JP2009295905A - Substrate treatment device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To uniformly and efficiently heat a wafer. <P>SOLUTION: In a single-wafer type plasma treatment device 10 equipped with a dielectric dome 13 forming a treatment chamber 12 along with a housing 11; a high-frequency power source 15 supplying high-frequency power to a coil 14 through a matching unit 16; an exhaust tube 20 for exhausting the inside of the treatment chamber 12; a gas introduction tube 22 for introducing gas into the treatment chamber 12; and a susceptor 23 holding a wafer 1 in the treatment chamber 12, a microwave absorption plate 24 is mounted on the susceptor 23, a cavity 26 for introducing microwaves therein is formed under the susceptor 23; and a partition plate 27 having a microwave introduction opening 37 is vertically-movably arranged on the bottom of the cavity 26. A microwave power source 31 is installed on a support base 30 horizontally fixed to the shaft 29 of an elevator 28 installed below the partition plate 27, and the microwave power source 31 is connected to the microwave introduction opening 37 through a plurality of waveguides, an isolator 33 and a matching unit 35. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus.
For example, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a semiconductor integrated circuit device (hereinafter referred to as an IC) that performs processing on a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as a wafer) on which an IC is fabricated.

In the IC manufacturing method, there is a single-wafer type plasma processing apparatus as a substrate processing apparatus for performing plasma processing on a wafer.
A conventional single-wafer plasma processing apparatus includes a processing chamber for processing wafers one by one, an exhaust pipe for decompressing the processing chamber, a light absorption plate provided on a susceptor in the processing chamber, and a light absorption plate. A lamp heater for heating the wafer from below and a plasma generator for generating plasma in the processing chamber, and plasma processing is performed one by one while the wafer is heated by the lamp heater in the processing chamber under reduced pressure. Yes.

However, in the above-described single wafer plasma processing apparatus, the heating of the wafer is performed by absorbing the light energy emitted from the lamp heater by the light absorption plate and transmitting the heat generated by the light absorption plate to the wafer. There is a point.
1) It is difficult to uniformly heat the light emitted from the lamp heater to the light absorption plate, so it is difficult to heat the wafer uniformly.
2) A part of the light emitted by the lamp is absorbed by a member other than the light absorbing plate and heats the member, so that the efficiency as a heating source is poor.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus capable of heating a substrate to be processed uniformly and efficiently.

Typical means for solving the above-described problems are as follows.
(1) A substrate processing apparatus for processing substrates one by one in a processing chamber under reduced pressure,
A substrate processing apparatus for heating the substrate in the processing chamber using a microwave.
(2) The substrate processing apparatus according to (1), wherein the microwave is irradiated from the back side of the substrate.
(3) The substrate processing apparatus according to (1), wherein a cavity for introducing the microwave is provided below the substrate.
(4) The substrate processing apparatus according to (3), wherein a part of the wall in which the cavity is formed is configured to be movable in a direction perpendicular to the wall, and the standing wave state of the microwave in the cavity is changed.
(5) The substrate processing apparatus according to (3), wherein a stirrer fan is provided in the cavity to continuously change the standing wave state of the microwave in the cavity.

  According to the above-described means, the substrate to be processed can be heated uniformly and efficiently.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  In this embodiment, the substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention is configured as a single wafer plasma processing apparatus 10 as shown in FIG. 1, and a wafer as a substrate to be processed is placed in a processing chamber under reduced pressure. It is configured to process one by one.

The single-wafer plasma processing apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 1 includes a casing 11, and the casing 11 constitutes a processing chamber 12 together with a dielectric dome 13. The processing chamber 12 is configured to be airtight.
A coil 14 for generating plasma in the processing chamber 12 is provided outside the dielectric dome 13, and a high frequency power source 15 and a matching unit 16 are connected to the coil 14. High-frequency power output from the high-frequency power supply 15 is supplied to the coil 14 via the matching unit 16, thereby generating a plasma 17 in the processing chamber 12.
The housing 11 is formed in a substantially double cylindrical shape, and a space between the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder forms a buffer chamber 18. An exhaust port 19 is opened at the lower end of the outer cylinder of the housing 11 so as to communicate with the buffer chamber 18, and one end of an exhaust pipe 20 is connected to the exhaust port 19. The other end of the exhaust pipe 20 is connected to a pump 21, and the pump 21 exhausts the buffer chamber 18 through the exhaust pipe 20 and the exhaust port 19.
One end of a gas introduction pipe 22 is connected to the housing 11, and the other end of the gas introduction pipe 22 is connected to a gas supply device (not shown). The gas introduction pipe 22 introduces the gas from the gas supply device into the processing chamber 12. The gas introduced from the gas introduction pipe 22 into the processing chamber 12 is converted into plasma in the processing chamber 12, and the wafer 1 is plasma processed by the plasma 17 and active species generated by the plasma 17.

A susceptor 23 is provided at the upper end of the inner cylinder in the processing chamber 12. The susceptor 23 is formed in a substantially disc shape using quartz (SiO ₂ ). A microwave absorbing plate 24 is placed on the susceptor 23. The microwave absorbing plate 24 is made of a material that absorbs microwaves of 2.45 GHz (for example, silicon) and is formed in a disk shape slightly larger than the wafer 1.
A cover ring 25 is provided outside the susceptor 23. The cover ring 25 is formed in a circular ring shape having an inner diameter larger than the outer diameter of the wafer 1 and an outer diameter larger than the outer diameter of the susceptor 23, and contaminants from members near the wafer 1 exposed to the plasma 17. It has a structure that suppresses the occurrence.

An inner cylindrical hollow portion of the housing 11 constitutes a cavity 26 for introducing microwaves, and a partition plate 27 is disposed on the bottom of the cavity 26 so as to be movable up and down.
An elevator 28 is installed below the partition plate 27 of the housing 11, and a support base 30 is horizontally fixed to a shaft 29 of the elevator 28. A microwave power source 31 is installed on the support base 30, and an isolator 33 is connected to the microwave power source 31 via a waveguide 32. A matching unit 35 is connected to the isolator 33 via a waveguide 34. The matching unit 35 is connected to a microwave introduction port 37 provided in the partition plate 27 via a waveguide 36.
The elevator 28 can raise and lower the partition plate 27 by raising and lowering the support base 30 by the shaft 29. The standing wave of the microwave introduced into the cavity 26 by raising and lowering the partition plate 27. Change the state of.

  Next, the operation of the single wafer plasma processing apparatus according to the above configuration will be described.

The inside of the buffer chamber 18 and the inside of the processing chamber 12 are exhausted by the pump 21 via the exhaust pipe 20 and the exhaust port 19 and reduced to a predetermined pressure.
Thereafter, the wafer 1 is placed on the microwave absorbing plate 24 by a wafer transfer device (not shown). At this time, the microwave absorbing plate 24 is held at a predetermined temperature by the microwave.
As an example, a case where the temperature of the wafer 1 is heated to 900 ° C. will be described.
When the wafer 1 is transported, the output of the microwave power supply 31 is controlled so that the temperature of the microwave absorbing plate 24 is 300 ° C., and after the wafer is transported, the wafer 1 is kept waiting for about 30 seconds. After the temperature becomes substantially the same as the temperature of the plate 24, the input amount of the microwave power is increased to raise the temperature of the microwave absorbing plate 24.
At this time, the microwave is reflected by the conductive wall in the cavity 26, and most of the microwave power is absorbed by the microwave absorbing plate 24, so that it is heated efficiently.
When 2.45 GHz is used as the frequency of the microwave, the high energy portion of the microwave is localized, the absorption in the microwave absorbing plate 24 is biased, and the heating of the wafer 1 may be uneven.
When the microwave is introduced into the cavity 26, adjustment is made by the matching unit 35 so that reflection is minimized.
However, when the adjustment is difficult, the partition plate 27 which is a part of the wall of the cavity 26 is moved up and down by the elevator 28 to find an optimum position where the reflected wave power becomes 0 watt [W].

  After a constant flow of reactive gas is introduced from the gas introduction pipe 22 and the pressure in the processing chamber 12 is set to a predetermined value, the high frequency power output from the high frequency power supply 15 is applied to the coil 14 via the matching unit 16. Then, plasma 17 is generated in the processing chamber 12, and the plasma 17 and active species are supplied to the wafer 1, so that predetermined plasma processing is performed on the wafer 1.

  According to the embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.

1) The wafer can be efficiently heated by using the microwave.

2) The return of the reflected wave power to the microwave source can be minimized by moving the partition plate constituting the bottom wall of the cavity in the vertical direction to change the structure of the cavity.

FIG. 2 shows a single wafer plasma processing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.
This embodiment is different from the above-described embodiment in that a stirrer fan 39 rotated by a motor 38 is replaced with a partition plate 27 constituting the bottom wall of the cavity 26 in order to change the state of the microwave standing wave in the cavity 26. It is a point installed in.
When 2.45 GHz is used as the frequency of the microwave, the high energy portion of the microwave is localized, the absorption in the microwave absorbing plate 24 is biased, and the heating of the wafer 1 may be uneven.
In order to improve this, the stirrer fan 39 is rotated by the motor 38, thereby changing the standing wave state with time and improving the non-uniformity of the microwave absorbed by the microwave absorbing plate 24.
By rotating the star fan 39, the standing wave state can be periodically changed in a short time, so that the distribution of the microwave energy in the cavity 26 can be made uniform quickly.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, It cannot be overemphasized that it can change variously in the range which does not deviate from the summary.

  For example, when a stirrer fan is provided, the elevator may be omitted.

  Although the single-wafer plasma processing apparatus has been described in the above embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to general substrate processing apparatuses such as a heat treatment apparatus using a thermochemical reaction.

  The substrate to be processed is not limited to a silicon wafer, but includes all substrates such as compound semiconductor wafers, liquid crystal panels, magnetic disks, and optical disks.

It is front sectional drawing which shows the single wafer type plasma processing apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is front sectional drawing which shows the single wafer type plasma processing apparatus which concerns on other embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 ... wafer (substrate to be processed),
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Substrate processing apparatus (sheet-type plasma processing apparatus), 11 ... Housing, 12 ... Processing chamber,
13 ... Dielectric dome, 14 ... Coil, 15 ... High frequency power supply, 16 ... Matching device, 17 ... Plasma,
18 ... buffer chamber, 19 ... exhaust port, 20 ... exhaust pipe, 21 ... pump,
22: Gas introduction pipe,
23 ... Susceptor, 24 ... Microwave absorber, 25 ... Covering,
26 ... Cavity, 27 ... Partition plate, 28 ... Elevator, 29 ... Shaft, 30 ... Support base, 31 ... Microwave power source, 32 ... Waveguide, 33 ... Isolator, 34 ... Waveguide, 35 ... Matching device, 36 ... waveguide, 37 ... microwave inlet,
38 ... motor, 39 ... star fan.

Claims (1)

A substrate processing apparatus for processing substrates one by one in a processing chamber under reduced pressure,
A substrate processing apparatus for heating the substrate in the processing chamber using a microwave.

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