JPH03273606A - Semiconductor manufacturing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve throughput considerably and to suppress contamination of wafer considerably by arranging a loading wafer stage and an unloading wafer stage in a first load rock chamber at the opposite sides of a line on one plane, connecting between an atmospheric air carrier and a reaction chamber, and perpendicularly thereto. CONSTITUTION:An atmospheric air carrier 9 takes out a wafer prior to processing and mounts the wafer on a loading wafer stage 24a. A first load lock chamber 18 is then evacuated and the telescoping mechanism of a vacuum carrying robot in a load lock chamber 19 is extended in the direction of the loading wafer stage 24a in order to take out the wafer, which is then loaded in a reaction chamber 3 and subjected to thin film processing. Thereafter, the wafer is mounted on an unloading wafer stage 24b in the first load lock chamber 18. The wafer processed by the atmospheric air carrier 9 is then contained in the original shelf of carrier cassette 10 or 11.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to semiconductor manufacturing equipment, typified by LSI manufacturing equipment, and includes a carrier cassette in the atmosphere loaded with a plurality of wafers and a load. Atmospheric transport 1i that transfers wafers to and from the lock chamber! It is located between the atmospheric transport section in which the i-direction is arranged, the reaction chamber for performing thin film processing on wafers, the nuclear reaction chamber, and the atmospheric transport section, and waits the sent wafers until they are moved to the next process. .

a first load-lock chamber equipped with a gate valve on the atmospheric transport section side; and a wafer located between the first load-lock chamber and the reaction chamber and between the first load-lock chamber and the reaction chamber. A first reaction chamber containing a vacuum robot that performs delivery in a vacuum atmosphere is connected to a second load-lock chamber equipped with a gate valve connected to the reaction chamber on the side of the reaction chamber via a gate valve, and heads toward the reaction chamber. The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising: a reciprocating conveyance dual load-lock type vacuum transfer section through which unprocessed wafers and processed wafers heading toward the atmosphere pass.

[Conventional technology]

In recent years, in cassette-to-cassent type semiconductor manufacturing equipment, with the rapid progress in submicron processing, load lock chambers have been installed to prevent particles in the atmosphere from directly entering the reaction chamber, allowing wafers sent to the next process to pass through. wait until it moves. The first one is equipped with a gate valve on the atmosphere conveying section side.
The load-lock chamber is connected via a gate valve to a second load-lock chamber, which is equipped with a gate valve connected to the reaction chamber on the first reaction chamber side, which has a built-in vacuum transfer robot that transfers wafers in a vacuum atmosphere. 21i load lock chamber, and inside this load lock chamber,
Unprocessed wafers heading toward the reaction chamber and processed wafers heading toward the atmosphere side pass through. The adoption of a double load lock system for reciprocating transport has become commonplace. FIGS. 11 and 12 show an example of a conventional configuration of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus equipped with a vacuum transfer section using this reciprocating transfer double load-lock system. In this configuration example, a carrier loaded with a plurality of wafers is An atmospheric transfer section in which a rotary arm type transfer robot 9 capable of rotating 360° is arranged to transfer wafers between the cassette 10.11 and the first load lock chamber; Chamber 3: Located between the reaction chamber 3 and the atmospheric transport section, the wafer sent therein is kept on standby on a wafer stage 13 until it is moved to the next process. A first load lock chamber 1 is provided with a gate valve 6 on the atmospheric transport section side, and a pantograph type telescopic mechanism is located between the load lock chamber 1 and the reaction chamber 3 and transfers wafers between the two chambers. A vacuum transfer section in which a second load lock chamber 2 is connected via a gate valve 7 to a second load lock chamber 2 equipped with a gate valve 8 connected to the reaction chamber 3 on the side of the first reaction chamber 3 that incorporates a vacuum transfer robot 5; A semiconductor manufacturing device is formed by;

In this case, the reaction chamber 3 is formed by forming a thin film by plasma flowing upward from the plasma chamber 3a, where the carrier gas is turned into plasma by the electron cyclotron resonance effect of the microwave introduced through the waveguide and the magnetic field formed by the coil. The upper chamber of the ECR plasma thin film deposition apparatus is shown for activating source gas to deposit a thin film on a semiconductor wafer.

[This is what the invention is trying to solve! Title]

The vacuum transfer section in the example of the conventional semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is
The unprocessed wafer taken in from the atmosphere side is placed on the wafer stage 13 of the first load lock chamber 1, and then placed on the wafer stage 13 of the first load lock chamber 1.
After being loaded into the reaction chamber 3 by the vacuum transfer robot 5 built into the load lock chamber 2 and subjected to thin film processing,
Although it is an extremely simple transfer system that sequentially repeats the operation of following the same route and unloading to the atmosphere side, the wafer stage 13 with built-in first load lock is a single-layer wafer stage that can be used for both loading and unloading. Therefore, the wafer loaded into the first load lock chamber 1 is unloaded after processing and placed in the atmosphere side carrier cassette l.
The next new unprocessed wafer cannot be taken into the first load-lock chamber 1 until the wafer returns to the original shelf of the carrier cassette 11, i.e., the vacuum in the first load-lock chamber 1 is The processing time per wafer, including the pull time and return time to atmospheric pressure, is long, making it impossible to keep up with the demand for improved throughput of semiconductor manufacturing equipment on the mass production lines of semiconductor factories.

In addition, since the wafer stage 13 has a one-layer structure, the wafer stage mounting surface may be contaminated by by-product oxides etc. generated in one reaction chamber that adhere to processed wafers being unloaded. The negative impact on the previous wafer has been attracting a lot of attention.

Furthermore, in the example of the conventional semiconductor manufacturing equipment described above, due to the accumulation of transfer positioning errors between the vacuum transfer robot 5 and the atmospheric transfer device 9, unloaded wafers cannot be accurately stored in the carrier cassette, and the reliability of the transfer system is reduced. A problem has arisen that reduces the

In addition, the loading wafer stage and unloading wafer stage of the first load lock chamber, where wafers are placed, have a large contact area with the wafer, which causes particle contamination, and the wafer transport mode is face-down. In this case, the processing surface comes into contact with the wafer stage, causing a problem that causes defective products.

The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems in conventional semiconductor manufacturing equipment, to significantly improve the throughput of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment, to greatly reduce wafer contamination, and to make the transport system highly reliable. An object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus equipped with a vacuum transfer section that can perform a vacuum transfer section.

Means for Solving C2JH] In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention, semiconductor manufacturing equipment is processed from the atmospheric side in the first load lock chamber of the vacuum transfer section using a reciprocating transfer double load lock system. The loading wafer stage that receives the previous wafer and the unloading wafer stage that receives the runny wafer unloaded from the reaction chamber by the vacuum transfer robot are arranged in one plane and approximately perpendicular to the straight line connecting the atmosphere-side transfer device and the reaction chamber. Alternatively, in the first load lock chamber, there is a loading wafer stage that receives unprocessed wafers from the atmosphere side, and the wafers are unloaded from the reaction chamber by a vacuum transfer robot. In this example, a wafer stage I is provided with a two-layer structure in which an unloading wafer stage for receiving processed wafers is arranged at the lower stage. Then, this two-layer structure wafer stage is
The center of gravity of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment housed in the load lock chamber is set at the center of the wafer placed on the wafer stage. A moving piece is arranged at each vertex position of a rectangle in the same direction as the wafer surface, in which the distance between the two sides in the wafer transport direction is larger than the diameter of the wafer and the distance between the two sides in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction is smaller than the diameter of the wafer. The two movable pieces aligned in the wafer conveyance direction are moved in a direction perpendicular to the wafer conveyance direction while maintaining the arrangement and spacing in the wafer conveyance direction, so that they approach each other by the same amount at the same time. It is further preferable that the device is provided with a centering mechanism in the first load lock chamber that moves the wafer within the plane until it hits the periphery of the wafer and the movement of the moving piece stops.

In addition, a plurality of loading wafer stages and unroping ink wafer stages arranged in the first load lock chamber are arranged at intervals in the circumferential direction on the upper surface side on which the wafer is placed, and the upper surface or the upper side thereof is connected to the wafer. It is preferable that the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus has a structure in which a support piece is inclined downwardly inside the stage, and the wafer is supported at the periphery by the inclined upper surface or upper side of the support piece.

[Effect]

If the semiconductor manufacturing equipment is configured in this way, the unprocessed wafer is simultaneously placed on the loading wafer stage and the processed wafer is placed on the unloading wafer stage in the first load lock chamber, and both wafers are subjected to the next process. Since the wafer can be kept on standby until it is moved to the first load lock chamber and the second load lock chamber, after carrying the unprocessed wafer into the reaction chamber while maintaining a constant degree of vacuum between the vacuum transfer device and the During wafer processing in the reaction chamber, new unprocessed wafers can be transferred to the first load-lock chamber by closing the gate valve between the load-lock chamber and the first load-lock chamber to return to atmospheric pressure. and unloading of the processed wafer from the first load lock chamber is possible at the same time. Then, the first load lock chamber is evacuated again, and the first load lock chamber is evacuated again. By opening the gate valve between the second load lock chambers, processed wafers can be transferred to the first load lock chamber, and unprocessed wafers can be transferred to the reaction chamber.

In this way, when wafers are processed while returning to atmospheric pressure in the first load lock chamber and reversing vacuuming, the cycle time on the transport system per wafer (loading - processing - unloading time) ) is significantly shortened compared to the conventional method, and the throughput of semiconductor manufacturing equipment is greatly improved. In addition, since the wafer stage on which the wafer before processing is placed and the wafer stage on which the wafer after processing is placed are dedicated for loading and unloading, the reaction that adheres to the wafer after processing Unprocessed wafers are no longer contaminated by by-product oxides in the room, and the quality of processed wafers is made more uniform.

If the apparatus configuration is such that the centering mechanism as described above is provided in the first load lock chamber, the unprocessed wafer fed from the atmosphere side is transferred from the reaction chamber to the loading wafer stage in the first load lock chamber. While the processed wafers being sent are simultaneously transferred to the unloading wafer stage and waiting for movement to the next process, the wafers are centered in the wafer centering mechanism arranged in the first load lock chamber, and the wafers are To eliminate accumulated positioning errors between an atmospheric transfer device and a vacuum transfer robot in a transfer system from loading into a first load lock chamber through processing until unloading into the first load lock chamber again. In addition, the wafer can be centered using the waiting time due to atmospheric pressure return and evacuation in the first load lock chamber.
A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus with a highly reliable transport system can be achieved without reducing throughput.

Further, the loading wafer stage and the unloading wafer stage arranged in the first load lock chamber are both equipped with the above-mentioned support piece,
By making contact between the wafer and the wafer stage at the edge of the wafer, particle contamination is effectively prevented, especially when wafers are transported face-down, and products with a high level of uniform wafer quality are manufactured. It can be made into a semiconductor manufacturing device that is possible.

〔Example〕

1 and 2 show the configuration of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus equipped with a reciprocating conveyance double load rotor type vacuum conveyance section according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
Components that are the same as those in FIG.

Wafers to be processed are placed between the atmospheric transfer bag W9, which takes out and transfers wafers from the carrier cassette 10 or 11 loaded with a plurality of wafers, and the reaction chamber 3 of the ECR plasma thin film forming apparatus. The loading wafer stage 24a to be loaded and the processed wafer 1111
a first load-lock chamber 18 in which an unloading wafer stage 24b to be loaded is disposed in one plane and in a direction perpendicular to a straight line connecting the atmospheric transport device 9 and the reaction chamber 3, symmetrically sandwiching the straight line; The unprocessed wafer in the first load lock chamber 18 is transferred to the reaction chamber 3 in a vacuum atmosphere, and the processed wafer processed in the reaction chamber 3 is transferred to the first load lock chamber 18. A second load lock chamber 19 containing a vacuum transfer robot 15 having a pantograph type expansion and contraction mechanism is connected via a gate valve 17 to form a vacuum transfer section of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. This vacuum transfer section is equipped with a gate valve 16 on the atmospheric transfer device 9 side, and is connected to the reaction chamber 3 via the gate valve 8. Also, the second
The vacuum transfer robot 15 housed in the load lock chamber 19 is equipped with an R-axis drive motor 15a for causing the pantograph type extension mechanism to perform an extension/retraction operation, and an R-axis drive motor 15a for making the pantograph type extension structure perform an extension/retraction operation, and a It is equipped with a θ-axis drive motor 15b for changing the direction of the pantograph type telescoping mechanism by 180 degrees in the unloading direction.

The wafer is transferred in this apparatus according to the following procedure. That is, first, the pressure in the first load lock chamber 18 is returned to atmospheric pressure, the gate valve 16 is opened, and the unprocessed wafer is taken out from the carrier cassette IO or 11 by the atmospheric transfer device 9 and transferred to the loading wafer stage 24a. Place it on.

Thereafter, the gate valve 16 is closed again to evacuate the first load lock chamber 18, and when the chamber reaches a certain degree of vacuum, the gate valve 17 is opened and the vacuum transfer robot in the second load lock chamber 19 is opened. The expansion mechanism is extended toward the loading wafer stage 24a by the R-wheel drive motor 15a and the θ-axis drive motor 15b to take out the wafer before processing, and after closing the gate valve 17, the gate valve 8 is opened and the wafer is loaded into the reaction chamber 3. Then, perform thin film processing.

During this process, the inside of the first load lock chamber 18 is returned to atmospheric pressure, the next wafer to be processed is taken in, the inside of the load lock chamber 18 is evacuated again, and the wafer waits to be carried into the reaction chamber 3. .

The wafer that has undergone thin film processing is transferred to the vacuum transfer robot 15.
is unloaded by the first load lock chamber 1.
The wafer is transferred to the unloading wafer stage 24b of No. 8. In the next operation, the vacuum transfer robot 15 loads the waiting unprocessed wafer into the reaction chamber 3.Next, the inside of the first load lock chamber 18 is returned to atmospheric pressure, and the processed wafer is transferred to the carrier by the atmospheric transfer device 9. The cassette 10 or 11 is stored in its original shelf and the series of operations of loading, processing, and unloading is completed.

Figures 3 and 41! 1 shows the configuration of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus equipped with a reciprocating conveyance dual load-lock type vacuum transfer section according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
．． 2.11.12 The same members as in FIG.

In this embodiment, a loading wafer stage 4 & which receives unprocessed wafers from the atmosphere side and an unloading wafer stage 4b which receives processed wafers from the first reaction chamber 3 are placed in the first load lock chamber 1 in upper and lower positions.
A wafer stage 4 having a two-layer structure arranged in stages is arranged. For this reason, the vacuum transfer robot 5 in the second load-lock chamber 2 has an R-axis drive motor 5a for causing the pantograph-type telescoping mechanism to perform the telescoping operation, and an R-axis drive motor 5a for moving the pantograph-type telescoping mechanism from the direction of transport into the reaction chamber 3 to the direction of transport from the reaction chamber 3. θ-axis drive motor 5 for changing the direction of the hepantograph type extension mechanism by 180°
In addition to b, zIII for moving the pantograph type telescopic mechanism up and down! It is equipped with a dynamic motor 5C.

The steps for transferring wafers in this device configuration are as follows.Most of the steps are the same as in the first embodiment, but since the steps are continuous, they will be explained based on the first embodiment. .

First, the pressure in the first load lock chamber 1 is returned to atmospheric pressure, the gate valve 6 is opened, and the unprocessed wafer is taken out from the carrier cassette 10 or 11 by the atmospheric transfer device 9 and transferred to the first load lock chamber. The wafer is placed on the upper loading stage 4a of the two-layered wafer stage 4 arranged in the load lock chamber 1, and the gate valve 6 is closed.Next, when the inside of the load lock chamber 1 reaches a certain degree of vacuum, the gate valve is closed. 7 is opened, and the pantograph-type telescoping mechanism of the vacuum transfer robot 5 in the second load-lock chamber 2 is moved upward by the Z-axis drive motor 5c, and the wafer is transferred from the stage 4a to the loading wafer on the upper side of the wafer stage 4 before processing. After taking out the wafer and closing the gate valve 7, the gate valve 8 is opened and the wafer to be processed is loaded into the reaction chamber 3 while adjusting the height of the pantograph type expansion/contraction mechanism by the two-axis drive motor 5C to perform thin film processing. During this process, the inside of the first load lock chamber 1 is returned to atmospheric pressure, the next wafer to be processed is taken in, the inside of the first load lock chamber 1 is evacuated again, and the wafer is carried into the reaction chamber 3. wait.

The wafer that has undergone the thin film processing is unloaded by the vacuum transfer robot 5 and placed on the unloading wafer stage 4b on the lower side of the wafer stage 4 in the first load lock chamber l. *At the time of placement, the pantograph type telescoping mechanism of the vacuum transfer robot 5 is moved downward by the Z-axis drive motor 5c. In the next operation, the vacuum transfer robot moves upward with two wheels and loads the waiting unprocessed wafer into the reaction chamber 3.Next, the inside of the first load lock chamber 1 is returned to atmospheric pressure, and the atmospheric pressure is transferred to the atmospheric transfer device 9. As a result, the processed wafer on the unloading wafer stage 4b is stored on the original shelf of the carrier cassette 10 or 11, and the series of loading-processing-unloading operations is completed.

In this embodiment, the function and effect of the wafer stage 4 are the same as those of the wafer stage 24 in the first embodiment. There is an advantage that the load-lock chamber 1 is smaller than the first load-lock chamber 18 in the first embodiment, and there is a disadvantage that the vacuum transfer robot is more complicated than in the embodiment of the separation 1 with a two-axis drive motor. Compensating. Furthermore, loading wafer stage 4
Since the unloading wafer stage 4b is placed on the upper stage and the unloading wafer stage 4b is placed on the lower stage, by-product oxides adhering to the processed wafer being unloaded fall onto the unprocessed wafer being loaded. , there is no need to worry about contaminating the wafer.

FIG. 5 shows a modified example of the configuration of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus equipped with a vacuum transfer section according to the second embodiment. 5c (Fig. 4) is removed, and a Z-axis drive motor 14c is attached to the two-layer structure wafer stage 14 in the first load-lock chamber l, and thereby the vacuum transfer robot 5
Avoiding the concentration of various drive motors and drive mechanisms on the robot 7)
The aim is to simplify the mechanism and improve the operational reliability of the robot mechanism. The wafer transfer procedure in this apparatus configuration is the same as that in the second embodiment, so a description thereof will be omitted.

6 to 9 show the configuration of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus equipped with a vacuum transfer section according to a third embodiment of the present invention. The same members as those in the figures are given the same reference numerals and their explanations will be omitted.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 8, the center of gravity is the center of the two-layered wafer stage 4 placed in the first load lock chamber l. The distance between the two sides of the wafer in the transport direction is larger than the diameter of the wafer and the two sides in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction are
A movable piece 26a of a centering mechanism that operates to align the center of the wafer placed on the wafer stage 4 with the center of the wafer stage 4 is located at each vertex of the rectangle whose sides are smaller than the diameter of the wafer. ing. This moving piece is designed so that the center of the wafer placed on either the upper loading wafer stage or the lower unloading wafer stage of the two-layer coaxial wafer stage 4 can be aligned with the center of the wafer stage. Two bar-shaped movable pieces 26a (FIG. 7) are formed in the shape of a bar extending perpendicularly to the wafer, and are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the wafer carrying direction while maintaining the arrangement and spacing in the carrying direction. and move equally close to each other at the same time. The specific structure of the centering mechanism equipped with this moving piece is shown in FIG. Moving piece 26a
are arranged in the wafer transport direction to form a set, and are fixedly mounted on a common moving table 26b such that the distance between the tips of the wafer-side protrusions of the moving pieces in each set is smaller than the diameter of the wafer, The position of the moving table 26b before the start of movement is set so that the interval between the tips of the wafer-side protrusions of opposing sets is larger than the diameter of the wafer. Although not particularly shown here, the drive mechanism 26c for moving the moving table 26b includes a drive motor equipped with a deceleration mechanism and a belt that connects the deceleration mechanism and the moving table. The moving bases 26b are simultaneously moved by the same amount. The moving table 26b is switched between moving forward and backward by reversing the rotational direction of the drive motor.

When the centering mechanism is arranged at the bottom of the tank in this manner, during the centering operation to align the center of the wafer with the center of the wafer stage, the movable table 26b moves in the direction perpendicular to the wafer conveyance direction and approaches the same amount at the same time, thereby moving the movable piece 26a. The center of the plane of the tip of the wafer-side protrusion hits the periphery of the wafer, and the wafer moves within the plane until the moving table 26b stops, and stops at a position I where its center coincides with the center of the wafer stage.

FIG. 8.9.10 shows the first semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.
This example shows an example of a wafer stage structure placed in a load rotor chamber.This example has two wafer stages.
Although the target is a layered structure, the loading wafer stage and the unloading wafer stage are arranged in one plane. It is also applicable to the wafer stage in the first embodiment. The wafer stage is
Both the loading wafer stage and the unloading wafer stage are formed with an inner diameter larger than the wafer, and a plurality of support pieces 27 whose upper surfaces are inclined downwardly inside the wafer stage are fixed to the inner wall surface of the wafer stage at intervals in the circumferential direction of the inner diameter. has been done.

The wafer is supported by the edge of the periphery by the inclined upper surface of the support piece 27, and even in the case of face-down transport in which the wafer is transported with the surface to be processed vertically downward, nothing can come into contact with the surface to be processed. It is placed on the wafer stage. Then, the wafer stage 4 with a two-layer structure is placed on the ninth stage.
If the structure shown in the figure is formed, the wafer can be supported by the peripheral edge, and the centering mechanism can be operated to easily position the wafer at the center of the wafer stage, thereby preventing particle contamination of the wafer. It is possible to eliminate the accumulation of differences in atmospheric transport tX and positioning rj4 in the vacuum transport section, and it is possible to uniformize the quality of wafers to a high level and achieve semiconductor manufacturing Wt with high reliability of the transport system. .

〔Effect of the invention〕

In the present invention, since the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus has the tank bottom as described above, the following effects can be achieved.

In the apparatus of claim 1 or claim 2, during wafer processing, the unprocessed wafer is taken into the first load lock chamber from the atmosphere side, and the processed wafer is taken into the first load lock chamber. This makes it possible to take the wafer out of the chamber, significantly shortening the cycle time per wafer when processing a large number of wafers one by one, and making it possible to provide high-throughput semiconductor manufacturing equipment that is compatible with mass production lines at semiconductor factories. became. In addition, contamination of unloaded wafers from the unloading wafer center side is more reliably prevented, and unloaded wafers are always loaded into the reaction chamber in a cleaner state, resulting in higher quality wafers after processing. It became possible to equalize the level.

In the device according to claim 3, in the first load lock chamber,
Unprocessed wafers sent from the atmosphere side are placed on the loading wafer stage, and processed wafers sent from the reaction chamber are placed on the unloading wafer stage at the same time, and while waiting for movement to the next process, the first A wafer centering mechanism disposed in the load lock chamber centers the wafer, and the wafer is loaded into the first load lock chamber and unloaded into the first load lock chamber following processing.

Accumulated positioning errors between the atmospheric transport device and the vacuum transport robot can be eliminated, and the problem of unloaded wafers not being able to be stored in the carrier cassette can be resolved, and the atmosphere can be returned to the atmosphere in the first load lock chamber. Since the wafer is centered using the waiting time due to evacuation, the transfer system can be made to II#l with high reliability without reducing the throughput.

In the apparatus of claim 4, since the loading wafer stage and the unloading wafer stage disposed in the first load lock chamber contact the wafer at the edge portion of the wafer periphery, it is particularly difficult to transport the wafer face-down. It becomes a problem. It is possible to avoid particle contamination that the wafer receives from the wafer stage before and after processing, and it is possible to achieve a high level of uniform wafer quality.

From the above, by authorizing the semiconductor manufacturing equipment based on the first or second, third, and fourth claims, the throughput is large and the reliability of the transport system is high.
Moreover, it is possible to provide a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus that can uniformize the quality of processed wafers to a high level.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 and 2 are a plan view and a side cross-sectional view, respectively, of a semiconductor series X equipped with a vacuum transfer section according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are views of the present invention. A plan view and a side cross-sectional view showing the authority of the semiconductor manufacturing WIF of the vacuum transfer section 4 to 4 according to the second embodiment, respectively, and FIG. 5 shows a modification of the vacuum transfer section according to the second embodiment. FIGS. 6 and 7 are a plan view and a side sectional view, respectively, of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus equipped with a vacuum transfer section according to a third embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 8 shows an enlarged view of the first load lock chamber of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, and also shows an implementation of the wafer stage structure of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment shown in FIGS. FIG. 9 is a plan view showing an example of the structure of the centering device and the wafer stage provided in the first load lock chamber of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, respectively. FIG. 10 is a perspective view shown in FIG. 6 and 71El.
A of FIG. 8 shows an example of the wafer stage structure arranged in the first load lock chamber of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment shown in FIG.
-Afi, and FIGS. 11 and 12 are a plan view and a side sectional view, respectively, of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus equipped with a vacuum transfer section of a conventional reciprocating transfer double load-lock type. 1.18: First load lock chamber, 2.19: Second load lock chamber, 3: Reaction chamber, 4.13.14.24:
Wafer stage, 4a, 14a, 24a: Loading wafer stage, 4b, 14b, 24b: Unloading wafer stage, S, tS: Vacuum transfer robot, 7+t7: Gate valve, 9: Atmospheric transfer device, 10, 11: Carrier cassette, 26: Centering device chamber, 26a: Moving piece, 27: Supporting piece.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) An atmospheric transport section in which an atmospheric transport device is arranged to transfer wafers between a carrier cassette loaded with a plurality of wafers in the atmosphere and a load lock chamber; thin film processing on the wafers; a reaction chamber in which processing is performed; a first chamber provided with a gate valve on the side of the atmospheric transport section, which is located between the reaction chamber and the atmospheric transport section, and waits the sent wafer until moving to the next process; A reaction system comprising a load-lock chamber and a vacuum robot located between the first load-lock chamber and the reaction chamber for transferring wafers between the first load-lock chamber and the reaction chamber in a vacuum atmosphere. A second load-lock chamber is connected via the gate valve to a second load-lock chamber equipped with a gate valve connected to the reaction chamber on the chamber side, and unprocessed wafers heading to the reaction chamber and post-processing wafers heading towards the atmosphere side. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising: a double load-lock type vacuum transfer unit for reciprocating transfer through which the wafer passes; and a loading wafer stage for receiving unprocessed wafers from the atmosphere side in the first load-lock chamber, and a reaction chamber. An unloading wafer stage for receiving a wafer unloaded by a vacuum transfer robot from the wafer is disposed in one plane and in a direction substantially perpendicular to a straight line connecting the atmospheric transfer device and the reaction chamber, with the straight line sandwiched therebetween. A semiconductor manufacturing device characterized by: 2) an atmospheric transport section in which an atmospheric transport device is arranged to transfer wafers between a carrier cassette loaded with a plurality of wafers in the atmosphere and a load lock chamber; a reaction chamber for performing thin film processing on wafers; a first load-lock chamber located between the reaction chamber and the atmospheric transport section, and equipped with a gate valve on the atmospheric transport section side, in which the sent wafer waits until being moved to the next process; A reaction chamber is located between the first load lock chamber and the reaction chamber, and has a built-in vacuum robot that transfers wafers between the first load lock chamber and the reaction chamber in a vacuum atmosphere. A reciprocating transport 2 in which unprocessed wafers heading toward the reaction chamber and post-processing wafers heading toward the atmosphere pass through a second load-lock chamber that is coupled to a second load-lock chamber equipped with a gate valve. In a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising a heavy load-lock type vacuum transfer section; a loading wafer stage is placed in the first load-lock chamber to receive unprocessed wafers from the atmosphere side, and a vacuum transfer robot is installed from the reaction chamber. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus characterized in that a wafer stage having a two-layer structure is disposed, with an unloading wafer stage disposed at a lower stage for receiving processed wafers unloaded by a wafer stage. 3) In the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 2, the distance between two sides of the wafer in the transport direction is larger than the diameter of the wafer, with the center of gravity being the desired center of the wafer placed on the wafer stage. A moving piece is arranged at each vertex position of a rectangle in the same direction as the wafer surface, and the distance between the two sides in the direction perpendicular to the wafer direction is smaller than the diameter of the wafer. While maintaining the directional alignment and spacing, the wafers are moved in a direction perpendicular to the wafer transport direction and equally close to each other at the same time until the moving pieces hit the periphery of the wafer and the movement of the moving pieces stops. 1. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, wherein a centering mechanism for movement within the first load lock chamber is provided in the first load lock chamber. 4) In the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, each of the loading wafer stage and the unloading wafer stage includes a plurality of loading wafer stages and a plurality of unloading wafer stages arranged at intervals in the circumferential direction on the upper surface side on which the wafer is placed. Alternatively, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising a support piece whose upper side is inclined downwardly inside the wafer stage, and the wafer is supported at its periphery by the inclined upper surface or upper side of the support piece.