JP3219478B2 - Vertical heat treatment equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The disclosed technology relates to a semiconductor wafer CV.
D, which belongs to the technical field of a vertical heat treatment apparatus for a wafer that performs heat treatment such as diffusion and oxidation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, information processing has recently been used in industrial society,
Regardless of civil society, it has been highly developed. Naturally, various information processing systems and devices equipped with various electronic functions used for this purpose are also highly sophisticated and used for various electronic processing devices. Semiconductor integrated circuits to be manufactured are also highly integrated, and mass production is increasingly demanded in terms of production. Recently, mass production of 4MDRAM to 16MDRAM has been attempted, and semiconductors such as silicon wafers have been developed. Wafers and the like for device manufacturing are not only simply improved in mass productivity, but are naturally required to have stricter definition.

Conventionally, a horizontal furnace has been used as a heat treatment apparatus for the above-mentioned CVD, diffusion and oxidation treatments. However, wafers are trapped by air stagnation or the like based on a temperature difference between inside and outside of a quartz reaction tube. Vertical heat treatment furnaces having vertical reaction tubes have been used widely in place of horizontal furnaces from various points such as the influence of natural oxide films on the production of the wafer.

A wafer processing apparatus provided in such a vertical heat treatment furnace is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 3-5584 of the applicant's earlier application.
No. 0 invention was devised and put into practical use, and as is well known, equipped with a boat for inserting and removing wafers into and from a heat treatment furnace, equipped with a wafer transfer mechanism and a robot for loading and unloading wafers one by one, The boat is connected to the holding boat via an orientation flat aligning mechanism via a gate, and is connected to a cassette chamber containing wafers via a buffer station.

[0005] In order to ensure that the transfer of each wafer from the wafer transfer mechanism to the boat is accurate in terms of positioning, the cassette is interposed in one cushion from the cassette chamber. Techniques for disposing transfer devices have been developed.

[0006]

However, in such a cassette transfer device, since the heat treatment furnace in the final stage is of a vertical type, the cassette transfer device is also vertically aligned in accordance with the space. Since it is desirable that the cassette chamber in the preceding stage is, for example, a multi-layer type with upper and lower cassettes, a dead space of an equivalent volume is provided on the lower side in order to sequentially raise the cassettes. Must be
A considerable space is required for the entire apparatus, and for this reason, for example, there is a problem that it is difficult to completely prevent intrusion of dust such as particles.

That is, in a loading / unloading chamber 4 'below the heat treatment furnace 4 schematically shown in FIG. 9, a boat 41 (hereinafter simply abbreviated as a boat) includes an arm of an elevator 42 together with a lower heat retaining cylinder 41'. 42 ′ is moved up and down by the rotation of the ball screw 43, and the robot 9 of the transfer device 2 moves the wafer 9 ′.
, And a predetermined process is performed by the heater 47 in the vertical heat treatment furnace main body 45. During this time, the robot 21 removes one wafer 9 'from the wafer cassette from the previous stage. Therefore, for example, the wafers 9 ′ group transferred to the boat 41 are sequentially transferred from the upper part, the middle part to the bottom part of the boat 41, and are moved up and down by the ball screw 43. The residence time in the wafer 45 is different, and the thermal history is different in the upper, middle, and lower portions of the wafer 9 'transferred to the boat 41, whereby the optimum characteristics of the wafer 9' are improved. May be affected.

To cope with this, the boat 41 is
After the full loading of all the wafers 9 ′ 9 ′... From the upper stage to the lower stage by the robot 21, the boat 41 is inserted into the heat treatment furnace main body 45 by the elevator 42 and set into all the wafers 9 ′, 9 ′. It is theoretically possible to eliminate the non-uniformity of the heat history by performing the process in the same time, but in such a process in actual use, the frequency of starting and stopping the heater 47 increases, There is a disadvantage that the durability of the heater 47 and the start / stop device is reduced, and as a result, the cost is increased.
Further, there is also a problem that the average heating state accompanying the start / stop of the heater 47 fluctuates with time.

Further, in order to fully load the wafers 9 'in the loading / unloading chamber 4' from the upper stage to the lower stage of the boat 41, the robot 21 does not have the function of raising and lowering one wafer 9 '. Therefore, the dead space on the lower side of the loading / unloading chamber 4 ′ has to be large, and the space inside the facility of the unit plant becomes large in combination with the vertical height of the vertical heat treatment furnace 4. There were also inconveniences.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the invention of this application is to solve the problem of the vertical stroke of the boat to the heat treatment furnace body based on the above-mentioned prior art, and to transfer the wafer from the cassette to the boat by the transfer device. Transfer is reliably performed, and while making full use of the advantage that the raising and lowering of the boat to the heat treatment furnace main body is performed with full stroke for all wafers, allow a margin in the height direction of the elevator with respect to the boat, It is an object of the present invention to provide an excellent vertical heat treatment apparatus which equalizes the heat histories of all the wafers, performs heat treatment of the wafers smoothly and reliably, and which is beneficial to a transfer technology application field in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

[0011]

[Means and actions for solving the problems] A heat treatment furnace main body,
A wafer transfer apparatus having a wafer loading / unloading chamber in which a wafer boat is disposed and a housing in which a wafer transfer mechanism is housed (the wafer transfer apparatus is composed of a wafer transfer mechanism plus a housing); A cassette chamber in which a cassette is disposed, which is connected to the wafer transfer device via a pass chamber, and a wafer boat is linked to an elevator, and a wafer transfer mechanism is provided at a predetermined portion of the wafer boat. Is a vertical heat treatment apparatus that is positioned adjacent to the wafer transfer mechanism, wherein the wafer transfer mechanism is linked to a relative lifting / lowering device for a wafer boat provided in the housing, and the wafer loading / unloading chamber and the housing And the above-mentioned cassette chamber are made to be capable of being evacuated and being able to supply an inert gas, respectively, as a first backbone. If so descending device is restricted its elevating stroke wafer cassette height of equivalent,
The wafer transfer mechanism is connected to the wafer transfer mechanism via a heat treatment furnace main body, a wafer loading / unloading chamber in which a wafer boat is arranged, a housing in which a wafer transfer mechanism is housed, and a pass chamber. A wafer chamber is connected to an elevator, and a wafer transfer mechanism is located adjacent to a predetermined portion of the wafer boat. And the wafer transfer mechanism is linked to a relative lifting device for a wafer boat provided in the housing,
A shutter is provided at the lower furnace port so as to be openable and closable,
A second basic technical measure is that the wafer loading / unloading chamber, the housing, and the cassette chamber are each made freely evacuable and inert gas can be supplied. .

When a semiconductor wafer is subjected to a heat treatment such as CVD, diffusion and oxidation, a predetermined number of wafers are stored in a predetermined number of wafer cassettes as carriers, and a cassette chamber is arranged around a rotary type rotary table device. Then, a predetermined number of the cassettes are set in the cassette chamber, and a multi-stage type cassette transport mechanism is used, and a multi-stage station is installed in the circumferential direction of the rotary table device by an elevating device and a turning device. The wafer cassette is transferred to the wafer transfer device via the opening / closing of the gate and through the pass chamber, and is placed on the wafer transfer device. It is inclined at a predetermined angle toward the outside to prevent the wafer cassette from being displaced outward due to centrifugal force accompanying the rotation of the table device. At the same time, the wafer cassette is forcibly positioned at the set position by the forcible positioning device, and then the cassette chamber is depressurized to a low pressure by evacuation or the like, and an inert gas such as nitrogen gas is supplied and filled at normal pressure. Then, the table device is rotated by a predetermined pitch, and then the depressurized inert gas is filled to normal pressure,
The robot chamber of the wafer transfer mechanism was positioned with the bottom surface of the wafer cassette in a horizontal state via an elevating device, and the robot removed the wafer from the wafer cassette, depressurized, and filled with an inert gas at normal pressure. Wafers are transferred to the boat in the wafer loading / unloading chamber of the vertical heat treatment furnace by lifting / lowering one cassette by a lifting / lowering device in the wafer loading / unloading mechanism. The boat is lifted up through the vertical heat treatment furnace body, and the wafers are charged into the main body of the vertical heat treatment furnace in a batch manner with an efficient stroke, and a predetermined heat treatment is performed. During this time, the lifting stroke of the boat is equivalent to one cassette of the robot of the wafer transfer device. The mounting space is reduced as much as possible by transferring the wafer via lifting and lowering so that the thermal history of all the wafers does not change,
In addition, the lower furnace port of the heat treatment furnace is sealed via a shutter to avoid heat radiation to the wafer loading / unloading chamber. After the heat treatment, the shutter is opened, and the boat is lowered by a lifting device to reverse the above process. By doing so, the wafer loading and unloading chamber and the housing are each made capable of evacuating and supplying an inert gas, and the wafer is transferred to the next processing,
In the wafer processing apparatus, the above-described process is repeated in a predetermined batch manner so that the thermal history of the wafer is uniform, the product accuracy is high, and the reliability is high.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the invention of the present application will be described below with reference to FIGS.

The same parts as those in FIG. 9 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, 1 is, for example, 6
It is a vertical type heat treatment apparatus for inches, which is the center of the gist of the invention of this application, and as shown in FIGS.
The twin type vertical heat treatment furnaces 4 and 4 and the rotary table devices 5 and 5 are arranged adjacent to each other around the wafer transfer device 2 substantially at the center thereof.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, each pass chamber 3 is connected to a next-stage processing unit (not shown) via a wafer transfer unit 2.

An electromagnetic gate valve is provided in each of the pass chambers 3 in the same manner as in the conventional case, and maintains a low pressure state such as a predetermined vacuum or an airtight state by filling with an inert gas such as nitrogen gas. It is possible to do.

In FIG. 1, electrical instruments such as a control device, a computer device, and an operation panel are omitted for convenience of illustration, but are of course installed in a facility. .

Next, each apparatus will be described in detail. In the wafer transfer apparatus 2 according to the gist of the present invention, as shown in FIGS. A cassette chamber (cassette chamber) 5 mounted on a rotary table device 5 equipped with a robot 21 as a mechanism
A predetermined wafer 9 'from the second wafer cassette 9 can be inserted into and taken out of the boat 41 in the wafer loading / unloading chamber 4' of the heat treatment furnace 4 at a predetermined pitch in the height direction in the same manner as in the conventional mode. And the housing 2 of the transfer device 2
2 and an exhaust duct 8 having an electromagnetic valve 81 at the bottom of the housing 51 of the cassette chamber 52, respectively.
2 is provided and connected to the vacuum pump 83.

A nitrogen gas supply duct 84 for an inert gas is also provided in the housing 22 so that an electromagnetic valve 81 '' is provided.
Is connected to the nitrogen gas cylinder 85 via the

At the bottom of the housing 22, as shown in FIG. 7, a driving device 24 having a built-in step motor is provided through an airtight bellows 594 'to rotate the ball screw 24'. Robot transfer mechanism 21
Is moved up and down by the height of one cassette 9 when transferring the wafer 9 ′ to the boat 41, and its full stroke h is made to be only the height of one wafer cassette 9. ing.

In FIG. 7, for convenience of illustration, only three wafers 9 'transferred from the cassette 9 to the boat 41 by the transfer mechanism 21 of the robot are virtually shown. I have.

The driving device 24 is electrically connected to a control device (not shown) and transfers the robot 21 to the boat 41 by using the ball screw 24 'according to a program input in advance. However, the elevator 42 for the boat 41 is also electrically connected to the control device, and the loading and unloading of the boat 41 into and from the heat treatment furnace main body 45 by the robot 21 and the elevator 42 is performed on all the wafers 9 ′. , 9 '
.. Do not have uneven thermal history.

Then, as shown in FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 2, an exhaust duct 82 provided with an electromagnetic valve 81 is provided in the lower part of the housing 51 of each rotary table device 5 as shown in FIG. The nitrogen gas supply duct 84 is also connected to a nitrogen gas cylinder 85 via an electromagnetic valve 81 '.
It is connected to the.

Further, in the heat treatment furnace 4, a boat 41 is erected in an arm 42 'of an elevator 42 as shown in FIGS. The arm 42 ′ is screwed into a ball screw 43 rotated by a motor (not shown) to set a stroke within a stroke h of only one of the wafer cassettes 9 of the robot 21 along the guide bar 44. After a predetermined heating process (process process) in the upper vertical heat treatment furnace body 45, for example, the CV
D, diffusion, heat treatment such as oxidation treatment is applied to the loaded wafer 9 '.

As shown in FIG. 8, a shutter 46 is provided at the lower furnace port of the heat treatment furnace main body 45, and the boat 4 is rotated through a turning drive 49 such as a rotary air cylinder.
After setting in the first heat treatment furnace main body 45, the heat treatment furnace main body 45 is sealed to shut off heat radiation to the detachable chamber 4 '.

The rotary table device 5 of the load lock mechanism has a housing 5 as shown in FIG.
In the chamber 52 formed by the rotary shaft 1, a rotary type rotary table 53 is fixed to the upper end of a support shaft 55 inserted through a magnetic fluid type seal bearing 54 provided at the bottom of the housing 51. The lower end of the support shaft 55 is connected to a step motor 55 'so that the rotary table 53 can be rotated by a predetermined pitch via the control device.

In the rotary table 53, as shown in FIG. 1, a predetermined number (five in this embodiment) of stations 56 for setting the wafer cassettes 9 are formed at regular intervals in the circumferential direction. As shown in FIG. 1, the wafer transfer apparatus 2 has a buffer function for the heat treatment furnaces 4 and 4 provided in a twin type with respect to the wafer transfer apparatus 2.

It is to be noted that the pair of rotary table devices 5, 5 are not necessarily arranged in a consistent manner with respect to the pair of heat treatment furnaces 4, 4.

In each rotary table device 5, as shown in FIG. 6 in plan view, a rectangular notch 57 is provided in each station 56 and a rotary table 53 is provided around the notch 57.
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a pair of projections 58, 5
8, and a pair of protrusions 58 ', 58' having a height lower than the pair of protrusions 58, 58 protrude toward the center to move the wafer cassette 9 from the transfer device 7 from the state of FIG. 5 to the state of FIG. In the transferred and transferred posture, the wafer cassette 9 is set from the center side to the outside with an upward inclination angle outside of θ and the wafer cassette 9 is moved upward by the centrifugal force of the rotary table 53. , And no change occurs in the set attitude with respect to the wafer transfer device 2.

Therefore, in both the transfer posture from the transfer device 7 and the transfer posture to the wafer transfer device 2 shown in FIG. The posture can be maintained.

In the rotary table device 5, when the wafer cassette 9 is transferred or transferred onto the bottom surface of the housing 51, the cassette lifting device 59 (of course, the wafer shown in FIG. Lifting device 2 of transfer device 2
4, 24 '), and a shaft 591 that moves up and down via the magnetic fluid seal bearing 54 has an upper end formed with a lifting device main body 592 at its upper end, and the notch 57 of the rotary table 53 is inserted. Then, the wafer cassette 9 is brought into contact with the bottom surface of the wafer cassette 9 so that the wafer cassette 9 is floated above the level of each of the projections 58 and 58 'so that the H surface of the bottom surface can be set in a horizontal posture. The lower end of the air cylinder 5 as shown in FIG.
93.

The air cylinder 593 and the housing 5
A bellows 594 is provided externally between the bottom surface of the bellows 1 and the bottom surface so as to maintain an airtight seal.

As shown in FIG. 4, the same configuration is applied to the wafer transfer apparatus 2 on the side of the pass chamber 3 and the wafer cassette transfer apparatus 7 for the rotary table apparatus 5 and the wafer transfer apparatus 2. In the transfer of the wafer cassette 9 between the wafer cassette 9 and the wafer cassette 9, the bottom surface of the wafer cassette 9 is always in a horizontal posture.

Next, in the transfer device 7 for the wafer cassette 9, as shown in FIG. 5, a ball screw 7 operated via a cam and a motor (not shown) in an elevating device 71.
The articulated link 7 is attached to the arm 73 which is screwed up and down
The projections 7, 74 ′ always move parallel to and separate from each other via the pass chamber 3 with respect to the rotary table device 5.
A mounting plate 76 having 5, 75,... Is provided at the end thereof so that the wafer cassette 9 can be transferred from the cassette chamber (not shown) to each rotary table device 5 in a baton touch manner.

The wafer cassette transfer device 7 is a wafer processing device and belongs to the prior art.

As shown in FIG. 3, the rotary table device 5 is provided with a bearing bracket 596 from the bottom surface of the housing 51 at the position of the pass chamber 3 where the wafer cassette 9 is transferred to the wafer cassette transfer device 7. It is erected and the rod 597 in the radial direction is slidably inserted,
A cam follower roller 598 having an elevating device main body 592 provided at the upper end of the air cylinder elevating device 591 as a cam is rotatably supported at the inner end thereof.
The plate 97 is always pressed and urged inward by a resilient spring 599, and a plate 598 ″ as a stopper constituting a forced positioning device is integrally provided outside the plate 97, and is conveyed and transferred to the station 56 of the turntable 53. The inner edge portion of the wafer cassette 9 is lightly urged against the stopper 58 '' so that the wafer cassette 9 can always be maintained in the designed and set posture at the station 56 of the rotary table 53. ing.

In the above structure, when a predetermined CVD, diffusion and oxidation treatment is performed on the wafer 9 'in the vertical heating furnace main body 45, a predetermined number of wafer cassettes 9, 9... , And the operation of the gate valves of the pass chambers 3, 3... Through the control device (not shown) to bring the rotary table device 5 into the air introduction state, the wafer transfer device 2, and the respective heat treatment furnaces 4, 4.
Is set, and the wafer cassette 9 is mounted on the mounting plate 76 of the wafer cassette transfer device 7 in a predetermined manner (of course, the wafer 9 'is stored and set therein).

Then, as shown in FIG. 6, the rotary table 5 of the rotary table
When the H-plane of the bottom surface faces the projections 58 ', 58',... Of the notch 57 portion of the rotary table device 5, the air cylinder 5
93 extends the shaft 591, raises the elevating device main body 592 at the upper end thereof, rises inside the notch 57, and further rises in a posture that does not interfere with the mounting plate 76 of the wafer cassette transfer device 7, The wafer cassette 9 is brought into contact with the H surface of the bottom surface in a horizontal state, and receives the wafer cassette 9 from the mounting plate 76 of the wafer cassette transfer device 7 with the H surface of the bottom surface inclined at a predetermined angle θ.

Then, as shown in FIG. 6, the links 74 and 74 'of the wafer cassette transfer device 7 are turned and reduced in the same manner as in the conventional mode, and are lowered by the rotation of the ball screw 72, so that the next wafer cassette 9 is moved. It waits for it to be transported.

During this time, in the rotary table device 5,
The lifting / lowering device main body 592 at both ends thereof is
5, the rod 597 is pushed laterally against the resilient spring 599 via the cam follower roller 598, and the positioning plate 598 ″ is retracted outward so as not to interfere with the wafer cassette 9.

When the wafer cassette transfer device 7 retreats after turning, the air cylinder 5 is controlled via a control device (not shown).
93 is reduced, the elevating / lowering device main body 592 at the upper end is lowered via the shaft 591, the wafer cassette 9 is gently placed on its bottom surface, and is brought into contact with the projections 58, 58 ′. The cam follower roller 598 is detached from the lifting / lowering device main body 592, and the rod 597 is moved through the elastic spring 599.
Moves inward, the positioning plate 598 ″ gently urges the outer surface of the wafer cassette 9, and the inner wall surface thereof
′ And is forcibly positioned to maintain its posture.

Then, the stepping motor 55 'is rotated through a control device (not shown), so that the rotary table 53 is rotated through a predetermined angle through the shaft 55, and is moved to the next station 56 to face the pass chamber 3. The transfer and transfer of the next wafer cassette 9 via the wafer cassette transfer device 7 are performed, and the transfer and transfer of the wafer cassette 9 in a baton-like manner are performed in the same manner as described above.

Thus, the wafer cassettes 9, 9,.
Are transferred and placed on each station 56 of the rotary table 53 of the rotary table device 5.

During this time, the wafer cassette 9 once placed on the station 56 is inclined by the projections 58 and 58 'at an outward upward inclination angle θ, and is further stopped by a stopper 58'.
And the positioning plate 598 'restricts the position in the radial direction, so that even if the rotary table 53 is rotated and the centrifugal force causes the position to shift outward, the transfer position is maintained while maintaining the transfer position. Therefore, the rotation of the rotary table 53 does not generate particles or the like due to the relative sliding between the wafer cassette 9 and the rotary table 53.

When the wafer cassettes 9, 9... Are placed on all the stations 56, 56,... Of the rotary table 53 of each rotary table device 5, the vacuum pump 83 is evacuated via the controller (not shown). The air in the chamber 52 of the rotary table device 5 is evacuated and depressurized by the vacuum pump 83 from the duct 82, and the electromagnetic valve 81 closes the exhaust duct 82 at a predetermined vacuum pressure.
The nitrogen gas from the nitrogen gas cylinder 85 is supplied into the chamber 52 through the supply duct 84 until the pressure becomes normal.

The housing 22, the heat treatment furnace 4, and
The attachment / detachment chamber 4 'is previously in a nitrogen gas atmosphere, and is closed from the atmosphere by all gate valves.

Of course, during this time, the wafer cassettes 9 are transferred to all the stations 56 of the rotary table device 5.
At the time of the transfer, all the gate valves are closed by the control device.

When rotating the rotary table device 5 and filling with nitrogen gas, the rotating mechanism such as the shaft 55 is provided with a seal bearing 54 made of a magnetic fluid. The state is assured, and nitrogen gas leak is prevented even during rotation, so that gas leak does not occur. Therefore, formation of an oxide film due to invasion of outside air during wafer processing which is originally undesirable is prevented.

Next, each wafer 9 'is removed from the wafer cassette 9.
Is transferred to the boat 41 by the wafer transfer mechanism 21 of the robot of the wafer transfer apparatus 2 in the wafer mounting / dismounting chamber 4 ′ of the heat treatment furnace 4, the pressure is reduced by a direct vacuum, and the nitrogen gas Since the same atmospheric pressure as that of the chamber 52 of the rotary table device 5 is maintained through the filling, the gate valve between the chamber 52 and the housing 22 and the gate valve between the housing 22 and the detachable chamber 4 'are opened. Thereafter, the wafer transfer mechanism 21 of the robot of the wafer transfer device 2 receives the wafer 9 ′ from the wafer cassette 9 on the station 56 of the rotary table 53 of the rotary table device 5, and transfers the wafer 9 ′ to the boat 41.

At this time, the stations 56 in the order
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the air cylinder 593 of the elevating device 59 extends, and the upper end elevating device main body 592 of the shaft 591 rises from the notch 57 of the station 56 to lower the bottom surface H of the wafer cassette 9. Lift the protrusion 5
8, 58 'and the stopper 58 ", the robot 21 of the wafer transfer device 2 sequentially transfers the wafer 9' to the boat 41 as described below, and lifts the wafer 9 'to a horizontal position. The heat treatment furnace body 45 is charged and set according to 42, and a predetermined process is performed.
As shown in FIG. 7, first, the robot 21 of the transfer device 2 is initially set at the highest position of the boat 41 which is in the lowest position in the loading / unloading chamber 4 'of the heat treatment furnace 4, and from that state. The ball screw 24 ′ is rotated by the driving device 24 via the control device, and the robot 21
The wafers 9 'in the wafer cassette 9 are sequentially transferred to and supported by the boat 41.

Therefore, in this process, the robot 21 moves down the boat 41 by the stroke of h and transfers one wafer 9 ', 9'... Of one wafer cassette 9 without moving the boat 41 up and down.

Then, the boat 41 is h-height (that is, 1).
Wafers 9 ', 9 having a stroke of the height of the wafer 9')
When the transfer of “...” Is completed for the first time, the boat 41 is moved by the elevator 42 via the heat retaining cylinder 41 ′.
The wafer 9 'is moved up by the stroke h and the next wafer 9' is transferred.

At this time, as shown in FIG.
Is designed so that the top of the boat 41 has not reached the level of the shutter 46 or still has a sufficient margin when the wafer 9 'is transferred on the upper portion of the boat 9'.

Therefore, as described above, the lifting device 24 and the ball screw 24 ′ are provided to the robot 21 of the transfer device 2.
Is provided and the boat 41 is moved up and down relative to the boat 41 by a stroke h corresponding to the height of one wafer cassette 9, so that the timing for inserting the boat 41 into the heat treatment furnace main body 45 has a margin, that is, the loading / unloading chamber 4 '. The lifting stroke of the boat 41 in the step 41 can be made longer, and as a result, the thermal history of the wafer 9 'transferred on the upper part of the boat 41 can be prevented from being varied.

Then, from the time when the stroke h corresponding to the height of one wafer cassette 9 of the robot 21 is consumed, the full loading of sequentially repeating the stroke of one wafer 9 ′ of the boat 41 is performed to open the shutter 46. The insertion set to the heat treatment furnace main body 45 in the state is performed.

In this case, a stroke h corresponding to the height of one wafer cassette 9 by the robot 21 with respect to the boat 41 is not performed from the top of the boat 41 due to a design change.
Even if the operation is performed from the bottom, there is a margin for the vertical stroke corresponding to the height stroke h of one wafer cassette 9 of the boat 41, and accordingly, the wafers 9 'transferred to the topmost portion,
9 'can be reduced, and as a result, the imbalance of the thermal history of all the loaded wafers 9', 9 'can be prevented as much as possible.

In this manner, the boat 41 and the robot 21
Is moved up and down by a stroke h corresponding to the height of one wafer cassette 9 with respect to the wafer 9 '.
, 9 ′ are transferred to the boat 41, and in the subsequent process, the boat 41 transfers the wafer 9 in the same manner as in the conventional mode.
At the pitch of one sheet, and inserted into the heat treatment furnace body 45. At the end of the rising stroke, the shutter 4
6 seals the bottom of the heat treatment furnace main body 45 to perform a predetermined heat treatment.

During this time, the pair of rotary table devices 5 and 5 have a buffer function for the heat treatment furnaces 4 and 4, and the pair of heat treatment furnaces 4 and 4 efficiently carry out the batch processing of the wafer 9 '. It can be processed efficiently.

Then, in each of the heat treatment furnaces 4, when the heating process on the predetermined wafer 9 'is completed, the above-described process is reversed, and the processed wafer 9' is transferred to the next stage process.

The embodiments of the invention of the present application are not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various types of processing can be applied, for example, the wafer 9 'to be processed can be applied to substrates other than semiconductor wafers. Can be adopted.

In terms of design change, the transfer device robot 2
It goes without saying that various modes are possible, such as making the lifting device of the first type an air cylinder type.

In the above-described embodiment, the interior of the chamber 52 is filled with an inert gas such as argon or nitrogen gas. May be contained.

[0063]

As described above, according to the invention of this application, in a vertical heat treatment apparatus basically having a vertical heat treatment furnace, a boat holding a wafer is linked to an elevator so as to be able to move up and down, and In a wafer processing apparatus in which a wafer transfer apparatus having a robot is positioned adjacent to a part, an elevating device for the transfer apparatus main body is also linked to the housing of the wafer transfer apparatus, and the wafer transfer apparatus moves up and down relative to the boat. When the wafer transfer apparatus transfers each wafer from the wafer cassette in the preceding wafer transfer apparatus to the boat, the wafer transfer apparatus can move the wafer relative to the boat by a stroke corresponding to one wafer cassette height. By allowing the boat to move up and down, the boat stops the elevator stroke by one wafer cassette and transfers wafers. Therefore, the boat gains a stroke corresponding to the height of one wafer cassette by the wafer transfer device, and the other lifting and lowering can be performed by the lifting and lowering stroke corresponding to the thickness of one wafer. As the boat in the loading / unloading room has room for lifting and lowering, the thermal history of the wafer transferred to the top of the boat in the heat treatment furnace main body becomes unbalanced compared to the thermal history of other wafers. As a result, the thermal history of all the wafers is made as uniform as possible, and an excellent effect that it is possible to maintain good product accuracy can be obtained.

Since the lifting and lowering of the boat and the lifting and lowering of the wafer transfer device can be performed relatively through the transfer mechanism, the lifting and lowering stroke corresponding to the height of one wafer cassette of the wafer transfer device can be performed. On the other hand, by designing so that it can be selected by position, it is possible to adjust the insertion timing and residence time of the boat into the heat treatment furnace main body, and to perform the average processing of the thermal history of all wafers as much as possible This is an excellent effect. Also, a heat treatment furnace main body, a wafer loading / unloading chamber in which a wafer boat is disposed,
Oxidation of the wafer is achieved by having a housing in which a wafer transfer mechanism is housed, wherein the wafer loading / unloading chamber and the housing are configured to be capable of evacuating and supplying an inert gas, respectively. An excellent effect on precision that film formation or the like does not occur is exhibited.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic plan view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view taken along line II-II of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a rotary table at a transfer portion of a wafer cassette transfer device.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion corresponding to the wafer transfer device.

FIG. 5 is a schematic side view of a mechanism of the wafer transfer device.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the connection between the rotary table and the wafer cassette transfer device.

FIG. 7 is a longitudinal sectional view of a part where a heat treatment furnace and a transfer device are connected.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional plan view of a heat treatment furnace main body provided with a shutter.

FIG. 9 is a longitudinal sectional view of the same.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vertical heat treatment apparatus 4 Vertical heat treatment furnace main body 41 Wafer boat 42 Elevator 2 Wafer transfer apparatus 46 Shutter 1 Wafer processing apparatus 22 Housing 24, 24 'Relative elevating apparatus h Stroke 9 Wafer cassette 4' Wafer loading / unloading chamber 3 Pass chamber 9 ′ Wafer, cassette 21 Wafer transfer mechanism 52 Cassette chamber

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ identification code FI H01L 21/68 H01L 21/68 A (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01L 21/31 B65G 49 / 07 H01L 21/205 H01L 21/22 511 H01L 21/68

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A wafer transfer apparatus having a heat treatment furnace main body, a wafer loading / unloading chamber in which a wafer boat is arranged, a housing in which a wafer transfer mechanism is housed, and a paster.
Connected to the wafer transfer device via a
And a cassette chamber which bets are placed, the wafer boat is linked to the elevator, in the vertical heat treatment apparatus at a predetermined portion of the wafer boat above the wafer transfer device is faced with vicinal, the wafer transfer with the mounting mechanism is linked to the relative lifting device to the wafer boat disposed on the housings <br/> ring, the wafer detachable chamber and the housing evacuation and the said cassette chamber are each freely and inert gases A vertical heat treatment apparatus characterized in that it can be supplied freely . 2. The vertical heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lifting and lowering stroke of the lifting and lowering device is controlled to correspond to the height of the wafer cassette. 3. A wafer transfer apparatus having a heat treatment furnace main body, a wafer loading / unloading chamber in which a wafer boat is disposed, a housing in which a wafer transfer mechanism is housed, and a paster.
Connected to the wafer transfer device via a
And a cassette chamber which bets are placed, the wafer boat is linked to the elevator, in the vertical heat treatment apparatus at a predetermined portion of the wafer boat wafer transfer mechanism is faced with vicinal, the wafer transfer mechanism above but with the linked to the relative lifting device to the wafer boat disposed on the housing, the bottom of the furnace opening and the shutter is disposed openably and the wafer detachable chamber and the said housing
Vertical heat treatment apparatus, wherein the serial cassette chamber and is evacuated respectively freely and inert gas is freely supplied.