JPS5860552A - Vertical-type automatic plasma processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To process numerous wafers continuously and automatically and to make a device compact, by putting wafers in a chamber without fail by no hand labor. CONSTITUTION:A plasma generating chamber 2 is arranged in the vertical direction in the main body 1 of a device, while a wafer holding body 34 which can hold numerous wafers 3 is supported in the chamber 2 in such a manner that it can be inserted in and removed from the chamber. The wafers are taken out of a wafer containing cassette 8 one by one and conveyed by a first conveyor member 13. They are taken out therefrom one by one and sent to a second conveyor member 16 which is made movable in the direction of the wafer holding body 34, and then are conveyed continuously into the wafer holding body 34 by the second conveyor member. Moreover, a cover body 29 is elevated by driving a motor 32, the opening part at the lower end of the plasma generating chamber 2 is covered therewith, and thus the inside thereof is sealed up. Thereafter, the inside of the chamber 2 is put in the state of vacuum by a vacuum pump, plasma is generated, and then an etching, cleaning or ashing processing is performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is applicable to the etching and cleaning of semiconductor urchins used in the manufacture of chips forming large integrated circuits such as LSIs and ultra-LSIs, or to the ashing (ashing) of photoresist layers on the surface of wafers. Among plasma processing apparatuses used for peeling, etc., the present invention particularly relates to a vertical automatic plasma processing apparatus in which a plasma generation chamber is installed vertically.

Generally, in order to manufacture a chip with a large integrated circuit such as an LSI, there is a step of etching an insulating film, a semiconductor film, or a metal film through a resist film formed with a fine pattern on a semiconductor wafer, and a step of cleaning the film. Additionally, an ashing step is required to remove the resist film used for etching from the wafer surface.

Conventionally, each of the above steps has been carried out by wet processing using various liquid chemicals such as inorganic acids and organic solvents. There is a problem with low accuracy. Particularly in recent years, with the development of VLSIs, patterns have become increasingly finer, and it has become impossible to use conventional wet processing to manufacture such VLSIs.

For this reason, there is now a shift to dry processing using plasma, which has high processing accuracy, and various plasma processing apparatuses for performing this dry processing have been proposed.

However, many plasma processing apparatuses are simply equipped with a chamber for plasma generation, and wafers are moved in and out of the chamber exclusively by hand.

For example, remove one wafer from an unprocessed wafer storage cassette.
Each wafer is taken out and transferred to a wafer jig made of quartz or aluminum using a bin set.As a result, production yields are extremely low due to wafer chips, cracks, falling wafers due to poor holding, and contamination. As the wafer diameter increases from 4 inches to 5 inches to 6 inches, the above-mentioned drawbacks increase.Furthermore, the temperature becomes high during plasma processing, so manual removal after processing must be avoided. As a matter of fact, work efficiency is extremely low.

As an automatic plasma processing apparatus that overcomes this disadvantage, there is an apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 53-90870, but this apparatus has an extremely complicated structure and the plasma generation chamber is installed horizontally. For this reason, the area occupied by the device itself becomes large, making it impossible to make it more compact.

In view of the above-mentioned conventional technical problems, the present inventors have created the present invention to effectively solve the problems. An object of the present invention is to provide a vertical automatic plasma processing apparatus that can perform automatic processing and can be made compact.

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention arranges a plasma generation chamber vertically within an apparatus main body, and a wafer holder capable of holding a large number of wafers can be freely inserted into and removed from the plasma generation chamber. At the same time, the first conveying member takes out each wafer from the wafer storage cassette and sends them out, and at the same time, the first conveying member takes out each wafer and sends them out to the second conveying member which is movable in the direction of the wafer holder. The gist of this apparatus is that the wafer is fed into the wafer holder by two conveying members, and the tip end of the first conveying member is located near the base end of the second conveying member.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a vertical automatic plasma apparatus according to the present invention, and numeral 1 in the figure is a roughly box-shaped apparatus main body. Inside this device body 1, a cylindrical plasma generation chamber 2 made of quartz is arranged vertically, that is, with the axis of the chamber 2 in the vertical direction.The upper end of the chamber 2 is closed and the lower end is open. By doing so, the semiconductor wafer 3 is loaded into and taken out from the chamber 2 through the opening. Further, an electrode plate is fixed to the outer periphery of the chamber 2, and a high frequency is applied by a high frequency power source 4 provided within the main body 1.

In addition, an overhang 5 is attached to the lower front half of the main body 1, various operation buttons 7 are attached to the upper surface 6 of the overhang 5, and semiconductor wafers 3 are attached to the left and right ends of the upper surface 6. There are storage cassettes 8, 8 that can store 25 sheets of . This storage cassette 8 is made up of two plates 8a+8a made of aluminum or Teflon, which face each other and whose upper ends are connected by rods 8b, 8b.As shown in FIG. 2, the lower end of one plate 8a is angled. The storage cassette 8 is placed on a supporting member 9 having a shape of
moves downward into the overhanging portion 5 through the hole 1o formed in the
Moreover, it is adapted to be lifted upward from the overhanging portion 5.

And on the inner surface of the plate body 8a that constitutes the storage cassette 8,
As shown in Fig. 3, the protrusions 11 are arranged at regular intervals in the horizontal direction.
are provided, and the end of the wafer 3 is secured to the shoulder formed by the protrusions 11.

An opening 12 extending in the left-right direction is formed in the center of the upper surface 6 of the overhang, and a pair of first conveying members 13, 13 are disposed within this opening 12.

That is, the conveying member 13 is constituted by an endless belt, the base end 13a of which is located below the storage cassette 8, and the distal end 13b of each conveying member 13.13.

13b are spaced apart from each other and face each other at the center of the upper surface 6. Further, the upper surface of the endless belt, which is the conveying member 13, protrudes slightly above the upper surface 6 of the overhanging portion, so that when the storage cassette 8 is lowered, the lowermost cassette 3 rests on the endless belt.

Further, an opening 14 is formed in the upper surface 6 of the overhanging portion and extends rearward and is continuous with the opening 12, and the proximal end portion is located within this opening 14 between the light leakage portions 13b, 13b of the conveying member 13.13. , an opening 15 whose tip portion is formed in the front surface of the main body 1
A second conveying member 16 is provided which enters into the main body 1 from above.

This second conveying member 16 includes a lifting member 17 and an arm member 1.
8, the elevating member 17 is approximately plate-shaped, and its base end is connected to the first conveying member 1 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4.
Cylinder unit 21 located within a channel-shaped support block 20 that supports the pulley 19.
is fixed to the rod 22 and is moved up and down by the operation of the cylinder unit 21, and when the rod 22 is retracted, the top surface of the lifting member 17 is located slightly lower than the top surface of the first conveying member 13. It looks like this. A window 23 is bored at the base end of the elevating member 17, and a roller 24 is fitted into this window 23, so that the wafer 3 transferred on the first conveying member 13 is transferred to the elevating member 17. This allows for easy transfer to the top.

Further, endless belts 25.degree. 25 are attached to both sides of the elevating member 17, so that Ueno-3 is transported along the upper surface of the elevating member 17.

An arm member 18.18 is provided adjacent to the outside of the endless bell 1-25.25. Arm member 18
As shown in FIG. 2, a rod-shaped portion 18b extends from the upper end of the rectangular base end 18a, and is movable on a guide rail 27 by casters 26 attached to the lower end of the base end 18a.

As shown in FIG. 2, two guide rods 28, 28 are set up on the bottom surface of the main body 1, and the lid 29 of the plasma generation chamber ''-2 is slid onto these guide rods 28°=28. A male threaded portion is formed on the lid body 29, a rod 30 is screwed through the rod 30, and the gear 31 fitted to the lower end of the rod 30 is fixedly attached to the bottom surface of the main body 1. A gear 33 of a motor 32 is engaged with the cover body 29 so that the lid body 29 moves up and down along the guide rods 28 and 2B by driving the motor 32.

Furthermore, a wafer holder 34 is provided upright on the upper surface of the lid 29. This wafer holder 34 has four points)"3
4a, 34b, 34c, and 34d, and a member 34e that connects the upper ends of these rods, the rods 34a and 34b are located at both ends of the bottom side of the trapezoid when viewed from the plane, and the rods 34c and 34d are located at both ends of the upper side of the trapezoid. It has a shape that is located at .

And each No.07)”34 a, 34bl 34
In this embodiment, 50 grooves 35, into which the end portions of the utensils 1-3 fit, are formed at equal intervals in the vertical direction on the inner side of the grooves 34d and 34d. Thus, the Ueno-3 placed between the tips of the arm members 18 and 18 is
The wafer holder 3 is moved by the movement of the arm member 18.18.
The wafer 3 is held by the wafer holder 34 by being fed into the wafer 4 and having its end portion locked in the upper groove 35 .

The operation of the vertical automatic plasma apparatus constructed as described above will be described below.

First, when the left cassette 8 containing 25 wafers 3 is lowered slightly, the lowest one of the wafers 3 stored in the cassette 8 is transferred to the first transport member 13. It is placed on top and then sent out by the conveying member 13. And the tip portion 13b of the conveying member 13
The wafer 3 that has been transported up to this point is transferred onto the elevating member 17 that constitutes a part of the second transport member 16. Then, the cylinder unit 21 is actuated by the limit switch, and the elevating member 17 is slightly raised, and at the same time, the endless belts 25 and 25 are driven to convey the wafer 3 to the tip of the elevating member 17.

Then, when the wafer 3 reaches the tip of the lifting member, the driving of the endless belt 25, 25 is stopped by the Mitswitch, and then the lifting member 17 is slightly lowered to its original position.

Then, the wafer 3 is transferred to the tip of the arm member 18.18, and the arm member 18.18 is further transferred to the wafer holder 3.
Move towards 4. As a result, Ueno-3 is Ueno-3.
- the rod 34a+ of the holder is fed into the holder 34;
34b.

Both parts are engaged with grooves 35 formed in 34c and 34d. In this case, Ueno-3 is located at the lowest position in the wafer holder 34.
It will be held at the top of the page.

Next, by driving the motor 32, the Ueno-holding body 34 is raised by one step, that is, the distance between the grooves 35..., and the Ueno-3 is separated from the tip of the arm member 18.18.
The arm member also moves back to its original position, and the device returns to its initial state.

After this, the left cassette 8 descends one stage to send out the second wafer, and the wafer is placed in the second groove of the wafer holder 34 by the same action as described above. hold it. In this way, the wafers 3... are sequentially fed into the wafer holder 34, and once all the wafers 1- in the left cassette are stored in the holder 34, it is time to move the wafers 3... into the wafer holder 34. The wafers are held in the wafer holder 34 in the same manner, and finally 50 wafers are fed into the holder 34.

-Then, the motor 32 is further driven to raise the lid 29, closing the lower end opening of the plasma generation chamber 2 and sealing the inside, and then evacuating the chamber 2 with a vacuum pump to generate plasma. Perform embossment, etching, cleaning or ashing treatment.

After plasma treatment has been performed for a predetermined period of time, the motor 3
2 to lower the wafer holder 34 until the lowest wafer 3 in the wafer holder 34 is at a position slightly higher than the upper end of the arm member 18.18. The arm member 18.18 is then moved toward the holder 34 so that the tip of the arm member is positioned directly below the wafer at the bottom. Then, by further driving the motor 32, the holder is lowered, the Ueno-- is placed on the arm member, and the Uno-- is housed in the cassette 8 by the reverse operation. Thereafter, the plasma treatment is completed by the same action.

Note that the above is just one embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the above. For example, in the illustrated example, the second conveying member 16 is connected to the lifting member 17 and the arm member 18.
However, the second conveyance member can also be constituted by a single member that performs both the lifting and lowering operations and the moving operation toward the wafer holder.

Although an endless belt is shown as the first conveying member, the present invention is not limited to this, and the wafers may be sent out by a swing motion, and furthermore, a motor and a rod may be combined as the lifting means instead of using a cylinder. Good too.

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention.

A wafer holder capable of holding a large number of wafers is provided so that it can be inserted into and removed from a plasma generation chamber arranged vertically within the main body of the apparatus, while a cassette capable of storing a large number of wafers is attached to the main body of the apparatus. A first conveying member for taking out and conveying the wafer stored in the cassette is provided in the main body of the apparatus, and further, the base end is located near the distal end of the first conveying member and the wafer is Since the wafer is fed into the wafer holder by the second transport member that is movable toward the holder, the wafer can be reliably loaded into the chamber without manual work.
Work efficiency can be greatly improved, there is no risk of damaging the wafer during work, and product yield can be improved.

The mechanism of the present invention is extremely simple, and
Since the bar is vertical, it has great effects such as making the entire device more compact.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a vertical automatic plasma processing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the internal mechanism of the apparatus, and FIG. This figure is a side view showing a part of the wafer storage cassette, and FIG. 4 is a front view showing the main part of the wafer transport mechanism. In the drawings, 1 is a main body of the apparatus, 2 is a plasma generation chamber, 3 is a wafer, 8 is a wafer storage cassette, 13 is a first transport member, 16 is a second transport member, and 34 is a wafer holder. Patent Applicant Tokyo Denshi Kagaku Co., Ltd. Agent Patent Attorney 2 1) Part 1 Patent Attorney Kuni Ohashi Onma Patent Attorney Yu Koyama

Claims (1)

[Claims] A plasma generation chamber arranged vertically inside the main body of the apparatus, a wafer holder that can hold a large number of wafers and can be inserted into and removed from the chamber, and a wafer storage cassette that holds each wafer one by one. A first conveyance member that takes out and sends out the wafer, and a proximal end portion of the first conveyance member that is located near the distal end portion of the first conveyance member to feed the wafer sent out by the first conveyance member into the wafer holder; The second part is movable toward the holding body.
A vertical automatic plasma processing device consisting of a conveying member.