JPS6310452A - Ion implantation equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it easy to take an action after the work is terminated for a while or when a trouble takes place by providing a display device indicating the position of a wafer in an ion implantation room and in a preliminary vacuum room. CONSTITUTION:After a wafer orientation flat alignment device 10 detects the edge of a wafer W and puts it in a definite position, an another wafer transferring device 7 receives the positioned wafer W from the said alignment device 10. Then the letter 'l' on a display lamp 41e goes off and the letter 'l' appears on a display lamp 41f. Further, the wafer transferring device 7 rotates by right angle and proceeds so as to carry the wafer W into a preliminary vacuum room 11 through the outer gate 13, and when the lock of the said vacuum room 11 is completed, the letter 'l' on the display lamp 41f goes off and the letter 'l' appears on a display lamp 41c. Thereafter, depending upon the movement of the wafer W, the letter 'l' moves on the display lamps successibly, and at last when the wafer W is carried on the platen 36 and an ion implantation is completed, the letter 'l' on the display lamp turns to the letter 'L'.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention relates to an ion implantation apparatus that displays the position of a wafer within an ion implantation chamber and a preliminary vacuum chamber.

(Prior art) As is well known, in an ion implantation system, a wafer is transported from the atmosphere through a preliminary vacuum chamber into a chamber where ions are implanted, and after ion implantation, the wafer is transported back into the atmosphere through a preliminary vacuum chamber. Ru.

As this type of ion implantation apparatus, an apparatus that moves a wafer by utilizing the weight of the wafer has been known.

This ion implantation apparatus includes a tilting guide mechanism for the wafer from the atmosphere to the ion implantation chamber via a pre-vacuum chamber, and another tilt guide mechanism leading from the ion implantation chamber to the atmosphere via another pre-vacuum chamber. The wafer is sequentially moved downward by a tilt guide mechanism using the wafer's own weight to perform ion implantation processing.

This ion implantation device utilizes the weight of the wafer, so it has the advantage of not requiring a driving device, but it has the disadvantage of poor workability.

In order to solve this problem, two preliminary vacuum chambers are provided sandwiching the platen located at the ion beam irradiation position in the ion implantation chamber, and the wafer is inserted into one of the preliminary vacuum T. An ion implantation apparatus has also been proposed in which a wafer is moved from a chamber to a platen at an implant position, and then the wafer after ion implantation is taken out via the other preliminary vacuum chamber.

However, with such ion implantation equipment, for example, when ion implantation work is temporarily interrupted and resumed, or when trouble occurs, it is not possible to immediately know the position of the wafer in the ion implantation chamber and preliminary vacuum chamber. was causing inconvenience.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in conventional ion implanters, the position of the wafer in the ion implanter is unknown, so it is difficult to restart the work after suspending the work, or when trouble occurs. It was causing inconvenience to my work.

The present invention has been made to solve these conventional problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an ion implantation apparatus that eliminates these inconveniences by displaying the position of the wafer within the ion implantation chamber.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) That is, the ion implantation apparatus of the present invention includes an ion implantation chamber,
a platen disposed at the ion beam irradiation position in the ion implantation chamber; a preliminary vacuum chamber provided in the wafer insertion portion of the ion implantation chamber; and a wafer moving device for moving the wafer between the preliminary vacuum chamber and the platen. The ion implantation apparatus includes at least a display device that displays the position of the wafer within the ion implantation chamber and the preliminary vacuum chamber.

Note that the above equipment is not limited to the position of the wafer in the ion implantation chamber or preliminary vacuum chamber, but also the position of the wafer, such as a wafer transfer device or positioning device that moves the wafer in the atmosphere, or whether the wafer is before implantation. , or whether it is after implantation can also be displayed.

(Function) The ion implantation apparatus of the present invention displays the position of the wafer in the ion implantation chamber and the preliminary vacuum chamber.
The position of the wafer in the ion implantation chamber or the pre-vacuum chamber can be easily known, making it easier to deal with problems after work has been temporarily interrupted.

(Example) Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 shows the ion implantation of this example! This figure shows the appearance of the vicinity of the wafer orientation flat alignment device. Wafer cassettes 3 (one not shown) are placed on each of the wafer cassette mounting tables 1 and 2. A plurality of wafers W are stored inside.

The wafer W in this wafer cassette 3 is moved by a lifting device 4.
5 and wafer transfer device 6.7, it is possible to take out a wafer W from a predetermined position, or to store a wafer W having undergone ion implantation in a predetermined position.

The wafer transfer device 6.7 has a wafer holder 8.9 that is rotatable and movable back and forth, and transfers wafers W to and from the wafer cassette 3. The wafer holding section 8.9 not only transfers the wafer W to and from the wafer cassette, but also transfers the wafer W to and from the wafer orientation/flat alignment device 10 and the preliminary vacuum chamber 11.12.

The wafer orientation flat alignment device 10 detects the edge of the wafer W received from the wafer transfer device 6 or 7 and positions the wafer W at a predetermined position.

And the wafer transfer device 6.7, as shown in FIG.
It has a suction groove 6b formed in the wafer mounting surface 6a and a suction passage 6C leading from the suction groove 6b to the vacuum pump. When the wafer W is mounted in the suction groove 6b, the suction passage 6C is connected to the pressure switch 6d. The pressure change inside the wafer W is detected.
installation is now detected.

Further, the wafer orientation/flat alignment device 10 has a ○ ring 1 at the edge, as shown in FIG.
0a and has a cup shape connected to a vacuum pump and a suction passage 10b, and when a wafer W is mounted in the opening, a pressure change in the suction passage 10b is detected by the pressure switch 10c, and the wafer W is installation is now detected.

In FIG. 4, the wafer holding and transporting device 21 includes a holding member 21a that holds the wafer W from the left side in the figure, and a holding member 21k that holds the wafer W from the right side. The clamping member 21a has two arms 21a-1 and 21a-2, and the other clamping member 21b also has two arms 21a-1 and 21a-2.
1b-1 and 21b-2, and these holding members 2
1a and 21b are each driven synchronously in the left and right directions in the figure.

This wafer clamping and transporting device uses each wafer clamping member to
The wafer W1 on the right side of FIG. 4 is transferred to the central ion implantation section, and the central wafer W2 is moved to the left position as indicated by the broken line.

The wafer W+ is placed in the receive cup 3 as shown in FIG.
1a, and this receive cup 31a is placed on the sixth receiving cup 31a.
As shown in the figure, the inner gate t-3 whose purpose is to maintain airtightness between the 1g vacuum chamber 11 and the ion implantation chamber 33
4a.

Note that the receive cup 31b on the side of the preliminary vacuum chamber 12 is similarly configured and operates in the same manner.

Further, as shown in FIG. 7, the preliminary vacuum chamber 11 is provided with a wafer detector that detects the wafer W on the receive cup 31a directly or indirectly from the movement of other members.

FIG. 7 shows a state in which the inner gate 34a is opened, and a receiving cup 31a with a hole formed in the center is shown.
is connected to the inner gate 3 via the transparent acrylic resin plate 11a.
Furthermore, an LED Ib and a phototransistor 11c are mounted on the inner gate 34a so that the axes of irradiation and light reception intersect on the wafer W through the hole in the receive cup 31a. There is. Therefore, the presence of the wafer W on the receive cup 31a can be detected from the output of the phototransistor 11C.

Note that this wafer detector is also provided in the preliminary vacuum chamber 12.

Reference numeral 37 denotes a holding member that fixes the wafer W2 when the platen 36 rotates 90'' to implant ions into the wafer W2.

On the operation panel of this ion implantation device, there are six indicator lights 418 to 4 that display the state of the wafer according to the movement of the wafer detector, wafer holding and conveying device, etc., as shown in FIG.
1f is provided.

Here, each of the six indicator lights 418 to 41f indicates that the wafer is in the next position when lit.

41a... Preliminary vacuum chamber 11 41b... Platen 36 41c... Preliminary vacuum chamber 12 41d... Wafer transfer device 6 41e... Wafer Orientation flat alignment device 10 41f...Wafer transfer device 7 In addition, the lowercase letters l and r in the display are before imbunt, the capital letter glue, and R are after imblunt, respectively left (L, I) or right This indicates that the wafer is from the wafer cassette (R, r).

Next, the operation of the apparatus of the present invention will be explained.

In FIG. 1, when the left wafer transfer device 6 rotates and advances toward the left wafer cassette 3 and takes out a desired wafer W, the character "1" lights up on the indicator light 41d. Next, the wafer transfer device 6 rotates 180″ and advances to the wafer orientation/flat alignment device 211.
When the wafer W is passed to the terminal 0, the character "1°" on the indicator light 41d goes out and the character "1" lights up on the indicator light 416.

After the wafer orientation flat alignment device 10 detects the edge of the wafer W and positions the wafer W in a predetermined position, the other wafer transfer device 7 aligns the positioned wafer W with the wafer orientation flat alignment device 10.
When the receiver is removed from the alignment device @10, the indicator light 41e will turn on.
The character "1" goes out and the character "1" lights up on the indicator light 41f.

Roughly, the wafer transfer device 7 rotates 90 degrees and moves forward to carry the wafer W into the preliminary vacuum chamber 11 through the outer gate 13 and when the locking of the preliminary vacuum chamber 11 is completed, the indicator light 4 is turned on.
The characters +i l u on 1f go out and the indicator light 41c shows “
The character 1°° lights up. Thereafter, as the wafer W moves, the indicator light that lights up also moves in order, but after moving to the platen 36 and implanting ions, the "1" on the indicator light becomes the letter L. The W is carried out from another preliminary vacuum chamber 12 by the wafer transfer device 6 via the outer gate 14 while the indicator light is turned off and on sequentially, and is stored at a predetermined position inside the wafer cassette 3.

Note that in order to perform the above operations efficiently, for example, the wafer W before ion implantation must be oriented in a wafer orientation flat position.
After passing the wafer cassette 3 to the alignment device 10,
On the way to the wafer cassette 3, the wafer W is taken out from the preliminary vacuum chamber 12 and stored in the wafer cassette 3.
The next wafer W may be taken out from the wafer and transferred to the wafer orientation/flat alignment apparatus 10, and this operation may be repeated thereafter. In this case as well, the indicator lights accurately indicate the position and status of each wafer.

Once ion implantation has been completed for all wafers W inside the wafer cassette 3, the same process as described above is performed on the wafers W in the cassette placed on another wafer cassette mounting table 2. However, at this time, the indicator light displays r'' or °'R'' to indicate that the right wafer cassette is being used.

Incidentally, the display on the display device in FIG. 8 shows that the wafer supplied from the wafer cassette on the right side is in the preliminary vacuum chamber 11 and the wafer transfer device 6.7 without ion implantation, and that the wafer with ion implantation is in the platen 36. It shows that there is a wafer.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, in the ion implantation apparatus of the present invention, the position of the wafer inside the implant chamber is displayed outside the implant chamber, so the position of the wafer can be easily known, and therefore the work This makes it easier to deal with problems once they have been interrupted. In addition, as shown in the example, if it is possible to display information before and after wafer implantation, as well as information on wafers and cassettes, in order to improve the transfer efficiency of the wafer transfer device, There is no risk of trouble even if the operation is complicated, such as by transferring the ion-implanted wafer to the wafer positioning device, then taking out the ion-implanted wafer from the preliminary vacuum chamber and storing it in the wafer cassette.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a front view of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view of a wafer transfer device, and Fig. 3 is a wafer orientation/
A sectional view of the flat alignment device, FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the ion implantation chamber and the preliminary vacuum chamber, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are front views showing the ion implantation chamber and the preliminary vacuum chamber, respectively. , FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing the preliminary vacuum chamber and the wafer detector, and FIG. 8 is a front view showing the wafer display device. 1.2...Wafer cassette mounting table, 3...
... Wafer cassette, 4.5 ... Lifting device, 6.7 ... Wafer transfer device, 8.9 ...
...Wafer holding unit, 10...Wafer orientation flat alignment device, 11.12.
...Preliminary vacuum chamber, 13.14...Outergut Figure 1 Figure 7 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) An ion implantation chamber, a platen located at the ion beam irradiation position within the ion implantation chamber, a preliminary vacuum chamber provided at the wafer insertion portion into the ion implantation chamber, and a space between the preliminary vacuum chamber and the platen. What is claimed is: 1. An ion implantation apparatus comprising at least a wafer moving device for moving a wafer in an ion implantation apparatus, characterized in that the ion implantation apparatus is provided with a display device for displaying the position of the wafer within the ion implantation chamber and the preliminary vacuum chamber. (2) a wafer positioning device that positions the wafer;
A wafer moving device that moves the wafer between the wafer positioning device and the wafer cassette and between the positioning device and the preliminary vacuum chamber, and a display device that displays the position of the wafer between the wafer positioning device and the wafer moving device. Claim 1 which also indicates the position of the wafer in the apparatus
The ion implantation device described in Section 1.