KR101412063B1 - Advanced high speed substrate processing system with low cost high throughput - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an improved high-speed substrate processing system having a low cost and high productivity, comprising a first processing chamber for processing a substrate to be processed, a second processing chamber for processing the substrate to be processed, A transfer chamber provided with a substrate transfer device for loading and unloading the substrate to be processed, and a common vacuum pump connected to the first and second process chambers to commonly control the vacuum of the first and second process chambers do. The improved high-speed substrate processing system with low cost and high productivity of the present invention efficiently minimizes the substrate transportation time and improves the operation rate of the process chamber, thereby improving the productivity by processing a plurality of substrates at a high speed. The high-speed substrate processing system minimizes the main components of the system configurations for the multi-process to a common configuration, thereby increasing the productivity per unit area and minimizing the increase in equipment cost due to the throughput of the substrate. .

Base transfer, low cost, high productivity substrate processing

Description

[0001] DESCRIPTION [0002] ADVANCED HIGH SPEED SUBSTRATE PROCESSING SYSTEM WITH LOW COST HIGH THROUGHPUT. [0003]

The present invention relates to a substrate processing system for manufacturing a semiconductor device, and more particularly, it is possible to constitute facilities with low cost by constructing common system configurations that can be shared in a multi-process system for processing a plurality of substrates to be processed, And more particularly to an improved high speed substrate processing system having a low cost high generation capable of high speed substrate processing.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a liquid crystal display device, a plasma display device, and substrate processing systems for manufacturing semiconductor devices have adopted a cluster system capable of processing a plurality of substrates in one operation. A cluster system refers to a multi-chambered substrate processing system that includes a carrier robot (or handler) and a plurality of substrate processing modules disposed therearound.

Generally, the cluster system includes a transfer chamber and a transfer robot provided freely rotatable in the transfer chamber. At each side of the transport chamber, a process chamber for carrying out the processing process of the substrate is mounted. Such a cluster system increases the throughput of a substrate by simultaneously processing a plurality of substrates or allowing various processes to proceed in succession. Another effort to increase the substrate throughput is to process a plurality of substrates simultaneously in one process chamber to increase the substrate throughput per hour.

However, even if the process chamber processes a plurality of substrates simultaneously (or continuously), a time loss occurs if the substrates before and after the process can not be efficiently exchanged in the process chamber. In a typical cluster system, in order to constitute a hexagonal transport chamber (basically composed of four process chambers and two load lock chambers), the area occupied by the transport chamber is not limited to the entire area of the system, The system width which is important in the system arrangement is increased more than necessary and the size of the vacuum system required to keep the transport chamber in a vacuum is increased to increase the equipment cost and installation cost. Further, the area of the transport chamber is further increased as the number of process chambers to be installed increases.

Thus, there is a need for a substrate processing system that can simultaneously (or continuously) treat a plurality of substrates in a process chamber that processes a plurality of substrates, and more efficiently exchange substrates before and after the process.

On the other hand, in the case of a multi-process system for processing a plurality of substrates, when a plurality of process chambers for substrate processing are constructed, independent configurations are used for each configuration. For example, in a multi-process system with two process chambers, two plasma sources and two power sources are used, each with two vacuum pumps and control valves. For this reason, the multi-process system has the problem that the equipment cost is increased because the same configuration is repeatedly increased when the equipment configuration is increased to increase the throughput of the substrate.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for efficiently minimizing substrate transportation time and improving the operation rate of a process chamber to increase productivity by processing a plurality of substrates at a high speed and minimizing the main components of system configurations for multi- And to provide a high-speed and high-productivity substrate processing system having a high cost, a low cost, and a high productivity, which can increase the productivity per unit area and minimize the increase in equipment cost due to the throughput of the substrate.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a high-speed substrate processing system. A high-speed substrate processing system of the present invention comprises: a first processing chamber for processing a substrate to be processed; A second processing chamber for processing the substrate to be processed; A transfer chamber provided with a substrate transfer device for loading and unloading a substrate to be processed into the first process chamber and the second process chamber; And a common vacuum pump connected to the first and second process chambers to commonly control the vacuum of the first and second process chambers, wherein the substrate transfer apparatus includes a driving unit for providing a rotational force, A plurality of first rotating plate arms mounted on the spindle for loading or unloading a substrate to and from the first process chamber, and a second rotating plate arm mounted on the spindle for loading or unloading the substrate into the second process chamber And a plurality of second rotating plate arms.

In one embodiment, each of the first and second rotating plate arms includes: a rotating plate arm for loading and an unloading rotating plate arm for exchanging substrates before and after processing.

delete

In one embodiment, at least two plasma sources for generating plasma in the first process chamber and the second process chamber; And a common power supply that commonly provides radio frequency power to the two or more plasma sources.

In one embodiment, the first process chamber or the second process chamber includes a common baffle.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an improved high-speed substrate processing system having a low-cost high productivity, comprising: a first processing chamber for processing a substrate to be processed; A second processing chamber for processing the substrate to be processed; A transfer chamber provided with a substrate transfer device for loading and unloading a substrate to be processed into the first process chamber and the second process chamber; Two or more plasma sources for generating a plasma in the first process chamber and the second process chamber; And a common power source for commonly supplying radio frequency power to the two or more plasma sources, wherein the substrate transport apparatus includes a driving unit for providing a rotational force, a spindle driven by a rotational force of the driving unit, A plurality of first rotating plate arms for loading or unloading a substrate into one process chamber, and a plurality of second rotating plate arms mounted on the spindle for loading or unloading the substrate into the second process chamber.

In one embodiment, each of the first and second rotating plate arms includes: a rotating plate arm for loading and an unloading rotating plate arm for exchanging substrates before and after processing.

delete

In one embodiment, the first process chamber or the second process chamber includes a common baffle.

According to the improved high-speed substrate processing system having low cost and high productivity of the present invention, the substrate transportation time is effectively minimized and the operation rate of the process chamber is improved, so that the plurality of substrates are processed at a high speed to increase the productivity. The high-speed substrate processing system minimizes the main components of the system configurations for the multi-process to a common configuration, thereby increasing the productivity per unit area and minimizing the increase in equipment cost due to the throughput of the substrate. .

For a better understanding of the present invention, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The embodiments of the present invention may be modified into various forms, and the scope of the present invention should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments described in detail below. The present embodiments are provided to enable those skilled in the art to more fully understand the present invention. Therefore, the shapes and the like of the elements in the drawings can be exaggeratedly expressed to emphasize a clearer description. It should be noted that in the drawings, the same members are denoted by the same reference numerals. Detailed descriptions of well-known functions and constructions which may be unnecessarily obscured by the gist of the present invention are omitted.

1 is a plan view showing a configuration of a substrate processing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the high-speed substrate processing system of the present invention includes first and second process chambers 400 and 410 and a transfer chamber 300 disposed therebetween. The load lock chamber 200 is provided in front of the transfer chamber 300 and the index 100 in which the plurality of carriers 110 are mounted in front of the load lock chamber 200 is installed. Index 100 is sometimes referred to as a facility front end module (EFEM) and sometimes a load lock chamber. The substrate processing system may be equipped with a cooling processing chamber for substrate cooling or a preheating processing chamber for substrate preheating if necessary.

The load lock chamber 200 is equipped with an atmospheric pressure conveying robot 210 operated at atmospheric pressure. The atmospheric conveying robot 210 takes charge of transferring the substrate between the transfer chamber 300 and the index 100. The atmospheric pressure conveying robot 210 operates to convey the substrate W between the carrier 110 and the transfer chamber 300. The atmospheric pressure conveying robot 210 is a robot having a double arm structure having two end effectors 212 capable of taking out two substrates W in a single operation from the carrier 210 and carrying them into the transfer chamber 300 . In addition, the atmospheric pressure conveying robot 210 may have a track 220 that can be moved to the left and right. The atmospheric pressure conveying robot 210 may use various robots used in a conventional semiconductor manufacturing process in addition to the double arm structure shown in the present embodiment.

The first and second process chambers 400 and 410 are vacuum chambers for performing a plasma processing process. In the first and second process chambers 400 and 410, one substrate support 402 and 412 are disposed on the path of rotation of the rotation plate arms of the substrate transfer apparatus 500. The first and second process chambers 400 and 410 may be configured to perform various substrate processing operations. For example, it may be an ashing chamber that removes the photoresist using plasma, and may be a CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) chamber configured to deposit an insulating film, and may be an aperture apertures or apertures, or spacers for spatter formation, or etch chambers for performing etch processes such as stopper etch. Or a PVD chamber configured to deposit a barrier film, and may be a PVD chamber configured to deposit a metal film.

The substrate W to be processed in the present substrate processing system is typically a wafer substrate for manufacturing a semiconductor circuit or a glass substrate for manufacturing a liquid crystal display. In addition to the illustrated configuration of the present substrate processing system, multiple processing systems may be required to perform all of the processes required for the complete fabrication of an integrated circuit or chip. However, for the sake of clarity of the present invention, a conventional configuration or a configuration that can be understood by a person skilled in the art is omitted.

The transfer chamber 300 is provided with a substrate transfer apparatus 500. A first substrate inlet / outlet 310 is formed between the transfer chamber 300 and the load lock chamber 200. A second substrate inlet 320 is formed between the transfer chamber 300 and the first process chamber 400 and a third substrate inlet 330 is formed between the transfer chamber 300 and the second process chamber 410. . The first to third substrate entry / exit openings 310, 320, and 330 are opened / closed by a slit valve (not shown), respectively.

In the process of replacing the substrate W before and after the processing in the transfer chamber 300 by the atmospheric pressure conveying robot 210, the second and third substrate outlets 320 and 330 are closed and the first substrate outlets 410 It proceeds at open atmospheric pressure. The process of exchanging the substrates W before and after the process between the first and second process chambers 400 and 410 and the trans chamber 300 is performed by the substrate transfer apparatus 500 through the first substrate entrance 310, The second and third substrate inlets 320 and 330 are opened while the vacuum state is maintained in a closed state, and the vacuum state is maintained.

2 is a perspective view of a substrate transfer apparatus provided in the transfer chamber of FIG. 2, the substrate transfer apparatus 500 includes a driving unit 540 for providing a rotational force, a spindle 530 driven by the rotational force of the driving unit 540, a plurality of rotating plates 530 mounted on the spindle 530, And an arm 510. The plurality of rotating plate arms 510 are used to load / unload a substrate to and from the first process chamber 400 and two first rotating plate arms 520 and a second process chamber 410 for loading / And two second rotating plate arms 522 for the second rotating plate arm 522. Two arms constituting the first rotating plate arm 520 and the second rotating plate arm 522 are one loading arm and the other is an unloading arm. The loading arm and the unloading arm may be arranged sequentially or alternately. However, it is preferable that the unloading arm is arranged relatively lower than the loading arm.

The rotating plate arm 510 is operated to unfold in a fan shape, as shown in Fig. The driving unit 540 includes an electric motor that generates a rotational force and a power transmitting unit that transmits the generated rotational force to the spindle 530, although not shown in the figure. Accordingly, the plurality of rotary plate arms 510 are mounted on the spindle 530 to perform an operation of unfolding and folding symmetrically with the spindle 530 as a center axis, as shown in Fig.

The substrate transport operation of the substrate processing system of the present invention as described above is as follows. When the first substrate inlet 310 is opened with the second and third substrate inlets 320 and 330 closed, the atmospheric pressure conveying robot 210 moves the first and second rotating plate arms 520 and 520 of the substrate transport apparatus 500, And 522, the substrate W is handed over before the processing. When the substrate transfer is completed, the first substrate inlet / outlet 310 is closed and the transfer chamber 300 is switched to the same vacuum state as the inside of the first and second process chambers 400 and 410. The pumping system for this purpose is naturally provided in the present system, but a specific illustration of the pumping system is omitted for the sake of convenience.

On the other hand, on the substrate supports 402 and 412 of the first and second process chambers 400 and 410, the processed substrate W that has been processed is awaited. The lift pins of the substrate supports 402 and 412 move up and down to a height for unloading the substrate W after processing. In addition to this operation, the second and third substrate entry openings 320 and 330 are opened. The first and second rotating plate arms 520 and 522 of the substrate transfer apparatus 400 are each paired with a loading arm and an unloading arm to form a fan shape. At this time, the processed wafers W are transferred from the lift pins to the unloading arms. After the processing, the unloading arm taking over the substrate W returns to the initial position of the transfer chamber 300 again.

The lift pins lift up and take over the substrate W from the waiting loading arms before processing. After transferring the substrate before processing, the loading arms return to the initial position of the transfer chamber 300 again. When the first and second rotary plate arms 520 and 522 are returned to the transfer chamber 300 from the first and the process chambers 400 and 410 again, the second and third substrate inlet / Lt; / RTI > In addition, the lift pins are lowered to seat the substrate W on the substrate supports 402 and 412 before processing. Then, the transfer chamber 300 is switched to the atmospheric pressure state and the first substrate entrance 310 is opened. The atmospheric transfer robot 210 of the load lock chamber 200 takes over the processed wafers W of the unloading arm 522 and loads them on the carrier 110.

Such a series of substrate exchange steps are carried out continuously or concurrently in such a way that the front and back steps are not interfered to minimize the substrate exchange time. The substrate exchange process before and after the processing of the substrate transfer apparatus 500 and the atmospheric pressure transfer robot 210 of the transfer chamber 300 proceeds simultaneously. In other words, the substrate exchange process between the trans chamber 400 and the load lock chamber 200 is such that the unloaded substrate and the unprocessed substrate to be loaded at the same time are exchanged at the same time. After processing, the substrate may be cooled prior to being loaded onto the carrier 110.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the common exhaust structure of the first and second process chambers of FIG. 1; FIG. Referring to Figure 3, the first and second process chambers 400 and 410 are controlled in vacuum by a single common vacuum pump 430. The gas exhaust ports 432 and 434 provided in the first and second process chambers 400 and 410 are connected to the common vacuum pump 430. Since the two process chambers 400 and 410 are controlled by the vacuum pump 430, the configuration and area of the vacuum chambers 400 and 410 are simplified and the equipment cost is reduced .

4 is a view showing a common power source structure of a plasma source of the first and second process chambers of FIG. 1; Referring to FIG. 4, each of the plasma sources 406 and 416, each of which is configured in the first and second process chambers 400 and 410, is an inductively coupled plasma source configured at the top of the chamber, for example. Each of the plasma sources 406 and 416 constituted in the first and second process chambers 400 and 410 is driven by receiving operating power from one common power source 418 through an impedance matcher 419. Process gases are supplied from the gas source (not shown) to the first and second process chambers 400 and 410 and the respective plasma sources 406 and 416 are supplied from one common power source 418 to the impedance matcher 419, The plasma is generated in the first and second process chambers 400 and 410. In this case, The two plasma sources 406 and 416 are operated by one common power source 418 to simplify the configuration and area of the equipment compared with the case where one power source is provided for each plasma source, .

5 is a plan view showing a configuration of a substrate processing system according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Referring to Fig. 5, the substrate processing system according to the second embodiment of the present invention has basically the same configuration as that of the above-described first embodiment. However, the first and second process chambers 400 and 410 are provided with two substrate supports 402-1 and 402-2 (412-1 and 412-2), respectively.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the substrate transfer device provided in the transfer chamber of Fig. 5; 6, even in the case of the substrate transfer apparatus 500 provided in the transfer chamber 300, eight rotary plate arms 510 capable of transferring four substrates to be processed at one time are provided do. As shown in FIG. 7, the first and second process chambers 400 and 410 are subjected to vacuum control by one common vacuum pump 430.

The substrate processing system of this second embodiment is provided with two substrate supports 402-1 and 402-2 (412-1 and 412-2) in the two process chambers 400 and 410, respectively, , And 410 (hereinafter referred to as " target substrates "). The substrate transfer apparatus 500 also has the capability of transferring four substrates to be processed at one time. In the case of the atmospheric pressure conveying robot 210, it also has a suitable conveying ability.

FIG. 8 is a view showing a common power source structure of the plasma source of the first and second process chambers of FIG. 5; FIG. 8, the substrate processing system of the second embodiment includes two plasma sources 406-1 and 406-2 (412-1 and 412-2), respectively, in the first and second process chambers 400 and 410, . The two plasma sources 406-1 and 406-2 provided in the first process chamber 400 are commonly connected to one common power source 418-1 through an impedance matcher 419-1. In the case of the two plasma sources 416-1 and 416-2 provided in the second process chamber 410, the other common power supply source 418-2 is connected in common to the other through the impedance matcher 419-2. .

FIG. 9 is another embodiment of the common power source structure of the plasma source of the first and second process chambers of FIG. 9, four plasma sources 406-1, 406-2, 416-1, and 416-2 provided in the first and second process chambers 400 and 410 are connected to one common power source 418, 416-2 may be connected in common.

10 is a view showing an example in which a common baffle is formed in a process chamber having two plasma sources. Referring to FIG. 10, each of the first and the processing chambers 400 and 410 may be constituted by one common baffle 415. As shown in FIG. 4, the first and second process chambers 400 and 412, each having one substrate support 402 and 412, are provided in one baffle 404 and 414, respectively. 8, in the case of the first and second process chambers 400, 410 having two substrate supports 402-1, 402-2 (412-1, 412-2) Two baffles 404-1 and 404-2 (414-1 and 414-2) are provided. However, in the case of two or more substrate supports, the configuration of the process chamber can be reduced by configuring one common baffle 415 as shown in FIG.

The embodiments of the improved high-speed substrate processing system having the low cost and high productivity of the present invention described above are merely illustrative, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and equivalent implementations You can see that examples are possible. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. Accordingly, the true scope of the present invention should be determined by the technical idea of the appended claims. It is also to be understood that the invention includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

The high-speed substrate processing system of the present invention can be usefully used in various manufacturing processes for manufacturing semiconductor devices. Particularly, the present invention is very suitable for a substrate processing system which aims at achieving high productivity at low cost by reducing the equipment cost with a multiprocessing system for processing a plurality of substrates to be processed.

1 is a plan view showing a configuration of a substrate processing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a perspective view of a substrate transfer apparatus provided in the transfer chamber of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the common exhaust structure of the first and second process chambers of FIG. 1; FIG.

4 is a view showing a common power source structure of a plasma source of the first and second process chambers of FIG. 1;

5 is a plan view showing a configuration of a substrate processing system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the substrate transfer device provided in the transfer chamber of Fig. 5;

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing the common exhaust structure of the first and second process chambers of FIG. 5; FIG.

FIG. 8 is a view showing a common power source structure of the plasma source of the first and second process chambers of FIG. 5; FIG.

FIG. 9 is another embodiment of the common power source structure of the plasma source of the first and second process chambers of FIG.

10 is a view showing an example in which a common baffle is formed in a process chamber having two plasma sources.

Description of the Related Art [0002]

100: index 110: carrier

200: load lock chamber 210: atmospheric transfer robot

212: end vector 300: transfer chamber

310: first substrate entrance 320: second substrate entrance

330: Third substrate entry / exit port 400: First process chamber

402: substrate support 410: second process chamber

412: substrate support 500: substrate transport device

510: rotating plate arm 512: end effector

513: opening 514:

515: entry passage 520: first rotating plate arm

522: second rotating plate arm 530: spindle

540:

Claims (9)

A first processing chamber for processing a substrate to be processed; A second processing chamber for processing the substrate to be processed; A transfer chamber provided with a substrate transfer device for loading and unloading a substrate to be processed into the first process chamber and the second process chamber; And And a common vacuum pump connected to the first and second process chambers to commonly control the vacuum of the first and second process chambers, The substrate transfer apparatus includes a driving unit for providing a rotational force, a spindle driven by a rotational force of the driving unit, a plurality of first rotating plate arms mounted on the spindle for loading or unloading the substrate into the first process chamber, And a plurality of second rotary plate arms for loading or unloading the substrate into the second process chamber. delete 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the first and second rotating plate arms comprises: A high-speed substrate processing system comprising a rotating plate arm for loading and a rotating plate arm for unloading for exchanging substrates before and after processing. The method according to claim 1, Two or more plasma sources for generating a plasma in the first process chamber and the second process chamber; And And a common power source commonly providing radio frequency power to the at least two plasma sources. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the first process chamber or the second process chamber includes a common baffle. A first processing chamber for processing a substrate to be processed; A second processing chamber for processing the substrate to be processed; A transfer chamber provided with a substrate transfer device for loading and unloading a substrate to be processed into the first process chamber and the second process chamber; Two or more plasma sources for generating a plasma in the first process chamber and the second process chamber; And And a common power source commonly providing radio frequency power to the at least two plasma sources, The substrate transfer apparatus includes a driving unit for providing a rotational force, a spindle driven by a rotational force of the driving unit, a plurality of first rotating plate arms mounted on the spindle for loading or unloading the substrate into the first process chamber, And a plurality of second rotary plate arms for loading or unloading the substrate into the second process chamber. delete 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein each of the first and second rotating plate arms comprises: And a rotating plate arm for loading and an unloading rotating plate arm for exchanging substrates before and after the processing. The method according to claim 6, Wherein the first process chamber or the second process chamber includes a common baffle.

Images