JP3176104B2 - Semiconductor manufacturing equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vertical diffusion or CVD apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device by processing a silicon wafer .
The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing device .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional vertical diffusion and CVD apparatus comprises a load lock chamber, a reaction furnace above the load lock chamber, a cassette shelf for receiving and temporarily holding a cassette loaded with wafers, and the like. , These are housed in a housing. Further, the load lock chamber contains a wafer transfer device such as a boat elevating device for loading and unloading a boat loaded with wafers into and from the reaction furnace.

In such a vertical diffusion and CVD apparatus, when a wafer processed in the reactor is taken out of the reactor into the atmosphere, the wafer is naturally oxidized due to its high temperature. Therefore, in a conventional vertical diffusion and CVD apparatus, the load lock chamber is a vacuum vessel, the load lock chamber is evacuated, and wafers are loaded and unloaded. Further, the load lock chamber is filled with nitrogen gas and loaded. After the lock chamber was set to the atmospheric pressure, the wafer was taken out of the vertical diffusion and CVD apparatus to the outside.

[0004]

In the load lock chamber, a boat loaded with wafers is charged into the reactor .
It has a relatively large volume, such as a built-in boat lifting device to be taken out, and in order to make such a load lock chamber a vacuum vessel, it must be enlarged due to thick plate thickness and structural limitations. Expenses were also expensive.

Further, in the above-described conventional apparatus, the natural oxidation of the wafer during standby before transfer to the load lock chamber, or the vertical diffusion after processing, and the natural oxidation during standby until the wafer is transferred from the CVD apparatus. Could not be prevented.

In view of such circumstances, the present invention is intended to prevent oxidation of a wafer by replacing nitrogen gas without providing a vacuum vessel, and further to prevent natural oxidation in the atmosphere.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention comprises a reactor,
Set storage section, wafer holding member, and wafer holding
Between the member and the cassette stored in the cassette storage section
Wafer transfer machine for transferring wafers by
And Tsu preparative housing chamber provided in a housing, relates the interior of the buffer cassette accommodation chamber in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus which enables replaced by nitrogen gas, and a reaction furnace, and the cassette housing part, the boat
Between the cassette and the cassette placed in the cassette storage section.
Wafer transfer machine for transferring wafers and buffer cassette
A storage room is provided in a housing, and a cassette is loaded into the housing.
An opening for closing the shutter, and a shutter for closing the opening.
The inside of the buffer cassette storage room can be replaced with nitrogen gas
It relates to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus with ability Furthermore, according to the inside of the casing to the semiconductor manufacturing device capable replaced by nitrogen gas
Than it is.

[0008]

By replacing the inside of the housing and the inside of the buffer cassette storage chamber with nitrogen gas, it is possible to prevent the wafer from being transferred and natural oxidation during standby.

[0009]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a vertical diffusion and CVD apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a housing, and a compartment 3 for accommodating a boat loading device 2 is formed inside the housing 1. A reaction furnace 4 is provided above the compartment 3. The housing 1,
The compartment 3 has, for example, a structure in which a panel is fitted on each surface, and a joint portion of each panel is sealed with a sealing material such as rubber to have a closed structure under a normal pressure environment.

The boat loading device 2 mounts a boat 6 for holding wafers in multiple stages on a boat elevator 5, and a gate valve 7 is provided between the compartment 3 and the reaction furnace 4. A shutter 8 is provided on a side wall of the compartment 3.

A wafer transfer device 9 is provided opposite the boat loading device 2 with the shutter 8 interposed therebetween, and a cassette storage chamber 10 is provided adjacent to the wafer transfer device 9.

The wafer transfer machine 9 comprises an elevating block 11 which can be moved up and down, and a transfer unit 13 provided on the elevating block 11 for moving a wafer 12 in a horizontal direction. Storage room 1
The wafers 12 are transferred one by one from the cassette 14 stored in the boat 6 to the boat 6.

A shutter 22 is provided in the housing 1 at a position facing the cassette storage chamber 10. Also, the housing 1
Is provided with a nitrogen gas supply pipe 23, and the nitrogen gas supply pipe 23 is connected to a nitrogen gas supply source (not shown). An exhaust pipe 24 is connected to the housing 1.
Is provided with an on-off valve 25.

The compartment 3 is provided with a nitrogen gas supply pipe 15, which is connected to a nitrogen gas supply source (not shown). Further, an exhaust pipe 16 is connected to the compartment 3, and the exhaust pipe 16 is provided with an on-off valve 17.

Further, a bag is provided adjacent to the cassette storage chamber 10.
Providing a Tsu file cassette storage chamber 18 to be movable up and down, the buffer
The cassette housing chamber 18 has a hermetically sealed structure in a normal pressure environment and can be opened and closed by a shutter 19. The buffer cassette
The storage chamber 18 is connected to a nitrogen gas supply pipe 20 and an exhaust pipe 21, and the exhaust pipe 21 is provided with an on-off valve 26.

Hereinafter, the operation will be described.

Cassette 14 loaded with wafers 12
Are stored in the cassette storage chamber 10. In this state, the shutter 22 is closed and the housing 1 is closed.

The on-off valve 25 is opened to supply nitrogen gas from the nitrogen gas supply pipe 23 to replace the inside of the housing 1 with nitrogen gas. The shutter 19 is closed, and the on-off valve 26 is opened to open the on-off valve 26 from the nitrogen gas supply pipe 20. A nitrogen gas is supplied to replace the inside of the buffer cassette storage chamber 18 with the nitrogen gas.

Further, the shutter 8 is closed, the on-off valve 17 is opened, and the inside of the compartment 3 is replaced with nitrogen gas by exhausting from the exhaust pipe 16 while supplying nitrogen gas from the nitrogen gas supply pipe 15. . Here, the housing 1, the buffer
The pressure inside the set storage room 18 and the compartment 3 is normal pressure.

As described above, the housing 1, the compartment 3, and the
The buffer cassette storage chamber 18 has a closed structure in a normal pressure environment, and the oxygen gas concentration in the compartment 3 can easily reach 100 to 20 ppm, which is sufficient to prevent natural oxidation before and after treatment in a standby state. Environment.

When processing the wafers 12, the shutter 8 is opened, and the wafers 12 in the cassettes 14 stored in the cassette storage chamber 10 are sequentially transferred to the boat 6 by the wafer transfer machine 9. Transfer. Next, the gate valve 7 is opened, and the boat 6 is charged into the reaction furnace 4.

After the processing of the wafers 12 is completed, the boat 6 is taken out by the boat elevator 5, and after a required time has passed inside the compartment 3, the shutter 8 is opened, and the wafer transfer machine 9 stores the buffer cassette. The wafer 12 is transferred to the cassette 14 in the chamber 18, and when the transfer is completed, the shutter 19 is closed to stand by for a required time.

When a series of operations after the processing of the wafer 12 is completed, the shutter 22 is opened and the cassette storage chamber 10 is opened.
The cassette 14 in which the wafers 12 are loaded is stored.

Here, the housing 1 is opened when the shutter 22 is opened.
While a nitrogen gas atmosphere of the inner breaks, the buffer cassette <br/> storage chamber 18 wafer 12 housed in the buffer cassette storage chamber 18 because it holds the nitrogen gas atmosphere sealed are protected from the natural oxide You.

By repeating the above-described series of operations, the processing of the wafer 12 is repeated.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, the housing,
Housing waiting since the internal buffer cassette accommodation chamber is replaced with nitrogen gas, to obtain to prevent spontaneous oxidation of the wafer during transfer, it is possible to improve the product quality, buffer
Since the cassette accommodating chamber has a normal pressure airtight structure, the structure is significantly simplified, and the manufacturing cost of the apparatus can be greatly reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 housing 2 boat loading device 3 compartment 4 reaction furnace 9 wafer transfer machine 10 cassette storage room 12 wafer 18 buffer cassette storage room

Continued on the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01L 21/205 H01L 21/22-21/24 H01L 21/31 H01L 21/365 H01L 21/38-21/40 H01L 21 / 469 H01L 21/86

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A reaction furnace, a cassette storage unit, and a wafer
Holding member, the wafer holding member and the cassette storage section
To transfer wafers to and from the cassette stored in
The transfer machine and the buffer cassette storage room are
In the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, the inside of the buffer cassette storage chamber may be replaced with nitrogen gas. 2. A housing comprising a reaction furnace, a cassette storage, a wafer transfer machine for transferring wafers between a boat and a cassette mounted in the cassette storage, and a buffer cassette storage chamber in a housing. An opening for loading a cassette into the housing, and a shutter for closing the opening, wherein the inside of the buffer cassette storage chamber can be replaced with nitrogen gas. 3. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the inside of the housing is replaceable with nitrogen gas.