JPS59116372A - Continuous vacuum treatment apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a titled apparatus which enables pressure setting and releasing to the atm. for every treatment station and improves operating efficiency by the constitution wherein an evacuation port is provided to each of plural units of the treatment stations in a vacuum chamber and the evacuation ports are hermetically closed by a mechanism for holding an object to be treated. CONSTITUTION:Plural units of treatment stations, such as a baking station 9a provided with a wafer baking heater 16, and a sputtering station 9b provided with an electrode 20 for sputtering, are provided in a vacuum chamber 1 provided with an evacuation means 2 of a continuous vacuum treatment device, and a wafer holder 7 carrying a wafer 5 is conveyed by a transfer plate 4 turned by a driving motor 18 and the wafer 5 is successively and continuously treated. Said holder 7 is moved vertically by an air cylinder 17 to close independently and hermetically the hermetic spaces 12a, 12b of the treatment station by means of o-rings 21, whereby the setting of the operation conditions for pressure, etc. and the releasing to the atm. are accomplished without giving any influence to the inside of the chamber 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to an apparatus for continuously and sequentially processing a large number of objects to be processed in a pure or diluted gas.

[Prior art]

For example, in a wiring film forming process that is one of the LSI manufacturing processes, a large number of wafers are sequentially sputtered in a diluted gas. This sputtering is 101~10P
In this method, a wafer is placed near an anode in a dilute gas of about 300 yen (usually human gas), and a glow discharge is caused by using the film-forming material as a cathode.

In order to easily carry out the above sputtering process with high efficiency, a continuous sputtering apparatus as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 has conventionally been used.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the general structure of the device, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line 1--2 of the above figure.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a vacuum chamber equipped with exhaust means and gas introduction means (both not shown), which includes a loading/unloading station 27, a ueno/bake station, and a snow! An ivy etch station 29 and two sputter stations 30 and 30' are arranged in a circle. Wafers, which are the objects to be processed, are carried into the vacuum chamber ■ from the loading/unloading station n, and are conveyed in the order of station path 29, 30, 30', and then loading/unloading station n.
It is carried out from the take-out station 27. During the above transfer, the wafers are placed at the wafer bake station y for approximately 3QQ.
Heat the wafer to a temperature of 30°C to remove moisture, then remove the oxidation by etching the wafer H surface with a stainless steel 29° C.
A film-forming process by suction is carried out when passing through '.

The cross section of Fig. 2 shows the intake/unloading station 27 and the
Tsuta Stay/Con 3o is appearing. l-j: A disk-shaped transfer plate, in which five openings 4a (only two are shown) are bored to accommodate the wafers 5. This transfer rate 4b has a structure in which it is rotationally driven by a gear 18 via a chain 35, and is reciprocated up and down by an air cylinder 17a.

The pressure grate is installed on top of the transfer plate 4, facing B, and is connected to the air cylinder 17.
It is reciprocated up and down by b.

The loading/unloading station 27 has two doors 31.
．． 32 are provided so that they can be opened and closed alternately.

The above-mentioned door 31 is a loader door for loading the wafer, and is provided with a vacuum chuck 33 for sucking the wafer 5. When the door 31 is opened as shown in the figure and the wafer 5 is sucked and held and the door is closed, the The sea urchin . . 5 is inserted into the opening 4 a of the transfer plate 4 . The wafer 5 is held by a pawl 6 provided in the opening 4a, and the vacuum chuck 33 is released to complete the wafer loading. After that, the vacuum chamber 1 is sealed by the door 32.

The above-mentioned sputtering station 30 has a Snow e-vine electrode 2.
0 is set.

To use the conventional continuous sputtering equipment shown in this figure,
The air cylinder 17a pushes down the transfer rate 4, and the air cylinder 17b presses the pressure rate 34.
is pushed down, and the transfer plate 4 is compressed between it and the bottom surface of the vacuum chamber 1. Then, the door 32
Even if the door is opened, the opening 132 of the loading/unloading station 27
7a is sealed by a pressure grate 34 via a transfer plate 4, and the space A in the vacuum chamber 1 is kept airtight.

21 is an O-ring for sealing.

After closing the loader door 31 holding the wafer 5 by suction and transferring the wafer 5 to the transfer rate 4, the loader door 31 is opened and the lock door; 32 is closed and the loading/unloading station 27 is evacuated.
4 and release the clamping pressure of the transfer plate 4. After removing the upper part of the transfer plate 4 and separating it from the vacuum chamber 1, the transfer plate 4 is rotated. As a result, the wafer 5 stored in the opening 4a of the transfer plate 4 is
It is sequentially transported to each station. The wafers that have passed through each of the stages/gins 29, 30, and 30' shown in FIG.

As can be easily understood from its structure and function, the conventional continuous snow vine device described above has two main functions: wafer baking,
The two-step etching process and the hisshat ring process are performed in the same vacuum chamber 1 in a common pressure atmosphere (for example, an Ar gas atmosphere of several milliTorr). For this reason, there are technical defects such as shortages.

(b) It is not possible to set the optimum pressure for the processing performed at each station. (b) Accidents occurring during processing at each station mutually affect other stations. For example, moisture evaporated in the bake station flows into the sputtering station, causing an adverse effect such as degrading the quality of the formed film.

In the EL S-ZOTSUTA station, the target consisting of the film-forming material is consumed and must be replaced with a new target as needed. However, when the vacuum chamber 1 is opened to the atmosphere for target replacement, Since the entire chamber 1 is exposed to the atmosphere, it becomes contaminated with moisture in the atmosphere, and it takes time to evacuate the inside of the chamber 1 again to the high vacuum required for film formation.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to be able to set the pressure for each processing station, and to allow only a specific processing station to be released to the atmosphere. It is an object of the present invention to provide a continuous vacuum processing apparatus capable of keeping a processing station hermetically sealed and shortening the time required for restarting operation. The present invention is applicable not only to wafer sputtering processing, but also to a wide range of continuous processing in vacuum or diluted gas.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a chamber for maintaining a vacuum atmosphere, an evacuation means for evacuating the inside of the chamber on board the ship, and a means for introducing gas into the chamber. In the vacuum processing apparatus, a plurality of processing stations are provided in the above-mentioned chamber, a means for sequentially conveying the workpiece to the plurality of processing stages/containers is provided, and For each stage/jin,
The present invention is characterized in that it is configured such that an independent sealed space can be formed by the transport means and the wall of the processing station.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

This embodiment is an example in which the present invention is applied and improved to the conventional continuous stream/vine device described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. The schematic diagram of this embodiment is the first one in the conventional device.
Since it is the same as the figure, illustration is omitted. FIG. 3 is a sectional view of this embodiment taken along a plane corresponding to the n--plane in FIG.

In FIG. 3, 2 is an exhaust means provided on the bottom of the vacuum chamber 1, 19 is a vacuum pump, and 3 is a pipe for introducing leak gas.

Of the plurality of processing stations provided in the vacuum chamber 1, this cross-section has a baking processing station (B
) 9a and a processing station for sputtering (S) 9
b appears. 16 is a heater for baking, and 16 is an electrode for sputtering.

The above station (B) 9a and station (S) 9b each have a cylindrical wall 11 with a crest and no bottom.
The vacuum chamber 1 is connected directly to the top surface of the vacuum chamber 1 and is airtightly fixed. These stations 9a and 9b are provided with exhaust pipes 13a and 13b, and leakage pipes 15a and 15a, respectively.
15b for communication. The processing station (S) 9bK for Ar gas is connected to the gas supply 14 for communication with the Ar gas injection process.

The transfer plate 4' of this embodiment is a conventional device (second
Although this member corresponds to the transfer plate 4 in FIG. 2, it does not include the pre-sunya plate 34 and is configured to be rotationally driven by the motor 18. This transfer plate 4' is a processing station (BJ
9-+ and U processing y, Tene F 7 (S) A stepped through hole 8 is provided at a position opposite to 9-2, and a Ueno holder plate 7 is slidably fitted into the large diameter part of the upper stage. match. 6 is a Ueno holder provided on the Ueno holder grate 7 mentioned above. The above wafer holder grade 7B,
It is a member that performs one function of holding the sea urchin 5 via the wafer holder 6 and rotating together with the rotation of the transfer plate 4' to convey the sea urchin 5.

Then, the piston rod 10 of the air cylinder 17 is slidably fitted into the small diameter portion of the lower stage of the stepped through hole 8, and this piston rod IO is inserted into and removed from the stepped through hole 8 as it expands and contracts. Configure it so that

As a result, when the piston rod 10 is extended and the sea urchin holder plate 7 is pushed up, the sea urchin holder plate 7 comes into contact with the lower end of the cylindrical wall 11 of the processing station, as shown in this figure. Processing station (S) 9
An independent closed space 12b is formed within b.

This figure depicts a state in which the wafer holder grate 7 of the processing station (B) 9a is lowered and the internal space 12a communicates with the internal space A of the vacuum chamber 1. When the holder grate 7 is pushed up, it becomes a sealed space.

Figure 4 shows one loading/unloading station 27' and one loading/unloading station 27'.
A processing station (B) 9a for basic baking, and one processing station 9C for Suhatsuta etching,! :, 1
;$41/4' Ivy processing station (S) 9
b is an example of a piping system diagram of the continuous vacuum processing apparatus of the present invention provided with a gutter; Otsu is Ar for process use, Sae is N2 gas pipe for leakage, 5 is cryopump, 26
is a rotary pong, and 22 is a noggle.

Next, the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 will be explained.

With the air/ring 17 fully deflated and the wafer hole fv~door lowered, turn the transfer plate 4' with
When the eyes are closed, the wafer holder grate 7 places the sea urchins 5 on them and rotates together, sequentially transporting the sea urchins 5 to the next processing station. When a plurality of wafer holder grates 7 are each placed in the center F of the processing station and the air cylinder 17 is extended, the wafer holder grate 7 is pushed up and the cylindrical wall 1 of the processing station/con is pushed up.
It sticks to the bottom edge of 1. For this reason, each processing step
Spaces 12 a and 12 b inside a and 9 b are independent sealed spaces, respectively. Su・ which does not appear in this figure! The treatment station for ivy etch is also sealed in the same manner as described above.

As mentioned above, each processing station is formed with an independent closed space, so that the pressure can be reduced to the optimum vacuum level for the processing station 1g via the exhaust pipes 13a and 13b, and Ar can be pumped through the 7" process gas pipe 14. Optimum 70-hole process conditions can be set for each processing station by injecting a

In addition, even if the sea urchin 1 is heated in the processing station for sea urchin (BJea) to release moisture, there is a risk that water vapor may flow into the processing station for sputtering (S) 9b and have an adverse effect. None.

Furthermore, when the sputtering processing station is opened to the atmosphere to replace the target, which is the film forming material, the air can be evacuated in a short time at a location other than the sputtering processing station (S) 9b.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, process conditions can be set for each processing station, and furthermore, only a specific processing station can be exposed to the atmosphere while other processing stations are kept sealed and operated. The time required for restarting can be shortened.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a continuous sputtering device, FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of a conventional continuous sputtering device, and FIG. FIG. 4, which is a cross-sectional view of the device, is a piping system diagram of a continuous S/P ivy device, which is a different embodiment from the above. 1...vacuum chamber, 2...exhaust means, 3...+)
- gas introduction/flat ignition, 4, 4'... transfer rate, 4a, opening, 5... wafer, 609. Tsume,
7.9. Sea urchin 7, holder grate, 8... stepped through hole, 9
a... Hair treatment station FB), 9b...
Processing station for sputtering (S), 10... piston m, 11... cylindrical wall of processing station, 12a,
12b...closed space, 13a. 13b... Exhaust pipe, 14... Process gas pipe, 1; 5... Leak gas introduction pipe, 16... Wafer bake heater, 17... Air/ring, 18... Drive Motor, ]9...f pump, 20...X y4 ivy electrode, 21...01Jng. Agent Patent Attorney Tadashi Akimoto Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a vacuum processing apparatus provided with a chamber for maintaining a vacuum atmosphere, an evacuation means for evacuating the inside of the chamber, and a means for introducing gas into the chamber, a plurality of A processing station is provided, a means for transporting the object to be processed to the plurality of processing stations is provided, and a @ structure for holding the object to be processed is provided, and for each of the plurality of processing stations. The holding mechanism is equipped with a movable mechanism so that the holding mechanism and the wall of the processing station can form independent sealed spaces, and each independent sealed space has an independent exhaust port. Continuous vacuum processing equipment with a sophisticated configuration and a metal material machine.