JPS6280265A - Vacuum treatment device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a device which can carry out plural treatments of substrates by changing atmospheres without generating the cross contaminations of sputtering materials by segmenting the inside of a vacuum treatment chamber for substrates for producing ultra LSIs and successively connecting the respective block chambers and a substrate charging and taking out chamber via sluice valves. CONSTITUTION:The inside of the vacuum treatment chamber 1 is segmented to, for example, 4 serial block chambers 3-6. The sluice valves 7 for opening and closing flow ports 9 for the substrates 8 are provided to the respective block walls 2. Vacuum pumps 10 and electrodes 11 for treatment are provided in the respective chambers 3-6 and the substrate charging and taking out chambers 12, 13 are successively connected via the sluice valves to the chambers 3, 6. For example, the substrates 8 are fed by each sheet into the chamber 3 and the inside of the chamber is evacuated by the pump 10; at the same time, gaseous Ar is supplied to the chamber and the substrates are subjected to etching in the Ar atmosphere. The substrates are then successively fed through the valves 7 to the chambers 4-6 and after Ti, TiN and Al layers are formed in the respective chambers, and the substrates are delivered to the chamber 13. Reactive sputtering is executed by supplying the gaseous Ar and N2 into the chamber in the stage of forming the TiN layer. The chamber 5 is hermetically made independent by the valve 7 and since the gas is quickly and thoroughly discharged therefrom by the pump 10 after the treatment, the cross-contamination is obviated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Application Field) The present invention applies to ultra-LSI devices such as 1) 1-bit dynamic R
A) It relates to an apparatus for vacuum processing a substrate, etc. used in the production of l.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, in the production of VLSIs, a plurality of targets are provided in a vacuum processing chamber and the targets are sequentially activated in order to form a plurality of thin film layers on a substrate. In this case, the atmosphere inside the vacuum processing chamber is, for example, A
The substrate is processed in a constant atmosphere without changing from the r gas atmosphere.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) Processing a substrate using multiple targets in the same processing chamber is advantageous because the substrate surface is not exposed to the atmosphere and deteriorates in quality. During sputtering when one target is operated, cross-contamination of sputtered materials from other targets occurs, resulting in only a thin film of low quality being obtained.

Furthermore, when processing with multiple targets in the same processing chamber, it is not possible to suddenly change the atmosphere in the chamber, so it is not possible to process the substrates alternately in a specific Ar gas atmosphere and an A and N2 gas atmosphere. First, there is the inconvenience that reactive sputtering must be performed using a separate processing device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a processing apparatus that can perform multiple processes on a substrate by changing the atmosphere without causing cross-contamination.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In the present invention, a vacuum processing chamber in which sputtering and other processes are performed on substrates is divided into a plurality of compartments, and each compartment is connected in series by forming a flow port through which the substrate can flow. , each flow port is provided with a gate valve for opening and closing it, each compartment is provided with a vacuum pump and a processing electrode, and the first compartment in the series of compartments is provided with a gate valve. The above object is achieved by providing a substrate loading chamber and a substrate unloading chamber connected to the last compartment via a flow port equipped with a gate valve.

(Function) A large number of substrates are placed in the substrate preparation chamber, evacuated, and the first
The sheets are sent through a gate valve to the first compartment in the vacuum processing chamber connected in series. Each compartment within the vacuum processing chamber is equipped with a vacuum pump and processing electrodes, and the atmosphere within the chamber can be changed depending on the processing to be performed on the substrate, and the electrodes can be used to perform etching or sputtering processing. The substrates processed in the compartments are sent one after another to the compartments connected in series, and each chamber is subjected to a separate vacuum treatment, and the substrate surface is, for example, etched cleaned and Ti
1iJ, a TiN layer, and an M layer can be formed by sequentially overlapping each other by sputtering. When processed substrates are collected in a substrate take-out chamber connected to the last compartment, they are taken out to the outside.

Each compartment becomes an independent chamber that can be closed by closing the gate valve, and is also equipped with a vacuum pump, so even if one chamber is sputtering with Ar gas and the other chamber is sputtering with Ar gas and N2 gas at the same time, there will be no gas cross contamination. do not have. Thus, for example, a thin film of a material such as TiN can be formed on a substrate by reactive sputtering.

(Embodiment) To explain the embodiment of the present invention with reference to the drawings, in Figs. The processing chamber (1)
For example, the interior is divided into a series of 4 rooms! (3)<4) (5
) (6). (7> is a gate valve provided in each compartment wall (2) to open and close a flow port (9) that is large enough to allow the flow of the board (8), and 0C is a gate valve provided in each compartment (3) to (6). A vacuum pump consisting of a cryopump, al is a processing electrode in each compartment (3) to (6).
4) (5) (A sputtering electrode is provided at ω.

(+21 indicates a substrate loading chamber connected to the first compartment in the series (3), q3 indicates a substrate unloading chamber connected to the last compartment in the series <6), and the substrate loading chamber aδ has a large number of substrates (
8) is placed in the cassette case, and from this the substrates are sent one by one to the compartment chamber (3), and after applying separate vacuum treatments to the substrates (8) in each compartment, they are transferred to the cassette case in the substrate removal chamber a3. It can be stored and taken out to the outside. (
II is a conveyor that transports the substrate (8), and a9 is a platen that raises the substrate (8) on the conveyor (+41) so as to face the processing electrode av.

In addition, (IG is a circuit that supplies gauge gas to each compartment (3) to (6), (171 is a circuit that supplies 82 gas to compartment (4) (5), and 0e is a roughing vacuum pump. .

A more specific embodiment thereof is as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, in which the substrates (8) taken out one by one from the substrate preparation chamber 0 are partitioned onto the platen a9 of the compartment chamber (3) by the conveyor a@. The etching process is performed in an Ar gas atmosphere, which is fed through a valve (19), evacuated by a vacuum pump, and supplied with Ar gas, facing the etching electric emitter 0.

The substrate (8) that has been processed in the compartment (3) is sequentially sent to the compartments (4), (5), and (6) via the gate valve (7), and the substrate (8) is ), the TiN layer, and the /1j! layer are respectively formed in the substrate take-out chamber (13) through the gate valve (2).When forming the TiN layer, Ar and N2 gases are supplied into the compartment chamber. , reaction sputtering is performed, and the compartments are sealed and independent using gate valves, and after the process, the gas is quickly exhausted by a pump, so the substrate can be quickly transported to the next chamber.
At that time, cross-contamination does not occur.

Note that it is also possible to make the flow port (9) a slit-shaped opening with a minimum size necessary for the flow of the substrate (8), and omit the gate valve (7).

(Effect of the invention) As described above, in the present invention, the vacuum processing chamber is divided into a plurality of sections,
Each compartment is connected in series through a gate valve that can transport substrates, each compartment is equipped with a substrate processing electrode and a vacuum pump, the first compartment in the series is a substrate loading chamber, and the last compartment is a substrate unloading chamber. As a result, sputtering and other processes can be performed in separate compartments within the vacuum processing chamber, preventing cross-contamination of sputtered materials, and changing the processing atmosphere in each chamber to differentiate between normal sputtering and reactive sputtering. Since these steps can be carried out successively in a vacuum, there is no air pollution and the processing speed is improved, which is advantageous for manufacturing VLSI substrates. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a detailed explanatory diagram of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view thereof, and FIG. 3 is a cutaway plan view of a specific embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line -IV.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A vacuum processing chamber in which sputtering or other processing is performed on substrates is divided into a plurality of compartments, each compartment is formed with a flow port through which the substrate can flow, and connected in series, and each flow port is provided with a gate valve to open and close it. Each compartment is provided with a vacuum pump and a processing electrode, and the first compartment in the series of compartments is connected to a substrate preparation chamber via a flow port equipped with a gate valve, and the last compartment is partitioned. A vacuum processing apparatus characterized in that a substrate unloading chamber is connected through a flow port equipped with a valve.