JPH0311620A - Boat loader of heat treatment furnace for semiconductor wafer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to maintain the degrees of verticality and parallelism with high precision at all times by a construction wherein a suspension jig suspending a boat holding semiconductor wafers horizontally and in parallel is fitted to a vertical-motion mechanism. CONSTITUTION:Semiconductor wafers 1 are placed horizontally and in parallel on slits cut in a boat 2 and are held thereby, and the boat 2 has a structure of being suspended at the upper end on a inverted-U-shaped suspension jig 3 and is suspended thereby. The suspension jig 3 is welded to a cap 4 and stands erect, and the cap 4 is moved vertically by a vertical-motion mechanism element 5, while the semiconductor wafers 1 are inserted into a reaction tube 6 heated by a heater 7 and are drawn out from the reaction tube 6. According to this constitution, the boat can always be kept in the attitude in the vertical direction under its own weight, and the degree of parallelism of the semiconductor wafers is maintained, since an attitude changing force acts in the vertical direction against thermal deformation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a boat loader for a semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace that loads and takes out a boat into a vertical heat treatment furnace used in a semiconductor wafer manufacturing process.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, this type of boat loader has been constructed as shown in the perspective view of FIG. Semiconductor wafers to be heat-treated are placed and held horizontally and parallelly on slits cut into holes 1 and 2, and this hood 2 is placed on a cap 4 via a baffle plate 8, and a heat treatment furnace is installed in the upper part. A reaction tube 6 and a heater 7 were installed. Further, the cap 4 is moved up and down by the vertical movement mechanism 5, and the semiconductor wafer 1, which is the product to be heat-treated, is taken in and out of the processing position in the heat-treating furnace.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Horde commonly used in heat treatment furnaces3. Baffle plate 8
．． The cab 14, reaction tube 6, etc. are required to be heat resistant and pure, and are therefore made of high-purity quartz. Boat of the above-mentioned conventional boat loader 2. Baffle plate 8. The caps 6 have a stacking structure, and in order to maintain the verticality of the hoard 2 to prevent it from tipping over, the caps 6 have to be stacked to prevent the boat 2. Baffle plate 8. High precision is required for the perpendicularity and parallelism of each of the caps 4. In addition, since the heat treatment temperature is generally around the highest safe operating temperature for quartz, it is difficult to use it for a long time. , and the boat 2. Baffle plate 8. Since the cap 4 has a stacked structure, the semiconductor wafer 1. The weight of the boat 2 is placed on the baffle plate 8, and due to the slight deformation of the baffle plate 8, the position of the tip of the boat 2 changes drastically.
As a result, the semiconductor wafers 1 are no longer horizontal, and the boat 2 tends to fall over.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention provides a boat loader for a semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace in which a boat holding semiconductor wafers horizontally and in parallel is loaded into and taken out of a vertical heat treatment furnace by a vertical movement mechanism, in which a suspension jig for suspending the boat is connected to the vertical movement mechanism. This is a boat loader for semiconductor wafer heat treatment installed on the

〔Example〕

Next, the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention. A semiconductor wafer 1 is placed and held horizontally and parallelly on a slit cut in a boat 2. The boat 2 has a structure in which its upper end is hooked onto an inverted V-shaped suspension jig 3, and is suspended. Therefore, the conventional baffle plate is unnecessary. The suspension jig 3 is welded to the cap 4 and stands straight. The cap 4 is moved up and down by a vertical movement mechanism 5, and the semiconductor wafer 1, which is a product to be heat-treated, is inserted into a reaction tube 6 heated by a heater 7, and is ejected from the reaction tube 6.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the boat loader of the present invention suspends the boat holding the semiconductor wafers from the suspension jig, so that it can always maintain a vertical posture due to the boat's own weight. , does not require the high precision required for baffle plates and caps, and since the posture deformation force acts perpendicular to thermal deformation,
The parallelism of the semiconductor wafer is maintained. In turn, this has the effect of sufficiently extending the service life of the suspension jig, boat, and cap.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a conventional boat loader. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Semiconductor wafer, 2... Boat, 3... Suspension jig, 4... Cap, 5... Vertical movement mechanism part, 6...
...Reaction tube, 7...Heater

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a boat loader for a semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnace, in which a boat holding semiconductor wafers horizontally and in parallel is taken in and out of a vertical heat treatment furnace by a vertical movement mechanism, a suspension jig for suspending the boat is attached to the vertical movement mechanism. Boat loader for semiconductor wafer heat treatment furnaces.