JPH1079412A - Apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an apparatus for manufacturing semiconductors, enabling two wafers to be processed together and simultaneously, wherein the time taken to transfer waters in the atmosphere has no effect on the throughput, and also to provide an apparatus for easily manufacturing semiconductors ready for AGV etc., which is adaptable to the control of water such as one cassette / one lot control, two cassettes / one lot control, etc. SOLUTION: An apparatus for processing semiconductors, wherein two semiconductor wafers are processed simultaneously under a reduced pressure is provided with two carrier robots 14, 15 for carrying semiconductor wafers, a buffer stage 19 enabling two or more semiconductor wafers for loading and two or more semiconductor wafers for unloading to be contained simultaneously, and cassette stages 20 to 23 for cassettes containing two or more semiconductor wafers, all provided in the atmosphere, and furthermore, is provided with a vacuum preprocessing chamber 13, 17 and a pressure-processing chamber 12.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus for performing a reduced pressure process among ashing, etching, film forming processes, etc., a device having a vacuum preparatory chamber for improving productivity.
The present invention also relates to a single-wafer semiconductor manufacturing apparatus that performs simultaneous batch processing of two or more semiconductor substrates.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the recent increase in the diameter of a semiconductor substrate, a substrate capable of processing one by one for the purpose of solving problems in a conventionally used multi-batch processing apparatus, that is, a batch processing apparatus. A leaf-type processor was considered. However, since there is a limit in the productivity of the processing for each sheet, attention has been paid to a batch processing of a plurality of sheets that does not decrease the productivity while the processing is performed for each sheet. In particular, in a reduced-pressure processing apparatus using plasma such as ashing, etching, and film formation, a simultaneous processing apparatus for two wafers is often used.

FIG. 4, FIG. 5, and FIG. 6 show examples of a conventional apparatus capable of performing simultaneous batch processing of two sheets. That is, in the apparatus shown in FIG. 4, two cassette stages 41 in the second vacuum preparatory chamber 37 and two stages in the processing chamber 32 are used by using the transfer robot 34 provided in the first vacuum preparatory chamber 33. 36
During the period, two semiconductor substrates 31 are simultaneously transferred. In such a conventional example, the two substrates are simultaneously transferred in a vacuum, so that the semiconductor substrate storage cassette is also in the vacuum preparatory chamber, and is exclusively used for joining with a self-propelled automatic cassette supply / transport device such as an AGV. It is necessary to add another unit, which results in a substantial increase in cost.

FIG. 5 shows a conventional example in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-1473.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 3 (1993) -1991, since there is no vacuum preparatory chamber, the throughput is regulated by the evacuation of the processing chamber and the purge time for release to the atmosphere.
The main function is to adjust the temperature of the semiconductor substrate, so that the advantage of simultaneous processing of two substrates cannot be fully utilized.

In the conventional example shown in FIG.
9 is effective in improving the throughput by being provided in the first vacuum preparatory chamber 33, but has a drawback in that the handling of wafers in the preliminary vacuum preparatory chamber is poor in handling such as transfer of wafers and transfer by a robot capable of vacuum suction. there were. Also, the semiconductor substrate storage cassette is the second
Because it is in the vacuum preparatory chamber 37, it has been difficult to deal with AGV and the like.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided a conventional semiconductor manufacturing apparatus capable of simultaneously processing two wafers at a time, in which a substrate transfer time in the atmosphere does not affect throughput. Provided is a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus which can easily cope with AGV and the like and can also freely cope with substrate management such as 1 cassette / 1 lot, 2 cassettes / 1 lot.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a semiconductor processing apparatus for simultaneously processing two semiconductor substrates under reduced pressure. In the semiconductor processing apparatus, two transfer robots for transporting semiconductor substrates, a vacuum preliminary chamber, a reduced pressure processing chamber, and a storage cassette are provided. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising: a buffer stage capable of accommodating four semiconductor substrates at an intermediate position of movement of a semiconductor substrate in the semiconductor device.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
As is evident from the plan view of FIG.
It has a processing chamber 12 for processing one semiconductor substrate 11, a first vacuum preliminary chamber 13 and a second vacuum preliminary chamber 17, and performs load / unload for these semiconductor substrates 11 in vacuum. In order to perform the operation without using a transfer robot, the apparatus includes a turntable 18 that can be rotated by a motor 24 and can be moved up and down by an elevating device 25 (see FIG. 2), and four stages 16.

The two transfer robots 14 and 15 are arranged in the atmosphere, and one or two cassette stages 20 and 21 for one or two substrate storage cassettes are provided for each transfer robot 14 and 15 respectively. 22 and 23 are also provided in the atmosphere. A buffer stage 19 is provided between the cassette stages 20 to 23 and the first pre-vacuum chamber 13. The buffer stage 19 has a stage on which at least two or more unprocessed semiconductor substrates can be mounted, and a stage on which two or more processed semiconductor substrates are mounted and dissipated heat, and each stage is automatically The structure is such that the semiconductor substrate can be positioned.

FIG. 2 shows a cross section taken along the line AA of FIG.
Particularly, a configuration for loading / unloading the processing chamber 12, the first vacuum auxiliary chamber 13, the second vacuum auxiliary chamber 17, and the semiconductor substrate is disclosed. Four stages 16 are provided on a turntable 18 that is rotated 180 ° by a motor 24 and driven up and down by a lifting device 25. The processing chamber 12 capable of storing two stages each, the first vacuum preliminary chamber 13 and the second vacuum preliminary chamber 17 which can communicate or isolate the processing chamber and the first vacuum preliminary chamber are provided by the elevating device 25. By raising and lowering the table 18, the processing chamber 1
2. The seal between the first vacuum preliminary chamber 13 and the second vacuum preliminary chamber 17 is sealed and released between the lid of the second vacuum preliminary chamber 17 and each stage 16. The processing chamber 12, the first pre-vacuum chamber 13, the second pre-vacuum chamber 17, and the like naturally include various means (not shown) required for decompression, purging, and other semiconductor processing. The top of the first vacuum preliminary chamber 13 forms a lid that can be opened and closed for loading and unloading the semiconductor substrate.

FIG. 3 shows a cross section taken along line BB of FIG.
Particularly, the related configuration between the two transfer robots 14 and 15 and the buffer stage 19 is clarified. As shown in the figure, the buffer stage 19 has a stage that can store four substrates at the same time in a row vertically. For example, the upper two stages include two semiconductor substrates in any one of the cassette stages 20 to 23. Transfer robots 14, 15
Is stored and waited before being carried into the first vacuum preliminary chamber 13 by either of the above. Similarly, on the lower two stages, the processed semiconductor substrate is unloaded from the first vacuum preparatory chamber 13 by the transfer robots 14 and 15, temporarily stored and cooled, and then transferred to one of the cassette stages 20 to 23. Wait until transported and stored.

The cassettes placed on the cassette stages 20 and 21 are loaded / unloaded by the transfer robot 15 and the cassettes placed on the cassette stages 22 and 23 are loaded / unloaded by the transfer robot 14. The load / unload operation can be arbitrarily selected from a single cassette mode and a double cassette mode. In the single cassette mode, two semiconductor substrates are taken out of the cassette placed on the cassette stage 20 or 21 and placed on the buffer stage 19, respectively.

[0013]

One example of the operation procedure in the embodiment of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 will be described in the case of a single cassette mode. At some point during the operation of the apparatus according to the present invention, various kinds of substrate processing are performed in the processing chamber 12 as shown in FIG. 1
3. The second vacuum preliminary chamber 17 and the processing chamber 12 are communicated. After that, the motor 24 is driven to turn the turntable 18 by one.
The substrate is rotated by 80 °, the processed substrate 11 is moved into the first vacuum preliminary chamber 13 in FIG. 1, the unprocessed semiconductor substrate 11 is moved into the processing chamber 12, and then the turntable 18 is raised again by the lifting device. As a result, the second vacuum preliminary chamber 1
A first vacuum auxiliary chamber 13 and a vacuum auxiliary chamber 12 are defined by the upper cover 7 and the upper surface of the stage 16.

Next, the vacuum processing chamber 12 starts further depressurization and various processing steps, purges the interior of the first vacuum preliminary chamber 13 to atmospheric pressure, and then releases the upper cover of the first vacuum preliminary chamber 13 to release the upper lid. The two processed semiconductor substrates are taken out by using the transfer robots 14 and 15 and placed on, for example, the lower two stages of the buffer stage 19. After that, the transfer robots 14 and 15 move
Unprocessed semiconductor substrates are picked up from the stage and loaded on the stage 16 in the first vacuum preliminary chamber 13 respectively.
The upper lid of the vacuum preparatory chamber 13 is closed, and the pressure is further reduced. Meanwhile, various operations and processing steps for processing the substrate are performed in the vacuum processing chamber 12.

Subsequently, the transfer robot 15 takes out the semiconductor substrate to be processed next from the cassette stage 20 during the processing step in the processing chamber 12 and during the depressurization of the first pre-vacuum chamber 13 and is empty. After being sequentially placed on the upper two stages of the buffer stage 19,
The processed semiconductor substrates that have already been radiated in the lower two stages are sequentially transported and stored in the cassette of the cassette stage 20. During this time, the first vacuum spare chamber 13 is
It is reduced to the pressure of.

As soon as the various processing of the semiconductor substrate 11 in the vacuum processing chamber 12 is completed, the lift device 25 is driven to lower the turntable 18 again. The chamber is connected, the turntable 18 is rotated by 180 ° by the motor 24, and the sequence of operations for the next semiconductor substrate is started and these operations are repeated. In this way, the transport and processing proceeds in the order of the cassette stages 20, 21, 22, and 23.

In the single cassette mode, a large number of cassette stages are provided. However, a self-propelled automatic cassette feeding / conveying device such as an AGV supplies a cassette waiting for processing to the apparatus, and a next step of the cassette after processing. It is impossible to fully use the four cassette stages 20 to 23 of FIG. 1 in order to carry the cassette to the empty cassette stage, and an empty cassette stage is provided in the apparatus by operating the apparatus in the single cassette mode described above. There is a need. Without such an apparatus configuration, it is necessary to have a mechanism for exchanging cassettes with another empty cassette stage outside the apparatus, resulting in an increase in cost.

Next, the double cassette mode will be described. In the double cassette mode operation, the removal of the semiconductor substrate from the cassette, the setting to the buffer stage, the removal from the buffer stage, the setting to the first vacuum preliminary chamber 13, and the reverse operation thereof are performed by the transfer robot 1
4, cassette stages 22 and 23, first vacuum preliminary chamber 1
The transfer of the semiconductor substrate between the cassette stages 20 and 21 and the left stage of the vacuum preparatory chamber 13 is performed by the transfer robot 15 between the right position stages 3 and 3. Therefore, it is not suitable for coupling with an AGV, etc.
Since the operation is performed by one robot, the waiting time is minimized, and the highest throughput is obtained.

What is particularly important in the present invention is that, first, in the apparatus of the present invention, the loading / unloading of the substrate between the first vacuum preliminary chamber 13 and the processing chamber 12 is performed by the second vacuum preliminary chamber 17. It is done within. Also the second
In addition, the processed and high-temperature semiconductor substrate is temporarily placed on a part of the buffer stage 19 and cooled (heat radiated) before being stored in the cassette.

Third, an unprocessed substrate on the cassette stage is also transferred to a part of the buffer stage during the processing step and is kept on standby. Then, the cooled substrate is transported from the buffer stage to the cassette stage. That is, the transfer by the robot in the atmosphere between the cassette stage and the buffer stage is performed during the process of processing the semiconductor substrate 11 in the process chamber 12 and the depressurizing process of the pre-vacuum chamber.

[0021]

According to the present invention, in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus equipped with a vacuum preparatory chamber and capable of simultaneously processing two wafers, two substrate transfer robots in the atmosphere and two transfer robots from a cassette to the vacuum preparatory chamber.
A buffer stage that relays the transfer of a single substrate is provided, and a transfer system that does not use a transfer robot in a vacuum for loading / unloading the substrate into the decompression processing chamber is installed, so the transfer operation is stable. In addition, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus can be provided in which the substrate transfer time in the atmosphere does not affect the throughput.

Further, the apparatus according to the present invention can be adapted to AGV or the like by providing a stage for mounting two substrate transfer robots and two or more substrate storage cassettes in the atmosphere.
It is also possible to flexibly manage substrates such as one cassette / one lot and two cassettes / one lot. In addition, by employing the automatic positioning means for the buffer stage, the position of the semiconductor substrate in the processing chamber can be set reliably, and the operation time can be reduced. Further, by effectively utilizing the buffer stage, it was possible to rationalize the transfer of the semiconductor substrate and to prevent the waiting time for storing the processed semiconductor substrate in the cassette from affecting the throughput.

[0023]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an outline of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus taken along line AA of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line BB of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view showing an example of a conventionally known semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view showing another example of a conventionally known semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view showing still another example of a conventionally known semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11, 31 Semiconductor substrate 12, 32 Semiconductor processing chamber 13, 33 First vacuum preliminary chamber 14, 15, 34 Transfer robot 16, 36 Substrate stage 17, 37 Second vacuum preliminary chamber 19, 39 Buffer stage 20-23 Cassette stage 24 Motor 25 Lifting device GV Gate valve

Claims (3)

[Claims] In a semiconductor processing apparatus for simultaneously processing two semiconductor substrates under reduced pressure, two transfer robots for transporting semiconductor substrates and two or more semiconductor substrates for loading and unloading are simultaneously stored. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, comprising: a buffer stage that can be used; and a cassette stage for storing two or more semiconductor substrate storage cassettes in the atmosphere; 2. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a first pre-vacuum chamber and a second pre-vacuum chamber, wherein the semiconductor substrate is loaded and unloaded in the first pre-vacuum chamber. 3. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the buffer stage is capable of performing automatic alignment and temperature adjustment of the semiconductor substrate.