JP3514725B2 - Vertical heat treatment equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate an influence of disturbed air flow due to a heat produced in a reaction furnace within a processing chamber and to prevent in advance an adhesion of dust to the surface of a wafer. SOLUTION: A boat 30 is transferred by a boat transfer means 20, between a first waiting position 34 to allow a processed boat 30 to wait and a second waiting position 36 to allow another boat 30 for the next processing to wait. The first and second waiting positions 34 and 36 are located on the upstream side of a clean air from an HEPA filter, and the transfer means 20 is arranged on the downstream side thereof.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vertical heat treatment apparatus, and more particularly to the structure of a boat loader in a vertical heat treatment apparatus used for diffusion, oxidation, annealing or film formation.

[0002]

BACKGROUND ART Generally, in a heat treatment process of a processing object such as a semiconductor wafer, for example, a vertical reactor provided in a processing chamber is equipped with a boat for batch processing a plurality of processing objects. A boat transfer mechanism is provided for loading and unloading the boat into and from the reaction furnace.

By the way, a boat used for batch processing is not only capable of mounting a large number of objects to be processed for batch processing, but also has an efficient procedure for carrying in and out to and from a reaction furnace, so-called processing. It is also desirable to improve the through top of the device.

Therefore, while the heat treatment process is being performed, the boat for the next treatment process is made to stand by in the treatment chamber and a boat to be loaded into the reactor is prepared in advance. A structure has been proposed in which the boat can be replaced at the time of completion, and the next processing process can be immediately performed to continuously perform the processing process. Such a structure is referred to as a two-boat system having a part in which a boat for executing the next processing process is placed in a standby state in the processing chamber and a part in which the boat that has completed the processing process is placed in a standby state after being taken out from the reactor. ing.

Then, one of the boat transfer mechanisms used for executing the two-boat system is provided with a boat mounting table at both ends of a rotatable arm, and the boat mounting table is mounted at the descending position of the boat elevator and at the next position. A structure in which the boat is carried in and out of the reaction furnace by rotating the boat 180 ° between the positions where the boat for carrying out the treatment process is on standby (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-291335) or both ends as described above. Instead of installing a boat mount on the boat, a boat mount is installed on the swing end of the cantilevered swingable arm, and swings between the loading position of a new boat and the position where the processed boat is on standby. However, there is a structure in which the processed object from the reaction furnace is transferred during this swing locus (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-82521, which is a prior application by the applicant of the present application).

[0006]

However, in the boat transfer mechanism as described above, the radius of rotation of the arm is inevitably required, so that the space occupied by the arm in the processing chamber tends to become large, and the vertical heat treatment is performed. There is a problem that the apparatus cannot be downsized and the structure of the vertical heat treatment apparatus becomes complicated.

In other words, in terms of the size of the processing apparatus, in order to prevent thermal interference between the processed boat and the boat carried into the boat elevator to execute the next processing process. Since a considerable space is required, the radius of gyration of the arm may be considerably large, and the space occupied by the arm in the processing apparatus becomes large.

[0008] In such a situation, it is desired to increase the production operation rate in this type of vertical heat treatment apparatus, and therefore, the number of reactors is increased with respect to the installation area in the clean room where the cost per unit area is high. Considering the current situation where there is an increasing tendency to make it happen, this is an obstacle in the sense of increasing the production operation rate.

Further, regarding the structure of the processing apparatus,
It cannot be denied that the structure becomes complicated. One of the reasons for this is that an arm having a constant radius of gyration needs to operate without interfering with the carrier or boat elevator while moving to each standby position. Another reason is that when transferring a boat and a wafer, it is necessary to equip each unit with a shaft for rotation and elevation in one unit. Moreover, when positioning at each standby position based on the turning radius and turning angle of the arm, the error between the arm and the arm inserted into the lower end plate of the boat is, for example, about 0.2 to 0.3 mm. Can only tolerate such errors. For this reason, the radius or angle error cannot be allowed to be larger than this, and so-called teaching of the arm for positioning based on the radius or angle error must be extremely accurate. Processing is likely to be difficult. Further, as the structure becomes more complicated, the chances of dust generation in the mechanical section increase, and the risk of the dust adhering to the wafer surface accommodated in the boat increases.

Regarding the generation of this dust, so-called dust,
It is often affected by the turbulence of the air flow in the processing chamber due to the heat from the reaction furnace, eliminating the effect of this air turbulence, and even if turbulence occurs, dust on the surface of the object to be processed waiting It is necessary to suppress the adhesion.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a structure capable of reducing the space occupied by the boat transfer mechanism and downsizing in view of the above-mentioned problems in the conventional vertical heat treatment apparatus, particularly in the boat loader. Another object is to provide a vertical heat treatment apparatus.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a vertical heat treatment apparatus capable of suppressing the influence of air flow turbulence due to heat from a reaction furnace in a processing chamber to prevent dust from adhering to the wafer surface. Will be done.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a vertical heat treatment apparatus having a structure capable of simplifying the drive mechanism when the boat transfer means and the wafer transfer means are combined. It is in.

[0014]

In order to achieve this object, the invention according to claim 1 has a first standby position for keeping a treated boat on standby below the reactor and for the next treatment. Is a vertical heat treatment apparatus employing a two-boat system in which a second standby position for holding the boat in standby is provided, and a transfer chamber provided below the reactor,
Located adjacent to the transfer room to accommodate multiple carriers
Airtight between the stock room, the transfer room and the stock room
A door that opens and closes the partition and the opening for loading and unloading wafers
A wall portion provided with a boat, a boat transfer means that is displaceable in the transfer chamber to the first and second standby positions and a boat insertion / removal position for the reaction furnace , the boat, and the carrier.
And a wafer transfer means for transferring a wafer between the two, and the first and second standby positions are set on the upstream side in the flow direction of the clean air or the purge gas forming the side flow. The boat transfer means is characterized in that it is set on the downstream side of each of the first and second standby positions.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the vertical heat treatment apparatus according to the first aspect, the first standby position is provided between the second standby position and the boat insertion / removal position side. A feature is that a heat shield structure is provided between each standby position.

When the boat transfer means is provided, it is important to prevent the dust generated from the mechanism of the boat transfer means from adhering to the surface of the object to be processed. Therefore, in the present invention, the standby position of the boat is set on the upstream side in the flow direction of the purge gas or clean air, and the downstream side, in other words, by arranging the boat transfer means behind the standby position of the boat, Dust generated from the boat transfer means can be collected without reaching the surface of the object to be processed.

Further, in the case where the boat transfer means and the boat transfer means for inserting / removing the object to / from the boat and the boat transfer means are configured to be lifted / lowered in a single unit. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid complication of the structure such as providing a plurality of drive shafts in each transfer means. Therefore, it is preferable that the lifting and lowering drive units of the boat transfer means and the workpiece transfer means are provided on the same axis. This way
The structure can be simplified by sharing the drive shaft of the transfer means in a single unit without adding it.

[0018]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the overall structure of a vertical heat treatment apparatus of the present invention. The vertical heat treatment apparatus in this embodiment is generally called an upper heater system, and a reaction furnace is provided on the upper side of the apparatus. It is intended for equipment that is equipped.

That is, the vertical heat treatment apparatus 10 is provided with a transfer chamber 14 below the reaction furnace 12, and a stock chamber 18 for the carrier 16 is provided on the side of the transfer chamber 14. .

The transfer chamber 14 will be described in detail later,
A boat transfer means 20 and a wafer transfer means 22 are provided. Of these transfer means, the wafer transfer means 22
Is, for example, a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as a wafer) 26, which is an object to be processed, which is housed in a carrier 16 carried in to the side of the transfer chamber 14 from the outside of the apparatus by a robot 24, and a lid 28A. It is adapted to be inserted into and removed from the boat 30 mounted on the integral heat insulating cylinder 28B and transferred.

The stock chamber 18 in this embodiment is provided with a plurality of rows of carrier accommodating portions, and the door 18B provided in the opening 18A formed in the wall surface at a position facing the robot 24 is opened. Thus, the carrier 16 can be taken in and out. Further, the carrier 16 inserted from the opening 18A of the stock chamber 18 is placed on the reversing table 18C and rotated by 90 ° to set the wafer in the horizontal position, and then is opposed to the transfer chamber 14.
The wafer accommodated inside can be transferred to the boat 30 by the wafer transfer means 22.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, the transfer chamber 14 constitutes a closed space which is separated from the stock chamber 18 by the wall portion 14A, and the wafer from the carrier 16 in the stock chamber 18 is formed. A door 14B for opening and closing the opening is provided at a position for taking in and out. This door 14B
Also, a folded piece is formed on the wall portion 14A facing the sealing member 14C and the folded piece is formed between the folded pieces.
Is arranged and the airtightness between the transfer chamber 14 and the stock chamber 18 when the door 14B is closed is maintained.

The transfer chamber 14 is provided with a HEPA filter 32 on one wall in the transverse direction along the horizontal direction, that is, on the left wall in the figure. This HEPA filter 32
Are arranged in series along the wall, for example,
From the HEPA filter 32, dry air, clean air, or N2 gas as a purge gas is made to flow in the direction of the arrow in the figure by the suction action of a suction pump (not shown) connected to the opposing wall side.

The transfer chamber 14 is provided with a standby position for keeping the treated boat and the boat used for the next treatment on standby.

The first waiting position 34 for waiting the processed boat and the second waiting position 36 for holding the boat for the next processing are both in the HEPA filter 32.
It is set on the upstream side in the flow direction of the clean air or the purge gas flowing in from the HEPA filter 32, that is, in the vicinity of the HEPA filter 32, and a heat shield plate 38 is provided between the first and second standby positions. There is. The arrangement relationship between the first and second standby positions 34 and 36 is that the first standby position 34 is on the reaction furnace 12 side and the second standby position 3 is
6 is set to a position farther from the reaction furnace 12 than the second standby position.

The heat shield plate 38 is, for example, a metal plate member made of stainless steel, and has its base end fixed to a wall portion which is provided adjacent to the second standby position 36 and which supports the HEPA filter 32. The extending direction from the base end to the tip is inclined with respect to the wall portion. And, as the inclination angle, HEP
The angle is set such that clean air or purge gas flowing from the A filter 32 does not diffract toward the second standby position 36.

On the other hand, the boat transfer means 20 and the wafer transfer means 22 are both provided downstream of the first and second standby positions 34 and 36 in the flowing direction of clean air or purge gas.

The boat transfer means 20 and the wafer transfer means 22 mount, for example, five wafers accommodated in a single boat mounting surface located at the tip of the arm or a carrier according to the transfer target, for example, at the same time. The drive mechanism has the same structure except that a wafer mounting surface is provided.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the boat transfer means 20 comprises a base portion 20A, a rotation drive portion 20B and a boat mounting arm 20C, and the base portion 20A is a lifting drive portion 40 which will be described later. Substrate 4 provided integrally with
It is fixed at 2. The rotary drive unit 20B is a rotatable member that is fixed to the output shaft of the rotary drive means (not shown) provided inside the base 20A, and has an upper surface in the radial direction with respect to the center of rotation. A slit 20B1 is formed along the slit 20B1. The boat mounting arm 20C has a bifurcated portion that can be inserted into the lower end plate of the boat 30, and the boat 3 is provided on the upper surface of the bifurcated portion.
Pins 20C1 for mounting the lower end plate of 0 are provided at equally divided positions.

Further, the boat mounting arm 20C is
An output member of a linear driving means (not shown) provided in the rotation driving unit 20B is fixed to a surface of the rotation driving unit 20B facing the slit 20B1 having a non-branched base end. Has been done.

Therefore, the rotary drive unit 20B can turn around the center of rotation as indicated by the symbol R in FIG. 3, and the boat mounting arm 20C can be rotated by the symbol T in FIG.
As shown by R, the rotary drive unit 2 is moved along the slit 20B1.
By being displaced along the radial direction with respect to the center of rotation of 0B, the so-called extension / contraction operation of the arm can be performed, whereby the boat transfer means 20 can perform the turning operation and the displacement operation in the two-dimensional plane. In FIG. 3, reference numeral A indicates a state in which the boat mounting arm 20C extends in the radial direction with respect to the rotation center of the rotation drive unit 20B, reference numeral B indicates a state in which the boat mounting arm 20C contracts in the radial direction, and reference numeral C. Shows the state of the boat mounting arm 20C after the rotation drive unit 20B is turned.

By the way, in this embodiment, HEPA
The boat transfer means 20 and the wafer transfer means 22 are arranged on the downstream side in the flow direction of the clean air or purge gas flowing from the filter 32.
As a structure of the wall portion in which the substrates 42 of Nos. 0 and 22 are projected into the transfer chamber 14, as shown in FIGS.
A slight gap S is set between the second surface and the second surface in the plate thickness direction. This reduces the exposure of the drive mechanism portions of the boat transfer means 20 and the wafer transfer means 22, and also reduces the HEP.
This is because the flow of clean air or purge gas flowing from the A filter 32 is narrowed to efficiently perform the suction action of air or gas and improve the efficiency of collecting dust from the transfer means. Instead of providing the gap S, a plurality of holes formed by punching the wall may be used.

On the other hand, the elevating and lowering drive section 40 is installed with the boat transfer means 20 and the wafer transfer means 22 via the substrate 42 provided on each installation section of the boat transfer means 20 and the wafer transfer means 22. The structure will be described below with reference to FIG. 3 to FIG.

That is, in the lifting drive unit 40, a bracket 40A for mounting a drive mechanism is integrated with a substrate 42, and a linear guide 42A fixed to the substrate 42 is provided on the wall of the apparatus. By fitting the rail 44, as shown by the symbol V in FIG.
The boat transfer means 20 and the wafer transfer means 22 are displaced in a direction perpendicular to the above-mentioned two-dimensional surface, that is, a so-called vertical direction.

As shown in FIG. 4, a stationary screw rod 46 having extended end portions fixed to the ceiling side and the bottom plate side of the transfer chamber 14 is inserted into the lifting drive means 40, A ball nut 48 shown in FIG. 5 is fitted to the screw rod 46. The lifting drive means 40 is
As is clear from FIGS. 1 and 4, not only the boat transfer means 20 shown in FIG. 3 but also the wafer transfer means 22 are provided coaxially.
Each transfer means can independently drive up and down, and, for example, when the boat transfer means 20 side rises downward of the reaction furnace 12 to take out the boat from the reaction furnace 12, the wafer transfer means 22 causes the boat transfer means 20 to move. 1 so as not to interfere with
In the above, it can be displaced to the position shown by the chain double-dashed line and retracted.

The ball nut 48 has an inner ring of a bearing 50 fixed in parallel on the outer circumference of the housing in the axial direction.
The outer ring of 0 is fixed to the bracket 40A. The ball nut 48 includes a gear 48B integrated with a flange 48A formed on a part of the housing,
The gear 48B meshes with the output gear 54 attached to one end of the shaft 52A of the reduction mechanism 52.

An input gear 56 is attached to the other end of the shaft 52A of the speed reduction mechanism 52 having the output gear 54. The input gear 56 is a drive attached to the output shaft of a drive motor 58. The gear 60 is meshed. Therefore, the rotation of the drive motor 58 is transmitted to the output gear 54 via the drive gear 60 and the shaft 52A of the reduction mechanism 52, and the gear 48B of the ball nut 48 is rotated.

When the ball nut 48 rotates, the inner ring of the bearing 50 moves along the axial direction of the threaded rod 46, but this movement is transmitted to the outer ring through the balls of the bearing 50. Bracket 40 to which the outer ring is fixed
A moves in the axial direction of the screw rod 46, and
Can be moved in the axial direction of the screw rod 46. The reduction mechanism 52 described above is provided to transmit the rotation of the drive motor 58 to the gear 48B of the ball nut 48, and the position of the gear 48B of the ball nut 48 is arranged on the lower surface side of the ball nut 48. However, it is needless to say that this arrangement relationship is not limited to such a relationship.

Next, the operation will be described.

6 to 9, the arrow direction indicated by the alternate long and short dash line indicates the displacement locus of the boat transfer means 20.

When the heat treatment is completed in the reaction furnace 12, the boat 30 loaded in the reaction furnace 12 is lowered by the boat elevator. At this time, in the boat transfer means 20, as shown in FIG. 6, the rotation drive unit 20B rotates so as to face the lowered position of the boat 30. Then, when the boat 30 finishes descending, the boat mounting arm 20C extends on the rotation drive unit 20B, the forked portion is inserted into the lower end plate of the boat 30, and the boat 30 is lifted to lower the boat 30. Hold the end plate.

When the holding of the lower end plate of the boat 30 is completed, as shown in FIG. 7, in the boat transfer means 20, the rotation drive unit 20B is rotated to rotate the boat 30 to the first standby position 34.
To face. At this time, in the elevating and lowering drive means 40, the drive motor 58 is driven to rotate the ball nut 48 in the direction in which it descends with respect to the screw rod 46. Therefore, the boat 30
The boat 30 according to the descending operation of the boat transfer means 20.
Will be placed in the stationary position.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 8, the boat transfer means 20 in which the treated boat 30 is placed at the first standby position 34 is arranged such that the boat mounting arm 20C on the rotation drive unit 20B is rotated with respect to the center of rotation. Shrink. At this time, the displacement amount by which the boat mounting arm 20C contracts in the radial direction is set to an amount by which the boat mounting arm 20C can rotate without interfering with the heat shield plate 38.

Then, the boat mounting arm 2 in a contracted state
As shown in FIG. 9, 0C is the lower end plate of the boat 30 which is set to the first standby position 36 after being extended again after the rotary drive unit 20B has rotated until it faces the second standby position 36. Is stretched and displaced in the direction to hold. Although not shown, the boat mounting arm 20C contracts again while holding the lower end plate of the boat 30, and then the rotation drive unit 20B rotates with the boat 30 lifted from the second standby position 36. Then, when it extends below the reaction furnace 12, it extends and, via the downward displacement of the lifting drive means 40,
Place the boat 30 on the boat elevator.

The above is the case where the boat 30 is transferred to the reaction furnace 12. When the wafer is transferred between the boat 30 and the carrier 16, the wafer transfer means 22 is rotated, Each operation of displacement and elevation in the radial direction is performed by being set according to the wafer transfer position on the boat 30 side and the carrier 16 side.

In the present embodiment as described above, the transfer chamber 14 located below the reaction furnace 12 in which the wafer to be heat-treated is accommodated and the stock chamber 1 in which the carrier is accommodated.
By partitioning the transfer chamber 8 from the transfer chamber 8, the inside of the transfer chamber 14 can be configured as a relatively narrow sealed space. For this reason, the space including the stock chamber 18 can be brought into the atmosphere in an extremely short time, and the atmosphere can be easily controlled, as compared with the case where the atmosphere is made into the inert atmosphere by the purge gas.
This is particularly effective, for example, when it is necessary to control the mixing amount of O2 gas that affects the oxidation of the wafer to be processed next by the radiant heat when the reactor 12 is opened.

Moreover, since the space for raising and lowering the high-temperature boat is formed and the region located directly under the reaction furnace and the region for storing the carrier are clearly separated, dust from the outside of the apparatus directly into the reaction furnace and the reaction furnace It is possible to prevent the reaction gas from leaking from the inside to the outside of the device.

Further, according to the present embodiment, by disposing the heat shield plate 38 between the first and second standby positions, the dust on the wafer in the boat located at the second standby position 36 is dusted. Scattering and adhesion of is prevented. That is, the first standby position 3
Even if the airflow in the transfer chamber 14 is disturbed by the heat from the boat 30 placed on the No. 4, since the clean air or the purge gas is rectified by the heat shield plate 38, the airflow is disturbed at the second standby position 36. There is nothing.

In this embodiment, the screw rod 46 provided on the elevating and lowering drive means 40 is slidably attached to both the boat transfer means 20 and the wafer transfer means 22, so that the screw rod 46 is axially moved. The length will be considerably longer. Therefore, by preventing both ends of the axial direction from being fixed without being rotated and being held in an immovable state, it is possible to prevent the behavior of each transfer means from becoming unstable due to rotational runout when the screw rod is rotated. It becomes possible to do.

Furthermore, according to this embodiment, the elevating and lowering drive means 40 provided in the boat transfer means 20 and the wafer transfer means 22 can be independently driven. Therefore, when the boat transfer means 20 moves up to take out the boat from the reaction furnace 12, the wafer transfer means 22 can be displaced to a retracted position where it does not interfere with the boat transfer means 20. Become. Therefore, there is no need for complicated operation for preventing interference between the transfer means,
The interference can be prevented with a simple structure of only raising and lowering operations.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the two-boat system in which the waiting position of the processed boat and the waiting position of the boat for the next processing are set has been described. For example, it is possible to easily change the target to the one-boat system. In this case,
The boat transfer means may be positioned with respect to the first or second standby position, and either the clean air or purge gas supply structure may be omitted. In this way, the basic layout of the device can be shared by the 1-boat and 2-boat systems, and the components can be shared.

Further, instead of the boat transfer means provided on the screw rod, wafer transfer means may be provided in series to increase the wafer transfer speed. In any case, when using these modified examples, there is no need to change the layout of the transfer chamber and the stock chamber in the heat treatment apparatus as compared with the case of the embodiment, and from this point, various modifications are possible. Can be performed easily.

[0054]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention, at least the rotation and the radial direction with respect to the center of rotation are set as the displacement direction of the boat transfer means, whereby the boat transfer means is turned. Also, the boat can be moved between the standby positions by using the expansion and contraction operation in the radial direction. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the occupied space required for transferring the boat and downsize the device. Furthermore, when the standby positions of the boat are brought close to each other, it is possible to install a heat shield structure for the purpose of avoiding the thermal influence between the two wait positions, so as not to interfere with this heat shield structure. Can perform the above-mentioned boat transfer operation.

Further, since the boat transfer means can perform displacement in the two-dimensional plane, the displacement position in this two-dimensional plane can be appropriately selected. Therefore, it is possible to find the position where the tolerance for the error of the radius or the angle is set, so that the teaching for positioning the boat with respect to the standby position can be facilitated.

Further, by setting the standby position of the boat on the upstream side in the flow direction of the purge gas or clean air, and arranging the boat transfer means on the downstream side, in other words, behind the standby position of the boat, the boat transfer means is moved. The dust generated from the mounting means can be collected without reaching the surface of the object to be processed.

The elevating and lowering drive parts of the boat transfer means and the workpiece transfer means are provided on the same axis. Therefore, it is possible to simplify the structure by sharing the drive shaft of the transfer means in a single unit without adding it.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining the overall configuration of a heat treatment apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view in the direction of the arrow indicated by − in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view for explaining a configuration of boat transfer means used in the heat treatment apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing a part of the structure of a lifting drive means used in the heat treatment apparatus shown in FIG.

5 is a cross-sectional view for explaining the structure of a drive mechanism used in the lifting drive means shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view for explaining the operation of the boat transfer means shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view for explaining another operation of the boat transfer means shown in FIG.

8 is a schematic diagram for explaining still another operation of the boat transfer means shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a schematic view for explaining another operation of the boat transfer means shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Heat treatment equipment 12 Reactor 14 Transfer room 20 Boat transfer means 22 Processing object transfer means 26 Semiconductor wafers to be processed 30 boats 32 HEPA filter 34 First standby position 36 Second standby position 40 Lifting drive means 46 screw rod

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-3-248418 (JP, A) JP-A-4-137526 (JP, A) JP-A-4-154118 (JP, A) JP-A-4- 262555 (JP, A) JP-A-63-174332 (JP, A) Fukuihei 4-87635 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01L 21/68 B65G 49 / 00 H01L 21/205 H01L 21/22 511 H01L 21/324

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A first waiting position for holding a treated boat on standby and a second waiting position for keeping a boat for the next treatment on the lower side of the reactor 2
A vertical heat treatment apparatus employing a boat system, which is arranged adjacent to the transfer chamber below the transfer chamber and accommodates a plurality of carriers.
The stock room to be installed , the transfer room and the stock room are airtightly partitioned, and
A wall with a door that opens and closes the opening for loading and unloading wafers
And a boat transfer means that is displaceable to the first and second standby positions and a boat insertion / removal position for the reaction furnace , and a wafer between the boat and the carrier in the transfer chamber.
A wafer transfer means for mounting is provided, and the first and second standby positions are set on the upstream side in the flow direction of the clean air or purge gas forming the side flow, and the boat transfer means is A vertical heat treatment apparatus, which is set on the downstream side of each of the first and second standby positions. 2. A vertical heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first standby position is provided between the second standby position and the boat insertion and removal position, between respective standby positions Is a vertical heat treatment apparatus having a heat shield structure.