JP2012136758A - Device for processing substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To evaluate deterioration and settling of the elasticity of a power feeding member to which a voltage is applied from a voltage application device.SOLUTION: A device for processing a substrate includes: a chamber 85 with a carry-in opening and a carry-out opening; a gas feeding device 12 for feeding a gas into the chamber; a plasma generating device for converting the gas into plasma; a substrate holder 20 for holding the substrate; a carrier 2 that is carried from the carry-in opening to carry the substrate holder to the carry-out opening, while holding the substrate holder; the voltage application device 16 for applying a voltage to the substrate holder 20; a driving device 18 that operates the power feeding member 13 so as to bring the power feeding member into contact with or detach from the substrate holder 20 to feed the voltage from the voltage application device 16; and a current measurement device 17 for measuring a current flowing through the power feeding member 13.

Description

  The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus using a voltage applying device that applies a voltage to a transportable substrate holder.

  Conventionally, an ion beam sputtering apparatus, an ion beam etching apparatus, a CVD apparatus, and the like are widely used for manufacturing various thin film devices such as semiconductor devices, liquid crystal display apparatuses, EL display apparatuses, and solar cells. In these plasma apparatuses, a technique for performing a film forming process or an etching process by applying a voltage to a substrate and drawing ions or the like is disclosed.

  For example, according to Patent Document 1, in an apparatus for manufacturing a magnetic recording medium in which a substrate holder is transported by a transport mechanism and a plurality of films are stacked, when the substrate holder reaches a predetermined chamber, an output shaft of a bias application power source A technique for forming a sputtering film while applying a voltage to the substrate holder by bringing the substrate into contact with the coupling of the substrate holder is disclosed.

JP-A-5-33468

However, when mass-producing magnetic recording media using a conventional manufacturing apparatus, the tip of the output shaft of the bias application power source (such as a leaf spring) is brought into contact with the substrate holder. There arises a problem that the voltage cannot be normally applied to the substrate holder. In the prior art, the plate spring is brought into contact with the substrate holder as a power supply structure for bias application. However, since both the plate spring and the substrate holder are plate-like, even if pressed firmly, the plate spring is microscopically. With respect to the contact area, the actual contact portion is reduced due to deformation or bias, and the voltage application efficiency is poor. In the worst case, a minute gap is formed, and there is a possibility that problems such as arc discharge and melting of the leaf spring may occur.
Conventionally, in order to find such a problem, it has been necessary to open a door provided in the chamber and make the inside of the chamber atmospheric, and an operator visually confirms the contact state of the tip. However, such visual confirmation work depends only on the experience and skill of the operator. In particular, in a vacuum device, the contact state of the leaf spring changes between a vacuum state and an atmospheric state, so the contact state of the leaf spring in the vacuum state is predicted after visually checking the contact state of the leaf spring in the atmospheric state. There was a need, and experienced and high skill were required for the visual work.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and is reliable regardless of the experience and skill of the operator, and ensures that the tip of the power supply member to which the voltage from the voltage application power source is fed is fed. An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus that can be confirmed.

  A substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a chamber having a carry-in port and a carry-out port, a gas supply unit that supplies a gas into the chamber, a plasma generation unit that turns the gas into plasma, and a substrate that holds the substrate A holder, a carrier that is carried in from the carry-in port and is transported while holding the substrate holder to the carry-out port, a voltage applying unit for applying a voltage to the substrate holder, and a power feeding member are moved to A driving means for supplying a voltage from the voltage applying means by bringing a member into contact with or non-contacting the substrate holder; and a current measuring means for measuring a current flowing through the power supply member. To do.

  According to the present invention, by providing the current measuring means between the substrate holder and the voltage applying means, the deterioration or sag of the tip of the voltage applying apparatus is not affected by the experience and skill of the operator. Can be evaluated. Further, the contact state between the power supply member of the voltage application device and the substrate holder can be confirmed without exposing the chamber provided with the voltage application device to the atmosphere.

It is a lineblock diagram showing one embodiment of a thin film formation device concerning the present invention. It is sectional drawing which shows one Embodiment of the substrate processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the board | substrate holder 20 vicinity of FIG. 2 in detail. It is a figure which shows the normal contact state of an electric power feeding member and a board | substrate holder. It is a figure explaining the current waveform by the current measurement means in the contact state of FIG. It is a figure which shows the insufficient contact state of an electric power feeding member and a board | substrate holder. It is a figure explaining the current waveform by the current measurement means in the contact state of FIG.

  Next, the best mode for carrying out the invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to an apparatus for manufacturing a magnetic recording disk will be described.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a configuration of an embodiment of a thin film forming apparatus according to the present invention. The thin film forming apparatus of this embodiment is an inline apparatus. The in-line type is a general term for apparatuses in which a plurality of chambers are vertically arranged in a line, and a transport path for the substrate 9 is set via the chambers.
In the present embodiment, a plurality of chambers 1, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 89, 800 are provided vertically along a rectangular outline, and a rectangular conveyance path is formed along this. Is set. The plurality of chambers are connected by vacuum.

  Each chamber 1, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 89, 800 is a vacuum chamber that is evacuated by a dedicated or dual-purpose exhaust means. A gate valve 10 is provided at the boundary between the chambers 1, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 89, and 800. The substrate 9 is mounted on the carrier 2 and is transported along the transport path by a transport mechanism (not shown) in FIG.

  Among the plurality of chambers 1, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 89, 800, the chamber 81 arranged adjacent to one side of the square is connected to the substrate holder mounted on the carrier 2. This is a load lock chamber for mounting the substrate 9. An unload lock chamber 82 collects the substrate 9 from the carrier 2.

  The chambers 1, 80, 83, 84, 85, 88, 89, and 800 arranged on the other three sides of the square are processing chambers for performing various processes. Specifically, 83 is a preheating chamber for preheating the substrate 9 before the thin film is formed, and 1 is an anisotropy layer forming chamber for preparing the anisotropy layer.

  84 is an underlayer forming chamber for forming an underlayer on the anisotropy imparting layer, 88 is an intermediate layer forming chamber for forming an intermediate layer on the underlayer, and 80 is a magnetic for forming a magnetic recording layer on the intermediate layer. It is a recording layer forming chamber.

  Reference numeral 85 denotes a protective layer forming chamber for forming a protective layer on the magnetic recording layer, and 800 denotes an etching chamber. The square corner chamber 87 is a direction changing chamber 87 provided with a direction changing mechanism for changing the transport direction of the substrate 9 by 90 degrees. The processing chamber 89 is a spare.

  The substrate holder mounted on the carrier 2 holds the substrate 9 by holding the periphery of the substrate 9 in contact with several places. The transport mechanism moves the carrier 2 by introducing power to the vacuum side by a magnetic coupling method. The carrier 2 moves while being supported by a number of driven rollers arranged along the transport line. As the configuration of the carrier 2 and the transport mechanism, for example, the configuration disclosed in JP-A-8-274142 can be employed.

  FIG. 2 shows a side sectional view of the protective layer forming chamber 85. In this embodiment, the protective layer forming chamber 85 is described as a substrate processing apparatus. However, the present invention can also be used for other vacuum chambers that require a voltage to be applied to the substrate when a film is formed on the substrate. . In FIG. 2, the same parts as those in FIG. The protective layer forming chamber 85 is for depositing a protective film layer of the magnetic recording layer by CVD. FIG. 2 shows a state in which the power supply member 13 is brought into contact with the substrate holder 20.

Specifically, the protective layer forming chamber 85 includes an exhaust unit 11 that exhausts the inside, a gas introduction system 12 that introduces a process gas (an inert gas such as argon, a reactive gas such as oxygen), and a substrate. 9 and an anode (chamber wall surface) 100 provided around 9. Moreover, the board | substrate holder 20 which has the electroconductivity of metal etc. for hold | maintaining the board | substrate 9 is provided. The material of the substrate holder 20 is made of an aluminum alloy such as A5052, and the surface thereof is subjected to blasting in order to prevent the adhered film from being peeled off by sputtering or the like and generating dust.
Further, as a voltage application device 150 for applying a voltage to the substrate holder 20, a vacuum processing chamber 85, a substrate holder 20 provided in the vacuum processing chamber 85, and a power supply member for applying a voltage to the substrate holder 20 13 and a drive mechanism 18 that is provided outside the vacuum processing chamber 85 and moves the power supply member 13 to contact or non-contact the substrate holder 20.

  The drive mechanism 18 includes a bellows 14 as a hermetically sealed seal member and a conductor rod 15 provided inside the bellows 14, and the power supply member 13 is fixed or integrally formed at the tip of the conductor rod 15. ing. In this structure, the power supply member 13 is brought into contact or non-contact with the substrate holder 20 by driving the conductor rod 15 in the left-right direction in the drawing by the bellows 14.

  The power supply member 13 is formed of a conductive (metal) member having elasticity (for example, Inconel, stainless alloy steel, Co—Ni alloy, etc.) in a leaf spring shape. When the power supply member 13 comes into contact with the substrate holder 20 by driving of the drive mechanism 18, a high-voltage pulse DC voltage can be applied to the substrate holder 20 from the pulse DC voltage application unit 16 connected to the conductor rod 15.

The exhaust means 11 includes a vacuum pump such as a cryopump and is configured to be able to exhaust the inside of the protective layer forming chamber 85 to about 10 ⁻⁵ Pa. In this embodiment, an anode (chamber wall surface) 100 is disposed around the substrate 9 held by the carrier 2 in order to form films on both surfaces of the substrate 9 simultaneously.

While the hydrocarbon gas is being introduced by the gas introduction means 12, the inside of the protective layer forming chamber 85 is maintained at a predetermined pressure by the exhaust means 11, and the voltage application power source (pulse DC power source) 16 is operated in this state. As a result, plasma is generated and deposited on the substrate 9. That is, in this example, the voltage application power source 16 also functions as a plasma generating means. In this embodiment, the drive means 18 is controlled so that the power supply member 13 contacts the substrate holder 20 by a control unit (computer) (not shown) while the voltage application power supply 16 that is a cathode power supply is operating or immediately before the operation. . That is, by bringing the power supply member 13 into contact with the substrate holder 20 immediately before film formation, the film formation can be performed while applying a pulsed DC voltage to the substrate holder 20.
Note that the substrate processing apparatus may include plasma generation means other than the voltage application power source 16. In this example, a method of applying a voltage between the opposed parallel plate electrodes (substrate holder 20 and chamber 100) is adopted as the plasma generating means, but other methods such as a coiled wire antenna, a direct current arc, etc. You may provide the filament by discharge etc. separately.

  The current measuring means 17 is provided between the power supply member 13 and the voltage application power source (pulse DC power source) 16 and can measure a current waveform. That is, the current measuring means 17 can measure both the high frequency component (RF component) and the direct current component (DC component) of the pulse DC power supply.

  Next, a detailed configuration of the substrate holder 20 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a view showing the periphery of the substrate holder 20 in detail. 3A is a front view and FIG. 3B is a side view. 3, the same parts as those in FIGS. 1 and 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals. In the figure, 20a represents the upper end of the substrate holder 20, and 20b represents the lower end. Reference numeral 5 denotes a claw for holding the substrate 9 on the substrate holder 20, and reference numeral 21 denotes a shield.

  The substrate holder 20 is mounted on the carrier 2 in order to move the substrate holder 20 between a plurality of chambers. The substrate holder 20 and the carrier 2 are configured to be electrically insulated by the insulating stone 300. This is because substrate processing such as sputtering or ion beam etching is performed by changing the substrate potential during various substrate processing.

  As shown in FIG. 3B, the shield 21 divides the inside of the processing chamber into a substrate processing space and an exhaust space. The substrate processing space is a space where the substrate 9 held by the substrate holder 20 is positioned and the substrate processing is performed. The exhaust space is a space where the substrate 9 held by the substrate holder 20 is not located and is connected to the exhaust means 11. The substrate holder 20 has a lower end portion 20b extending below the shield 21 in the exhaust space, and a bias is applied to the substrate holder 20 by bringing the power supply member 13 into contact with the lower end portion 20b. . The reason why the power supply member 13 is not brought into contact with the upper end portion 20a of the substrate holder 20 that holds the substrate 9 is to prevent the substrate processing from interfering with the substrate 9 or the dust generated by the contact between the substrate holder 20 and the power supply member 13 on the substrate. This is to reduce adhesion.

  Further, by using a power supply member 13 having elasticity or performing speed control at the time of contact, the impact at the time of contact with the lower end portion 20b is reduced and the generation of dust is reduced. In the present embodiment, as described above, a bias is applied to the substrate 9 by bringing the power supply member 13 into contact with the substrate holder 20 during the CVD film formation on the substrate 9 or immediately before the film formation.

With reference to FIG. 4 thru | or FIG. 7, the change of the electric current value by the contact state of an electric power feeding member and a board | substrate holder is demonstrated.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a normal contact state between the power feeding member and the substrate holder. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a current waveform by the current measuring means in the contact state of FIG.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an insufficient contact state between the power feeding member and the substrate holder. FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a current waveform by the current measuring means in the contact state of FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4, in a normal contact state, the contact area between the power supply member 13 and the substrate holder 20 is large, and the electrical resistance is small. In addition, the electrical relationship between the power supply member 13 and the substrate holder 20 is largely due to direct contact, and the capacitive coupling due to the gap portion formed by the gap between the power supply member 13 and the substrate holder 20 is small. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, in the current waveform measured by the current measuring means 17, the ratio of the RF component to the DC component is relatively small.
On the other hand, in the insufficient contact state as shown in FIG. 6, the contact area between the power supply member 13 and the substrate holder 20 is small, and the electrical resistance is relatively large. Further, the electrical relationship between the power supply member 13 and the substrate holder 20 is less due to direct contact, and the ratio of the capacitive coupling due to the gap portion formed by the gap between the power supply member 13 and the substrate holder 20 is normal contact as shown in FIG. More than the state. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, in the current waveform measured by the current measuring means 17, the ratio of the RF component to the DC component is relatively high. In contrast, the determination means 24 in the present invention observes the ratio and difference between the DC component and the RF component at the rising and falling portions of the DC voltage to be applied based on the current waveform from the current measuring means 17. It can be determined whether the contact state is normal or insufficient. In addition, when the determination unit 24 determines that the contact state is insufficient, the apparatus can be stopped or the operator can be notified that maintenance is necessary. The determination unit 24 determines whether the contact state is normal or insufficient based on the ratio of the RF component in the DC component and the difference between the DC component and the RF component. Although it is theoretically possible to perform the determination based on the value of only the DC component, the change due to the discharge condition is large and it is difficult to ensure the determination accuracy. However, according to this method (or when used in combination) It becomes possible to determine with high accuracy or more easily.

In the above-described embodiment, the CVD apparatus is used as the substrate processing apparatus. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to a plasma processing apparatus such as a sputtering apparatus, an ion beam apparatus, and an etching apparatus.

2 Carrier 9 Substrate 10 Gate valve 11 Exhaust means 12 Gas supply means 13 Power supply member 14 Bellows 15 Conductor bar 16 Voltage application means 17 Current measurement means 18 Drive means 20 Substrate holder 21 Shield 22 Insulator 23 Drive means (motor)
85 Protective layer forming chamber 100 chamber

Claims (4)

A chamber having a carry-in port and a carry-out port;
Gas supply means for supplying gas into the chamber;
Plasma generating means for turning the gas into plasma;
A substrate holder for holding the substrate;
A carrier carried in from the carry-in port and carried while holding the substrate holder to the carry-out port;
Voltage application means for applying a voltage to the substrate holder;
Driving means for supplying a voltage from the voltage applying means by moving the power supply member and bringing the power supply member into contact with or non-contact with the substrate holder;
Current measuring means for measuring a current flowing through the power supply member;
A substrate processing apparatus comprising:   The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the voltage applying unit applies a direct current or a pulse voltage.   The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the current measuring unit measures a high frequency component and a direct current component flowing between the power supply member and the voltage applying unit.   The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a determination unit that determines a contact state between the power supply member and the substrate holder based on a current measured by the current measurement unit.