JP2648758B2 - Heat treatment equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a heat treatment apparatus.

(Prior art) In recent years, as a heat treatment apparatus used in a heat diffusion process and a film forming process in a semiconductor device manufacturing process, space saving, energy saving, and support for larger and larger objects to be processed such as semiconductor wafers have been realized. A vertical heat treatment apparatus is employed for reasons such as easiness.

In this vertical heat treatment apparatus, a cylindrical reaction tube made of quartz or the like, and a heater mechanism provided so as to surround the periphery thereof, a heat equalizing tube, a reaction furnace main body constituted of a heat insulating material, and the like are arranged substantially vertically. Further, a wafer boat made of quartz or the like in which a large number of semiconductor wafers are stacked and stored at predetermined intervals is provided in the reaction tube. This wafer boat is mounted on a cylindrical heat retaining tube inserted in the lower part of the reaction tube,
The wafer boat is configured to be loaded and unloaded from below in the reaction tube integrally with the heat retaining tube by a vertically movable transfer mechanism.

In such a vertical heat treatment apparatus, the procedure of the processing operation is stored in the apparatus CPU in advance, and most of the processing operation is automatically performed (hereinafter, this automatic processing operation is referred to as an auto mode).

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) By the way, in recent years, a large variety of small-quantity production has been progressed for an object to be processed, for example, a semiconductor wafer, and the heat treatment apparatus as described above requires a new treatment in an extremely small amount of processing. A program must be created and automatically processed, and it is difficult to cope with various processing contents. Some heat treatment apparatuses have a manual operation mode in which a worker operates the apparatus by manual operation. However, in the conventional apparatus, since the operation mode is an auxiliary operation mode, complicated processing cannot be performed. In addition, in the heat treatment apparatus having the switching mechanism between the automatic mode and the manual operation mode, when a worker accidentally touches the mode switching switch during the processing operation, the operation mode is switched, and the interruption of the operation or the worst case In such a case, there is a fear that all of the objects to be processed during processing may become defective, and measures for preventing erroneous operations have been required.

The present invention has been made in view of such a conventional situation, and can easily cope with various manufacturing processes, improve productivity, and can prevent an erroneous operation of switching operation of each operation mode. It is an object to provide a heat treatment apparatus.

[Constitution of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) A heat treatment apparatus of the present invention includes a reactor main body containing an object to be processed, and a predetermined processing gas introduced into the reactor main body to supply the object to be processed. An automatic processing mechanism for automatically performing processing by controlling the processing control system based on processing procedure information stored in advance in a heat treatment apparatus having a processing control system for performing a predetermined heat treatment on the heat treatment apparatus; A manual processing mechanism for manually operating the system to process the object, a processing procedure creation mechanism for creating processing procedure information stored in the automatic processing mechanism, and the automatic, manual processing mechanism and the processing procedure A switching mechanism for switching each operation of the creation mechanism, and an operation delay mechanism for delaying the operation of the switching mechanism for a predetermined time are provided.

(Operation) The present invention creates an automatic processing mechanism for automatically performing processing based on processing procedure information stored in advance, a manual processing mechanism for processing an object to be processed by manual operation, and processing procedure information. A processing procedure creation mechanism for storing this in the automatic processing mechanism is provided, and the switching of each processing mechanism can be easily performed by the switching mechanism. And can improve productivity. Further, by providing a delay mechanism for delaying the operation of the switching mechanism for a predetermined time, it is possible to reduce the occurrence of artificial erroneous operation of the switching operation.

(Embodiment) An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a double vertical heat treatment apparatus will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The reactor main body is a cylindrical first reaction tube made of quartz or the like.
The first reactor main body 2a accommodating the first reaction furnace 1a and the second reaction furnace main body 2b accommodating the second reaction tube 1b are also arranged in a double structure.

Each reaction tube 1a, 1b has a processing gas such as SiH ₂ Cl ₂ , HCl,
A processing gas control system 3 for supplying a predetermined amount of B ₂ H ₆ , PH _3, etc. into each of the reaction tubes 1 a, 1 b according to the processing content, and a predetermined vacuum inside each of the reaction tubes 1 a, 1 b during the film forming process. An exhaust control system 4 is provided for maintaining the temperature at any time.

Further, temperature control systems 5a, 5b are provided on the outer periphery of each reaction tube 1a, 1b.
Heater mechanisms 6a and 6b are respectively controlled by the temperature control systems 5a and 5b and the heater mechanisms 6a and 6b, and the objects to be processed accommodated in the respective reaction tubes 1a and 1b, for example, a semiconductor wafer group 7a. , 7b are heated to a predetermined processing temperature.

In a process in such a heat treatment apparatus, for example, a Si epitaxial film forming process, the inside of each of the reaction tubes 1a and 1b is first set to a predetermined degree of vacuum, and then a predetermined processing gas is introduced into the reaction tubes 1a and 1b by the processing gas control system 3. I do. At this time, the evacuation control system 4 controls the evacuation of the inside of the reaction tubes 1a and 1b to a predetermined degree of vacuum, for example, 1 to 10 Torr. Then, the semiconductor wafer groups 7a and 7b are set to a predetermined processing temperature, for example, 850 by the temperature control systems 5a and 5b.
The processing is performed while controlling the heater mechanisms 6a and 6b so that the temperature becomes about 1050 ° C.

The transfer of the semiconductor wafer groups 7a and 7b into the respective reaction tubes 1a and 1b is performed by a transfer mechanism and a transfer mechanism (not shown), and the transfer mechanism transfers and receives wafers, for example, semiconductors housed in a wafer cassette. Wafer boat for wafer groups 7a and 7b
After transfer to 8a and 8b, this wafer boat is
8a and 8b are conveyed and accommodated in each reaction tube 1a and 1b. The operation control of the transport mechanism and the transfer mechanism is controlled by the transport control system 9.

By the way, each of the control systems 3, 4, 5a, 5b, 9
As shown in the figure, the heat treatment apparatus of the present embodiment is controlled by the apparatus CPU 10, and furthermore, the heat treatment apparatus of this embodiment is configured so that three operation modes, that is, a manual operation mode 11, an auto mode 12, and a program mode 13 can be arbitrarily selected. Have been.

Here, the automatic mode 12 is controlled by the control systems 3, 4, 5a, 5b, 9 according to a work program stored in the apparatus CPU 10 in advance.
This is a so-called fully automatic mode in which processing is automatically performed while controlling the operation, and is a mode generally used in a manufacturing process.

In the manual operation mode 11, the control systems 3, 4, 5a, 5
This is a mode in which a worker manually operates b and 9; the worker can arbitrarily operate each of the control systems 3, 4, 5a, 5b and 9 as needed, for example, in the case of small lot production or the like. This is the operation mode when processing is performed. This manual operation mode
In the configuration 11, the control systems 3, 4, 5a, 5b, and 9 can be individually operated, and the details of the operation can be performed in a detailed manner. Mode 11 can also be used.

On the other hand, the program mode 13 is a mode in which a work program required for the operation of the auto mode 12 is created and stored in the storage unit of the device CPU 10.

In this program mode 13, a predetermined work program is created from the program input unit 14, and the work program
By storing the program in the CPU 10 in advance, the processing of the created program can be automatically performed in the auto mode 12.

The switching operation of each of the operation modes 11, 12, and 13 is as follows.
This is performed by the mode changeover switch 15. The mode changeover switch 15 is provided with a timer mechanism 16 such as a soft timer or a mechanical timer, for example. When the mode changeover switch 15 is operated by an operator, a predetermined operation is performed by the operation of the timer 16. Each mode is configured to be switched with a time delay.

In this embodiment, the timer 16 is set to about 3 seconds.
Of course, this may be set to an arbitrary time.

As described above, by providing the mode changeover switch 15 with the timer mechanism 16 that reacts after a predetermined time, even if an operator touches the mode changeover switch 15 by mistake, if the cancel operation is immediately performed, the wrong mode is set. Switching can be prevented.

If a key switch mechanism is provided in the mode changeover switch 15, malfunction can be further prevented.

As described above, the operation mode of the heat treatment apparatus is set to a manual operation mode 11 in which an operator operates at appropriate times, and an automatic mode 1 in which processing is automatically performed according to a predetermined processing program.
2. A work program is created and stored in the device CPU 13. There are three program modes, and these operation modes can be switched easily by the mode switching mechanism 15. Special production processes such as production can be easily handled, and productivity can be improved. Furthermore, since the timer mechanism 16 is provided in the switching mechanism 15 for each operation mode, it is possible to reduce the occurrence of artificial erroneous operation of the mode switching operation.

In the above-described embodiment, the embodiment in which the present invention is applied to the vertical heat treatment apparatus has been described. However, the present invention can be applied to other heat treatment apparatuses such as a horizontal heat treatment apparatus.

[Effect of the Invention] As described above, according to the heat treatment apparatus of the present invention,
The operation modes are manual operation mode, auto mode,
Since the operation modes can be easily switched by the mode switching mechanism as the three modes of the program mode, various manufacturing processes can be easily coped with, and the productivity can be improved. Further, by providing a timer mechanism for the switching mechanism of each operation mode, it is possible to reduce the occurrence of artificial erroneous operation of the mode switching operation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a control system of a vertical heat treatment apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a relationship between each operation mode and each control system of the embodiment. 1a, 1b: reaction tube, 2a, 2b: reactor main body, 3: processing gas control system, 4: exhaust control system, 5a, 5b: temperature control system, 7a, 7b: semiconductor wafer group, 9 ... Transfer control system, 10
… Device CPU, 11… Manual operation mode, 12… Auto mode, 13… Program mode, 15… Mode switch, 16… Timer.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A heat treatment apparatus comprising: a reaction furnace main body accommodating an object to be processed; and a processing control system for introducing a predetermined processing gas into the reaction furnace main body and performing a predetermined heat treatment on the object to be processed. An automatic processing mechanism for controlling the processing control system based on processing procedure information stored in advance to automatically perform processing, and a manual operation for manually operating the processing control system and processing the workpiece A processing mechanism, a processing procedure creation mechanism for creating processing procedure information stored in the automatic processing mechanism, and a switching mechanism for switching each operation of the automatic, manual processing mechanism, and processing procedure creation mechanism. A heat treatment apparatus comprising: an operation delay mechanism that delays the operation of the switching mechanism for a predetermined time.