JPS61240647A - Manufacturing equipment for semiconductor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable to accurately control temperature without frictional heat and to obtain a thin film of desired uniform thickness without particle by levitating a carrier for placing and conveying substrates by a magnetic force acting externally of a vacuum chamber. CONSTITUTION:Carriers 46 which place substrates 48 to be treated are aligned in the prescribed number on the support 56 of a conveyor 54 so that the carriers 46 are disposed in the first preliminary vacuum chamber 14. At this time, a permanent magnet 50 is followed to the movement of the carriers 46 to be moved so as not to be affected by the magnet 50. In the meantime, the preceding substrate 48 is vapor-phase grown in a vacuum chamber 12, and the substrate which has already been grown in the second preliminary vacuum chamber 16 is sequentially fed by a conveyor 58. A conveying mechanism for conveying by levitating by a magnetic force is employed as a noncontact type without slide, thereby accurately controlling the temperature without frictional heat.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

(Background technology and its problems) CVn (chemical vapor deposition) equipment, which is a type of semiconductor device, generally introduces a necessary reaction gas into a vacuum chamber to form a desired thin film on a disordered plate. It is. In this case, as the CVD apparatus becomes larger, a mechanism for automatically transporting the substrate into and out of the vacuum chamber and a mechanism for moving the substrate within the vacuum chamber are required.

Conventionally, mechanical devices such as a conveyor system, a roller system, and a robot system have been employed as the Ili turnout tank operating mechanism. All of these require a motor as a driving device, and mechanical sliding parts are inevitably involved, such as the relationship between a rotating roller and its shaft.

When the above-mentioned motor is placed in a vacuum chamber, the heat generated from the motor is not radiated outside the vacuum chamber, and the temperature inside the vacuum chamber constantly rises.
There is a problem in that it is difficult to control the temperature inside the vacuum chamber.

Furthermore, in a RIE (Reactive Jon Etch) device, corrosive gas flows into the vacuum chamber, which may pose a problem in terms of corrosion resistance. Although motors specifically for vacuum devices have been developed, as long as the motor is located within a vacuum chamber, the above-mentioned problems will occur more or less frequently.

The motor mentioned in ``2'' can also be placed outside the vacuum chamber depending on the structure of the vacuum chamber.

However, the gear mechanism that is the transmission mechanism in the X and Y directions within the vacuum chamber must be placed inside the vacuum chamber, and the conveyor, roller, arm of the robot device, etc. that are the direct 1ull conveyors must also be placed inside the vacuum chamber. will be placed in As mentioned above, these have many sliding parts, and the coefficient of friction in a vacuum is extremely large (about 50 times) compared to that in the atmosphere, so the frictional heat generated is also large. Chamber temperature control becomes difficult.

As is well known, CVD equipment forms thin films through chemical reactions in the gas phase or on the surface of the substrate, so temperature control is important in relation to the chemical reaction rate to obtain thin films with uniform thickness.
- This is an extremely important factor, as mentioned above, conventional devices have problems with temperature control, making it difficult to obtain a thin film of uniform thickness with high precision.

In addition, as mentioned above, in order to reduce frictional resistance as much as possible, hair rings using various lubricants and gold balls, silver balls, etc. are applied to sliding parts where frictional heat is generated due to large frictional resistance. However, the former method has the problem that the lubricant evaporates into the vacuum chamber and impurities are mixed into the thin film, and the latter method has the problem that the equipment is extremely expensive.

As described above, the IB transport mechanism for substrates within the vacuum chamber in CVD apparatuses and RIE apparatuses has various problems.

(Summary of the Invention) The present invention has been made to solve the various problems mentioned above, and its purpose is to levitate a carrier that carries and carries a substrate by magnetic force applied from outside the vacuum chamber. By adopting a mechanism that transports the material by moving it, it is possible to use a non-contact method with no sliding parts, which eliminates the generation of frictional heat and enables accurate temperature control.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus capable of obtaining a good thin film with a desired uniform thickness without generating particles, and its features include a vacuum chamber, a mechanism for moving a substrate in and out of the vacuum chamber, and In the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, the substrate loading/unloading mechanism includes a coil disposed below the vacuum chamber, through which positive and negative currents are alternately passed to exert a magnetic effect of the current inside the vacuum chamber; A 1B sending body made of a ferromagnetic material is levitated within the vacuum chamber by the magnetic action from the coil, and the floating 1M sending body is placed on both sides of the vacuum chamber, and the vacuum chamber is suspended by an appropriate mechanism. and a magnet that moves the floating conveyor within the vacuum chamber by means of an attractive force.

(Embodiments) Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an outline of the apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof.

The overall reference numeral 10 is a reaction tube, 12 is a vacuum chamber thereof, and a first preparatory vacuum chamber 14 and a second preliminary vacuum chamber 14 are provided before and after the reaction tube, respectively.
A preliminary vacuum chamber 16 is connected.

Vacuum chamber 12 and first and second preliminary vacuum chambers 14.1
6 are airtightly partitioned from each other by partition walls 18, 20 and end walls 22, 24, respectively. As shown in FIG. 3, each partition wall 1B, 20 and each end wall 22.24 are provided with a through hole 26 of a predetermined size through which a carrier described later and a substrate placed thereon can pass. Butterfly valves 28, 30, 32, and 34 are fitted into the through hole 26 so as to be able to open and close the through hole. 36
is its rotation axis, which is driven from the outside by a forward/reverse motor 38.

Reference numeral 40 denotes a suction pipe for forming a vacuum, which is provided in the vacuum chamber 12 and the first and second preliminary vacuum chambers 14 and 16, respectively.

42 is a coil for forming floating blades, and the vacuum chamber 1
2, located below the first and second preliminary vacuum chambers 14.16. 44 is a power supply device that energizes the coil 42;
A positive and negative pulse power source as shown in Fig. 5(b) is connected to the coil 4.
Leads to 2.

Reference numeral 46 denotes a plate-shaped general feeder made of a ferromagnetic material, which also serves as a susceptor on which a substrate 48 on which a thin film is grown in vapor phase is placed.

When the coil 42 is energized, a magnetic field is generated around the coil 42, and this magnetic field causes the carrier body 46 made of a ferromagnetic material to
becomes magnetized. As a result, the coil 42 is attached to the carrier 46.
Opposite magnetic poles are generated, and mutual attraction is exerted. Next, when a reverse current is applied to the coil 42,
The magnetic poles of the coil are opposite to those above. A magnetic field in the opposite direction to that described above acts on the carrier 46, but the magnetic pole of the 1ull carrier 46 does not immediately reverse due to residual magnetism, and until the strength of magnetization becomes zero, the magnetic pole of the coil 42 Since the same magnetic poles are facing each other, during this time the carrier 46 receives a repulsive force from the coil 42 and floats.

When the magnetic field in the opposite direction continues to act, the magnetic pole of the carrier 46 is switched, and the carrier 46 is rapidly magnetized in the opposite direction.

During this time, the carrier 46 exerts a mutual attraction force on the coil 42 as described above, but the strength of the magnetic pole almost instantaneously reaches saturation, and in reality, almost no attraction force is applied. Not done. That is, if the direction of energization to the coil 42 is changed immediately after the strength of magnetization reaches near saturation, the direction will be changed to the direction in which the floating blade acts due to the influence of residual magnetism, as described above. In order for the floating force to act dominantly in this way, as shown in FIG. It is necessary to use magnetic materials.

FIG. 5 schematically shows changes over time in the magnetization strength of the carrier 46 made of a ferromagnetic material and the current pulse applied to the coil 42.

Referring again to FIGS. 1 and 2, 50 is a permanent magnet for attracting and moving the carrier 46. The permanent magnets 50 are movably provided on guide rails 52 made of non-magnetic material arranged in a loop along the walls of the reaction tube 10 on both sides of the reaction tube 10, and as described above,
The carrier 46 floating inside is moved. That is, in this embodiment, the lid feeder 46 is connected to each preliminary vacuum chamber 1.
4.16 and five permanent magnets 50 are lined up in each vacuum chamber 12.
．． Permanent magnets 50 are provided at corresponding positions on both sides of each of the transport bodies 46 of 14 and 16, and permanent magnets 50
2, each carrier 46 moves while being attracted by permanent magnets 50 located on both sides thereof. Each room 12
．． The permanent magnets corresponding to 14 and 16 (in this example, 5 pieces connected in 1 set) are movable for each group.

The movement of this permanent magnet group itself is controlled by, for example, the guide rail 52.
This can be carried out by a self-propelled small motor (not shown) that is self-propelled in mesh with a rank carved in the plate.

Reference numeral 54 denotes a carrying device for carrying the carrier 46 into the first preliminary vacuum chamber 14 , and the carrier 46 is placed on two supports 56 and carried into the first preliminary vacuum chamber 14 .

Reference numeral 58 denotes an unloading conveyor, which unloads the carrier 46 from the second preliminary vacuum chamber 16.

Although not shown, the vacuum chamber 12 is connected to a reaction gas introduction pipe and an exhaust pipe, and is also provided with a necessary heat source such as lamp heating.

The present invention is configured as described above.

Next, its operation will be explained.

First, a predetermined number of general carriers 46 carrying substrates 48 to be processed are placed on the support 56 of the carry-in device 54.

Next, the first general entry device 54 was driven to align the support body 56'' (so that the conveyance body 46 was located inside the first preliminary vacuum chamber 14. At this time, the effect of the above-mentioned permanent magnet 5° The permanent magnet 5o is also moved following the movement of the carrier 46 so as not to be affected by the vacuum. In the chamber 12, a vapor phase growth process is performed on the preceding substrate, and the vapor phase growth process in the second preparatory vacuum chamber 16 is transferred to an unloading container 58. This point will be discussed further later.

The carrier 46 carried into the first preparatory vacuum chamber 14 as described above floats from the support 56'' by the action of the coil 42 as described above. In this state, the carry-in device 54 is retracted, and the support body 56 is moved to the first preliminary vacuum chamber 14.
After going outside, the butterfly valve 28 is closed, and the pressure inside the first preliminary vacuum chamber 14 is reduced by the vacuum device to enter a standby state. When the preceding gas phase reaction process in the vacuum chamber 12 is completed, the butterfly valves 30 and 32 are opened and the corresponding permanent magnets 50 are moved, thereby opening the first preliminary vacuum chamber I4. The inner carrier 46 is in the chamber 12,
The carrier 46 in the vacuum chamber 12 is transferred into the second preliminary vacuum chamber 16 with the substrate 48 placed thereon. Next, the butterfly valves 30 and 32 are closed, and a new vapor phase growth process is performed within the vacuum chamber 12. The butterfly valve 28 is opened and the carrier 46 for the next cycle is carried into the first preliminary vacuum chamber 14 as described above. The carrier 46 carried into the second preliminary vacuum chamber 16 is transferred onto the discharge conveyor 58 by opening the butterfly valve 34 and moving the corresponding permanent magnet 50. Here, a pair of permanent magnets 50 that attract and support the carrier 46 from both sides move along the loop-shaped guide rails 52 and separate from both sides as shown in FIG. When the conveyance body 46 is out of the range in which it acts, the conveyance body 46 is transferred onto the 1111 output conveyor 58 and is conveyed one after another by the conveyance conveyor 58. Next, the butterfly valve 34 is closed, and the pressure inside the second preliminary vacuum chamber 16 is reduced by the vacuum device, resulting in a standby state.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, since a mechanism is adopted in which the 1ull conveyor on which the substrate is placed and conveyed is levitated and conveyed by magnetic force applied from outside the vacuum chamber, the sliding portion Therefore, there is no generation of frictional heat, and accurate temperature control is possible, allowing vapor phase growth of a thin film with a desired uniform thickness. Furthermore, since there is no sliding part, there is no generation of foreign matter due to sliding of members, and it is possible to vapor-phase grow a thin film with excellent properties.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an example of the apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof. Figure 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the structure of the butterfly valve, Figure 4
The figure shows the hysteresis curve of a ferromagnetic material used as a carrier. Furthermore, FIG. 5 is a graph showing the relationship between the change in magnetization over time and the pulse current applied to the coil. 10... Reaction tube, 12... Vacuum chamber,
14.16... Preliminary vacuum chamber, 18.20... Partition wall, 22.24... End wall,
26...Through hole, 2B, 30.32.34...Butterfly valve, 36...Rotation shaft, 38...Forward/reverse motor, 4
0... Suction pipe, 42... Coil, 44...
Power supply device, 46... Carrier, 48... Board, 50
...Permanent magnet, 52...Guide rail, 54...
- Carrying-in device, 56... Support body, 58... Carrying-out conveyor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising a vacuum chamber and a mechanism for transporting a substrate into and out of the vacuum chamber, wherein the mechanism for transporting a substrate into and out of the vacuum chamber is disposed below the vacuum chamber; , a coil through which positive and negative currents are passed alternately to exert the magnetic action of the current in the vacuum chamber; a carrier made of a ferromagnetic material and levitated within the vacuum chamber by the magnetic action from the coil; and the vacuum Magnets are disposed on both sides of the chamber to sandwich the floating carrier, and are moved along the vacuum chamber by an appropriate mechanism to move the floating carrier within the vacuum chamber by an attractive force. 1. A semiconductor manufacturing device comprising: