JPH01316928A - Structure of cap for heat treatment furnace in semiconductor manufacturing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable one operator to fix and remove a cap easily by a method wherein a notch communicating with a through hole for a cantilever is formed in a peripheral part of the cap and then the notch is covered with a lever stopper cover. CONSTITUTION:A notch groove 20 communicating with a through hole 9 for a cantilever in almost the same groove width as the diameter of the through hole 9 is formed in a peripheral part of a main quartz cap 6. A lever stopper cover 23 is free removably fixed to the rear side 21 of the cap 6 to cover the notch groove 20. A semicircular through hole forming recession 25 corresponding to the through hole 9 is formed in the cover 23. In such a constitution, the fixing and removal of the cap 6 can be notably facilitated so that one operator may fix the quartz cap 6 to the cantilever simply and easily.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to the structure of a cap for a heat treatment furnace in semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

[Conventional technology]

Heat treatment furnaces in semiconductor manufacturing equipment are widely used as devices for forming oxide insulating films or recovering crystal defects after impurity introduction.

In recent years, the mainstream of heat treatment furnaces has been to use a cantilever type that can hold the wafers in the air in order to insert large quantities of silicon wafers, which are semiconductors, into the heat treatment furnace without adhering contaminants such as dust. This cantilever is commonly made of ceramic whose main component is SiC or the like in terms of load resistance and heat resistance. -This cantilever inside the shell is
In order to maintain the above-mentioned load capacity, the entire cantilever must be made strong, resulting in an overall heavy weight.

For example, the cantilever we use weighs 5.5
It weighs approximately 230 kg and has a length of approximately 230 mouths.

A normal heat treatment furnace prevents the processing gas from flowing out of the furnace.
Furthermore, in order to keep the temperature inside the furnace constant, it is equipped with a heat-resistant quartz cap, which is attached to the cantilever.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a conventional quartz cap for a heat treatment furnace and its surroundings. 1 is a cantilever used for loading and unloading wafers into the heat treatment furnace 2; A quartz board, ie, a wafer mounting section 3 on which a silicon wafer is placed, is formed, and is moved forward and backward by a drive section 4 provided at the other end.

A quartz cap part 5 is attached to the cantilever 1 and closes the opening of the heat treatment furnace 2. The quartz cap part 5 includes a main quartz gap 6 and an auxiliary quartz cap 7 formed in a disc shape and facing each other, and both these caps. The main quartz cap 6 and the auxiliary quartz cap 7 each have a through hole 9 and a cutout groove 10 through which the cantilever 1 is inserted. Further, the main quartz cap 6 is provided with a gas vent hole 11 and a rotation prevention stopper 12, and a rotation prevention lever 13 of the drive section 4 is engaged with this stopper 12. Note that 14 is a quartz cap buffer spring.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

By the way, in semiconductor manufacturing equipment equipped with the cantilever 1 having the above configuration, there has been a problem in the past that the cantilever 1, which weighs 5.5 kg and has a length of 230 cm, is cantilevered and is not installed in a heat treatment furnace. The problem was how to pass the cantilever 1 into the cantilever through hole 9 without contaminating the cantilever 1 entering the cantilever 2.

- Honestly speaking, this work requires several people (at least three). That is, the quartz cap part 5 is attached by sharing the duties of passing the corresponding quartz cap part 5 through the cantilever 1, supporting the wafer mounting part 3 of the cantilever 1, and attaching the cantilever 1 to the drive part 4. .

However, in the manufacturing process of semiconductor integrated circuits, contamination by dust and other impurities must be avoided. Therefore, it is desirable that work near the semiconductor manufacturing equipment be performed by as few people as possible.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems and provides a cap structure for a heat treatment furnace in semiconductor manufacturing equipment that has a simple structure and allows one person to easily attach and detach the cap attached to the cantilever. It is intended for the purpose of

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has a through hole for a cantilever, and a part of a cap attached to a cantilever used for loading and unloading wafers in a heat treatment furnace has a cut connecting the through hole and the outer periphery of the cap. A notch is provided, and a lever-preventing cover that covers the notch is detachably attached to one surface of the cap.

[Effect]

In the present invention, the cantilever is inserted into the through hole through the notch of the cap, and the lever-preventing cover is attached to the cap and covers the notch to prevent the cantilever from coming off from the notch. . and,
When pulling out the cantilever from the through hole, in other words, when removing the cap from the lever, the slip-off prevention cover is first removed from the cap, and then the cantilever is pulled out through the notch.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing an embodiment of the structure of a heat treatment furnace cap according to the present invention. Note that the same component parts in the figure as in FIG. 2 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the explanation thereof will be omitted. A part of the outer circumference of the main quartz cap (cap) 6 has a notch groove (cutout part) 20 that communicates with the cantilever through hole 9 and has a groove width that is approximately equal to the hole diameter of the through hole 9. Also, on the back surface 21 of the main quartz cap 6, that is, on the opposite side from the auxiliary quartz cap 7 side, there are a total of four hook-shaped hooks, two on each side of the notch groove 20. A stopper piece 22 is integrally provided. Note that the notch groove 20 is the same as the notch groove 10 of the auxiliary quartz cap 7.
It is formed to match the corresponding.

Reference numeral 23 denotes a preventive cover that is detachably attached to the back surface 21 of the main quartz cap 6 and covers the notched groove 20. A semicircular through hole forming recess 25 is formed in the center of the locking piece 22 in correspondence with the through hole 9, and a total of four engaging holes 26, two on the left and right sides, are formed on both sides of the surface of each of the locking pieces 22. It is formed correspondingly.

When attaching the quartz cap part 5 to the cantilever, the lever group is attached with the prevention cover 23 in advance to the main quartz cap 6.
The quartz cap 5 may be placed on the cantilever so that the cutout groove 10.20 is aligned with the cantilever. Then, the cantilever is inserted into the through hole 9 through the notch groove 20. Next, while maintaining this state, the lever group moves the prevention cover 23 to the locking piece 22.
The back surface 21 of the main quartz cap 6 is engaged with the engagement hole 26.
When attached to the cover 23, the cover 23 covers the notch groove 20 and prevents the force/chileper from coming off.

Thus, according to the cap structure having such a configuration, the cantilever can be inserted into the through hole 9 through the notch groove 20, so that the cantilever 1 can be inserted into the through hole 9 of the conventional main quartz cap shown in FIG. Compared to inserting the
The work of attaching and detaching the main quartz cap 6 is extremely simple and easy, and the quartz cap part 5 can be attached to the cantilever by one person.

In addition, in the lever group, the prevention cover 23 can be attached to the main quartz cap 6 by simply hooking it on the locking piece 22, so the installation and removal work is simple and easy.Moreover, the locking piece 22 is hook-shaped and the main Since the cover 23 restricts movement in the direction away from the back surface 21 of the quartz cap 6, it will not be pushed out or come off even if the pressure inside the heat treatment furnace is high.

In this case, the locking piece 22 is not limited to both types, but may have any shape as long as the lever group does not come off due to the pressure in the furnace. Also, if we add about the shape of the cover 23,
The notched portion of the main quartz cap 6, that is, the notched groove 2
If the inner side of the cover 23 is made thicker by the plate thickness of the cap 6 in accordance with 0, the thicker part will be fitted into the notch groove 20, so that the opening surface of the heat treatment furnace and the inner surface of the main quartz cap 6 will be thickened. In other words, there is almost no gap between the ventral surface and the ventral surface.

Note that when the cover 23 is dropped onto the four locking pieces 22, a slight gap is created between the main quartz cap 6 and the semi-cylindrical parts 28A and 28B that form the through hole 9 of the cover 23; This gap is small compared to the gap between the cantilever and the cantilever through hole 9 (about 4 days), and the upper end 24 of the cover 23 is notched and the engagement hole 26 is formed thick. However, if the cover 23 is allowed to move slightly in the left-right direction, the cover 23 can be attached to the main quartz cap 6 with the semi-cylindrical part 28B shifted relative to the semi-cylindrical part 28A, and the read-after cover 23 can be attached to the main quartz cap 6. Since the semi-cylindrical portions 28A, 28B can be made to correspond to each other by shifting the cylindrical portions 28A and 28B.

The gap between 28B can be further reduced, and the outflow of gas from the cantilever through hole 9 can be further prevented compared to the conventional structure.

Further, the cover 23 is heavier than the locking piece 22, and when it is attached to the main quartz cap 6, the weight of the fence, the potion, and the posture of the quartz cap portion 5 are stabilized. This stabilizes the position of the anti-rotation stopper 12, which widens the tolerance range for vibrations during loading and unloading of wafers. Furthermore, the lever group for the notch groove 20 is the same type as the prevention cover 23.
In this case, since the notch groove 10 is covered, the airtightness inside the furnace is increased, and the advantage is that the uniformity of the oxide film and the contamination resistance can be improved. have

In this embodiment, the case where the lever group preventive cover 23 is attached to the back surface 21 of the main quartz cap 6 has been described, but it goes without saying that it may be attached to the ventral surface on the opposite side, that is, the side surface of the heat treatment furnace. This also applies when a similar cover is attached to the cutout groove 18 of the auxiliary quartz cap 7 described above.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the structure of the cap for a heat treatment furnace in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention, a notch part that communicates with the cantilever through hole is provided on a part of the outer periphery of the cap, and this notch part is attached to the cap. The removably attached levers are covered with a protective cover, so
Attachment and removal of the cap to the cantilever can be easily and easily performed by one person, which not only reduces the number of workers, but also allows for more uniform, low-contamination surface oxidation growth. do.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing an embodiment of the structure of a cap for a heat treatment furnace according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of a conventional quartz cap for a heat treatment furnace and its surrounding area. 1. Φ... Cantilever, 2... Heat treatment furnace, 5...
・ΦQuartz cap part, 6...Main quartz cap (cap), 7...Fist/auxiliary quartz cap, 9...Cantilever through hole, 20...Notch groove (notch part)
, 22... Locking piece, 23... Cover for preventing lever coming off, 2611... Retaining hole. Patent applicant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Claims (1)

[Claims] A part of the cap that has a cantilever through hole and is attached to a cantilever used for loading and unloading wafers into a heat treatment furnace is provided with a notch connecting the through hole and the outer periphery of the cap, and a cutout is provided on one side of the cap. . A structure of a cap for a heat treatment furnace in a semiconductor manufacturing equipment, characterized in that a cover for preventing the lever from coming off that covers the notch is removably attached.