JP4416521B2 - Heat treatment equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a heat treatment apparatus for relatively large semiconductor substrates, liquid crystal substrates, and the like.

In a conventional vertical heat treatment apparatus that places a large number of semiconductor substrates on a support and performs heat treatment, for example, a quartz heat treatment container is disposed in the main body of the heat treatment apparatus and is purged with an inert gas. A large number of substrates to be processed such as semiconductor wafers are stacked (stacked or juxtaposed) inside, and then a heat treatment is performed by injecting a processing gas (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
JP-A-7-153711

  A conventional vertical heat treatment apparatus is configured by disposing a quartz heat treatment vessel in a heat treatment apparatus body composed of a cylindrical heat insulation block having an open bottom, as shown in Patent Document 1 above. Since the main body of the heat treatment apparatus is integrally configured, there is a disadvantage that it cannot sufficiently cope with a large substrate to be processed.

  That is, in a conventional heat treatment apparatus in which a cylindrical heat insulation block having an open bottom as an outer wall of the apparatus is integrally formed, if the heat treatment block can be used for a large substrate, the entire heat insulation block is increased in size and weight. Therefore, there is a problem that workability is extremely deteriorated due to difficulty in transportation and installation. In addition, increasing the size of the heat insulation block has made it difficult to achieve a certain level of accuracy during assembly.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a heat treatment apparatus that has good workability during assembly and that can be assembled with a certain degree of accuracy.

The present invention relates to a plurality of heating units in which a heating element is integrally molded in the vicinity of the surface of a heat insulating material, and a plurality of side heat insulating blocks composed of a flat metal shell in which the plurality of heating units are fixed in a vertical direction. Body,
A holding portion having a polygonal periphery for holding the lower end portions of the plurality of side heat insulating block bodies so that the metal shell is positioned outside;
An upper heat insulating block body constituted by a single or plural holding the upper end portions of the plurality of side heat insulating block bodies;
A top plate covering the upper part of the upper heat insulating block body;
With
A lower end portion of the plurality of side heat insulating block bodies is assembled to the polygonal holding portion , and further, the upper heat insulating block body and the top plate are assembled to the upper end portion of the side heat insulating block body to constitute a heat treatment apparatus main body. It is characterized by that.

The heat treatment apparatus according to the present invention includes at least four components, that is, a side heat insulating block body, a polygon holding portion , an upper heat insulating block body, and a top plate. Each of these components is individually manufactured at a heat treatment device manufacturing factory or the like before assembling the heat treatment device, and is assembled as necessary, and individually transported to a predetermined place such as in a clean room, and assembled in the following order. It is done.

First, the lower end part of a some side part heat insulation block body is assembled | attached to a polygon holding part, and the whole side part of a heat insulation block is assembled. Next, the upper heat insulating block body and the top plate are assembled to the upper end portion of the side heat insulating block body to assemble the entire upper portion of the heat insulating block.

  Since the components such as each heat insulation block are a part of the whole heat insulation block, even if the heat treatment device main body is very large, it is easy to transport and is not heavy. Is also easier. In addition, since it is not necessary to handle large and heavy parts, it can be assembled with a certain degree of accuracy.

  According to the present invention, a large heat treatment apparatus can be assembled with a certain accuracy without deteriorating workability.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a heat treatment apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The heat treatment apparatus of the present embodiment is a so-called vertical heat treatment apparatus configured as a vertical type as a whole. A quartz heat treatment container is disposed in the heat treatment apparatus main body, and a plurality of large substrates are arranged in parallel in the heat treatment apparatus to perform heat treatment.

In FIG. 1, the heat insulation block 1 which comprises the said heat processing apparatus main body is comprised by eight side part heat insulation block bodies and four upper heat insulation block bodies so that it may mention later. A quartz heat treatment vessel 2 having a dome-shaped top in the heat insulation block 1 is held by a furnace opening structure 15 , and includes a substrate holding jig 3, a gantry 4 of the substrate holding jig 3, A heat barrier 5 is disposed for preventing heat from escaping. These can be moved up and down by an elevator 6. A plurality of substrates 7 to be processed are juxtaposed on the substrate holding jig 3 in a lowered state, and then the whole is raised and stored in the heat insulating block 1.

  As described above, the substrate holding jig 3 for juxtaposing the substrate 7 with respect to the heat insulating block 1 constituting the main body of the heat treatment apparatus can be moved up and down by the elevator 6 so that the substrate holding treatment can be performed in other places. These heat treatments can be sequentially performed while replacing the substrate 7 as an object to be processed in the tool 3. A vacuum is evacuated from the suction port 8 before processing, an inert gas is injected from a gas injection port (not shown), a gas purge is performed, and then a processing gas is injected before the heat treatment.

In the above configuration, the heat insulation block 1 is composed of eight side heat insulation block bodies 10 and an upper heat insulation block 11 including four upper heat insulation block bodies 110. Moreover, each side part heat insulation block body 10 is comprised by the four heating units 100 and the flat aluminum shell 101 which fixed these to the orthogonal | vertical direction. The upper heat insulating block 11 includes an upper heat insulating block body 110 divided into four parts, a flat top plate 111 in which these are fixed in the horizontal direction, and a shell retainer 112 that covers the side portions of the upper heat insulating block bodies 110. It consists of and. The heating unit 100 is obtained by integrally molding a resistance heating wire (heating element) using a material such as Kanthal A1 in the vicinity of the surface of a heat insulating material such as a ceramic fiber. The aluminum shell 101 is for preventing dust generation from the heating unit 100 due to repeated thermal cycles. In addition, by fixing the four heating units 100 to the aluminum shell 101, the inside of the heat treatment apparatus is divided into four heat zones in the vertical direction so that the temperature can be controlled based on the output of a temperature sensor (not shown) for each zone. ing.

  FIG. 2 shows a configuration of the heat insulating block 1 and an assembly diagram thereof.

  The side heat insulation block bodies 10 are composed of a total of eight, and each side heat insulation block body 10 is fixed by fixing four heating units 100 to one flat aluminum shell 101 in the vertical direction. Composed. The terminal 102 of each heating unit 100 is inserted into a terminal hole 105 formed in the aluminum shell 101, and is fixed to the heater terminal 104 with screws via a terminal spacer 103 as shown in FIG. Accordingly, a total of 16 heater terminals 104 are exposed outside the aluminum shell 101, the heater terminals are connected by a heater power supply line (not shown), and a predetermined current is supplied to the heating unit. 100 is heated and the inside of the heat treatment container 2 is controlled to a predetermined temperature.

  Each side heat insulation block body 10 is assembled | attached separately before heat processing apparatus assembly, and the side part heat insulation block after those assembly | attachment is each conveyed individually to the heat processing apparatus installation place P (refer FIG. 1).

  A shell retainer (holding portion) 12 for holding the lower end portion of each side heat insulating block body 10 is disposed below the eight side heat insulating block bodies 10. The shell retainer 12 has a regular octagonal shape as shown in the figure, and is integrally formed of metal. To this shell retainer 12, a vestable 13 and each side heat insulating block body 10 are attached. At this time, each side heat insulation block body 10 is attached to the shell retainer 12 so that the aluminum shell 101 is located outside, that is, the heating unit 100 is located inside. In addition, after the eight side heat insulating block bodies 10 are attached to the shell retainer 12, the aluminum joint plate 14 is attached to a position that becomes a joint of each side heat insulating block body 10. There are a total of eight joint plates 14.

  After assembling the eight side heat insulating block bodies 10 and the bestables 13 to the shell retainer 12, one upper heat insulating block body is assembled to the upper end portion of the side heat insulating block body 10.

  The upper heat insulating block 11 includes an upper heat insulating block body 110 divided into four parts, a metallic top plate 111 covering the upper part, and a shell retainer 112 covering the periphery of each of the four heat insulating block bodies 110 divided into four parts. This structure is also individually conveyed to the heat treatment apparatus installation place P in an assembled state. Then, after the eight side heat insulating block bodies 10 are assembled to the shell retainer 12 at the heat treatment apparatus installation place P, the upper heat insulating block 11 is assembled to the upper part.

  As described above, a plurality of structures constituting each part of the heat treatment apparatus are individually conveyed to the heat treatment apparatus installation place P such as a clean room, and the respective structures are assembled at the heat treatment apparatus installation place P. Thereby, even if the heat treatment apparatus as a whole is very large, the weight of each structure is not so heavy and the shape does not become large. Therefore, transportation is easy and workability is improved. Moreover, compared with the conventional apparatus which integrates a heat insulation block, since it does not enlarge, a precision can be made relatively high. Furthermore, even if a part is damaged, it is only necessary to replace the damaged part, so that it is excellent in maintainability. Further, when the shell retainer 12 is circular, the structure of the aluminum shell 101 needs to be formed into an arc shape is complicated, and there are disadvantages that it is difficult to ensure a certain degree of accuracy. However, in this embodiment, the shell retainer Since 12 is a regular octagon, the shape of the aluminum shell 101 may be a flat plate. For this reason, the structure is simple and it is easy to ensure a certain accuracy.

  In addition, in the said embodiment, each side part heat insulation block body 10 and the upper heat insulation block 11 were conveyed separately to the heat processing apparatus installation place P (refer FIG. 1) in the state assembled | attached separately before heat processing apparatus assembly. However, the parts of each block may be transported to the heat treatment apparatus installation place P and assembled at the same place. Moreover, although the upper heat insulation block body 110 of the upper heat insulation block 11 is divided into four, this is good also as a single block piece.

  The shell retainer 12 has a regular octagonal shape, but is not limited thereto, and may be a polygon such as a regular hexagon, preferably a regular polygon. It is also possible to use a shell made of any metal.

Schematic configuration diagram of a heat treatment apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention Configuration diagram and assembly diagram of heat treatment equipment Terminal structure

Explanation of symbols

1-Heat treatment apparatus main body 2-Heat treatment vessel 7-Substrate 10-Side heat insulation block body 15 -Furnace structure 100-Heating unit 101-Aluminum shell 11-Upper heat insulation block 110-Upper heat insulation block body 111- Top plate 12-Shell retainer (holding part )

Claims (3)

A plurality of heating units in which the heating elements are integrally molded in the vicinity of the surface of the heat insulating material, and a plurality of side heat insulating block bodies composed of a flat metal shell in which the plurality of heating units are fixed in the vertical direction;
A holding portion having a polygonal periphery for holding the lower end portions of the plurality of side heat insulating block bodies so that the metal shell is positioned outside;
An upper heat insulating block body constituted by a single or plural holding the upper end portions of the plurality of side heat insulating block bodies;
A top plate covering the upper part of the upper heat insulating block body;
With
A lower end portion of the plurality of side heat insulating block bodies is assembled to the polygonal holding portion , and further, the upper heat insulating block body and the top plate are assembled to the upper end portion of the side heat insulating block body to constitute a heat treatment apparatus main body. A heat treatment apparatus characterized by that.   The heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the metal shell is made of aluminum or stainless steel.   The heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the holding portion has a regular polygonal periphery, and each of the side heat insulating block bodies has the same shape.

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