JPH0634241U - Surface treatment equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] An object of the present invention is to provide a surface treatment apparatus capable of uniformly cooling the entire furnace body to a predetermined temperature. [Structure] A furnace body 11 having one end opening, a heater 12 provided in the furnace body 11, and a reaction tube 13 inserted into the furnace body 11 by partitioning a required space A between the furnace body 11 and the heater body 12. The blower 2 is provided with a passage 15 communicating with the outside in the space A, and a blower 23 connected at one end to an external pipe 24 opening into the space A.
3 is driven to form a cooling air flow path of the space A and the external pipe 24 from the passage 15, and the external air is guided into the space A to cool the inside of the furnace body 11. A plurality of openings are provided in the space at a predetermined interval in the circumferential direction on the open end side of the furnace body 11
It is characterized in that it is provided on the closing side of.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to a surface treatment apparatus having a reaction furnace for heating a semiconductor wafer.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 Hereinafter, a conventional technique will be described with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 2, 10 is a vertical reaction furnace, 11 is a furnace body having one end open, and 12 is a heater. Reference numeral 13 is a reaction tube, which is inserted to define a space A between the reaction tube and the furnace body 11.

The furnace body 11 includes a plurality of passage pipes 15 that communicate the space A and the outside of the furnace body 11 at predetermined intervals in the circumferential direction between the open end of the furnace body 11 and the support flange 14 that receives the open end. And a mouth pipe 16 that opens into the space A is provided at the end opposite to the open end of the furnace body 11. Reference numeral 17 is a manifold, and 17A is a loading / unloading port for the object to be processed of the manifold. The manifold 17 receives the reaction tube 13 at its flange portion 17B. 18 and 19 are seal rings.

Reference numeral 20 denotes a boat that holds a large number of semiconductor wafers W to be processed in stages, and is mounted on a boat support 22 on an elevator platform 21 of the boat elevator. A blower 23 is connected to the mouth pipe 16 by an external pipe 24.

In this structure, the boat 20 is set on the boat support base 22 of the boat elevator by a transfer device (not shown) and then lifted by the boat elevator. The manifold 17 is carried in and out from the carry-in / carry-out port 17A to a predetermined position in the reaction tube 13. Next, the processing fluid is supplied into the reaction tube 13 from a gas supply tube (not shown), and the semiconductor wafer W carried into the reaction tube 13 is exposed to a high-temperature processing fluid atmosphere. W processing is performed.

When the processing of the semiconductor wafer W is completed, the lift table 21 of the boat elevator is lowered to its original position, and the boat 20 is transferred to another predetermined position by the transfer device. The removed semiconductor wafer W _P is taken out from the boat 20 and the semiconductor wafer W before processing is transferred to the boat 20.

By the way, since the inside of the furnace body 11 after the completion of one process reaches a high temperature region (about 1000 ° C.), the blower 23 is driven and the passage pipe 15 on the open end side of the furnace body 11 is driven. The space A in the furnace body 11 and the cooling air flow path of the external pipe 24 are formed, the external air is guided to the space A in the furnace body 11, and the inside of the furnace body 11 is cooled by the external air to obtain a semiconductor wafer. The temperature is suitable for taking out W (about 850 ° C to 500 ° C).

[0009]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 In this conventional surface treatment device, a cooling air flow path is formed from the passage that opens at the lower part of the furnace body to the space inside the furnace body and the external air from the upper piping of the furnace body to the outside of the furnace body. The external air flowing into the space absorbs the heat of the furnace body and rises in temperature every time it flows upward, so that the furnace body is extremely cooled on the opening side of the furnace body and goes above the furnace body. Along with this, cooling in the furnace body becomes dull, and a temperature gradient occurs in the axial direction of the furnace body. Therefore, there is a problem that it is difficult to uniformly cool the entire furnace body to a predetermined temperature.

The present invention has been made to solve this problem, and an object thereof is to provide a surface treatment apparatus capable of uniformly cooling the entire furnace body to a predetermined temperature.

[0011]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 In order to achieve the above object, in the surface treatment apparatus of the present invention, a required space is defined between a furnace body having one end opening, a heater provided in the furnace body, and the furnace body. The reactor includes a reaction tube inserted into the furnace body, a passage communicating with the outside in the space, and a blower having one end connected to an external pipe opening into the space. In a surface treatment apparatus that forms a cooling air flow path for a space and an external pipe and guides external air into the space to cool the inside of the furnace body, the outer pipe is circumferentially provided on the opening end side of the furnace body. A plurality of openings are provided in the space at intervals, and the above passages are provided on the closed side of the furnace body.

[0012]

[Action]

 In the above-described surface treatment apparatus of the present invention, a plurality of external pipes communicating with the inside and outside of the reaction furnace are provided at the furnace body opening side at a predetermined interval, so that when the blower is driven, the external air is It is possible to form a space from the passage to the external pipe, that is, a cooling air flow path flowing from the furnace body closing side to the opening side.

[0013]

【Example】

 An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, the furnace body 11 is provided with a plurality of spaces between the open end of the furnace body 11 and the support flange portion 14 that communicate the space A with the outside of the furnace body 11 at a predetermined interval in the circumferential direction. A mouth pipe 16 is formed, and a passage pipe 1 that connects the space A inside the furnace body 11 and the outside of the furnace body 11 is formed at the end opposite to the open end of the furnace body 11.

The external pipe 24 is formed of multi-branched pipe portions 24 a to 24 c, and the pipe portions 24 a to 24 c are connected to the mouth pipes 16, respectively. Other configurations are the same as those in FIG.

In this embodiment having such a configuration, after one process of processing the semiconductor wafer is completed, the blower 23 is driven to cool the inside of the reaction furnace 10 to a predetermined temperature. 11 forms a cooling airflow path that flows into the space A in the furnace body 11 from the passage 15 and flows from the external pipe 24 to the outside, that is, from the axial upper side to the axial downward side of the furnace body 11. When the air passes through the opening side of the furnace body 11, it can be cooled by the external air warmed by passing through the space A, so that the opening side of the furnace body 11 can be prevented from being extremely cooled. .

Further, at the open end of the furnace body 11, a plurality of external pipes 24 are opened at a predetermined interval in the circumferential direction into the space A in the furnace body 11, so that the passage pipe 15 is connected to the furnace pipe 11. The external air flowing into the space A in the body 11 can flow over the entire circumference of the space A.

In this embodiment, the mechanism for cooling the inside of the furnace of the surface processing apparatus used for processing semiconductor wafers is shown, but the invention is not limited to this, and it has various reaction furnaces. May be used for.

[0019]

[Effect of device]

 As described above in detail, according to the surface treatment apparatus of the present invention, a plurality of external pipes communicating with the inside and outside of the reaction furnace are provided at the furnace body opening side at a predetermined interval to drive the blower. At this time, the outside air forms a cooling air flow path that flows from the passage to the space and to the outside piping, that is, from the furnace body closing side to the opening side. Since it can be cooled, it is possible to prevent the opening side of the furnace body from being extremely cooled, and as a result, a temperature gradient is less likely to occur in the axial direction of the furnace body than in the past, and the entire furnace body is prevented. Can be evenly cooled to a predetermined temperature.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic vertical sectional view showing a surface treatment apparatus as an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic vertical cross-sectional configuration diagram showing a conventional surface treatment apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Furnace body 12 Heater 13 Reaction tube 15 Passage tube 23 Blower 24 External piping

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A furnace body having an opening at one end, a heater provided in the furnace body, a reaction tube inserted into the furnace body by partitioning a required space between the furnace body, and the space. A passage communicating the inside with the outside and a blower having one end connected to an external pipe opening into the space, and driving the blower to form a cooling air flow passage of the space and the external pipe from the passage, and In the surface treatment device for guiding the external air into the space to cool the furnace body, the external pipes are provided with a plurality of openings in the space at a predetermined interval in the circumferential direction on the opening end side of the furnace body, and the passage is provided. Is
A surface treatment apparatus provided on the closed side of the furnace body.