JPH06324297A - Apparatus for fully automatic production of semiconductor device and liquid crystal panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the apparatus for fully automatic production of semiconductor devices and liquid crystal panels which produces these semiconductor devices and liquid crystal panels without the aid of man power once wafers and glass substrates are charged into the apparatus before these wafers and substrates are ejected as the semiconductor devices and liquid crystal panels from the apparatus and takes the remedy for particle contamination and molecule contamination including the storage device before shifting to the ensuing stage into consideration. CONSTITUTION:This apparatus include plural vacuum treating sections V7 to V15 for executing treatments in a vacuum state and plural atm. pressure treating sections A7 to A15 for executing treatments in an atm. pressure state and includes transporting means V1, A1, etc., for automatically transporting objects to be treated between the vacuum treating sections, between the atm. pressure treating section and between the vacuum treating sections and atm. pressure treating sections. The objects to be treated are automatically subjected to various kinds of the treatments by carrying the objects into the apparatus, by which the semiconductor devices and liquid crystal panels are produced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is a fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel for manufacturing semiconductors and liquid crystal panels and the like automatically after inserting a semiconductor wafer and a glass substrate into an apparatus without human intervention. The present invention relates to a manufacturing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Particle contamination is widely known as a cause of reducing the yield of semiconductors. Sources of dust include clean room environments, human handling, process equipment and process materials. Among them, the improvement of the clean room cleaning technology and the improvement of the quality of process materials are remarkable, and they are effective in preventing particle contamination. In the future, it is expected that the effect of preventing particle contamination will be dust generation from the process equipment itself and handling by human hands.

In the manufacture of semiconductors, liquid crystal panels, etc., a cleaning step and a lithographic step are always required between film forming steps. In the vacuum state at this time, the film-formed wafer, glass substrate, or the like is temporarily placed in the atmospheric state, washed, and the lithography process is started. After that, a vacuum is applied again through a wet etching process or the like, and a film is formed by a CVD device or the like. Thus, in order to manufacture one semiconductor or liquid crystal panel, the atmospheric condition → vacuum condition → atmospheric condition is repeatedly repeated. Therefore, a wafer, a glass substrate, or the like formed in a vacuum state is manually carried to the next cleaning step or the like in the atmosphere, but particle contamination may occur during this time.

Further, in recent years, as semiconductors have become highly integrated, they have adhered to the surfaces of wafers and glass substrates.
It is also necessary to consider the molecular contamination in which the impurity atoms in the atomic layer pose a problem.

Further, some wafers are placed in a complementary state by waiting for the next step during the process-to-process transition, and there is a risk of particle contamination and molecular contamination depending on the storage environment during the storage.

As an existing apparatus of this type, there is a multi-chamber type processing apparatus in which a single apparatus performs a process such as film formation and etching in a vacuum. However, since it performs the process in a vacuum in the same device, when cleaning is performed after that, the wafer is returned to atmospheric pressure and manually transferred from the multi-chamber device into the cleaning machine, and then cleaned. The wafer is taken out by a person and the wafer is carried by the hand of the person and put in the apparatus of the vacuum process again. In other words, the film is automatically formed in the multi-chamber in the vacuum, and is automatically cleaned in the cleaning process. Therefore, it is necessary to use a human hand between the film formation in the vacuum and the cleaning in the atmosphere. At present, it can only be a semi-automatic device at present.

[0007]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional semi-automatic apparatus, the wafer and the glass substrate have to be carried by human hands, and the wafer is contaminated during the carrying. At present, there is no fully-automatic semiconductor or liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus including storage, in which a wafer or a glass substrate is put into a device and carried out as a product semiconductor or liquid crystal panel without human intervention.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and once a wafer or a glass substrate is put into the apparatus, it is manually operated until it is taken out of the apparatus as a product semiconductor or liquid crystal panel. It is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus that can manufacture semiconductors and liquid crystal panels without touching, and that also considers measures against particle contamination and molecular contamination, including storage equipment until the next process. To do.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention comprises a plurality of processing units for performing various kinds of processing, and a semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate to be processed through a processing step in the processing units. A semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus that performs various kinds of processing to manufacture a semiconductor or a liquid crystal panel, wherein the processing section includes a plurality of vacuum processing sections that perform processing in a vacuum state and a plurality of atmospheric pressure processing sections that perform processing in an atmospheric pressure state. And a transfer means for automatically transferring the object to be processed between the vacuum processing units, between the atmospheric pressure processing units, and between the vacuum processing unit and the atmospheric pressure processing units, The processing unit, the atmospheric pressure processing unit, and the transfer means are shut off from the outside, and by carrying in the processing target object into the apparatus, various processings are automatically performed on the processing target object to manufacture a semiconductor or a liquid crystal panel. It is characterized by

Further, the vacuum side transfer means for transferring the processing object between the vacuum processing parts is a magnetic levitation transfer device used in a vacuum state, and the atmospheric pressure side transfer for transferring the processing object between the atmospheric pressure processing parts. The means is a magnetic levitation transfer device used under atmospheric pressure.

Further, the carrying means for carrying the object to be processed between the vacuum processing unit and the atmospheric pressure processing unit is a vacuum robot used in the vacuum state on the vacuum processing unit side, and the atmospheric pressure on the atmospheric pressure processing unit side. When the atmospheric pressure robot and load lock chamber to be used in the state are arranged and the processing target part is transferred from the vacuum processing unit side to the atmospheric pressure processing unit side, the load lock chamber is set to a vacuum state and the load lock chamber After the object to be processed is loaded from the vacuum processing unit side to the atmospheric pressure processing unit side by the vacuum robot, the load lock chamber is brought to the atmospheric pressure state and the atmospheric pressure robot transfers the processing target object to the atmospheric pressure processing unit side. When the processing target portion is transferred from the side to the vacuum processing portion side, after the load lock chamber is brought to the atmospheric pressure state and the processing target object is loaded into the load lock chamber from the atmospheric pressure processing portion side by the atmospheric pressure robot, Vacuum in the load lock chamber Features that convey was the processed object in vacuum robot in the vacuum processing portion.

A vacuum robot used in a vacuum state is provided between the vacuum side transfer means and the vacuum processing section, and the object to be processed is transferred between the vacuum side transfer means and the vacuum processing section. In addition to being performed by a vacuum robot, an atmospheric pressure robot to be used in an atmospheric pressure state is provided between the atmospheric pressure side transfer means and the atmospheric pressure processing section, and a processing target between the atmospheric pressure side transfer means and the atmospheric pressure processing section. It is characterized in that the article is conveyed by the atmospheric robot.

Further, the plurality of vacuum processing units are an etcher chamber,
A sputtering chamber, a CVD chamber, an ion implantation chamber, and a dry cleaning chamber, and the plurality of atmospheric pressure processing units include a wet cleaning chamber, a drying chamber, a wet etching chamber, a lithography chamber, an exposure chamber,
It is a dry cleaning room.

Further, a medium vacuum storage chamber, a high vacuum storage chamber and an ultra-high vacuum storage chamber for storing one or more objects to be processed are provided as a vacuum processing section, and one or more objects to be processed are provided as an atmospheric pressure processing section. It is characterized by having a storage room for storing.

Further, at least one of the atmospheric processing units is a carry-in port for the object to be processed or a carry-out port for the completed semiconductor and liquid crystal panel.

[0016]

According to the present invention, by adopting the above-mentioned structure, the object to be processed is carried into the apparatus shielded from the outside, and the object to be processed is changed according to the processing performed by the transfer means.
For example, an etcher room, a sputtering room, a CVD room, an ion implantation room, a dry cleaning room, a wet cleaning room, a drying room, a wet etching room, a lithography room, an exposure room, and a dry cleaning room are automatically subjected to a vacuum processing section or an atmospheric pressure processing. The paper is transported to a processing section, where it is automatically processed by each processing section. Such transportation and processing are repeated without human intervention until the product is completed, and the completed product is stored in a high vacuum storage room, an ultra-high vacuum storage, or a storage room as needed.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2 are views showing the concept of the system configuration of a fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 1 is a plan view, and FIG. 2 is a BB ′ sectional view. In the figure, the device component numbers with an A in the head indicate the device used in the atmosphere, and those with V indicate the device used in a vacuum.

This semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus is a magnetic levitation transfer apparatus A for transferring wafers and glass substrates in the atmosphere.
1 and a magnetic levitation transfer device V1 for transferring a wafer or a glass substrate in a vacuum.

In the magnetic levitation transfer device A1 used in the atmosphere, a wet cleaning chamber A7, a drying chamber A8 and a wet etching chamber A9 are connected to the robot chamber A4 via a robot chamber A4.
Lithography room (resist coating / baking), dry cleaning room A11 and exposure room (exposure / development) A
12 is the surface oxidation treatment chamber A1 via the robot chamber A6.
5, the loading / unloading port A14 and the storage room A13 are connected to each other.

In the magnetic levitation transfer device V1 used in vacuum, an etcher chamber V7, a sputtering chamber V8 and a CVD chamber V9 are provided via a robot chamber V4, an ion implantation chamber (doping) V15 and a dry chamber are provided via a robot chamber V5. Washing room V1
0 and the surface oxidation treatment chamber V14 are connected to the medium vacuum storage chamber V11, the high vacuum storage chamber V12 and the ultra-vacuum storage chamber V13 via the robot chamber V6.

Further, the magnetic levitation transfer device A1 used in the atmosphere and the magnetic levitation transfer device V1 used in vacuum are L / L via the robot room A2 and the robot room V2.
Room (load lock room) 10 and L / L room (load lock room) 1 via robot room A3 and robot room V3
It is connected with 1. In the present embodiment, the number of plates having the L / L chambers at two places may be any as long as it is one or more. Further, 20 to 47 are valves, respectively.

The wafer transfer process of this apparatus will be described by taking a very general semiconductor manufacturing process as an example. (1) First, a wafer is loaded into the apparatus through the loading / unloading port A14. (2) The robot in the robot room A6 places the wafer on the cart 12 stopped at the station S3 of the magnetic levitation transfer device A1 used in the atmosphere. (3) The wafer on the cart 12 is transferred from the station S3 to the station S1 by the magnetic levitation transfer device A1.

(4) At the station S1, the wafer on the cart 12 is carried to the wet cleaning chamber A7 by the robot in the robot chamber A4, and usually RCA cleaned. (5) The cleaned wafer is carried to the drying chamber 8 by the robot in the robot chamber A4 and dried. (6) The dried wafer is placed on the cart 12 stopped at the station S1 by the robot in the robot chamber A4, and is carried from the station S1 to the station S3 by the magnetic levitation transfer device A1.

(7) The wafer on the cart 12 carried to the station S3 is carried to the surface oxidation treatment chamber A7 by the robot in the robot chamber A6. (8) The wafer carried to the surface oxidation treatment chamber A7 is annealed to form a SiO ₂ film as an intermediate insulating film on the surface. (9) The wafer having the SiO ₂ film formed on its surface is carried to the station S3 by the robot in the robot room A6,
The robot in the robot chamber A3 puts it in the L / L chamber 11 whose inside is at atmospheric pressure.

(10) After the wafer is loaded in the L / L chamber 11, the atmospheric pressure is changed to a vacuum state, and the robot in the robot chamber V3 waits on the station S6 of the magnetic levitation transfer device V1 used in vacuum. It is placed on the cart 13 that is open. (11) The cart 13 on which the wafer is placed is carried to the station S4 by the magnetic levitation transfer device V1. Then, the robot in the robot room V4 transfers the film to the CVD room V9. (12) An insulating film of Si ₃ N ₄ film is formed on the SiO ₂ film on the surface of the wafer carried to the CVD chamber V9.

(13) The wafer on which the Si ₃ N ₄ film is formed is transferred to the station S4 by the robot in the robot room V4.
It is placed on the cart 13 waiting at. (14) The robot in the robot chamber V2 is carried to the L / L chamber 10 in which the inside is in a vacuum state, and the L / L chamber 10
From vacuum to atmospheric pressure. (15) The wafer placed under atmospheric pressure is in the robot room A2.
Of the wafer 1 placed on the cart 12 waiting at the station S1 by the robot 14 of FIG.
2 is carried to the station S2 by the magnetic levitation carrier A1.

(16) The robot in the robot room A5 puts it in the lithography room A10, performs resist coating and pre-baking, and again puts it in the exposure room A12 by the robot in the robot room A5, and performs exposure and development in the exposure room A12. Then, the robot in the robot room A5 again enters the lithography room A10, and post-baking is performed in the lithography room A10.

(17) The wafer for which the lithography process has been completed is transferred to the station S by the robot in the robot room A5.
The magnetic levitation transfer device A is carried on the cart 12 waiting at 2
1 to the station S1 in the robot room A4
The robot is put into the wet etching chamber A9, and in the wet etching chamber A9, the Si ₃ N ₄ film in the target region is removed by wet process. Alternatively, the robot 14 in the robot room A2 conveys it from the station S1 to the L / L room 10 in the atmospheric pressure state, evacuates the L / L room 10, and the robot 15 in the robot room V2 transfers it to the cart 13 waiting in the station S4. Then, the robot in the robot room V4 carries it to the etcher room V7 and removes the Si ₃ N ₄ film in the target region by dry method.

(18) The wafer from which the Si ₃ N ₄ film in the target region has been removed is subjected to the ion implantation chamber V by using the robot and the magnetic levitation transfer device as described in the above (1) to (10).
15 (19) The wafer after the doping is carried to the dry cleaning chamber A11 using the robot and the magnetic levitation transfer device as described above, and the O ₃ (ozone) and UV (ultraviolet) lamp is used to
Remove the resist. (20) The wafer from which the resist has been removed is carried to the wet cleaning chamber A7 using a robot and a magnetic levitation transfer device, and is cleaned again.

The steps (2) to (20) described above are repeated many times to manufacture one semiconductor. The manufactured semiconductor is loaded and unloaded by the robot in the robot room A6.
Take out from.

According to the manufacturing apparatus having the above system configuration, the wafer carried in through the carry-in / carry-out port A14 does not come into contact with human hands until it is carried out from the carry-in / carry-out port A14 again as a semiconductor. There is no risk of particle contamination.

FIG. 1 shows an example in which a wafer is moved between the magnetic levitation transfer apparatus in vacuum and the magnetic levitation apparatus in the atmosphere by handling using a robot. The apparatus may be used to transfer the wafer from the magnetic levitation transfer to each process while the wafer is placed on the cart.

In the process of manufacturing a semiconductor, there is often a state in which a wafer or the like is kept waiting before the next process. In such a case, a wafer or the like is stored in the storage room A13.
Alternatively, they are put in the medium vacuum storage chamber V11, the high vacuum storage chamber V12, and the ultra-high vacuum storage chamber V13 and are on standby.

A wafer in a state in which it is desired not to cause molecular contamination is, for example, RCA cleaned, and an ultra-high purity clean is used for a wafer in which an oxide film is not desired to be formed on the surface, a wafer in which a contact hole is formed and a wiring process is awaited. It is stored in the storage chamber A13 in which N ₂ gas is kept flowing, or is stored in the ultra-high vacuum storage chamber V13 in which the inside is ultra-vacuum (1/10 ⁷ Torr or less).

Regarding the storage in a vacuum, three types of storage chambers in a vacuum state can be prepared, and the storage chamber can be selected according to the cleanliness required for the wafer. In addition, by creating a storage room under three different conditions, it is only necessary to create an ultra-high vacuum only in a small storage room, and it is not necessary to make the magnetic levitation transfer device and its associated process equipment an ultra-high vacuum.
It is economical.

In order to create an atmospheric pressure state, an inert clean gas (clean N ₂ gas, etc.) may be contained or several liters /
It is sufficient to continue flowing from min to several tens of liters / min. Normally, if a clean N ₂ gas of 10 liter / min is kept flowing, particle contamination and molecular contamination can be sufficiently prevented.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention described above, a wafer or a glass substrate to be processed is loaded into the apparatus, so that the processing up to a semiconductor or a liquid crystal panel is completely automated without human intervention. In this case, the excellent effect that there is almost no risk of particle contamination or molecular contamination is obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the concept of a system configuration of a fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line B-B ′ of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A1 Magnetic levitation transfer device A2-6 Robot room A7 Wet cleaning room A8 Drying room A9 Wet etching A10 Lithography room A11 Dry cleaning room A12 Exposure room A13 Storage room A14 Carry-in / out port A15 Surface oxidation treatment room V1 Magnetic levitation transfer device V2-6 Robot room V7 Etcher room V8 Sputtering room V9 CVD room V10 Dry cleaning room V11 Medium vacuum storage room V12 High vacuum storage room V13 Ultra high vacuum storage room V14 Surface oxidation treatment room V15 Ion implantation room 10, 11 L / L room

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Masao Matsumura 4-2-1 Motofujisawa, Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture EBARA Research Institute

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of processing units for performing various processes are provided,
A semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus that performs various kinds of processing on an object to be processed of a semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate through the processing steps in the processing unit to manufacture a semiconductor or a liquid crystal panel, wherein the processing unit performs processing in a vacuum state. A plurality of vacuum processing units for performing processing and a plurality of atmospheric pressure processing units for performing processing in an atmospheric pressure state are provided, and the vacuum processing units, the atmospheric pressure processing units, and the vacuum processing unit and the atmospheric pressure processing units are provided. The vacuum processing unit, the atmospheric pressure processing unit, and the transfer unit are shut off from the outside, and the transfer unit automatically transfers the process target between A fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus, which automatically manufactures a semiconductor or a liquid crystal panel by subjecting the object to be processed to various processes. 2. A vacuum side transfer means for transferring an object to be processed between vacuum processing parts is a magnetic levitation transfer device used in a vacuum state, and an atmospheric pressure side for transferring an object to be processed between the atmospheric pressure processing parts. The fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transfer means is a magnetic levitation transfer device used under atmospheric pressure. 3. A transfer means for transferring an object to be processed between the vacuum processing unit and the atmospheric pressure processing unit is a vacuum robot used in a vacuum state on the vacuum processing unit side, and the atmospheric pressure processing unit side. At the atmospheric pressure robot to be used in the atmospheric pressure state, the load lock chamber is arranged in the middle, and when the processing target part is transferred from the vacuum processing unit side to the atmospheric pressure processing unit side, the load lock chamber is placed in the vacuum state. After the object to be processed is loaded into the load / lock chamber from the side of the vacuum processing unit by the vacuum pressure robot, the load / lock chamber is brought to the atmospheric pressure state and the object to be processed is moved to the atmospheric pressure processing unit side by the atmospheric pressure robot. When the object to be processed is transferred from the atmospheric pressure processing unit side to the vacuum processing unit side, the load lock chamber is set to the atmospheric pressure state, and the load lock chamber is transferred from the atmospheric pressure processing unit side to the atmospheric pressure. After loading the object to be processed by the robot, The fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the load lock chamber is brought into a vacuum state and the processing object is conveyed to the vacuum processing section side by the vacuum robot. 4. A vacuum robot, which is used in a vacuum state, is arranged between the vacuum side transfer means and the vacuum processing section, and the processing target is transferred between the vacuum side transfer means and the vacuum processing section. The vacuum robot is used, and an atmospheric pressure robot to be used in an atmospheric pressure state is provided between the atmospheric pressure side transfer means and the atmospheric pressure processing section, and the atmospheric pressure side transfer means and the atmospheric pressure processing section are provided. The fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the object to be processed is transferred by the atmospheric pressure robot. 5. The plurality of vacuum processing units are etcher chambers,
A sputtering chamber, a CVD chamber, an ion implantation chamber and a dry cleaning chamber, wherein the plurality of atmospheric pressure processing units are a wet cleaning chamber, a drying chamber, a wet etching chamber, a lithography chamber, an exposure chamber and a dry cleaning chamber. The fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4. 6. The vacuum processing unit is provided with a medium vacuum storage chamber, a high vacuum storage chamber and an ultra-high vacuum storage chamber for storing at least one processing target object, and one or more processing target objects as an atmospheric pressure processing unit. A fully automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising a storage room for storing the. 7. The whole of claim 1, wherein at least one of the atmospheric processing units is a port for carrying in an object to be processed or a port for carrying out completed semiconductors and liquid crystal panels. Automatic semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing equipment.