KR100839187B1 - Transfer chamber of apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor device and method for transferring substrates in the transfer chamber - Google Patents

Abstract

A transfer chamber of semiconductor fabrication equipment, and a method for transferring substrates within the transfer chamber are provided to prevent slipping of a substrate during notch alignment by rotating a transfer robot 180 degrees for loading and unloading the substrate. A transfer chamber(132b) of semiconductor fabrication equipment comprises a housing, a transfer robot(140), and a buffer stage(160). The housing has an inlet leading to a buffer chamber and a process chamber. The transfer robot is installed in the housing for transferring substrates. The buffer stage, on which the substrate transferred by the transfer robot is temporarily loaded, is installed on an upper side of the housing. After loading the substrate on the buffer stage from an inlet side(162) of the buffer stage, the transfer robot is rotated 180 degrees to unload the substrate from an outlet side(164) of the buffer stage.

Description

TRANSFER CHAMBER OF APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE AND METHOD FOR TRANSFERRING SUBSTRATES IN THE TRANSFER CHAMBER}

1 is a block diagram showing a multi-chamber system to which transfer chambers are applied according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 and 3 are plan and side cross-sectional views of the second transfer chamber.

4 is a side cross-sectional view of the second transfer chamber.

5A through 5D are diagrams illustrating a step of adjusting a notch direction of a substrate in a second transfer chamber.

* Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

110: index

120: load lock chamber

130: the return unit

132a: first transfer chamber

132b: second transfer chamber

142: buffer chamber

144: cassette

160: buffer stage

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transfer chamber of a semiconductor manufacturing facility, and more particularly, to a transfer chamber of a semiconductor manufacturing facility capable of aligning a notch direction of a substrate, and a substrate transfer method in the chamber.

In general, a cluster system refers to a multi-chambered device comprising a transfer robot (or handler) and a plurality of processing modules arranged around it. In recent years, the demand of the cluster system which can perform a some process consistently in a liquid crystal monitor (LCD), a plasma display apparatus, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, etc. is increasing.

In particular, the cluster system used in the dry etching process using plasma includes a plurality of process chambers that require a high vacuum environment for generating plasma, and transfers wafers to the plurality of vacuum chambers in a central chamber in a low vacuum state. A centralized multichamber system having an in-chamber conveying device for loading and unloading.

A multichamber system of an etching apparatus for manufacturing a conventional semiconductor device has a hexagonal central chamber in the center and four process chambers in which processes are formed on each side of the central chamber are connected to each other.

However, such a conventional centralized multichamber system, as described above, constitutes a hexagonal central chamber (when basically composed of four process chambers and two load lock chambers), the area occupied by the central chamber. As a result, the installation width (w), which is important in the arrangement of equipment in the manufacturing line, as well as the entire area of the equipment, is increased more than necessary, and the size of the vacuum equipment required to keep the central chamber in vacuum is increased, thereby increasing the equipment cost and installation cost. Is increased.

In addition, the area of the central chamber is further increased as the number of process chambers installed increases. For example, to increase the number of process chambers of the same size from four to six, the central chamber should be composed of a regular octagon, and in this case the area increase of the central chamber is further increased. Therefore, when the number of process chambers required increases, one more centralized multichamber system is installed.

However, the purchase cost and installation cost of purchasing expensive intensive multichamber system are excessively increased, and the area of the facility is expanded more than necessary, so the footprint of the facility is increased, thus occupying a large clean room requiring expensive maintenance cost. In addition, various process gases and vacuum-related devices installed in the process chamber or the load lock chamber are overlapped.

In the case of the inline system in which the transfer chamber is attached in multiple stages, the substrate notch direction in the first transfer chamber and the substrate notch direction in the second transfer chamber are reversed. In order to match the notch direction of the substrate, an alignment device for changing the direction of the substrate by 180 degrees in the buffer chamber is separately required. In particular, when the direction of the substrate is changed in a vacuum state, a sliding phenomenon of the substrate occurs, and a problem occurs that throughput is reduced due to the limitation of the rotational speed of the substrate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a transfer chamber of a new type of semiconductor manufacturing equipment capable of aligning the notch direction of a substrate by using a rotation of the transfer apparatus, and a substrate transfer method in the chamber.

In addition, the present invention provides a transfer chamber of a semiconductor manufacturing facility in which sliding of the substrate does not occur when the notch direction of the substrate is aligned, and a substrate transfer method in the chamber.

According to a feature of the present invention for achieving the above object, a transfer chamber of a semiconductor manufacturing facility includes a housing having an entrance to the buffer chamber and a process chamber; A transport robot installed in the housing for transporting a substrate; And a buffer stage installed at an upper portion of the housing and temporarily placing a substrate conveyed by the transport robot.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the buffer stage is provided such that an inlet at which the substrate is placed by the transfer robot and an outlet at which the substrate is drawn out by the transfer robot face each other.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the transport robot is rotated 180 degrees.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the carrier robot is rotated 180 degrees to withdraw the substrate from the buffer stage in the opposite direction after placing the substrate on the buffer stage.

According to a feature of the present invention for achieving the above object, a substrate transfer method in a transfer chamber of a semiconductor manufacturing facility comprises the steps of: withdrawing a substrate from a buffer chamber; Aligning the notch direction of the substrate; And loading the substrate, which has been aligned with the notch direction of the substrate, into the process chamber.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the step of aligning includes the steps of placing a substrate on a buffer stage installed on top of the transfer chamber by a carrier robot in a first direction; The carrier robot withdrawing the substrate from the buffer stage in a second direction.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the step of aligning includes the steps of placing a substrate on a buffer stage installed on top of the transfer chamber by a carrier robot in a first direction; Rotating the carrier robot 180 degrees; The carrier robot withdrawing the substrate from the buffer stage in a second direction opposite to the first direction.

According to a feature of the present invention for achieving the above object, the substrate transfer method in the transfer chamber of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment is a buffer stage installed in the upper portion of the transfer chamber by the transfer robot installed in the transfer chamber withdraws the substrate from the buffer chamber Placing the substrate into the furnace; Withdrawing the substrate from the buffer stage in a direction opposite to the direction in which the carrier robot places the substrate; Loading the substrate into the process chamber.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the direction in which the carrier robot puts the substrate on the buffer stage and the direction in which the substrate is taken out from the buffer stage are opposite.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the carrier robot is rotated 180 degrees to withdraw the substrate from the buffer stage in the opposite direction after placing the substrate on the buffer stage.

For example, embodiments of the present invention may be modified in various forms, and the scope of the present invention should not be construed as being limited by the embodiments described below. This embodiment is provided to more completely explain the present invention to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the shape of the elements in the drawings and the like are exaggerated to emphasize a clearer description.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5D. In the drawings, the same reference numerals are given to components that perform the same function.

1 is a block diagram showing a multi-chamber system to which transfer chambers are applied according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the multi-chamber system 100 includes six process chambers 150 connected to an index 110, a load lock chamber 120, a carrier 130, and a carrier 130.

Index 110 is disposed in front of multi-chamber system 100. Index 110 includes three pull openers (hereinafter also referred to as load ports) on which the front open unified pod (FOUP; also known as carrier) 112 rests and which opens and closes the lid of the pull 112 ( 114 and an atmospheric pressure transfer robot 116 operated at atmospheric pressure. The pull 112 is a carrier for a general lot for production and is seated in the load port by means of logistics automation devices (eg OHT, AGV, RGV). The index is an interface called an equipment front end module (EFEM), or load lock chamber, which is now widely used in 300 mm wafer transfer devices.

The atmospheric transfer robot 116 is operable to transport the substrate between the load port 114 and the load lock chamber 120. Atmospheric pressure conveying robot 116 has a single arm structure capable of carrying out a single substrate from the pull 112 placed in the load port 114 in one operation and bringing it into the cassette 122 of the load lock chamber 120. It can be composed of a robot. In addition to the single arm structure shown in the present embodiment, the atmospheric transfer carrier robot 116 installed at the index 110 may use various robots used in a conventional semiconductor manufacturing process. For example, a robot having an arm having a double blade structure capable of handling two substrates as one arm, a robot having two or more arms, or a robot employing a mixture thereof may be used.

One side of the load lock chamber 120 is connected to the index 110 by one gate valve 180, and the other side thereof is the first transfer chamber 132a of the transfer unit 130 by the other gate valve 180. ) Is connected. The load lock chamber 120 forms the same (close) vacuum atmosphere as the first transfer chamber 132a at the time when the transfer robot 140 of the first transfer chamber 132a loads or unloads the substrate. When the raw substrate is supplied from the substrate 110 or the substrate which has already been processed is transferred to the index 110, the substrate is switched to the atmospheric pressure state. That is, the load lock chamber 120 has a feature that maintains pressure while intersecting a vacuum state and an atmospheric pressure state in order to prevent the air pressure state of the first transfer chamber 132a from being changed. The load lock chamber 120 has a cassette in which substrates are temporarily waiting.

The transfer unit 130 is a space in which substrate transfer is performed and has a structure in which a plurality of transfer chambers are arranged in series. In the present embodiment, a structure in which the first transfer chamber 132a, the second transfer chamber 132b, and the third transfer chamber 132c are arranged in series will be described as an example. The transfer unit 130 integrally integrates the first transfer chamber 132a, the second transfer chamber 132b, and the third transfer chamber 132c without installing a gate valve between the transfer chambers 132a, 132b, and 132c. Connect with That is, the carrier 130 may be regarded as one large chamber surrounding the entire first, second, and third transfer chambers 132a, 132b, and 132c. In this case, it is not necessary to install an exhaust system including a vacuum pump in each of the first, second, and third transfer chambers 132a, 132b, and 132c, and any of the first, second, and third transfer chambers 132a, 132b, and 132c may be used. Since only one exhaust system needs to be installed, the cost can be reduced.

In the multi-chamber system 100 having such a structure, the transfer chamber may be extended by additionally connecting the transfer chamber to the third transfer chamber and connecting the process chamber to both sides of the connected transfer chamber. Therefore, it is easier to expand the process chamber than the existing centralized multichamber system. In particular, the multi-chamber system 100 of the present invention can minimize the width of the installation, compared to the existing centralized system. Thus, the plant area is not only significantly reduced compared to a conventional multichamber system, but also can make the plant more compact.

Although the process chambers 150 are described as etch chambers configured to etch apertures or openings in the insulating film to form interconnect structures, the process chambers 150 may be configured to perform various substrate processing operations. For example, the process chamber can be a CVD chamber configured to deposit an insulating film; The process chamber may be a PVD chamber configured to deposit a barrier film.

Referring again to FIG. 1, two process chambers 150 are connected to each of the first transfer chamber 132a, the second transfer chamber 132b, and the third transfer chamber 132c through the gate valve 180. Substrate transfer (transfer) is not directly performed between the transfer robot 140 between the first transfer chamber 132a and the second transfer chamber 132b and between the second transfer chamber 132b and the third transfer chamber 132c. Therefore, a buffer chamber 142 is provided in which the substrate temporarily stays for the substrate pass.

On the other hand, the first transfer chamber 132a, the second transfer chamber 132b and the third transfer chamber 132c have a structural feature that can be aligned in the notch direction of the substrate using the rotation of the transfer device 140. The first, second, and third transfer chambers 132a, 132b, and 132c all have the same configuration, and will be described below with reference to the second transfer chamber.

2, 3 and 4 are top and side cross-sectional views of the second transfer chamber 132b.

The second transfer chamber 132b is provided with a transport robot 140 for transporting the substrate inside the housing, and a buffer stage 160 on which the substrate may be temporarily placed on the ceiling of the housing. That is, the buffer stage 160 is a place where the substrate w is temporarily placed while the carrier robot 140 is rotated 180 degrees. The buffer stage 160 is preferably located at the center of the chamber. The inlet 162 on which the substrate is placed by the transfer robot 140 and the outlet 164 on which the substrate is drawn out by the transfer robot 140 face each other. It should be provided for viewing. Then, the transport robot 140 places the substrate W through the inlet 162 side of the buffer stage 160, rotates 180 degrees, and pulls out the substrate through the outlet 164 side of the buffer stage 160. Through the process of aligning the notch (n) direction of the substrate. The carrier robot 140 may be rotated 180 degrees for this operation, and the height may be adjusted.

The transfer chambers 132a, 132b, and 132c of the present invention having the above-described configuration have the substrate w placed on the buffer stage 160 installed on the ceiling, and the carrier robot 140 is rotated 180 degrees to rotate the buffer stage 160. The substrate w placed on the back side is pulled out on the opposite side so that the notch n direction of the substrate is aligned. This method has a special effect that can secure the speed and stability at the same time because there is no slip phenomenon of the substrate compared to the method of adjusting the notch direction by rotating the substrate. In addition, the use of a simple buffer stage mounted on the ceiling of the transfer chamber has a particular effect of reducing the added cost for cassette rotation in the existing buffer chamber.

5A through 5D are diagrams illustrating a step of adjusting a notch direction of a substrate in a second transfer chamber.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the transport robot 140 withdraws the substrate from the buffer chamber 142 located between the first transfer chamber 132a and the second transfer chamber 132b. The transport robot 140 places the substrate w through the inlet 162 side of the buffer stage 160 installed on the ceiling of the housing. In this case, as shown in FIG. 5B, the transport robot 140 places the substrate through the inlet 162 side of the buffer stage 160 in the first direction a. Then, the conveying robot 140 changes direction by rotating 180 degrees (see FIG. 5C). Then, when the transport robot 140 pulls out the substrate w through the outlet 164 side of the buffer stage 160 in the second direction b, the notch direction of the substrate w is changed (see FIG. 5D). . In this state in which the notch direction of the substrate w is aligned, the transfer robot 140 loads the substrate w into the process chamber 150 connected to the second transfer chamber 132b. Likewise, in the third transfer chamber 132c, the notch direction of the substrate may be aligned in the same manner as in the second transfer chamber 132b.

In the above, the configuration and operation of the transfer chamber according to the present invention is shown in accordance with the above description and drawings, but this is merely described, for example, and various changes and modifications are possible without departing from the spirit of the present invention. to be.

Such the present invention has a special effect of ensuring the speed and stability at the same time as compared to the method of adjusting the notch direction through the rotation of the substrate to adjust the notch direction of the substrate using the rotation of the conveying device.

The present invention has a special effect of reducing the cost added to the installation of a rotating device for rotating the cassette in the existing buffer chamber by using a simple buffer stage installed on the ceiling of the transfer chamber.

Claims (10)

delete delete delete A transfer chamber of a semiconductor manufacturing facility; A housing having an entrance to the buffer chamber and the process chamber; A transport robot installed in the housing for transporting a substrate; And A buffer stage installed on an upper portion of the housing and temporarily placing a substrate conveyed by the transport robot; And the transfer robot is rotated 180 degrees to withdraw the substrate from the buffer stage in the opposite direction after placing the substrate on the buffer stage. delete A substrate transfer method in a transfer chamber of a semiconductor manufacturing facility; Withdrawing the substrate from the buffer chamber; Aligning the notch direction of the substrate; Loading the completed substrate in alignment with the notch direction of the substrate to the process chamber; The sorting step Placing a substrate on a buffer stage installed above the transfer chamber by a carrier robot in a first direction; And transferring the substrate from the buffer stage by the transfer robot in a second direction. A substrate transfer method in a transfer chamber of a semiconductor manufacturing facility; Withdrawing the substrate from the buffer chamber; Aligning the notch direction of the substrate; Loading the completed substrate in alignment with the notch direction of the substrate to the process chamber; The sorting step Placing a substrate on a buffer stage installed above the transfer chamber by a carrier robot in a first direction; Rotating the carrier robot 180 degrees; And transferring the substrate from the buffer stage by the transfer robot in a second direction opposite to the first direction. A substrate transfer method in a transfer chamber of a semiconductor manufacturing facility; A transfer robot installed in the transfer chamber withdrawing the substrate from the buffer chamber and placing the substrate on the buffer stage installed on the transfer chamber; Withdrawing the substrate from the buffer stage in a direction opposite to the direction in which the carrier robot places the substrate; A method of conveying a substrate in a transfer chamber of a semiconductor manufacturing facility, comprising the step of loading a substrate into a process chamber. The method of claim 8, And a direction in which the transfer robot puts the substrate on the buffer stage and a direction in which the substrate is taken out from the buffer stage are opposite to each other. The method of claim 8, And after the substrate is placed on the buffer stage, the transfer robot is rotated 180 degrees to withdraw the substrate from the buffer stage in the opposite direction.

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