JPH0624999Y2 - Film forming equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to a film forming apparatus for forming a film on a substrate, and particularly for reducing the heating and cooling time of the substrate in the film forming apparatus. It is related to the mechanism.

[Conventional technology]

Generally, in a film forming apparatus such as plasma CVD or sputtering, it is necessary to heat the substrate to several hundred degrees for the reaction, and to cool the substrate after the reaction to take it out to the outside.

Therefore, in the film forming apparatus, a heating / cooling chamber is provided separately from the reaction chamber, and the substrate is mounted on the substrate cart so that the substrate is transported between the heating / cooling chamber and the reaction chamber. I have to. When the substrate mounted on the substrate cart is inserted into the heating / cooling chamber from the outside, the heater in the heating / cooling chamber is turned on and heated to a predetermined temperature. Then, the substrate and the substrate cart heated to the predetermined temperature are transported into the reaction chamber, and a film is formed by a plasma CVD method or the like. Upon completion of this film formation, the substrate is transported to the heating / cooling chamber together with the substrate cart, cooled there, and taken out to the outside.

[Problems to be solved by the device]

However, in the conventional film forming apparatus as described above, when the substrate is taken out, the substrate is cooled while being attached to the substrate cart, and the cooling time is about 30 to 40 minutes. On the contrary, when the substrate is heated and inserted into the film forming chamber, it takes time to heat the cooled substrate cart along with the heating of the substrate, resulting in a large heat loss and a large time loss. There was a problem of low.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to obtain a film forming apparatus having high processing capacity and high productivity by eliminating heat and time loss during heating and cooling of a substrate.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

A film forming apparatus according to the present invention comprises a heating / cooling chamber for heating and cooling a substrate and a reaction chamber for forming a film on the surface of the substrate. The substrate is placed in a standby state and kept at a predetermined temperature, and the heating / cooling chamber is provided with a substrate attaching / detaching mechanism for attaching / detaching the substrate to / from the substrate cart. When the substrate is heated, the substrate is heated to a prescribed temperature. The substrate is mounted on the prepared substrate cart and heated, and at the time of cooling after completion of the reaction, the substrate is removed from the substrate cart and only the substrate is cooled.

[Action]

In this invention, the substrate cart is kept in a standby state in the reaction chamber at a predetermined temperature. Then, when the substrate is inserted into the heating / cooling chamber from the outside, the substrate is mounted on the substrate cart which has been heated to the predetermined temperature in advance, and these are heated. Therefore, the time for heating the substrate cart is significantly reduced, and the overall heating time is significantly reduced. In addition, when cooling the substrate after the reaction, remove the substrate from the substrate cart,
Only the substrate is cooled, and the substrate cart is transported to the reaction chamber where it is kept at a predetermined temperature. As a result, the cooling time is shortened and the substrate cart is not cooled, so that the time for heating the substrate cart during the next substrate heating is shortened as described above, and the overall productivity is improved.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The drawing shows a schematic structure of a film forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The film forming apparatus mainly comprises a heating / cooling chamber 10 for heating and cooling the substrate 1 and a reaction chamber for forming a film on the surface of the substrate. Substrate 1 is transferred between them by a substrate cart 2. In the heating / cooling chamber 10, a substrate mounting / demounting for mounting / dismounting the substrate 1 to / from the substrate cart 2 is performed.
A detaching device 11 is provided, and the upper surface of the substrate attaching and detaching device 11 is a mounting table on which the substrate 1 is placed. A first heater 12 for heating the substrate is provided above the heating / cooling chamber 10 so as to face the substrate mounting / demounting device 11. A first gate G1 is provided on the left side of the heating / cooling chamber 10 in the figure.
A robot or the like for inserting the substrate 1 into the heating / cooling chamber 10 is provided outside the device. Further, to the heating / cooling chamber 10, an exhaust system 31 for evacuating and an introducing system 33 for making the chamber atmospheric pressure are connected.

On the right side of the heating / cooling chamber 10 in the figure, a second gate G2 is provided.
Reaction chamber 2 for performing, for example, plasma CVD through
0 is provided in the reaction chamber 20, and a counter electrode 21 for causing discharge and a second electrode facing the counter electrode 21 are provided.
A heater 22 is provided. Also, in the reaction chamber 20, the substrate cart 2 stands by when the substrate 1 is cooled,
The heater 22 is configured to maintain a predetermined temperature. Further, an exhaust system 32 similar to the above is connected to the reaction chamber 20, and a high frequency power source 34 is connected to the counter electrode source 21.

Next, the operation will be described.

First, in a state where the substrate 1 is not inserted into the heating / cooling chamber 10, the substrate cart 2 is, as indicated by a chain double-dashed line in the figure,
It stands by in the reaction chamber 20 and is maintained at a predetermined temperature by the second heater 22. And when forming a film,
The first gate G1 is opened, and the substrate 1 is placed on the upper surface of the substrate attaching / detaching device 11, that is, on the mounting table by a robot or the like. In this state, the first gate G1 is closed and the exhaust system 31 evacuates. When the heating / cooling chamber 10 has a desired vacuum pressure, the second gate G2 with the reaction chamber 20 is opened, and the substrate cart 2 waiting in the reaction chamber 20 is transferred to above the mounting table. And the second gate G2
Is closed.

Next, the substrate 1 is attached to the substrate cart 2 by the substrate attaching / detaching device 11. That is, the board mounting / demounting device 11 is lifted by the lifting cylinder and the like, and the device 11 is rotated to move the claw (not shown) on the board cart 2 side to a predetermined position by the locking portion 11a thereof. The board 1 is held by the claws of the board cart 2. In this state, the first heater 12 is turned on to raise the temperature. At this time, since the substrate cart 2 is held at a predetermined temperature in the reaction chamber 20 in advance, the time required to reach the desired temperature becomes significantly shorter than in the conventional case.

When the substrate 1 reaches a desired temperature, the first heater 12 is turned off, the second gate G2 is opened, and the substrate cart 2 on which the substrate 1 is mounted is transferred into the reaction chamber 20. After this, the second
With the gate G2 closed, a film forming operation such as the conventional plasma CVD is performed.

When the film forming operation is completed, the second gate G2 is opened and the substrate cart 2 on which the substrate 1 is mounted is heated / cooled in the heating / cooling chamber 1
Transported to 0. And board mounting / removing device 1
The substrate 1 is removed from the substrate cart 2 by 1.
Is placed on a placing table, and the substrate cart 2 is transported into the reaction chamber 20. Then, the second gate G2 is closed, N ₂ is leaked into the heating / cooling chamber 10 to reach atmospheric pressure, and the substrate 1 is cooled and then taken out by a robot or the like.

As described above, in this embodiment, when the substrate 1 is cooled after completion of the reaction, only the substrate 1 is cooled, so that the cooling time is remarkably shortened as compared with the conventional case, and at this time, the substrate cart 2 is used.
Is heated to a predetermined temperature in the reaction chamber 20, there is no heat loss, and the heating time for the next substrate heating is shortened.

[Effect of device]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the film forming apparatus including the heating / cooling chamber for heating and cooling the substrate and the reaction chamber for forming a film on the substrate surface, the reaction chamber The substrate cart is kept in a standby state and kept at a predetermined temperature, and a substrate attaching / detaching mechanism for attaching / detaching the substrate to / from the substrate cart is provided in the heating / cooling chamber. It is mounted on a substrate cart heated to a temperature and heated, and when the substrate is cooled after the reaction is completed, the substrate is removed from the substrate cart and only the substrate is cooled, so the cooling time for cooling the substrate is shortened. The substrate can be taken out quickly, and the heat loss is small at the time of heating, so that the temperature of the substrate and the substrate cart can be raised quickly, and there is an effect that the loss of heat and time can be eliminated and the processing capacity and the productivity can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

The drawing is a schematic cross-sectional configuration diagram of a film forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 ... Substrate, 2 ... Substrate cart, 10 ... Heating / cooling chamber, 11
... Board mounting / demounting device, 12 ... First heater, 2
0 ... Reaction chamber.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A heating / cooling chamber for heating and cooling a substrate, a reaction chamber for forming a film on the surface of the substrate, a predetermined temperature in the reaction chamber, and the substrate A substrate cart for carrying between the reaction chamber and the heating / cooling chamber, and a substrate attaching / detaching mechanism provided in the heating / cooling chamber for attaching / detaching the substrate to / from the substrate cart,
When the substrate is heated, the substrate inserted into the heating / cooling chamber from the outside is mounted on the substrate cart heated to a predetermined temperature in the reaction chamber and heated together with the substrate cart. A film forming apparatus, wherein a substrate transferred from the reaction chamber by the substrate cart is removed from the substrate cart and only the substrate is cooled.