JP2646821B2 - Semiconductor manufacturing equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus typified by an LSI manufacturing apparatus, and includes, as a configuration, a carrier cassette and a loader in the atmosphere loaded with a plurality of wafers. An atmosphere transfer unit provided with an atmosphere transfer device for transferring a wafer to and from a lock chamber; a reaction chamber for performing a thin film processing on a wafer; and an air transfer unit positioned between the reaction chamber and the air transfer unit. A first load lock chamber provided with a gate valve on the side of the atmospheric transfer section, and a second load lock chamber located between the first load lock chamber and the reaction chamber for waiting the transferred wafer to move to the next step. A second robot having a built-in vacuum robot for transferring a wafer between the load lock chamber and the reaction chamber in a vacuum atmosphere and having a gate valve coupled to the reaction chamber on the side of the reaction chamber;
And a load lock chamber connected via a gate valve, and a reciprocating transfer double load lock type vacuum transfer section through which a wafer before processing toward the reaction chamber and a wafer after processing toward the atmosphere pass. The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus provided.

[Conventional technology]

In cassette-to-cassette type semiconductor manufacturing equipment, in recent years, with the rapid progress of submicron processing, the wafers sent through the load lock chamber to the next process to prevent particles in the atmosphere from directly falling into the reaction chamber. A first load lock chamber equipped with a gate valve on the side of the atmospheric transfer unit and a vacuum transfer robot for transferring wafers in a vacuum atmosphere are built-in, and a gate connected to the reaction chamber on the side of the reaction chamber. A second load lock chamber provided with a valve is formed as a double load lock chamber connected via a gate valve.
It has become common to adopt a double load lock method of reciprocating transport, in which a wafer before processing toward the reaction chamber and a wafer after processing toward the atmosphere pass. FIGS. 11 and 12 show an example of a conventional configuration of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus provided with a vacuum transfer unit based on the reciprocating transfer double load lock system. In this configuration example, a rotating arm type transfer robot 9 capable of turning 360 ° is provided, which transfers wafers between carrier cassettes 10 and 11 in the atmosphere loaded with a plurality of wafers and the first load lock chamber. A reaction chamber 3 for performing a thin film processing process on a semiconductor wafer; and a standby state on the wafer stage 13 between the reaction chamber 3 and the atmosphere transfer section, where the wafer is sent to move to the next step. A first load lock chamber 1 provided with a gate valve 6 on the side of the atmosphere transfer section, and a pantograph type telescopic device located between the load lock chamber 1 and the reaction chamber 3 for transferring a wafer between the two chambers. A vacuum transfer robot having a built-in vacuum transfer robot 5 and a second load lock chamber 2 provided with a gate valve 8 connected to the reaction chamber 3 on the reaction chamber 3 side via a gate valve 7. Department and; Form a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

Here, the reaction chamber 3 is a thin film formed by plasma flowing upward from a plasma chamber 3a in which a carrier gas is turned into plasma by an electron cyclotron resonance effect of a microwave introduced through a waveguide and a magnetic field formed by a coil. It is shown as a reaction chamber of an ECR plasma thin film forming apparatus for activating a source gas to deposit a thin film on a semiconductor wafer.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

In the vacuum transfer section in the example of the conventional semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, the wafer before processing taken in from the atmosphere side is placed on the wafer stage 13 of the first load lock chamber 1 and the second load lock chamber 2 has a built-in wafer. This is a very simple transfer system in which the operation of loading into the reaction chamber 3 by the vacuum transfer robot 5, performing thin film processing, and sequentially repeating the unloading operation to the atmosphere by following the same path is performed. Since the wafer stage 13 built in the load lock chamber 1 is a one-layer type wafer stage for both loading and unloading, the wafer once loaded into the first load lock chamber 1 is unloaded after processing, and then is loaded into the atmosphere side carrier. cassette
Until returning to the original shelf 10 or carrier cassette 11, the next new unprocessed wafer is loaded into the first load lock chamber 1.
Can not be captured inside. That is, because of the series operation, the processing time per wafer including the evacuation time of the first load lock chamber 1 and the time for returning to the atmospheric pressure is long, and the throughput of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus in the mass production line of the semiconductor factory is improved. Can no longer keep up with the request.

In addition, since the wafer stage 13 has a one-layer structure, there is contamination on the wafer stage mounting surface due to by-products and the like generated in the reaction chamber and attached to the processed wafer to be unloaded. The adverse effects on wafers have been greatly highlighted.

Further, in the example of the conventional semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, the unloading wafer cannot be accurately stored in the carrier cassette due to the accumulation of the transfer positioning error between the vacuum transfer robot 5 and the atmospheric transfer apparatus 9, and the reliability of the transfer system is reduced. There is a problem of reducing noise.

Also, the loading wafer stage and the unloading wafer stage in the first load lock chamber on which the wafer is placed have a large contact area with the wafer, causing particle contamination. In the case of (1), there is a problem that the processed surface comes into contact with the wafer stage, which causes defective products.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus having a conventional configuration, to greatly improve the throughput of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, to greatly reduce wafer contamination, and to make the transfer system function with high reliability. It is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus provided with a vacuum transfer unit capable of performing the above.

[Means for solving the problem]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the present invention, a semiconductor wafer manufacturing apparatus is loaded into a first load lock chamber of a vacuum transfer section using a reciprocating transfer double load lock system and receives a wafer before processing from the atmosphere side. And an unloading wafer stage that receives a wafer unloaded from the reaction chamber by the vacuum transfer robot, sandwiches the straight line in a plane and in a direction substantially perpendicular to a straight line connecting the atmosphere-side transfer device and the reaction chamber. Or a processing wafer unloaded from the reaction chamber by the vacuum transfer robot in the first load lock chamber, with the loading wafer stage receiving the wafer before processing from the atmosphere side in the first load lock chamber, and receiving the processed wafer from the reaction chamber. Unloading wafer stage arranged at the bottom 2
It is assumed that the apparatus has a wafer stage having a layered structure. Then, the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus in which the wafer stage having the two-layer structure is accommodated in the first load lock chamber is placed on the two sides of the wafer transport direction with the center of gravity of the wafer placed on the wafer stage as the center of gravity. A moving piece is arranged at each vertex position of a rectangle in the same direction as the wafer surface where the distance between the two sides in the direction perpendicular to the transfer direction is smaller than the diameter of the wafer, the distance being larger than the diameter of the wafer, and arranged in the wafer transfer direction. Each of the two moving pieces moves in the direction perpendicular to the wafer transport direction and at the same time and at the same time simultaneously while maintaining the arrangement and the interval in the transport direction, and the movable pieces hit the peripheral edge of the wafer. It is more preferable that the centering mechanism for moving the wafer in the plane until the movement of the wafer stops is a device provided in the first load lock chamber. Also, a plurality of loading wafer stages and an unloading wafer stage disposed in the first load lock chamber are provided on the upper surface side on which the wafer is mounted, at a plurality of intervals in the circumferential direction, and the upper surface or upper side is a wafer stage. It is preferable to adopt a structure having a supporting piece inclined downward and inward of the semiconductor device, and a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus in which a wafer is supported at the periphery by the inclined upper surface or upper side of the supporting piece.

[Action]

With this configuration of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, in the first load lock chamber, the wafer before processing is simultaneously placed on the loading wafer stage, and the wafer after processing is simultaneously placed on the unloading wafer stage, and the next process is performed on both wafers. After the wafer before processing is loaded into the reaction chamber while maintaining a constant degree of vacuum between the vacuum transfer device and the reaction chamber, the first load lock chamber and the second By closing the gate valve between the first load lock chamber and the first load lock chamber and returning the first load lock chamber to the atmospheric pressure, a new unprocessed wafer is transferred to the first load lock chamber during wafer processing in the reaction chamber. It is possible to simultaneously carry in and carry out the processed wafer from the first load lock chamber. Then, the first load lock chamber is evacuated again, and the gate valve between the first and second load lock chambers is opened, so that the processed wafer is carried out to the first load lock chamber and the unprocessed wafer is unloaded. Into the reaction chamber.

In this manner, when the wafer processing is performed while switching back to the atmospheric pressure and evacuating the first load lock chamber, the cycle time (loading-processing-unloading time) on the transport system per wafer is performed. ) Is greatly shortened as compared with the related art, and the throughput of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is greatly improved. Further, the wafer stage on which the wafer before processing is mounted and the wafer stage on which the wafer after processing is mounted are dedicated for loading and unloading, respectively, so that the reaction attached to the wafer after processing is performed. The wafer before processing is not contaminated by by-products in the room, and the quality of the wafer after processing is homogenized to a higher level.

If the centering mechanism having the above-described structure is provided in the first load lock chamber, the first centering mechanism can be used.
In the load lock chamber, the unprocessed wafer sent from the atmosphere side is placed on the loading wafer stage, and the processed wafer sent from the reaction chamber is placed on the unloading wafer stage at the same time, waiting for movement to the next step. In the meantime, the wafer is centered by the wafer centering mechanism disposed in the first load lock chamber, and is unloaded again into the first load lock chamber through processing from loading of the wafer into the first load lock chamber. The accumulated positioning error between the atmospheric transfer device and the vacuum transfer robot in the transfer system until the transfer is completed can be eliminated, and the wafer can be returned to the atmospheric pressure in the first load lock chamber by utilizing the standby time by evacuation. Centering of the Without causing lack, it is possible to highly reliable semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the conveyance system.

Further, the loading wafer stage and the unloading wafer stage disposed in the first load lock chamber are both provided with the support pieces as described above, and the contact between the wafer and the wafer stage is performed at the edge portion of the wafer. By doing so, it is possible to provide a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus capable of effectively preventing particle contamination particularly during the face-down transfer of a wafer and manufacturing a product having a uniform wafer quality at a high level.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show the configuration of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus provided with a reciprocating transfer double load lock type vacuum transfer section according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In these figures,
The same members as those in the drawings are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof will be omitted.

A wafer before processing is placed between an atmospheric transfer device 9 for taking out and transferring a wafer from a carrier cassette 10 or 11 loaded with a plurality of wafers and a reaction chamber 3 of the ECR plasma thin film forming apparatus. The loading wafer stage 24a to be processed and the unloading wafer stage 24b on which the processed wafer is placed are symmetrically formed in a plane and in a direction perpendicular to a straight line connecting the atmosphere transfer device 9 and the reaction chamber 3. First load lock chamber 18 interposed therebetween
Then, the wafer before processing in the first load lock chamber 18 is transferred to the reaction chamber 3 in a vacuum atmosphere, and the processed wafer processed in the reaction chamber 3 is transferred to the first load lock chamber 18. Transfer robot with a pantograph-type telescopic mechanism 15
And the second load lock chamber 19 with the gate valve 17
To form a vacuum transfer section of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. The vacuum transfer unit includes a gate valve 16 on the side of the atmospheric transfer device 9, and is connected to the reaction chamber 3 via the gate valve 8. Further, the vacuum transfer robot 15 housed in the second load lock chamber 19 includes an R-axis drive motor 15a for causing the pantograph-type expansion / contraction mechanism to perform an expansion / contraction operation, and a reaction chamber 3 from the loading direction into the reaction chamber 3. And a θ-axis drive motor 15b for changing the direction of the pantograph-type telescopic mechanism by 180 ° in the carry-out direction from the motor.

Wafer transport in this apparatus configuration is performed in the following procedure. That is, first, the pressure in the first load lock chamber 18 is returned to the atmospheric pressure, the gate valve 16 is opened, and the unprocessed wafer is taken out of the carrier cassette 10 or 11 by the atmospheric transfer device 9 and loaded into the loading wafer stage.
Place on 24a. Thereafter, the gate valve 16 is closed again to evacuate the first load lock chamber 18, and when the chamber reaches a certain degree of vacuum, the gate valve 17 is opened, and the vacuum transfer robot in the second load lock chamber 19 is opened. The expansion / contraction mechanism is extended toward the loading wafer stage 24a by the R-axis drive motor 15a and the θ-axis drive motor 15b, the wafer before processing is taken out, and the gate valve 17 is closed.
Is opened, the wafer is loaded into the reaction chamber 3, and a thin film processing is performed. During this process, the inside of the first load lock chamber 18 is returned to the atmospheric pressure, the next pre-processed wafer is taken in, the inside of the load lock chamber 18 is evacuated again, and the wafer waits for loading into the reaction chamber 3. .

After the thin film processing, the wafer is transferred to the vacuum transfer robot 15
Unloaded by the first load lock chamber 18
Is mounted on the unloading wafer stage 24b. The vacuum transfer robot 15 loads the waiting wafer before processing into the reaction chamber 3 in the next operation. Next, the inside of the first load lock chamber 18 is returned to the atmospheric pressure, and the processed wafer is stored in the original shelf of the carrier cassette 10 or 11 by the atmospheric transfer device 9 and a series of loading-processing-unloading is performed. Finish the operation.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show the configuration of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus having a reciprocating double load lock type vacuum transfer section according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In these figures, the first, second,
The same members as those shown in FIGS.

In this embodiment, a loading wafer stage 4a for receiving a wafer before processing from the atmosphere side and an unloading wafer stage 4b for receiving a processed wafer from the reaction chamber 3 are provided in the first load lock chamber 1 in two vertical stages. The wafer stage 4 having a two-layer structure is disposed. For this reason, the vacuum transfer robot 5 in the second load lock chamber 2 is provided with an R-axis drive motor 5a for causing the pantograph-type expansion / contraction mechanism to perform the expansion / contraction operation, from the direction of introduction into the reaction chamber 3 to the direction of removal from the reaction chamber 3. In addition to a θ-axis drive motor 5b for changing the direction of the pantograph-type telescopic mechanism by 180 °, a Z-axis drive motor 5c for vertically moving the pantograph-type telescopic mechanism is provided.

The procedure of wafer transport in this apparatus configuration is as follows. Most of the procedure is the same as that of the first embodiment, but the procedure is continuous, so the description will be made following the first embodiment.

First, the pressure in the first load lock chamber 1 is returned to the atmospheric pressure, the gate valve 6 is opened, and the unprocessed wafer is taken out of the carrier cassette 10 or 11 by the atmospheric transfer device 9 and the first load lock chamber is removed. The wafer is placed on the upper loading wafer stage 4a of the wafer stage 4 having a two-layer structure, and the gate valve 6 is closed. Next, when the inside of the load lock chamber 1 reaches a certain degree of vacuum, the gate valve 7 is opened, and the pantograph-type telescopic mechanism of the vacuum transfer robot 5 in the second load lock chamber 2 is moved upward by the Z-axis drive motor 5c. The unprocessed wafer is taken out from the upper loading wafer stage 4a of the wafer stage 4, the gate valve 7 is closed, the gate valve 8 is opened, and the processing is performed while adjusting the height of the pantograph type telescopic mechanism by the Z-axis drive motor 5c. The front wafer is loaded into the reaction chamber 3 and a thin film processing is performed. During this process the first
The inside of the load lock chamber 1 is returned to the atmospheric pressure, the next pre-processed wafer is taken in, the inside of the first load lock chamber 1 is evacuated again, and the wafer waits for loading into the reaction chamber 3.

After the thin film processing, the wafer is transferred by vacuum transfer robot 5
Unloaded by the first load lock chamber 1
The wafer stage 4 is placed on the lower unloading wafer stage 4b. At the time of mounting, the pantograph-type telescopic mechanism of the vacuum transfer robot 5 is moved downward by the Z-axis drive motor 5c. The vacuum transfer robot moves upward in the Z-axis in the next operation, and loads the unprocessed wafer in the standby state into the reaction chamber 3. Next, the inside of the first load lock chamber 1 is returned to the atmospheric pressure, and the processed wafer on the unloading wafer stage 4b is stored in the original shelf of the carrier cassette 10 or 11 by the atmospheric transfer device 9 to perform the loading-processing process. -A series of unloading operations is completed.

In this embodiment, the operation of the wafer stage 4
The effect is the same as that of the wafer stage 24 in the first embodiment. However, in this embodiment, since the wafer stages are arranged in two upper and lower stages, the first load lock chamber 1 is the first load lock chamber in the first embodiment. This has the advantage of being smaller in size than the load lock chamber 18 of this embodiment, and makes up for the disadvantage that the vacuum transfer robot is more complicated than the first embodiment because of the Z-axis drive motor. Furthermore, since the loading wafer stage 4a is arranged on the upper stage and the unloading wafer stage 4b is arranged on the lower stage, by-products adhering to the processed wafer to be unloaded are removed from the unprocessed wafer before loading. There is no fear of falling and adhering to the wafer and contaminating the wafer.

FIG. 5 shows a modification of the configuration of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus provided with the vacuum transfer unit according to the second embodiment. In this example, the attachment of the Z-axis drive motor 5c (FIG. 4) to the vacuum transfer robot 5 in the second load lock chamber 2 is stopped, and the two-layer structure wafer stage 14 in the first load lock chamber 1 Z axis drive motor
14c is attached, thereby simplifying the robot mechanism by avoiding concentration of various drive motors and drive mechanisms on the vacuum transfer robot 5, and improving the operation reliability of the robot mechanism. The procedure of wafer transfer in this apparatus configuration is the same as that of the second embodiment, and therefore the description is omitted.

6 to 9 show a configuration of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus having a vacuum transfer unit according to a third embodiment of the present invention. In these drawings, the same members as those in FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, and 12 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 8, the center of gravity of the wafer stage 4 having a two-layer structure disposed in the first load lock chamber 1 is set at the center of gravity, and the distance between two sides in the wafer transfer direction is set to the wafer. The center of the wafer placed on the wafer stage 4 is made to coincide with the center of the wafer stage 4 at each apex position of a rectangle larger than the diameter of the wafer and the distance between two sides in the direction perpendicular to the carrying direction and smaller than the diameter of the wafer. The moving piece 26a of the centering mechanism to be operated is located. This moving piece is arranged such that the center of the wafer mounted on any of the upper loading wafer stage and the lower unloading wafer stage formed on the two-layer coaxial wafer stage 4 can coincide with the center of the wafer stage. The rod-shaped moving pieces 26a (FIG. 7) are formed in a vertical rod shape on the wafer, and two of the rod-like moving pieces 26a (FIG. 7) are arranged in the transport direction of the wafer and are spaced apart from each other in a direction perpendicular to the wafer transport direction. At the same time, they move so as to be close by the same amount. FIG. 9 shows a specific structure of the centering mechanism provided with the moving piece. The moving piece 26a is a set of two pieces arranged in the wafer transport direction.
The distance between the wafer-side protrusion tips of the moving pieces in each set is fixed to a common moving table 26b such that the distance between the wafer-side protrusion tips is smaller than the diameter of the wafer. The position before the start of movement of the movable base 26b is set so as to be larger than the diameter.
The drive mechanism 26c for moving the movable table 26b includes a drive motor having a speed reduction mechanism and a belt connecting the speed reduction mechanism and the movable table, which are not shown in the drawing. The moving table 26b is simultaneously moved by the same amount. Switching of the movement of the moving table 26b is performed by reversing the rotation direction of the drive motor.

When the centering mechanism is configured in this manner, at the time of the centering operation for aligning the center of the wafer with the center of the wafer stage, the movable table 26b is brought close to the transport direction of the wafer at the same time and at the same time by an equal amount, so that the wafer of the movable piece 26a The center of the plane at the tip of the side projection hits the periphery of the wafer,
The wafer moves in the plane until the moving table 26b stops, and stops at a position where its center coincides with the center of the wafer stage.

FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 show an embodiment of a wafer stage structure disposed in a first load lock chamber of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention. Although this embodiment is directed to a wafer stage having a two-layer structure, the present invention is also applicable to the wafer stage in the first embodiment in which a loading wafer stage and an unloading wafer stage are arranged in one plane. It is. The wafer stage has a larger inner diameter than the wafer for both the loading wafer stage and the unloading wafer stage.
A plurality of support pieces 27 whose upper surfaces are inclined downward inside the wafer stage are fixedly provided on the inner wall surface of the wafer stage at intervals in the circumferential direction of the inner diameter. The wafer is supported at the peripheral edge by the inclined upper surface of the support piece 27, and even in the case of face-down transfer in which the wafer is transported with the surface to be processed facing downward in the vertical direction, there is no contact with the surface to be processed. It is placed on the wafer stage. If the wafer stage 4 having a two-layer structure is formed as shown in FIG. 9, the wafer can be supported by the peripheral edge, and the centering mechanism is operated to position the wafer at the center of the wafer stage. This makes it easy to prevent particle contamination of the wafer and eliminates the accumulation of positioning errors in the atmospheric transfer unit and vacuum transfer unit, thereby achieving a high level of uniform wafer quality and reliability of the transfer system. Semiconductor manufacturing device with high reliability.

〔The invention's effect〕

In the present invention, since the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is configured as described above, the following effects can be obtained.

In the apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, the wafer before processing is taken into the first load lock chamber from the atmosphere side during the processing of the wafer, and the processed wafer is loaded into the first load lock chamber. Operation to take out from
The cycle time per wafer when processing a large number of wafers is greatly reduced, and a high-throughput semiconductor manufacturing apparatus suitable for a mass production line of a semiconductor factory can be provided. In addition, contamination of the wafer before processing from the unloading wafer cassette side is more reliably prevented, and the wafer before processing is always loaded into the reaction chamber in a cleaner state, so that the wafer quality after processing is at a higher level. It became possible to make it more uniform.

In the apparatus according to the third aspect, in the first load lock chamber, the unprocessed wafer sent from the atmosphere side is simultaneously loaded on the loading wafer stage, and the processed wafer sent from the reaction chamber is simultaneously loaded on the unloading wafer stage. Then, while waiting for the movement to the next step, the wafer is centered by the wafer centering mechanism arranged in the first load lock chamber, and the wafer is centered by the first load lock chamber, and the wafer is centered. In this case, the accumulated positioning error between the atmospheric transfer device and the vacuum transfer robot, which is caused by unloading into the load lock chamber, can be eliminated, and the problem that the unloaded wafer cannot be stored in the carrier cassette is solved. And return to atmosphere and vacuum in the first load lock chamber. By utilizing the waiting time by,
Since the wafer is centered, the transport system can function with high reliability without reducing the throughput.

In the apparatus according to the fourth aspect, the contact between the loading wafer stage and the unloading wafer stage arranged in the first load lock chamber and the wafer is performed at the edge portion of the wafer peripheral edge. It is possible to avoid particle contamination, which is a problem, which the wafer receives from the wafer stage before and after the processing, so that the wafer quality can be made uniform to a high level.

From the above, by configuring the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus based on Claims 1 or 2, and 3 and 4, the throughput is high, the reliability of the transport system is high, and the processing is performed. It is possible to provide a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus capable of making the quality of a wafer uniform at a high level.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 and 2 show the configuration of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus provided with a vacuum transfer unit according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a plan view and a side sectional view, and FIGS. FIG. 5 is a plan view and a side cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus having a vacuum transfer section according to a second embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus showing a modification of the vacuum transfer section according to the second embodiment. 6 and 7 show a configuration of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus provided with a vacuum transfer section according to a third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a plan view and a side sectional view, and FIG. FIG. 7 is an enlarged plan view showing the configuration of the first load lock chamber of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG. 7 and FIG. 7 together with one embodiment of the wafer stage structure of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. FIG. 9, FIG. 9 shows the semiconductor shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. Perspective view of a first respective one embodiment of the structure of the configuration and the wafer stage of the centering device provided in the load lock chamber of the granulator device, FIG. 10 No. 6
FIG. 11 is a side sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 8, showing one embodiment of a wafer stage structure disposed in the first load lock chamber of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG. 7 and FIG. FIG. 12 is a plan view and a side sectional view, respectively, showing a configuration example of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus provided with a conventional reciprocating transfer double load lock type vacuum transfer unit. 1,18: first load lock chamber, 2,19: second load lock chamber, 3: reaction chamber, 4, 13, 14, 24: wafer stage, 4a, 14a,
24a: Loading wafer stage, 4b, 14b, 24b: Unloading wafer stage, 5, 15: Vacuum transfer robot, 7, 17: Gate valve, 9: Atmospheric transfer device, 10, 11: Carrier cassette, 26: Centering device, 26a: Moving piece, 27:
Supporting piece.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] An atmosphere transfer unit provided with an atmosphere transfer device for transferring a wafer between a load cassette and a carrier cassette in the atmosphere loaded with a plurality of wafers;
A reaction chamber for performing thin film processing on the wafer; and a gate valve on the side of the atmosphere transfer section, which is located between the reaction chamber and the atmosphere transfer section, and waits for the fed wafer to move to the next step. A first load lock chamber, and a vacuum robot that is located between the first load lock chamber and the reaction chamber and that transfers a wafer between the first load lock chamber and the reaction chamber in a vacuum atmosphere. A built-in second load lock chamber having a gate valve connected to the reaction chamber on the side of the reaction chamber is connected via a gate valve, and the wafer before processing toward the reaction chamber and the processing toward the atmosphere are processed. A reciprocating transfer double load lock type vacuum transfer unit through which a later wafer passes.
A loading wafer stage for receiving a wafer before processing from the atmosphere side and an unloading wafer stage for receiving a wafer unloaded by a vacuum transfer robot from the reaction chamber.
A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, wherein the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is disposed on a plane and in a direction substantially perpendicular to a straight line connecting the atmospheric transfer device and the reaction chamber with the straight line interposed therebetween. 2. An atmosphere transfer section provided with an atmosphere transfer device for transferring a wafer between a load cassette and a carrier cassette in the atmosphere loaded with a plurality of wafers;
A reaction chamber for performing thin film processing on the wafer; and a gate valve on the side of the atmosphere transfer section, which is located between the reaction chamber and the atmosphere transfer section, and waits for the fed wafer to move to the next step. A first load lock chamber, and a vacuum robot that is located between the first load lock chamber and the reaction chamber and that transfers a wafer between the first load lock chamber and the reaction chamber in a vacuum atmosphere. A built-in second load lock chamber having a gate valve connected to the reaction chamber on the side of the reaction chamber is connected via a gate valve, and the wafer before processing toward the reaction chamber and the processing toward the atmosphere are processed. A reciprocating transfer double load lock type vacuum transfer unit through which a later wafer passes.
In the load lock chamber, a loading wafer stage for receiving the unprocessed wafer from the atmosphere side is in the upper stage, and an unloading wafer stage for receiving the processed wafer unloaded from the reaction chamber by the vacuum transfer robot is in the lower stage. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising a wafer stage having a structure. 3. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the distance between two sides in the direction of transport of the wafer is defined by the diameter of the wafer, with the center of gravity of the wafer placed on the wafer stage as the center of gravity. A moving piece is arranged at each vertex position of a rectangle in the same direction as the wafer surface, in which the distance between two sides in the direction perpendicular to the carrying direction is smaller than the diameter of the wafer, and two moving pieces are arranged in the carrying direction of the wafer. Are moved in the direction perpendicular to the wafer conveyance direction and at the same time at the same time while maintaining the arrangement and interval in the conveyance direction, and the moving piece hits the peripheral edge of the wafer until the movement of the moving piece stops. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, wherein a centering mechanism for moving a wafer in a plane is provided in a first load lock chamber. 4. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the loading wafer stage and the unloading wafer stage are each spaced circumferentially on the upper surface side on which the wafer is mounted. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising: a plurality of support pieces whose upper or upper sides are inclined inward and downward of the wafer stage, and wherein the wafer is supported on the periphery by the inclined upper or upper sides of the support pieces.