JP4000174B2 - Processing system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a processing system that performs processing such as heat treatment on a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer.

  As one of the manufacturing processes of a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as “wafer”), there is a process in which heat treatment is performed at a high temperature in order to form an oxide film or diffuse dopants. As shown in FIG. 10, for example, the heat treatment apparatus that performs such heat treatment includes an apparatus main body 1, a utility box 11, and a pump box 12. An input / output port 13 for loading / unloading, a wafer transfer mechanism (not shown) for transferring wafers between the wafer cassette C and the wafer boat 14, a heat treatment furnace 15 for performing heat treatment when the wafer boat 14 is loaded, and the like. I have.

  The utility box 11 includes an electric system unit 16 that stores electric system parts, a gas supply unit 17 for supplying a processing gas, a purge gas, and the like to the apparatus main body 1, and the pump box 12 includes a heat treatment furnace. 14 is provided with a vacuum pump or the like for evacuating the inside. The pump box 12 is connected to each part inside the apparatus main body 1 by an exhaust pipe 12a, the electric system unit 16 by a cable 16a, and the gas supply unit 17 by a gas pipe 17a.

  Here, in a semiconductor manufacturing factory, a region with a high degree of cleanliness having a special structure such as a filter is provided in order to prevent particles from adhering to the wafer. In the above-described heat treatment apparatus, the region having a high degree of cleanness is divided into a clean room CR and a maintenance room MR having a cleanness lower than that of the clean room CR. While the wafer is managed by the room room CR, the maintenance of the apparatus is performed by the maintenance room MR.

  More specifically, the heat treatment apparatus is installed between the clean room CR and the maintenance room MR, and the clean room of the apparatus main body 1 is loaded and unloaded with the wafer cassette C from the clean room CR side. The input / output port 13 is provided on the surface on the CR side, and the utility box 11 is installed in the maintenance room MR.

  By the way, the above-described clean room CR is a chamber controlled to clean the room space by removing dust in the room space with a high-performance filter and at the same time to maintain the temperature and humidity at the required values. For this reason, sealability is required, and special equipment such as a high-performance filter, air circulation means, temperature and humidity control means is expensive, and the cost for installing the clean room CR is high. Running costs for maintenance are also high.

  The maintenance room MR is also required to have a high degree of cleanliness even if the degree of cleanliness is not as high as the atmosphere in which the wafer is placed. Become. This is because the operator enters and exits between the maintenance room MR and the transfer area in the apparatus main body 1 in order to adjust the boat elevator and wafer transfer arm during maintenance. Air enters the clean room CR from the maintenance room MR, and takes air from the maintenance room MR through the filter into the main body 1 in order to increase the degree of cleanliness in the main body 1. This is because this is circulated in the apparatus main body 1 as clean air.

  As described above, in the semiconductor manufacturing factory, the cost for securing the working atmosphere is inherently high, and the diameter of the wafer is becoming larger. In accordance with this, the apparatus main body 1, the utility box 11, and the pump box 12 are also enlarged, Since the number of installed devices is reduced on the same floor, there is a problem that the processing unit price becomes higher than before.

The present invention has been made under such circumstances. The purpose of the present invention is to install a utility box and a pump box separately from the clean room CR and the maintenance room MR. An object of the present invention is to provide a processing system capable of effectively using a room having a high degree of communication and reducing processing costs.

The processing system of the present invention is a semiconductor provided with a first room including a clean room and a maintenance room which is a clean gas atmosphere partitioned by a partition member with respect to the clean room and is an area for performing maintenance. A processing system installed in a manufacturing plant,
An input / output port of the substrate cassette, a processing unit for supplying a processing gas and processing the substrate with the processing gas while exhausting, and a substrate taken out from the substrate cassette placed on the input / output port a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus body installed across and a transfer region for transferring the clean room and the maintenance room respect,
The atmosphere for the first room is provided in the second room located downstairs partitioned and the first chamber, a gas supply facility for supplying the processing gas, the gas exhaust system and electrical system equipment A utility facility for the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus main body, comprising:
The input / output port is provided in the clean room, the processing unit and the transfer area are provided in a maintenance room,
The exhaust pipe, the gas supply pipe and the cable on the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus main body side are respectively connected to the gas exhaust equipment and the gas supply from the maintenance room side through a floor section that divides the first room and the second room. It is connected to facilities and electrical system facilities .

The following aspect can be mentioned as one aspect of the present invention. This aspect is provided on a floor section that divides the first room and the second room, and an exhaust pipe, a gas supply pipe and a cable on the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus main body side are attached and detached, and an exhaust pipe on the utility equipment side, A gas supply pipe and a cable, and a relay part for connecting these utility lines, and the relay part is provided with a relay exhaust pipe, a relay gas supply pipe and a relay provided in the vertical direction, respectively. Power line for electric system,
On the upper side of the relay exhaust pipe, there is provided a connection end portion for attaching and detaching the exhaust pipe on the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus main body side in the first chamber, and on the lower side of the relay exhaust pipe, A connecting end portion in which the exhaust pipe on the utility equipment side is attached and detached in the second room;
On the upper side of the relay gas supply pipe, there is provided a connection end for attaching and detaching the gas supply pipe on the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus main body side in the first chamber, and on the lower side of the relay gas supply pipe. Is provided with a connection end to which the gas supply pipe on the utility equipment side is attached and detached in the second room,
On the upper side of the relay electric power line, there is provided a connection end for attaching and detaching the cable on the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus main body side in the first room, and on the lower side of the relay electric power line. Is characterized in that a connection end to which a cable on the utility facility side is attached and detached is provided in the second room .

  According to the present invention, it is possible to effectively use a room having a high degree of cleanliness. Further, by providing the relay portion, the utility line on the processing apparatus main body side and the utility line on the utility equipment side can be easily connected.

  An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a vertical heat treatment apparatus will be described. First, the concept of this embodiment will be described. In the conventional heat treatment apparatus, the wafer is carried into the apparatus main body from the clean room side, and is again carried out to the clean room after the heat treatment. For this reason, it is necessary to arrange the apparatus main body in an area with a high degree of cleanliness, but since the wafer is not loaded into the utility box or the pump box, these power facilities themselves are arranged in an area with a high degree of cleanliness. There is no need, and if it is installed in another area, the maintenance room can be reduced in size or used effectively. In the present embodiment, the apparatus is configured by paying attention to this point.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the vertical heat treatment apparatus according to this embodiment includes a processing apparatus main body, for example, an apparatus main body 2, a utility box 3, and a pump box 4. The apparatus main body 2 is provided in a first room S1, which is a room with a high degree of cleanliness provided with cleaning equipment (not shown).

  The first room S1 is partitioned into a clean room CR and a maintenance room MR by a partition plate 51, and the apparatus body 2 has a first clean room CR and a maintenance room MR. The front surface portion on which the cassette stage 21 forming the input / output port of the wafer cassette C is provided is located in the clean room CR.

  Each part in the apparatus main body 2 will be briefly described with reference to FIG. 3. The cassette stage 21 is tilted 90 degrees to the back side by the rotating shaft 21a, that is, the vertically placed wafer in the cassette C is horizontally placed. It is comprised so that it may become. A stocker 23 is disposed on the upper side and an intermediate stage 24 is disposed on the lower side of the cassette stage 21 via a conveyance path of the cassette conveyance mechanism 22.

  A wafer boat 26 as a wafer holder is provided on the rear side of the intermediate stage 24 via a wafer transfer means 25. The wafer boat 26 is constructed so that a large number of wafers can be horizontally arranged and held in a shelf shape, and is placed on a boat elevator 27 via a heat insulating cylinder 28. A processing unit, for example, a heat treatment furnace 29 is disposed above the wafer boat 26, and the boat elevator 27 is raised to carry the wafer board 26 into the heat treatment furnace 29.

  The maintenance room MR has a lower degree of cleanliness than the clean room CR, and a door portion (not shown) is provided between the wafer transfer area in the apparatus main body 2 and heat treatment. At the time of maintenance of the apparatus, for example, when adjusting a boat elevator or a wafer transfer arm, the operator can enter and leave the apparatus main body 2 from the maintenance room MR.

  The utility box 3 and the pump box 4 constitute utility facilities, and these are provided in a second room isolated from the first room S1 in which the apparatus main body 2 is provided. The second room S2 is formed, for example, in the lower region of the floor 5 of the first room S1, and is not provided with a cleaning facility and is not configured as a clean room.

  The utility box 3 includes a gas supply unit 31 forming a gas supply unit including a valve, a flow meter and the like for supplying a processing gas and a non-oxidizing gas for purging into the heat treatment furnace 29, and An electric system unit 32 constituting an electric system facility including an electric system part such as a power supply unit for supplying power to the entire apparatus and a transfer system and a heater control circuit, and cooling water for cooling the heat treatment furnace 29 A unit 33 and the like are provided. The pump box 4 serves as a gas exhaust facility, and includes a vacuum pump for evacuating the heat treatment furnace 29.

  The utility equipment and the apparatus main body 2 are connected by utility lines such as an exhaust pipe, a gas supply pipe group, a cable group, and a cooling water passage pipe. In this example, the first room S1 and the second room are connected. A relay unit 6 that is a relay part of the utility line is provided on the floor 5 (the ceiling part when viewed from the second room S2) that is a partition wall that divides S2, and a utility line, that is, an exhaust pipe on the first room S1 side. 41b, gas supply pipe group 31b, cable group 32b, cooling water water pipe 33b and utility line on the second room S2 side (exhaust pipe 41a, gas supply pipe group 31a, cable group 32a, cooling water water pipe 33a) is detachably connected to the relay unit 6.

  The relay unit 6 has a working line (exhaust pipe 61, gas supply pipe group 62, cable group 63, cooling water water pipe 64) penetrating through the unit body 60 in the vertical direction. The both ends of the utility line are provided so as to protrude from both ends. The unit main body 60 has flange portions 65a and 65b at both left and right ends, for example, and is detachably inserted into the opening 52 formed in the floor plate 5, so that air in the second room S2 does not flow into the first room S1. It is configured as follows.

  A processing system including a plurality of the apparatus main bodies 2 described above is configured as shown in FIG. 6, for example. For example, the plurality of apparatus main bodies 2 are arranged side by side in the first room S1 on the same floor. A utility box 3 or the like corresponding to the apparatus main body 2 is arranged side by side in a second room S2 which is a basement, for example.

  Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described. In the relay unit 6, as shown in FIG. 5, the power line on the apparatus main body 2 side in the first room S1 is connected to the connection end on the upper side of the power line for relay. Similarly, the power line for relay is used. A utility line on the utility facility side is connected to the connection end portion on the lower side of the utility facility side in the second room S2. Thus, each mechanism of the apparatus main body 2 placed in the first room S1 and the utility equipment placed in the second room S2 are connected by the utility line.

  Each mechanism of the apparatus main body 2 is driven by power supplied from the electric system unit 32, and signals are exchanged with the electric system unit 32. Then, the heat treatment furnace 29 is evacuated to a predetermined pressure by a vacuum pump in the pump box 4 based on a predetermined process condition, and a predetermined processing gas and purge gas are flown into the heat treatment furnace 29 by a gas supply unit 31 at a predetermined flow rate. Supplied in.

  Regarding the operation of the heat treatment apparatus, first, the wafer cassette C in which the wafer W is stored is carried into the cassette stage 21 from the outside, and is carried to the intermediate stage 24 by the cassette carrying mechanism 22. Thereafter, the wafer transfer means 25 transfers the wafer W from the wafer cassette C to the wafer board 26, and after a predetermined number, for example, 100 wafers are loaded on the wafer board 26, the wafer elevator 26 is moved by the boat elevator 27. It is carried into the heat treatment furnace 29. A predetermined heat treatment is performed in the heat treatment furnace 29 based on the process conditions.

  In such a heat treatment apparatus, the first room S1 is a room with a high degree of cleanness, and the second room S2 is provided in the basement separately from the first room S1, and a room with a high degree of cleanness is provided. Only the apparatus main body 2 that needs to be placed in the first room S1 is installed in the first room S1, and the utility box 3 and the pump box 4 that do not need to be placed in a room with a high degree of cleanness are the second room that is a basement. Installed in S2.

  For this reason, utility facilities (utility box 3 and pump box 4) are installed in the same capacity as the main body 2 in a room with a high degree of cleanliness. A room with a high degree of cleanliness required for the installation of the apparatus can be made smaller, thereby reducing the installation cost of a room with a high degree of cleanness and the running cost for maintenance.

  In addition, when a room with a high degree of cleanliness is partitioned in advance, the number of devices installed in this room can be increased, so that a room with a high degree of cleanliness can be used effectively. Thus, the operation cost per heat treatment apparatus including the running cost of this room can be reduced. This means that if the number of installed units is the same, the clean room space can be narrowed compared to the conventional system.

  Furthermore, since the utility lines of the rooms S1 and S2 are detachably connected to each other via the relay unit 60, the maintenance of the apparatus main body 2 and the utility equipment can be easily performed.

  Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. The difference between the present embodiment and the first embodiment is that the wafer cassette is a closed-type cassette 7 (hereinafter referred to as cassette 7) as shown in FIG. The cassette 7 will be briefly described. The cassette 7 has, for example, a cassette body 71 in which wafer holding portions 70 are formed in multiple stages so as to hold 13 wafers W1 in a shelf shape, and a wafer take-out port of the cassette body 71. And a lid 73 for hermetically closing the opening 72.

  The lid 73 is provided so as to enter the inside of the opening 72 of the cassette body 71, and the lid 73 has, for example, two key holes 74, and a key 75 is provided in the key hole 74. By inserting and turning, for example, four lock pins 76 protrude from the upper and lower ends of the lid 73 so that the lid 73 is fixed to the cassette body 71.

  When such a cassette 7 is used, the apparatus main body 8 is configured as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, for example. The apparatus main body 8 is provided in the first room S1, which is a room with a high degree of cleanliness. However, the first room S1 is not divided into a clean room CR and a maintenance room MR. The degree of cleanliness is lower than the degree of cleanliness in the case of using this open type cassette.

  In the heat treatment apparatus having such a configuration, the cassette 7 is mounted from the outside to the transfer port 81a that is normally closed by the lid of the apparatus main body 8, and the cover 73 of the cassette 7 and the cover of the transfer port 81a are illustrated. Then, the wafer in the cassette 7 is transferred to the wafer boats 83 and 84 by the wafer transfer means 85, and the wafer boats 83 and 84 are heated by the boat elevators 83a and 84a. A predetermined heat treatment is performed by alternately carrying in 82.

  In the present embodiment, the transfer area in the apparatus main body 8 (the transfer area of the wafer transfer means 85 and the movement area of the wafer boats 83 and 84) is partitioned from the outside, and the cassette 7 itself is covered with a lid. Since the closed type is provided so that particles do not enter the apparatus body 8 or the cassette 7, the interior of the apparatus body 8 must have a high degree of cleanliness, but the first room S1 itself is A moderate degree of cleanliness is sufficient as described above. Accordingly, since the installation cost and running cost of the first room S1 are lower than when a high degree of cleanliness is required, the utility box 3 and the pump box 4 are provided in the second room S2. If the first room S1 can be made smaller, the installation cost and running cost of the first room S1 can be further reduced.

  As described above, in the present invention, a second room partitioned from the room is provided above the first room having a high degree of cleanliness, a processing apparatus main body is installed in the first room, and the second room is provided with the second room. Utility equipment may be installed, and the second room may be provided on the same floor as the first room. Further, when a plurality of processing apparatus main bodies are installed in the first room, utility facilities common to two or three processing apparatus main bodies may be installed in the second room.

It is a perspective view which shows the heat processing apparatus used for embodiment of this invention. It is a side view which shows the said heat processing apparatus. It is a side view which shows the apparatus main body of the said heat processing apparatus. It is a perspective view which shows a relay unit. It is sectional drawing which shows a relay unit. It is a perspective view which shows the processing system of this invention. It is a perspective view showing a closed type cassette. It is a perspective view which shows the heat processing apparatus used for the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a top view which shows the heat processing apparatus used for the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the conventional heat processing apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

2, 8 Apparatus main body 29 Heat treatment furnace 3 Utility box 31 Gas supply unit 32 Electric system unit 33 Cooling water unit 4 Pump box 5 Floor 6 Relay unit 7 Closed-type cassette S1 1st room S2 2nd room

Claims (2)

A process installed in a semiconductor manufacturing factory including a clean room and a first room including a maintenance room which is a clean gas atmosphere partitioned by a partition member and is an area for performing maintenance. A system,
An input / output port of the substrate cassette, a processing unit for supplying a processing gas and processing the substrate with the processing gas while exhausting, and a substrate taken out from the substrate cassette placed on the input / output port a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus body installed across and a transfer region for transferring the clean room and the maintenance room respect,
The atmosphere for the first room is provided in the second room located downstairs partitioned and the first chamber, a gas supply facility for supplying the processing gas, the gas exhaust system and electrical system equipment A utility facility for the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus main body, comprising:
The input / output port is provided in the clean room, the processing unit and the transfer area are provided in a maintenance room,
The exhaust pipe, the gas supply pipe and the cable on the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus main body side are respectively connected to the gas exhaust equipment and the gas supply from the maintenance room side through a floor section that divides the first room and the second room. A processing system characterized by being connected to equipment and electrical system equipment . An exhaust pipe, a gas supply pipe, and a cable on the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus main body side are attached to and detached from the floor section that divides the first room and the second room, and an exhaust pipe, a gas supply pipe on the utility equipment side, and A relay part for connecting and disconnecting cables and connecting the utility lines, wherein the relay part is provided with an exhaust pipe for relay, a gas supply pipe for relay, and an electrical system for relay respectively provided in the vertical direction. Equipped with utility line,
On the upper side of the relay exhaust pipe, there is provided a connection end portion for attaching and detaching the exhaust pipe on the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus main body side in the first chamber, and on the lower side of the relay exhaust pipe, A connecting end portion in which the exhaust pipe on the utility equipment side is attached and detached in the second room;
On the upper side of the relay gas supply pipe, there is provided a connection end for attaching and detaching the gas supply pipe on the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus main body side in the first chamber, and on the lower side of the relay gas supply pipe. Is provided with a connection end to which the gas supply pipe on the utility equipment side is attached and detached in the second room,
On the upper side of the relay electric power line, there is provided a connection end for attaching and detaching the cable on the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus main body side in the first room, and on the lower side of the relay electric power line. The processing system according to claim 1, further comprising a connection end portion to which a cable on the utility facility side is attached and detached in the second room .

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