JPH07335632A - Semiconductor treating device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To protect works against contamination in an ashing treatment and the like so as to improve a semiconductor treating device in throughput by a method wherein the pressure of a reaction chamber is set higher than that of a cooling chamber when a gate valve is opened, and the pressure of the cooling chamber is set higher than an atmospheric pressure. CONSTITUTION:An gas introducing unit 5 of a reaction chamber 1 and a cooling gas introduction unit 15 of a cooling chamber 10 are provided inside a heat insulating chamber 4 and a cooling chamber 10 in separate system respectively. The pressure of the reaction chamber 1 is set higher than that of the cooling chamber 10 when a gate valve 8 is opened so as to stop contaminants from flowing into the reaction chamber 1 from the cooling chamber 10, and the pressure of the cooling chamber 10 is set higher than an atmospheric pressure so as to protect a semiconductor treating device against contamination caused by outside air which penetrates into it. By this setup, works are protected against contamination in an ashing treatment or the like, and a semiconductor treating device can be improve in throughput.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a semiconductor processing apparatus and method for ashing a resist or the like to remove it. In recent years, semiconductor devices are required to be highly integrated and have high performance, as well as cost reduction, and the semiconductor processing equipment used in the manufacturing process is also required to be cleaned and improved in throughput.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As semiconductor processing equipment handled by the present invention, there are an ashing equipment, a vapor phase growth (CVD) equipment, a dry etching equipment and the like. Since all have the same constituent elements, a typical example is an ashing equipment. explain.

3 and 4 are explanatory views of a conventional example of a horizontal semiconductor processing apparatus. In this example, the wafer is set manually, and the ashing process is explained below.

In the figure, 21 is a reaction chamber, 22 is a basket containing wafers, 23 is a heater, 24 is a vacuum pump, 25 is a gas unit introduced into the reaction chamber, and 26 is a high frequency ( RF) power supply.

In FIG. 3, a basket 22 loaded with wafers is set in the reaction chamber 21. A heater 23 provided around the reaction chamber preheats the ashing process to bring the reaction chamber to a high temperature.

Next, a gas introduction unit 25 is placed inside the reaction chamber.
More oxygen is introduced and exhausted by the vacuum pump 24 to maintain a predetermined pressure in the reaction chamber, a high frequency power source 26 generates gas plasma in the reaction chamber, and the resist film on the wafer is ashed.

In FIG. 4, after the ashing process is completed,
Since the temperature of the reaction chamber and the wafer becomes high, the lid 27 of the reaction chamber is opened, a cooling gas is flown from the gas inlet to cool the wafer, and then the wafer is taken out from the reaction chamber.

5 and 6 are explanatory views of a conventional example of a vertical semiconductor processing apparatus. In this example, the wafer is set automatically, and the ashing process is explained below.

In the figure, 31 is a carrier station,
32 is an arm unit, 33 is a quartz basket, 34 is a lifting mechanism, 35 is a reaction chamber, 36 is a heater, 37 is a vacuum pump, and 38 is a high frequency power supply.

In FIG. 5, the wafer cassette placed on the carrier station 31 is transferred to a quartz basket 33 (the quartz basket is in the reaction chamber in the figure, but in the lower position at this time) by the arm unit 32. List. When the transfer is completed, the quartz basket is moved into the reaction chamber 35 by the elevating mechanism 34.

The method of ashing processing is the same as in FIGS. In Figure 6, after the ashing process is completed,
The quartz basket 33 is moved to the lower position by the elevating mechanism 34. At the same time, the opening valve 40 at the top of the reaction chamber opens and the heat exhaust valve 41 opens.
Through the release of heat.

As shown in the conventional example, in the conventional semiconductor processing apparatus, when the wafer is cooled, the reaction chamber is also cooled at the same time. Therefore, when the next wafer is ashed, the reaction chamber is heated again. Therefore, the throughput of the device was reduced.

[0013]

The above-mentioned conventional example has the following problems. That is, when the next wafer was to be processed, the reaction chamber was cooled, so the process could not be performed immediately, and it was necessary to raise the temperature of the reaction chamber. When the ashing gas was introduced, the preheated reaction chamber and wafer were cooled by the ashing gas and their temperatures were lowered. When a wafer is cooled, it is exposed to the outside air and various transfer mechanisms are installed around it, so the surface of the wafer is oxidized by oxygen in the atmosphere and the lubricating oil used in the transfer system, etc. There was a risk of contamination due to scattering.

It is an object of the present invention to prevent contamination in ashing processing and improve processing throughput.

[0015]

[Means for Solving the Problems] To solve the above-mentioned problems, 1) a reaction chamber 1 for processing a substrate to be processed, a greenhouse 4 containing the reaction chamber 1 and sharing an opening, and the opening. A semiconductor processing apparatus having a cooling chamber 10 sharing the same and a sluice valve 8 for opening and closing the opening, or 2) a gas introduction unit 5 used for the reaction chamber 1 and a cooling gas used for the cooling chamber 10. The introduction unit 15 is a separate system and is provided in the greenhouse 4 and the cooling chamber 10, respectively, and the semiconductor processing apparatus according to 1 or 3) In the reaction chamber 1 when the gate valve 8 is opened. Is made higher than the pressure inside the cooling chamber 10 and higher than the pressure inside the cooling chamber 10 by a semiconductor processing method.

[0016]

According to the present invention, by adopting the above structure, the wafer is cooled in the dedicated cooling chamber, so that the continuous processing can be performed in the high temperature state of the reaction chamber, and the processing throughput can be improved. By providing the gas system separately in the reaction chamber and the cooling chamber, the gas supplied to each chamber is kept at a predetermined temperature, so that the cooling action by the introduced gas can be prevented. By providing a pressure difference between the reaction chamber, the cooling chamber, and the outside air, contamination by the outside air can be prevented.

[0017]

EXAMPLES In the examples, as a typical example, a vertical semiconductor processing apparatus of a type in which a wafer is automatically set will be described.

1 and 2 are explanatory views of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is the reaction chamber, 2 is a quartz basket, and 3
Is a heater, 4 is a greenhouse, 5 is a unit for introducing gas used in the reaction chamber, 6 is a damper for discharging to the outside air, 7 is a damper, 8 is a gate valve, 9 is a damper, 10 is a cooling chamber, 11 is a gate. Valve, 12 is an arm unit, 13 is a carrier station, 14 is a lifting mechanism, 15 is a cooling gas introduction unit, 16 is a radio frequency (RF) power supply, 17 is a tube for vacuuming, 18 is a tube for introducing gas, 19 Is a cylindrical inner electrode, and 20 is a cylindrical outer electrode.

In FIG. 1, the wafer cassette placed on the carrier station 13 is transferred by the arm unit 12 to the quartz basket 2 (the quartz basket is in the reaction chamber in the figure, but is in the lower position at this time). List. When the transfer is completed, the quartz basket is moved into the reaction chamber 1 by the elevating mechanism 14.

The reaction chamber 1 is a greenhouse containing an insulating material 4
Is installed inside. The reaction chamber has a cylindrical shape, and a tube 17 for vacuuming and a tube 18 for introducing gas are provided inside the reaction chamber. Further, a cylindrical internal electrode 19 is provided inside thereof.

A cylindrical external electrode 20 is provided around the outside of the reaction chamber.
And a heater 3 are provided. At the top of the greenhouse 4,
A gas introduction unit 5 for the gas used in the reaction chamber is provided and kept warm. Inside the greenhouse 4, a heating mechanism with a heater 3 is provided to keep the temperature within a certain range, and a damper 7 that radiates heat when overheating is provided.

Here, when the quartz basket is conveyed to a predetermined position in the reaction chamber, as described in the conventional example, the inside of the reaction chamber 1 is evacuated by a vacuum pump, plasma is generated by introducing gas and applying high frequency, The ashing process starts.

The ashing method is the same as that shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, the quartz basket 2 is moved to the lower position by the elevating mechanism 14 after the ashing process is completed. At this time, in order to prevent the temperature of the reaction chamber from lowering due to the low temperature gas from the cooling chamber 10 flowing into the reaction chamber, a high temperature inert gas is introduced into the reaction chamber to increase the chamber pressure.

Next, the sluice valve 8 is closed, and the greenhouse 4 and the cooling chamber are closed.
Cut off between 10. For cooling the wafer, an inert gas is introduced from a cooling gas introduction unit 15 provided in the cooling chamber 10 to improve cooling efficiency. The introduced gas is discharged to the outside through the damper 9.

As described above, the reaction chamber when the gate valve 8 is opened
The pressure inside the cooling chamber 10 is made higher than that inside the cooling chamber 10 to prevent the inflow of pollutants from the cooling chamber 10 into the reaction chamber 1, and
By making the internal pressure higher than the outside air, it is possible to prevent contamination due to the invasion of the outside air into the device.

Next, when the wafer is cooled, the gate valve 11 is opened and the wafer in the quartz basket 2 is accommodated in the wafer cassette on the carrier station 13 by the arm unit 12.

[0027]

According to the present invention, since the greenhouse and the cooling chamber are separated, the heating time due to the temperature drop in the reaction chamber can be omitted. Since the gas system in the greenhouse is separated from the gas system in the cooling room and kept warm, cooling at the time of gas introduction can be prevented. Since a pressure difference is provided in each room, it is possible to prevent contamination due to infiltration of outside air.

As a result, it is possible to prevent contamination in the ashing process, etc., and improve the processing throughput.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention (1)

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention (2)

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional example of a horizontal semiconductor processing device (1).

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of a conventional example of a horizontal semiconductor processing device (2).

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of a conventional example of a vertical semiconductor processing device (1).

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional example of a vertical semiconductor processing device (2)

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Reaction chamber 2 Quartz basket 3 Heater 4 Greenhouse 5 Gas introduction unit used in the reaction chamber 6 Damper for discharging to the outside air 7 Damper 8 Gate valve 9 Damper 10 Cooling chamber 11 Gate valve 12 Arm unit 13 Carrier station 14 Lifting mechanism 15 Cooling gas introduction unit 16 Radio frequency (RF) power supply 17 Vacuum evacuation tube 18 Gas introduction tube 19 Cylindrical inner electrode 20 Cylindrical outer electrode

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Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A reaction chamber (1) for processing a substrate to be processed,
Greenhouse (4) containing the reaction chamber (1) and sharing the opening
A semiconductor processing apparatus comprising: a cooling chamber (10) that shares the opening; and a gate valve (8) that opens and closes the opening. 2. The gas introduction unit (5) used for the reaction chamber (1) and the cooling gas introduction unit (15) used for the cooling chamber (10) are configured in different systems, and each of them is the greenhouse.
(4) The semiconductor processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the semiconductor processing apparatus is provided in the cooling chamber (10). 3. A reaction chamber (1) for processing a substrate to be processed,
Greenhouse (4) containing the reaction chamber (1) and sharing the opening
And a semiconductor processing apparatus having a cooling chamber (10) that shares the opening and a gate valve (8) that opens and closes the opening,
The pressure in the reaction chamber (1) when the gate valve (8) is opened is made higher than the pressure in the cooling chamber (10), and the pressure in the cooling chamber (10) is made higher than the outside air. A characteristic semiconductor processing method.