JPS5980927A - Epitaxial growth device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute a gas piping and the changeover of a gas easily and accurately by circularly fixing and arranging a plurality of small-sized chambers each encasing one wafer, partially covering the chambers with an arcuate heating furnace covering a plurality of the chambers, making the heating furnace travel on a circular and heating the chambers in succession. CONSTITUTION:Chamber groups (a), (a)... are supplied with the gas in response to the uniform motion of the heating furnace 12. A wafer exchanger 13 loads and unloads a series of wafers in opposition to the chamber a4 until the chamber a1 enters into the heating furnace 12 again after it leaves from the furnace. When the chamber a1 enters into the heating furnace 12, a temperature rise is started, the chamber is elevated up to a fixed temperature required after a fixed time passes, and a vapor etching gas is fed to clean the surface of the wafers 1 by the gas. The supply of said gas is changed over to that of a reactive gas and epitaxial growth operation is started, the chamber a1 advances close by the outlet of the heating furnace 12 when said operation is completed, H2 gas and N2 gas are fed from the outlet and the temperature of the chamber drops, and the chamber is discharged from the heating furnace 12.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field The present invention relates to an epitaxial growth apparatus for semiconductor quadrature. More specifically, the present invention relates to an epitaxial growth apparatus for semiconductor quadrature. This invention relates to a leaf type continuous epitaxial growth device.

BACKGROUND TECHNOLOGY A currently used batch processing type apparatus for forming an epitaxial growth layer of silicon single crystal on the surface of a semiconductor quafer (hereinafter simply referred to as a "quafer") is performed by storing almost a tire number of quafers in the same room. It is. The two representative sides of this are explained in Figure 7 and Figure 2.
The horizontal epitaxial growth apparatus shown in the figure has a plurality of quafers (1
)+11... were placed on seven rectangular flat susceptors (2), and placed in a horizontally extending reactor core tube (4) with the susceptor holder (3) tilted, and Heat the quafer (13111...) with suitable heating means and flow the gas (5) such as 5in4, S i O / 2 + H2, etc. necessary for epitaxial growth from one end to the other end in the furnace tube (4). The gas (5) is in the reactor core tube (4).
) to undergo thermal decomposition or reduction reaction to produce multiple Quaha+111
11... An epitaxial growth layer is formed on top.

The vertical epitaxial growth apparatus shown in FIG.
..., and place the susceptor (6) on the dome-shaped bell jar (
7) Do not enclose it inside and rotate it.
+... is a device that forms an epitaxial growth layer on a plurality of quail f1+... by spouting a desired gas (5) from the central opening (6) of a susceptor (6). . Since the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 rotates the quafers +1+fl+ during the epitaxial growth operation, it is possible to form a more uniform epitaxial growth layer than in the apparatus shown in FIG.

Each of the above-mentioned devices epitaxially grows a plurality of quafers simultaneously in the same room, which increases throughput, but due to patch processing, some variation in quality inevitably occurs. Furthermore, as a recent trend, the diameter of the quafer is increasing in order to obtain more semiconductor pellets from each quafer. For example, conventional quafer diameters were about 1 to 2 inches, but recently, quafers with diameters exceeding 5 inches have appeared as needed. Due to the enlargement of the Quafer diameter, each of the above devices has a susceptor (21, (61
There is a tendency for the processing capacity to decrease as the number of quafers placed on top decreases, and as a countermeasure to this, susceptors (2+, +61
It is conceivable to increase the number of Quafers to prevent a reduction in the number of Quafers loaded on the tower, but this is not preferable because it increases the variation in quality.

In addition, as a good measure for increasing the diameter of the wafers, there are single-wafer types in which the wafers are placed in an independent epitaxial growth chamber for epitaxial growth, and wafers are placed on a belt conveyor in heating chambers and paper etching. Conveyor-type continuous processing systems have been considered, in which the gas passes through each chamber in sequence, such as an epitaxial growth chamber or a cooling chamber, but conveyor-type systems have many difficult problems, such as measures to prevent gas leakage, and have not yet been tested. stage),
In addition, the following types can be considered as single-leaf types. ff1J
In addition, multiple chambers with the means necessary for epitaxial growth other than heated flat films (gas filled and exhausted flat films, support means for quays, etc.) are installed on the rail, and seven quays are placed in each chamber. Then, each chamber is sequentially sent into a heating furnace that is fixed in an area that straddles a long part of the rail, and while it is running in the heating furnace, heating, vapor etching, epitaxial growth, temperature cooling, etc. are performed sequentially, and the heating is performed. This is a device that unloads and reloads the quake after it is carved into the chamber that exits the furnace, and then sends it out to the heating furnace again. This type of single-wafer type is able to cope with larger quaternary diameters, and has the advantage of uniform quality. However, in the above-mentioned process, the chamber moves, so the gas system that sends the necessary gas to the chamber and exhausts it is required. Piping, various gas switching, etc.
It is complicated and impractical.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a single-wafer continuous type epitaxial growth apparatus 'f' which is an improvement on the single-wafer type described above and has a fixed chamber and a movable heating furnace, thereby reducing the usability.

The feature of the present invention is that a chamber group in which a plurality of small chambers for storing seven Quafers are fixedly arranged in a circular shape is partially covered with an arc-shaped heating furnace that covers a plurality of continuous chambers, and the heating furnace is connected to the chamber group. to run on a circular trajectory along a circular trajectory to successively heat each chamber of the chamber group, and to perform a series of operations necessary for quaeno exchange on the chambers of the gIS that have come out of the heating furnace. It is. By doing this, the gas piping and gas switching of the chamber can be done easily and accurately, and the advantage of the single wafer type is that it is easy to cope with the increase in the diameter of the Quafer and the quality is uniform. BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 7 pieces of quaha 1l)t”
A small chamber (I4) for storing and epitaxial growth
) are fixedly arranged in a continuous circular manner, and an automatic Quafer exchanger 0 fathom is installed in the center of this. The heating furnace 02 has less than N of the chamber group (10), for example, (N-J') consecutive chambers (a) (&).
It is approximately U-shaped in cross section and covers the chamber group (lO
) along a circular track to reach the inner chamber (
a) (a)... is heated one after another to the required temperature and then cooled down.

The quaternary exchanger (13) is a robot that rotates in synchronization with the temperature of the heating furnace θ and automatically loads and unloads necessary wafers into the chamber (a) that has come out of the heating furnace (chamber (a)).

N chambers (IL) (a)... are each independent and have the same structure, and seven specific examples are shown in Figure 5. (I) is a fixed box, and θ5) and 08) are Fixed box Ht The susceptor holder and gas supply pipe that penetrate and protrude upwards (+7) are fixed with a dome-shaped transparent quartz bell jar that surrounds the susceptor holder 05) and the gas supply pipe Ql19 to create the necessary work space. It is removably mounted on the box circle via a seal ring Q8). (+9)
is a disk-shaped susceptor supported by a susceptor holder (+5), and seven quakers (11) are placed on it. The susceptor is a gas exhaust pipe that exhausts the gas supplied to the bell jar +171. (21) The susceptor holder 05) is appropriately rotated by a motor. For example, in each chamber (&) (&), ..., N2, N2 gas, and paper etching gas (
H2+HO/etc.) and a reaction gas (gas necessary for epitaxial growth) are supplied.

Heating furnace (1'4 is a reflective plate with a grooved cross section is fixed inside the frame frame made of heat insulating material with a U-shaped cross section.
For example, a plurality of infrared lamps (21) are mounted in a predetermined arrangement along the inner surface of the lamp. Each fixed box f of this heating furnace (121 is a chamber group (a) (IL)...
141 (141... one concentric circular rail laid on <251 Power can be supplied to each lamp (product) □□□) from the rail (25) via a slip ring or the like.

Quafer exchange 1Q3), a rotary table that rotates as one with the ore heating furnace (12), two carriers t28i @9) for storing and storing unprocessed and processed quafers on the ore heating furnace (12), and a 7 Belljar (a) with two chambers (a)
In addition to the arm work that carries out a series of operations such as lifting up the belljar 17) and lowering it again, while the belljar 07) is being lifted up, the processed quaternary 141 is taken out from the susceptor (1) and carried to one of the carriers (29). It is equipped with a means for taking out a new quafer (11) before processing from another carrier (281) and transporting it to the susceptor (+9), a leaning means necessary for this exchanging means, and various safety measures.

Next, the operation of the above device will be described in detail. Chamber group 110
The timing of gas supply to each chamber (width...
The two chambers (a) will be explained with reference to FIG. During the time when the chamber (a□) leaves the heating furnace 021 and is reheated as shown in FIGS. g
! A facing chamber (&1) K performs a series of loading and unloading F operations. This work includes, for example, starting the clean air curtain, unlocking the belljar clamp, belljar θη and its MU, lifting the belljar, confirming the presence or absence of the quaker, chucking the quaver (using a vacuum chuck, etc.), taking out and storing the quake, and susceptor (19). ) cleaning with vacuum and N2 gas on the box (+41
Cleaning of the top, taking out the quafer from the carrier and supplying it to the susceptor (+9), lowering and locking the bell jar (+?), filling with N2 gas and checking for leaks, stopping the air curtain, etc. When the chamber (&) enters the heating furnace zero as shown in Figure 2 (c), the temperature starts to rise, and after a certain period of time the temperature rises to the required constant temperature (see Figure 2), vapor etching gas is supplied. Then, the surface of the Quafer 11) is gas-cleaned. Then, from the point in time (e) in Figure 2, the supply of reaction gas is switched to the epitaxial growth operation, which starts from the 11th stage, and when this is completed, the 2nd stage
As shown in the figure, the bell jar (A) comes near the outlet of the heating furnace (I), from which 132 gas and N2 gas are supplied and enters the cooling section, and when the temperature has cooled down sufficiently, the heating furnace (L)
come out from each other. Thereafter, the above operations are repeated in succession.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments. For example, the heating method of the heating furnace H can be a high-frequency induction heating method, but the above-mentioned lamp method is preferable because the temperature rises and falls quickly, the equipment is simple, and it is inexpensive. As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily cope with increasing the diameter of the quaker, and by adopting the heating furnace moving method, the piping that is the gas supply and exchange means for the bell jar group is simple, and the problem of gas leakage can be avoided. Therefore, a highly reliable and practical single-wafer type continuous epitaxial growth apparatus can be provided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 2 are schematic views showing two sides of a conventional epitaxial growth apparatus, FIGS. 3 and 7 are plan views and front views showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. - An enlarged X-ray sectional view, Figure g is a piping diagram showing an example of gas piping of the apparatus in Figure 3, and Figure 2 is a schematic plan view of each operation to explain the operation of the apparatus in Figure 3. . +11 e・Semiconductor Quafer, 1lojJ・Chamber group, (a)・Chamber, 02)・Heating furnace, Q turbidity・・
Quaha exchange machine. Figure 1-12

Claims (1)

[Claims] +1) An annular chamber group consisting of a plurality of small chambers, each of which houses seven semiconductor wafers and is equipped with means necessary for epitaxial growth other than a heating means, fixedly arranged in a circular shape, and a plurality of consecutive chamber groups. A movable heating furnace that has an arc shape that covers a chamber and moves in a circular orbit along a group of chambers while heating the internal chambers, and a semiconductor that operates synchronously with the heating furnace and is connected to the chamber that exits the heating furnace. An epitaxial growth apparatus comprising a quafer exchanger for loading and unloading a quafer.