a, 232b, and 232e are provided as supply pipes for supplying gas to the processing furnace 202. The gas supply pipes 232a, 232b, and 232e are provided through the lower portion of the manifold 209.

The gas supply pipe 232 b merges with the gas supply pipe 232 a in the processing furnace 202, and the two gas supply pipes 232 a and 232 b communicate with one porous nozzle 233. The nozzle 233 is provided in the processing furnace 202, and its upper portion extends in a region that is equal to or higher than the decomposition temperature of TMA supplied from the gas supply pipe 232b. However, the location where the gas supply pipe 232b merges with the gas supply pipe 232a in the processing furnace 202 is an area below the decomposition temperature of TMA, and is in an area where the temperature is lower than the temperature of the wafer 200 and the vicinity of the wafer 200. is there. Here, the reaction gas is supplied from the gas supply pipe 232a to the processing furnace 202 through a mass flow controller 241a serving as a flow rate control unit and a valve 243a serving as an on-off valve, and further through a porous nozzle 233 installed in the processing furnace 202 described later. (O ₃ ) is supplied from the gas supply pipe 232b through the mass flow controller 241b as the flow rate control means, the valve 252 as the on-off valve, the TMA container 260, and the valve 250 as the on-off valve. A reactive gas (TMA) is supplied to the processing furnace 202 via the nozzle 233. A heater 300 is provided in the gas supply pipe 232b from the TMA container 260 to the manifold 209, and the gas supply pipe 232b is maintained at 50 to 60 ° C.

  An inert gas line 232 c is connected to the gas supply pipe 232 b on the downstream side of the valve 250 via the open / close valve 253. Further, an inert gas line 232d is connected to the gas supply pipe 232a on the downstream side of the valve 243a via an opening / closing valve 254.

A Cl ₂ gas line 232f is connected to the gas supply pipe 232b downstream of the inert gas line 232c via a mass flow controller 241f as a flow rate control means and a valve 256 as an on-off valve.

  A nozzle 233 is disposed along the loading direction of the wafer 200 from the lower part to the upper part of the reaction tube 203. The nozzle 233 is provided with gas supply holes 248b which are supply holes for supplying a plurality of gases.

  Hydrogen or Ar is supplied from the gas supply pipe 232e to the processing furnace 202 through a mass flow controller 241e as a flow rate control means and a valve 255 as an on-off valve, and further through a buffer chamber 237 formed in a reaction pipe 203 described later. Is done.

  In the arc-shaped space between the inner wall of the reaction tube 203 and the wafer 200, a buffer chamber 237, which is a gas dispersion space, is provided along the loading direction of the wafer 200 on the inner wall above the lower portion of the reaction tube 203. A gas supply hole 248a which is a supply hole for supplying a gas is provided in the vicinity of the end of the inner wall adjacent to the wafer 200 in the buffer chamber 237. The gas supply hole 248 a opens toward the center of the reaction tube 203.

In the vicinity of the end of the buffer chamber 237 opposite to the end where the gas supply hole 248a is provided, a nozzle 234 is also disposed along the stacking direction of the wafer 200 from the lower part to the upper part of the reaction tube 203. Yes. The nozzle 234 is provided with a plurality of gas supply holes 248b that are gas supply holes.
The gas ejected from the gas supply hole 248b can be ejected into the buffer chamber 237 and once introduced to make the gas flow rate difference uniform.

  That is, in the buffer chamber 237, the gas ejected from each gas supply hole 248b is ejected from the gas supply hole 248a to the processing chamber 201 after the particle velocity of each gas is reduced in the buffer chamber 237. During this time, the gas ejected from each gas supply hole 248b can be a gas having a uniform flow rate and flow velocity when ejected from each gas supply hole 248a.

  Further, a rod-shaped electrode 269 and a rod-shaped electrode 270 having an elongated structure are disposed in the buffer chamber 237 while being protected by an electrode protection tube 275 that protects the electrode from the upper part to the lower part, and the rod-shaped electrode 269 or the rod-shaped electrode. Any one of 270 is connected to the high frequency power supply 273 via the matching device 272, and the other is connected to the ground which is a reference potential. As a result, plasma is generated in the plasma generation region 224 between the rod-shaped electrode 269 and the rod-shaped electrode 270.

  The electrode protection tube 275 has a structure in which each of the rod-shaped electrode 269 and the 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 rod-shaped electrode 269 and the rod-shaped electrode 270 inserted into the electrode protection tube 275 are oxidized by the heating of the heater 207. Therefore, an inert gas purge mechanism is provided for filling or purging the inside of the electrode protection tube 275 with an inert gas such as nitrogen to prevent oxidation of the rod-shaped electrode 269 or the rod-shaped electrode 270 by suppressing the oxygen concentration sufficiently low.

  The processing furnace 202 is connected to a vacuum pump 246 which is an exhaust means through a valve 243d by a gas exhaust pipe 231 which is an exhaust pipe for exhausting gas, and is evacuated. The 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.

  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. Further, in order to improve the uniformity of processing, a boat rotation mechanism 267 that is a rotation means for rotating the boat 217 is provided. By rotating the boat rotation mechanism 267, the boat 217 held by the quartz cap 218 is removed. It is designed to rotate.

  The controller 121 which is a control means includes mass flow controllers 241a, 241b, 241e, valves 243a, 252, 250, 243d, 253, 254, 255, a heater 207, a vacuum pump 246, a boat rotating mechanism 267, and a boat lifting mechanism not shown in the figure. The flow rate adjustment of the mass flow controllers 241a, 241b, the opening / closing operation of the valves 243a, 252, 250, 253, 254, 255, the opening / closing and pressure adjusting operations of the valve 243d, the temperature adjustment of the heater 207, the vacuum pump 246 Controls such as start / stop, adjustment of the rotation speed of the boat rotation mechanism 267, and the lifting operation of the boat lifting mechanism are performed.

Next, as an example of film formation by the ALD method, a case where an Al ₂ O ₃ film is formed using TMA and O ₃ gas will be described.
First, a semiconductor silicon wafer 200 to be formed 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, O ₃ gas is flowed. First, the valve 243a provided in the gas supply pipe 232a and the valve 243d provided in the gas exhaust pipe 231 are both opened, and O ₃ gas whose flow rate is adjusted by the mass flow controller 243a from the gas supply pipe 232a is supplied to the gas supply hole 248b of the nozzle 233. From the gas exhaust pipe 231 while being supplied to the processing furnace 202. When the O ₃ gas is allowed to flow, the pressure in the processing furnace 202 is set to 10 to 100 Pa by appropriately adjusting the valve 243d. The supply flow rate of O ₃ controlled by the mass flow controller 241a is 1000 to 10000 sccm. The time for exposing the wafer 200 to O ₃ is 2 to 120 seconds. The heater 207 temperature at this time is set so that the wafer temperature is 250 to 450 ° C.

At the same time, when the opening / closing valve 253 is opened from the inert gas line 232c connected to the middle of the gas supply pipe 232b to flow the inert gas, it is possible to prevent the O ₃ gas from flowing into the TMA side.

At this time, the gases flowing into the processing furnace 202 are only inert gases such as O ₃ , N ₂ , and Ar, and there is no TMA. Therefore, O ₃ does not cause a gas phase reaction, and reacts with the underlying film on the wafer 200.

[Step 2]
In step 2, the valve 243a of the gas supply pipe 232a is closed to stop the supply of O ₃ . Further, the 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 O ₃ is removed from the processing furnace 202. Further, at this time, if an inert gas such as N ₂ is supplied to the processing furnace 202 from the gas supply pipe 232a as the O ₃ supply line and the gas supply pipe 232b as the TMA supply line, the residual O ₃ is eliminated. Is further increased.

[Step 3]
In step 3, TMA gas is flowed. TMA is liquid at room temperature, and in order to supply it to the processing furnace 202, a method of supplying it after heating and vaporizing, passing an inert gas such as nitrogen or rare gas called carrier gas through the TMA container 260, There is a method of supplying the vaporized part to the processing furnace together with the carrier gas, and the latter case will be described as an example. First, the valve 252 provided in the carrier gas supply pipe 232b, the valve 250 provided between the TMA container 260 and the processing furnace 202, and the valve 243d provided in the gas exhaust pipe 231 are opened, and the mass flow from the carrier gas supply pipe 232b is performed. The carrier gas whose flow rate is adjusted by the controller 241b passes through the TMA container 260 and is exhausted from the gas exhaust pipe 231 while being supplied to the processing furnace 202 from the gas supply hole 248b of the nozzle 233 as a mixed gas of TMA and carrier gas. When flowing the TMA gas, the valve 243d is appropriately adjusted so that the pressure in the processing furnace 202 is 10 to 900 Pa. The supply flow rate of the carrier gas controlled by the mass flow controller 241a is 10000 sccm or less. The time for supplying TMA is set to 1 to 4 seconds. Thereafter, the time for exposure to an elevated pressure atmosphere for further adsorption may be set to 0 to 4 seconds. The wafer temperature at this time is 250 to 450 ° C. as in the case of supplying O ₃ . By supplying TMA, O ₃ on the base film and TMA react with each other to form an Al ₂ O ₃ film on the wafer 200.

At the same time, when the opening / closing valve 254 is opened from the inert gas line 232d connected in the middle of the gas supply pipe 232a to flow the inert gas, it is possible to prevent the TMA gas from flowing into the O ₃ side.

After the film formation, the valve 250 is closed, the valve 243d is opened, and the processing furnace 202 is evacuated to remove the gas after contributing to the film formation of the remaining TMA. At this time, if an inert gas such as N ₂ is supplied to the processing furnace 202 from the gas supply pipe 232a which is an O ₃ supply line and the gas supply pipe 232b which is a TMA supply line, respectively, the remaining TMA is deposited. The effect of removing the contributed gas from the processing furnace 202 is enhanced.

Steps 1 to 3 are defined as one cycle, and this cycle is repeated a plurality of times to form an Al ₂ O ₃ film having a predetermined thickness on the wafer 200.

Since the inside of the processing furnace 202 is evacuated to remove the O ₃ gas, TMA is flown, so that they do not react on the way to the wafer 200. The supplied TMA can effectively react only with O ₃ adsorbed on the wafer 200.

Further, the gas supply pipe 232a which is an O ₃ supply line and the gas supply pipe 232b which is a TMA supply line are merged in the processing furnace 202, whereby TMA and O ₃ are alternately adsorbed and reacted in the nozzle 233 and deposited. The film can be made of Al ₂ O _3, and when TMA and O ₃ are supplied by separate nozzles, the problem of generating an Al film that can become a foreign matter generation source in the TMA nozzle can be eliminated. it can. Since the Al ₂ O ₃ film has better adhesion than the Al film and is less likely to peel off, it is less likely to become a foreign matter generation source.

In this way, whenever the Al ₂ O ₃ film is formed a predetermined number of times by the ALD method, the Al deposited on the inner wall surface of the quartz reaction tube 203 and the inner wall surface of the stainless steel manifold 209 are processed. Self-cleaning of the ₂ O ₃ film is performed.

In the self-cleaning, after the boat 217 is carried out from the processing furnace 202, the valves 243a, 250, 253, 254, 255 are closed and the valves 256, 342d are closed while the lower end opening of the manifold 209 is airtightly closed by the seal cap 219. The gas exhaust pipe 231 is exhausted while the Cl ₂ gas line 232f is opened and the flow rate of the Cl ₂ gas adjusted by the mass flow controller 241f is supplied from the gas supply hole 248b of the nozzle 233 to the processing furnace 202. When the Cl ₂ gas is allowed to flow, the pressure in the processing furnace 202 is adjusted to 30 to 10,000 Pa by appropriately adjusting the valve 243d. The wafer temperature at this time is 200-500 degreeC. Cl ₂ gas is allowed to flow for 1 to 300 minutes. In this way, when self-cleaning of the Al ₂ O ₃ film deposited on the inner wall surface of the quartz reaction tube 203 and the inner wall surface of the stainless steel manifold 209 is performed, Al forms a chlorine compound. Thus, it is excluded from the processing furnace 202 in a gas state.

  Thereafter, the valve 256 is closed, and the inside of the processing furnace 202 is exhausted through the gas exhaust pipe 231.

Next, with both the valve 255 and the valve 243d opened, the H ₂ gas whose flow rate is adjusted by the mass flow controller 243e from the gas supply pipe 232e is ejected from the gas supply hole 248b of the nozzle 234 to the buffer chamber 237, and the rod-shaped electrode 269 The high-frequency power is applied between the rod-shaped electrode 270 from the high-frequency power source 273 via the matching unit 272 to excite H _2, and the exhaust gas is exhausted from the gas exhaust pipe 231 while being supplied to the processing furnace 202 as the remote plasma as the active species . When flowing the H ₂ gas as the active species by plasma excitation is properly adjusted and 10~200Pa the pressure in the processing chamber 201 by a valve 243 d. The temperature of the heater 207 at this time is set so that the inside of the processing furnace 202 is 200 to 600 ° C. The time for flowing plasma-excited H ₂ gas is 1 to 300 minutes.

When Cl ₂ is used as the cleaning gas, the atomic chlorine remains on the stainless steel surface of the manifold 209, and the atomic chlorine becomes moisture at the time of air mixing when the seal cap 219 is lowered to open the lower end opening of the manifold 209. In this way, at the final stage of the cleaning step, supplying atomic hydrogen is greater than the binding energy between each metal element constituting the stainless steel and chlorine. HCl having binding energy can be formed, and residual chlorine can be discharged in a gas state.

In the above description, the self-cleaning is performed by supplying the Cl ₂ gas from the Cl ₂ gas line 232f to the processing furnace 202. However, while supplying the Cl ₂ gas from the Cl ₂ gas line 232f to the processing furnace 202, The valve 255 is also opened, and Ar gas whose flow rate is adjusted by the mass flow controller 243e is ejected from the gas supply pipe 232e to the buffer chamber 237 from the gas supply hole 248b of the nozzle 234, and from the high-frequency power source 273 between the rod-shaped electrode 269 and the rod-shaped electrode 270. High frequency power may be applied via the matching device 272 to excite Ar to be supplied to the processing furnace 202 as remote plasma that is an active species. In this way, Cl ₂ is excited by irradiating Cl ₂ with Ar plasma, and self-cleaning can be performed more efficiently.

In this case, the pressure in the processing chamber 201 is set to 10 to 200 Pa by appropriately adjusting the valve 243d. At this time, the temperature of the heater 207 is set so that the inside of the processing furnace 202 is 200 to 500 ° C. The time for flowing Cl ₂ gas and plasma-excited Ar gas is 1 to 100 minutes.

  Thereafter, the valves 255 and 256 are closed, and the inside of the processing furnace 202 is exhausted through the gas exhaust pipe 231.

Next, with both the valve 255 and the valve 243d opened, the H ₂ gas whose flow rate is adjusted by the mass flow controller 243e from the gas supply pipe 232e is ejected from the gas supply hole 248b of the nozzle 234 to the buffer chamber 237, and the rod-shaped electrode 269 The high-frequency power is applied between the rod-shaped electrode 270 from the high-frequency power source 273 via the matching unit 272 to excite H _2, and the exhaust gas is exhausted from the gas exhaust pipe 231 while being supplied to the processing furnace 202 as the remote plasma as the active species . When flowing the H ₂ gas as the active species by plasma excitation is properly adjusted and 10~200Pa the pressure in the processing chamber 201 by a valve 243 d. The temperature of the heater 207 at this time is set so that the inside of the processing furnace 202 is 200 to 600 ° C. The time for flowing plasma-excited H ₂ gas is 1 to 30 minutes.

In the above embodiment, since Cl ₂ is used as the cleaning gas, self-cleaning can be performed more reliably than in the case where a fluorine-containing material is used as the cleaning gas. As a result, throughput is improved and maintainability is also improved.

In the above description, the film formation of the Al ₂ O ₃ film has been described as an example. However, the present invention can be suitably applied to the film formation of the HfO ₂ film and the Ta ₂ O ₅ film.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 4, the outline about the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus which is an example of the substrate processing apparatus to which this invention is applied suitably is demonstrated.

  A cassette stage 105 is provided on the front side of the inside of the housing 101 as a holder 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 means for placing 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 that clean air is circulated inside the housing 101.

  A processing furnace 202 is provided above the rear portion of the housing 101, and a boat 217 as a substrate holding unit that holds the wafers 200 as substrates in a horizontal posture in multiple stages is raised and lowered to the processing furnace 202 below the processing furnace 202. A boat elevator 121 as an elevating means is provided, and a seal cap 219 as a lid is attached to the tip of an 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 113 as an elevating means is provided, and a wafer transfer machine 112 as a transfer means is attached to the transfer elevator 113. Further, a furnace port shutter 116 as a shielding member having an opening / closing mechanism and closing the lower surface of the processing furnace 202 is provided beside the boat elevator 121.

  The cassette 100 loaded with the wafers 200 is loaded from the external transfer device (not shown) onto the cassette stage 105 in an upward posture, and is rotated by 90 ° C. on the cassette stage 105 so that the wafer 200 is in a horizontal posture. Further, the cassette 100 is transported 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.

  The cassette shelf 109 has a transfer shelf 123 in which the cassette 100 to be transferred by the wafer transfer device 112 is stored. The cassette 100 to which the wafer 200 is transferred is transferred by the cassette elevator 115 and the cassette transfer device 114. Transferred to the transfer shelf 123.

  When the cassette 100 is transferred to the transfer shelf 123, the wafers 200 are transferred from the transfer shelf 123 to the boat 217 in a lowered state by the cooperation of the advance / retreat operation, the rotation operation, and the lifting / lowering operation of the transfer elevator 113. Is transferred.

  When a predetermined number of wafers 200 are transferred to the boat 217, the boat 217 is inserted into the processing furnace 202 by the boat elevator 121, and the processing furnace 202 is hermetically closed by the seal cap 219. In the processing furnace 202 that is hermetically closed, the wafer 200 is heated 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 operation described above, and the cassette 100 is transferred from the transfer shelf 123 by the cassette transfer device 114. It is transferred to the cassette stage 105 and carried out of the housing 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.

It is a schematic longitudinal cross-sectional view of the vertical substrate processing furnace in the substrate processing apparatus of one Example of this invention. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a vertical substrate processing furnace in a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 3A and 3B are diagrams for explaining a nozzle 233 of a vertical substrate processing furnace in a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3A is a schematic view, and FIG. 3B is a partially enlarged view of part A in FIG. . It is a schematic oblique view for demonstrating the substrate processing apparatus of one embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

121 ... Controller 200 ... Wafer 202 ... Processing furnace 203 ... Reaction tube 207 ... Heater 209 ... Manifold 217 ... Boat 218 ... Quartz cap 219 ... Seal cap 220 ... O-ring 231 ... Gas exhaust pipe 232a ... Gas supply pipe 232b ... Gas supply pipe 232c ... Inert gas line 232d ... Inert gas line 232e ... Gas supply pipe 232f ... Cl ₂ gas line 233 ... Nozzle 241a ... Mass flow controller 241b ... Mass flow controller 241e ... Mass flow controller 241f ... Mass flow controller 243a ... Valve 243d ... Valve 246 ... Vacuum pump 248b ... Gas supply hole 250 ... Valve 251 ... Heater base 252 ... Valve 253 ... Valve 254 ... Valve 255 ... Valve 256 ... Valve 26 0 ... TMA container 267 ... Boat rotation mechanism 300 ... Heater

Claims (1)

A substrate processing apparatus that performs self-cleaning using Cl ₂ .

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