JPH025774A - Semiconductor base board processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To remove particles without dropping the through-put of semiconductor base board processing, by directly exhausting the air between a valve and a filter installed on a vacuum purge line of a load lock chamber, and thereby accomplishing the vacuum state. CONSTITUTION:Valves 4, 6 are opened to exhaust the air from a load lock chamber 1, and the air therein and that between filter 2 and valve 3 are exhausted atone time using a vacuum pump 5. To make vacuum purge of the load lock chamber 1, the valves 4, 6 are closed and the one 3 opened, and the purging gas flows into the chamber 1 through the filter 2. When vacuum purge of the chamber 1 is completed, the valve 3 is closed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a semiconductor substrate processing apparatus, and more particularly to a semiconductor substrate processing apparatus having a load lock chamber.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in this type of semiconductor substrate processing equipment, the structure of a load-lock chamber for preliminary evacuation from an atmospheric pressure state to a vacuum state used for the transportation method of semiconductor substrates is as shown in FIG. In this step, a filter 2 is inserted after the valve 3 for the purpose of removing particles already present in the purge gas and for removing particles generated from the valve 3 that controls whether or not the purge gas flows. The structure had become common in terms of particles.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

When using the above-mentioned conventional semiconductor substrate processing apparatus, when evacuating the atmosphere in the load lock chamber 1 shown in FIG. It is necessary to create a vacuum, but since the conductance of the filter 2 is large, it takes time to exhaust the atmosphere between the filter 2 and the valve 3.Especially in semiconductor substrate processing equipment that performs single wafer processing, it takes once per semiconductor substrate. When the load lock chamber is evacuated/vacuum purged, there is a problem in that the throughput of semiconductor substrate processing is reduced. Therefore, if the filter 2 of the vacuum purge line is inserted in front of the valve 3 as shown in Fig. 6, when the atmosphere in the load lock chamber 1 is evacuated to create a vacuum state, the vacuum purge line can be It is sufficient to exhaust the air to the outside of the valve 3, and it takes no time to exhaust the air, and there is no need to lower the throughput. but,
Even in this case, the filter 2 only removes the particles that are already present in the purge gas, but the particles generated when the valve 3 is opened/closed are not removed and adhere to the semiconductor substrate, which has a negative impact on the processing of the semiconductor substrate. There was a problem. As described above, the conventional semiconductor substrate processing apparatus having a load lock chamber has the disadvantage that either throughput or particle problems must be sacrificed.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention is a semiconductor substrate processing apparatus characterized by having a function of directly evacuating the atmosphere between a filter and a valve incorporated in a vacuum purge line of a load lock chamber to create a vacuum state.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the structure of an exhaust system and a vacuum purge line of a load lock chamber of a semiconductor substrate processing apparatus for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, when exhausting the load lock chamber 1, after confirming that the valve 3 is closed, open the valves 4 and 6 to exhaust the atmosphere between the load lock chamber 1, the filter 2, and the valve 30 at once. Evacuate using the vacuum pump 5. When preliminary evacuation of the load lock chamber 1 is completed, valves 4 and 6 are closed. Next, when performing a vacuum purge of the load lock chamber 1, after confirming that the valves 4 and 6 are closed, the valve 3 is opened and the purge gas is flowed into the load lock chamber 1 through the filter 2. When the vacuum purge of the load lock chamber 1 is completed, the valve 3 is closed. The opening/closing operations of the valves 4 and 6 may be performed by interlocking the valves 4 and 6. Therefore, when using valve control signals, the number of valve control signals does not increase compared to the structure of the load lock chamber of the conventional semiconductor substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. Further, this valve control signal does not matter whether it is electrical, pneumatic, or other type. Furthermore, filter 2. Valve 3, 4, 6. The type of vacuum pump 5 and the method of connecting piping between filter 2 and valve 3 do not matter at all.

2 to 4 are schematic diagrams showing the structure of an exhaust system and a vacuum purge line of a load lock chamber of a semiconductor substrate processing apparatus showing other embodiments of the present invention.

Figure 2 shows the atmosphere between the filter 2 and the valve 30 being transferred to the valve 6.
The structure is such that the air is evacuated by a vacuum pump 5 through a valve 4. FIG. 3 shows a structure in which exhaust air is further passed through the load lock chamber 1 from FIG. 2. FIG. 4 shows a structure in which the atmosphere between the filter 2 and the valve 30 is independently evacuated using another vacuum pump 7. As in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the method for exhausting the atmosphere between the filter 2 and the valve 3 is not limited to any type. In any of the cases shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the conductance of the filter 2 at the time of evacuation is irrelevant, and the evacuation of the p-lock chamber 1 only takes a short time, and the filter 2 is located after the valve 3. This means that all particles generated during vacuum purging can be removed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the atmosphere between the filter and the valve built in the vacuum purge line of the load lock chamber of the semiconductor substrate processing apparatus can be directly exhausted to create a vacuum state, thereby making it possible to This has the effect of removing particles that adversely affect semiconductor substrate processing without reducing processing throughput.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a load lock chamber of a semiconductor substrate processing apparatus illustrating an embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 2, 3, and 4 are schematic diagrams of the structure of a load lock chamber of a semiconductor substrate processing apparatus illustrating another embodiment of the present invention. 5 and 6 are schematic diagrams of the structure of a load lock chamber of a conventional semiconductor substrate processing apparatus. In addition, in the figure, 1... Load lock chamber, 2... Filter 3.4.6... Valve, 5, 7...
·Vacuum pump. Agent Patent Attorney Susumu Uchihara

Claims (1)

[Claims] The method of transporting semiconductor substrates includes a load-lock chamber (also referred to as an air-lock chamber, vacuum preliminary chamber, etc., hereinafter referred to as load-lock chamber) that pre-evacuates from atmospheric pressure to a vacuum state. In the semiconductor substrate processing equipment where processing is performed, the atmosphere between the filter and valve built into the vacuum purge (also referred to as vent vacuum breaking leak, etc., hereinafter referred to as vacuum purge) line of the load lock chamber is directly exhausted, and the vacuum is removed. Semiconductor substrate processing equipment that has the ability to