JP6734187B2 - Gas introduction nozzle, processing chamber and plasma processing method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a gas introduction nozzle for introducing gas into a processing chamber, a processing chamber, and a plasma processing method.

Regarding a vacuum apparatus and the like, and more specifically, in a vacuum plasma generation apparatus for utilizing a material layer for sputtering, CVD, etcher, etc. in the production of semiconductors and display (hereinafter collectively referred to as semiconductor) devices, a gas in a processing chamber is used. Is introduced, and a discharge is generated with this gas to generate plasma (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 6).
Many of the plasma equipment used for various semiconductor device manufacturing processes such as surface treatment, deposition, and etching treatment have many holes in the treatment chamber or a nozzle inside the vacuum chamber to introduce gas. It is provided with a protrusion protruding from the nozzle and a member whose flow rate can be adjusted but is separated from the injection port of the nozzle.

JP, 2004-228354, A JP, 2009-123513, A JP, 2010-212105, A Japanese Patent No. 3836636 Japanese Patent No. 3836866 Japanese Patent No. 3920209

By the way, when the plasma gas is introduced into the processing chamber, it is desired to generate the plasma satisfactorily and perform the processing uniformly. Therefore, the distribution of the gas in the processing chamber that affects the plasma is appropriately adjusted. Will be needed.
However, the conventional gas introduction structure has the following problems.
1) It is not possible to adjust the gas flow rate in each hole with a nozzle that has many holes.
2) The flow path from the nozzle tip, which is the gas outlet, to the mechanism for adjusting the flow rate is long.
Due to the above matters, in the conventional vacuum plasma apparatus, the manufacturing shape of the nozzle shape (in the case of a hole, the number and the opening) is forced to be changed, which causes a significant cost and complexity in terms of money and time. There is a need for improvement.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a gas introduction nozzle, a processing chamber, and a plasma processing method in which the flow rate of gas introduced into the processing chamber can be adjusted in each nozzle. And one of them.

That is, the first aspect of the gas introduction nozzle of the present invention is
A nozzle that is provided at a plurality of locations in the processing chamber to introduce gas into the processing chamber,
An outer peripheral wall portion having a nozzle opening at one end and having an intermediate space communicating with the nozzle opening,
A gas supply unit connected to the intermediate space,
Arranged in the outer peripheral wall portion, having an adjustment valve capable of adjusting the position with respect to the outer peripheral wall portion,
Having an adjustment space in the intermediate space,
The adjusting valve is configured to change a gas passage shape of the adjusting space according to a position with respect to an outer peripheral wall portion to adjust a gas flow rate supplied to the nozzle port.

The invention of a gas introduction nozzle of another aspect is the gas introduction nozzle of the aspect, wherein the adjusting valve is capable of adjusting a front-rear position with respect to an axial direction of an outer peripheral wall portion, and the adjusting valve is an outer peripheral wall portion. The gap shape between the wall portion of the adjusting space and the adjusting valve changes according to the front-rear position with respect to the axial direction, and the passage shape of the gas changes.

The invention of a gas introduction nozzle of another aspect is the gas introduction nozzle of the aspect, wherein the adjusting valve has a lid portion that closes an opening portion of the intermediate space, and the gas supply portion is provided in the lid portion. It is characterized by being.

In the invention of a gas introduction nozzle of another aspect, in the gas introduction nozzle of the aspect, a female screw is formed on the outer peripheral wall portion, a male screw that is screwed to the female screw is formed on the adjusting valve, the male screw and the It is characterized in that the position of the adjusting valve can be adjusted by the screwing position of the female screw.

The invention of a gas introduction nozzle of another aspect is characterized in that, in the gas introduction nozzle of the aspect, an adjustment space wall that reduces a cross-sectional area of the adjustment space toward a nozzle opening is provided on a side wall of the adjustment space.

The invention of a gas introduction nozzle of another aspect is characterized in that, in the gas introduction nozzle of the aspect, the adjusting valve has a valve body whose cross-sectional area decreases toward a nozzle opening.

The invention of a gas introduction nozzle of another form is the gas introduction nozzle of the above form, in which the adjustment valve is such that the tip of the nozzle mouth does not project outward from the outer peripheral wall at the limit position moved to the nozzle mouth side. Is characterized by.

The invention of a gas introduction nozzle of another aspect is characterized in that, in the gas introduction nozzle of the aspect, the intermediate space has a shape in which the adjustment valve is inserted and surrounds the periphery of the adjustment valve.

The first mode of the processing chamber of the present invention is characterized in that it has a plurality of gas introduction nozzles according to any of the forms of the gas introduction nozzle.

The invention of a processing chamber of another mode is characterized in that, in the processing chamber of the above mode, a plurality of gas introduction nozzles are connected to one or more common pipes for each of the plurality of gas introduction nozzles.

Another aspect of the present invention is the process chamber of the above aspect, wherein the gas introduction nozzle has a shape that does not protrude into the process chamber.

The invention of a processing chamber of another mode is the processing chamber of the above mode, wherein a part or all of the outer peripheral wall portion of the gas introducing nozzle according to any one of the modes of the gas introducing nozzle is a part of the processing chamber wall. It is characterized by being.

An invention of a processing chamber of another mode is characterized in that, in the processing chamber of the above mode, the processing chamber is a plasma processing chamber, and a gas introduced into the processing chamber by the gas introducing nozzle is a plasma gas.

In the plasma processing method of the present invention, a first embodiment is a method of performing plasma processing in a processing chamber including a plurality of gas introduction nozzles according to any one of the gas introduction nozzles,
It is characterized in that the gas whose gas introduction amount is adjusted by each of the plurality of gas introduction nozzles is uniformly diffused into the processing chamber.

The plasma processing method of another embodiment is the plasma processing method of the above embodiment, in which the gas introduction amount is adjusted by a plurality of gas introduction valves to finely adjust the number of gas molecules around the nozzle opening to adjust the gas uniformity in the processing chamber. It is characterized by doing.

According to the present invention, it is possible to individually adjust the gas flow rate in the vicinity of the nozzle opening in the gas introduction nozzle.

It is a figure which shows the attachment state and operating state of the gas introduction nozzle of this invention. Similarly, it is a figure which shows the structure in the outer peripheral wall part of a gas introduction nozzle. Similarly, it is a figure which shows the structure of the adjustment valve in a gas introduction nozzle. Similarly, it is a figure explaining arrangement|positioning of the some gas introduction nozzle installed in the process chamber.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in FIG. 1, the gas introducing nozzle 1 is attached to the ceiling wall 21 of the film forming chamber 20, and the adjusting valve 3 of the gas introducing nozzle 1 is attached to the ceiling wall 21 as shown in FIG. It has an outer peripheral wall portion 10 that fits. In this embodiment, the film forming chamber 20 corresponds to the processing chamber of the present invention. In addition, in the present invention, the processing chamber is not limited to the one for forming a film.

In this embodiment, the gas introduction nozzle is described as being provided on the ceiling side, but it may be provided on the side wall side of the processing chamber, or may be provided on both the ceiling wall and the side wall. Good. In the present invention, the installation location of the gas introduction nozzle is not particularly limited, and it can be installed at an appropriate position.

The outer peripheral wall portion 10 is formed in a shape having a cylindrical hole, has a cylindrical hole-shaped intermediate space 12 above the nozzle opening 14 at the lower portion, and has a cylindrical hole-shaped intermediate space 12 below the intermediate space 12. It has an adjusting space 13. The adjustment space 13 communicates with the nozzle port 14 via the nozzle passage 14A. The nozzle passage 14A has the same diameter of 0.5 cm up to the nozzle opening 14, and the diameter of the nozzle opening is 0.5 cm. The nozzle port 14 faces the film forming chamber space 20A of the film forming chamber 20.

The distance from the nozzle port 14 to the outlet of the adjustment space 13 is preferably 5 mm or less. This makes it possible to properly adjust the flow rate at a short distance from the nozzle outlet. Further, the adjustment space 13 has a tapered adjustment space wall 13A whose cross-sectional area gradually decreases as it approaches the nozzle port 14 in the radial cross section.

In addition, in this embodiment, the outer peripheral wall portion 10 has been described as being constituted by a part of the ceiling wall 21 of the film forming chamber 20, but a part or all of the outer peripheral wall portion 10 is other than the wall portion of the processing chamber. The outer peripheral wall portion may be attached to the wall portion of the processing chamber.

As shown in FIG. 1, the adjusting valve 3 is inserted through substantially the center of the intermediate space 12, and as shown in FIG. It has a conical shape, and the cross-sectional area in the radial direction becomes smaller as it gets closer to the nozzle port 14. The inclination angles of the conical surface of the valve body 3A and the adjustment space wall 13A are opposite and substantially the same angle (60 degrees), and the gap G between them has a gas passage shape.

In this embodiment, the outer peripheral surface of the valve body 3A and the adjustment space wall 13 are described as having tapered surfaces, but either one may be a tapered surface. Further, the outer surface of each of these may be changed in a stepwise manner.
Furthermore, a plurality of gas passage shape portions may be provided on the adjustment space wall or the like, and a gas passage shape portion that allows passage may be selected by adjusting the position of the adjustment valve body.

The regulating valve 3 has a lid portion 4 connected to a columnar main body on the side opposite to the nozzle port 14, and has a shape that seals one end portion of the intermediate space 12. The outer peripheral wall portion 10 surrounding the intermediate space 12 is provided with a female screw portion 11 over the entire circumference of the side wall, and the lid portion 4 has a male screw portion 7 screwed into the female screw portion 11.

Further, a screw groove 6 of one letter is formed at the center position on the upper surface side of the lid portion 4, and the adjustment valve 3 can be easily rotated with respect to the outer peripheral wall portion 10 via the screw groove 6. Further, gas supply holes 5</b>A and 5</b>B penetrate through the lid portion 4 so as to open at positions outside the main body of the adjustment valve 3, and communicate with the intermediate space 12. The gas supply holes 5A and 5B correspond to the gas supply unit of the present invention. Note that the number of gas supply holes can be appropriately determined, and it is also possible to set the number to one.

As shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of gas introduction nozzles 1 are installed in the film forming chamber 20. The number is appropriately selected according to the internal structure of the film forming chamber and the like, and the number is not particularly limited in the present invention. For example, a plurality of gas introduction nozzles can be attached depending on the configuration of the processing chamber, and the gas introduction nozzles can be arranged at any position and number depending on the application used.

Each gas introduction nozzle 1 is installed with the adjusting valve 3 attached to the outer peripheral wall portion 10 provided in the film forming chamber 20. Each adjusting valve 3 is screwed into the female screw portion 11 of the outer peripheral wall portion 10 at a predetermined screwing position. A gas introduction cover 30 having a common gas introduction path 31 is installed on the film forming chamber 20 above each gas introduction nozzle 1. Gas is supplied to the gas supply holes 5A and 5B provided in the lid portion 4 through the common gas introduction passage 31.
The common gas introduction passage 31 corresponds to the common pipe of the present invention.

In addition, in this embodiment, a plurality of gas introduction nozzles are described as communicating with the common gas introduction passage, but gas introduction passages or the like may be individually connected to be connected to a gas supply source. ..
However, in the present embodiment, even if gas is supplied to a plurality of gas introduction nozzles through a common gas introduction passage or the like, the gas flow rate of each gas introduction nozzle can be adjusted, and by using the common gas introduction passage. The configuration can be simplified.

Next, the operation of the gas introduction nozzle 1 will be described.
The adjusting valve 3 has a female screw portion 11 of the outer peripheral wall portion 10 and a male screw portion of the adjusting valve 3 screwed together, and when the adjusting valve 3 is rotated through the screw groove 6, the front-rear position changes in the axial direction. When the front-rear position of the adjustment valve 3 changes, the front-rear position of the valve body 3A naturally changes, and the gap amount of the gap G with the adjustment space wall 13A changes. When a predetermined amount of gas is supplied from the common gas introduction passage 31, the gas is supplied to each gas introduction nozzle 1 and is supplied from the gas supply holes 5A and 5B to the intermediate space 12 around the adjustment valve 3. The gas is once retained in the intermediate space 12 to be equalized in the space, and then is supplied to the nozzle passage 14A through the gap G between the inclined surface of the valve body 3A and the adjustment space wall 13A, and the nozzle port 14 Is discharged to the film-forming chamber space 20A in the film-forming chamber 20.

As described above, the size of the gap G varies depending on the front-back position of the adjusting valve 3, and the gap G can be adjusted. As a result of the adjustment, the flow rate of the gas released from the nozzle port 14 into the film forming chamber 20 can be adjusted to a desired amount. This adjustment can be performed one by one using the plurality of gas introduction nozzles 1, and the desired gas introduction nozzle 1 can be adjusted to an appropriate gas flow rate by a simple operation.

Moreover, since the flow rate of the gas discharged into the film forming chamber space 20A can be adjusted in the vicinity of the nozzle port 14, the film forming chamber 20 is hardly affected by the gas flow in the subsequent flow path. The gas can be stably supplied at a gas flow rate set inside. Ideally, it should be located in the immediate vicinity of the gas nozzle (injection) port. As described above, the distance is preferably 5 mm or less.

In addition, the drawing shown in the lower part of FIG. 1 shows the state in which the adjustment valve 3 is moved most forward to reduce the gap amount in the gap G to zero. The regulating valve 3 cannot move forward beyond this limit. In this state, the tip of the valve body 3 comes closest to the inner space of the film forming chamber 20, but the valve body 3A does not protrude from the nozzle opening 14 and is located inside the nozzle opening 14. Further, by making the tip end surface side of the outer peripheral wall portion 10 flush with the wall surface in the film forming chamber 20, the gas introducing nozzle has no protrusion at all. If the tip of the nozzle is projected to the inside of the film forming chamber or the like, abnormal discharge may occur in plasma generation or the like depending on the alignment inside the film forming chamber or the like. There is no problem.

With respect to the above-described embodiment, the effect was verified for a conventional product (nozzle having only holes) as a gas nozzle of a CVD apparatus which is a semiconductor manufacturing system, and a conventional product replaced with a nozzle in consideration of the present invention. In the product of the present invention, the gas amount was properly adjusted for each gas introduction nozzle, and plasma uniformity was obtained.
In the measurement, the film thickness and the refractive index of the thin film were measured at 25 places in the measurement area of the substrate 300 mm×400 mm. A spectroscopic ellipsometer was used to measure the film thickness and the refractive index.
As a result, the film thickness distribution was ±14% in the conventional product, but was improved to ±6% when the nozzle considering the present invention was used. Further, the change in the refractive index in the thin film produced a difference of 0.4 in the conventional product, while the difference in the refractive index was suppressed to 0.2 in the product of the present invention. From these results, in the present invention, it was clarified that the gas was properly introduced, and as a result, the plasma was uniformly generated and the treatment was well performed.

Although the present invention has been described based on the above-described embodiments and examples, variations in various features of the present invention are obvious to those skilled in the art, or are mechanical or electrical routines. It should be understood that some will be obvious after other considerations that are a matter of design. Other embodiments are also possible, the particular design of which is application dependent. As such, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the particular embodiments described herein, but only by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Gas introduction nozzle 3 Adjustment valve 3A Valve body 4 Lid material 5A Gas supply hole 5B Gas supply hole 6 Screw groove 7 Male screw part 10 Outer peripheral wall part 11 Female screw part 12 Intermediate space 13 Adjustment space 13A Adjustment space wall 14 Nozzle mouth 14A Nozzle passage 20 film forming chamber 20A film forming chamber space 21 ceiling wall 31 common gas introduction path

Claims (15)

A nozzle that is provided at a plurality of locations in the processing chamber to introduce gas into the processing chamber,
An outer peripheral wall portion having a nozzle opening at one end and having an intermediate space communicating with the nozzle opening,
A gas supply unit connected to the intermediate space,
Arranged in the outer peripheral wall portion, having an adjustment valve capable of adjusting the position with respect to the outer peripheral wall portion,
Having an adjustment space in the intermediate space,
The gas introducing nozzle, wherein the adjusting valve changes a gas passage shape of the adjusting space according to a position with respect to an outer peripheral wall portion to adjust a flow rate of gas supplied to the nozzle opening. The adjusting valve is capable of adjusting the front-rear position with respect to the axial direction of the outer peripheral wall,
In the adjustment valve, the amount of gap between the wall of the adjustment space and the adjustment valve changes according to the front-back position of the outer peripheral wall with respect to the axial direction, and the passage shape of the gas changes. The gas introduction nozzle according to claim 1, which is characterized in that. The gas introduction nozzle according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the adjustment valve has a lid portion that closes an opening portion of the intermediate space, and the gas supply portion is provided in the lid portion. .. A female screw is formed on the outer peripheral wall portion, a male screw that is screwed to the female screw is formed on the adjusting valve, and it is possible to adjust the position of the adjusting valve by the screwing position of the male screw and the female screw. The gas introduction nozzle according to any one of claims 1 to 3, which is characterized. The gas introduction nozzle according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein an adjustment space wall is provided on a side wall of the adjustment space to reduce a cross-sectional area of the adjustment space toward a nozzle opening. The gas introduction nozzle according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the regulating valve has a valve body whose cross-sectional area decreases toward a nozzle port. The gas inlet according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the regulating valve is such that the tip of the nozzle mouth does not project outward from the outer peripheral wall portion at the limit position moved to the nozzle mouth side. nozzle. The gas introduction nozzle according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the intermediate space has a shape in which the adjustment valve is inserted and surrounds the circumference of the adjustment valve. A processing chamber comprising a plurality of gas introduction nozzles according to claim 1. The processing chamber according to claim 9, wherein the plurality of gas introduction nozzles are connected to one or more common pipes for each of the plurality of gas introduction nozzles. The processing chamber according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the gas introduction nozzle has a shape that does not protrude into the processing chamber. The gas introduction nozzle according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein a part or all of the outer peripheral wall portion is constituted by a part of the processing chamber wall. Processing chamber described in. 13. The processing chamber according to claim 9, wherein the processing chamber is a plasma processing chamber, and the gas introduced into the processing chamber by the gas introduction nozzle is a plasma gas. A method for performing plasma treatment in a treatment chamber comprising a plurality of gas introduction nozzles according to any one of claims 1 to 8,
A plasma processing method, which comprises uniformly diffusing a gas having a gas introduction amount adjusted by a plurality of gas introduction nozzles into a processing chamber. 15. The plasma processing method according to claim 14, wherein the gas introduction amount is adjusted by a plurality of gas introduction valves to finely adjust the number of gas molecules around the nozzle opening to adjust the gas uniformity in the processing chamber.

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