JP4684408B2 - Processing equipment - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a processing apparatus.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In the manufacture of semiconductor devices, various processing apparatuses (semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses) are used to perform processes such as oxidation, diffusion, film formation, and annealing on an object to be processed, such as a semiconductor wafer. Further, depending on the process, a process gas obtained by vaporizing the liquid material may be used. In this case, a liquid material vaporization supply system for vaporizing the liquid material is used. This liquid raw material vaporization supply system includes a liquid raw material container, a flow meter for measuring the flow rate of the liquid raw material pumped from the liquid raw material container, and the liquid raw material supplied through the flow meter is vaporized by a carrier gas. It consists mainly of a vaporizer to be supplied. That is, this system is configured to pass the liquid raw material pumped from the liquid raw material container through the flow meter to check the flow rate, and to heat and vaporize the liquid raw material in the vaporizer disposed on the secondary side. ing.
[0003]
FIG. 7 shows a structure of a vaporizer in a conventional liquid raw material vaporization supply system. This vaporizer forms a carrier gas passage 41 through which a carrier gas passes through the vaporizer body 40 and a liquid raw material passage 42 that opens toward the carrier gas passage 41 and discharges the liquid raw material. In the middle of the liquid source passage 42, a control valve 43 for controlling the discharge amount of the liquid source is provided. A part of the carrier gas passage 41 is a vaporization chamber 44, and a shutoff valve 46 that opens and closes the opening 45 is located at a position facing the opening 45 of the liquid source passage 42 across the vaporization chamber 44. Is provided. The vaporizer body 40 is provided with a heating means (heater) (not shown) for vaporizing the liquid raw material.
[0004]
FIG. 8 shows a schematic configuration of a flow meter in the system. This flow meter is configured by providing a bypass 51 made of a fine pipe in a main line 50 through which a liquid material is passed, and providing a flow sensor 52 in the bypass 51. The flow rate sensor 52 detects a flow rate by changing the temperature difference when the liquid material flows into the bypass 51 into an electric signal.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the liquid raw material vaporization supply system of the conventional processing apparatus, the vapor pressure curve due to the temperature (heat) and pressure resulting from vaporization is the base, but there are insufficient parts in the vaporizer and the flow meter, There was a problem that vaporization ability was low. For example, in the vaporizer, the downstream side of the control valve 43 in the liquid source passage 42 becomes a liquid reservoir 47, so that the controlled amount of liquid cannot be vaporized smoothly, and the inner diameter d of the liquid source passage 42 is 0. Since it is as small as 3 mm, it is considered that a sufficient amount of liquid cannot be supplied to the vaporizing chamber.
[0006]
It is also conceivable that the heating temperature by the heating means is insufficient in relation to the mounting position. On the other hand, in the flow meter, a stagnation part or clogging of the flow may occur in the main line 50 or the bypass line 51 due to the viscosity of the liquid raw material or the bubbling of the pumped gas dissolved in the liquid raw material. It is conceivable that an accurate flow rate cannot be confirmed.
[0007]
Further, in the processing apparatus, after the processing, a gas purge is performed in which a purge gas is flowed in order to discharge the residual gas remaining in the pipe or the processing chamber cleanly. In some cases, it adhered to the surface. This is because the purge gas was introduced from the pipe between the vaporizer and the processing chamber, so the purge gas flowed back to the vaporizer side and the pressure in the vaporizer part increased, thereby liquefying the residual gas in the vaporizer part. This is thought to be because mist-like nuclei (under the particles) are generated.
[0008]
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a processing apparatus capable of improving the vaporization ability when the liquid raw material is vaporized and supplied. It is another object of the present invention to provide a processing apparatus that can prevent generation of particles due to gas purge.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
Among the present inventions, the invention according to claim 1 is a processing apparatus that accommodates an object to be processed in a processing chamber and performs a predetermined processing in a predetermined processing gas atmosphere, and a liquid is introduced into the processing gas introduction system of the processing chamber. A liquid raw material supply system having a vaporizer for vaporizing a liquid raw material supplied from a raw material container via a flow meter and supplying the liquid raw material with a carrier gas is connected. The vaporizer faces the carrier gas passage and the carrier gas passage. Formed between the nozzle opening end and the diaphragm valve, a nozzle that opens and discharges the liquid material, a diaphragm valve that covers the nozzle opening so as to be openable and closable, a drive unit that controls the opening and closing of the diaphragm valve, and a vaporization chamber, the opening of the nozzle is widened formed dished toward the vaporization chamber, embed a heater as carburetor body surrounding the nozzle and diaphragm valve By being configured to heat controlled vaporizing chamber to a predetermined temperature by providing a temperature sensor for detecting the temperature in the vicinity of the vaporization chamber, characterized in the.
[0010]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the processing apparatus of the first aspect, the diaphragm valve has a peripheral edge fixed, and has an annular reinforcing portion having a corrugated cross section inside the fixed portion. Features.
[0011]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the processing apparatus according to the first aspect, the flowmeter is provided with a flow rate sensor in the main line through which the liquid material passes.
[0012]
According to claim 4 the invention, in the processing apparatus according to claim 1, purge gas supply system for supplying purge gas to the upstream of the prior SL carburetor is characterized that it is connected.
[0013]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0014]
In FIG. 1 showing an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a single wafer heat treatment apparatus which is a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, reference numeral 1 denotes a predetermined process such as a film formation process by CVD on an object to be processed such as a semiconductor wafer in a predetermined process gas atmosphere. A liquid raw material vaporization supply system 3 is connected to a processing gas introduction system (introduction pipe) 2 of the processing chamber 1. The liquid raw material vaporization supply system 3 includes a liquid raw material container (liquid raw material tank) 5 containing a liquid raw material, for example, PET (pentaethoxytantalum) 4, and a flow rate for measuring the flow rate of the liquid raw material pumped from the liquid raw material container 5. A total 6, for example, an LMFM (Liquid Mass Flow Meter) 6, and a vaporizer 7 that vaporizes the liquid raw material supplied via the flow meter 6 and supplies the liquid raw material with a carrier gas.
[0015]
In the liquid source container 5, in order to pressure-feed the liquid source 4 to the vaporizer 7, a pressure-feeding gas injection pipe 8 for injecting a pressure-feeding gas, for example, an inert gas, preferably helium gas (He), and a liquid source pressure-feeding pipe 9 are provided. Are connected to the pressurized gas injection pipe 8 and the liquid raw material pressure feeding pipe 9, respectively. The vaporizer 7 includes a carrier gas supply system (carrier gas supply pipe) 12 for supplying a carrier gas such as an inert gas, preferably helium gas (He), via an on-off valve 13 and a flow rate control device (Mass Flow Controller) 60. Is provided. In addition, a purge gas supply system (for example, an inert gas, preferably nitrogen gas (N ₂ )) is introduced upstream of the vaporizer 7 and between the flow controller 60 of the carrier gas supply pipe 12 and the vaporizer 7, for example. A purge gas supply pipe) 61 is connected to the on-off valve 62 via a flow rate control device (Mass Flow Controller) 63. In a pipe (processing gas introduction system) 2 between the vaporizer 7 and the processing chamber 1, a vent line capable of directly guiding the barge gas that has passed through the vaporizer 7 to the exhaust pipe 17 without passing through the processing chamber 1. May be connected.
[0016]
As shown in FIG. 2, the processing chamber 1 is made of a corrosion-resistant material such as aluminum, and has a heater for placing the semiconductor wafer w accommodated therein and heating it to a predetermined processing temperature. A provided susceptor 14 is provided. On one side of the processing chamber 1, an opening 15 for loading and unloading the semiconductor wafer w by a transfer arm mechanism (not shown) is provided, and a gate valve 16 that closes the opening 15 so as to be openable and closable is provided. ing.
[0017]
The processing chamber 1 is provided with an exhaust pipe 17 for exhausting the internal atmosphere. The exhaust pipe 17 is provided with a decompression control mechanism (not shown) and a decompression pump 65 that can control the inside of the processing chamber 1 to a predetermined pressure. It has been. A shower head 19 having a large number of injection holes 18 for supplying a processing gas to the semiconductor wafer w in a shower shape is provided in the upper part of the processing chamber 1. The shower head 19 has a processing gas introduction pipe 2. Is provided. A secondary side (outlet) of the vaporizer 7 in the liquid raw material vaporization supply system 3 is connected to the processing gas introduction pipe 2.
[0018]
As shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, the vaporizer 7 opens and closes a carrier gas passage 20, a nozzle 21 that opens toward the carrier gas passage 20 and discharges a liquid material, and an opening 22 of the nozzle 21. A diaphragm valve 23 that covers the diaphragm valve 23, a drive unit 24 that controls the opening and closing of the diaphragm valve 23, and a rod-shaped heater 25 that is a heating unit disposed around the nozzle 21 and the diaphragm valve 23 are provided. The main body (vaporizer main body) 26 of the vaporizer 7 is configured to be divided into an upper body 26a and a lower body 26b, and the upper body 26a and the lower body 26b are coupled by screwing.
[0019]
The lower body 26 b of the vaporizer body 26 is provided with a carrier gas inlet 27 on one side and an outlet 28 on the other side, and a carrier gas passage 20 is formed so as to connect the inlet 27 and the outlet 28. ing. The carrier gas supply pipe 12 is connected to the inlet 27, and the processing gas introduction pipe 2 of the processing chamber 1 is connected to the outlet 28. At the center of the lower body 26b, the nozzle 21 is provided so as to penetrate vertically, and the secondary side (outlet) of the flow meter 6 is connected to the liquid raw material inlet 29 at the lower end of the nozzle 21 via a pipe (not shown). The
[0020]
The upper body 26a of the carburetor body 26 is formed with a circular recess 30 that accommodates the diaphragm valve 23 at the center of the lower surface, and the peripheral edge of the diaphragm valve 23 is sandwiched between the upper body 26a and the lower body 26b. It is fixed. The diaphragm valve 23 is formed in a disk shape with the center raised upward, and is displaced up and down following the drive shaft 24a of the drive unit 24 that is in contact with the upper surface of the center. The opening 22 is opened and closed.
[0021]
The diaphragm valve 23 is formed (processed) with an annular reinforcing portion 31 having a corrugated cross section inside the fixed portion of the peripheral portion thereof, thereby improving the strength or durability. The drive unit 24 is composed of, for example, a solenoid actuator, and is attached and fixed to the upper surface of the upper body 26a with the drive shaft 24a penetrating the upper body 26a so as to move up and down.
[0022]
The diaphragm valve 23 is pressed against the upper end (open end) of the nozzle 21 by the downward movement of the drive shaft 24a of the drive unit 24, thereby closing the opening 22 (closed state). Along with the accompanying elastic restoring force, the opening 22 is separated from the opening end of the nozzle 21 (open state). In this case, the valve opening is adjusted by the amount of displacement. When the diaphragm valve 23 is open, a vaporizing chamber 32 is formed between the open end of the nozzle 21 and the diaphragm valve 23, and the vaporizing chamber 32 communicates with the carrier gas passage 20.
[0023]
An intermediate portion of the carrier gas passage 20 is divided into an inlet side and an outlet side on the upper surface of the lower body 26b with the nozzle 21 therebetween, and the inlet side opening 20a and the outlet side opening 20b are formed in the vaporizing chamber 32. As a result, the vaporized gas of the liquid source vaporized in the vaporizing chamber 32 is transported by the carrier gas. Note that an annular passage 33 that connects the inlet-side opening 20a and the outlet-side opening 20b is formed in the upper surface portion of the upper body 26a, so that the carrier gas passage 20 itself is in communication even when the diaphragm valve 23 is closed. .
[0024]
In order to promote vaporization of the liquid raw material and carry more vaporized gas by the carrier gas, the diameter d of the nozzle 21 is formed as large as, for example, 0.8 mm, and the opening 22 of the nozzle 21 is formed in the vaporizing chamber 32. It is greatly expanded and formed in a dish shape.
[0025]
A plurality of, for example, four rod-like heaters 25 serving as heating means are embedded in the vaporizer body 26 so as to surround the nozzle 21 and the diaphragm valve 23. In this case, the heater 25 is preferably disposed as close to the vaporization chamber 32 as possible in order to promote vaporization of the liquid material in the vaporization chamber 32. In order to vaporize the liquid raw material, it is necessary to raise the temperature. However, because of the properties of PET, it is supposed to be used within the range of 145 to 175 ° C. Therefore, the vaporizer body 26 is located near the vaporization chamber 32. A temperature sensor 34 is provided. The temperature sensor 34 detects the temperature in the vicinity of the vaporizing chamber 32 and controls the output of the heater 25 to control the heating of the vaporizing chamber to a predetermined temperature, for example, 150 to 155 ° C. ing.
[0026]
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 6, the flow meter 6 includes a main line 37 having an inlet 35 and an outlet 36 at both ends, and a flow sensor 38 is provided in the main line 37. That is, the flow rate sensor 6 is not provided with a bypass in the main line 37 through which the liquid material is passed, and is provided with a flow rate sensor 38 in the main line 37 in order to prevent erroneous detection or malfunction. The flow rate sensor 38 detects a flow rate by changing the temperature difference when the liquid raw material flows through the main line 37 into an electric signal.
[0027]
Next, the operation of the embodiment will be described. A pumping gas such as helium gas is injected into the liquid source container 5, and the liquid source 4 such as PET is pumped from the liquid source container 5 to the vaporizer 7 through the flow meter 6 at that pressure. Further, a carrier gas such as helium gas is pumped to the vaporizer 7 through the carrier gas supply pipe 12. The liquid raw material is supplied to the nozzle 21 of the vaporizer 7, and when the diaphragm valve 23 is opened by driving the drive unit 24, the liquid raw material is introduced into the vaporizing chamber 32 that is heated to a predetermined temperature by the rod heater 25 in advance. In the vaporization chamber 32, the liquid raw material is vaporized according to a vapor pressure curve of temperature and pressure.
[0028]
The vaporized gas of the liquid raw material is transported by the carrier gas flowing through the carrier gas passage 20 in communication with the vaporizing chamber 32, and supplied to the processing chamber 1 through the processing gas introduction pipe 2. In the processing chamber 1, the semiconductor wafer w is heated to a predetermined temperature, and a liquid raw material, for example, a vaporized PET gas is supplied to the semiconductor wafer w, whereby the semiconductor wafer w is subjected to a predetermined processing, for example, tantalum oxide by CVD. A (Ta ₂ O ₅ ) film can be formed.
[0029]
According to the liquid raw material vaporization supply system 3 having the above configuration, the liquid raw material container 5, the flow meter 6 for measuring the flow rate of the liquid raw material pumped from the liquid raw material container 5, and the flow meter 6 are supplied. A vaporizer 7 that vaporizes the liquid raw material and supplies it with a carrier gas. The vaporizer 7 has a carrier gas passage 20 and a nozzle 21 that opens toward the carrier gas passage 20 and discharges the liquid raw material. A diaphragm valve 23 that covers the opening 22 of the nozzle 21 so as to be openable and closable, a drive unit 24 that controls the opening and closing of the diaphragm valve 23, and a heater 25 that is a heating unit disposed around the nozzle 21 and the diaphragm valve 23. Therefore, the vaporization ability when the liquid raw material is vaporized and supplied can be improved.
[0030]
In particular, the diaphragm valve 23 functions as both a shut-off valve and a control valve. Therefore, unlike the conventional vaporizer, the vaporization failure due to the liquid material reservoir does not occur, and the vaporization of the liquid material is promoted. In order to carry more vaporized gas by the carrier gas, the diameter d of the nozzle 21 is formed as large as 0.8 mm, for example, and the opening 22 of the nozzle 21 is greatly expanded in a dish shape toward the vaporization chamber 32. Since it is formed open, the vaporization ability can be sufficiently improved.
[0031]
Further, since the diaphragm valve 23 has a peripheral edge portion fixed and has an annular reinforcing portion 31 having a corrugated cross section inside the fixed portion, for example, a cleaning liquid such as ethanol having a low boiling point is used as the carrier gas passage 20. When the inside of the carburetor body 26 is cleaned through the nozzle 21 and the cleaning liquid suddenly boils in the vaporizing chamber 32 and expands, the diaphragm valve 23 can be prevented from being deformed, and is durable and reliable. Can be improved. Further, since the flow meter 6 is provided with the flow sensor 38 in the main line 37 through which the liquid material passes, unlike the case where the flow sensor is provided in the bypass, erroneous detection or liquid detection due to clogging of the liquid material in the bypass or the main line. A malfunction can be prevented, and the reliability can be improved.
[0032]
In addition, according to the heat treatment apparatus (semiconductor manufacturing apparatus), a processing chamber 1 for performing a predetermined process on an object to be processed such as a semiconductor wafer w in a predetermined processing gas atmosphere is provided. Since the liquid source supply system 3 described above is connected, it is possible to smoothly supply the processing gas vaporized from the liquid source to the processing chamber 1 to process the object to be processed, for example, the semiconductor wafer w, and the processing capability is improved. Improvement can be achieved.
[0033]
After the treatment, in order to cleanly discharge the residual gas remaining in the pipe and the treatment chamber, a purge gas is flowed to perform a gas purge. In this case, after the processing is finished, the on-off valves 9 and 10 of the pressurized gas injection pipe 8 and the liquid source pressure feeding pipe 9 and the on-off valve 13 of the carrier gas supply pipe 12 are closed, and the purge gas supply pipe is exhausted under reduced pressure in the processing chamber 1. The on-off valve 62 of 61 is opened. As a result, a purge gas such as nitrogen gas flows into the processing chamber 1 via the vaporizer 7, and the residual gas remaining in the gas path of the vaporizer 7, the processing chamber 1, etc. can be exhausted cleanly, resulting in a problem caused by the residual gas. For example, excessive film formation on the semiconductor wafer w can be prevented.
[0034]
Further, since the purge gas is introduced to the upstream side of the vaporizer 7, the purge gas flows in the same manner as the carrier gas in the vaporizer 7, and the vaporized state is maintained without liquefying the residual gas in the vaporizer 7 and the pipe 2 portion. It can be swept away. Therefore, the generation of particles that has occurred in the conventional processing apparatus due to the gas purge can be sufficiently suppressed or prevented in the processing apparatus of the present embodiment.
[0035]
Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various design changes and the like can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. is there. In the above embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to a single wafer processing apparatus is shown, but the present invention can also be applied to a batch processing apparatus capable of processing a large number of objects to be processed at one time. Moreover, as a to-be-processed object, a glass substrate etc. are applicable other than a semiconductor wafer, for example. Further, the purge gas is preferably an inexpensive nitrogen gas as compared with other inert gases, but may be an argon gas or a helium gas. When helium gas is used as the purge gas, a carrier gas supply system that uses helium gas as the carrier gas can also serve as the purge gas supply system.
[0036]
【The invention's effect】
In short, according to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.
[0037]
(1) According to the first aspect of the present invention, in a processing apparatus for storing a target object in a processing chamber and performing a predetermined processing in a predetermined processing gas atmosphere, a liquid is introduced into the processing gas introduction system of the processing chamber. A liquid raw material supply system having a vaporizer for vaporizing a liquid raw material supplied from a raw material container via a flow meter and supplying the liquid raw material with a carrier gas is connected. The vaporizer faces the carrier gas passage and the carrier gas passage. Formed between the nozzle opening end and the diaphragm valve, a nozzle that opens and discharges the liquid material, a diaphragm valve that covers the nozzle opening so as to be openable and closable, a drive unit that controls the opening and closing of the diaphragm valve, and a vaporization chamber, the opening of the nozzle is widened formed dished toward the vaporization chamber, co embed a heater as carburetor body surrounding the nozzle and diaphragm valve Due to the structure to heat controlled vaporizing chamber is provided with a temperature sensor for detecting the temperature in the vicinity of the vaporization chamber to a predetermined temperature, the by smoothly supplying a process gas obtained by vaporizing the liquid raw material into the processing chamber The processing object can be processed, and the processing capability can be improved.
[0038]
(2) According to the invention according to claim 2, since the diaphragm valve has a peripheral edge portion fixed and has an annular reinforcing portion having a corrugated cross section inside the fixed portion, the diaphragm valve is deformed. Can be prevented, and durability and reliability can be improved.
[0039]
(3) According to the invention of claim 3, since the flow meter is provided with a flow sensor in the main line through which the liquid raw material passes, unlike the case where the flow sensor is provided in the bypass, liquid is provided in the bypass or the main line. False detection due to clogging of raw materials can be prevented, and reliability can be improved.
[0040]
(4) According to the invention of claim 4, before Symbol because purge gas supply system for supplying purge gas to the upstream of the vaporizer is connected, a residual gas remaining in the gas path such as the carburetor and the processing chamber clean While being able to discharge | emit, generation | occurrence | production of the particle resulting from a gas purge can be prevented.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a processing apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of a structure of a processing chamber.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a vaporizer.
4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA in FIG.
5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part of FIG. 3. FIG.
FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram of a flow meter.
FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional vaporizer.
FIG. 8 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional flow meter.
[Explanation of symbols]
w Semiconductor wafer (object to be processed)
1 treatment chamber 2 treatment gas introduction pipe (treatment gas introduction system)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 3 Liquid raw material vaporization supply system 4 Liquid raw material 5 Liquid raw material container 6 Flowmeter 7 Vaporizer 20 Carrier gas channel | path 21 Nozzle 22 Opening 23 Diaphragm valve 24 Drive part 25 Heater (heating means)
31 Annular reinforcement 37 Main line 38 Flow rate sensor 61 Purge gas supply system

Claims (4)

In a processing apparatus for storing a target object in a processing chamber and performing a predetermined processing in a predetermined processing gas atmosphere, a liquid source supplied from a liquid source container to the processing gas introduction system of the processing chamber via a flow meter A liquid raw material supply system having a vaporizer that is vaporized and supplied by a carrier gas, the vaporizer includes a carrier gas passage, a nozzle that opens to face the carrier gas passage, and discharges the liquid raw material; and A diaphragm valve that covers the opening of the nozzle so as to be openable and closable, a drive unit that controls the opening and closing of the diaphragm valve, and a vaporization chamber formed between the opening end of the nozzle and the diaphragm valve, wherein the nozzle opening is vaporized towards the chamber is expanded formed dished, the temperature for detecting the temperature in the vicinity of the vaporization chamber is buried a heater as carburetor body surrounding the nozzle and diaphragm valve Processing apparatus characterized by being configured to heat controlled vaporizing chamber to a predetermined temperature by providing a capacitor.   The processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the diaphragm valve has a peripheral edge fixed, and has an annular reinforcing portion having a corrugated cross section inside the fixed portion.   The processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the flow meter is provided with a flow sensor in the main line through which the liquid material passes. Pre Symbol processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the purge gas supply system for supplying purge gas to the upstream of the carburetor is characterized that it is connected.

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