JPS61104610A - End station - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable rough vacuuming hrs., which is an obstacle to improvement of processing capability, to shorten equivalently by a method wherein wafers are carried mutually from two carrier lines and are processed. CONSTITUTION:Directional control chamber 70 and 80 are kept the same high vacuum as a processing chamber 60. A carrier belt 71 between carrier chambers 20, 30 intersects to a carrier belt 72 to the processing chamber 60 in the directional control chamber 70, and either one of the said carrier belts e.g. the carrier belt 71 is ascended and descended by up and down driving mechanism. The carrier belt 71 can be backlashed, and thereby either one of carrier belt 22, 32 can receive a wafer W. The wafer W from the primary and the secondary carrier chambers 20, 30 is carried mutually to the processing chamber 60 by the primary directional control chamber 70 and the wafer W from the processing chamber 60 is carried mutually to the primary and the secondary carrier chamber 40, 50 by the secondary directional control chamber 80. In this case, rough vacuuming of the primary and the secondary carrier chamber 20, 30 and the primary and the secondary carrier chamber 50, 60 is performed independently (or partially in common with these said chambers).

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention transports a wafer in the atmosphere through a low-vacuum loading chamber to a high-vacuum processing chamber, where it is processed in a low-vacuum state after processing such as ion implantation. It relates to an end station that takes out air through an unloading chamber.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 4 is a plan view schematically showing a conventional end station. This end station consists of one wafer transfer line and is equipped with a high vacuum (e.g. IO-5 to 10-
7 Tor r r) and a low vacuum (for example) (1'~
It consists of a carry-in room 1 and a carry-out room 3, which are preliminary rooms for 40-' Torr).

The loading chamber 1, the processing chamber 2, and the loading chamber 3 each have a vacuum exhaust system. Gate valves 4.5, .
6.7 is provided, thereby maintaining vacuum tightness except when the wafer W is being transported. The wafer W is transported by a transport heald 8.9.10.11.12.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically showing the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. The wafer W is transferred from a carrier with multiple wafers placed in the atmosphere or from another general transport line.
One sheet at a time is loaded into the general room 1 ((c) in the figure). After the loading chamber 1 is evacuated (rough vacuum evacuation) ((d) in the figure) the processing chamber 2.
((b) in the figure), and undergoes processing such as ion implantation in the processing chamber 2 ((a) in the figure). Thereafter, the wafer W is transported to the unloading chamber 3 ((b) in the figure), and
After a gas leak, it is released into the atmosphere (in the figure ((
)).

Incidentally, an example of an end station having an angle of 1° and 1° is shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 57-205955.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In an end station such as a subsidiary chain, the wafer processing capacity (medium number of wafers processed per time) is 6 years old, mainly due to the injection time in processing chamber 2 and the loading chamber 1. It is determined by the vacuum evacuation (rough vacuum evacuation) time in the unloading chamber 3. For example, if the wafer exchange time is 7 seconds, the implantation time is 10 seconds.
If the injection time is 5 seconds, the processing capacity is about 200 sheets/hour, and if the injection time is 5 seconds, the processing capacity is about 300 sheets/hour.

However, in recent years, with the large area and current input of IonBee J, it has become possible to shorten the injection time (for example, 1 to 2 seconds). Even if the time is less than 5 seconds, the processing capacity is mainly limited to 1. It is very difficult to significantly improve the processing capacity (refer to Figure 5), as it is limited by the roughing time of the unloading room 3. The system becomes huge and is unrealistic in terms of space, cost, etc.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to solve the problem of roughing time being a bottleneck and to improve wafer throughput.

[Means for solving problems]

The end station of the present invention has a first and second loading chamber, which are maintained at a relatively high vacuum, and a mechanism for alternately receiving wafers from the first and second loading chambers and transporting them to the processing chamber. A first direction control chamber having a wafer and a first and second unloading chamber are kept at a relatively high vacuum and receive wafers from the processing chamber. The machine is equipped with a machine (a second direction control room having a capacity of 1N) and a machine (a second direction control room having a capacity of 1N) for transporting it to the first and second unloading rooms alternately.

[Effect]

1') The wafers from the first and second loading chambers are alternately transported to the processing chamber by the first direction control chamber, and the wafers from the processing chamber are transported to the first and second loading chambers by the second direction control chamber. The materials are transported alternately to the unloading room.

In this case, the rough vacuuming of the first and second loading chambers and the first and second loading chambers is carried out independently (or by one part: ff1
L) can be done. As a result, the vacuum roughing time, which is a bottleneck in improving throughput, is isometrically shortened.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing an embodiment of the present invention. This end station is a processing room! It consists of two wafer transfer lines, one for each line.

That is, this end station is in a low vacuum (e.g. I
O-'~I 0-3Torr) A first loading chamber, e.g. loading chamber 20, and a second loading chamber, e.g. loading chamber 30.
, a first direction control chamber, e.g. a direction control chamber 70, a common processing chamber 60 of high vacuum (e.g. 0-5-IO-7T o rr), and a second direction control chamber, e.g. a direction control chamber. chamber 80 and a low vacuum (e.g. 10-1 to 1O-3 Torr).
r) is composed of a first unloading chamber, for example unloading chamber 40, and a second unloading chamber, for example unloading chamber 50.

The loading chambers 20 and 30 are each similar to the conventional one shown in FIG. 4, and are provided with a transport heald 22.32 and a gate valve 23.24.33.34.
Further, a conveyor belt 21.31 is provided at the entrance, and the wafers W are brought in one by one from the atmosphere. Unloading room 4
0 and 50 are also similar to the conventional one shown in FIG. 4, and the wafers W are carried out one by one into the atmosphere.

The direction control chambers 70 and 80 are provided between the loading chamber 20 and the loading chamber 30 and between the loading chamber 40 and the loading chamber 50, respectively, and are connected to the processing chamber 60 without using a gate valve or the like. The process chamber 60 is kept at the same high vacuum level as the processing chamber 60. In the direction control room 70, the transfer heald 71 between the loading chambers 20, 30 and the transfer heald 72 to the processing chamber 60 intersect, and one of the transfer healds, for example! The shell conveying belt 71 is lowered by a vertical drive mechanism (not shown). In addition, the conveyor belt 71G;
It is possible to rotate the wafer W in one reverse direction, thereby allowing the wafer W to be received from any of the 11 feeding healds 22 and 32.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view taken along line nn in FIG. 1;
The 11 feed heald in the raised position is designated by the reference numeral 71, and the transport heald in the lowered position is designated by the reference numeral 71'. - The conveyor belt 1-71 in the raised position and the conveyor healds 22 and 32 are at the same level, and in this state the wafer W is received from the conveyor belt 22 or 32. The first general transport heald 72 is the transport heald 1 in the lowered position.
-71', the conveyor belt 72 and the conveyor heald 61 are at the same level, and the wafer W is conveyed to the processing chamber 60 in this state. In this way, the direction control room 70
receives the wafers W alternately from the loading chamber 20 and the loading chamber 30 and transports them to the processing chamber 60.

The direction control room 80 also has the same mechanism as the direction control room 70,
The wafer W is received from the processing chamber 60 and transported to the unloading chamber 40 and the unloading chamber 50 alternately.

In this case, it is possible to determine in advance whether the wafer W is to be transported to the unloading chamber 40 or 50 by a program, or the degree of vacuum in the unloading chamber 40 and the unloading chamber 50 can be detected and the vacuum can be quickly transferred. It is also possible to send it to the general public (for those who have improved). Note that the transport control described in ``2'' also applies to the carry-in chamber 20 and the carry-in chamber 30.

Carrying-in room 20.30, carrying-out room 40.50 and processing room 60
have independent vacuum pumping systems. However, the rough vacuum systems for the loading room 20.30 and the loading room 40.50 can be shared by switching valves for rooms where the exhaust timings completely match, or for rooms where the exhaust timings do not overlap at all. be.

FIG. 3 is a time chart showing an example of the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. Such control is performed by a control means (not shown). In this case, detection of the position of the wafer W, detection of the degree of vacuum in each room, etc. are performed using a photosensor, a vacuum degree gauge, etc. provided at the end station.

An example of the operation of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIG. 3. First, nitrogen gas is introduced into the loading chamber 20 to cause the gas to leak and the pressure is reduced to atmospheric pressure ((a)' in the figure), and one wafer W is loaded therein ((b) in the figure). )), carry out a rough removal of the loading room 20 (in the figure (
C)). When the rough pulling is completed, the wafer W is transferred to the direction control chamber 70.
((d) in the figure). Thereafter, the wafer W is transported to the standby place 73 ((e) in the figure), and at the same time, gas leaks from the carry-in chamber 20 ((a) in the figure), and the next operation is then started. The wafer W is then transported by the transport belt 61 to an implantation site 62 ((f) in the figure), where processing such as ion implantation is performed ((g) in the figure). In this case, the ion beam comes from an ion source (not shown) perpendicular to the plane of the paper in FIG. 1, but it may also come in parallel to the plane of the paper if the wafer W is made to stand up. The processed wafer W is transferred to the direction control chamber 80 ((h) in the figure) and further transferred to the unloading chamber 40 ((i) in the figure) to prevent gas leakage in the unloading chamber 40 ((j) in the figure). Thereafter, the wafer W is carried out into the atmosphere ((k) in the figure). Thereafter, the unloading chamber 40 is roughly cleared ((1) in the figure).

Thereafter, similar operations are repeated, and similar operations are performed in parallel on other conveyance lines.

In this way, in this end station, the loading chamber 20.30 and the loading chamber 4 are arranged on the two conveyor lines.
Since the vacuum roughing at 0.50 can be performed independently (or through a part of the equipment), by alternately transporting and processing the wafers W from the two transport lines, it is possible to prevent the improvement of processing capacity. The vacuum roughing time can be reduced isometrically. For example, in FIG. 3, each room 20.30.
Even if the roughing time of 40.50 is about the same as the conventional one, for example about 6 to 7 seconds, the period T is about 13 seconds if the ion implantation time is about 1 to 2 seconds. Since ion implantation was performed twice during this period, the processing capacity was 50%.
0 sheets/hour or more.

Note that this end station has one processing chamber.
1, so there is only one processing stage (rH is sufficient, and processing chamber G11
Since it is the same as an end station with one conveyance line, the structure is particularly complex (it cannot be one. Also,
The same conveyance mechanism as the conventional one can be applied except for the conveyance mechanism in the direction control room 70, 80, and since the two conveyance lines operate in substantially the same way, the same control system can be used for the two conveyance lines. Furthermore, as in this embodiment, the direction control chamber 70 can be provided with a waiting area 73 for the wafers W to be processed in the processing chamber 60, so that reduction in processing capacity due to the transport time of the wafers W can be prevented. I can do it. Furthermore, since the wafers W are transported one by one, continuous processing is possible by connecting one general transport line with other devices. In addition, 1 general feed of wafer W: 1
, without being limited to Held as above, Laura,
This may be done using a chain, gear, etc.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in -1- above, according to the present invention, the vacuum roughing time, which is an impediment to improving processing capacity, can be isometrically shortened, thereby making it possible to significantly improve wafer processing capacity. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view taken along line II-TI in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 does not show an example of the operation of the device shown in FIG. 1, but is a time chart 1. No. 41, 1. This is a 1' music diagram which does not schematically show the conventional engine 1 station. FIG. 5 shows the schematic operation 11 of the device shown in FIG.
It is 1. W...Wafer, 20, 30. ... Loading room, 40°50
... Carrying out room, 60... Processing room, 7N+, lid. , direction control room

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) An end station where a wafer in the atmosphere is transported through a relatively low-vacuum loading chamber to a relatively high-vacuum processing chamber, and after being processed there, it is taken out into the atmosphere through a relatively low-vacuum loading chamber. a first and second loading chamber, and a first chamber that is maintained at a relatively high vacuum and has a mechanism for alternately receiving wafers from the first and second loading chambers and transporting them to the processing chamber; a direction control chamber, first and second unloading chambers, which are maintained at a relatively high vacuum and have a mechanism for receiving wafers from the processing chamber and alternately conveying them to the first and second unloading chambers; An end station characterized by comprising: a second direction control room.