JPH06104178A - Vacuum treatment method and vacuum treatment device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form a high quality film by increasing the throughput of a substrate by reducing a vacuum evacuation time, by improving working ratio and reducing frequency of maintenance by improving reliability, by reducing raising of dusts and removing influence of impurity gas. CONSTITUTION:A gas introduction port is provided to a carrier chamber 1 to enable introduction and control of inert gas, etc., and the carrier chamber 1 is provided with a cryopump of high evacuation velocity to water or a cold trap with a freezer whose temperature is changeable and, a turbo-molecular pump 18. A vacuum treatment method and a vacuum treatment device wherein a high quality film can be formed can be acquired by introducing inert gas, etc., and by controlling its introduction amount.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is applicable to sputtering or CV on a substrate.
The present invention relates to a vacuum processing method and a vacuum processing apparatus for performing film formation or etching processing by D or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to perform high-quality film formation and etching, it is necessary to reduce contamination in a vacuum atmosphere and improve purity. At the same time, in order to secure productivity, it is necessary to ensure high vacuum and high purity, and also to secure the throughput of the substrate. A multi-chamber system of a vacuum processing apparatus has been proposed as a means for making these possible. For example, the monthly "Semiconductor World Magazine" (Semi
The multi-chamber system is introduced in the September 1990 issue of the Director World magazine, pp. 106-139. These multi-chamber systems that can vacuum-separate the introduction chamber, the unloading chamber, the transfer chamber, and the multiple vacuum processing chambers make it possible to lower the base pressure of the vacuum processing chamber and reduce the proportion of impurity gas. Has made it possible to perform high-performance vacuum processing. However, with these systems,
When the two chambers are communicated with each other for loading and unloading the substrate between the vacuum processing chamber and the transfer chamber, the pressure in the transfer chamber is set to a vacuum in order to prevent contamination due to the residual impurity gas in the transfer chamber flowing into the vacuum processing chamber. It is necessary to lower the base pressure of the processing chamber to a high vacuum or an ultra-high vacuum, which causes a problem that it takes a lot of time to evacuate the transfer chamber. In addition, the transfer chamber is equipped with a substrate transfer mechanism (hereinafter called a transfer robot) that transfers substrates between the chambers. It is reliable to operate this transfer robot in high vacuum or ultra high vacuum. It often caused problems in terms of dust and dust. This is because the higher the vacuum, the more abrasion and seizure of mechanical sliding objects, the more likely they are to fail and the more the amount of dust generated.

[0003]

Among the drawbacks of the multi-chamber system, one that was invented for the purpose of reducing the evacuation time and increasing the throughput of the substrate is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 19252/1993. Vacuum isolation processing apparatus, multi-stage vacuum semiconductor wafer processing apparatus, and workpiece transfer apparatus and method ". According to the present invention, each vacuum chamber of the multi-chamber system is appropriately arranged according to the required base pressure, and a vacuum degree gradient (pressure gradient) is provided in the entire apparatus, thereby reducing the vacuum exhaust time. . Although the present invention is considered to have some effect in terms of shortening the vacuum exhaust time, it cannot be said to be sufficient, and in terms of the transfer robot having to be operated in a high vacuum, the reliability and the above described It does not solve the problem of dust.

An object of the present invention is to shorten the vacuum evacuation time of the entire apparatus of a multi-chamber system to increase the substrate processing capacity, and to improve the reliability of the transfer robot installed in the transfer chamber to improve the system. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vacuum processing method and a vacuum processing apparatus that increase the operating rate and reduce the frequency of maintenance, and further reduce dust generated from the transfer robot to improve the yield of substrate processing.

[0005]

The above object is to perform vacuum processing using a plurality of independent vacuum processing chambers, a transfer chamber for transferring substrates, an introducing chamber for introducing or unloading substrates, and an unloading chamber. In the method, after evacuating the transfer chamber,
This is achieved by introducing an inert gas or nitrogen gas from the gas introduction port of the transfer chamber.

Another object is to introduce a substrate in a vacuum processing method using a plurality of independent vacuum processing chambers, a transfer chamber for transferring a substrate, an introduction chamber for introducing or unloading a substrate, and an unloading chamber. When moving from the transfer chamber to the transfer chamber, put the substrate in the transfer chamber and then evacuate the transfer chamber, or introduce an inert gas or nitrogen gas into the transfer chamber so that the pressure in the transfer chamber is lower than that in the transfer chamber. After that, it is achieved by moving the substrate from the introduction chamber to the transfer chamber.

Further, the above object is to provide an inert gas or nitrogen in a vacuum processing apparatus having a plurality of independent vacuum processing chambers, a transfer chamber for transferring substrates, an introducing chamber for introducing or unloading substrates, and an unloading chamber. This is achieved by providing a gas inlet for introducing gas in the transfer chamber.

[0008]

In order to perform high quality film formation and etching, it is necessary to evacuate the vacuum processing chamber to a high vacuum or an ultra high vacuum to remove the impurity gas. Is water. Since water has a remarkably large activation energy for desorption from the surface of the gas in the air, it cannot be easily removed from the surface, and it remains in the atmosphere where high vacuum is reached when exhausting from the atmosphere. Most of the gas is water.

Water as a residual gas component is adsorbed on the surface of a silicon substrate or the like to cause an oxidative action, etc., which causes quality deterioration of film formation and etching processing. On the other hand, since an inert gas such as argon or nitrogen gas has a small activation energy for desorption from the surface, it can be evacuated in a very short time. Further, generally, the surface reaction with the substrate does not occur, and even if it remains in the atmosphere, it does not hinder the vacuum processing.

Under the above background, an inert gas or nitrogen gas containing no impurity gas such as water is always introduced into the transfer chamber, and its pressure is the pressure during the processing in the vacuum processing chamber or the introducing chamber. If it is made equal to the pressure in the unloading chamber,
Opening the valve immediately when needed to allow communication between the chambers does not have any adverse effect on the treatment process. That is, since the transfer chamber and each vacuum chamber can be connected at any time, the waiting time for vacuum exhaust for adjusting the level of vacuum (pressure) is not required, and the purpose of shortening the exhaust time of the entire system is achieved. be able to.

Further, since the pressure in the transfer chamber is always kept at the same pressure (generally a medium vacuum level) as during substrate processing such as sputtering and etching, the transfer robot is not in a high vacuum or an ultra high vacuum, but in a medium vacuum or a high vacuum. Since the operation is performed under a higher pressure than that, it is possible to improve the reliability and maintainability of the sliding portion and to achieve the purpose of reducing dust generation.

The above is the operation assuming the normal system operation, but when the transfer chamber is started up by the combination of the cryopump and the turbo molecular pump or the exhaust system of the cold trap and the turbo molecular pump. The base pressure can be achieved in a short time, and the purpose of effectively exhausting the inert gas at the normal time can be achieved.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a vacuum processing chamber 100 comprising a multi-chamber of the present invention. This device is used in the transfer chamber 1.
The vacuum processing chambers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are connected by the gate valves 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13, and the introduction chamber 7 and the unloading chamber 8 are connected by the gate valves 15 and 16. . The introduction chamber 7 and the carry-out chamber 8 are separated from the atmosphere by gate valves 16 and 17. By the transfer robot 51 installed in the transfer chamber 1,
The substrate 52 to be processed is sent to or taken out from the required vacuum processing chamber, the introduction chamber 7, or the unloading chamber 8. Each vacuum chamber has an independent vacuum pump and gas introduction system. Regarding the transfer chamber 1, the vacuum pump 18 is mounted via the valve 19, and the gas is introduced from the gas introduction system 20 via the variable leak valve 21. Similarly, a vacuum pump via a valve and a gas introduction system via a variable leak valve are attached to the other vacuum chambers. A monitor device such as a vacuum gauge is also attached to each vacuum, but it is omitted in the figure.

Next, a method of operating this device will be described. The vacuum processing chambers of the transfer chambers 1 and 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are vacuum pumps 18, 22, 26, 31, 3 provided in the respective chambers.
5, 39 is evacuated in advance to a sufficiently low base pressure. The lower the base pressure level is to remove the residual impurity gas, the better, but if the pumping time is too long, the number of substrates that can be processed by the device per unit time decreases, that is, the device productivity increases. Therefore, the base pressure is set at an appropriate place. When the vacuum processing chamber is a sputtering chamber, a base pressure of 10 to ⁸ Torr to 10 to ⁹ Torr may be required, which requires vacuum evacuation for a long time. Of course, the transfer chamber is required to have the same level of base pressure. In this way, when the pressure in each chamber is sufficiently lowered and preparation is completed, the substrate to be processed is first sent from the external cassette elevator to the introduction chamber 7. After the gate valve 16 is closed and the introduction chamber 7 is evacuated to a predetermined pressure by the vacuum pump 43, the gate valve 14 is opened and the substrate is transferred to the robot 5.
1 is transferred into the transfer chamber 1. When the substrate is transferred into the transfer chamber, the gate valve 14 is closed, the gate valve 11 is opened next, and the substrate is transferred into the vacuum processing chamber 4 by the transfer robot 51. Then the gate valve 1
1 is closed, and the transfer chamber 1 and the vacuum processing chamber 4 are separated in a vacuum. The substrate is subjected to processing such as film formation by sputtering in the vacuum processing chamber 4. When the processing is completed, the gate valve 11 is opened again, and the substrate is taken out by the transfer robot 51 and transferred to the next processing chamber 3. The transfer procedure, opening / closing of the gate valve, timing of vacuum processing, etc. are basically the same as those performed in the vacuum processing chamber 4. In this way, the substrate is sequentially passed through the multi-vacuum processing chambers while being moved in and out of the transfer chamber, and is subjected to predetermined vacuum processing. Finally, it is transferred to the carry-out chamber 8 and taken out of the vacuum device in the reverse order of the case of introduction. Further, after one substrate is introduced, the substrates are successively introduced and transferred to the series, and continuous processing is performed.

A feature of the multi-chamber vacuum processing apparatus is that the substrates can be continuously processed one after another without exposing the transfer chamber and the vacuum processing chamber to the atmosphere. Even if the initial base pressure is set sufficiently low, the mixing of the impurity gas becomes minute, so that extremely high-quality processing can be performed regardless of whether the film is formed by sputtering or CVD or dry etching.

The operation procedure of the conventional multi-chamber vacuum processing apparatus will be described, and in comparison therewith, the embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 2 is a general time-pressure diagram of a multi-chamber device. As a chamber showing pressure, one vacuum processing chamber, a transfer chamber and an introduction chamber are taken up. First, the vacuum processing chamber and the transfer chamber are evacuated from the atmospheric pressure 201, and the base pressure is lowered to the order of 10 to ⁸ Torr. The time required for this is extremely long, as described above, and takes several hours to several tens of hours. After introducing the substrate, the introduction chamber starts evacuation at 202. Open the gate valve between the transfer chamber and the inlet chamber when it becomes ^10-5 203 time of which became tall stand,
Transfer the substrate. During this time, the pressures in the transfer chamber and the introduction chamber are almost the same. After the transfer of the substrate is completed, the gate valve is closed at time 204. Pressure of the transfer chamber is lowered again to ^10-8 torr table. At time 205, the gate valve between the transfer chamber and the vacuum processing chamber is opened this time. Pressure both chambers ^10-8
Since it is a tall platform, there is not much pressure fluctuation. The gate valve is closed at time 206 after the transfer of the substrate is completed. Immediately thereafter, at time 207, the gas required for processing is introduced into the vacuum processing chamber. In this example, the processing chamber is used as a sputtering chamber, high-purity argon gas is introduced until the processing chamber pressure reaches 3 × 10 to ³ Torr, and the gas is kept flowing at a constant pressure. The substrate is vacuum-processed by turning on a power source in the processing chamber to generate plasma. After the processing is completed and the power supply for the processing is turned off, the introduction of gas is stopped at time 208. The pressure of the processing chamber is reduced rapidly, down to 10 to ⁸ Torr stand nearby. At time 209, the gate valves of the vacuum processing chamber and the transfer chamber are opened. After transferring the substrate from the processing chamber to the transfer chamber, the gate valve is closed at time 210. The substrate returned to the transfer chamber is transferred to the next vacuum processing chamber by the transfer robot. This time is 210 and 21
It is between 1. After that, repeat the same as before, at time 2
At 12, the gate valve between the introduction chamber and the transfer chamber is opened, and the next substrate is transferred to the transfer chamber. The same operations as before, such as opening and closing the gate valve and transferring the substrate to the vacuum processing chamber, are performed.
The pressure fluctuations in each chamber are reproduced in almost the same form. It should be noted that the base pressure of the transfer chamber and the vacuum processing chamber is on the order of 10 to ⁸ Torr even while the substrate transfer is repeated in a complicated procedure. As a result, the amount of the impurity gas is suppressed to a small amount, and extremely high-performance vacuum processing becomes possible.

The hardware configuration of this embodiment is as shown in FIG. 1, and its operation procedure will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3. Vacuum processing chamber 1 and transfer chambers 2, 3, 4, 5,
6 is exhausted from the atmospheric pressure 201, and the base pressure is 10 to ⁸
Lower to the tall stand. Time 202 when the pressure has dropped sufficiently
In, open the variable leak valve 21 of FIG.
High-purity argon gas was introduced into the transfer chamber 1 from the gas introduction system 20, and the pressure in the transfer chamber was the same as the processing capacity during sputtering.
The flow rate is adjusted so that the pressure is 10 to ³ Torr, and the gas is kept flowing. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 3, the pressure in the transfer chamber 1 is maintained at 3 × 10 to ³ Torr, though there is some variation. However, the vacuum pump 18 in the transfer chamber is constantly operated so that the exhaust amount and the inflow amount of the high-purity argon gas introduced are balanced so that 3 × 10 to ³ Torr is realized. After introducing the substrate, the introduction chamber 7 starts vacuum evacuation by the vacuum pump 43 at time 203. Pressure is 3
After the pressure became lower than × 10 ⁻³ Torr, at 204, the gate valve 14 was opened and the transfer chamber and the introduction chamber were connected.
At this time, since the pressure in the introduction chamber is lower than that in the transfer chamber, the high-purity argon gas introduced into the transfer chamber flows toward the introduction chamber, and there is almost no gas flow from the introduction chamber to the transfer chamber. The pressure in the transfer chamber slightly drops, but may be left as it is, or the variable leak valve 21 may be adjusted so that the pressure becomes constant at 3 × 10 to ³ Torr. The substrate is transferred from the introduction chamber 7 to the transfer chamber 1 at time 2
At 05, the gate valve 14 is closed. On the other hand, also in the sputtering chamber 4 which is a vacuum processing chamber, the variable leak valve 34 is opened at time 202 after the base pressure reaches the level of 10 −8 Torr, and the high-purity argon gas for the sputtering process is supplied from the gas introduction system 33. After the introduction, the flow rate is adjusted so that the pressure in the vacuum processing chamber 4 is maintained at 3 × 10 ³ torr. After this, the pressure in the processing chamber is basically 3 as shown in FIG.
Maintained to be 10 to ³ torr. At time 206, the gate valve 11 is opened. Transfer chamber 1 is also vacuum processing chamber 4
Since the pressure is maintained at 3 × 10 ³ torr, there is no fluctuation in the pressure in both chambers. The substrate is transferred from the transfer chamber 1 to the vacuum processing chamber 4 by the transfer robot 51, and the gate valve 11 is closed at time 207. Power on the vacuum processing chamber 4,
Sputtering work is performed by generating plasma to form a film on the substrate. After processing, turn off the power for processing. During this time, the pressure of the high-purity argon gas is 3 × 10.
Continue to flow a fixed amount to ~ ³ torr. At time 208, the gate valve 11 is opened, and the substrate is transferred from the vacuum processing chamber 4 to the transfer chamber 1. The gate valve 17 is closed at time 209 after the transfer. Further, between the times 209 and 210, the substrate is transferred to the next processing chamber. In the next processing chamber 3, after the base pressure is reached,
Similarly, since high-purity argon is continuously supplied so that the pressure becomes 3 × 10 −3 Torr, the pressure does not change even when the gate valve is opened and closed. At time 211, the gate valve 14 in the introduction chamber is opened as before, and the next substrate is transferred to the transfer chamber. After that, the same operation is repeated, substrates to be processed are transferred one after another, and vacuum processing is performed in the multi-chamber. The next substrate is introduced from the introduction chamber to the transfer chamber between times 211 and 212, the substrate is transferred from the transfer chamber to the vacuum processing chamber 4 between times 212 and 213, and the substrate is vacuum processed between times 214 and 215. To be done. During this time, the previously processed substrate is transferred to the next processing chamber 3 and subjected to the next vacuum processing.

During the vacuum processing of this embodiment, the pressure in the transfer chamber and the vacuum processing chamber is maintained at about 3 × 10 to ³ Torr.
The pressure was a state in which high-purity argon gas was continuously introduced, and the amount of impurity gas such as water present in each chamber was kept equal to or less than that in the conventional processing method shown in FIG. Be done. That is, except when the initial base pressure was lowered to ultra-high vacuum, the amount of impurity gas in the system was kept small while maintaining the pressure of about 3 × 10 to ³ Torr at all times. It is possible to perform high-performance vacuum processing equivalent to performing processing while repeatedly realizing ultrahigh vacuum as shown.

There are many merits that it is possible to perform high-quality and high-performance vacuum processing equivalent to that of an ultra-high vacuum base while maintaining the inside of the transfer chamber and the vacuum processing chamber at a high vacuum. First, the time from time 202 to 203 in FIG. 2, 204 to 205
Since it is possible to shorten the time required to reach 207, the time required to reach 206 to 207, and the time required to reach 208 to 209, it is possible to shorten the total processing time and improve the throughput. Further, the on-off of the introduced gas, which is required every time the substrate is exchanged between the transfer chamber and the processing chamber, becomes unnecessary, and it is only necessary to constantly flow a constant gas, so that the processing sequence is simplified. Furthermore, for the transfer robot in the transfer chamber, the working atmosphere is not a high vacuum as in the past, but a medium or high vacuum atmosphere. Therefore, the life is greatly extended and it is easy to improve the reliability. For example, in the present embodiment, the pressure of the working atmosphere is much higher than that of the ultra-high vacuum, so that it is possible to use lubricating oil having an appropriate vapor pressure for the lubrication portion, and the reliability of the sliding portion can be improved.

As another embodiment, there is also a method of controlling the amount of introduced gas so that the pressure in the transfer chamber 1 is always higher than that in the vacuum processing chambers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. By doing so, even if some impurity gas is generated during plasma processing in a specific vacuum processing chamber, the pressure in the transfer chamber is higher when the gate valve between the transfer chamber and the vacuum processing chamber is opened. The gas flows from the transfer chamber to the vacuum processing chamber, and the transfer chamber and other vacuum chambers are not contaminated with the impurity gas. On the order of 10 to ³ torr as in this embodiment, the mean free path of gas is several centimeters, and there is an influence of collision between gas molecules. This method of preventing is effective.

As still another embodiment, instead of the gate valve 11 between the transfer chamber and the vacuum processing chamber shown in FIG. 2, a simple shield plate which is not isolated in vacuum is provided. As shown in FIG. 3, in the present embodiment, the pressures in the transfer chamber and the vacuum processing chamber are almost equal over the entire time. Therefore, when the gas used for vacuum processing is high-purity argon, it is possible to eliminate the gate valve which can be completely isolated in a vacuum. At this time, it is desirable that the pressure in the transfer chamber is always slightly higher than the pressure in the vacuum chamber as in the previous embodiment. This is because it has the effect of preventing the diffusion of the impurity gas that may occur during processing in the vacuum processing chamber.

FIG. 4 is a part of a side sectional view centered on the transfer chamber 1 in FIG. 1, showing an embodiment of mounting a vacuum exhaust pump. In this embodiment, the wide area type turbo molecular pump 18, the roughing piping 60 and the roughing pump 6 are provided via the valve 19.
A cryopump 18A is equipped with an exhaust system to which 1 is connected and a valve 19A.

In the initial exhaust from time 201 to 202 in FIG. 3, the valve 19 is first opened to operate the wide range turbo-molecular pump 18 and the roughing pump 61, and then the valve 19A is also opened to open the cryopump. Operate with 18A and exhaust to ultra high vacuum level in the shortest possible time. Since the cryopump 18A has a high pumping speed for water, it is particularly effective for shortening the initial pumping time. Figure 3
At time 203, the valve 19A is closed and the cryopump 18A is disconnected. After that, as shown in FIG. 3, the variable leak valve 21 is opened, high-purity argon gas is continuously flown from the gas supply system 21, and the pressure of the transfer chamber 1 is constantly maintained at 10 −3 Torr level. After this time, the exhaust is performed only by the wide area type turbo vacuum pump 18 and the roughing vacuum pump 61 via the valve 19. With such an exhaust system configuration, the gas flowing into the cryopump, which is a storage pump, is only the gas adsorbed on the chamber wall of the transfer chamber, and the amount thereof is very small. Almost unnecessary. The high-purity argon gas that normally flows in is the wide area type turbo molecular pump 18 and the roughing pump 6
At 1, the exhaust is always connected to the outside of the system. Since the flow rate of the high-purity argon gas that flows in can be made substantially constant, the pump does not fluctuate in load and stable operation is possible. A large pumping speed for water is required to achieve the initial ultra-high vacuum in a short time, but the cryopump 18A is responsible for this role, so the wide area turbo vacuum pump also has the advantage of being compact. is there.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the exhaust system of the transfer chamber 1. In this embodiment, a cold trap 64 supplied with a refrigerant by a refrigerator 65 is installed between the valve 19 and the wide area turbo molecular pump 18. By setting the temperature of the cold trap in the range of about 70 to 140 K, the water that is a problem in the initial exhaust is condensed and exhausted by the cold trap, and the high-purity argon gas supplied after time 202 in FIG. 3 is the cold trap. Exhaust is performed by the wide area type turbo vacuum pump 18 and the roughing vacuum pump 61 without being condensed. With such a configuration, it is possible to perform initial exhaust in a short time and continuous exhaust of high-purity argon without using a cryopump as in the embodiment of FIG. Both the embodiment shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 can provide a suitable vacuum exhaust system of the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIGS.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the present invention. It is a top view of the vacuum processing chamber 20 which consists of multiple chambers. This apparatus is provided with three transfer chambers 108, 110 and 112 and two buffer chambers 109 and 111. Also in this device, as in the previous embodiment, 1
The entire chamber except the introduction chamber and discharge chamber of 13, 114 was evacuated to an ultra-high vacuum, and then a high-purity inert gas was introduced into each of the transfer chambers and the vacuum processing chamber to constantly maintain a pressure of 10 −3 Torr level. Then, the substrate is vacuum-treated. The effect is the same as that described with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 3, but when the number of vacuum processing chambers or transfer chambers is increased in this way, the processing time is shortened and the processing sequence is simplified. In terms of points, the effect will be great.

[0027]

The effects of the present invention are as follows.

A gas inlet is provided in the transfer chamber, and an inert gas such as high-purity argon or nitrogen gas is constantly introduced into the transfer chamber. By making the pressure equal to that of the unloading chamber, it is possible to connect the transfer chamber to each chamber when necessary, eliminating the need for vacuum evacuation waiting time for adjusting the pressure level, and exhausting time of the entire system. Can be shortened. Moreover, since the substrate is transported in a high-purity inert gas or nitrogen gas atmosphere containing few impurities, a high-quality film can be manufactured. Furthermore, since the transfer robot can be used in a medium-high vacuum, the reliability and the maintainability of the sliding portion can be improved, and dust generation from the transfer robot can be reduced.

By using a combination of a cryopump and a turbo molecular pump in the transfer chamber or an exhaust system combining a cold trap and a turbo molecular pump, the pressure in the transfer chamber can be achieved in a short time, so that the substrate throughput can be improved. Can be improved.

[0030]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation procedure diagram of a conventional technique.

FIG. 3 is an operation procedure diagram of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a side view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a side view of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Transfer chamber 7 ... Introduction chamber 8 ... Export chamber 18 ... Turbo molecular pump 20 ... Gas introduction system 21 ... Variable leak valve 51 ... Transfer robot 52 ... Substrate 61 ... Roughing pump 64 ... Cold trap 65 ... Refrigerator 10
0 ... Vacuum processing chamber

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Manabu Emura 502 Jinritsucho, Tsuchiura City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Hiritsu Seisakusho Laboratories Ltd. Inside the factory

Claims (17)

[Claims] 1. A vacuum processing method using a plurality of independent vacuum processing chambers, a transfer chamber for transferring a substrate, an introduction chamber for introducing or unloading a substrate, and a unloading chamber,
A vacuum processing method, characterized in that an inert gas or nitrogen gas is introduced into the transfer chamber after the transfer chamber is evacuated. 2. The vacuum processing method according to claim 1, wherein an inert gas or a nitrogen gas is introduced from an inlet of the transfer chamber. 3. The vacuum processing method according to claim 1, wherein after the transfer chamber is evacuated, an inert gas or nitrogen gas is continuously introduced into the transfer chamber during operation of the apparatus. 4. After the transfer chamber is evacuated, the valve of the vacuum pump in the transfer chamber is closed and separated, and an inert gas or nitrogen gas is introduced from a gas inlet provided in the transfer chamber, and the pressure in the transfer chamber is adjusted to 10 The vacuum processing method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the vacuum processing method is maintained at ³ torr to 10 torr. 5. The vacuum processing according to claim 1, wherein the gas used in the vacuum processing is continuously introduced into the vacuum processing chamber through the gas introduction port of the vacuum processing chamber while the apparatus is in operation. Method. 6. The pressure in the transfer chamber is adjusted by adjusting the amount of the inert gas or nitrogen gas introduced into the transfer chamber and the amount of gas used in the vacuum processing introduced into the vacuum processing chamber. The vacuum processing method according to claim 5, wherein the above is performed. 7. A gas used in vacuum processing is introduced into a vacuum processing apparatus through a gas inlet of the vacuum processing chamber, and a partial pressure of the used gas in the vacuum processing chamber is made equal to that during vacuum processing. The vacuum processing method according to claim 6. 8. The pressure in the transfer chamber is adjusted to be equal to or higher than the pressure in the processing chamber by adjusting the amount of inert gas or nitrogen gas introduced into the transfer chamber and the amount of gas used during vacuum processing introduced into the process chamber. After that, the substrate in the transfer chamber is moved to the processing chamber, and the vacuum processing method according to claim 1. 9. A method of vacuum processing using a plurality of independent vacuum processing chambers, a transfer chamber for transferring a substrate, an introducing chamber for introducing or unloading a substrate, and a unloading chamber, wherein the substrate is transferred from the introducing chamber. When moving to a chamber, put the substrate in the introducing chamber and then evacuate the introducing chamber, or introduce an inert gas or nitrogen gas into the transfer chamber until the pressure in the introducing chamber becomes lower than the pressure in the transfer chamber. A vacuum processing method, wherein the substrate is moved from the introduction chamber to the transfer chamber. 10. A vacuum processing method using a plurality of independent vacuum processing chambers, a transfer chamber for transferring a substrate, an introduction chamber for introducing or unloading a substrate, and an unloading chamber. When the substrate is moved to the transfer chamber from the transfer chamber after the pressure in the transfer chamber becomes lower than the pressure in the transfer chamber by vacuum exhausting the transfer chamber or introducing an inert gas or nitrogen gas into the transfer chamber. A vacuum processing method, characterized in that the vacuum processing method is carried out. 11. The vacuum processing method according to claim 1, wherein a valve is used as a means for isolating each chamber. 12. The vacuum processing method according to claim 1, wherein a shield plate that does not completely isolate the chambers from each other in a vacuum is used as a means for isolating the chambers. 13. The vacuum processing according to claim 1, wherein the purity of the inert gas or nitrogen gas introduced into the transfer chamber is made equal to the purity of the gas introduced into the processing chamber. Method. 14. A vacuum pump for a transfer chamber, which uses a cryopump with a valve and a turbo molecular pump as a vacuum pump, and is evacuated by both pumps at the time of high vacuum or ultra-high vacuum exhaust at the initial stage of operation to process a substrate. The vacuum processing method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that the valve of the cryopump is sometimes closed and separated, and exhaust is performed only by the turbo molecular pump. 15. A turbo molecular pump having a cold trap on the intake port side, the temperature of which is controlled by a refrigerator so as to be variable, is used for evacuation of the transfer chamber. Item 14. The vacuum processing method according to any one of Items 1 to 13. 16. The vacuum processing method according to claim 14, wherein a wide area type / large flow rate turbo molecular pump is used as the turbo molecular pump in the transfer chamber. 17. A vacuum processing apparatus having a plurality of independent vacuum processing chambers, a transfer chamber for transferring a substrate, an introducing chamber for introducing or unloading a substrate, and an unloading chamber, wherein an inert gas or nitrogen gas is introduced. A vacuum processing apparatus, characterized in that a gas introduction port is provided in the transfer chamber.