KR101559629B1 - Atomic layer deposition apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an atomic layer deposition apparatus, and an atomic layer deposition apparatus according to the present invention is an atomic layer deposition apparatus including an atomic layer deposition source for forming an atomic layer on a substrate to be transferred, A first source region in which the substrate is exposed to the first source gas while passing in the forward direction in the transport direction; A first purge region through which the substrate having passed through the first source region is exposed to the purge gas; A second source region through which the substrate having passed through the first purge region is exposed to the second source gas; And a second purge region in which the substrate that has passed through the second source region is exposed to the purge gas, wherein a plurality of the first purge regions are arranged in the forward direction in the transport direction of the substrate, The array is arranged to be the same as the arrangement of the respective regions when the substrate is transported in the forward direction, and the substrate exposure time, which is exposed to the corresponding gas in each region, is equal to the substrate exposure time, Is rearranged. Thereby, in the atomic layer deposition source of the space division type, the order in which the substrates are arranged so as to be exposed to the respective source gases and the purge gas, and the substrate exposure time are the same in the forward direction of transport of the substrate in the direction opposite to the transport direction of the substrate , An atomic layer deposition source that can be used for bidirectional transfer of substrates and can shorten the processing time is provided.

Description

[0001] ATOMIC LAYER DEPOSITION APPARATUS [0002]

The present invention relates to an atomic layer deposition apparatus, and more particularly, to an atomic layer deposition apparatus in which atomic layer deposition sources of a space division type are exposed to respective gases in a forward direction and a reverse direction, The present invention relates to an atomic layer deposition apparatus which can be used for transferring a substrate.

In general, in order to deposit a thin film having a predetermined thickness on a substrate such as a semiconductor substrate or a glass substrate, physical vapor deposition (PVD) using physical collision such as sputtering and chemical vapor deposition (chemical vapor deposition), or the like.

Examples of the chemical vapor deposition method include atmospheric pressure CVD (APCVD), low pressure CVD (LPCVD), and plasma enhanced CVD (PECVD). Among them, low temperature Plasma organic chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is widely used because of its ability to deposit and its rapid deposition rate.

However, as the design rule of the semiconductor device is drastically reduced, a thin film of a fine pattern is required and a step of a region where the thin film is formed is also very large. Thus, the use of an atomic layer deposition (hereinafter referred to as "ALD process") which is capable of forming a fine pattern of an atomic layer thickness very uniformly as well as an excellent step coverage is increasing.

The ALD process is a method of forming a monolayer by using chemisorption and desorption processes by the surface saturated reaction of reactants on the surface of the substrate. Is a possible thin film deposition method.

In the conventional ALD process, the step coverage and the uniformity in the wafer can be determined by several factors, which are closely related to the shape of the shower head.

The ALD process alternately introduces two or more source gases, respectively, and prevents the source gases from mixing in the gaseous state by introducing purge gas, which is an inert gas, between the inlet of each source gas.

That is, one source gas is chemically adsorbed on the substrate surface, and then another source gas reacts to generate a further atomic layer on the substrate surface.

Then, such a process is repeated at one cycle until a thin film having a desired thickness is formed.

On the other hand, the source gas must be chemically adsorbed and chemically reacted only on the substrate surface, so that another surface reaction does not occur until one atomic layer is completely formed.

The ALD process is divided into a time division method and a space division method. 1 is a schematic view of a time-division type atomic layer deposition apparatus.

Referring to FIG. 1, in the time division method, a precursor, which is a first source gas, is injected into a space in a chamber 100 into which a substrate is introduced through a distributor 110, and then a purge gas is injected, 120).

Then, a reactant, which is a second source gas, is injected into the chamber 100 through the distributor 110 to form a new material of a single atomic layer by reacting with the injected precursor monolayer and the reactant, .

While repeating the above process, the injected gas is exhausted to a discharge port for a next process after a predetermined reaction, and an atomic layer is deposited on the substrate.

2 is a schematic view of a space division type atomic layer deposition apparatus. Referring to FIG. 2, in the space division system, a space in which a precursor is injected and a space in which a reactive agent is injected are present at the same time, and a space in which purge gas is injected is located between two spaces.

In a state in which the spaces where the respective gases as described above are repeatedly arranged, the substrate is exposed while sequentially moving through the space where the precursor is located and the space where the reactants are located, and the atomic layer is deposited.

In the ALD process as described above, for the atomic layer deposition, the time for which the precursor is exposed by the purge gas after the precursor is exposed is set to be different from the time for which the precursor is exposed by the purge gas after the exposure.

In the time division method, the purge time can be adjusted by injecting each source gas and varying the exposure time to the purge gas. In the space division method, the purge time can be adjusted according to the physical size.

For example, assuming that the precursor exposure time is 10 seconds, the precursor purge time is 10 seconds, the reactant exposure time is 10 seconds, and the reactant purge time is 30 seconds under certain conditions, the time division method and the space division method may be as follows.

In the time division method, the injection time of each gas to be injected into the chamber is repeated a plurality of times with one cycle of "precursor injection 10 seconds-> purge gas injection 10 seconds-> reactive agent injection 10 seconds-> purge gas injection 30 seconds" do.

That is, the time at each step of injecting the precursor, the reactant, and the purge gas can be arbitrarily adjusted.

In the above-described space partitioning method, the source of the atomic layer deposition is referred to as "100 mm length of section where the precursor is exposed, 100 mm length of the purge section, 100 mm length of the exposed section of the reactant, ) 300 mm "is arranged so as to be repeatedly arranged.

If the substrate is transported at a rate of 10 mm / s to the repeatedly arranged atomic layer deposition source, the substrate is transferred to the atomic layer deposition source by repeating "10 seconds of precursor -> 10 seconds of purge gas -> 10 seconds of reaction -> 30 seconds of purge gas" Cycle and repeatedly exposed to the corresponding source gas.

However, in the case of applying the above method in the space division method, since the time for exposure to the purge gas after the precursor and the reactant is set to be different from each other, the substrate has to be transported only in one direction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an atomic layer deposition source of a space division type, in which the order in which the substrates are exposed to each of the source gas and the purge gas, So that the substrate can be used for bidirectional transfer of the substrate even when the substrate is transported in the forward direction of the substrate even in the reverse direction of the transport direction.

The present invention also provides an atomic layer deposition source capable of shortening the processing time as it can be used for bidirectional transfer of substrates.

According to the present invention, there is provided an atomic layer deposition apparatus including an atomic layer deposition source for forming an atomic layer on a substrate to be transported, the atomic layer deposition source comprising: A first source region exposed to the first source gas; A first purge region through which the substrate having passed through the first source region is exposed to the purge gas; A second source region through which the substrate having passed through the first purge region is exposed to the second source gas; And a second purge region in which the substrate that has passed through the second source region is exposed to the purge gas, wherein a plurality of the first purge regions are arranged in the forward direction in the transport direction of the substrate, The array is arranged to be the same as the arrangement of the respective regions when the substrate is transported in the forward direction, and the substrate exposure time, which is exposed to the corresponding gas in each region, is equal to the substrate exposure time, Is arranged on the surface of the substrate.

Here, the arrangement of each region when the transport direction of the substrate is reverse is selected such that the arrangement is different from the arrangement when the transport direction of the substrate is the forward direction, and is rearranged to be the same as when the transport direction of the substrate is the forward direction .

The arrangement of the first source region, the first purge region, the second source region, and the second purge region when the transfer direction of the substrate is in the reverse direction is n Th second source region is changed to a second purge region and the nth second purge region when the transfer direction of the substrate is positive is divided into at least three part regions, And the intermediate part region is changed to the second source region.

According to the present invention, in the space division type atomic layer deposition source, the order in which the substrates are arranged to be exposed to the respective source gases and the purge gas, and the order in which the substrate exposure time is the same as the direction in which the substrate is transported in the forward direction So that an atomic layer deposition source usable for bidirectional transfer of the substrate is provided.

In addition, an atomic layer deposition source is provided which can be used in bidirectional transfer of substrates, thereby shortening the processing time.

1 is a schematic view of a time-division type atomic layer deposition apparatus,
FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an atomic layer deposition apparatus of the conventional space division type,
3 and 4 are schematic views of an atomic layer deposition apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Prior to the description, components having the same configuration are denoted by the same reference numerals as those in the first embodiment. In other embodiments, configurations different from those of the first embodiment will be described do.

Hereinafter, an atomic layer deposition source according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

3 is a schematic view of an atomic layer deposition apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 4, the atomic layer deposition apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes an atomic layer deposition source and a bi-directionally transferable substrate.

The substrate is installed so as to be movable in forward and backward directions along the atomic layer deposition source by a predetermined transporting means.

The atomic layer deposition source includes a plurality of cycles repeatedly arranged along the forward direction of the substrate, and the cycle sequentially includes a first source region 10, a first purge region 20, A second source region 30 and a second purge region 40. [

The first source region 10 is a region exposed to the first source gas, the first purge region 20 is a region where the substrate having passed through the first source gas is exposed to the purge gas, (30) is a region where the substrate that has passed through the first purge region (20) is exposed to the second source gas, and the second purge region (40) As shown in FIG.

At this time, each region may be a length of a portion where the nozzle portion for spraying the gas to the substrate side in the region faces the substrate.

The length of the first purge region 20 and the length of the second purge region 40 are set to have different lengths depending on the source gas. That is, the length of the first purge region 20 is different from the length of the second purge region 40.

When the first source gas is a precursor and the second source gas is a reaction, the substrate exposure time exposed to the first purge gas is different from the substrate exposure time exposed to the second purge gas.

When the substrate is arranged in the above-described manner, when the substrate is transported in the forward direction (rightward direction), the substrate sequentially forms the first source region 10, the first purge region 20, the second source region 30, The first source region 10, the first purge region 20, the second source region 30, and the second purge region 40, which are repeatedly arranged after passing through the region 40, .

When the substrate is transported in the reverse direction (leftward direction), the exposure time of the substrate exposed to the gas in each region is the same as the arrangement of the regions in the forward transport, and is exposed to the gas in each region Each region is rearranged to equal the substrate exposure time.

That is, the arrangement of the first source region 10, the first purge region 20, the second source region 30, and the second purge region 40 when the transfer direction of the substrate is in the reverse direction, (10), the first purge region (20), the second source region (30), and the second purge region (40) when the transfer direction of the substrate is the forward direction And arranged so as to be the same as when the transport direction of the substrate is the forward direction.

Specifically, when the transport direction of the substrate is the reverse direction, the n-th second source region 30 is changed to the second purge region 40 when the transport direction of the substrate is the forward direction.

The n-th second purge region 40 when the transfer direction of the substrate is normal is divided into at least three part areas, and the middle part area 41 between the first part area and the last part area is divided into the second The source region 30 is changed.

In this embodiment, it is shown that the second purge region 40 is divided into three part regions and the middle part region 41 is changed to the second source region 30. [

On the other hand, the nozzle corresponding to the area of the portion to be changed may be provided so as to inject the gas selectively during transportation in the reverse direction, or the nozzle for spraying the gas may be replaced.

When the substrate is transported in the reverse direction as described above, the time for exposing each gas to the gas in each region under the same arrangement can be the same regardless of whether the substrate is transported in the forward or reverse direction.

That is, as described above, when the substrate is transported in the opposite direction, the gas exposing time in each region in both the forward direction and the reverse direction can be made uniform by selectively changing the arrangement structure.

4, the transfer speed of the substrate is set to 10 mm / s, the first source region 10 is set to 100 mm, the first purge region 100 mm, the second source region 100 mm, and the second purge region 300 mm The arrangement of the respective regions along the transport direction of the substrate and the substrate exposure time are as follows.

(Forward direction) First source area 10 seconds -> first purge area 10 seconds -> second source area 10 seconds -> second purge area 30 seconds

(Reverse direction) First source area 10 seconds -> first purge area 10 seconds -> second source area 10 seconds -> second purge area 30 seconds

As a result, the structure of the atomic layer deposition source designed to be applied to the conventional substrate transfer direction in one direction can be partially improved and applied in both directions, thereby shortening the processing time.

The scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but may be embodied in various forms of embodiments within the scope of the appended claims. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

[Description of Reference Numerals]
10: first source region 20: first purge region
30: second source region 40: second purge region
41: Middle part area

Claims (3)

An atomic layer deposition apparatus comprising an atomic layer deposition source forming an atomic layer on a substrate to be transferred,
Wherein the atomic layer deposition source comprises:
A first source region in which the substrate is exposed to the first source gas while passing in the forward direction in the transport direction;
A first purge region through which the substrate having passed through the first source region is exposed to the purge gas;
A second source region through which the substrate having passed through the first purge region is exposed to the second source gas; And
And a second purge region that is exposed to the purge gas and has a length different from the length of the first purge region, wherein a plurality of the first purge regions are arranged in a forward direction in the transfer direction of the substrate ,
Wherein the arrangement of the first source region, the first purge region, the second source region, and the second purge region when the transfer direction of the substrate is in the reverse direction,
The n-th second source region when the transfer direction of the substrate is the forward direction is changed to the second purge region,
Wherein the n-th second purge region when the transfer direction of the substrate is positive is divided into at least three part areas, the middle part area between the first part area and the last part area is changed to the second source area,
Wherein when the transport direction of the substrate is the forward direction and the reverse direction, the arrangement of each region and the time of exposure to the corresponding gas in each region are made equal. delete delete

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