KR20030012478A - Etching apparatus of wafer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus for etching a wafer is provided to restrain the inflow of external air into a reaction chamber and generation of particles by forming a fixing type uniformity ring. CONSTITUTION: A distribution plate(20) is used for injecting a reaction gas into the inside of a process chamber(10). An electrostatic chuck(30) is used for chucking a wafer. A uniformity ring(40) is installed on an upper portion of the electrostatic chuck(30). A guide portion(41) of the uniformity ring(40) is projected from an upper portion of the uniformity ring(40). A support portion(42) of the uniformity ring(40) is fixed to the process chamber(10) by using a pin(70). The support portion(42) is loaded on upper end portions of an edge ring(50) and a ground ring(60). The height of an upper end portion of the guide portion(41) is lower than that of a bottom face of a blade of a transferring robot.

Description

Etching apparatus of wafer

The present invention relates to a wafer etching apparatus, and more particularly, to suppress the inflow of external air or the generation of fine particles during the process in a vacuum state, which is expected to improve the semiconductor manufacturing yield and reduce the manufacturing cost due to the simplification of components. It relates to a wafer etching apparatus.

In general, semiconductors are manufactured through a great number of processes.

In particular, an etching process is a process performed to form a fine pattern on a wafer in a semiconductor manufacturing process. Such etching processes are classified into wet etching and dry etching.

Double wet etching has been widely used due to the advantages of relatively simple process and low cost, but recently, dry etching is mainly used for etching integrated semiconductor devices due to the disadvantage of undercut.

On the other hand, the etching of the wafer is mostly performed in a closed container called a process chamber.

Dry etching converts the reaction gas injected into the reaction chamber into a plasma by high frequency applied between the upper and lower electrodes, and selectively removes unnecessary portions by reacting the etching gas radical generated therein with the wafer film quality. This is a process to be formed.

Figure 1 schematically shows such a conventional dry etching apparatus.

The upper part of the reaction chamber 1 is provided with a distribution plate 2 for injecting a process gas, and the lower part corresponding thereto is provided with an electrostatic chuck 3 for seating the wafer by electrostatic force.

The edge ring 4 is coupled to the upper surface of the electrostatic chuck 3 along the outer circumference, and the wafer is seated on the electrostatic chuck 3 through the inner diameter of the edge ring 4.

The electrostatic chuck 3 and the edge ring 4 are supported by the outer ground ring 5.

On the other hand, although the edge ring 4 is provided to concentrate the plasma generated between the distribution plate 2 and the electrostatic chuck 3 on the wafer, it is possible to distribute the plasma uniformly on the wafer. It is the uniformity ring 6 provided upwards.

In other words, the etching of the wafer should be made uniformly over the entire surface, but it is difficult to realize this because of the characteristics of the equipment, so that it is possible to use a separate component inside the reaction chamber 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, the uniformity ring 6 includes a guide portion 6a and a guide portion 6a constituting a vertical sidewall surface, as shown in FIG. 2. The lower end portion of the support portion 6b is made of horizontally bent, the outer peripheral end of the support portion 6b to have a predetermined interval so that a plurality of coupling portions (6c) are formed.

Therefore, the plasma formed between the electrodes through the guide portion 6a of the uniformity ring 6 can be evenly distributed to the surface of the wafer.

Since the uniformity ring 6 has the height of the guide portion 6a currently being formed too high, withdrawal of the wafer 7 by the blade 8 of the transfer robot (not shown) as shown in FIG. In order to enable this, the uniformity ring 6 can be lifted to a height at which the collision with the wafer can be prevented by using separate driving members.

However, such lifting action of the uniformity ring 6 has a disadvantage of causing particle generation in the reaction chamber 10.

In addition, a separate lifting cylinder 9 as described above is required for the lifting action of the uniformity ring 6, and an airtight member for airtightness between the lifting cylinder 9 and the inside of the reaction chamber 1. Since the (not shown) must be provided at the same time, an increase in required parts is caused.

In particular, the airtight member provided for airtight between the lifting cylinder 9 and the reaction chamber 1 may be damaged by the extreme temperature and pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the reaction chamber 1 together with the driving of the lifting cylinder 9. In addition, there is a problem that particles are generated inside the reaction chamber 1 due to corrosion or the like.

Therefore, the present invention has been invented to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to improve the uniformity ring to a fixed type so that the outside air inflow into the reaction chamber and the generation of particles are suppressed, thereby producing a semiconductor. To improve the manufacturing costs and reduce manufacturing costs.

1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view schematically showing the configuration of a conventional wafer etching apparatus;

2 is a perspective view illustrating a configuration of a uniformity ring applied to a conventional wafer etching apparatus;

3 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing an operation structure of a uniformity ring when the wafer is withdrawn from the conventional wafer etching apparatus;

4 is a longitudinal sectional view of a wafer etching apparatus according to the present invention;

5 is an operational state diagram illustrating a state in which a wafer is withdrawn from the wafer etching apparatus according to the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

10: reaction chamber 11: door

30: electrostatic chuck 40: uniformity ring

50: edge ring 60: ground ring

70: pin 80: wafer

90: blade

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a wafer etching apparatus having a uniformity ring in a shape surrounding the outer circumference of the wafer so that the film quality of the wafer chucked in the reaction chamber is uniformly etched. The upper protruding guide portion of the uniformity ring is formed to be lower than the top of the blade bottom of the transfer robot, which is an adsorption transfer means of the wafer transferred through the door. There is a characteristic.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

4 illustrates a wafer etching apparatus according to the present invention, and includes an electrostatic chuck 30 for chucking a wafer together with a distribution plate 20 for injecting a reaction gas in the reaction chamber 10. The configuration in which the upper portion of the 30 is provided with the uniformity ring 40 to uniformly distribute the plasma on the wafer is almost the same as before.

However, the uniformity ring 40 in the present invention is to be formed in the lower side of the guide portion 41 constituting the side wall significantly while the support portion 42 is to be pinned to the reaction chamber (10).

The uniformity ring 40 is configured as a guide portion 41, a support portion 42 and a coupling portion (not shown) as in the past, the guide portion 41 forms a vertical side wall as described above It is cylindrical and the support part 42 is a shape which made the lower end part of the guide part 41 bend horizontally so that it may simply be mounted on the upper end part of the edge ring 50 and the ground ring 60. As shown in FIG.

At this time, the guide portion 41 in the present invention is formed so that the height of the upper end is lower than the bottom of the blade of the transfer robot to transfer the wafer while drawing the inside of the reaction chamber 10.

In other words, the upper end of the guide portion 41 is formed at a height not to be caught by the blade of the transfer robot which is taken out into the reaction chamber 10 while the wafer is adsorbed.

And the supporting portion 42 is fixed to the reaction chamber 10 as a pin 70 to the plurality of coupling portions on the outer circumferential side while a portion of the bottom surface is mounted on the upper end of the edge ring 50 and the ground ring 60.

In particular, among the pins 70 fixed to the outer circumferential end portion of the support part 42, the pin 70 provided toward the door 11 side of the reaction chamber 10 is moved up and down by a conventional driving cylinder. Similarly to the lifting shaft provided to be connected so as to maintain the gap to prevent the interference of the blade of the transfer robot drawn in and out through the door 11 and the wafer adsorbed on the blade.

Therefore, preferably, the pin 70 is positioned at the position of the previous lifting shaft.

At this time, the lower end of the pin 70 passes through the ground ring 60 of the reaction chamber 10 to be firmly fixed to the lower surface.

Reference numeral 31 in the drawings is a lift pin 31 that allows the wafer to be transported or seated while being lifted from the electrostatic chuck 30.

Looking at the operation by the present invention configured as described above is the method of performing the process in the reaction chamber 10 is the same as before.

That is, when the wafer is transferred into the reaction chamber 10 and placed in the lift pin 31 which is in an elevated state, the lift pin 31 is lowered and the wafer is seated on the electrostatic chuck 30.

After the etching process is performed in this state, the wafer, which has been etched, is lifted up again by the lift pin 31 and then taken out by the transfer robot.

Previously, during the process of carrying out the wafer for the draw-in and out of the transfer, there was a process of elevating and lowering the uniformity ring, but in the present invention, the biggest difference is made in that the wafer pull-out can be performed by omitting these lift-drive structures. have.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5, when the wafer 80 is drawn in and out using the blade 90 of the transfer robot, the guide portion 41 of the uniformity ring 40 is positioned at a lower end thereof so that the transfer interference may occur. There will be no at all.

Therefore, the withdrawal and withdrawal time of the wafer 80 may be reduced, thereby reducing the overall process time.

In addition, the overall moving structure in the reaction chamber 10 may be further simplified, thereby reducing components and minimizing particle generation during the process.

In particular, the removal of the drive cylinders can be more blocked by the possibility of inflow of outside air, it is possible to fundamentally prevent the generation of fine particles due to the pressure change in the reaction chamber (10).

On the other hand, while many matters have been described in detail in the above description, they should be construed as illustrative of preferred embodiments rather than to limit the scope of the invention.

Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be defined by the described embodiments, but should be determined by the technical spirit described in the claims.

As described above, according to the present invention, the elevating process of the uniformity ring 40 is achieved by a simple structure improvement to secure the height of the guide portion 41 of the uniformity ring 40 and the reaction chamber 10. Since it can be omitted, the process time in the etching process can be shortened.

And since the components can be reduced by omitting the lifting drive means of the uniformity ring 40, it is possible to further reduce the manufacturing cost of the semiconductor.

In addition, the present invention has a very useful effect to ensure that the inside of the reaction chamber 10 is closely protected from the outside temperature and pressure, so that particle generation is suppressed as much as possible to improve the reliability of the process performance and semiconductor manufacturing yield have.

Claims (3)

In the wafer etching apparatus having a uniformity ring 40 in a shape surrounding the outer periphery of the wafer 80 so that the film quality of the wafer 80 chucked inside the reaction chamber 10 is uniformly etched. , The guide portion 41 protruding upward of the uniformity ring 40 has a blade 90 of the transfer robot, which is an adsorption transfer means of the wafer 80 whose upper end height is transferred through the door 11 of the reaction chamber 10. Wafer etching device to be formed lower than the bottom surface, and the outer peripheral end of the base 42 is pinned to the reaction chamber 10, The wafer etching apparatus of claim 1, wherein the support part (42) is mounted on the upper ends of the edge ring (50) and the ground ring (60). The wafer etching apparatus of claim 1, wherein the uniformity ring (40) is fixed to the reaction chamber (10) by a plurality of pins (50) at the outer circumferential end thereof.