JPH0256926A - Treatment apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make an apparatus compact and improve the workability of maintenance and so forth by employing a flat fan to generate clean air. CONSTITUTION:A clean air unit blowing fan 23 having a prefilter 22 in front of it and an HEPA filter 24 are unified with a door 25 to form an attached part 21 which blows clean air toward a conveying part 20. The attached part 21 is attached to a frame 26 behind the water boat conveying part 20 with extractable hinges 27 so as to be opened and closed freely and fixed tightly to the frame 26 by a retaining means 28 with a sealing member 29 bonded to the outer circumference of the door 25 between. By generating clean air by using the flat fan 23 as described above, an apparatus can be constructed compactly and the workability of maintenance and so forth can be improved.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Purpose of the invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to a processing device.

(Prior Art) Recently, due to technological innovations in semiconductor manufacturing processes, the integration of IC chips has progressed, and the number of circuits forming an IC chip has increased for a given area. That is.

The lead wires and electrode pads that make up the circuit are becoming ultra-fine. However, as miniaturization progresses, for example, even minute dust can cause breakage of the lead wires, or conversely, short circuits between the lead wires. In response to this, it is necessary to take even stricter measures against dust in the manufacturing process.

Conventional dust-proofing measures for semiconductor manufacturing equipment are to prevent impurities from adhering to wafers, so transporting the wafers is not done manually, but by using transport equipment, and the manufacturing equipment is also installed in a clean room. In clean rooms, air is pre-filtered, HE
Clean air is passed through a PA filter, etc., and a vertical laminar flow is generated by a blower from the ceiling, which is then exhausted from the floor.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus such as a vertical heat treatment furnace (2) installed in a clean room (2). When air is blown from the ventilation duct (3), the pre-filter,
(clean room filters such as HEPA filters) reduce the amount of air used to produce clean air. This clean air passes through the clean room (■) and is exhausted from the floor (■). Here, the above vertical heat treatment furnace ■ is a clean room ■
In order to make effective use of the data, it is compatible with through-the-ra-all.

The front part of the vertical heat treatment furnace (G) where wafers are handled in the reactor 0 and transport section (■) is installed in the clean room (■), and the back and rear part of the vertical heat treatment furnace (■) is located in the clean room (■) called the gray room (C). It is placed in a room with poor cleanliness. However, in the conveying section ■ of the vertical heat treatment furnace ■, there is one reaction furnace and zero
This makes it difficult to reach the vertical laminar clean air flow, making it difficult to prevent impurities such as one reactant from adhering to the wafer. For this reason, a clean bench 0 is provided at the rear of the transport section ■, and the air purified by the clean bench 0 is transferred to the transport section ■.
Air is being blown to. That is, air is passed from the blower fan (10) to the pre-filter via the conveyor blower duct (11).

Air is blown to a filter (12) such as a HEPA filter, and purified air is blown to the conveying section (2). This allows a horizontal laminar flow of clean air to be applied to the wafers (14) supported by the boat (13).

The same applies to horizontal multi-stage heat treatment furnaces.

For example, in a vertical laminar flow from the ceiling, clean air can only be sent to the top of the conveyor section, so a blower device has been installed on the back of the conveyor section to provide a flow of clean air to the conveyor sections on the lower floors.

In addition, regardless of whether the equipment is compatible with through-the-radar equipment, other semiconductor manufacturing equipment and peripheral equipment may not be able to take in the clean room's vertical laminar flow clean air into the transport section of the object to be processed, etc., as described above. . In such cases,
In order to blow clean air to a conveying section, etc., air is sent from a fan to a filter via a duct, and is sent to a predetermined position as clean air.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, the above dustproof measures have the following problems.

In a clean air blower, a fan and a filter are connected through a duct. This will require installation space for the duct. In addition, the conductance of the duct had to be taken into account, and the fan had to be made larger. Furthermore, in order to uniformly supply air to the filter, it was necessary to complicate the structure within the duct. These factors have made the device larger and made the installation space of the device less efficient.

In other words, the clean room and gray room for maintenance could not be used effectively. Furthermore, due to the installation of the duct, no maintenance space was provided, which adversely affected the maintenance of other peripheral equipment. Furthermore, each time the filter is replaced periodically, the duct must be attached and removed, resulting in poor workability.

Furthermore, the vertical heat treatment furnace (2) shown in FIG. 6 has the following problems.

Air blowers such as the clean bench (1), the filter (12), and the conveyor section air duct (11) are each fixed to the conveyor section. Therefore, when performing maintenance on the heat treatment furnace from the rear, when opening clean bench 0, the ventilation duct (
11) had to be removed, resulting in poor workability.

The present invention has been made in response to the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a processing apparatus that can be housed compactly and improve workability such as maintenance when taking dust-proof measures for the processing apparatus.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) A processing device according to the present invention is a device that processes an object while blowing clean air to a predetermined position, and generates the clean air using a flat fan. It is characterized by doing.

Furthermore, a device for blowing clean air to the transport section for loading and unloading objects to be processed between the processing furnace and the inside of the processing furnace is provided in the mounting section to the transport section, and the mounting section is provided so as to be openable and closable. shall be.

(Function and effect) In a device that processes objects to be processed while blowing clean air to a predetermined position, by generating the clean air using a flat fan, the device can be housed compactly. This has the effect of reducing the equipment installation space, making effective use of the designated floor space, and facilitating maintenance of the equipment, improving work efficiency.

Furthermore, by providing a device for blowing clean air to the conveyance section where objects to be processed are loaded and unloaded into and out of the processing furnace at the attachment section to the conveyance section, and by providing the attachment section so as to be openable and closable, There is no need to perform maintenance on the processing furnace in a clean room, and all maintenance can be easily done in a gray room without paying close attention or contaminating the clean room, which is extremely beneficial in semiconductor integrated circuit device manufacturing. .

Furthermore, since there is no need to secure a maintenance zone within the clean room, the heat treatment furnaces can be installed without gaps even in systems that use multiple heat treatment furnaces, making it possible to save space in the clean room, which is economical. Furthermore, since the filter and the blower fan are integrated, there is no need to provide a conveyor section blower duct, and the equipment is simple and the blower also saves space, making the system as a whole very effective.

〔Example〕

An embodiment in which the apparatus of the present invention is applied to a vertical furnace will be described with reference to a sectional view in FIG. 1 and a front view in FIG. 2.

In Figure 1, a vertical heat treatment furnace (15) for diffusion, CVD, etc. that forms semiconductor integrated circuit elements on a wafer passes through a clean room filter (17) from a ventilation duct (16) and is exhausted from the floor (18). It is installed in a clean room (19) with vertical clean air flow.

On the other hand, Figure 2 shows the conveyor section (20) of the vertical heat treatment furnace (15).
is a front view seen from the rear side, and the mounting part (21) that blows clean air to the conveyance part (20) includes a clean air unit blowing fan (23) equipped with a pre-filter (22) as a filter on the front side; A HEPA filter (24) as a filter is integrally mounted on the door (25).

This mounting part (21) is hinged to the pedestal (26) at the rear of the wafer boat transfer part (20) of the vertical heat treatment furnace (15) with a slide hinge (27) so that it can be opened and closed as shown in FIG. Locking means such as corner catches and fixing brackets (28
) to the outer periphery of i (25).
9), and is fixed in close contact with the pedestal (26).

A vertical heat treatment furnace (1) to which these mounting parts (21) are connected
5) The rear side faces the gray room (30) outside the clean room (19).

In the transport system of the wafer boat (31), for example, 25 wafers (32) that have completed the previous process are stored in a carrier and transported, and a wafer transfer device (not shown) heat-processes the wafers (32) in the carrier. Transfer the wafer boat (31) to a quartz boat, for example. At this time, the sea urchins (32) are aligned at the orientation flat portion. After the transfer of the wafer boat (31) is completed, the boat (31) is controlled vertically and transferred to the transfer section (20) of the vertical furnace (15) by a loading robot (not shown). At this position, the loading robot inserts it into the reactor (33) from below. In the transport section (20), the wafers are arranged horizontally on the boat (31) and vertically at predetermined intervals, so that air is blown in the horizontal direction.

When maintenance is required for the vertical heat treatment furnace (15) having the mounting part (21) configured as described above, the locking means (28)
, and open the door (25) using the slide hinge (27).
Also, if necessary, remove the slide hinge (27) and remove the door (25).
, and perform maintenance on the vertical heat treatment furnace (15).

After finishing, insert the slide hinge (27) again and lock the locking means (2).
8) allows the mounting portion (21) to be fixed.

For this reason, the clean room (
If the pressure in step 19) is set to a high pressure, the dust will be discharged to the gray room side when the mounting part (21) is opened, so the clean room will not be contaminated and there will be no need to secure a maintenance zone in the clean room. Even when multiple vertical heat treatment furnaces are installed, a maintenance zone can be omitted, and each frame can be arranged without gaps.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to vertical heat treatment furnaces, and can naturally be suitably employed in horizontal heat treatment furnaces and the like. Furthermore, the attachment of the clean air blowing device to the conveyance section is not limited to the above-mentioned devices, and any device may be used as long as it can be hinged and/or detachable.

An embodiment applied to a vapor phase epitaxial growth apparatus of a vertical CVD apparatus that performs batch processing will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, the configuration of the vapor phase epitaxial growth apparatus will be explained.

For example, as shown in Fig. 3, this apparatus is mainly a vertical reactor, with a processing section (35) consisting of a reaction tube (34) whose axis is vertical, and a large number of parts in this processing section (35). A boat (37) on which an object to be processed, such as a semiconductor wafer (36), is installed.
from a predetermined position below the reaction tube (34).
and a loading area (39) provided with a transport mechanism (38) for loading and unloading.

As shown in FIG. 5, the processing section (35) is provided with a reaction tube (34) of a double-tube structure made of a material that is heat resistant and does not easily react with the processing gas, such as quartz. That is, this reaction tube (34) includes a cylindrical outer tube (34a) whose upper surface is sealed, and a cylindrical outer tube (34a) which is provided inside the outer tube (34a) in a non-contact state and whose upper surface is sealed. and an inner tube (34b). A cylindrical heating mechanism, such as a resistance heater (40) wound in a coil, is provided so as to coaxially surround the reaction tube (34). This heater (40) is connected to a power source, such as an AC power source (not shown), in order to uniformly heat the area on which the semiconductor wafer (36) is placed to a desired temperature, for example, 800 to 1050°C. That is, by applying electric power from this AC power source, the heater (40) heats up.

Further, a gas supply pipe (41) for supplying a predetermined processing gas into the inner pipe (34b) is connected to the inner pipe (34b) of the reaction tube (34). This gas supply pipe (4
1) is provided vertically along the inner wall of the inner tube (34b) up to the upper surface. Further, the gas supply pipe (41) is provided with a large number of holes (not shown) at predetermined intervals.

This hole allows a large number of wafers (36
) is set, processing gas can be flowed horizontally to the processing surface of each wafer (36). And in the inner tube (34b),
Holes (not shown) are provided to vent process gases. The holes provided in this inner tube (34b) are provided at positions corresponding to the holes in the gas supply tube (41), respectively. Further, the gas supply pipe (41) is connected to a gas supply source via a mass flow controller (not shown) or the like. Also, the outer tube (34a) of the reaction tube (34)
An exhaust pipe (42) is connected to the exhaust pipe (42). This exhaust pipe (
42) is connected to a vacuum pump (not shown) capable of reducing the pressure in the reaction tube (34) to a desired pressure and discharging process gas and the like. That is, when the processing gas is supplied into the reaction tube (34), the processing gas is supplied to each wafer (36) in the inner tube (34b).
) flows horizontally at the installation position, at which time the wafer (36) is processed.

Then, the outer tube (34a) is inserted through the numerous holes of the inner tube (34b).
It is discharged to the side and flows toward the bottom of the outer tube (34a) and into the reaction tube (
34) Excreted outside.

Further, a lid (43) is removably provided to keep the inside of the reaction tube (34) configured as described above airtight. A boat (37) in which the wafer (36) is placed is provided above the lid (43). This boat (37
), a large number of wafers (36), for example 25, and several dummy wafers can be stacked at predetermined intervals in the vertical direction. Also 1. The boat (37) is made of a material that is heat resistant and does not easily react with the processing gas, such as quartz. This boat (37) can be set at a predetermined height position within the reaction tube (34), and
A heat insulating cylinder (44) for preventing internal heat from escaping is provided between the boat (37) and the lid (43).

Further, the lid (43) is provided with a two-rotation drive motor (not shown), and a rotating shaft thereof is engaged with the center of the bottom surface of the heat-insulating cylinder (44). Due to this, the heat insulation cylinder (44)
And a boat (37) loaded with wafers (36) can be rotated. Here, the rotating shaft and the lid body (43
) is performed by a magnetic fluid seal to maintain airtightness within the reaction tube (34).

Further, the lid (43) is supported by a transport mechanism (38-) consisting of, for example, a ball screw and a motor.

This allows the boat (37) provided above the lid (43) to move up and down. That is, the boat (37) includes a processing section (35) and a processing section (3).
5) can be moved between loading areas (39) provided below. In this loading area (39),
A boat (37) loaded with wafers on a heat-insulating tube (44) is transferred by a transfer device (not shown).

The vapor phase epitaxial growth apparatus is configured as described above, and the operation and settings of this apparatus are controlled by a control section (not shown). moreover.

This device has the following preventive measures.

For example, as shown in Fig. 3, this equipment has a clean room (45) with a high level of cleanliness, such as class 10, in which clean air is flowed in a vertical laminar flow, and is adjacent to this clean room (45), and is located closer to the clean room (45) than the clean room (45). It can be installed as a through-the-raor in a maintenance gray room (46) with a low level of cleanliness, such as class 1,000 or higher, through a partition (47) that serves as a hanging wall. That is, the front surface where the control panel etc. are provided is installed on the clean room (45) side so as to be flush with the partition (47), and the other parts are installed on the gray room (46) side. If you install the device to support through-the-wall in this way,
Inside the clean room (45), clean air flows vertically from top to bottom, so the loading area (
39), the clean air reached her. As a countermeasure for this, a blower device (48) for blowing clean air is provided in the loading area (39). This blower device (48) is provided at the back of the loading area (39), and purifies the air taken in from the gray room (46) side, and blows the air into the loading area (39). Further, the clean air blown to the loading area (39) flows to the clean room (45) side, where it is flowed toward the floor. In order to house the vapor phase epitaxial growth apparatus in a compact manner, the blower device (48) is a flat fan in which a blower fan (49) and a filter (50) are integrated as shown in FIG. 4, for example. The filter (50) has, for example, a length of 760 I and a width of 610 Im*
The depth 50w1 is made of a material such as glass paper, and the outer frame is formed of aluminum, for example. A fan (49) that sends air to this filter (50) is connected to the filter (50).
It is integrated into the back.

The above fan (49) takes in air from the back.

For example, a turbo fan is used to uniformly supply water to the entire surface of the filter (49). Also, fan (49)
is engaged with a motor (51), for example a single-phase induction motor,
It can be rotated by driving the motor (51). The front surface of the filter (50) is provided with an aluminum punching metal (
(not shown) is provided to rectify the air purified by the filter (50). Fans like the one above (4
9) and filter (50) integrated into the air blower (48)
For example, the external dimensions are 760m long and 610m wide
a. It is a thin flat fan with a depth of 150 m+ and a weight of, for example, 19 kg. In addition, since the ultra-high performance ULPA type filter (50) is used, the dust collection efficiency is 0.
In the case of dust of 1 μs, it is 99.999% or more. This kind of air blower (48) does not require a duct to connect the fan and filter, so it is compact, and since it is a flat fan with a thin thickness, it is easy to work with, and maintenance of other peripheral equipment is easy. I can do it.

As mentioned above, the vapor phase epitaxial growth apparatus includes a blower device (
48) is provided, but this ventilation system is also included! (48
) A pre-filter (52) is installed to improve the efficiency of cleaning. This prefilter (52
) is 1, for example, a non-woven filter, an air blower! It is provided further behind (48). In this way, the flat fan type blower device (48) is provided to prevent dust in the vapor phase epitaxial growth apparatus.

Next, the above-mentioned vapor phase epitaxial growth apparatus is used. A process for forming a Si film on a silicon semiconductor wafer will be explained.

First, a wafer (36
) is loaded onto the boat (37). Then, this boat (37) is transported to a loading area (39) by a boat transport device (not shown). That is, the boat (37
). Then, the boat (37) is raised by a predetermined amount by the transport mechanism (38), and the reaction tube (34) is lifted up by a predetermined amount.
The inner tube (34b) is carried into a predetermined position within the inner tube (34b) without coming into contact with the inner wall thereof. At this time, the reaction tube (34)
By bringing the lower end into contact with the lid (43), the position of the wafer is automatically determined and the inside of the reaction tube (34) is made airtight. Next, the reaction tube (34)
A vacuum pump (not shown) is used to control evacuation so as to maintain the inside at a desired low pressure state, for example, 1 to 10 Torr. Further, electric power is applied to the heater (40) in advance, and the heater (40) is set to a desired temperature, for example, 800 to 1050°C. Further, a rotation drive motor (not shown) rotates the wafer (36) loaded on the board (37). Then, while controlling the exhaust, the process gas is supplied from the gas supply source to the inner tube (34b) of the reaction tube (34) for a predetermined period of time while controlling the flow rate with a mass flow controller (not shown) or the like for a predetermined period of time. . Then, a single crystal thin film of silicon (Si) having the same crystal axis as the wafer (36) can be grown on the surface of the wafer (36) installed in the inner tube (34b) of the reaction tube (34). .

Further, the treated gas flows into the outer tube (34a) from a number of holes provided in the inner tube (34b), and is exhausted from the exhaust pipe (42) connected to the outer tube (34a). After this treatment, the supply of the treatment gas is stopped, and the inside of the first reaction tube (34) is replaced with an inert gas, such as N2 gas, to return to normal pressure. Then, the boat (37) loaded with the processed wafers (36) is transported to the loading area (39) by the transport mechanism (38), and the processing is completed.

When performing such processing, the loading area (39) is brought into a state in which clean air is blown in advance.

This air blowing is performed by a blower device (48) which is a flat fan installed at the back of the loading area (39). Air bag! By driving the motor (51) of (48), the fan (49) is rotated.

Then, as shown by the arrow (53), the air in the gray room (46) first passes through the pre-filter (52).

Relatively clean air that has passed through this pre-filter (52) is taken into the fan (49). The air taken into the fan (49) is uniformly supplied to the entire surface of the filter (50) by the fan (49). Dust is then removed by a filter (50).

The clean air from which dust has been removed is rectified by an aluminum punching metal (not shown) and is blown horizontally to the loading area (39) at an air volume of 1 o 113/*in, for example. The clean air is then flowed toward the clean room (45) while removing dust and the like existing in the loading area (39).

The air that has reached the clean room (45) is discharged toward the floor by the down flow of the clean room (45). By blowing clean air into the loading area (39) in this manner, dust and the like present in the loading area (39) can be discharged.

It is possible to prevent dust etc. from adhering to the wafer (36).
6), and also contributes to improving yield.

As described above, according to this embodiment, by generating clean air using a flat fan, a predetermined position can be kept in a clean state, and the apparatus can be housed compactly. Further, since the flat fan is lightweight and thin, it is easy to handle, leading to improved workability such as maintenance.

Furthermore, since flat fans are thin, they can make effective use of the installation space, making it easier to use for other equipment built into the equipment.
Easy to install and maintain, and has excellent versatility.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments. For example, the processing equipment may be any type of equipment other than a vapor phase epitaxial growth equipment, and may be a heat treatment equipment such as a diffusion/oxidation equipment or an annealing equipment, or a sputtering/etching/ashing/ion processing equipment. It can be applied to various processing equipment such as injection/probe equipment, transport equipment, and wafer transfer equipment.

In addition, the motor installed in the fan, which is a blower, is
The present invention is not limited to single-phase capacitor induction motors; for example, an ultra-thin printed motor may be used. If this printed motor is used, the fan can be made even thinner, and the effect will be more pronounced. Become.

Furthermore, the processing equipment does not have to be compatible with through-the-walls, and can be installed in a clean room.In the case of a stationary type, the processing equipment can be made more compact by using a flat fan, and it can be maintained easily. However, the installation space of the lean room can be small, and the clean room can be used effectively, and the same effects as in the above embodiments can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a sectional view of the apparatus for explaining one embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a front view of the clean bench of the apparatus of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is for explaining another embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention. Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a flat fan used in the apparatus shown in Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the processing section of the apparatus shown in Fig. 3; Fig. 6 FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional device. 15... Vertical heat treatment furnace 20... Conveyance section 21.
... Mounting part 22 ... Play filter 23
...Blower fan 24...HEPA filter 25...i 29...Seal material 3
5...Processing section 39...Loading area 48...Blower device Fig. Fig. Fig.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A processing device that processes objects to be processed while blowing clean air to a predetermined position, characterized in that the clean air is generated using a flat fan. (2) A device for blowing clean air to the transport section that loads and unloads objects to be processed between the processing furnace and the inside of the processing furnace is provided at the mounting section to the transport section, and the mounting section is provided so that it can be opened and closed. Characteristic processing equipment.