JP3314982B2 - Fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel 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 fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel for manufacturing semiconductors and liquid crystal panels, etc., without the intervention of human hands after semiconductor wafers and glass substrates are put into the apparatus. The present invention relates to a manufacturing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Particle contamination is widely known as a cause of lowering the yield of semiconductors. Sources of dust generation include clean room environments, manual handling, process equipment and process materials. Among them, improvement of clean room cleaning technology and quality improvement of process materials are remarkable, and are effective in preventing particle contamination. What is expected to be effective in preventing particle contamination in the future is dust generation from the process equipment itself and manual handling.

[0003] In the manufacture of semiconductors, liquid crystal panels, and the like, a cleaning step and a lithography step are included between film forming steps. At this time, in a vacuum state, a wafer or a glass substrate on which a film is formed is once placed in an air state, washed, and a lithography process is started. Thereafter, vacuum is applied again through a wet etching step and the like, and a film is formed by a CVD apparatus or the like. As described above, in order to manufacture one semiconductor or liquid crystal panel, the atmospheric state → the vacuum state → the atmospheric state is repeated many times. For this reason, a wafer, a glass substrate, or the like formed in a vacuum state is carried to a cleaning step or the like in the next air by hand, but there is a risk of particle contamination during this time.

[0004] In recent years, as semiconductors have become more highly integrated, 1
It is also necessary to consider molecular contamination in which impurity atoms in the atomic layer pose a problem.

[0005] Further, some wafers are kept in a storage state waiting for the next step during the transition from one process to another, and during this storage, there is a risk of particle contamination and molecular contamination depending on the storage environment.

[0006] As this type of apparatus currently existing, there is a multi-chamber type process apparatus in which processes such as film formation and etching performed in a vacuum are performed by one apparatus. However, since the process in vacuum is performed by the same apparatus, when cleaning is performed later, the pressure is returned to the atmospheric pressure, the wafer is transported by hand from a multi-chamber apparatus, placed in a cleaning machine, and the wafer is cleaned. The wafer is transported by a person's hand, and is again put into the vacuum processing apparatus. In other words, a film is automatically formed in a multi-chamber in a vacuum, and is also automatically cleaned in a cleaning process, and between the film formation in a vacuum and the cleaning in the air, human assistance is required. At present, only semi-automatic devices are available.

[0007]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional semi-automatic apparatus, the wafer or the glass substrate must be transported by hand, and there is a problem that the wafer is contaminated during the transport. At present, there is no fully-automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus including storage, in which wafers and glass substrates are carried out as semiconductors and liquid crystal panels without the intervention of human hands after being put into the apparatus.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and once a wafer or a glass substrate is put into an apparatus, it is manually operated until it is carried out of the apparatus as a product semiconductor or a liquid crystal panel. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing device that can manufacture semiconductors and liquid crystal panels without touching the surface, and also takes measures against particle contamination and molecular contamination, including storage devices before starting the next process. I do.

[0009]

[MEANS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEMS]
The invention according to claim 1 includes a plurality of processing units for performing various processes, and performs various processes on an object to be processed on a semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate through the processing steps in the processing units, thereby forming a semiconductor or liquid crystal panel. A semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus to be manufactured, wherein a processing unit performs processing under a vacuum pressure state.
Pressure processing section, a plurality of atmospheric pressure processing sections that perform processing in an atmospheric pressure state, and a processing object carried in a vacuum pressure state between the vacuum pressure processing sections.
Atmospheric pressure between the vacuum pressure transfer device for feeding and the atmospheric pressure processing unit
An atmospheric pressure transfer device for transferring the object to be processed within
The object to be processed is transferred between the pneumatic transfer device and the atmospheric pressure transfer device.
Comprising a transport device between transfer device for feeding the vacuum processing unit, the atmospheric pressure processing unit, the vacuum pressure conveying device, atmospheric pressure transfer device and the transport instrumentation
The inter-conveyance apparatus is shut off from the outside, and automatically carries out various kinds of processing on the processing object by carrying the processing object into the apparatus, thereby manufacturing a semiconductor or a liquid crystal panel.

[0010] The invention according to claim 2 is the invention according to claim 1.
Vacuum pressure in fully automatic semiconductor and LCD panel manufacturing equipment
The transfer device is a magnetic levitation transfer device used in a vacuum pressure state, and the atmospheric pressure transfer device is a magnetic levitation transfer device used in an atmospheric pressure state.

The third aspect of the present invention is directed to the first or second aspect.
In the fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus described in
Conveying apparatus between the transport device, the vacuum pressure vacuum robot used in a vacuum <br/> state to the transport apparatus, atmospheric robot for use in an atmospheric pressure state to the atmospheric pressure conveying device side, the load to the intermediate- A lock chamber is arranged, and atmospheric pressure is transferred from the vacuum transfer device side
When transporting the processed object on the apparatus side, the vacuum pressure in the load lock chamber and the load lock chamber to a vacuum pressure state
After the conveying apparatus has carried the processing object in said vacuum pressure robot, and the load lock chamber to the atmospheric pressure conveying the treated object at atmospheric pressure robot atmospheric pressure transfer apparatus, atmospheric pressure transfer apparatus When transferring an object to be processed from the vacuum pressure transfer device side to the vacuum pressure transfer device side, after the load lock chamber is brought into the atmospheric pressure state and the process target object is loaded into the load lock chamber from the atmospheric pressure transfer device side by the atmospheric pressure robot, The load / lock chamber is evacuated and the object to be processed is transferred under vacuum by a vacuum pressure robot.
It is transported to the device side.

[0012] The invention described in claim 4 is claim 1 or 2 or
Is for fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing equipment described in 3.
There are, in the vacuum pressure processing unit period of the vacuum pressure conveying device is disposed a vacuum robot for use within the true <br/> pneumatic state, the vacuum pressure
Performs the conveying this vacuum robot processing object between the conveyance device and the vacuum processing unit, disposed to atmospheric robot for use in an atmospheric pressure state between the atmospheric transport unit and the atmospheric pressure processing unit The transfer of an object to be processed between the atmospheric pressure transfer device and the atmospheric pressure processing unit is performed by the atmospheric pressure robot.

Further, the plurality of vacuum processing units include an etcher chamber,
A sputter chamber, a CVD chamber, an ion implantation chamber, and a dry cleaning chamber, and a plurality of atmospheric pressure processing units include a wet cleaning chamber, a drying chamber, a wet etching chamber, a lithography chamber, an exposure chamber,
It is a dry cleaning room.

The invention described in claim 5 is the invention according to claims 1 to 4.
Fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing according to any one of the preceding claims.
The equipment has a medium vacuum storage room, high vacuum storage room and ultra-high vacuum storage room for storing one or more processing objects as a vacuum pressure processing unit, and stores one or more processing objects as an atmospheric pressure processing unit. A storage room is provided for

Further, at least one of the air processing sections is a carry-in port of a processing object or a carry-out port of a completed semiconductor and liquid crystal panel.

[0016]

According to the present invention, by adopting the above structure, the object to be processed is carried into an apparatus which is shielded from the outside, and the object to be processed is processed according to the processing performed by the transport means.
For example, a vacuum processing unit or an atmospheric pressure processing is automatically performed in an etcher room, a sputtering room, a CVD room, an ion implantation room, a dry cleaning room, a wet cleaning room, a drying room, a wet etching room, a lithography room, an exposure room, and a dry cleaning room. Is transported to the processing section, where the processing of each processing section is automatically performed. Such transfer and processing are repeated without manual intervention until a finished product is obtained, and the finished product is stored in a high vacuum storage room, an ultra-high vacuum storage, or a storage room as needed.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2 are views showing the concept of the system configuration of the fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a plan view, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view along BB '. In the figure, those with an A in the head of the device component number indicate the devices used in the atmosphere, and those with a V indicate the devices used in a vacuum.

The present semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus comprises a magnetic levitation transfer apparatus A for transferring a wafer or a glass substrate in the atmosphere.
1 and a magnetic levitation transfer device V1 for transferring a wafer or a glass substrate in a vacuum.

The magnetic levitation transfer device A1 used in the atmosphere includes a wet cleaning room A7, a drying room A8, and a wet etching room A9 via a robot room A4.
5, a lithography chamber (resist coating / baking), a dry cleaning chamber A11 and an exposure chamber (exposure / development) A
12 is a surface oxidation treatment room A1 through a robot room A6.
5, the carry-in / out port A14 and the storage room A13 are connected respectively.

The magnetic levitation transfer device V1 used in vacuum includes an etcher chamber V7, a sputtering chamber V8 and a CVD chamber V9 via a robot chamber V4, and an ion implantation chamber (doping) V15 via a robot chamber V5. Cleaning room V1
The medium vacuum storage room V11, the high vacuum storage room V12, and the ultra-vacuum storage room V13 are connected to the surface vacuum treatment room V14 through the robot room V6.

The magnetic levitation transfer device A1 used in the atmosphere and the magnetic levitation transfer device V1 used in a vacuum are connected to each other via a robot room A2 and a robot room V2.
Room (load / lock room) 10 and an L / L room (load / lock room) 1 via a robot room A3 and a robot room V3.
1 and connected to each other. In the present embodiment, the number of plates having two L / L chambers may be any number as long as the number is one or more. Reference numerals 20 to 47 denote valves.

The wafer transporting process of the present apparatus will be described by taking a very general semiconductor manufacturing process as an example. (1) First, a wafer is loaded into the apparatus from the loading / unloading port A14. (2) The robot in the robot room A6 places the wafer on the cart 12 stopped at the station S3 of the magnetic levitation transfer device A1 used in the atmosphere. (3) The wafer on the cart 12 is transferred from the station S3 to the station S1 by the magnetic levitation transfer device A1.

(4) In the station S1, the wafer on the cart 12 is transferred to the wet cleaning room A7 by the robot in the robot room A4, and RCA cleaning is usually performed. (5) The washed wafer is carried to the drying chamber 8 by the robot in the robot chamber A4 and dried. (6) The dried wafer is placed on the cart 12 stopped at the station S1 by the robot in the robot room A4, and is carried from the station S1 to the station S3 by the magnetic levitation transfer device A1.

[0024] (7) wafers on the cart 12 carried in station S3 is carried on the surface oxidation treatment chamber A 15 by the robot of the robot chamber A6. (8) a wafer carried on the surface oxidation treatment chamber A 15 is a SiO ₂ film which is an intermediate insulating film on the annealed surface. (9) The wafer with the SiO ₂ film formed on the surface is carried to the station S3 by the robot in the robot room A6,
The robot is placed in the L / L chamber 11 in which the inside is at atmospheric pressure by the robot in the robot room A3.

(10) After the wafers are put in the L / L chamber 11, the pressure is changed from the atmospheric pressure to a vacuum state, and the robot in the robot chamber V3 stands by on the station S6 of the magnetic levitation transfer device V1 used in vacuum. Is placed on the cart 13 which is in operation. (11) The cart 13 on which the wafers are loaded is carried to the station S4 by the magnetic levitation transfer device V1. Subsequently, it is carried to the CVD room V9 by the robot in the robot room V4. (12) The wafer transferred to the CVD chamber V9 forms an insulating film of a Si ₃ N ₄ film on the SiO ₂ film on its surface.

(13) The wafer having the Si ₃ N ₄ film formed thereon is transferred to the station S4 by the robot in the robot room V4.
Is put on the waiting cart 13. (14) The robot in the robot room V2 is transported to the L / L room 10 where the inside is in a vacuum state, and the L / L room 10
From vacuum to atmospheric pressure. (15) The wafer placed at atmospheric pressure is in the robot room A2.
Is placed on the cart 12 waiting at the station S1 by the robot 14 and the cart 1 on which the wafer is placed is placed.
2 is carried to the station S2 by the magnetic levitation transfer device A1.

(16) The robot in the robot room A5 enters the lithography room A10, performs resist coating and pre-baking, and again enters the exposure room A12 with the robot in the robot room A5, where exposure and development are performed. Then, the robot is put into the lithography room A10 again by the robot in the robot room A5, and post-baking is performed in the lithography room A10.

(17) The wafer after the lithography step is removed from the station S by the robot in the robot room A5.
2 is carried on the cart 12 waiting on the magnetic levitation transfer device A
At 1, the robot is transported to the station S1 and the robot room A4
In the wet etching chamber A9, the Si ₃ N ₄ film in the target area is removed by a wet method in the wet etching chamber A9. Alternatively, the robot 14 in the robot room A2 carries the L / L chamber 10 from the station S1 to the atmospheric pressure L / L chamber 10 by evacuating the L / L chamber 10, and the robot 15 in the robot room V2 places the cart 13 in the station S4 on standby. It is transported to the etcher room V7 by the robot in the robot room V4, and the Si ₃ N ₄ film in the target area is removed by a dry method.

(18) The wafer from which the Si ₃ N ₄ film in the target area has been removed is placed in the ion implantation chamber V using the robot and the magnetic levitation transfer device in the manner described in (1) to (10) above.
Then, it is transferred to No. 15 and doped with B ⁺ (boron ion).
(19) The wafer after the doping is transported to the dry cleaning chamber A11 by using a robot and a magnetic levitation transfer device in the same manner as described above, and is subjected to O ₃ (ozone) and UV (ultraviolet) lamps.
Remove the resist. (20) The wafer from which the resist has been removed is transported to the wet cleaning chamber A7 using a robot and a magnetic levitation transfer device, and cleaned again.

The steps (2) to (20) are repeated many times to manufacture one semiconductor. The manufactured semiconductor is loaded and unloaded A14 by the robot in the robot room A6.
Remove from

According to the manufacturing apparatus having the above system configuration, the wafer carried in from the carry-in / out port A14 becomes a semiconductor and does not touch human hands until it is carried out again through the carry-in / out port A14. There is no risk of particle contamination.

FIG. 1 shows an example in which a wafer is transferred between a magnetic levitation transfer device in vacuum and a magnetic levitation device in the atmosphere by using a robot. The wafer may be transferred from the magnetic levitation transfer to each process while the wafer is placed on the cart using the apparatus.

In the process of manufacturing a semiconductor, there is often a state (Waitting) in which a wafer or the like is made to wait before starting the next process. In such a case, the wafer or the like is stored in the storage room A13.
Alternatively, they are put in the medium vacuum storage room V11, the high vacuum storage room V12, and the ultra-high vacuum storage room V13 and are put on standby.

For wafers in a state where molecular contamination is not desired, for example, RCA cleaning is performed, and wafers for which an oxide film is not desired to be formed on the surface and wafers for which contact holes are formed and waiting for a wiring process are subjected to ultra-high purity cleaning. It is stored in a storage room A13 in which N ₂ gas is continuously flowing, or stored in an ultra-high vacuum storage room V13 in which the inside is ultra-vacuum (1/10 ⁷ Torr or less).

With respect to storage in a vacuum, three types of vacuum storage chambers are prepared, and the storage chamber can be selected according to the required cleanliness of the wafer. Also, by creating storage rooms with three types of conditions, it is only necessary to create an ultra-high vacuum only in a small storage room, and there is no need to make the magnetic levitation transfer device and the associated process equipment an ultra-high vacuum.
It is economical.

In order to create an atmospheric pressure state, an inert clean gas (such as clean N ₂ gas) is contained or several liters /
It is only necessary to keep flowing from min to several tens of liters / min. Normally, if the clean N ₂ gas is continuously supplied at a flow rate of 10 liter / min, particle contamination and molecular contamination can be sufficiently prevented.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, a wafer or a glass substrate to be processed is carried into the apparatus, so that the processing up to a semiconductor or liquid crystal panel can be performed automatically without human intervention. , The excellent effect that there is almost no risk of particle contamination or molecular contamination can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the concept of the system configuration of a fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line B-B 'of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A1 Magnetic levitation transfer device A2-6 Robot room A7 Wet cleaning room A8 Drying room A9 Wet etching A10 Lithography room A11 Dry cleaning room A12 Exposure room A13 Storage room A14 Loading / unloading port A15 Surface oxidation treatment room V1 Magnetic levitation transfer device V2-6 Robot room V7 Etcher room V8 Sputter room V9 CVD room V10 Dry cleaning room V11 Medium vacuum storage room V12 High vacuum storage room V13 Ultra high vacuum storage room V14 Surface oxidation treatment room V15 Ion implantation room 10, 11 L / L room

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Masao Matsumura 4-2-1 Motofujisawa, Fujisawa-shi, Kanagawa Inside Ebara Research Institute, Inc. (56) References JP-A-4-275449 (JP, A) (58) ) Surveyed field (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01L 21/68 B65G 49/00 B65G 49/06 B65G 49/07 G02F 1/13 101

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] A plurality of processing units for performing various types of processing;
A semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor or a liquid crystal panel by performing various processes on a processing target of a semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate through a processing step in the processing unit, wherein the processing unit is processed in a vacuum pressure state. A plurality of vacuum pressure processing units, and a plurality of atmospheric pressure processing units performing processing in an atmospheric pressure state,
The object to be processed is placed in a vacuum state between the vacuum processing units.
Atmosphere between the vacuum pressure transfer device to transfer and the atmospheric pressure processing unit
Atmospheric pressure transfer device for transferring the object to be processed in a pressure state
Between the vacuum transfer device and the atmospheric transfer device.
Comprising a transport device between transfer device for transferring the physical object, the vacuum pressure processing unit, the atmospheric pressure processing unit, the vacuum pressure conveying
Device, wherein the atmospheric pressure transfer device and the transport device between the conveying device are blocked from the outside, automatically various processing on the processing object by loading the processing object in the device, a semiconductor or a liquid crystal panel A fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus characterized by manufacturing. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said vacuum pressure transfer device is a magnetic levitation transfer device used in a vacuum pressure state, and said atmospheric pressure transfer device is a magnetic levitation transfer device used in an atmospheric pressure state. Item 2. The fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to Item 1. 3. The transfer device between transfer devices , wherein the transfer device is a vacuum pressure transfer device.
Vacuum robot used in a vacuum pressure state to the device side, the <br/> atmospheric robot for use at atmospheric pressure transfer apparatus in the atmospheric pressure state, place the intermediate in the load lock chamber, the vacuum圧搬
When transporting the processed object from the feeder side to atmospheric pressure transfer apparatus, the vacuum pressure robot processed from vacuum pressure conveying device side said load lock chamber to the load lock chamber in the vacuum state after carrying things, the load lock chamber and transported to an atmospheric pressure condition wherein the processing object at atmospheric pressure robot atmospheric pressure transfer device side, processing in the vacuum pressure conveying device side from the atmospheric pressure transfer apparatus when transporting the object after loading the atmospheric robot in the processing object from atmospheric pressure transfer apparatus the load lock chamber to the load lock chamber in the atmospheric pressure, the load lock chamber vacuum conveying the treated object by the vacuum robot into a vacuum state
3. The fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is transported to a device side. 4. disposed vacuum pressure robot used in a vacuum state in the vacuum pressure processing unit period of said vacuum pressure conveying device, processing between vacuum pressure conveying device and the vacuum pressure processing unit together with the conveying of the object is carried out in vacuum pressure robot, the disposed atmospheric robot for use in an atmospheric pressure state between the atmospheric transport unit and the atmospheric pressure processing unit, the large pressure transfer device and the large 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transfer of the processing target between the atmospheric pressure processing units is performed by the atmospheric pressure robot.
2. A fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to item 1. 5. A medium-pressure storage room, a high-vacuum storage room, and an ultra-high-vacuum storage room for storing one or more objects to be processed as said vacuum pressure processing part, and one or more objects to be processed as an atmospheric pressure processing part. 5. The fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a storage room for storing objects.