JPH02130943A - Accommodation jig - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To minimize the contact area between a wafer and a mounting surface, and reduce the contamination of the rear by constituting a wafer accommodation jig used for semiconductor wafer treatment, by using a plurality of columns having a groove row arranged at specified intervals in the horizontal direction, and inclining the wafer mounting surface of each groove of the groove row at an angle of 3-10 degrees, in the manner in which the inner end becomes the lowest. CONSTITUTION:A boat 7 for heat treatment accommodates a semiconductor wafer 6 of plate type, e.g., circular plate type. Said boat is constituted of four vertical quartz columnar frames 8 and plane type retainers 9 arranged on the upper and lower ends of the frames 8. Inside the columnar frames 8, horizontal grooves 10 are formed at specified intervals. The wafer mounting surface 11 of the lower surface of the groove 10 is not horizontal but inclined downward at an angle of 3-10 degrees. By this set-up, when the wafer 6 is put on the mounting surface 11, the rear of the wafer comes into contact only with an edge line 12 of the mounting surface, so that the contamination of the rear of the wafer 6, and the dust also are reduced, thereby increasing the yield.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Object of the invention,] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to a housing jig.

(Prior Art) Generally, in a semiconductor manufacturing process, a heat treatment furnace is used to form various thin films such as insulating films, compound semiconductors, and organic metals on semiconductor wafers. In such a processing furnace, 100 or more wafers are usually processed at one time in order to improve mass productivity. Furthermore, such processing furnaces include horizontal furnaces in which the furnace is placed horizontally, and vertical furnaces in which the furnace is placed vertically. In the Ik area, vertical furnaces are attracting attention as they require less installation space.

In order to patch more than 100 semiconductor wafers at the same time in this vertical furnace, the semiconductor wafers are housed in a support such as a boat.
As shown in Japanese Utility Model Application No. 2-16516 and Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 62-128633, a material made of heat-resistant and less reactive to the processing gas, such as quartz, is used. As shown in FIG. 4, the structure of the boat is such that, for example, four pillars (2) are vertically supported at their upper and lower ends by support parts (2). Each of the above-mentioned pillars α) is arranged so that each central axis is on the circumference of a virtual circle. In addition, grooves (2) are provided in the above-mentioned pillar (2) at a pitch of, for example, 3/16 inch, perpendicular to the longitudinal direction so that the columns (2) are at the same height. This groove ■ has a U-shaped cross section and is approximately 1.2 m to 1.5 m high. A) is placed by a worker or a robot hand.

A wafer Q is inserted into the valley groove (2), and placed so that the above-mentioned placement surface (2) and the back surface of the wafer (2) are in cross-sectional surface contact with each other.

(1ily to be Solved by the Invention) However, the above-mentioned conventional technology has the following problems.

Since the groove of the boat is provided in a direction perpendicular to the support column, when a wafer is placed, the placement surface of the groove and a part of the back surface of the wafer come into surface contact. Then, when the wafer is placed, the placement surface of the groove and the back surface of the wafer may rub against each other, generating minute dust. When this dust adheres to the processing surface of the wafer, it has an adverse effect on the wafer, leading to a decrease in yield.

Furthermore, it caused contamination on the backside of the wafer, which adversely affected post-processing and the like.

Furthermore, Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-39483 describes a stocker for storing semiconductor wafers, which is provided with a shelf-like protrusion so as to support the semiconductor wafer in a shelf-like manner, and has a tapered top surface. ing.

Such stockers are usually made of Teflon (trade name) or S.
US (stainless steel) II is used.

If it is made of Teflon, it has no heat resistance and cannot be used in treatments that involve heating to temperatures of 700° C. or higher, for example.

Also, those made of SUS had the problem of heavy metal contamination.

This invention has been made to address the above-mentioned problems, and allows contact between the plate-shaped body and the storage jig to be minimized.

Contamination and dust generation on the back side of the plate can be reduced.

Furthermore, the present invention provides a storage jig that leads to an improvement in yield.

[Structure of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides a storage jig provided with groove rows so as to store a plurality of plate-shaped bodies at predetermined intervals in the horizontal direction. It is characterized in that the mounting surface of the plate-shaped body in the valley groove is inclined at an angle of 3 to 10 degrees so that the inner end is at the lowest position.

(Effect) The mounting surface of the plate-like body in the valley groove of the groove row provided in the housing jig body is tilted at an angle of 3 to 10 degrees so that the inner end is at the lowest position, so that the plate The contact of the plate-shaped body with the mounting surface is minimized, and the contamination of the back surface of the plate-shaped body and the generation of heads due to contact are minimized.

As a result, yield can be improved.

(Example) An example in which the housing jig of the present invention is applied to a boat for a heat treatment equipment will be described below with reference to the drawings.

A heat treatment boat (2) that accommodates a plate-shaped object, for example, a substantially disk-shaped semiconductor wafer (2), is constructed as shown in FIG.

A plurality of, for example four, cylindrical frames (1) made of a material that is heat resistant and does not easily react with the processing gas, such as quartz, are vertically provided. This cylindrical frame (2) has a diameter of, for example, 13 square inches, and in the case of a 6-inch wafer, it is arranged so that its central axis lies on the circumference of an imaginary circle with a diameter of, for example, 153 square inches. In order to maintain the positional relationship of the cylindrical frame (2), plate-shaped supports 0 made of quartz are provided at the upper and lower ends of the cylindrical frame (2). Also, each cylindrical frame has a thickness of 0, for example.
．． 71 Semiconductor wafers with a diameter of, for example, 150 cm are placed horizontally at a predetermined interval, for example, by 3/1.
Grooves (10) are provided at a pitch of 6 inches. This groove (10) is formed by horizontally inserting a disc-shaped diamond cutter of the same size as the above-mentioned virtual circle into each cylindrical frame (■) arranged vertically at a predetermined position. be. This results in m (10
) are precisely aligned. The valley groove (10) formed as described above is configured as shown in FIG. 2. The wafer placement surface (11) on the lower surface of the fly (10) is inclined so that when the wafer 0 is placed, the inner end is at the lowest position toward the center of the wafer 0. This inclination angle (α) is set, for example, in the range of 3 degrees to 10 degrees. Due to the inclination of this angle (α), when the wafer ■ is placed on the placement surface (11) of the groove (10), the contact between the placement surface (11) and the wafer ■ is with the back and side surfaces of the wafer 0. There is only a beam IIA (12) consisting of continuous intersections, and the height (Q) of the groove (lO) is
In order to avoid contact between the wafer (toward) and the cylindrical frame (2) during loading and unloading, the outer end position of the mounting surface (11) is set to, for example, 2.5 m. Further, the depth of the groove (lO) is, for example, about 5.5 m at the longest position, although it varies depending on the location because a disc-shaped cutter is used.

Here, if the above-mentioned inclination angle (α) is set to 3 degrees or less, the contact area between the mounting surface (11) and the wafer 0 becomes large, and if it is set to 10 degrees or more, the inclination angle becomes large. The groove spacing becomes too narrow, making a quartz cylinder frame unsuitable in terms of strength.

The boat ■ is constructed as described above.

Next, a device for transferring wafer 0 to the boat (2) will be explained.

The transfer device (I3) transfers the wafers 0 accommodated in the carrier (14) one by one or a plurality of wafers to the boat (2). A support stand (15) is provided on which the carrier 0 is placed so that the wafer (toward) is horizontal. Around this support stand (15).

A hand arm (16) for transporting wafer 0 is provided. This hand arm (16) is engaged with a horizontal drive mechanism (not shown) and can slide in the front and rear directions. Also, at the tip of the arm (16),
An @ (not shown) adapted to the size of the wafer is provided so that the wafer 0 can be placed temporarily. Furthermore, the hand arm (16) is engaged with a lifting mechanism and a rotation mechanism (not shown), and can rotate in the vertical direction and the circumferential direction. That is, the hand arm (16) can be set at a desired height position, and the hand arm (16) can be set at a position facing the carrier (14) and the boat.
can be set.

Next, the above transfer device! In (13), the operation of transferring wafer 0 between boat (2) and carrier (14) will be explained.

First, the carrier (14) containing the wafer (1) is set on the support stand (15) by a robot hand or a worker.Next, in order to carry out the wafer (0) from the carrier (14), the hand arm (16) ) at the desired height position and rotate in the circumferential direction. Then, the hand arm (16) is slid forward at a predetermined position, and the hand arm (16) is set on the lower surface of the wafer 0 in the carrier (14), which is to be set on the top stage of the boat (2). After this, the hand arm (16) is raised by a predetermined amount, and the hand arm (16) is
Wafer (1) is temporarily placed on top, and wafer (0) is carried out from the carrier (14) by sliding backward. Then, in order to transfer the carried out wafer 0 to a predetermined position on the boat ■,
While setting the height position of the hand arm (16), it rotates in the circumferential direction and sets wafer 0 at a predetermined position. That is, when the hand arm (16) is slid toward the boat (1), the wafer (1) is placed in a position where the wafer (1) does not come into contact with the mounting surface (11), side surface, or top surface of the groove (10). Next, slide the hand arm (16) forward and set it in a position where it does not come into contact with the side and top surfaces of the placement surface (11) of the groove (10), as shown in FIG. 3(A). In this state, lower the hand arm (16) by a predetermined amount, for example, 0.7 aa (Figure 3 CB).
As shown in FIG.
). Then, since the mounting surface (11) is inclined at an angle (α) toward the inner end, the only contact between the mounting surface (11) and wafer 0 is the beam 1iA (12) of wafer ■. , that is, line contact of the edges. Then, the hand arm (16) is lowered, for example, by 0.71 in a continuous motion.

As shown in FIG. 3(C), it is separated from the wafer (2). In this state, slide the hand arm (I6) backward.

The next wafer 0 transfer operation is performed. In this way, a predetermined number of wafers 0 are transferred from the carrier (14) to the boat (2). Thereafter, the boat is vertically carried into a reaction tube of a vertical heat treatment furnace (not shown), and the treatment is carried out within the reaction tube.

Upon completion of the treatment in the above apparatus, boat (2) is taken out of the reaction tube and set in a predetermined position. Then, in the reverse operation of transferring wafer 0 from the carrier (14) to the boat ■, wafer 0 is transferred from the boat ■ to the carrier (14).
and exit.

In the above embodiment, a case where quartz was used as the material of the boat was explained, but the material is not limited to this (SiC
It may be made of any material such as polysilicon, crystal, etc. Further, in the above embodiment, the accommodation jig was explained as a boat in which four cylindrical frames were supported at the upper and lower ends, but the accommodation jig is not limited to this, and any jig having the groove shape of the above embodiment may be used. .

Furthermore, the pitch of the grooves provided on the boat does not have to be 3716 inches; for example, the pitch of the grooves may be formed in the central part with a tight pitch and the upper and lower ends with a coarse pitch.

Furthermore, the plate-shaped body installed on the boat does not have to be a semiconductor wafer, but may be a reliable one such as an LCD board or a printed circuit board.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, in a housing jig provided with groove rows so as to store a plurality of plate-shaped bodies at predetermined intervals in the horizontal direction, the grooves of the groove rows are Rotate the mounting surface of the object from 3 degrees to 10 degrees so that the inner end is at the lowest position.
By slanting the plate at an angle of 100 degrees, contact between the plate-like body and the mounting surface can be minimized. Due to this,
Contamination on the back side of the plate-shaped body can be reduced. Further, generation of dust due to contact can be reduced. Furthermore, it leads to an improvement in yield.

Moreover, by setting the inclination angle to 3 degrees to 10 degrees, contact between the plate-shaped body and the mounting surface can be kept to a minimum, and a sufficient value in terms of strength can be maintained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a configuration diagram for transferring wafers from a carrier to a boat to explain an embodiment of the storage jig of the present invention, and Figure 2 is a diagram to explain the groove shape of the boat shown in Figure 1. , FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the operation when wafers are placed on the boat of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the conventional boat.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a storage jig provided with a groove array for accommodating a plurality of plate-like bodies at predetermined intervals in the horizontal direction, the inner end of each groove in the groove array is arranged so that the surface on which the plate-like body is placed is the lowest. A storage jig characterized in that it is tilted at an angle of 3 to 10 degrees so as to be in the correct position.