JPH01276619A - Beam annealing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance the operating efficiency by a method wherein a content of a selected menu and a menu capable of being shifted from this selected menu are displayed simultaneously on a display part. CONSTITUTION:The following are connected to a control part 2 used to control an apparatus main body 1: an input part 3 composed of a keyboard and the like and used to input a desired condition; a display part 4 used to display an input at the input part 3. Since the display part 4 simultaneously displays a content of a selected menu and a menu capable of being shifted from this selected menu, an input condition can be changed or the like while the content of the selected menu is displayed, immediately after that, a next menu can be selected; it is possible to shift to the menu. By this setup, the operating efficiency can be enhanced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a beam annealing apparatus for irradiating and heating (annealing) a workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer with a high-energy beam.

(Prior art) In recent years, as an annealing technology, the energy of a high-energy ray beam is absorbed into the surface of an object to be processed, such as a semiconductor wafer, and converted into thermal energy to heat-treat (anneal) the surface layer of the object. Beam annealing technology is attracting attention, and in semiconductor manufacturing, it is mainly used to restore crystallinity of a surface layer of a semiconductor wafer, activate introduced impurities, and the like.

For example, So 1, which is the basis for the development of tertiary elements,
(Si11con On In5ulator) technology is a technology in which a silicon single crystal is further formed on an insulating film formed on the surface of a substrate, and an element is formed on this silicon single crystal.In this Sol technology, a single crystal is formed on an insulating film. The beam annealing technique described above is attracting attention as one of the methods for forming. That is, for example, chemical vapor deposition (
A high-energy beam such as a laser beam is irradiated onto a non-single-crystal silicon layer formed on an insulating film by CVD), etc.
A non-single crystal silicon layer is made into a single crystal.

Conventionally, such a beam annealing apparatus has been used, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 80-176221, in which a laser beam is reciprocated in the X direction and the sample stage is moved in steps in the Y direction. There is one that irradiates the entire surface of the upper sample with the laser beam.

Other Special Publications No. 62-27532, Special Publications No. 54-482
No. 8, JP-A-62-47114, JP-A-58-108
No. 22, JP 62-32616, JP 58-89
No. 837, JP-A-58-8443, JP-A-81-24
Laser annealing apparatuses are disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5517, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 61-245518, and the like.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) However, even in the above-mentioned beam annealing device,
Naturally, it is required to further improve operability.

The present invention has been made in response to such conventional circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a beam annealing device that has improved operability compared to the prior art.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) That is, the beam annealing apparatus of the present invention includes an annealing apparatus main body that performs an annealing process by irradiating a high-energy beam onto a workpiece, and a controller that controls the apparatus main body. a control unit to
The control unit includes an input unit for inputting desired conditions and a display unit for displaying the input of the input unit, and the input unit includes a menu to be executed from among the menus displayed on the display unit. is configured such that desired conditions can be input by sequentially selecting the menu, and the display unit is configured to simultaneously display the contents of the selected menu and a menu that can be transitioned from the selected menu. It is characterized by

(Function) In the beam annealing apparatus of the present invention having the above configuration, the display section is configured to simultaneously display the contents of the selected menu and a menu that can be transitioned from the selected menu. After changing the input conditions, etc. while the contents of the screen are displayed, it is possible to immediately select the next menu and move to that menu, improving operability compared to the past.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example in which the present invention is applied to a laser annealing apparatus will be described with reference to the drawings.

An annealing apparatus main body 1 that performs an annealing process by irradiating a high-energy beam onto a workpiece is connected to a control section 2 that controls the apparatus main body 1 and is comprised of, for example, a microcomputer. Further, connected to this control section 2 are an input section 3 consisting of, for example, a keyboard, for inputting desired conditions, and a display section 4, consisting of, for example, a CRT display, for displaying input from the input section 3. has been done.

The annealing apparatus main body 1 is constructed as shown in FIG.

That is, a window 11a formed in a cylindrical shape, for example, from aluminum or the like, and whose upper and lower surfaces are made of quartz glass or the like;
For example, in the chamber 11 having a diameter 220
A susceptor 12 made of, for example, carbon graphite and having a thickness of 20 mm is provided. A mechanism such as a vacuum chuck is provided on the lower surface side of the susceptor 12, and is configured to attract and hold the semiconductor wafer 13.

Further, in the upper part of the chamber 11, as a heating mechanism for the susceptor 12, for example, a several kilowatt IR lamp (Inf'rared Ray Ramp) equipped with a reflector 14 is installed.
) 15 is disposed, and the infrared rays from this IR lamp 15 are transmitted through the window 11a, and the susceptor 12 is
It is configured to preheat to 0°C.

Furthermore, a laser beam irradiation mechanism is arranged to scan and irradiate a laser beam, for example, a CW-Ar gas laser beam, onto the semiconductor wafer 13 placed on the lower surface side of the susceptor 12 from below the chamber 11 through the window 11b.

Each of the above laser beam irradiation mechanisms includes a shutter mechanism 1
It is provided with two laser beam sources: a main laser beam source 17a including laser beams 6a and 16b, and a sub laser beam source 17b. Of these, the sub laser beam 18b emitted from the sub laser beam source 17b is configured such that its direction can be controlled by reflecting mirrors 19, 20, and 21. That is, each of the reflecting mirrors 20 and 21 has a drive motor 20a.
121a is connected, and by adjusting the direction of the reflecting mirror 20.21, the direction of the sub laser beam 18b is controlled, and the relative position with respect to the main laser beam 18a emitted from the main laser beam source 17a is adjusted. It is considered possible.

The main laser beam 18a and the sub laser beam 18b are
A polarizing prism 22 and a shutter 2 are used as almost parallel beams.
3. The light passes through a reflecting mirror 24 and the like, and then reaches a scanning mechanism 25. The scanning mechanism 25 includes, as an X-direction scanning mechanism, a galvanometer mirror 25a, which is a rotating mirror scanning mechanism, for example, and a Y-direction scanning mechanism, which is arranged on a uniaxial precision stage 25b using, for example, a ball screw capable of fine feeding with high precision. It is composed of

The main laser beam 18a and the sub laser beam 18b are scanned in the X direction and the Y direction by the scanning mechanism 25.
is condensed by an F-θ lens 27 that is movable on the optical axis by a lens drive mechanism 26, and is configured to be scanned and irradiated onto the semiconductor wafer \13 through a window 11b.

Further, the control section 2, input section 3, and display section 4 are configured as follows.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3, a menu is displayed on the display section 4, and by selecting a desired menu from this menu by operating keys on the input section 3, etc.
It is configured such that desired processing conditions can be input to the control section 2.

For example, in the example shown in FIG. 3, the display section 4 initially displays a menu A consisting of "anneal", "condition creation", "profile", and "utility". Then, for example, by operating the function key of the input section 3, "
When "anneal" is selected, menu B consisting of "wide area annealing", "partial annealing", "pseudo-linear annealing", and "end" is displayed.

Next, when you select a desired menu from the above Menu B, for example "Wafer Anneal", a display C prompting you to specify a condition file will appear. Menu D consisting of "Load", "Change Conditions", "Profile", and "Exit" is displayed.

Then, when you select a desired menu from menu D, for example, "load wafer," the following options are selected: "anneal,""changeconditions,""profile," and "unload."
A menu E consisting of the following is displayed, and when "anneal" is selected, for example, the actual processing is executed.

That is, for example, when performing area-area annealing according to processing conditions stored in a condition file in advance, "anneal" and "area-area anneal" are sequentially selected from the menu displayed on the display unit 4, as described above. After that, by specifying a condition file and selecting "load wafer" and "anneal", the annealing process can be executed under the desired process conditions.

Furthermore, the above menu, for example, as shown in FIG.
It is configured to be displayed on the same screen as the selected menu content. That is, FIG. 4 shows the display screen at the time when the condition file is specified in the above-mentioned menu selection process. D) is displayed at the bottom of the screen.

When the processing conditions are input to the control section 2 as described above, the control section 2 controls the operation of the annealing apparatus main body 1 to perform annealing processing on the wafer 13 as follows.

That is, first, an opening/closing mechanism (not shown) of the chamber 11 is opened, and the semiconductor wafer 13 is placed at a predetermined position on the lower surface of the susceptor 12 using a transport device (not shown).

After this, the window 1 is
1a to preheat the susceptor 12 to, for example, 500°C.

Thereafter, the semiconductor wafer 13 is scanned and irradiated with a laser beam, and nitrogen gas, oxygen gas, etc., for example, is flowed along the surface of the semiconductor wafer 13 through a gas inlet and an exhaust port (not shown) to perform an annealing process.

That is, in the laser annealing apparatus of this embodiment, the contents of the selected menu and the menus that can be transitioned from the selected menu are displayed simultaneously on the display unit 4, so that the next menu can be immediately selected from the selected menu. can be selected, and operability is improved compared to conventional methods.

In the above embodiment, the annealing apparatus that irradiates the object to be processed, such as the semiconductor wafer 13, with two laser beams has been described. Of course, the present invention can be applied to a beam annealing device that irradiates a line beam.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the beam annealing apparatus of the present invention, the contents of the selected menu and the menus that can be transitioned from the selected menu are simultaneously displayed on the display section. The next menu can be selected immediately from the menu, which improves operability compared to the conventional method.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a laser annealing device, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of the main body of the annealing device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the display section of FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the menu flow shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the display on the display section of FIG. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Annealing apparatus main body, 2... Control section, 3... Input section, 4... Display section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) An annealing device main body that performs annealing treatment by irradiating a high-energy ray beam onto a workpiece, a control section that controls this device main body, and an input section that inputs desired conditions to this control section; and a display section for displaying input from the input section, and the input section is configured such that desired conditions can be entered by sequentially selecting menus to be implemented from among the menus displayed on the display section. A beam annealing apparatus characterized in that the display unit is configured to simultaneously display the contents of the selected menu and a menu to which the selected menu can be transitioned.