JPH03283618A - Continuous treatment device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To avoid unnecessary operations and to improve yield by providing a measurement chamber for carrying out film thickness measurement, element analysis, etc., to a plurality of treatment chambers which are connected through gate valves. CONSTITUTION:A measurement chamber 1n whereon a measuring instrument 3 of film thickness measurement, element analysis, etc., is provided to one of a plurality of treatment chambers 11 to 1n connected through gate valves 21 to 2n. Thereby, as for a treated body 6 after undergoing each treatment or a part of treatment, or as for a wafer 61 of dummy, it is possible to discriminate the treatment state thereof in the middle of the treatment process, for example, and control, management, etc., of the treatment can be carried out properly when some problems occur during the treatment; therefore, it is possible to avoid unnecessary operation and to improve yield.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a continuous processing apparatus used in the manufacturing process of various semiconductor devices, that is, an integrated processing apparatus that allows multiple processes to be performed under the same vacuum environment. This relates to a process device called a multi-chamber device.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention is a continuous processing apparatus in which a plurality of processing chambers are connected via gate valves, and at least one of the processing chambers is used as a measurement chamber for film thickness measurement, component analysis, etc. By doing so, it is possible to appropriately manage and control each process in the continuous process, thereby making it possible to obtain a semiconductor device having desired characteristics with a high yield.

[Conventional technology]

BACKGROUND ART Recently, continuous processing apparatuses, that is, integrated processing apparatuses that can perform multiple processes in the same vacuum environment, so-called multi-chamber apparatuses, have been in the spotlight in the manufacturing process of various semiconductor devices.

An example of this type of continuous processing equipment is Nikkei My 90 f.
High speed steel (NIKKEI MICRO DEVICES)
October 1989 issue, pages 41-46 or Proceedings of 61 I.E.V.M.
I.S. (Proceeding of 13th-I)
BEiE VMIC) 1989. June No. 89-9
As disclosed on page 5, etc., a plurality of processing chambers are connected to a common load-lock chamber via gate valves, and in each processing chamber, for example, plasma decomposition CVD (chemical Vapor phase growth), processing, thermal decomposition CVD processing, dry etching processing, etc. are carried out separately.

According to this continuous processing apparatus, semiconductor wafers that have been processed in each processing chamber are transferred to the next processing chamber in a vacuum environment and processed therein without being exposed to the outside air. Therefore, natural oxidation or contamination of the surface is avoided between each treatment, and even though B2O3, for example, has the property of being able to be reflowed or flattened at a relatively low temperature of about 450°C, it is deliquescent. It has many advantages, such as the ability to use materials that were unusable when using the conventional process of first drawing it out into the atmosphere.

In addition, in the case of this type of continuous processing equipment, handling between each operation is omitted and each operation is performed in the same vacuum environment, which reduces the work area and equipment required for all of these multiple processing steps, and thus reduces the need for clean rooms. It has many advantages, such as reducing the overall size of the equipment and reducing manufacturing operating costs, etc., by reducing the area and saving money.

In this type of equipment, the processing conditions in each processing chamber are managed by setting the processing conditions to be approximately constant, and controlling the time so that a semiconductor device with the desired characteristics can be finally obtained. It is said to be a state.

However, when using such continuous processing equipment,
Even if a problem occurs in a part of the process, after the final process is completed and the semiconductor wafer is removed from the continuous processing equipment, the characteristics of the semiconductor device obtained in this way are measured. Only then will we know that there is a problem with the processing of this device. Therefore, even if the cause of defective products is due to processing at a relatively quick stage of multiple processes,
Since each work is continued until the final processing, there is a significant waste of work time and operating costs. Further, even if such a problem in characteristics occurs, it may not be possible to determine which processing step caused the problem by measuring the characteristics of the semiconductor device finally taken out.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The present invention enables a plurality of processes to be performed continuously in the same vacuum environment in the above-mentioned continuous processing apparatus, that is, a multi-chamber apparatus as an integrated process apparatus. By making it possible to observe and measure the processing status during the process, it is possible to control and manage each process in a continuous process, thereby avoiding the above-mentioned wasteful work, and further improving yield and improving characteristics. This makes it possible to reliably obtain a semiconductor device.

[Means to solve the problem]

In the present invention, a plurality of processing chambers (i+) (1,) (13) are provided, as shown in FIG.
...are respectively gate valves (2,) (2,)
In a continuous device connected via (2,)..., at least one of the processing chambers (1,) (1□) (1,)... Equipment that can perform various measurements such as thickness measurement and component analysis (3)
The measurement room shall be equipped with

[Effect]

According to the above-described apparatus of the present invention, by providing a measurement chamber in at least one of the plurality of processing chambers, it is possible to measure the object to be processed, that is, the semiconductor wafer, after each process or a part of the process, or the like. The processing status of another so-called dummy wafer that has been subjected to the same processing process can be determined, for example, during the process, so if any problem occurs in the process, the conditions for this process can be determined. The processing can be controlled and managed as appropriate by taking necessary measures such as correction. Therefore, semiconductor devices having desired characteristics can be obtained with high yield.

In addition, if it is found through the above measurements that a definite inconvenience is occurring in the processing work, further continuous processing can be stopped to eliminate unnecessary processing and reduce operating costs. It is possible to make changes.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 1. In this case, a plurality of processing chambers (1,) (1□) (l,
...(1o) is the gate valve (2,) (2
□)(2,)...(2o). Further, the load lock chamber (4) is similarly connected to a preparatory chamber (5) via a gate valve (52). In this preliminary chamber (5), an object to be processed (6), for example, a semiconductor wafer for obtaining a target semiconductor device, is brought and arranged, and an object that is the same as this wafer and is only for the purpose of measurement is placed. A dummy object to be processed (61), for example a dummy semiconductor wafer, is brought.

The handling robot (7) is located in the load lock room (4).
) is provided, whereby the object to be processed (6) or the dummy object to be processed (61) from the preliminary chamber (5) is carried out and transferred to the required processing chamber (1,) (1,)... or Measurement room (1,
).

Each gate valve (2,) (22)...(2,) and (
52) each has a slit through which the object to be processed (6) and a dummy object to be processed can be carried in and out, and an example of an electromagnetic opening/closing valve that can close the slit airtightly; when the slit is closed,
Each chamber (1,) (17) and (61) can be made airtightly independent from the others.

The measurement room (1h) is equipped with measurement equipment (3) for film thickness measurement, component analysis, etc., such as a poron detection device using X-ray induced fluorescence analysis or a film thickness measurement device using interference spectra, or an atomic force microscope AFM (^tomicForce).
A film thickness measuring device such as microscopy is installed.

An example of the manufacturing process of a semiconductor device to which the apparatus of the present invention is applied will be explained with reference to the process diagram of FIG.

In this example, the object to be processed (6) is, for example, as shown in FIG.
Wirings (72) made of metal or the like are arranged, for example, with intervals and thicknesses of about 0.6 μm. Then, on top of this, the second wiring in the upper layer is applied, but in order to prevent short circuits between the two wirings or disconnections, a surface layer is placed on the first wiring (72). This forms a flat interlayer insulating layer.

In this case, first, as shown in FIG. 2, in the processing chamber (1,) shown in FIG. 1 insulating layer (7
3) is formed to a thickness of about 1,000. The insulating layer (73) of Sin obtained by this plasma decomposition is the first layer in the lower layer.
It is known that the coating can be deposited with uniformly good coverage despite the presence of uneven surfaces due to the presence of the wiring (72). However, the 5102 insulating layer (73) formed by this plasma CVD has problems with reliability such as fast etching, so the 5102 insulating layer (73) formed by plasma CVD has problems with reliability such as rapid etching. -T
Pyrolytic CVD using BOS is performed to form a second Si, insulating layer (
74).

Thereafter, anisotropic etching by dry etching is performed from the surface to a thickness of, for example, 200 OA from the surface of the 5in2 insulating layer (74) in the third processing chamber (31), as shown in the second diagram. M metal wiring (
Sidewalls (75) on the uneven sides due to the presence of
) to form.

Thereafter, for example, in the first processing chamber (1,) described above, as shown in FIG.
It is formed to a thickness of about 0,000 people.

Next, for example, in the same first processing chamber (1,), the raw material gas to be fed is changed to, for example, B, 0. Alternatively, BSG (boron silicate glass) is deposited with a thickness of about 3000 VD. In this case, the so-called self-reflow fills the recesses on the surface of the insulating layer (76) to form a surface flattened filling insulating layer (77) whose surface is almost flat, as shown in FIG. 2F. . In this case, even if the insulating layer is highly deliquescent, such as B or 05, it is formed through a series of operations that are not exposed to the outside air, which may impair the film quality or the characteristics of the semiconductor. Never.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 2G, the surface flattened filling insulating layer (77) such as 8205 is completely etched from the surface to a thickness of about 3000 by reactive ion etching in, for example, the third processing chamber (1,). The processing chamber is wiped and high-speed etching is performed using, for example, NF3 to planarize the surface. .

After that, as shown in Figure 2H, a 5in2 insulation layer (72) is formed.
Etch-back is performed on each layer of the filling insulating layer (77) such as B, 05, etc. to a thickness of about 6,000 by reactive ion etching using CHF, +O, which has a uniform etching property. In this way, the filling insulating layer (77) having deliquescent properties such as B20° is completely removed and its surface is planarized.

After that, as shown in Figure 2 ■, for example, phosphor glass PSG
For example, the aforementioned treatment room (1
, , ) by changing the supply gas to form an insulating layer (78) by plasma CVD and forming an insulating layer (73) (74) (76) (78)
An interlayer insulating layer (79) with a flattened surface is formed.

The interlayer insulating layer (79) whose surface has been flattened by the continuous processing apparatus having each of the processing chambers (11) to (1,) in this way
A second wiring (80) such as an M wiring in the upper layer is formed on the thus obtained interlayer insulating layer (79) having a flat surface.

In this way, the interlayer insulating layer (79)
The lower layer first wirings (79) and (72) are electrically insulated, and the upper layer wiring (79) is formed on a flat insulating layer, so that no breakage occurs. The desired semiconductor device is obtained.

In such a process, especially in the present invention, a dummy wafer (61) is brought from, for example, the preliminary chamber (5) by the handling robot (7) in the continuous processing apparatus illustrated in FIG. The operations shown in FIG. 2 C and D, in which the second Sin and insulating layer (74) were formed and etched on the wafer (6) to obtain the desired semiconductor device, were performed as a second process. After the treatment is carried out in the chamber (12) and the third processing chamber (1,), the film is brought to the measurement chamber (1n) and its film thickness is measured. Further, a similar dummy wafer (61) is subjected to the same process as explained in FIGS. 2E and F, and then the concentration and thickness of boron, for example, are measured in the measurement chamber (1-) to form the required insulating layer. Check whether the
The same work as above was performed on a dummy, and then the measurement room (1o
), and then, for example, a component analysis measuring device is used to detect whether boron is present, that is, whether the boron layer has been reliably removed.

As mentioned above, for example, after the required processing steps are performed using the dummy wafer (61), measurements are carried out in the measurement chamber (17) to see whether each processing is being performed well or within an acceptable range. By doing so, you can check and detect whether each process is working properly or whether it is being performed as designed. Therefore, based on this, the conditions for each process can be corrected and controlled accurately.

In the above example, measurements are taken on a dummy wafer, but the measurements can also be made on a wafer that will actually be used in the manufacture of a final semiconductor device.

Further, in the example described above, the present invention is applied to forming an interlayer insulating film, but the present invention can be applied to manufacturing processes of other types of semiconductor devices.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the above-described apparatus of the present invention, by providing a measurement chamber in at least one of the plurality of processing chambers, each processing,
Alternatively, the processing state of the object to be processed, i.e., a semiconductor wafer, which has undergone a part of the processing, or another so-called dummy wafer that has undergone the same processing steps, may be determined, for example, in the middle of the processing step. If any inconvenience occurs in the process, the process can be controlled and managed as appropriate by taking necessary measures such as correcting the conditions of the process. Devices can be obtained with high yield.

In addition, if it is determined through the above measurements that a definite inconvenience is occurring in the processing work, the processing is interrupted, thereby eliminating unnecessary processing and reducing operating costs. be able to.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example of a continuous processing apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a process diagram of an example of a semiconductor device manufacturing process to which this apparatus is applied. (1,) (12)... is a processing room, (1n) is a measurement room, (4) is a load lock room, (7) is a handling robot, (2,) (22)... (52 ) is gate pulp.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A continuous processing apparatus in which a plurality of processing chambers are connected via gate valves, characterized in that at least one of the processing chambers is a measurement chamber.